UNIT X #02 isobel platt

STUDIO DUNBAR

‘LITTLE WOMAN’MASCOTS

THE PITCH

The task was to design a protest, so light of ‘International Woman’s Day’ we decided to invent a band inspired by powerful, strong women prevalent in the music industry for young girls to look up to and be inspired by.

TOPMAN BERLIN

Framing my project around circles, I integrated the shape into my poster design to symbolise the cycle of the four seasons. This idea arose from the ‘Premium Collection’s’ description, which is designed to “transcend seasonal trends”. Here, I experimented with the ‘Premium Collection’ as a capsule wardrobe, the idea that the collection can be mixed and matched and brought into play ‘all year round’.

THE POSTER

THE CONSITINA

Consitina hand-out - Combines three seperate outifts from the collection to symbolise its diversity and playfulness through wear. The book slots into a paper cut sleeve, the designs of which replicate archictural etchings on a local Berlin train station.

PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

PUBLISHING BREIF

“Prep” front cover - Tin foil casing can be used to construct a hat to protect oneself from mind reading.

LAYOUT#1 PREP

Sample layouts of “Prep” - The first issue of three publications, collectively known as “Nigh” (The No.1 companion for the end of the world). Spanning across three issues, we explore how to prepare, survive and ultimatly live with the passing of a doomsday scenario.

KICKSTARTER SCREEN GRABS

COLLAGES INDIVIDUAL WORKINGS

THE POSTERUNIT X EXHIBITION

Our final A1 poster which exhibits 78 photographed objects of which a 1-78 age group would take with them to the end of the world. This composition also features within our publication ‘Prep’, which folds out to reveal the poster on its flip side.

What are the key influences you have identified out of your research? And why?

In regards to the ‘Topman’ brief, I initiated my research by outlining ¬¬a number of research directions based around the wording of the brief. Particular phrasing such as “harmonize local community” and “come in with a bang!” bounced off the page, so in light of working for a big client I really wanted to play on their emphasized requirements. In turn, my first point of call was researching the area in which the new Berlin store would be situated. Community was certainly one, or if not the most important influences within my research. Topman is so well established here in the UK, that commuting to a different culture, minus its baggage as a well-known high street brand, means the store has a clean slate and in turn has to make a name for itself within Rochstrabe’s vibrant district. Following a vigorous research into ‘Mitte’ and more specifically ‘Roch-strabe’, it’s rich architecture was the element that really stood apart, and later became intertwined within my response. A further element within my research was Topman itself. In order to appeal to Topman I had to understand what they’d been trying to capture in previous campaigns, and in my eyes whether it had been successful. This form of research came about after reaching a dead end in regards to Berlin’s community, so I deflected my attention to the Premium collection, which would be showcased in the new store. For me, this was one of my key influences as it led me to produce my final piece inspired by the clothing’s transitional nature. Solely based on the phrase “transcend seasonal trends” uncovered from the collection’s online description, I had found my point of focus for my entire project!

As for the Publication brief, our main point of call was our magazine collections. There’s certainly something about pos-sessing a physical copy of a magazine, over that of scrolling through endless covers on Pintrest, that really allows you to delve into its makings and design. By holding a really good magazine, you can begin to understand what they’re doing right! Initially just building up a number of magazines we collectively gravitated towards got us off the mark. Whilst everyone had eclectic collections, it was just about finding an even and from this we began to understand individuals’ stance on the proj-ect and the vibe we wanted to conjure from our publication. Moreover, to generate a visual catalogue of our findings we set up a Tumblr page where we could individually post visuals we’d found outside of University. This was a particularly useful platform in sharing comments and ideas, I’ll certainly keep it in mind as a tool to use for further group projects.

Identify aspects of the projects that you developed further in line with your own creative practice.

Looking at my creative responses explored in the Publication project, I injected my own practice into the collaged pieces which accompany a number of the articles. During the process of idea generation, this form of image making immediately sprung to mind when we began to delve into the minds of conspiracists. I was initially inspired by the story of the Collyer Brothers, whom featured in our publication in light of their mad stock piling. After conducting research on the pair, it arose that one brother stock piled newspapers in the hope that his blind brother may one day be able to see again. Therefore, this form was very apt, and the overlaid mark making only accentuates the madness of their ways. Collage is certainly a format I want to play on in line with my own creative practice, and this project gave me the means to do so!

A further outlet for my creative means was layouts. Since producing my own publication outside of University with a group of friends, I’ve strived to improve on composing text and imagery. Whilst my idea of layouts currently relies heavily on existing magazines, I feel this project has enabled me to experiment more in form. Unfortunately, it did take us to the end of the project until we could begin to be playful, and regrettably we could have gone wild on layout given our topic of interest. However, in the short period of time we had to revamp the magazine, I feel the organized, militarian format performs effec-tively alongside our subject imagery, and in turn emulates a more sophisticated tone.

In regards to ‘Topman’, I knew from the get go I didn’t want to stray away from my practice merely because my style doesn’t comply to their standard criteria. Their material is very clean cut and minimal and whilst my work doesn’t neces-sarily conform, nonetheless I attempted to worm my creative practice into my response. Before settling on my final piece, I worked hard on developing my ideas and creating as many compositions in varying styles in order to find my pathway into the brief. ¬¬Once I’d decided to work with circles it was all about what materials I wanted to work with in line with my own creative practice. I experimented with brush pens, ripping up random pieces of paper and in turn using a scanner as my hub to piece all the components together. Scanning ultimately became central to my project, as it allowed me to transform my hand made arrangements over to the digital. Personally that’s just how I like to work anyway, I can form ideas easier if I’m composing them by hand, but I never envisioned the scanner to give my responses the effect they did. Feeding through a cut up photograph stuck on black paper generated a sepia toned image which cast off a retro finish, originally a response I didn’t care for, yet miraculously somersaulted into my final piece. I’m really happy with the outcome of my final poster, the three manipulated photographs linked into a string of circles feels like a strong image, hopefully it does stand on par with the simplicity of Topman’s material.

As for my cut out sleeves, again these respond in line with my creative practice. Paper cutting is a technique I’ve been at-tempting to worm into a number of projects and in this instance it complied perfectly. Taking inspiration from the architec-ture of ‘Hackescher Markt Sbahn’ I recreated the intricate designs into to black card sleeves, accompanied by a concertina insert.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

Reflect upon your engagement with each aspect the unit.

I felt particularly engaged at the beginning of the Topman brief, the prospect of channeling my project down so many dif-ferent avenues was very exciting. Moreover, with the incentive there, that if we did well a placement could be at the end of the line, competitive levels were high and I certainly went into a ‘work-hard’ frenzy. However, the initial excitement soon died off when we slid into the Easter holidays and time certainly wasn’t of the essence because I had so much of it! That being said, I still stuck at the brief, but gradually became more frustrated when I couldn’t conjure an idea that would really encompass both the brand’s identity and its accompanying community. Perhaps with the stakes so high, I crumbled under the pressure a little by continuing to put it off, given that none of my ideas seemed worthy. However, I had a small break-through towards the end of the holidays after toying with the idea of symbolizing the four seasons within my designs. The idea itself had arisen from the ‘Premium Collection’s’ description, (showcasing in the new store) which is designed to “tran-scend seasonal trends”. In turn, I came up with the idea of integrating circles. Not only would the circles embody the four seasons, but this idea that the collection can be mixed and matched and brought into play ‘all year round’ is an apt play on words. Once I had the hard part down, it was all about development and experimentation which I had a lot of fun with… but ultimately didn’t leave sufficient time for. Whilst I hadn’t got my response quite where I wanted it for the day of exhibit-ing to the class, I feel subsequent to realization week I’m finally in a confident position.

During the publication project, my engagement certainly experienced peaks and troughs. At the beginning, as with all proj-ects, I was thoroughly excited by the brief and couldn’t wait to begin generating ideas. The idea process itself was certainly a period where I gradually began to loose engagement. We toyed around with so many concepts, which is a positive, but we dragged the process out for far too long, as opposed to being decisive and just running with a solid idea and polishing it on the way. I think we became too precious over our own ideas, and in some sense they became so skewed that nobody par-ticularly understood them or could explain them fluently. This was a low point in the project, alongside particular individ-uals lacking all motivation which made it difficult to stay positive and keep on task. In the end, perhaps we did settle with our idea, overall it was a safe bet when the word ‘stock’ opens up so many possibilities and room for playfulness. But we chugged along regardless, the making process again was quite testing, as not everyone was pulling their weight and impend-ing strain on the team began to reveal itself. Ultimately I feel this cycle continued throughout the project, we got on with the task in question, but I can’t say at many points I really enjoyed myself. Perhaps we were just conscious of the fact that some of us were putting more effort in than others, so would lay off task, then come to the realization that, that was stupid and would get us no where. Ultimately my engagement did lack, the reasoning being I genuinely lost interest in our idea and it wasn’t exciting to me anymore.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONSCONTINUED