Design Practice Year 2

Year 2 Evaluation

2009-06-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Wasn't sure where to put this so I've posted it here as well as my old ppd blog and domain blog.

1. What skills have you developed through this year and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
Over the past year I feel that my skills involving type and layout have vastly improved which was my main aim for this part of the course. Doing the type module was a particularly important part of my development in these fields. I have applied these skills very effectively in all of the briefs I have undertaken since the completion of this module. You can definitely tell the difference in my ability between the publications I designed in the design practice module from the things I was doing in the design for print module.

I also managed to improve my illustration skills although I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I cannot draw very well. I had to draw a lot of storyboards for the design for digital media module and I did quite a few illustrations for my growing vegetables booklet. I definitely would consider illustration to be one of my weaknesses but feel that I have successfully developed my skills in this area and have vastly improved from last year.

The O2 collaborative brief I did with Emma was also important in terms of my development as a designer. The construction of our device was very process driven. I further developed my skills in screen printing and learned how to set up artwork to be laser cut as well. It also made me feel more comfortable when it came to negotiating a brief with another person because we had to make sure we were both happy with where we were taking the brief and what each of us was going to contribute.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?
I think that working through many design sheets has helped me to get down all of my ideas and explore them before moving onto something else. In the past I would probably just have brainstormed an idea and left it there. Research has been an important part of the design process for me. The research I undertook for the good project and the gardening project really helped me to develop the work well and in turn, generate more ideas as to what I could do with a brief. Talking through my ideas with my peers and tutors has also helped with problem solving. Especially when the laser cutting went a bit wrong during the O2 brief, if we had not talked through everything properly and rationally, it could have gone horribly wrong.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think that my strengths do lie within typographic and layout design. Next year I’m hoping to carry on with more publication design and am hoping to spend the majority of the time playing with type and layout on booklets, leaflets, magazines, posters and more. Because of this, for my work placement I applied to lots of design companies that deal with the design of this kind of literature. I have now hopefully gotten a place at Purpose in London. I feel that I come up with strong ideas and concepts quite swiftly which means that I can move onto fully researching a subject and developing designs with minimal fuss.

I feel that there is a strong correlation between my portfolio of work and my ambitions as a designer. Most of the things I have included in the portfolio demonstrate my abilities in publication design and how well I can manipulate type and design layouts. My portfolio is also very colourful which I think reflects me as a person and my eye for design.

My interest in layout design led me deciding on the topic of grids for my dissertation. I plan to look at whether they are relevant or redundant. My proposal is based around the question ‘is design ruled by the straight line?’ and will be examining how people adhere to or rebel against grids looking at all forms of design from city planning and architecture to painting. I admire the work of designers such as Josef Muller-Brockmann and wish to gain a greater understanding of the use of grids in all forms of design. I have already completed a module in typography which has helped to further my interest in the subject. Much of my work in the Design Practice module has been focused on publication design and so I have had to work mainly with grids and type. In the third year I wish to carry on with designing booklets, magazines etc. and so will again be working mainly with grids and type meaning that I will be able to use any contextual research I do for my projects as research for my dissertation.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?
I feel that I can manipulate body copy well. In the type module I learned about fitting copy into a grid and making a viewer want to read lengthy bits of text. I now know about the importance of line length, point size and leading in the development of a successful layout. However I feel that I could be more experimental with type and if I were to design more display style type work that would be beneficial to me as a designer.

Illustration is probably my major weakness but its not really relevant because that is what collaboration is for. I do feel that my skills in the area have improved somewhat but it is not something I will be pursuing in the future.

Time management is also something I feel that I need to work on. I used to think I was really organised as I am always punctual and in attendance and on top of my work. But doing more than one brief at a time during the design practice module showed me how much more I need to organise my time so that I can complete the work to a high standard as well as have a social life.

5. What will you do differently next year?
In future I plan to keep an up to date diary and blog every day to make sure that I am working at a good pace. Next year I plan to focus on publication design and will aim to do that for the majority of the time. I think I need to look at more contemporary practice as that is something that I have not done as much this year. However I have bought my own domain and have set up a new blog on there for next year. I will be updating it throughout the summer with my own personal work as well as anything that catches my eye.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
Attendance: 5
Punctuality: 5
Motivation: 4
Commitment: 4
Quantity of work produced: 3
Quality of work produced: 3
Contribution to the group: 3

End Of Module Self-Evaluation: Design Practice 2 Part 2

2009-05-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have learned what juggling lots of projects at once feels like. This was good practice for the real graphic design world but it was very stressful and confusing at times. I chose briefs that would make me focus on my type and layout skills. Thats what I like doing and am best at. I have developed my abilities regarding the use of grids. I set out the text in manageable chunks to make the viewer more inclined to actually read it. I learned a lot during the typography module that has had a great impact upon my abilities in these areas. I think I have applied the principles of type and layout design to my work in an effective way. I spent a lot of time getting point sizes and leading right to make body copy look as good as possible.

Surprisingly I also managed to develop my illustration skills! The booklet was supposed to be aimed at teenagers onwards and so I felt it would be better with some kind of illustration in there. I'm shocked because the images aren't actually too bad. I got some practice on how to combine illustration and text which is always helpful. I also developed my skills with colour and think that all the work I have produced for this module has been bright and attractive.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?
I think that good research is key to the success of a project. The speed dating poster could have been more interesting if I had gone to an actual speed dating session or talked to people who have done it about it. The book cover brief was also difficult to research but the way I solved it was purely design based as it had to be replicable by a printer so I feel that it worked out alright. I did the most research for the booklet brief and as a result I am most pleased with the outcome.

I think that choosing an idea and getting on with it helped me to meet the deadlines. Before we started the module, I had a pretty good idea of what direction I wanted to go in for all of the briefs so it was just a matter of researching and developing my ideas fully.

I spent lots of time designing layouts for all three of the briefs. This meant that I had a large selection of visual material to work from when I moved onto InDesign. Hand drawing layouts takes time but it makes it easier to come up with something that works than just playing about on the computer.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think that the layouts I have produced are very strong and dynamic. The amount of these that I did, especially for the book covers brief meant that in terms of layout all of the work I produced was interesting to look at. I will continue to design lots of different layouts for all future projects as I think it can sometimes help to inspire the content as well. Colour is something I work well with and think the use of colour in these projects has made them look really good. In terms of type I feel that I have good ability with body copy and know how to set it out well.

I liked being able to constantly switch between briefs so when I got bored or stuck on one I could just work on a different one. However this meant that I spent too much time on some things when I should have finished a project days before.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?
My time management for these projects was pretty appalling. I had originally planned to do 4 briefs and I think if I had actually stuck to what I had planned to do, I would have been able to the Wagamama brief as well. But there were a couple of weeks at the beginning where I had only done any work 3 days of a week. I've been quite distracted over this last module and wish I had worked harder all the way through it. Poor time management meant that I had to omit some parts of the briefs but I think I managed to make them work well nevertheless and I have answered all of the briefs as fully as possible in the time available. I think that I needed to make more of crit sessions. During pretty much all of them, I just presented the work and didn't really get the answers I needed to progress. But I've learned from this now and will make sure I am always prepared next year.

I played around with layout a lot but not as much with typography. I think if I did more display style type work then it might have made things more interesting. I can manipulate body copy well but I think I just need to be more experimental in general.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. Create a time management plan at the start of the project to give me some idea of where I should be with a project at any given time as well as working harder from the beginning. Then update this plan each week to make sure it is still relevant according to my progress.
2. Try to be more innovative with research even on day briefs, it will help no end.
3. Book time in the digital print studio at the beginning of a project because I will need it no matter what I decide to do with a brief.
4. Think harder about the target audience and whether a brief will work if you tested it on them.
5. Get things done quicker so I have time to photograph things in context.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 3
Commitment - 3
Quantity Of Work Produced - 3
Quality Of Work Produced - 3
Contribution To The Group - 3

Final Boards

2009-05-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

DONE.

Final Booklets

2009-05-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

These are the final covers I decided on for the 10 Things brief. I chose to go with the dotty stock I got from Craft Wise as the texture just seemed right for the project. Gardening is all about getting your hands dirty and feeling about in the ground. My printer messed up a bit so I had to cut off loads and as a result the backs are a bit short!! I only had one sheet of each because they were expensive, but I managed to make them work by folding them in a certain way.

Finished Book Covers

2009-05-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

These are the book covers I made for the Faber Film brief. I'm happier with them now that they've been put on actual books. They've photographed really well.

Finished Poster

2009-05-28T10:03:00.001-07:00

These are pictures of my speed dating poster. I decided not to fold the actual poster because it was too nice and didn't want to risk destroying my work. So instead I made a mock up using plain paper and my printed front and back covers.

Final Book Covers

2009-05-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here are my final book covers for the Faber & Faber book cover project. I know I said that yesterday, but today has changed things... I went to the charity shop in Headingley today but one book cost me £2!! So I bought it, and figured I could stick all the covers onto one book to photograph. I then went to The Works to look for some paper stock for my booklet project. Whilst here I found 6 books for 49p each! When the woman scanned them in, they were only 25p! I've spent less money on buying whole books than printing the bloody covers. When I got back to college, I realised that the books were a different size to what I had designed (stupid wikipedia grr...) so I spent lunchtime resizing everything. I stuck down the covers today but my camera is at home, so I'll photograph them tomorrow.

Knowledge is...

2009-05-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Jonathan told me this great saying today and I just had to include it in my booklet.

Book Covers

2009-05-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Here are the final cover designs for my books. For ages I didn't know what to do to make the book titles on the cover better. I tried finding a relevant font for each book but this proved to be impossible. Instead, I plumped for American Typewriter Bold as I thought that the typewriter look related well to the look of screenplays. I think it works a lot better now. I just need to actually buy some books to put them on now!

More Film Like?

2009-05-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

So in the crit on Thursday I asked people how I could make my books look more film related. Someone suggested that I add something related to film reels. I drew out a texture on illustrator of a film strip and applied this to each cover. They look better but I'm still not happy with the font on the cover!!

Final Booklet Covers

2009-05-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

These are the final covers for my booklets. I only have to make the growing vegetables ones but I'm going to print the other ones as well to make little mock up books.

I love Sara

2009-05-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today Sara couldn't make her digital print session and very kindly offered it to me. So I finally got to print off my speed dating poster. Unfortunately James informed me that the A1 printer was fully booked until June 2nd - a little bit late for the deadline! Next time I'm booking time downstairs at the very beginning of a project because I will definitely always need it. Lesson learned.

Homebase

2009-05-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to visiting Homebase after the crit to take photos of plants and to see what information/places to put information they had in the garden centre. I went to Moor Allerton. An hour, a walk across the dual carriageway and one bag of cookies later, I realised that Homebase was hidden behind Sainsburys, gahh.

Inside the shop I found this great book on growing vegetables. I snuck some photos of the pages because it had some nice illustrations and lots of info in it.

10 Things Cover Ideas

2009-05-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Some cover ideas that seemed good at the time, then I remembered that I cannot draw:

Gardening symbol

2009-05-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

I felt that I should come up with a symbol as some kind of logo for the 10 Things You Should Know About... Gardening brief. I think the plant pot works well as it is obviously something associated with growing things, which is the main premise of gardening based activities.

This is it with the text added to it. It will be placed on the cover of the booklets to help identify them as a series.

Zine Aesthetic

2009-05-18T04:28:00.000-07:00

I've decided that my booklet would work well using a zine aesthetic. By printing plain black onto coloured paper it will save money and stop the booklet from being precious. This is guide that people will use whilst being in their gardens so it could get covered in mud. It is important that people take the guide and actually use it.

I found this great set of booklets that make up the Manchester Independent Economic Review - designed by Manchester-based design studio, Music. "The reports are a series of strategic publications that provide an assessment of the current state and future potential of the City's economy," explains Music's Ali Johnson. "The real challenge for us was to take the quite serious and, to be honest, sometimes quite dry information and present it in an engaging way without being over indulgent with the design."

Timetable Update

2009-05-17T01:15:00.000-07:00

An update of my timetable. I wish I had updated it every week, it would have helped loads! Still trying to keep things balanced with time for gym, gigs, boyfriend and drunkenness!

Book Cover Progress

2009-05-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

These are the book covers I showed in my crit yesterday. I'm happy with the back and the spine but feel the cover is lacking. I need to work on this at some point, but now I need to focus on my booklet to make sure it gets finished in time and looks good.

Progress Report

2009-05-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

3 Minutes
Problem/Audience

I had to create a poster using pure typography and only 1 sheet of A1 paper to represent something that happens in 3 minutes. I also had to find a way to package it. It needed to be impressive to people in the industry. The target audience are future employers.

Concept and rationale

The focus of my project is speed dating as the individual dates last 3 minutes. However there were not any events happening in Leeds. I still liked the idea so I decided to do an interpretation of the speed dating scene in the 40 year old virgin. The low point of each 3 minute date is recorded via a quote.

Product/Context
I will produce a single A1 poster and on the back will be will a simple print so that I can fold it up to package it.

Process? Production
It will be produced as a digital print in the dungeon.

Timescale/deadlines
I need to review the timescales. I originally wanted this to just last a couple of days but it has turned into a 5 day long project. It is pretty much finished now though apart from printing it out.

Faber & Faber
Problem/Audience
I need to produce a system for the Faber Film range’s book covers that can be reproduced by a printer and is typography based. The audience are film lovers and people who work in the film business.

Concept and rationalé
I have used colour and symbols to establish the system. This is to differentiate between the categories of books available and also publicise the other books they can buy.

Product/Context
I am going to produce 6 book cover designs – 1 for each category of book. I will photograph these stuck onto actual books and then placed in a bookshop.

Process? Production
These will be printed digitally.

Timescale/deadlines
I need to review the timescales as this one week project has turned into 2 weeks. They are pretty much finished apart from the type on the front cover and actually printing and photographing them.

10 Things…
Problem/Audience
I need to create a booklet and two covers for subject areas within my chosen category, which is gardening. It needs to be fun and appeal to younger people.

Concept and rationalé
I am going to create a booklet that helps with growing your own vegetables. This would appeal more because the end product is something you can eat rather than just look at. I am going to include some illustrations and photographs. There will diagrams on what to do and a pack of seeds to help them get started. The type will be sans-serif and the colours bright.

Product/Context
I have to make a booklet and a stand for people to take them from. I will photograph it in a gardening centre.

Process? Production
These will be printed digitally. I will possibly bind them but at the moment because I would rather do little booklets, I will probably just staple bind them.

Timescale/deadlines
I decided to scrap my 4th brief – Wagamama – because this brief really interests me and I want more layout work in my portfolio. This brief was supposed to be 3 weeks long, but will have to run from now until the deadline.

Poster Update

2009-05-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

Here is my final poster for the 3 minutes brief. Its taken me a little bit more than the planned 2 days but I'm pretty happy with it. This will be printed A1 and folded down into A5.

When it is folded down to A5, this will be printed on glossy and stuck on top and a blank one on the back to act as a sort of cover.

Change Of Plans!

2009-05-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

I originally wanted to do 4 briefs. Despite creating a well structured timetable I have messed up a bit and am running out of time. My 1 day brief has become a week, my one weeker has become 2. In order to complete the 10 Things brief to my desired standard I have decided to stop doing the Wagamama brief. I went to Wagamama yesterday but I think the brief won't interest me enough. So I have now changed my projects to just my 3 minutes poster on speed dating, my Faber & Faber book covers and my 10 Things booklet on gardening.

More Book Covers

2009-04-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

I found another site with some great book covers on, The Book Cover Archive. You can even browse the archive by font! Here are some of my favourites:

Book Covers

2009-04-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

I'm off to Whole Foods for lunch in a bit but first I thought I would post some book covers. I'm thinking about doing the Faber Finds brief next term so these will be good inspiration. Images from FaceOut Books:

Design Practice 2: Part 2

2009-04-14T02:48:00.001-07:00

For part 2 of this module we have to choose a minimum of 3 briefs from past award options. The ones that appeal to me the most are Faber Finds from D&AD 2009, Wagamama from YCN 07/08 and 78rpm - MP3, Three Minutes & 10 Things You Should Know About... from ISTD 2009. I might do all 5 actually and have 3 of them as 1 day projects. This is just a quick plan but I'm thinking:

Week 1:
- Faber Finds (1 day)
- MP3 (1 day)
- Three Minutes (2 days)
- Wagamama (Half day)
- 10 Things You Should Know About... (Half day)

Week 2:
- Wagamama
- 10 Things You Should Know About...

Week 3:
- 10 Things You Should Know About...

End Of Project Self-Evaluation: Design Practice Collaborative Brief

2009-04-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

1. What skills have you developed through this project and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I feel that working with a partner for such an extended period of time has helped me a lot. Me and Emma negotiated everything and both put a lot of work into this project. I now feel more comfortable working collaboratively and know how to work effectively with another person. The construction of our device was very process driven. I further developed my skills in screen printing and leaned how to set up artwork to be laser cut as well.

My abilities in InDesign have also improved from doing the type module and I applied these effectively to the design of our leaflet, boards etc. Emma generated most of the illustrative work and doing this project together allowed me to see what I could do using someone else's artwork which is an important skill to learn for the future. It was important to converge our styles and produce something that would be appropriate to the visual language already established by O2. Doing this project meant that we had to stick to O2's branding guidelines and I feel that we managed this well.

I think that I applied everything I learned during the duration of this project very effectively and I have learned a lot during the process.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?
When we began the project we spent the first week brainstorming all of our ideas in full to make sure that our final idea was developed fully before embarking upon it. This was very helpful as normally I would just come up with an idea and leave it, whereas this time we fully explored the possibilities and tried to come up with as many ideas as possible to see what actually worked.

Looking at the work of others played a very important part in the creation of our work. It is impossible to design within a vacuum and our ideas improved greatly after looking at contemporary work. Crit sessions were also very helpful and showing what we had done to other people only pushed us to generate more. We were going to literally create jigsaws at first but having crit sessions meant that we considered them as visual metaphors. This improved our work and added interest to our devices.

When we had issues with the laser cutting machine we were worried that our project would no longer work correctly but luckily because we had done more prints than necessary, we could salvage it. I now know to always do more than you need. We did a great deal of experimentation and making test pieces was really useful to check our idea would work before just jumping in and screenprinting/laser cutting our jigsaws.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think all of the type and layout work I did for this project was very strong, helped by doing the type module. I also worked hard to make our work fit in with the branding guidelines of O2, experimenting with layout, the gradients and using the Fruitger typeface. After doing all of our idea generation, I feel that our project was conceptually sound and portrays the idea that we're better connected very effectively. We made good use of the imagery we generated and our illustrations were excellent. I will capitalise on these things in the future. I am still chiefly concerned with type and layout and can keep on improving in this area. I feel that I will able to work with other people's artwork well and can collaborate more effectively and efficiently from now on.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?
I would say that a weakness in our work was the finish of our final devices. From doing our test piece we decided not to hand finish our real ones because it is hard to cut out a circle accurately from thick card. But because our laser cutting messed up it meant that we had to cut out parts from our print outs which hindered how they looked a little bit. The laser cutter also cut the discs at slightly different sizes meaning that the edges are a little bit off. We know now that we should do the laser cutting first and then print the design onto things. Otherwise the registration will be slightly off.

Although our concept was strong it was very difficult to come up with imagery for things that are better connected. Perhaps we should have spent more time on this to make sure everything fits together correctly. For example we had some really good ideas like a cupcake without a cherry and a dog without a tail but then there are some like playing football without a ball which makes a bit less sense. This is why we produced 6 instead of just the set of 4 so we could choose which ones work best. There is also a lack of research in the project. Although we did a lot of research on the O2 brand I'm sure there must have been something else we may have needed to research into and we didn't. Still not sure what that actually is, but you can never have too much research.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. Try out a style different to that already established by the O2 brand to create something completely and utterly new.
2. Spend more time developing the imagery to make sure every design fits in with the overarching concept.
3. Do the laser cutting before the screen printing in order to make everything line up properly.
4. Plan a timetable from the very beginning to make sure I use my time in the most efficient way.
5. Do more test pieces of other ideas to make sure I have chosen the best one.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 5
Commitment - 4
Quantity Of Work Produced - 4
Quality Of Work Produced - 4
Contribution To The Group - 4

Timetable

2009-03-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

This is my timetable for this whole project:

Final Submission!

2009-03-30T09:56:00.001-07:00

We spent today organising our folders of work and finishing off the extra boards for our module submission. This is what all 7 look like together:

YCN Submission Boards

2009-03-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

We spent today finishing off our YCN submission boards ready for tomorrow and printed them in the dungeon. We were in and out of there in under 30 mins which is surely some kind of record?!

Final Jigsaws

2009-03-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

We decided on which colour variations to use for the final jigsaws. This is how they look when they are complete and with the sim card visible:

Colour Variations

2009-03-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

We cut up 2 of the prints we did so that the jigsaws could alternate in colour. This was helpful in letting us see how they would look and which to use for the final stuck down jigsaws.

Laser Cutting!

2009-03-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today we were supposed to have a crit on the boards we designed to send to YCN. This is what they looked like:

Just as we were about to go into the crit, Fred told us that Duncan was willing to do our laser cutting there and then so we spent the next hour trying to convert our illustrator files so they would just have the paths that needed to be cut on them. This messed up a few times because Duncan only had CS2 on a PC. When we finally had all the files ready he offered to do them over lunch which was very nice of him. Then we ran back to the studio and Lorenzo very kindly gave us a mini crit of our own over lunch. Our boards had too much stuff on them and we decided that we could cut down the 5 to just 3 and still give YCN a good impression of our project.

However this is when Duncan came back because the laser cutting had failed. Somehow the registration wasn't quite right and the pieces had been cut about 4mm off target. The illustrations just didn't line up with what had been cut. This is how they looked:

Luckily we had printed lots of screenprints and Lorenzo came up with the great idea of cutting these up and sticking them onto the already cut pieces. Lifesaver!!

Busy day!

2009-03-16T23:49:00.000-07:00

Today we were finally able to screenprint our final designs for the jigsaws. We exposed the screens first thing in the morning but then loads of printed textiles people came in and we couldn't actually get the use of a printing bed. So in the meanwhile we walked down to town to try and get some more research from the O2 shop and see if we could get a sim card to place into the jigsaws. They wouldn't let us take any pictures because of some crap to do with copyright and wouldn't give us any sim cards. But they did give us lots of literature and some bags:

We also got the March issue of the magazine.
After lunch we went back to screenprint and luckily all the beds were free! So we printed our designs onto lots of different paper and card but decided that we liked the blue mount board best.

We then went to see Fred about getting our things laser cut and he referred us to Duncan in Printed Textiles. We showed him what we wanted done and he said it might be possible but we should check the laser cutter in Blenheim Court first. No one was there so we couldn't use it. Then we went back to Fred and asked him to email Duncan about laser cutting.

And finally tonight I finished off the leaflet and envelope designs ready for digital print on Wednesday and the mock-up boards for our crit tomorrow. Hardcore.

Crit Time!

2009-03-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

Today we had another crit where we discussed our latest idea. After looking at the die cut beer mats from Airside studio as I've previously posted we came up with the idea of die cut jigsaws but using the jigsaw idea as something more like a visual metaphor. We decided to look at O2 as the missing piece of the puzzle.

We drew up some sketches of how the device would work and showed these in the crit. Everyone liked our latest idea but felt the sketches were not enough and so we spent the rest of the day creating some test pieces. Emma decided to make the umbrella and I made the pen. We just used some greyboard and blue printouts to show the blue representative of O2. This is what they looked like:

We were quite pleased with how these turned out and felt they were strong enough to move forward with this as our final idea. It is now just a matter of refining the illustrations and finding some better stock.

More O2 Vids

2009-03-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some more O2 related videos I have found. I really like the 'love hurts' one designed especially for Valentine's Day.

Paper Engineering

2009-03-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

I found this great book in the library called Paper Engineering all about different ways that people have either folded or die cut paper. Here are some which I think could work for our project:

Two pieces of card are slotted together to make something that connects in the middle. Below is the template to recreate this leaflet.

A cute jigsaw cow made by Akio Okumara as part of a book design for Ammo Arts Press.

I like the way that all these individual cards slot together to make something bigger and better connected. This would be a good way of displaying lots of imagery.

These postcards are very cute. I like the die cut shapes from each person. We could do something similar but with perhaps a jigsaw or bubble shape.

I think that these beer mats are a great idea and would work really well for our project. By die cutting out silhouettes we could easily show how things are incomplete/worse because they are missing one vital part. I'll show Emma this on monday and see what she thinks.

Another Group Crit

2009-03-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

We worked through our ideas some more today trying to come up with designs for our jigsaws. We toyed with the idea of making the jigsaw pieces into the shape of a sim card but could not figure out how to tessellate them properly. Most of the designs we came up with focused on the bubble imagery that is so closely associated with O2. When we had our second crit in the afternoon, people really liked our designs for the jigsaws. Our idea was that O2 are the missing piece of each jigsaw as they help to make things complete. We were told to think about:
What is missing?
Things that don't work when parts go missing
More domestic/human imagery
How can O2 help solve the puzzle?
Things missing from objects/people
Make it more of a metaphorical jigsaw

These comments were really helpful and we were then able to think about the creation in a different way.

Group Crit

2009-03-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

Today we had a group crit to discuss our ideas. Me and Emma decided to go with our jigsaw and bubble wrap ideas to present to the group. They liked them both and suggested that we turn the jigsaws into fridge magnets as they would be easier to play with. They felt that our concept was sound and we just needed to sort out the fine details. They liked the interactivity of the bubble wrap idea but weren't sure how it would fit with the jigsaw part of the project.

O2 Packaging

2009-03-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the packaging designs that O2 use for their phones:

O2 Magazine

2009-02-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

Swung by the O2 shop while I was out today and I picked up their magazine. It comes out every month so should pop back soon to get the March issue. Here are some of the scans I made:

O2 Imagery

2009-02-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

Collaboration Contract

2009-02-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

O2 Advertising

2009-02-26T03:58:00.000-08:00

I decided to look at some of the adverts that O2 have already done as I think its important to recognise their brand identity and to make sure that we don't come up with something that someone else has.

I think the visuals in this ad are great and the music works really well with it but this uses their old slogan 'see what you can do'.

This advert plays on the story of Noah's Ark and things being together making the world a better one.

O2 - We're Better Connected

2009-02-26T03:52:00.000-08:00

After much deliberation yesterday we finally decided to do the O2 brief for the YCN awards. This was because it is such an open brief, meaning that we can create whatever we desire and it will be accepted as a submission. It seems like there is a lot of scope for what we can do since they have so few guidelines. Here is the brief in full:

O2

Bring to life the idea that 'we're better, connected'

Background
We believe a more connected world is a better world. From the birds and the bees, to smashing the Berlin wall, all human beings share the instinct to connect.

That's why everything we do is there to make connecting simpler. With the people you like. Or the things you love. From music, movies and games, to football, rugby and facebook. If we can, we'll put you there in person. Like at our Wireless festival in Hyde Park. Or with priority tickets to The O2.

We all like joining up. Doing things by yourself is ok, for a while. But we're better, connected.

Creative Requirements
There are no limits. We're open to anything that brings the idea to life. If you want to script a short film, fine. If you think you can bring the thought to life on a poster, go for it. Or if you want to invent a new product that no-one's thought of yet, be our guest. The only limitation is that we'd like to share the best ideas around O2, and maybe make some of them a reality. So whatever your idea is, it would be nice if we could showcase it.

Other Things We Should Let You Know
We believe in keeping things fresh, positive, and simple. As a brand, we aim to be warm and optimistic. Like a breath of fresh air. That's the feeling we'd like to get coming through in your work.

Any 'Brand Guidelines' To Bear In Mind?
Not really. If our brand was a colour, it'd be blue. But the blue of a beautiful sky on a summer's day. If you want a visual metaphor for O2, you could use oxygen bubbles, but there'd be others.

When it comes to words, keep it natural. Fresh, positive, simple.

And if you're looking for a phrase that holds it all together or sums it up neatly, use 'we're better, connected'.

Deliverables
Please adhere to the deliverables guidelines in the Awards section at ycnonline.com. Full details on the judging process and associated timings can also be found online.

OUGD203 Design Practice

2009-02-25T03:47:00.000-08:00

This is my blog for the third module of the second year - Design Practice. The first brief we have been given is a collaborative one for the YCN awards. I'm working with Emma Butler because we both have very different skill sets - I'm more into type, layout and computer based work whereas she is better at illustration and hand rendered work. Hopefully this means we can both bring a lot to the project and utilise the skills of each other well.