Evaluation Poetry Publication I approached this brief with a focus on wanting to experiment with type and layout. Some of the design context work I had looked at was studying the arrangement of type and how that affected the reader reading it.

I also wanted to include aspects of poetry into a brief, this seemed a good way to do this. I really enjoyed producing layouts for the selected poetry, in a way that explored the poem itself, and I am pleased with the results. However, unfortunately I’m not entirely happy with the way that poems were presented. I think I spent too long producing the layouts for the poetry, that when it came to packaging them, this element of the brief wasn’t as successful.

I think this is the case due to lack of complete understanding of what the brief was about at the start. I knew how I wanted to start the brief, but feel due to me not knowing how I should properly wrap it up, has let it down slightly. The elements of branding the project are successful, regarding colour and shape; however if I could go back I could maybe package the poetry differently. Packaging is an area of design I have never been confident with and choose to include as little as possible in my briefs. My lack of enthusiasm for this specific element may have also had an impact on the quality of the packaging itself, if I could go back in time I would probably get the sheets bound or put into a book. When I started this brief, I had originally been influenced by a folder format, which drove me to produce the publications in the format they’re in.

I wanted to produce something that was a different format, as opposed to a book or poster. Despite my slight disappointment in the packaging for this brief, I am glad I did it as it enabled me to enjoy producing creative type and layout through the studying of poetry. Branding & Identity Prior to Final Major Project, I had never produced and properly explored the designing process for a branding and identity driven brief. Once deciding to re-brand someone, I was influenced by language to design for someone foreign. I wanted to design knowing I could use interesting words and letters, it seemed like an original approach to a brief. I chose the German artist Astrid Hubbe, purely due to the umlaut in her name. This brief was a rollercoaster, it started well however I felt it wasn’t going in the right direction I would leave it for a little while. My original design decisions for this brief are completely different to the final resolution.

I think I was designing too much alongside her actual work, that when I took the logo out of the context (artwork), it lost a lot of the depth it had before. I had many crits/tutorials about why the brief wasn’t working, it was discussed to try simplify it, focusing on one aspect that represented her.

Trying using specific colours, and brush stroke typefaces for her logo still didn’t seem to work for me. Although, at the time I quite liked her logo with the three colours, however this caused problems for when I started applying the logo to promotional and complimentary products for her exhibition. The colours themselves when used larger dulled down, I discussed this with Mark Howe and he agreed that the colours were that was letting down the project. I felt it was necessary to get some inspiration:

Simple black/bold/exciting. The last hurdle of this brief was the most enjoyable, the aspect I am most pleased with is the work for her exhibition, despite my statement of intent, also enjoyed mocking up the interior of it as well.

I’m not sure how I would re-approach this brief as I feel I had to go through the dry spells to achieve the resolution, but it seems I should’ve looked at better, more exciting, appropriate design context. Photography Magazine Covers Unlike my branding and identity brief, this brief was approached on the right note. Probably due to it being an area of strong inspiration, my design context research was spot on.

In terms of enthusiasm and design development, little changed throughout this brief, as I felt I always had a rough idea of the type of design I wanted to produce. I wanted to combine type and photography, an element of that being the logo that I also enjoyed coming up with. Unfortunately, where I feel this brief went wrong was at the very end. I focused a lot on the covers themselves, which I didn’t think about the complete story for most of the duration. This was discussed in tutorials, and I felt that for my boards I needed to finish off what I had proposed on the website, which was about ordering issues online.

I am happy with the concept, that includes the magazine wrapped in the colour tissue paper that of the logo, also with the compartment for the poster. However, my product making skills, and lack of professionalism when constructing it meant it looked too scruffy to submit. I didn’t want the magazine cover to be brought down by what it was inside of. Perhaps this would be an area I would spend more time on if I were to go back. However, overall I am happy with the outcomes of this brief, especially the covers and posters which were the main focus within the brief. Book Covers I really enjoyed this brief and felt that the covers all seemed to come into place. I feel the designing was at its best at the start of this brief. I liked coming up with symbolic imagery to go on the covers, as much as actually designing them, I feel a lot of my briefs for this module have originated from a significant concept. By restricting myself with a template, and layout I was able to play around with the images I used a lot more. I felt this is what made the covers successful. A few problems surfaced towards the end of the brief, as I was in the processes of finishing it. This was a problem due to print slot availability and time, however I managed to make the changes, though small, I feel more relaxed about. I had a meeting with Mark Howe about the colour use for ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, and when it was transferred over to the posters.

We both agreed it was too dark, and once the new turquoise colour had been added to the cover and complimentary material, the brief brightened up.

I spent a long time on the in store design, expectedly the finished result is nothing how I imagined in my head. Hopefully this isn’t a problem, but I would’ve liked to portray my idea better. A lot of the designing time was spent on the books themselves, which is where the brief started anyway, and was the main bulk of it, but I am happy with how my presentation boards have turned out for this brief and feel that they tell the story of the season. Fashion and Innovation Yearbook This was a positive experience, and I am glad I pitched for the opportunity to be a part of the yearbook team. I worked with Ailsa Marrs and Elliot Mckellar, I feel we all worked well as a group. When it came to building the concept for our yearbook, we all contributed and our opinions balanced out constructively. I enjoyed having input in the decision making for the student spreads, regarding type and layout, seeing as Ailsa and Elliot wanted to focus mainly on the type and layout for the spreads as it’s more in their interest, I liked playing the role as decision maker. I also chose the colours we should use, and thought of the structure and additional content for the yearbook i.e business card spread. A few times, group work proved to be slightly ongoing, as we all were quite opinionated, but there were rarely any negative experiences throughout the brief. It was also a chance to test out what it would be like working for a client, we arranged weekly meetings with Gemma (course leader), which helped us focus and direct our work. Identity for Music For the last module, I submitted a brief that focused on branding for a music artist but in the feedback I got for it, it was said that the brief was successful but felt a little unfinished. I fully agreed with this as I remember wishing I had more time to mock up the ideas I had.

I felt this was a good opportunity to redeem this on a similar brief. I chose to re-brand, produce cd covers and also gig merchandise and promotion for the band Syntax. They produce electric music, who layer sounds/music to create theirs. I used these two elements of Syntax to drive my design direction. I felt the logo design and colours used throughout are the strongest aspect of the design. I feel the colours are exciting and communicate the band well.

The cd cover design was approached in a similar way to the book covers, I listened to the song and came up with imagery that represented the song. I really enjoyed this part of the design process, so perhaps this is why I am quite pleased with the cover designs themselves. In terms of building a story for the brief, I felt I finished it better than in the last module. I always find mock-ups can be a let down, but I spent a lot of time finding the right imagery to help portray my ideas. However, if I could go back, maybe I would consider packaging for complimentary products more. I thought about what products could be sold/there are the gig, but their specific context may have been necessary. There was a little issue when it came to making the cd covers:

Seeing as I layered the covers with an acetate sleeve to help demonstrate the layering aspect, this was tricky to fold and appeared a bit tacky at the end. My lack of skill in making products had another impact on my products again, if I were to do it again, I may have used thinner acetate, so I could use less double-sided tape to stick the acetate properly. I have enjoyed this brief, I feel it’s due to the subject matter and the way I have gone about designing, I started off with no restrictions but then made myself very set guidelines that didn’t let my work wonder and cause me to become indecisive and waste time.

Overall Successes

- Majority of final resolutions - Presentation Boards - Organisation/time management - PPD development (website, business cards, portfolio are a lot stronger) - Design professionalism has increased - Understanding of mistakes at the right time

Problems

- Mock-ups - Having little printed out (doing a lot of mock ups) - Print slots being over run - Money - (good) Design context for some briefs was looked at too late - Design development for additionals for briefs - Lack of skill for making products - Packaging within briefs