Client Studies Module - Exhibition Assignment (part 2/3)
We had our location AND our time frame. The wheels of our operation were in motions and the true example of our ârolesâ were about to be displayed.
Some of the people in the âPrivate view/Eventsâ roles were already in contact with possible sponsors and even local businesses to help cross promote our exhibition. All Whilst our design and branding department was beginning to show the earliest concepts of our events visual aesthetic and language.
(Examples of some of the interested sponsors Rae and a few others of the events team managed to procure)
Reflecting on the time it took us to begin producing anything visual to represent our event/its branding was rather slow. Although the production began within the first week on conception in terms of the overall time frame it was actually quite stressful to think we had gone so long without it until that point. This draws on my earlier criticism about keeping to a set deadline structure and possibly putting the theme/inspiration behind the event first and thus the brief and then the brand and visual imagery/iconography first and earlier in development.
As well as the events teams beginning to come up with locations for the after party the curation team were coming up with ideas and solutions to mount and display artwork in the limited space given by our now secured location Castle Emporium. One of which was to use the resources at hand that the location provided. To have our works mounted to a professional standard but what we deduced was that this was possibly too expensive (especially with a budget limited to printing and cheap mounting), the added time restraints and lack of wriggle room for error when it comes to meeting another deadline out of our own hands and finally and what we decided the most prominent issue was not mounting and displaying the artwork ourselves; we later decided to have ourselves as individuals to provide a frame each for our already-printed and mounted (by the curation team) artworks.
If we were to tackle this issue again I believe it would be best to asses the situation further and make the most efficient and cheap decision possible when it came to mounting and displaying the pieces; either by bulk buying uniform frames or even up-cycling older frames and reworking them to fit a uniform niche. Despite this criticism I believe as team the decision we made and the result of which turned out rather decent. By sticking to simple frame of similar styles and limited colour we introduced an impressive level of character to our pieces individually and as a whole/as an exhibition.
(A response email we received from Bett where we enquired about the ramifications of us outsourcing mounting our work for the exhibition)
By this time we were finalising the agreements with Tiny Rebel in securing their location for our after party after our private viewing held on the 13th. At this point the events team were responsible for also providing entertainment and fleshing out the after party as a whole so they had began brainstorming amongst themselves and dropping ideas in and out of the chat for context and reassurance of quality.
In amongst the discussions of the the after party we (the Location and logistics team and the curation team) decided that the day of set up would be the 12th and if any final adjustments or reconciliation is needed we still had the day time before the launch night the day after at 6/7 pm.
By this date we had the official Facebook page and very soon to follow would be the Instagram page.
(The first post on both our Facebook and Instagram accounts announcing our project and teasing more info to come. Managed and monitored by our promotion team)
We came to many conclusions the same when it came to the visual aesthetic and language of the project.
- The design team would submit work (be it logos, poster art or illustrative imagery).
- We, as a group, would vote on polls and give constructive criticism and feedback
- The design team would either repeat this process with improved designsÂ
- The promotional team would then either rework or directly post or print such media to promote the event. teasing more info and details as they did.
As the event would draw closer, the posts would gain more speed and increase in information and âhypeâ as well as the frequency of posts increasing to create more buzz.
(Above is the standard Sho Gallery invoice I asked for and received personally from Emily the owner of the gallery space)
(Above is the invoice we received from Emily once we had finalised the dates and cost etc)
With the deadline for the artwork creeping ever closer there seemed to be a real pressure on the promotional team. They were very much at the mercy of everyone, not only, meeting the deadline for their final artwork but receiving enough artwork leading up to the event to âteaseâ to our audience and getting provided with enough content from the design and branding team to keep them in work with creating digital buzz and physically printing promotional material.
As time grew thinner they seemed to get more stressed and agitated but they still remained strong and persevered throughout all the shortcomings of the design and branding team.
If I was able to re-do this portion of the project and perhaps be in full control, i feel i would take inspiration of my previous critique. Enforcing a stricter regime of deadlines and demanding more âwork in progressâ or âprocessâ pieces from the students involved as well as the expected design and branding team. In effort to provide the promotional team with enough material to create the promotions and advertisement media they desired/needed. Its a very disheartening feeling to feel like you're giving everything you can within a group project and to either feel weighed down my slacking members or worse feel stunted by their lack of consideration or genuine ignorance.
Once we had fully secured, agreed upon the details and exchanged the invoices it was time to discuss the payment method. This was fairly straightforward and there were no qualms in amongst the group. we each payed and even share of a small amount to secure our events locations and that was it. During this period Elena, Lleucu and myself were in constant contact to ensure the payments were going through and everything was being executed flawlessly, and it was, and it did. Thankfully.
(Above our confirmation of booking)
Over the final weekend before our exhibition there was a gargantuan push amongst our group for WIPs and completed pieces (as stated before) to aid in the promotional material put out by the promotion team.
(Above some designs we had a choice of that had been uploaded using our google drive account open to all the group members)
Around this time me managed to set up our Facebook event. Iâll be linking the Facebook page below so you can have a look at how we proceeded from this time going forward with our exhibition and overall project.
https://www.facebook.com/uswnostalgia/
(These two images were some of the earliest concepts for the promotional artwork and would later go onto print)
We decided to make it bilingual to not only add maturity to the project/event and as well as pay homage to USW as a whole but we had fluent welsh speakers in amongst our ranks and we thought to use everyone's skills to the best of the groups ability.
The next big step we were taking was to do with the curation and promotional team again. Our group began printing physical promotional material with the help of our groups USW granted budget.
(Some promotional material featuring Asia and Rachelâs artwork from the design team)
As for what i may have done differently with the printed promotional material would simply have tried to put it our sooner and possibly expanded the reach other the posters and flyers by giving ourselves more time to spread them throughout Cardiff and the town centre.
What i do like about the material though is that it heavily promotes the artwork of the exhibit and the themes and colour pallets are definitely on brand.
The curation teams job of setting up the exhibition space was drawing closer and so was the tasks that came with it. One of which was, in addition to our individual pieces of work, were the artist cards that displayed our names, and networking information as well as some whimsical or insightful meaning behind our artwork; their nostalgic muse.
To make this as simple as they could the team create a label template (as seen below).
(Below some more promotional material, this time used for flyers)
Freya and the rest of the curation team, including some others from other roles met up to begin the printing an mounting process of the exhibition art pieces. During this time we had agreed, via the curation teamâs advice, to supply our individual frames on this day as well so the mounting AND framing processes were complete at the same time to save hassle later and avoid any unwanted mishaps before the final set-ups came about.
Looking back this was very well planned out by these particular groups and although agree upon and followed up with successfully by everyone else in the group, I can safely say this was one of the smoothest processes to have occurred during this entire project and I thoroughly believe that all boiled down to precise planning and the brilliant execution of the roles involved. We could not fault them.
Up until this point majority of the teams had been fulfilling their required roles. Events had been networking with local businesses and getting our posters/flyers into their stores.
The curation and logistics teams had begun to transport all artwork and supplies to the exhibits location.
Finally the promotional teams were successfully created an tangible atmosphere of excitement with their posts and constant updates via leaks and countdown posts. Another great thing to point out is that of their own accord they decided to tag and link all respective artists to their leaking artwork and in return our group was mass sharing the posts creating some organic symmetry between us all and the event.
(Above the USW Nostalgia Exhibition Instagram feed displaying the countdown posts and the sneak peeks/leaks of the artwork to be displayed)
The refreshments for the launch night were arranged to picked up the day of and the promotional and events roles teamed up with the idea of holding a competition draw, the prize being art prints, hand crafted items and other âgoodiesâ to announced on the night etc.
A great way to add another level of thought and depth to the event.
The curation team planned on meeting around noon-3 pm this day to prepare the exhibition and have plenty of time to adjust compositions and displays beforehand.
(Above some shots of the exhibition space just after the pieces had been set up, before the private launch day)
