Brief 1 Yearbook
Brief 1: Yearbook (Printed Textiles and Surface Patterns)
For this brief I collaborated with Robyn Russell, Sam Wallbank, Will Duffy and Paul Brendeth. We were originally two separate groups that pitched for the Graphics Yearbook Brief. It started off as Robyn, me and Tom Cummings. The reason that the two groups were merged together was that both of our groups concepts seem appropriate to be applied to the printed textiles yearbook.
This brief was first going to be one of my 5 main briefs but as time progressed I felt less and less involved in the group and work that the group was doing. I attended if not all then most of the meetings and discussed the ideas / concepts etc. However, as for the actual design work I had less to do than some of the others. Sam and Paul were uncharged of the image layout which was the biggest task out of everything. The course leaders didn't really want a course yearbook but something more like a coffee table book which is pretty much just a picture book. Therefore other than the image layout and a few bits of text layout there wasn't much other designing I could have done but just help them organise the time etc. I was given the task of designing the covers and the type for it which i didn't end up using. So after a few weeks into project I felt like this wasn't going to be significant enough to be one of my main briefs which I think made me feel even less involved. Overall I enjoyed the collaborative work with the group but I didn't feel like I had as much input into the project as much as I had intended. It took us quite a while to actually get the work going as we didn't really get anything we asked for back from the tutors till really really late. The yearbook didn't turn out as I expected but considering the problems that we had with deadlines given to the course tutors etc, I am quite happy with how everyone came through.Probably NOT going to collaborate with 5 people again though.
Brief 2 Amio Fashion Brnading
Brief 2: AMIO Fashion branding
This was a collaborative brief with a fashion student, Hannah Jones. Overall, I really really enjoyed this brief as this was the first time where I had a real working relationship with a client. I think I was really lucky to have been working with Hannah as she was so hard working and wanted to same best results as I did. There were a few times that things didn't turn out as planned but that was due to our lack of experience in printing. For example Hannah wanted about 15 cookbooks which was a 30 page document and 10 coffee table book which I suggested to use coptic binding with laser cut wooden covers for. We managed to printed about 4 cookbooks and 2 coffee table book. I realised that working with someone who doesn't really know anything out graphic design, they don't really realise how long things take and it was frustrating for me that I couldn't deliver the number of publications she wanted and I felt like may be I was letting her down. However, through out the entire project we had a really good working relationship and she seemed more than happy with the branding I created for her. We met up quite a lot and discussed a lot of different interesting use of material and formats her branding could come in. I'm really happy with the overall result and as a range I think everything fits together really well and it could actually just work as a full brand identity. This project accidentally became a major brief, one which I'm quite happy about. Also, I think I actually learnt the most doing this project, especially on pagination, which I hate.
Brief 3 Sht Magazine
Brief 3: Sht Magazine
This is definitely my favourite from this module, purely because I think that its the most playful and 'fun' one. I was really happy with the concept and have had really good feedback from everyone who has seen it ( most people just laughed). Also it was something that I've never really down before which was to design an entire magazine but I also got to brand it which is my favourite thing to do. Overall I'm really happy with the design direction that its gone in but mostly its the concept. It was actually quite simple and something that I came up with quite quickly but almost didn't use as I didn't know how acceptable it was but decided to go with it anyway. I do regret leaving it until a bit later to actually start designing the magazine. I spent quite a lot of time coming up with the identity as I kept changing it etc. I thought as it is quite a bold concept I wanted to used quite bold colours which I think works really well together. I also got the magazine printed professionally by both LuLu and Blurb online printing companies. I first wanted to use Blurb as they had the format of the magazine I wanted and their print quality is just a bit better but the magazine's expected delivery date was 29th may ( although it arrived quite a few days before) so I ordered one, of a bigger format off Lulu as well just incase. I received both of them. I really enjoyed this brief and similarly to how I felt about my 'Fat Hippie' brief from the last module, I kind of wish it was a real brand.
Brief 4 South East of Here
Brief 4 : South East of Here : Thai Restaurant
At first I really wasn't sure whether I was even going to have time to do this project as I left it till quite late and it is my 6th main brief ( not including yearbook and design context) but It is something that I really really wanted to do and to have in my portfolio. I am really glad that I did it as I really enjoyed this brief and I do feel like I if had more time on it I probably could have pushed it a lot further which I am planning on doing in order to strengthen my portfolio ( some more crazy deliverables). I really like the concept for this. The design directions for this is actually quite simple but I think that it allows the concept to kind of some through. The brief was suppose to be design quite a contemporary and minimalistic design which I feel like i answered to. I really enjoyed designing all the deliverables for a restaurant and I think it was quite important for me to have this in my portfolio as I am really looking to getting more involved in branding for food in the future. On one hand I do wish that I gave myself more time to do this project but then on the other hand I feel that if I didn't push myself , time wise, the result could be different. Some of my briefs, when I've spent so long on it the excitement of creating a brief is gone and you just want to finish them but for this I actually was just really excited all the way through. '
Brief 5 Roundhay Park
Brief 5: Roundhay Park
This was the one hay turned into that brief that makes me feel a bit sick with I think about it too much, hence I started it and did a lot of developmental work for the identity but then just lost my way for a little while. generally I am happy with how it turned out but I still feel like it has a lot more potential to be something really really exciting. I am quite disappointed in myself that I didn't try to really really push this project into something huge but I did feel quite limited by the things I actually could do. I changed the directions of the brand identity quote a few times as I was going to create something that is more 'pretty' and classic but then decided to go with a more fun, childish like design which isn't really like my usual design style but I am really happy about it and I think it looks pretty great on a huge laser cut sign ( which took up about 48 hours of my life in total and 2 attempts at the laser cutter )
Overall I am happy with what I managed to salvage from this brief that I ended up really hating. I think if I could do it differently it would be to actually just try and make whatever comes into my head even if it seems like the most impossible thing. I really didn't try very hard to do that.
Brief 6 One Day Brief
Brief 6 : 1 Day brief
Out of all of the briefs, I really really needed this one. This brief saved my life in this module. Having one day briefs to do gave me such a nice break everyone in a while to actually enjoy designing something quick. The briefs were logos and posters but mostly logos which I've enjoyed designing the most. It's also quite nice to know that I am able to create brand identities that I am happy with in one day. Some of the briefs were pitches for a live brief which I didn't win but I really don't feel bad or that my ego had been bruised, I just really enjoyed them. I also feel that I could just pick a brief to enter to do without thinking much about whether I have picked the wrong one as if the worse comes to the I would have spent a day on it. The last one day brief that I did was a pitch to do a live brief for a new BBQ catering company which I actually won So, that one has turned into a slightly bigger brief which I have had to do some colour alterations and actually for the client to choose a logo which they liked out of the few ideas which I pitched. they now want me to design business cards etc for them. So, this could actually turn into something more.
Brief 8 16 Frames
Brief : 8 : 16 Frames : A Black and White Film Festival
I've had quite mixed feelings about this brief. It was actually originally a one day brief which was pitch to design a logo and poster for the 'Young Film Makers Festival'. I didn't win the pitch for it but thought that this could turn into quite an interesting brief. So I wrote up a new brief which carries on from this one with a slightly altered and more developed identity. So, I changed it to a black and whittle film festival instead which is actually a subject area that I am actually interested in making my research a lot more interesting. I struggled quite a lot with the design directions for this as I wanted to create something in black and white as using colour would be defeating the whole point of promoting black and white. But at the same time I didn't want to create something that is just a pastiche of a 1930's-1950's film tiles. Overall I think I am most happy about the events passes and the tickets, especially the tickets. I tried to order it one a real ticket ticket roll but you have to order loads so all I could do was to create a mock up which actually turned out alright in pictures. The work photographed quite nicely as well although all my boards are black and white and I don't know whether the boards would get boring after the third one.
Brief 9 : Design Context
I definitely left this one till quite late which I know we were warned not to do. Well, I did it around 2 weeks before the deadline and actually really enjoyed doing it. I sent the three books I designed to Dox Direct to be printed and they all turned out pretty well. I contents were mostly the stuff that were just on my blogs and I dint send out quite a lot of emails to companies and designs, not many of them AT ALL replied and most of the ones that did just replied saying saying they were too busy but good luck in my future studies. career. Other than that I feel that I found some pretty interesting articles, interviews etc online that helps analyse the kind of work that I'm interested in. The 3 issues of books are actually something that I would use to look back on as a reference and I guess that is the whole of the DC book really.
