#1 - Summer Brief
Problem - Create an alphabet that represents you
Considerations - How to visualise my personality through letterforms
Research - I researched via the internet and design blogs such as Tumblr to try and find innovative alphabet designs and ones that I felt I would represent me and my personality more. I found that the ones that used a more humorous and illustrative approach reflected my style more.
Initial Ideas - At first I was going to create an alphabet using collage, that would display my love of editorial and magazines, but it then developed into my love for TV, and I tried to create an alphabet based on an A-Z of Friends.
When we had to put up all of our alphabets on that first week of Uni, I was a little mortified. My alphabet has taken a completely different direction to everyone else's, and my work looked immature compared to other peoples, especially as almost all of them had been created using design software. They all seemed to have taken it very seriously as well. Cue a panicked call to my parents.
#2 - Alphabet Soup
Problem - Create 10 letterforms exploring the word 'dissolve'
Considerations - How to create interesting visual responses to a word that has quite an obvious visual description already
Research - For this task it was important for me to try and approach it systematically, and look at the definition of dissolve to try and find a new way of representing it. I also found it more useful on this brief to just keep drawing out any ideas that popped into my head which could then be developed further.
Initial Ideas - Because the idea was to create 10, I wanted to explore quite a few different styles, and so I simply kept drawing and drawing until I thought I had a good idea, and I kept referring back to the definition of dissolve to help as a basis.
I enjoyed this brief more than I thought I might, and it was good for me to actually get a better understanding of typefaces and explore letterforms, something I had never really done before. I was happy with the work I did, and the outcomes I feel were quite successful. This brief gave me more confidence that I was actually an alright designer.
The letterforms I feel were most successful were the ones that took on a different interpretation of the definition, such as the melting M.
#3 - Alphabet Soup
Problem - Create an alphabet that represents the personality of a chosen partner
Considerations - How to represent the interviewee, and create a workable typeface
Research - For this brief, it was really about the primary research of getting to know the person, their visual style, their likes and dislikes, so you knew what to pick up on when you were designing the alphabet.
Initial Ideas - I was paired with Ste, who had a very definite style and taste in particular things, so from that aspect it was quite easy as I had a general direction of where to go. At first I was focused on using his love of tattoos as the main aspect for the design, until the crit where I was advised that I was simply decorating a pre existing typeface instead of coming up with something new and interesting, so I then developed an alphabet based on all of Ste's likes.
This was another brief that I quite enjoyed, and I felt like I did quite a lot of work for it. Whilst it took a lot of work and development, I was happy with the final outcome, and Ste seemed to be as well. I did feel like my typeface was quite different from other people's though, as I had focussed more on illustration and designing something that was quite obviously hand rendered, whilst others used a mixture of digital and hand drawn to create something that looked a little more professional.
#4 - Alphabet Soup
Problem - Create a digitally designed alphabet using illustrator, based on one of the letterforms created from the dissolve series.
Considerations - How to create an alphabet using illustrator that worked as something professional. How could you develop the letterform into a complete series?
Research - For this, my main concern was to actually create something using a piece of design software that could be passed off as something done well. I didn't undergo much research, instead I focussed on how to use illustrator more professionally, whilst it was still relatively new to me.
Initial Ideas - The letterform I developed used horizontal lines that gradually disappeared, and so my initial designs were based on creating this effect on illustrator.
I decided to use black and yellow as my colours, because I thought they worked well with the style of work I was doing, and I was quite happy with the alphabet I created. I wanted to make the letterforms in a bold, block style so that the dissolving effect would be more noticeable. I did struggle at times with the software, but felt that having to work with it was one of the best lessons as I forced myself to learn fast.
#5 - Proverbally Yours
Problem - Create a set of 3 posters that visually communicates the proverb 'Silence is Golden' One text, One image, and one a mixture of both.
Considerations - Audience and Context were the main considerations for this brief.
Research - I researched the meaning of the proverb quite a bit, and researched into other uses of phrases or proverbs in other posters, and how you can communicate phrases using simply image or simply text.
Initial Ideas - I based my ideas around the idea of silence being bad as opposed to golden, but then felt like the message I was creating could be seen as quite sinister, and maybe I should create something that did simply utilise the phrase instead of trying to go against it, which then developed into creating posters for a library asking for silence.
I was pleased with the outcome, and quite liked the challenge of creating one poster that only had a symbol to communicate the proverb.
#6 - Proverbally Yours Mail shot
Problem - Create a mailshot that communicates the proverb 'silence is golden'
Considerations - Audience,
Research - I looked at other mail shots to look at what they communicated and how, and I also tried to research new and interesting formats so that my mailshot stood out.
Initial Ideas - For this, with my proverb, the mail shot took the more sinister direction, and was aiming to spread the word about domestic violence and urge people to speak out. I had a lot of ideas, and in the crits it was agreed that the direction I had could be alright. I was going to create a business card that was shaped like a speech bubble and a silence symbol. Unfortunately, with my illogical brain, I got the measurements wrong and didn't have time to correct it properly. So I had to create a second, simpler and more boring design that I wasn't really happy with.
#7 - How To
Problem - Based on research, create a response to a specific 'How To'
Considerations - Audience, interesting forms of communication, concepts.
Research - This project's main focus was research. Looking into primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative. We had to look at how each method of research could be useful. As a group, we each undertook primary research by creating surveys, and then we also did quite a lot of secondary research. Our final 'How To' was how to make Christmas dinner less stressful, so we had quite a lot to research into
Initial Ideas - We had a lot of ideas initially, which then got narrowed down to cooking in such a way that reduced stress and time, this then developed into 'how to make christmas dinner less stressful'.
This was our first marked group brief, and it was quite challenging at first, for the same reasons many others in the world find working in a group challenging. Everyone has ideas but you have to learn how to compromise, and also progress for the benefit of the group. In the end, everything came together quite well, and I think our product got good feedback. Because it was a product based on Christmas, we tried to create something useful and also fun and humorous, and whilst it was hard work I think everything worked out.
#8 - 100 Things
Problem - Based on research undertaken during the Christmas break, create a series of 10 products based on 100 facts or pieces of research you found.
Considerations - The products should communicate clearly to the audience your understanding of the research. Who are the products for, and why do they need to know?
Research - My research was originally based on food, which then developed into luxury food. I had found out a lot of interesting facts about Japanese food. The Japanese are very passionate about fine dining, and the facts that I found out about them were really fascinating, bizarre and interesting. From then on I based my research on japanese food traditions, dining etiquette etc.
Initial Ideas - I knew from quite early on in the research that if I was doing something based on food, I wanted to make products that were practical, and once I began to research design work based on food, create a brand identity for a restaurant seemed like a good way to go.
This was my favourite project by far, and I felt like I had a lot of freedom to explore different ideas and because of the time we had, I actually felt like my work was completed to a good standard. Whilst my work was not incredibly innovative, I do feel that I tried a fresh and different design approach than I had been used to, and I got quite positive feedback for my work which boosted my confidence. Whilst there are definitely aspects I would have tweaked, I liked what I did and was happy.
#9 - D&AD Rain
Problem - Create a poster for Erik Kessels that promotes British rain.
Considerations - How to promote. Conceptual ideas rather than completion of product most important. How to approach work in a similar way to Erik Kessels.
Research - For this brief, I first researched Erik Kessels style of work. Most of it was found photography and a simple text style, that whilst effective, is very much his style and not mine. I wanted to create something that would still link to his work in some way, but feel more like my own work than a simple copy.
Initial Ideas - I decided to create a poster that would have a sense of humour, and i decided that I also wanted to use a mix of text and image. I created something based around style and the class of Britain, so that it would translate rain as something stylish and attractive. In terms of finished products, this was one of my favourite briefs, and I was really happy with my work, despite it going against the aesthetics of Erik Kessels.
#10 - Communication is a Virus
Problem - Communicate 'how to gain more knowledge' in an interesting way, using marketing/social media to promote.
Research - Because our group was joined together based on the fact that we hadn't been present at the briefing, we took a little longer to decide our how to, and had a few ideas each, so we all went away and came back with concepts to share. Joel had the most interesting concept that was still achievable, which was based on design inspiration sites, so we researched websites that displayed professionals work to a design audience, and decided to target the student market as this had previously not been done.
Initial Ideas - We wanted to create a mock up website, but after realising how difficult coding and creating a new web page was, we decided to create a page using tumblr, an existing blog format, that used a design aesthetic similar to the one we had wanted to create anyway. We then had to think of ways to promote it, which included a poster, flyers and stickers. The outcome was quite successful, and the tumblr page is still running.
#11 - Stamps
Problem - Create 4 stamps based around the theme of sustainability
Considerations - Small space to communicate with, must be part of a set, audience?
Research - Researching this brief was maybe easier than some others because there is already a large amount of information out there that details solutions to energy efficiency and sustainability. The only problem I saw was how to make this information feel new, and avoid patronising people who may already be putting some of these ideas into action.
Initial Ideas - I struggled a lot with ideas for this brief, I felt like there was nothing really new that I could do, and I didn't want to be patronising people with these stamps. It also felt a little hypocritical designing stamps for this brief, because as graphic designers we're using energy almost all the time, and also paper, ink etc. I ended up creating stamps based around minimalism, and used typography to play around with the message. In the crit I was made aware of the fact that a little more information might be needed on the stamps, which I am working on improving.
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