Brief 01 _ Ovaitt Health Media Cover Sheet

EXTENDED PRACTICE MODULE BRIEF COVER SHEET Module Code: OUGD603

Module Title: Extended Practice

LEEDS COLLEGE OF ART

Student Name: Abbas Mushtaq

Studio Brief Title: Brief 01: Ovaitt Health Media Collab w/ Sebastian Needler Synopsis: Branding & Identity for New York based Health and Communication Agency, Ovaitt Health Media.

List of deliverables

Evidence

(boards, resolutions, apps,etc)

(Series of business cards, posters, website etc)

Business Cards

Loose thermochromic touch sensitive business cards

Large Print Portfolio

Blue, and Red Tabbed Print Portfolio showcasing clients work and profile

Document Folder

Blue Document Folder

DL & C4 Envelopes

Envelopes for mail-out and correspondence

Invoice & Letterheads

Invoices and Letterheads with red touch sensitive elements

Meetings Pad

Perforated Meetings pad for client to take notes

Evaluation: What worked well I think the mixture of us basically working as pure designers while the client acted as a critique and also as a formal copywriter worked really well. It took the load off Seb and me in terms of thinking up copy; we simply took the copy and applied it. It made the work stronger as copy isn't our strong point. Working with the client made me realise the importance of a copywriter even more.

I also feel me and Seb worked well as a collaboration, we split the tasks fairly equally and if we didn't agree with something we won't afraid to speak up, share our opinion and go the extra mile in terms of getting the job done (especially with the screen-print headache) so I feel the collaboration was successful in this sense. Our styles and approaches also seemed to merge looking back on the work, which is what we wanted to do from the start.

Major learning curves This brief had quite a few "firsts" for us. It was the first time I had worked on a substantial identity brief for a real client, but not only that, this client was based in New York so the time difference and lack of face-to-face conversations was difficult at first.

Especially when presenting, discussing and critiquing over Skype.

Sourcing printers in the US, was difficult in terms of finding printers with the required facilities. In the end we went with GFSmith as they have a Colorplan distributor in the US called Legion Paper.

Designing a substantial amount of work such as publications, folders, envelopes etc for professional printers, which require folding and cutting, was a first too. It's easy to make one-offs in college, but we realised in the real world there's a lot more to think about such as die-cutting and whether certain nets will be cost-effective or not. This aspect was definitely a learning experience.

We also probably learnt the hard way that in terms of a college brief, or any personal brief really you should definitely allow a couple of days at the very least for things to go wrong in terms of print. Especially when it involves a process you're not widely experienced or comfortable with - in our case screen-print and thermochromic ink. We had a bit of a nightmare. It took us over a week to pull off what we thought we would achieve in a day! We're lucky we were ahead of schedule before we started so it didn't hurt us in terms of overall deadline but it definitely made things rough for a while.

What I'd do differently next time If I were going to do this again I'd definitely allow a couple of days at the very least for things to go wrong in terms of print.

Especially when it involves a process you're not widely experienced or comfortable with - in our case screenprint and thermochromic ink. We had a bit of a nightmare. It took us over a week to pull off what we thought we would achieve in a day!

Doing this would make everything go a lot smoother and not make mistakes and hiccups put us off track.

Next time, on the advice of John, I'd charge for alterations. As we learnt with this brief, if you don't mention this before a brief the client relies on alterations too much. It throws you off and you end up putting plenty of extra hours in just to apply the alterations. Next time I'd charge per alterations, and charge depending on which/how many alterations need doing.

Final Comments Overall, this brief was a lot of fun and a useful learning experience for both of us. The identity is in circulation and application now, and allowed us to make an important reliable contact in New York. Overall the identity is highly corporate, and I feel it fulfils the needs it had. The thermochromic elements are a nice, and memorable concept which has received good feedback from the client.

Ratings (Very Bad) 1 - (Very Good) 5 Quality of work _______ 4 Quantity of work ________ 4 Attendance ________4 Punctuality _________4 Motivation _________5