OUGD406 - Module Evaluation

For my end of module evaluation I believe I did quite well on all of my briefs. My favourite briefs were Studio brief 03 and 04 because I could collaborate with students from my course. I enjoyed working in my group of 4 for studio brief 03 because it helped me work as a team player. A lot of our briefs throughout the year have been individual and to work with a random group and to have produced a final outcome together was satisfying. I enjoyed working with Paayal throughout studio brief 04 because we worked well as a team. Although we started as individuals we decided to collaborate because our concepts matched one another. I was very happy with the books we had created as well as the stickers which I will use for myself in the next year to remind me about certain things such as things I need to buy.

I think the brief that I didn’t do so well in was Studio brief 01 because I struggled to come up with a concept and struggled to produce work that was my style. Although I enjoyed the brief and enjoyed doing initial ideas throughout the brief I still struggled to come up with a final idea. However, I learnt how much you can get done within a week. The brief was very short however very intense and made me realise what I can achieve within a week of hard work. I believe there was room for improvement within studio brief 03 because I felt like I could put more input in within the group and help more within the designs. Although I created the social website and the bookmarks I think I could have contributed more towards other peoples work.

There were a few things that I could difficult. Firstly, organising myself throughout studio brief 01. I found it difficult to develop my work in order to have a better outcome. I also struggled at the start of studio brief 02 because I had created something that looked like an IT guide book which wasn’t the final look that I was going for. I had very little time to go and create something that was relevant to the book and would look like it would match the book. However, in the end I was very satisfied with my final outcome because I used grids to show the importance of text layout and I created something simple as well as placing the authors name on the side. 

To conclude, I was very satisfied with how this module came together. I had created 3 books with Paayal for studio brief 04 as well as a sticker collection that is something I’ve never tried before and would like to try again. I feel that this module was my most progressive one as it is the one that I learnt the most as well as had the most fun on. I believe my colour choice is getting constantly better as well as my typographic hierarchy and understanding what information comes first and why I’ve put that piece of text in that position. Within studio brief 04 I started reading a lot of cook books and this helped me influence myself to start reading more graphic design related books. In general, I was very satisfied with my final module and hope to work with more people in future briefs as I believe I learn the most from this and learn other peoples strengths which help me develop as a graphic designer.

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Final Outcomes

For our final book we decided to collaborate together equally. We created a little booklet that informs students of what to expect from ‘student food’. We wanted to create a simple yet informative booklet in order to aware students of possible outcomes. We wanted to keep it black and white to highlight the importance of how serious a persons health can be. 

We then thought of rounding the series of booklets with a sticker collection. This sticker collection is to allow students to stick these into their books in order to remind themselves of ‘things’ such as coursework and deadlines and so that they do not forget these. We wanted these stickers to be placed around their books when they have a deadline or when they have a print room booked in because we understand how frustrating it can be missing or forgetting a reserved slot. The stickers are very vibrant and would be easily recognisable. 

To conclude, it was very enjoyable to have collaborated with Paayal because we were constantly working together on this brief and have both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We are both very satisfied with our final outcomes and hope to inform the next years of how important healthy eating is as well as keeping to a daily routine. 

Each book has a different purpose however works well as a set because one book is about healthy eating and how serious it should be taken. The second book is about terminology of type and how you should have a laugh with your projects and enjoy them. Whilst the last book is about keeping a daily routine and managing your time under each project such as COP, PPP and SP. I hope to collaborate with more students throughout the next year and I hope to work with Paayal together as I believe we create a strong team and have a strong bond that motivates each other to work harder and to gain better work. 

OUUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Idea Generation

For my initial ideas I decided to create a journal that was directed at COP, PPP and SP. However after an interim crit I was told that it wasn’t focusing on the topic of cooking enough and decided to play around with the element of cooking more. I decided to be a bit more playful and interactive with the upcoming first years to make sure that they can have a laugh and not take everything very serious because it can really stress you out.

I decided to make it a bit more fun and decided to change the name of the modules with a cooking surprise. I changed each word to something more fun. An example of this is how I changed the word Lecturer to Chef. I wanted to let the first years understand that not everything needs to be serious and that you can have some fun with your work. I decided to use an illustrative theme throughout my cookbook guide relating it back to graphic design throughout the book. I wanted to use an illustraive front cover that would have amateur chef as your name whilst having the title of a cookbook guide for anything that is graphic design related. For example having Amateur Chef Danny Carter Cookbook guide for Context of Practice. 

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Research

For our research we decided to collaborate both our research together. We decided to brainstorm some ideas that we could potential focus on. We wanted to be on the same level and decided to choose a path that we could go down. When we both came into uni we both wanted to eat healthy and stay focus throughout the year. At the start of the year I found it difficult to keep up to date with COP, PPP and SP. I also found it very difficult to distinguish which blog would go into which genre. I thought it would be a good idea to balance the two ideas of food and confusion together to create a book that help the first years understand the difference between each set of work. We both understood that the work can be hard and that sometimes you need a break and have a little laugh together. We wanted to create a journal that would be fun and interactive and would help you plan your year. Both Paayal and myself struggled keeping up to date with work and sometimes got confused how to balance our social life with our work life. We both struggled eating on time and focused more on our work when sometimes that can be seen as bad and unhealthy for you leading to depression and stress. 

This brought us two together and combining our ideas together to create something that would work as a welcome package. I decided to focus on my cookbook journal whilst helping Paayal with her typographic cookbook. We gave each other a task of creating a book each. Constantly throughout the project we both helped each other to improve each others work. We had to make sure that everything was consistent and working collaboratively. We wanted two different ideas coming together as one final outcome. 

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Brief

The aim for this brief is to produce a graphic response, product or piece of work that makes a statement or relevant advice about my experience as a first year graphic design student here at Leeds College of Art. I will be working collaboratively with another student (Paayal Makdani) to develop an entertaining and informative outcome.
The problem that we saw was that we thought some people only use their advantages at the start of the year when actually its really important for a trial and error. Its a good thing to make mistakes in the first year and therefore we created a cookbook guide to help others settle into the year and to understand that you can play around with anything like transforming a guidebook to a cookbook. 
We wanted to help the first years to understand that it can be a fun year and it can be serious. 

Think about the new experiences that you have had, the difficulties that you have overcome and the new people you have met and the life skills you have acquired this year.Remember what it was like starting your first week, how did you feel and what emotions did you experience? Excitement, trepidation, fear or did you feel overwhelmed. You might have benefited from some advice, opinions and insight from others that have experienced the same transition.What might you say, do or give to next years graphic design students to make the transition into the student experience, particularly this course more welcoming? 

Our brief was to design something that we could show to first year students to help them throughout the year. We had to create a graphic response that would give some advice for first year students. 

I decided to work collaboratively with Paayal Makdani because we both had similar messages. Paayal decided to do a cookbook guide that was associated with type whilst I wanted to create a cookbook guide that would help you keep a diary of what you need to throughout the year such as Context Of Practice, Studio Practice and and Personal and Professional Practice (COP, SP, PPP).

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 3: Final Pitch

Below is the complete presentation that we used to present the final version of the things we had created for the branding for the exhibition:

We decided to go with this particular logo for the group as we felt it looked the most effective, and opening with it meant we were able to make the audience to the presentation aware of our group and who we were immediately.

Our concept is circles. When viewing the exhibition space we noticed that the adjacent space contains circles on the ceiling – we also thought about how circles directly link to cover – for example the way girls apply make up is in circles which is a form of covering up. This led us to the title “cover up” which we then added a hash tag too as we could use it for social media and believed it gave an edge to the name. When it comes to displaying our designs in the exhibition space we thought about creating long thin shelves preferably painted white to blend in, that we could hopefully produce low cost ourselves in the college, the designs would we placed on the shelf leaning against the wall slightly to replicate a book shelf which also means non of the design work will be damaged in any way.

After being told that a lot of our previous work for this project looked very corporate and similar to the branding of the NHS, we decided to keep only the blue from the circles in the adjacent space, and to feature a contrasting colour such as red to compliment the blue throughout the new pieces of work.

We went with Futura for the typeface for the project because we felt the boldness of the type complimented the contemporary modern feel we were trying to accomplish with the branding.

Keeping with the idea of using overlapping circles, we decided to recreate the poster using just 2 circles, and created it in a very minimalistic manner. We felt the grey type in this instance clashed extremely well with the red and blue circles.

Our previous invitations weren't very inviting at all, so we decided to include the word hello to instantly attract people into reading what exactly is on the invitation. We also felt less information, but vital information made for an effective invitation, as you wouldn't want to be looking and reading over something dull.

We kept the original design for the banner as we all felt confidently about the aesthetic of it, and despite how it would be the most cost effective thing to produce, we really liked the overlapping circles creating a sense of mirage within the space we found inspiration.

For the new badges we decided a more minimal approach would be better to go with, taking on board this we also changed the colours of the badges and made it solely about '#coverup', instead of the designs being bombarded with a variant of circles.

The stamp was something we felt should be created to be placed on things we had created, in order to show that the things made were for the #coverup exhibition, created by students of Graphic Design at Leeds College of Art.

The name tags previously being the strongest element of our branding, was kept the same as well as we found this the basis for creating all the other things for the exhibition.

The programme suffered the most due to lack of time, and despite a completely different aesthetic we all weren't pleased with the outcome. However, we still felt it was necessary to bring it with us to show the potential of a programme.

Our aim for the new design of the bookmark was for it to look more simplistic and clean. As we decided not to have the bookmark expand into a leaflet, we thought a was a better idea for it to simply be slot inside of the leaflet.

We simply changed the colours on our previous designs for the cover photo for the Facebook and Twitter page to match our new colour palette.

We then created a few variants of mock ups, as to where you would be likely to see some of the things we had created for the branding of the exhibition.

We also took a photo of some of the deliverables that we presented to the audience of the final pitch:

We decided as a group what we thought everything would cost regarding the project, how it would be displayed in the exhibition and how we felt we worked together as a group:

Cost:

For all of our collateral we chose to use a white background or white stock to keep the printing cost down but it also gave us the minimalist feel that we were going for. For the A4 posters, it costs 75p to print in matte in colour, so to place about 25 of them around Leeds, it would cost us £17.75 in the LCA Print Room which is on the costly side however we found a solution which was to buy our own stock to print on which would cut the price down to £5. We then thought that we could even take our designs down to just three colours (including stock) and screen print them instead. Screen printing them would also give an interesting effect because of the overlapping circles. Regarding placement, we would want to place the posters in and around Leeds College of Art, outside of Leeds Central Library, and in surrounding art galleries, as well as main advertisement points in Leeds city centre.

For the invitations, it would cost 75p for two, however we would need a larger quantity of these than the posters so we would also buy our own stock. We also thought that we could only send physical invitations to family members of the exhibitors but send an 'e-vite' to everyone else such as members of the library, etc. This would majorly cut down on costs. We also considered screen printing these invitations as well.

Display:

Regarding the display in the exhibition, we came up with the idea of displaying everyone's work on a shelf that, in context, we would have bolted to the wall. We would want the shelf to be white since the walls in the exhibition space are also white so that it would look clean  and consistent, and would not distract from the work. The point of this idea was to replicate a book on a shelf. Using this method also meant that the exhibited work would not be damaged in any way.

Evaluation:

We all worked incredibly well as a group - making decisions collectively, being honest with each other, and taking part and producing work equally. Communication was also very strong between us all, and we managed our time quite well.

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 3 - Development

From the feedback we were given by Simon, as a group we identified a new target audience - as our previous one was not very suitable - being design students that are around 18+ and creative professionals. 

As we reestablished a target audience, we realised that it was unnecessary to carry out the idea of the screen print flip book, as well as to include information about the screen printing process the in booklet (extended leaflet). We ultimately decided to scratch the idea of the booklet in the end. A very key point of the next development stage was also to lose the feel of the branding following something similar to NHS. Looking back over what we had presented, areas of it did look extremely corporate, and lacked a personal approach to the exhibition.

We've decided to base the areas of branding that we would create around the colour theory we created for the name tags, that way we can make something that's more inclusive and personal to the people exhibiting the exhibition.

One of the main things that we picked up from our interim pitch/crit was that our tutor kept mentioning the word "contemporary" - he believed that we needed to edit our designs so that they had a more contemporary appearance. This is something that we plan to explore.

Our tutor also felt that it was unnecessary to include the word "leeds" in our exhibition name as it is only in Leeds. We decided to simply take it out and leave it as "#coverup". This was also an advantage since it's shorter so it's simpler to read / remember. 

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 3 - Interim Crit

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 3: Interim Crit

Below is the powerpoint presentation that we used to discuss our ideas to Simon during the first interim crit for Studio Brief 3.

We started off with the concept of making our group logo circular to link with the overall concept we had agreed on. We felt the most effective version of the logo was the first, after experimenting with different spacings and circle sizes. We also tried to create the idea of reading glasses as the logo, by rotating the number 8 onto its side and placing lines coming off.

We visited the exhibition space in the Leeds Central Library for primary research and took photographs so that we knew what we were working with, and could refer to them when producing work.

We were all intrigued by the circles on the ceiling of the adjacent exhibition space and therefore wanted to use it as the concept for our designs as it was informed. We matched the blue and the grey colours, as well as used the white from the circles on the ceiling, however we also added black to our colour swatches since it's ideal and formal - predominantly for body text, as well as another lighter shade of blue that we all agreed complimented other colours. This was so that we could make it more our own but also to allow for more diversity throughout our designs.

For the posters we initially tried out just sticking within using circles for the basis of it, in alternate versions to represent the different coloured circles that were on the ceiling itself. Originally the block of circles were in the shape of a square, however we changed it to a rectangle as it resembled the shape of an average book and was therefore more relevant. We decided would be ideal to produce quite a number of these around Leeds in order to promote the event.

We collectively decided it might be best to try create a few variations of posters that featured a more predominant presence of the hashtag, specifically so because it was going to be used within the title of the exhibition itself. Out of the 3 I definitely feel the first works the most effectively.

We wanted to create a banner for the event that featured a slightly different design with the circles which in context, would be advertised outside of the library with the intention to draw people in who are passing by and may not have heard about the exhibition. The idea was to make this a lot more eye-catching and interesting to look at in order to catch peoples attention whilst walking past.

In the beginning we wanted to originally cut the invitations out in the shape of a circle, however we were not pleased with the way that the information appeared in the shape of a circle - it felt too limiting. We therefore decided to keep it in the shape of a typical invitation, so we played around with using circles as a decorative element on the invitation itself, as well as hashtags. In the case of the two shown above, I definitely felt the more subtle one worked as a more pleasing one to look at, but wasn't as noticeable as the first. We also decided to use the adjacent space as the imagery for the opening night invitations at first, because we felt it showed where our inspiration had stemmed from.

For the bookmark we decided we wanted something that could be taken away as a little souvenir from the event, which was relevant as the exhibition is based on books. We then thought that would be a cool idea if the bookmark opened up into a mini leaflet to provide basic information about the event. For the actual interim crit we weren't able to create it but we were able to clearly discuss and get across the intentions we actually had for the basis of it.

We thought it would be obvious that a programme or leaflet in this case should be created outlining further information about Leeds College of Art, the Graphic Design course i.e. who we are and what we do, as well as the process of screen printing. The original design for this I wasn't particularly pleased with, but because of how quickly the first crit was after we began the brief, we just had to take along what we had for it.

The idea of creating a flip book became apparent to us when we noticed a projector in the adjacent space of Leeds Art Gallery. We thought we may just be able to have a constant loop of the images which showed the process to the visitors of the exhibition whilst they walked around and viewed the re-designs.

Whilst undergoing our primary research, we found badges in the Leeds College of Art Student Union, which we thought would be a nice idea as another little souvenir from the exhibition.

For the name tag we came up with what we felt was a quite smart way of determining how each persons name tag would be created was to assign letters from a-z to different colours, and dependent upon the persons initials, two colours would be selected from the second photo. The two coloured circles would then be overlapped giving the appearance shown in the third image. 

Linking back to the involvement of social media in our branding for the exhibition; '#coverupleeds', we decided to create 2 different social media accounts, one for Facebook and one for twitter. That way people who were planning to visit the exhibition, or wanted to post their opinion of it etc, could use the hashtag of the actual event on the specific social media, and see what other people had said about it. Social media is a massive part of peoples everyday life so we thought it was important to consider the ways in which people may communicate regarding the event.

Afterwards we then received the following feedback about our overall presentation/initial ideas: