... blog of design development ...

MONDAY MORNINGS

Degree show and D&AD Briefs:

So Firstly the other day we had a degree show non-formal lecture just discussing past degree show designs, what worked well and not so much to help everyones brains engage to come up with interesting ideas and concepts for our own which will be displayed around late June time i believe. I feel getting the degree show in order and rolling off to a start pace is going to be challenging as many people alike myself want the show to be amazing and the full stop of all our hard work throughout the past 3 years. on another note... Today we had our group D&AD brief seminars to discuss all of our ideas and takes toward the project. In all honesty my seminar was pretty quiet. I noticed many of the other students too feel like is is a complex and hard brief to fulfil to a good and interesting standard. I have had two main ideas and have spoken to other individuals in the class as well as the seminar and they seem to like the idea, but at the moment all seem to be doing is seeing the faults in my work, so i’m not actually moving anywhere! 

New Modules:

I completed my hand-in for Add-Vantage back in December. As well as Vis-Com, Typography and also by dissertation which were all due January. If I’m honest Christmas wasn’t really fun this year it revolved around doing uni work 24/7 even Christmas Eve! But I knew at the time I had to give all the modules all my time and effort to get the results I was after. Vis Com:

Over the many months i was redeveloping the Amazon Locker Campaign. I chose this campaign because the idea amazon had behind their original campaign was good, but it was in one location (San Francisco) and it was also aimed at one individual from there customer base, so making one person happy when they could make many of their customers happy.  The original campaign involved a large mysterious locker being placed overnight in San Francisco with one very big locker door with #giantlocker on it. The customers nearby who shopped with amazon and got it delivered to the amazon locker were given the numbers to open up the doors like ordinary amazon lockers, but over the next few days a large Nissan sticker was also placed on the large locker door, (exclaiming their may be a car inside!) the hashtag took off on social networking sites where everyone wanted to see what was in the giant locker and what it was all about. One lucky person who shopped at amazon got the chance to open the door when putting in their parcel collection code. For the new campaign I focussed more on the awareness of the lockers which then later developed into a world wide service from amazon lockers where they would give out to customers who got their parcels delivered to a locker the chance to be entered in a ‘amazon lottery’ where they could receive a reward from amazon by using the locker service.

Overall I was happy with my final campaign and my end grade, although I wish we did do a presentation for this module as well as typography, only because from my feedback I think I had a bit of concern as to why I had put a hashtag on the front of the envelope and I wondered if maybe if I had explained why and its purpose then that may have been why I was marked down? I don’t know? Either way I was happy with my grade.

TYPOGRAPHY

We have had to listen to a variety of shortcuts episodes staring Josie Long, each episode is a brief encounter, interview, documentary, found sound audio clip all within a variety of categories and various episodes. Once we know what story we want to do we then have to produce a piece of typography reflecting the story/ episode, which can take any form or structure as long as it reflects what the story was about and doesn’t skip out any of the important audio, I really like how this project is so open but at the same time am quite scared because i want to produce something which i can imagine looking like in my head, which is going to be hard to produce, so i need to continue with much experimentations.

VIS COM

We have to re-develop/ redo an old campaign which didn’t do too well, or wouldn’t work now, even if it was years old or last week. I am struggling with this campaign because i have too many ideas for different ones rather than just focusing on the one idea and developing in it.

DISSERTATION:

Second draft was due in last week and it consisted in the completion of the introduction 500 words main body text and conclusion. I am really not liking the dissertation at the moment not because i don’t like what i am doing but because i don’t like writing in general....i hate it. I haven’t written anything as important really since i left school so haven’t carried on any of the literature i learnt during that time. I feel my introduction is almost there i have read so many sites already and books and articles but for me i feel its finding what i actually want to underpin within them articles and if they are talking about something not of the same subject, but of the same relevance where i could help support my argument. I did however re-read my intro and amend it so many times so have got it to a stage where i am happy with, but i just need to get my head down now and at least get it to a near-enough finish because i can see me really struggling in a few weeks time to come.

A QUICK UPDATE

TYPOGRAPHY:

So 50 ways to display the same type is done, and the following week we had another mini project called ‘8 women’, which was based upon watching a small film called ‘8 women’. The project was that we were given a script with each of the women talking, but we had to show who was talking based on the typography, and with this came the consideration of each character and their relationships with each other. This week we were also given another mini brief where we have to choose a font which we believe is hard to work with or has problems, and then correct the problems, with it being the way letters look, the leading or kerning. I have just finished it today and I chose  Zapfino, Although I'm sure I have ended up re-discovering a whole new typeface because I think its that awful.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION:

So we had the meeting with the medieval Group clients, and I think my team done well. Lots of ideas and notes were taken down, and we all enjoyed discussing our ideas based on the interactive app. The next module launch is a NHS animation/video. Im not looking forwards to doing this, mostly because from last year I found out I don't really enjoy annimation and so i think i may do a sketchy-styled video or another typography one, the video has to be up to 2 mins long which isn't bad but I just need to get down and to grips on what I actually want to do, and what important information i need to display which won't alarm parents yet won't make them feel laid back about anything either.

DISSERTATION:

So today we had a lecture and after seminars with Simon to help with our dissertation, the session actually really helped me as we had a discussion, which we were all involved in lasting for around  two hours, but it covered a variety of different subjects, and i feel had made me narrow down what i want to do my dissertation on, I’m currently thinking doing my dissertation on the psychology behind design, and what factors are involved in making us believe one design is more superior to another. Its just a thought for now but i think it will be very interesting to research on and feel as though i will find it interesting too and have a fair amount to say.

Today i went in the studio at 9:00, i wanted to get in early to get on with a bit of work and i managed to get my hands on a book called ‘Coventry now and then’ which shown pictures of the same location pictures were taken in coventry and compared them next to a modern day picture taken in the exact same location! 

VISUAL COMMUNICATION BRIEF:

Thursday we started our Visual Communication module. To start with we were given a mini project alike the typography module apart from this is a live project. The project requires us to work in small groups to create an identity for ‘Medieval Coventry Group’ one of the groups main project focuses is on putting together a digital tour project. Before the group takes off though they have asked for:

-New name -Logo -Extended identity which could be applied to the print/digital market.

Straight away my group got to work on producing the logo design, between us we decided to keep the name ‘Medieval Coventry’ as it was already self explanatory, but decided to drop the group purely because of irrelevance.

SECOND BRIEF- TYPOGRAPHY:

So.. here i am at the start of my third year. In a way I'm so relieved i have only one more year left as I found last year extreamly hard in respects to the amount of work all at once (especially over the christmas break-which definitely was not a break for me anyway!) What I'm most looking forwards to this year is to see the outcomes of my final work, i think it will be interesting to look back in six months on the work i have produced over the following years and see what areas i have improved on which may not come totally to light with me right now.

Over the start of summer I continued on more part-time with my placement, and refined my website, and also been putting together what i feel is the best of my portfolio work, both in terms or execution and what i enjoy doing. In a way i wish i could have spent a bit more time teaching myself Adobe Muse and Aftereffects but as i have also a job they have wanted me in a lot more over summer as there have also been a few situations where i have needed to help out. Alongside this i have also had two client oppertunities one which was a machineing buisness which required a logo,letterhead, business card, compliment slip and also invoice sheets. The other was for a yoga instructor(and thai heal and massager) in Australia- which proved to be a little difficult but nether the less she too was satisfied with the finial logo design and i also had to produce business cards for her(she didn’t want compliment slips etc..)

I feel this year is going to be extreamly hard! I want to achieve interesting responses to my briefs as i did throughout my second year, my only fear is getting exhausted like last year, so i need to contain my enthusiasm and momentum to kick start all my project work, knowing i will not only graduate with good marks(hopefully!!) but also knowing i have put 100% of all my time and effort into each and every brief my eyes have been set on.

My plan for this year:

- To come in every single day just like last year, 9-5 as i feel just like last year it allows me to come in without any distractions, and just get on with my work. I also think I'm more motivated with my work in the studio as everyone around me is working too and its a nice vibe to just get stuck in. - When i get home from uni any extra time i have (to a certain extent!) I do also want to be carrying on with my work, again like last year just by doing a few hours extra work made a whole lot of difference when starting the next day and it also made me feel a bit more prepared in the lead up to deadlines. - To produce a good structured portfolio which includes work i can look back on and be proud of!

FIST DAY BACK!

First day back and we were given our first brief...contextual studies AKA our Dissertation Briefing, or as i call it the disss-er-astrous Briefing. In all hope my dissertation is NOT disastrous. I don’t like writing essays or any sort of long winded writing for that matter. It slightly scares me as i havn’t written anything long since i finished school (which was almost 5 years ago!!) I am extreamly self critical when writing, which just puts me off my own writing when i read back through just one sentence, and also feel like when i re-read anything i put that i sound like a child....Anyway Im sure i will be just fine as my tutors are here to support me and i can ask my peers or family members to see if i am making any sense. For now its just a case of discovering what i would like to do my Dissertation on as its extreamly open and we can do it on whatever we like, so it actually makes me feel slightly better that i can write on something I'm interested in or have a lot to say about. I did look over summer on a few subjects but because the brief wasn't fully launched didn’t want to be looking into something which was completely wrong, or wasting my time, so i am going to spend this week looking into a base to work of what to do.

My group has been so good and constantly in contact. and there is lots of research/development/ideas/and general construction of our box process in our Facebook group but for now i will keep it relative and brief. We decided on our final box design on the 25/1/16 and on the 1/2/16 created our first real-life moch-up of the box, after many changes and designs this was the one we all agreed to take further. We had looked into costs and discussed colours, and in the end we agreed on grey being the over all box colour as it represented both genders and we felt is different to the typical black box design and colour.  The weekend after i just handed in the two previous module deadline i was admitted to hospital, and so i had to make sure my team were informed with it being the last week to finalise our box before we had our client pitch. I stopped in contact with my group, discussing what is being done and what has been done. I have to give it to my group they worked incredibly hard and by pulling together we still managed to complete our box design. To be completely honest Monday i wasn't feeling at all up for going in and i knew i still shouldn’t have really gone into uni without fully recovering, but i didn’t want to let my team down and already felt bad that it was just my luck to end up in hospital. Our pitch went relatively well and we had a lot to discuss. We explained why we done the box the way it was, and added just as a point of consideration for the client to take away was the bulkiness of the box (and so thats why we designed it the way we did), which they noted down as they said it wasn’t something they really noticed and considered but was glad we brought the issue up. During our pitch there was only a few potential problems we had to our box but we added in our solutions which would have solved this problem, for example we considered having badges on the outside of the box so that the user could decide to wear the age, keep them at home or display it on the box. Long tern this wouldn’t have lasted as the badged could potentially get damaged or lost being on the outer of the box, but we considered such things as a luggage tag-like accessory which could attach to the handle on the box where the badges would be more secure..or even this luggage tag could be secure within itself where you could add your badges into a see-proof protective sleeve so it was also weather resistant and added even more security. However I'm glad everyone in my group contributed to the project and all our ideas were shared and produced as a final outcome.

So i collected my printed book pages last week, and my work only taken a day to print from the printing company i went to which was pretty good because i then manually hole punched the pages myself and ordered them into the q-rings i had ordered. Last week i also realised i was sent the wrong sized q-rings(from hong kong) which had taken 2 weeks to drive so was thinking of other rings i could use, and if worse came to worse i was going to use a zip tie. I check every stationary shop i knew...staples,ryman,hobby craft,wilko, the range... and no-where seemed to sell them or have anything similar. so during the weekend i phoned up a local-ish stationary shop located on Earlsdon high street and explained to the man on the phone the rings i was after and he seemed to think he had them in colours, so i popped down straight away and it turned out he was on about the usual plastic a4booklet ring bingers with a spineSo i felt it was a pointless drive but then out of nowhere he came with a small box asking if this was what i was after, and it was it!! also it was a smaller size and the only box of the q-rings he had got left as they didn’t sell too well so was last stock, which was so incredibly lucky!

On Friday, the day of the module deadline i arrived in uni early as i knew i wanted to just add two extra illustrations i done by hand printed onto tracing paper to my book, as part of my past feedback was that i should include a car illustration for the model because all the other cars had car body illustrations. As soon as i arrived it was the first thing i printed out  and cut down to size and also manually hole punched so i knew i was finished. The rest of the day seemed very stressful though and the rooms atmosphere really wasn't very nice as many people were experiencing problems with their work/ documents/ submission stuff/ and to top it off both the server and printer network went down so those who didn’t print off their hand in sheets were starting to worry. Which in a way made me so relieved i had printed everything off the night before ready to hand straight in. I was pretty much ready to hand in as soon as i printed and cut the illustrations for my book, but figured probably stopping for a few hours to help people out would benefit them. As it was heading up to 3pm and the deadline being (4pm) many people still were cutting their books, and myself along with a few others were trying our best to help people out, as best as we could. I submitted then at around 3:30 to make sure i was well on time and there was no problems. I am really pleased with my book and have to say it has been the most enjoyable module yet! partly because i’ve been doing my book on something I'm interested in, and also something i have put a lot of time and effort into also.