OUGD504 - Studio Brief 03 - Brief

Based on your primary research exploring type in a specific geographic context, you will produce a publication entitled "Type in context: <Montenegro>". Through the summer task you will have collected numerous images and written copy about uses of typography in your local area. This content will then be used in your publication.

During the summer the whole year had to gather relevant images to fill out an a-z format publication. These images will be used to print and bind a book to a high standard. Publications should be an "art & photography" type book made for a specific target audience. 

Existing publications will be looked at thoroughly and carefully to help inspire any designs. With various workshops being placed throughout 4 weeks, a high standard publication is a must deliverable. In order to develop ideas from previous publications created, different techniques and different binding methods will be experimented with.  

Blogging Workshop

The purpose of this task was to learn from mistakes and to understand existing faults. The type in italic is taken from my blogpost and is then edited in the following paragraph.
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Task 1
I have chosen and have applied my own logo towards this design. I believe it represents the product well and shows the wheel as a moving object. I wanted the middle wheel to be the centre of attention whilst the boards to stand on to be the minimal attraction.

Following the development of a logo for Onewheel this design was applied on a mockup. The logo represents the outline of the product and how it works. The logo is meant to represent movement almost as a wheel itself. The middle wheel is the centre of attention whilst the sideboards are not as important and have stayed minimal.

Here is an envelope with the logo on the back. I wanted to include the name of the company at the back because you wouldn't know what the company is without the name of it.

This is a mock-up of how the logo would work on an envelope. The companies name has been put underneath the logo because it wouldn’t be recognised unless it was a massive company.
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For our first crit I decided to show my mockup. I started by ensuring that all tabs were equal length and would fold over one another. I ensured that each number was visible to see even when the folds were down. One thing that I find whenever working on a brief is the right choice of colour. This is one thing that I hope to get better at during the year.

I created a mockup to understand the faults that were made. Each tab had to be of equal length and had to fold over one another. Each number had to be visible to understand the design process and how each fold works. Colour choice is also difficult because different colours have different meanings.
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Task 2
I then decided to try two colours which were more eye catching and worked better with the colour white as it is something that I was told to try in my crit. After putting the two pieces of paper together to see how it could potentially look, I noticed that the tabs were not put the right way as well as there being some spelling mistakes. From my development, I have noted the importance of choice of colour and how it could improve my design.

After being crit, the two colours chosen gave the product a more effective design because it made it more aesthetic and eye catching. After placing the two separate pieces of paper together, the tabs were not put the right way, on top of that there were spelling mistakes which had to be changed. From the development stage, choice of colour is something that needs to be taken very seriously into design as it could make or break your design.

Understand each of the following:

Describing
Analysing
Evaluating
Contextualising
Theorising
Narrating
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Task 3
I decided to try out another coloured stock as the orange could be portrayed as a little too harsh in terms of how powerful a contrast it creates. The yellow is a lot softer, and makes the entirety and makes the whole thing a lot more visually pleasing. It looks a lot more inviting in terms of something that makes you want to open it up & look inside.
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Task 4
Use more sophisticated language.
Blog with purpose – don’t waste time over filling unnecessary or uncritical details.
Evaluation also involves suggesting improvement and discussing limitations.

Onist is a food company that created healthy avocado choc pots. This company is a charity that provides a healthy breakfast for children in Gambia once a choc pot is bought. Although I like the simplicity of the logo I don't think it says much about the product and looks too serious for a charity product. I personally would of made it more interactive and would make it clear that it is a choc pot that will feed children in Gambia.

Onist a food company that created health avocado choc pots. The simplicity of the logo brings this design forward and makes it more appealing and eye catching. Although not much is said about the product within the logo it doesn’t feel much like a charity. The logo itself is too serious and needs to be more interactive.
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Conclusion

This workshop has helped to improve our English writing abilities. As a student of a graphic design course our work should be considered before writing. This workshop helped to understand where our mistakes are seen and what could be done to correct them. This is helping to make work that is produced more professional and more visually appealing to a professional/studio. After this workshop wording will be considered more often as well as a more professional tone.

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 02 - Logocreater - Final Outcome

This is the product that I have chosen and have applied my own logo towards this design. I believe it represents the product well and shows the wheel as a moving object. I wanted the middle wheel to be the center of attention whilst the boards to stand on to be the minimal attraction. 

Here is an envelope with the logo on the back. I wanted to include the name of the company at the back because you wouldn't know what the company is without the name of it. 

Here is the front of the envelope. I wanted to keep it simple and minimalistic. 

Here is an example of how the box packing might look without any design aesthetics but just the logo.

An example of business cards, a book and a contract sign up. 

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 03 - Final Outcome

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 02 - Logocreater - Research

Onist is a food company that created healthy avocado choc pots. This company is a charity that provides a healthy breakfast for children in Gambia once a choc pot is bought. Although I like the simplicity of the logo, I don't think it says much about the product and looks too serious for a charity product. I personally would of made it more interactive and would make it clear that it is a choc pot that will feed children in Gambia. 

Believe it or not, this logo is for frames. This logo has nothing to do with the company 'Framed' which specialises in producing digital frames. These frames are full-HD displays with over 16.7 million colours. The idea behind these frames is to use work through motion, sound, gestures and various data inputs. 



The Circle is a bar that serves coffee, ice cold craft drinks and has a warm friendly atmosphere inside. Although this project is not funded much I liked the name of the roadhouse 'The Circle' and thought I could create something simply and unique. However, the client did not write back to me and I did not have enough information to find out more about the roadhouse so that I could create a logo that could be more personal. 






This kickstarter is one that I found interesting. Its aim is to convert rain water though a technology filter into clean drinking water for countries/people that need it most.  This kickstarter didn't have a logo so I wanted to create one whilst using the icon filter to further promote this project. This project is one that I wanted to further because its creating something for a purpose of saving people's lives. 





This is the kickstarter that I want to develop further.  It is a product that is based on a 'hoverboard'. Although it has already been branded and already has a logo I saw room for improvement. I wanted to make the product more obvious within the logo. The current logo doesn't say much about the product and looks more like a square football. It is a product that is based on electricity and balance to make you feel as if you are floating. This product has become very popular with a variety of Youtube stars and has become a massive hit. 

Sass is a new app that allows everyone to see what they would look like before they get that hairstyle. Sadly even though the app sounds like an average idea, the logo isn't exactly very easy to understand. It consists of the company written in one of the worst fonts I have ever seen. It also hasn't done itself much better by placing an afro on top of the 'A' which has moved off the baseline. 

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 02 - Logocreater - Idea development

From my idea generation, I have brought forward my idea of the product being the logo. Based on everyone's feedback, I was told to continue with the idea of the icon looking as if it is meant to move. Initially, I wanted to have the company's name within the logo however, after our crits I was told it doesn't need to as my logo is self explanatory. 

During my crits I was quite disappointed that only the tutor gave feedback about my work. In the future I hope more people speak up during crits because I believe I gave feedback to almost every person in my group. 

From the feedback that I received, I was told to keep it simple, and to work with the image of movement. I decided to use the company's name under my final chosen logo.

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 02 - Logocreater - Idea generation

After looking at a large number of 'Kickstarter' projects, I started to sketch out ideas around a small sample of projects. This is a brief that I thought would put me deep in my comfort zone. However, I had trouble picking a company to design for. There were projects that I would have loved to work on because of the ethical projects. There were also projects that were not funded very well because their designs were not aesthetic and were not related to their project.  

I started by looking at 'SASS' which was a hairdressers app. My initial thought was that it should be text only. 'Sass' is a word that means lively, bold, and full of spirit; cheeky and I wanted to represent that in my work. A good way to represent the word 'sass' is in handwritten typography. The type that used consisted of my flatmates writing quickly to see a variety of ways or writing the word 'sass'.

Another project that I had a look as was GiFlybike. This is one that I originally wanted to take through to develop, however, I found it difficult to represent a 'fold' logo. The actual logo isn't very representative of what the project actually does. 

Here is a logo that represents the letter 'F' from filter water as this project didn't have an 'official' name. I wanted the filter to be used within the logo to show the importance of this project. This is a project that could potentially save lives and it was a project that I enjoyed looking at however, there is not enough information on the page to generate more than a few ideas.

Onewheel is the project that I have decided to take forward. While this project is already branded, I believe there is room for improvement.  A lot of my colleagues and housemates agreed that the original logo seems too serious and doesn't show the product's full potential. I decided to take forward the idea that it is one wheel. This project has shown me how easy it is to generate a variety of ideas on one topic. For example I have created various 'one wheel' icons that could all represent the project.

Here are two ideas that I would like to take further into my development.   

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 02 - Logocreater - Brief

Our brief is to design a logo for an ongoing project on 'Kickstarter'. We had to choose an organisation that we found interesting and had to create/rebrand their logo. We had to consider colour, audience, client needs, context, reproducibility, and much more. 

'Kickstarter is a web service for 'crowd funding' projects, products and businesses. Members of the public can pledge money towards projects ranging from music to technology to food. Your assignment for this week is to produce a logo design for a Kickstarter project of your choice. You will also consider and plan various branding strategies for your chosen project showing how your logo will enforce this brand.'

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Evaluation

End of brief evaluation

For Studio brief 01, we had to produce a folded leaflet that would inform the person picking it up, what is 'The Design Process'. Within this leaflet there need to be specific and relevant information that I need to put in and word in order for the leaflet to make sense. This brief has reminded me the importance behind 'the design process' and how everything we do revolves around it. This brief is very good to start with because it will help us all understand the design process so that we could be familiar with it throughout the whole year. I myself have learnt a lot more by revisiting the design process.

What I enjoyed the most about this brief was that we got a chance to get familiar with the basics of graphic design again and how we got a lot of feedback. This was a tough brief because it was our first brief that was set to us. I enjoyed looking at various net graphs to create something that I haven't done before. This whole week has been a massive learning experience for me because I have created something that I haven't done before. 

I found a few things difficult with this brief. Firstly, I found it difficult to create icons that were simple enough for someone to understand. This project was to teach anyone about the design process and I think it is a topic that is quite hard to explain to someone who isn't a designer. Another factor of the brief that I found difficult was organising the text boxes and the icons around my hexagon net graph. The hexagon net graph confused me because the order of the text was different when it was flipped on the other side of the leaflet. This is something that I had help with from James in the printing room. 

What I could improve in for the next brief is my colour choice. I feel I can improve in this area. I also feel like I wasn't giving enough feedback to my classmates because I am not comfortable about speaking out loud sometimes. Although I believe I have improved from last year, my research could still improve. After having a seminar with Fred about research I have understood how central research is to all of our work. 

To conclude, I am very happy with my attitude for the first week of university. I believe that I am already changing into a more mature designer and understand the importance of feedback. Living with two other graphic designers has helped me to improve my work as we are constantly giving one another feedback. 

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Final Outcome

From the final feedback session regarding my leaflet design, the group said they enjoyed the simplicity and consistency of the icons. They agreed that the yellow stock was complimentary to the black type used. 

Favoured by the group was the fact that the fold I had used meant it could be picked up and almost played with, as a result of the different interlocking flaps. It was agreed upon that the whole thing was easy to understand from another peer's point of view, without having to explain how it works.

I changed the point size of the numbers to not draw attention from the iconography. 

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Further development

I decided to have a play around with different coloured stock to see the impact on the iconography. Each icon now looks more recognisable, simple, and iconic. I decided to try the icons in a darker colour as well as trying the icons with the colour black on orange which I did not think worked. 

I then decided to try two colours which were more playful and worked better with the colour white as it is something that I was told to try in my crit. After putting the two pieces of paper together to see how it could potentially look, I noticed that the tabs were not put the right way and there were spelling mistakes. From my development, I have noted the importance of choice of colour and how it could make or break my design. 

After listening back to the feedback, I decided to try some different coloured stock paper. I felt that these colours are a lot stronger and work better together. 

I chose a brighter stock to allow the dark text content to stand out as well as the illustrations. Contrasting the dark text against light stock allows for ease of read, and also it looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing instead of just using plain white cartridge paper.

I decided to try out another coloured stock as the orange could be portrayed as a little too harsh in terms of how powerful a contrast it creates. The yellow is a lot softer, and makes the entirety and makes the whole thing a lot more visually pleasing. It looks a lot more inviting in terms of something that makes you want to interact with. 

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Feedback crits

For our first crit I decided to show my mockup. I started by ensuring that all tabs were equal length and would fold over one another and that each number was visible even when the folds were down. I find that, with every project, colour is incredibly important. I hope to improve my ability to use colour during the year. 

I decided to put 'my design process' in the middle within another hexagon. The hexagon in the middle was actually meant to be on the other side (right image) so that everything would make sense once you looked at it from that side. However, in my crit my colleges suggested to keep the title on the back side (left image) because if someone picked it up from the other side they wouldn't know what the leaflet was about. 

I then decided to ask a few question about my hexagon fold. Here are my results:

1: Does each icon make sense?

- In general, most of the answers were yes. They liked that it was simple and easy to understand. 

2: What do you think of the two colours chosen?

- In general, most people said that the two colours do not work well together and that they are a bit serious and boring. I was also told to try play white with another colour as they liked the icons standing out in white. 

3: Does each tab need a title? For example should tab number 1 have the words brief next to it. 

- Most of my friends said that there is no real need for each tab to have a title but to try and maximise the looks of the icons so that they are more clear. 

4: Are the numbers visible enough or do they need to increase?

- Everyone seemed to think that the numbers are in fact already too big and should come down a few sizes to which I completely agree. 

OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Initial development

My initial idea generation began with selecting the folding technique that I wanted to take forward. By creating a net graph of a pentagon I have added a selection of tabs around the centre area. These tabs will each have an illustration above each annotation. Initially, the idea of the tabs grabbed my attention, however, during the process of mockups, I noticed that tabs overlapped. The idea of tabs overlapping one another shows the importance behind completing one tab before moving on. My intent was to send a message that each tab can't be opened until the previous step is complete. This project is aimed at designers to make them more aware of the steps. 

My first step was to set up the net graph in a sensible order and make sure that everything works together. I printed this design and made sure that each tab was equal and made sense to someone who picked up this leaflet. My initial idea was for each tab to be clearly seen however, after experimenting with the tabs I preferred the version which has each tab running over each other. 

I next filled each tab with an icon that would represent the step. After playing around with the icons and finishing each one I decided to ask a few people around my table their opinions on my icons. In their honesty, they said that it wasn't consistent enough and that the colours don't work well together. I personally wasn't too impressed with my ideas and decided to go back a step. 

I decided to redo my icon and make them simpler and easier to understand. I truly respect the saying 'less is more'. I want to change the two colours that I use within this brief as I believe that a more vibrant stock paper would make the design more engaging and successful.