Project report

OUGD503

Responsive

Project Report Module Briefs _

Evaluation Of Fun Stuff

Domino’s Korn Purdey’s Nicole Jopek Bassment Logan Pictures Evence Trappedaudio Yoke

Alex Dyson

This all changed however when I broke my finger and things were swapped to be more time efficient.

Domino’s _ Create a campaign that will reassert Domino’s ownership of Tuesdays in the pizza takeaway category.

This was the YCN brief that I worked on with Joe Leadbeater as our collaborative project.

After a lot of thought on the selection of briefs we had to choose, we found ourselves interested in the Domino’s Pizza one the most because of it’s potential of becoming a brief we would both enjoy and come up with something great for.

Having different skill-sets and work ethics we were set our own responsibilities for the execution of the brief.

Page 01

I ended up in the lead of the application design with elements of Joe’s input through feedback and trial and error.

I don’t have much experience of working with other people and this has helped me identify the positives and negatives of working in collaborations with other creatives.

The positive outcomes I discovered were the fact that two brains are far more powerful and efficient than one. Being able to share ideas and proposals to another creative made bouncing the idea into a developed concept very enjoyable as well as productive, turning good ideas into great ones. Time is much easier to manage when there are more than one person involved, things get done much quicker and the possibilities of getting more accomplished is stretched significantly.

Negative elements that came into play included the expected. Differences in opinions on subjective matters is always an expectation when working with another creative,

however we got around that quite well and it all got done to a standard that both me and Joe are proud of. Other negatives were communication, working through the evenings and weekends at home meant that I’d come back with a body of work completed and feel like I was doing a lot more of the work however I was later brought to light with the efforts Joe was putting in.

Our concept was built over several meetings and both independent & collaborative idea developments. We decided we wanted to create an application because of the potential reach considering the target audience of younger people, usually at university.

Working with someone else has been a really good experience especially a creative interested in similar topics like Joe. Over all it has taught me to take control if I am not happy as well as make my communication stronger when working with others so everything works consistently.

Overall I feel very confident with the finished submission and look forward to hearing what it brings both me and Joe in the near future.

Page 02

Korn _ In celebration of their album release, Korn are inviting aspiring designers to submit a artwork inspired by their new track Love & Meth for the chance of it becoming the official single cover artwork.

This was a main body brief that I concentrated on for a respectable amount of time to produce a strong outcome that would stand a chance at winning the competition.

This competition was hosted on Talenthouse by Korn to attract fans and artists to design their newest single’s artwork. This appealed to me when I came across it mainly for nostalgic links to my younger teenage guitar playing years when I used to listen to the band and similar artists.

Page 03

The prizes of the favourite were very large and consisted of £500 as well as a signed Korn guitar, a limited edition lithograph of the design, a lot of exposure and the fact I would see my own design for their single in music stores as well as other smaller prizes which I wasn’t very interested in.

Having such a big prize enforced my motivation to execute something of the highest standards.

My idea was developed on the name of the single, the obvious connection of Love & Meth is a love heart and methamphetamine and I expected a lot of variations of this, however wanted mine to stand out above them all.

For this I researched and learned how to cook my own candy methamphetamine by boiling water and corn syrup at a certain temperature and then leaving it to set. This was a new way of working for me and with that came it’s risks however I learned some valuable lessons from it all.

Sometimes things do not go to plan. If you have never done something you have no idea what can go wrong and how far it can set you back. I was very cautious

when cooking the candy methamphetamine and as I am not the best cook in general and was expecting something to go wrong however I was glad to see it through unscathed.

Once it was broken up I began placing it all on the black card with my fingers and tweezers. This took roughly 3-4 hours as a factor I didn’t consider was how sticky it would be. This made it very difficult to let go of the pieces either from the tweezers or my fingers.

Photography and Photoshop was the easiest and quickest part but made all of the difference to the final image.

Unfortunately I didn’t win the competition as they chose something that looked like it was taken out of their music video (which I still don’t quite understand). I am still very happy with my finished outcome and a lot of people have given a huge amount of positive feedback on the method and finished product. One thing this has taught me is how much I hate competition briefs, because no matter how strong your outcome, if the person choosing the winner subjectively prefers another style then your work is pushed aside.

Page 04

period of six weeks.

Feeling confident with my idea and how I wanted to complete the brief, I left Purdey’s until then.

Purdey’s _ Re-design the packaging of health drinks brand Purdey’s two products (one current, one future).

The brand’s image must be considered along with packaging solutions and design aesthetics.

Once I had completed my Korn submission, I got to work on my own D&AD entry.

I chose to work on the Purdey’s brief because I hadn’t really done any packaging orientated briefs before and I felt that this would be a good time to try it.

Once I had built up my context and began developing my idea on hand rendered typography, I had a nasty accident which lead to a broken finger pausing any hand-rendered work for a

Page 05

By the end of the recovery period I got straight back on the horse and completed the brief in the time I had left which was about a week at the same time as working with Joe Leadbeater on the remainder of the Domino’s brief.

With that time I managed to refine a better typeface, develop the proposal for the new product and then create the most professional presentation of them I could before submitting it to D&AD. Personally I wasn’t content in the slightest with the work that I’d produced for this brief. It didn’t feel like it was a D&AD standard of work and I believe this was down to me leaving it for so long and trying to do it all in the space of a week. I can partly blame the broken finger for this but if I wasn’t so stubborn with my original idea I would of had time to develop a much stronger idea with a range to match it and develop the overall product.

From these mistakes I have

certainly learned a variety of lessons to do with time management and accepting that other ideas must be considered when effecting factors get in the way of completing a brief in a certain way.

If I could go back in time I would of rethought my concept and developed a new idea in consideration with my practical abilities.

This would of given me a much longer period of time to work on the brief and produce something that would represent me better as well as give me a stronger chance at winning the competition.

Something I am happy about however is the rate at which I worked when I was so stressed, as I can’t normally deal with things when work gets intense and time is cut short. I feel that even though I am unsatisfied with the work I produced, I responded to the brief with a body of work which answered it with a new angle to look at the products.

Page 06

Nicole Jopek _ Create the branding and identity for upcoming professional fashion photographer based in Huddersfield as well as a business card which creates an impact to prospective clients & other professionals.

One of my favourite briefs I have worked on over this module is the branding & identity design for a Huddersfield based fashion photographer Nicole Jopek.

Nicole is just finishing her third year studying digital photography at Huddersfield university and approached me in need of a professional identity before releasing herself in the creative working world.

I worked very closely with Nicole in respect to the decisions and aesthetic

Page 07

elements of her professional identity because as she did warn me prior, she is very fussy regarding the creation of her image that she’d want to stand out amongst other professionals and further than others her own age.

After researching further into the trade and the professional image that her competition and companies with similar target audiences own, I found her being most interested in the Bodoni type family that Vogue have pushed to every corner of the fashion world.

Respecting the image that I was challenged with, I pitched a logotype that had quirky characteristics that would set itself aside from the general Bodoni style, making Nicole stand out rather than making her seem like a sheep following a fashion trend.

Nicole loved this idea and after several outcomes and discussions full of feedback both positive and negative, I came to a final outcome which consisted of the characters her name consisted of being presented in a highly contrasting set of letter forms. These letter forms following the same curve rules and dimensions hit ever detail in exact proportions to

show a professional and well crafted composition.

Removing the stem of the N and the crossbar of the E gave the name some unique characteristics that even though are small, made a big impact on the finished logotype.

After some research and investigating, I pitched the business cards as a very thick 700gsm duplexed ebony and pristine white gf-smith colorplan stock with glossy black foiled letterpress on the ebony side for the logo and black letterpress for the white side for contact information.

This brief has taught me a lot about patience and understanding. Having a fussy client was an irritation at times but at the end of the brief, it only made the finished outcome better than if the client was docile.

It has also given me the confidence in asking for large sums of money for both my work and to pay for other services than my own.

I wish that I could of had the business cards to photograph before the module finished but this was unfortunately unrealistic.

Page 08

sketch to find out what I meant exactly I was a bit hesitant at the idea of spending time drawing it out if they turned around and said no, however I bit the bullet and went for it.

Bassment _ Design an event flyer which is eye-catching and memorable to promote Bassment’s birthday event.

Bassment are an events company I have previously worked for when they have needed promotional material & flyers however when their 1st Birthday was coming round they got in contact for a stronger body of work.

When I was asked to come up with some ideas for it I pitched the concept of the flyer being styled as a birthday cake on the front and the back just having crumbs on.

Bassment loved this and when they asked for a drawing/

Page 09

This was a risk and I am fully aware of it but I felt confident with the idea I was pitching and having worked with them before, I felt like I knew what they would and wouldn’t like.

Fortunately they loved the idea from the sketch and gave the okay to continue with the job as well as handing over a deposit for the work.

I really enjoyed having so much creative freedom on this brief and doing what I wanted, I appreciated this quite a lot because of graphic design usually being a very instruction or rule lead job.

The way I staged the brief into different levels allowed me to plan my time efficiently as well as meeting a fixed deadline for print and promotion of the event.

This allowed me to draw out the whole design with all details as perfect as possible after sketching it, and then taking it digital

in two levels of vector line work and then colour.

The full finished outcome was completed in three days. This gave me some good practice in efficient and well planned time management, something I have always had a problem with.

Seeing the flyers come to life and seeing the amount of positive feedback Bassment’s audience gave the visuals for the event certainly made me feel proud of what I managed to execute with the brief. Bassment were not slow to feed back every comment they received both on the running up to, during and after the event, they were so happy with how it all ended up that I was asked to be their new inhouse designer for all of their events and to rebrand them over summer before they head out to play Outlook festival and travel Europe to play in a selection of countries including France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Czech Republic.

I have definitely made a real good contact and will continue to deliver the highest quality of work to these guys and see where they take me.

Page 10

period encouraged me to accept the job and work with him on creating a new professional identity for his company.

Logan Pictures _ Design a professional logo aimed at younger musicians for video producer Tom Ransom (Logan Pictures).

I was sent an email just before the Easter holidays from a guy who is currently dating a girl I knew from primary school.

Turns out that she had been showing him my work as I published it on my social networking accounts and he had decided he would like me to complete an identity for his production company aimed at younger musicians who need professional music videos.

Having a bit more time on my hands over the holiday

Page 11

Because I didn’t know him I was a lot more cautious than with the work I do for friends. I first told him that I would require a 50% deposit before I started any work at all just to guarantee myself some security which he was more than happy to provide as he was confident I could give him a service he needed.

After a few e-mails, I managed to convince him to change the company’s name which was originally ‘Password: Logan’ as it was a name which neither represented his work or what he did but related to a childhood memory, which in my opinion is a private memory and not a representation of what he did for people.

He was very docile about changing his company name once I explained to him why I recommended it and he even thanked me for my honesty and not just saying yes and running with it.

After showing some examples of professional branding that would still appeal to his audience, he told me

he wanted me to go down the calligraphic route. This was both kind of worrying but exciting at the same time as I didn’t have much experience in this art. I warned him but he was eager for me to have a go as he had seen some branding I had done for another module which involved some custom lettering which he loved.

Taking that on board I tried a variety of different compositions until I was happy with one. This was then digitised and shown to the client.

This really boosted my confidence with lettering as he was really impressed and said I had done a perfect job for him. This has definitely motivated me to push myself over summer to practice my hand lettering and see if it is a skill that can be added to my strengths as a designer.

Looking back on it, the only part I am not happy with is the stem of the N and where it connects with the A as the connection seems disjointed slightly.

Page 12

when Alex Kostyakov, an old friend from my Spanish class at college asked me to design a logo for his mobile application concept.

Evence _ Design the logo & identity for an upcoming event based mobile application to be released next year.

I thought it was quite an interesting idea and would be very beneficial to the environment and even though I am a big fan of print, I had to hand it to him that it had a lot of potential and he was right in seeking a logo to give it an image before it’s been developed.

The target audience were students primarily in Manchester and the expanding to other cities over the UK.

Evence is a fully customizable, paperless, flyering system developed for music lovers and events promoters alike. Packed full of features it will cost events promoters a fraction of the price of conventional flyers to have the same target reach without having a negative affect on the environment. With easily reachable figures of 40,000 students in Manchester alone, Evence promises to be the buzz app everyone is talking about in 2015.

This is the pitch I was sent

Page 13

It was a very quick turnaround project which in a sense panicked me a bit.

I pitched a selection of three different outcomes to develop and once he’d chosen one, he really liked it how it was and even though I wanted to push it further he just wanted to make small changes to what I had whipped up in about half an hour.

This has definitely taught me to always develop ideas independently even when a client is happy, because even if the client is happy with what has been created and I know I can produce better, then in a way I have not done my job properly.

I am not happy with the outcome of this project because of how quickly it was made, the fact I didn’t have the chance to explore different outcomes and finally I feel that the execution is rather poor.

If I could change anything I would give myself a lot more time to explore a range of outcomes, allowing the project to become a lot stronger and reflecting the skills I have.

Page 14

Trappedaudio _ Design the logo & identity for an upcoming event organisation in Manchester.

I discovered a lot of things both about graphic design and myself throughout this brief for Trappedaudio’s branding and identity.

This brief was obtained because of a recommendation from the guys at Bassment to one of their friends in Manchester.

I was both very appreciative for the recommendation but later found that my contact in Trappedaudio was the most frustrating client I had ever spoken to.

Page 15

The first thing I learned about graphic design through this brief was that sometimes, a client doesn’t even know what they want, and when they don’t, they will try and explain what they want without knowing it themselves. This leads to both miscommunication and confusion on the designer’s part and a lot of time wasted too.

The second thing I learned about graphic design through this brief was the fact that if a client doesn’t quite understand what they want, they will instead send you pictures of competitors products and tell you to copy their work. This then leads to explaining that you can’t copy other peoples work because that will get both them and the designer in trouble.

The final thing I learned about graphic design through this brief was to avoid working with people who have no idea about what they are doing at all costs. This wastes a lot of time as it is spent explaining or questioning everything.

In respect to the workflow through this project however, the only way I could work out how to complete it was trial and error of producing things

until they were happy. This gave no chance to plan much as he changed his mind around 16 times in total about what he wanted and the whole day I put aside for it was spent with pictures being sent back and forward with no idea what I was going to come out with.

I must admit, even though I am not entirely happy with the outcome here, a lot of people have given some very positive feedback on the aesthetics and the clients are very happy in the end of it. Therefore, I am just happy for it to be over.

The final logo was a their name in a condensed, but light typeface with a warped T and O which has been made to look like loud music has stretched the form of both.

Trappedaudio is one word but the client wanted a slice to divide the words.

The second image is the Facebook cover photo for the use on their marketing page before a line-up is solidified.

Page 16

Yoke _ Design the logo & identity for an upcoming event organisation in Manchester.

When Eve & Nathan came into our studio to tell us about the project that they were working on, I was really excited for them and wanted to get involved in the project.

Whilst me and Joe Leadbeater were screen printing for our Domino’s brief, Eve & Nathan were busy printing for the exhibition so I started talking to them about how it was going and it inspired me to create something for it.

My idea was to show dialogue of hearing and feeling but visually. This lead to my idea of writing the definition of Dialogue in Braille and then recording myself saying “dialogue” and composing the sound waves below the Braille.

When I sent it in, I got an email back from Nathan thanking me for getting involved and saying that it was a really cool concept and would work really well as an overlay.

Page 17

From that moment until the opening night I was looking forward to what my work was paired with. I found it on two prints but unfortunately didn’t end up finding out who mine was paired with and therefore not sparking a ‘dialogue’.

The idea for this exhibition was really cool and if I had the time I would of loved to submit more work in a hope to network with people in the industry or make some new creative friends.

Page 18

played an important role in the development of myself throughout this module.

Module Evaluation _ My favourite module to date.

This module has been the most fun I have so far had on the course. Having the freedom to complete briefs that I would like to do as well as giving myself time to complete briefs for money has worked nicely as a form of productive procrastination at times when all I want to do is run away from my other modules.

I have learned a lot about independent & collaborative practice as a graphic designer as well as about myself as a person, a mixture that I feel has

Page 19

I have started to understand what I can offer my clients and what I can charge for the work I complete as well as the confidence to tell people how much I charge for what I do as a professional.

Learning to work in a collaboration was a really big step for me as I have never managed to do it well before. Working with such a like minded person on such a good brief has definitely helped me as a form of practice for working with other people as well as teaching me how to go about it too. The finished product was a huge success in both of our eyes but I feel there are things that we would remember to amend if we ever worked together again such as communication and time management.

Working with Joe by himself was a lot easier than working in a bigger group like I have done in the past. This highlighted to me that once I am out of university I would be more comfortable and more productive in a studio with smaller numbers in. Aiming for this would be the best option for me in my future as I have always felt that

in larger groups, ideas are more saturated and you don’t get much of a say in what is going on.

Throughout this module I have experimented with areas of design I have never touched before such as application design, packaging design and calligraphy. These have taught me important factors of each area and I would love to develop my skills in all of them to make myself a much more valuable tool in design.

My presentation has developed in a positive way and I have learned how to lay things out professionally as well as show the best qualities of designs I have created.

This has helped my pitching abilities as well as portfolio development.

One of the best feelings out of everything I have experienced in this module is knowing that I have made my clients happy on all of my commissioned briefs.

I received nothing but positive feedback from every finished and final outcome.

That has really knocked my confidence up and helped me appreciate my own work and feel some pride in what I have been doing.

Unfortunately so far I haven’t won any of the competition briefs I entered however me and Joe Leadbeater feel very confident about our Domino’s entry. This is a negative for me because I was really set out to win something in this module so hopefully YCN will turn that around.

biggest strength is branding and identity and that has shown throughout this module as it’s been the main thing people have wanted to hire me for. I would also spend a lot more time planning out better executed concepts to create a better standard of work, both for my clients and my developing portfolio.

Time management has been a massive issue for me as it usually is, stalling my practical work during the six weeks of a broken finger didn’t help, however other than that I felt rushed in a few briefs and didn’t work as efficiently as I should of.

The briefs I enjoyed most in this module were the Korn competition, The branding of Nicole Jopek and the Domino’s collaborative.

I feel like these did the most for my confidence and helped me develop an idea of the sort of briefs I prefer and are best at working with. This will help me in the future when choosing competition or live briefs available to me.

Some of the clients I worked with on this brief were certainly the most frustrating or difficult I have ever worked with, however this has taught me a lot about patience and understanding. I suppose in ways, the trappedaudio brief has put me off working with people new in business but I can’t narrow everyone down to being like that or I might lose out on good opportunities for my creative practice and future career.

If I was given the chance to re-do this module or develop it further, I would try more and more new practices as my

This module has been really useful to me and my creative practice as a whole through all of the elements I have highlighted in this evaluation. The work I have produced has been of a high standard and I am very proud of the amount and quality of most of the briefs I completed. This module has certainly influenced my idea of my future creative practice as a designer and I look forward to the live briefs I work on in the future.

Page 20

OUGD503 Project Report Alex Dyson

Evaluation Of Fun Stuff

Alex Dyson