Project Report by Amy Hill

PROJECT R E P O RT AMY HILL OUGd503

The Body Shop

Cath Kidston

Loft 310

1 3

1 4

Sky Deck

Illy

Tigerprint

C & I Cars

New Look

Oasis

Contents The body shop 2

CATH KIDSTON 6

LOFT 310 1 0

1 1

SKY DECK 1 2

1 3

ILLY 1 4

1 5

TIGERPRINT 1 6

1 7

C & I CARS 1 8

2 1

NEW LOOK 2 2

2 3

OASIS 2 4

2 7

Summary 2 8

2 9

The body shop

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE COMPETITION BRIEF

feel okay with who they are and to enhance their natural beauty- which is what the Body Shop stands for.

The Body Shop, was one of the 2014 D&AD briefs. I chose this as my main individual brief, and this is the response I worked on for the longest amount of time. I chose this brief as I like the Body Shop itself and what it stands for, as well as this the target audience (specified by the brief) was an audience I prefer producing work for, and I feel comfortable with this audience. I also liked the sector and industry of the company, and I felt that I would be able to produce an effective response. In addition to all of this the brief also requested that the outcome had to involve a social aspect, and one of the posters had to portray this, an so appealed to me as I would get the chance to produce work that had a social motive, and a positive message. The concept of the brief/campaign was ‘You Are’ it focuses on promoting positive body image, I decided upon an adjective for each product, these where fresh, original, smooth and bright, the words where meant to portray traits of the products but also realistic and natural ideals of a person, and I felt that the audience could aspire to these. Therefore the social campaign poster focused on the pressure of the media upon young women and girls in todays society, I chose this issue myself as I find it an important issue, and it becomes more apparent all the time, and so the aim of the poster and concept is to make the audience

For the design of the posters themselves, I wanted to focus upon the word, and so I tried to make the word very illustrative, I aimed for the word to convey the meaning of the word through how it looked. For instance the word ‘Smooth’, the letters join up as they run continuously (or smoothly) across the page, I also made the letters very soft looking by making sharp edges wavy, I also added some shading to each letter, and the colour of the word was the colour of the product. And I followed this style through every poster. In the initial stages of designing I had just had these words on the posters, and they did look slightly lost, and the posters therefore looked quite bland, in a critique it was suggested to me that I use the ingredients or physical aesthetics of the products to illustrate the background of the posters. This made them a lot more appealing to look at and I felt that they where now viable as a response, I found this particular feedback essential in helping me creating my final response. However I found that different elements of the style I had created was more successful in some of the posters than the others, and it varied in which aspects where successful for instance I found that the poster ‘Fresh’ was the only poster that was entirely successful and this was my strongest response both the type

the body shop

and image where exciting and bold, the type conveyed the feeling of fresh effectively and the illustration portrayed the natural appeal of the Body Shop. I found that the type on the ‘Original’ and ‘Bright’ posters where less successful, as I found it difficult to get across their aesthetic. But the ‘Original’ poster did contain a strong illustrative background, and my feelings of these posters go on like this. As well as this I decided to have a very digital illustrative look to all of the responses. I knew that I was quite strong on Illustrator, but I had never tried to be so illustrative and colorful, and so I pushed myself in the actual design part of this brief. I found it quite challenging at times to create what I saw in my mind. I think that I could of stuck to something I was comfortable with but my own style preferences would not match that of the Body Shop even though this response wasn’t completely their ‘look’ either. However I am glad that I challenged myself with my digital illustration skills as I learnt that I can produce work of this nature, and I have developed a more extensive skills on this particular software. But I learnt that even though I did manage to produce the work, I didn’t particularly like this type of work, and it didn’t match my own personal preferences. And so picking the Body Shop brief for the reasons I did at the start was a bit hasty and I should of really thought about my own skills and design style. Another thing that I struggled with was the idea of interactivity. The brief not only wanted the four main posters and the social campaign poster but an interactive element too. For a while I really found it hard to think of how all of these elements could be connected together, and this hindered my progress on not only this brief but others too. I also had only really just started to learn about and practice design for online, and the integration of social media. The further I got into the year, the more I learnt about this and this enabled me to create the final part of the response to the Body Shop brief. And so interaction with the You Are

campaign was to be through social media. I revised the posters and added hash tag ‘iam’ followed with the product name, and so the audience would be encouraged to leave tweets, pictures and comments about their favorite product, and why it makes them who they are, or why it makes them feel good. The reason the customer would do this is that leaving feedback would enter them into a national competition in which they could win a years supply of the product they commented on. I felt that this was a big incentive for the audience to join in. The design of this was quite simple and looking back if I had of had the knowledge of digital design earlier on I think that I may have been able to produce a more complex online response, as I would have had more time and more motivation to do so. However I was happy with the overall response, I think that the concept works strongly across all the outcomes. I also feel that the posters and online elements work coherently, they are recognizably the same campaign, and I was impressed with myself as I had integrated social media purposefully and effectively, which I had not really considered in any responses before, but this project made me think of this in other later briefs. Initially I thought that the format the outcomes had to take would be easy, but I found it difficult but challenging to work with A2 posters, this is because there is a lot of space to use, but posters in shop windows need to show off and the information needs to be big enough to read, without being patronizing, I found that this balance was interesting to work with and I am glad I got this experience now. I was also pleased with the look of the posters and there very digital/ illustrative appearance, and I had pushed my own practice, although I should of maybe done this on a less time consuming brief, and I should of perhaps chosen a brief that would of really complimented my strengths and preferences.

the body shop

02 CATH KIDSTON

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE COMPETITION BRIEF I then went on to choose the Cath Kidston brief, I chose this brief after seeing the kind of work other people had produced for the brief, and I felt that I could come up with and draw a theme for the print. However I do not consider myself a print designer, so this was a new challenge. I looked into Cath Kidston brand and saw that a lot of their prints appeared to be hand drawn and hand painted, I originally chose the brief for the scope of ideas I could come up with, not because all the prints where hand rendered. But taking this into consideration I began to think of theme for my print, I stuck to the specifications of the brief, but I also wanted it to be different to what I had already seen. The main theme was English heritage, and so I mind mapped all the different things I could think of. I didn’t want my print to be stereotypical, or satirical, I felt that this would not suit the brand. I came down to two themes; British woodland and wildlife, and garden tea parties. Both of these themes came from my personal interest of the outdoors, I felt that an outdoor theme would be juxtaposition to a mainly indoor print. I finally decided on the idea of a garden tea party, A tea party is a sociable event and so it matched the target audiences persona. I researched more into the theme, looking at the china, the deserts, and the flowers around.

To create the print I decided to stay true to the brand and I drew and painted each component. I decided upon which parts of the tea party needed to be drawn to represent this theme. I initially drew quite a few of these elements. I then scanned in my paintings, and digitally edited them so that they where lighter and similar to one another. After this I put the separate components into a tile- on Photoshop, and I also decided which parts where necessary and which weren’t and I took away a few of the things I had drawn. Once I had made my tile I repeated it into a pattern, I really liked what I had produced, but I did not have a background, the only thing that wasn’t apparent in the print was the garden. And so I painted a simple green background. This looked really effective behind the pattern I had created. I also felt that the green background was a different look to what Cath Kidston already has, but I felt that it would still be appropriate for them and the target audience. This brief required me to produce work that I do not really create anymore. When I was younger I did paint, especially with watercolours. I would say I found it quite hard to draw and paint again as I hadn’t done it in a long time, and when I had drawn and painted the pieces as I wasn’t really happy with how they looked, but once I edited them digitally I felt that they looked so much

CATH KIDSTOn

CATH KIDSTON

better and that they where viable responses.

as specified by the brief.

However the brief was not as straight forward as I had first thought. The brief also required that the pattern be in three colour ways. I did not know what this meant at first, I researched into what this meant and I tried to think about how I could change the colours of the print. I thought about changing the colour of the background but this didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look right as the components of the print where so colourful. Then on Photoshop I started to play with the layer mode tool and I found the hue mode and I could change the entire layer to a different colour. I chose fully green and fully pink- or rose to represent the colour of the English garden.

From doing this brief I improved more upon my Photoshop skills, and it was interesting to go back to more traditional techniques of drawing. However choosing this brief wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly to my individual interests in graphic design, and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t play to my strengths. But I am glad I did this brief as I learnt a lot about mock-ups, and it taught me that applying my designs to a product really shows its potential in a realistic way its easier to visualize. I also liked the theme of my print and its appearance.

Originally I did just create the pattern, but after a crit I was told that I should mock up my pattern onto physical things. At first I was uncomfortable with this, as I had no idea how to create them and where to find them. However while I was working on other briefs for this module I soon picked up how to mock up onto various applications. This really improved my knowledge and skills on Photoshop. And so the mocks I created for this brief where all very different I wanted to show a variety of products, I thought that my print was applicable across a large range. I thought about modern and traditional products, and therefore I crated an ironing board print as this is the very start of Cath Kidston, and then in contrast an iPhone case, I felt that for instance the case was appropriate as the young female audience would own a smart phone. The phone made me think of other things this audience may need and this is how I came to a notebook. The ironing board made me think of other home furnishings that would suit a new home

CATH KIDSTOn

CATH KIDSTON

LOFT 310

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE COMPETITION BRIEF Loft 310 was a logo redesign brief from 99designs. The brief stood out to be as I hadn’t yet done a branding and identity brief, and I wanted to explore this area more. I came across this brief and read the details, it stood out to me because of its audience, and its values as a brand. Loft 310 is a wedding venue, and it is in a loft. It seemed to be upscale and targeted at a more adult and sophisticated audience. I designed the logo on Illustrator. I firstly began by writing out the name ‘Loft 310’ in various arrangements to see how it would read. I imagined that the font would be in a script font this is because I envisioned an elegant and slightly more feminine appearance. I found a font online and I checked the license, which I had to now really consider, as I didn’t want to use a font that I wasn’t legally allowed to. The brief also specified that the logo had to contain a recognizable shape. I thought about a loft and how it would look intersected, I wanted to create the feeling of a loft, it is still a room but it is almost up in the sky, and so it is quite an open and light room. The shape I created represented all of these thoughts. The shape is meant to look like an intersected simplified loft, the space makes it feel light and open. But I also wanted it to connect with the type and so I tailed it off at the bottom to align the image with the type. I also placed the type in line

with the shape so it has a flowing elegant appearance, as well as being inside and outside representing thoughts mentioned earlier. Again I created mock-ups for the logo, which took the brief further. I used a branding and identity kit, and I felt that this really showed the logo to its full potential. The logo I felt was appropriate and I was okay with what I had produced, but I wasn’t really happy with it either. But placing it into the mock-up made me more confident in my design. The branding of this logo was fully appropriate to the company and the target audience, I felt that it was all justified. The colour scheme matched that of the logo, which I had chosen a light gray and soft purple to give a sophisticated and elegant appearance. It also gives a feeling of simplicity and the purple almost gives a glamorous and royal feel. When I created the branding I had all of these aspects in mind and I created a very simple and clean look. I particularly like the landing page I had created for the iPad, the photograph is one from the venue I think that all the elements complimented each other, and this I felt was one of the most successful parts of the brief. Furthermore this brief further helped me improve my mock up skills. And I was happy to have done a branding brief, that had a quick turn around.

LOFT 310

L�ft 310

LOFT 310

04 SKY DECK

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE COMPETITION BRIEF Sky Deck was also a logo redesign from 99designs. I found this brief at the same time as the Loft 310 brief. They are both based in the same area, and part of the same event company. The Sky Deck is a bar venue which also has a rooftop deck. The adult audience appealed to me, but it was now aiming at both genders. I also liked the concept of a rooftop bar, and this also appealed to me, and so I wanted create a logo for the company. As I had previously done a logo design brief, I felt that I had a little bit more experience with what I was designing and what I needed to consider. Again like the previous logo design this had to include a shape that would be recognizable, and I did this through the simple illustration of a cocktail glass, I converted the ‘Y’ into the glass, I felt that this was appropriate as a cocktail glass could suggests a sophisticated bar, that serve drinks with a certain skill and cocktails also can suggest an older audience. Drawing in this way is very similar to a lot of my own work, and I like to draw very linear drawings on illustrator, almost quite simple in appearance like the work I did for illy. I find myself drawing in this way regularly and I will continue to incorporate it into my own work. I also found a really suitable font for the type for the logo design. I felt that this it was appropriate, as for the adult target audience

as it was modern and sophisticated, looking due to it being very thin and tall, and quite geometric, also as it was uppercase it seems important and loud, again the thin weight retains a certain friendliness. I enjoy choosing which fonts to use in all of my work and like the Loft 310 brief I think I selected well and was happy with what I had chosen. I rearranged the words of the company so that the word ‘sky’ was above ‘deck’, as if it is above like it is in the ‘sky’. I then added an underline to give type a platform or - a deck. As for the colours I chose a dark blue and similar tone of purple, I felt that they reflected a nightlife scene, in that the colours of the lights are the same for this deck venue, and the two colours appeal to both genders as specified. I felt that this logo was stronger than the previous, and I was much happier with the end result. However when I mocked up this logo, as I had learnt how to do from the previous brief I liked the end look less than the Loft 310 mock-up and so the aspects that I liked had switched, which was surprising. Again I liked the iPad mock-up and I had tried to make it look like an actual website this time as in the previous brief I hadn’t and it was less realistic, and so I felt that I had learnt that the more realistic the mock-ups are the easier it is for me and others to see how it would really work.

SKY DECK

Design a logo for a new rooftop bar. The name of the bar is Sky Deck. The target audience is young professional, male and female, mid twenties to late fourties. The bar is sophisticated and modern. The logo has to be black, purple or blue. Vector only.

SKY DECK

ILLY

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE COMPETITION BRIEF I found this brief through looking at various competitions online. When I read the brief I immediately imagined an iconography response. I am quite interested in simple illustrations and I find icons interesting as they reach a wide audience of many languages and they are still understood. And so I began my research I mapped out things that cities are famous for and what makes them cities. The cities that illy wanted to represent on their mugs where London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Hong Kong and San Francisco. This is a wide variety of cities and different cultures, I needed to pick a subject that they all would have in common so that they would work as a set. I picked landmarks, as I feel cities are known mainly for their landmarks, and this is what attracts tourists. I wanted my designs to have a cosmopolitan feel to them and I thought about travel too. This is how I came to the idea of airport name abbreviations, and as I wanted the coffee cups to feel more personalized, take away coffee cups are also normal wrote on with marker and so I was also replicating this. I drew the landmarks out as sketches first and then I tried to see how I could simplify the drawing. I then drew these on Illustrator, and for the type I wrote and scanned in I did not edit the effect of my writing. I think that the digital and hand rendered in this case worked

iLLy

well, and I think that the six cities where recognizable. I also made the decision to keep everything red, I felt that as both the image and the type where simplified versions of their originals I should keep design decisions like colour simple as well. I also went for red as the illy brand is red. As well as this it makes them all a uniform set. Again I mocked up my designs onto mugs, this made them more realistic and I could visualize how they would work in a coffee shop or at home. Doing this mock-up made me feel more confident in my designs, although the illy coffee cups are different to the ones I used for my mock-ups where like regular mugs, but I could still visualize the design better. From doing this brief I learnt more about entering a real competition for a company, I also learnt that different websites have different ways of entering the work into the competition, and for this particular brief I found the entering guidelines confusing and they wanted each design uploading separately which was tedious and a bit broken up. However I think that I submitted correctly and I could see them all next to one another on the website. However I do prefer to submit work in a more organized format, as it can be a bit restrictive and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t show the work to itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best advantage. Websites like YCN have better submission formats, and I prefer to enter these competitions.

ILLY

06 TIGERPRINT

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE COMPETITION BRIEF The Tigerprint brief appealed to me as it was a black and white competition, and I like working with black and white. I also immediately thought of a letter rotated and turned into a pattern. I had now gained experience in working with pattern from my Cath Kidston brief, but this one was a lot different. The fact that I immediately thought of an idea was what drove me to really proceed with this brief. The competition specified certain deliverables they would like the print to be applied to. However I just created what I wanted to. This is the first brief where I went with what I wanted to and didn’t really stick to the entire specifications. I decided to create my patterns out of letters. I started of really at a very basic level. I started with the letter of my own name, ‘A’. I typed out the A on Illustrator, and I chose the font I wanted it to be, I chose a heavy sans serif, as I wanted the print to be quite heavy and a sans serif letter form would be easier to manipulate and connect together, as well as this I prefer sans serif fonts in general. After choosing the font, I expanded the type so that it was now a shape and I could work with it as if it was a shape. With each letter form I didn’t manipulate its structure I just played with their rotation and position next to one another. The other letters I chose where the letters of three other people

close to me, of different relations and genders, it didn’t really matter, I just wanted to use different letters. And so the four prints I created represented the letters A,B,D and J. The competition required that participants should enter one to five designs. I decided upon four as it was an even amount and I wanted to create a set, two would have been a small number, plus as it was only a short brief I thought a larger number was more appropriate. I was really happy with the patterns I had produced, I felt that they where interesting and different to the normal submissions on the website. I also felt that they where still appropriate for the company of the briefwhich was Marks and Spencers. I think that these prints are viable and I could see them being sold. The brief also stated that these patterns would be used for cards and everyday things such as stationary, and so I felt it was appropriate to mock these patterns onto a range of stationary. I really liked how this looked and I felt the response was really strong I was very pleased with the outcome, the mock up really made the responses stand out. From this brief I gained more reassurance that I prefer mainly to work with type and when I do I can create strong visuals. I will continue to use type as a strength.

TIGERPRINT

CLASSIC & ICONIC CARS

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE LIVE BRIEF This brief was interesting as I liked the sector of the company. As well as this I again got to do a branding/ identity brief, except for this one I could start from scratch and I had quite a lot of freedom with what I could design for example the logo and the identity, but I also had a specific deliverables, which where a business cards, a letterhead and a logo. Other products where additionals. I also knew quite a bit about the sector of the company and so this helped me to start the work quite quickly as I didn’t need to do quite as much research to begin with unlike other briefs. I decided that the colour scheme of the brand would primarily black and white. I chose these colours to represent the classic/vintage identity of the brand. Black and white can also suggest tradition, and tradition or age can suggest skill. Black and white to me also can suggest sophistication and they are both strong colour especially in opposition to one another. . As well as this they are the most cost effective colours, meaning that costs are low for a new business. I do like working with black and white and I also felt that this work and the work I had produced for Tigerprint was strong and I had worked with my strengths. When designing the logo I did some initial research and looked into classic cars, specifically at their logos, which have a distinctive look;

simple and recognizable. They consist of a shape, the name or a number primarily. I drew some initial ideas and then, using the sketches I liked I digitized them on illustrator. I used an ‘I’ and a ‘C’ to make a wheel like shape. I placed the name of the company under the logo (the C and the I.) The type spans further that the serif of the ‘I’, but is not wider the width of the ‘C’ and so it sits neatly in-between the two. I used Gill Sans as the typeface, I felt that this font (all uppercase) was well balanced and matched the look of the logo. I used the logo on business cards, I initially had screen-printed the first 25 or so as I wanted to add a special touch, and I also wanted new customers to feel like the company was caring and would go the extra mile. However this was impractical in the long run and we had the business card design sent of and printed out commercially, and this worked out better for the business. I also created a mock-up of a business stationary set as even though I had created a letterhead for the brief I wanted to show the work in a more rounded way, and this is why I went for a mock-up, as well as this I hadn’t created some of the products in the mock-up and so photographing the work would of been more time consuming and wouldn’t of looked as strong visually as their would of been less products. Also I felt that this particular mock-up worked really well for the company. For instance the notebook could be used to make notes when the

C & I CARs

I C LASSIC & ICONIC CARS LTD

C & I CARS

mechanic is working on a car, or used to note down things they need to remember for later, and a black leather finish suits the identity and the company’s values. As well as this stationary mock-up, I also showed how signage would look and a type of work-wear, which was also actually printed. When I created the logo, I was also asked to create something that could be used to promote the business. And so I created some fliers, that where to be handed out at motor trade shows, where the clientele would be the ones the business wanted and needed to attract. Using the photographs I had taken previously as research, I used them as the images for my fliers. The first flier I really liked the angle of the photograph, the shape of the car is obvious from the image, and you can see that this car is a classic, and it is a luxury car, the style of the back light also would show other people with a similar knowledge or interest that this car is a classic. I made the images black and white, to fit in with the identity of the brand, and again this suggests classical. The information I placed on the flier, is the same information on the business cards. I felt that this information said everything it needed to. The information didn’t need to be over sold, it’s more about sophistication. I placed all of the information in the darkest place of the image and the logo is the main focal point of the flier, so that you can see the type. I really liked these fliers; I feel that I got to work with my favorite type of design, working with photographs, type and layout. I also liked the topic of the work, and in the future I would probably like to create more products for this, such as a type of brochure, or

a start to finish publication that could be shown to clients. I feel that for this live brief I have created a lot and the things I have made are actually in use. One instance is the business card in which there has been a lot of good feedback, and the business is doing really well, and is gaining a lot of work. I am happy that the designs have attracted customers and that they have impressed existing ones. The logo is appropriate to the sector and its audience, and I think that it is easily recognizable, but it is a new shape that I have not seen before. I enjoyed creating the logo and the fliers mainly, and I would like to continue doing this sort of work in the future. Again I have used black and white as my only colour choices and I think that this has worked very well, it seems to be quite a strong point, and I think that I should continue using this colour combination, but I do not want to solely rely on it either. I managed to spread this brief and the things that I created over a longer period of time and I did work at my own leisure really after I had created the initial logo, in reality this wouldn’t be the case but at the same time it didn’t take me too long to create aspects of this brief.

C & I CARs

C & I CARS

08 NEW LOOK

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE LIVE BRIEF Every year New Look employ around fifty more staff members over the Christmas holiday period, and staff have to be trained quickly and are introduced to shop floor work early. The shoe department has its own specific staff members and requires certain knowledge in order for the shoe department to run at its best, many new members are unaware of this, and this can cause more work for existing staff and slows down the service, and so a set of ten rules was devised between a supervisor and the main members of staff on the shoe department. I proposed to make these rules into succinct, easy to follow posters. I decided to do it by putting them onto posters. New and relatively new staff members, are mainly aged between sixteen to early twenties, and they are predominantly female, staff also come from a mixture of educational backgrounds, and so I wanted to create a piece that everyone could understand and they needed to be able to take in quite a lot of information all at once. And this is why on the rules poster I decided to sum up each point with a simple sentence and then underneath explain further what the point meant. I thin that I did this quite successfully, and I felt that the points where easy to follow and to remember. I had created an easier way to follow all of the demands the shoe department has.

I also drew an illustration to show the concept of ‘size ordering’ (which is an key concept in part of tidying shoes on the shop floor) the illustration is very linear and simple, it is very typical of the type of illustration I like to do, I created the drawing on illustrator, I was very pleased with the results I feel that it visualizes the process well, especially if a new member of staff didn’t have time to be shown or they had forgotten. The designs remained black and white so that the printing costs would be as low as possible plus they where back of house pieces and did not need to be overly vibrant. I went for was quite girly in its appearance and looked like a font that would be used in fashion as it varied between a thin weight and a thick one. The posters I created where A4, but after them being displayed in the shoe stockroom I learnt from asking members of staff whether they had seen them they all said no, this might of been because a few of them didn’t work on the department, but they have had to go in to the room on occasions, and so I feel that the posters where unsuccessful in this respect, and for future I think that posters or work of this nature needs to have colour, and I think that they need to be bigger on the wall so that people would really notice them. And that they should of been the same orientation, I now know this for the future when working with a set of two poster or similar materials.

NEW LOOK

09 OASIS

CollaborTIVE COMPETITION BRIEF Oasis was my first ever, collaborative brief, I have worked in groups before but never have I had to work with one other person on a brief as long. I chose to work with Melissa as we have a similar interest in design for the fashion industry as well as similar personal interests. We chose the brief as it is from the fashion sector; we also both like to design for the target audience specified by the brief, which were young adult females. I felt that this would drive us to work hard on this brief, and produce a good range of deliverables, despite the brief didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask for a lot in the first place. The original brief asked that we create nine new ways of stating their service messages. Beginning with this in mind I began to research into ideas and concepts, I felt that a good overall concept would make for a range of strong messages. I began by looking into what Oasis already had and then I looked into how the actual store could be made more vibrant and interesting by looking at other store displays and how they put across concepts. However I found this unhelpful. And so I began to research what the word oasis could mean, but again this didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really inspire me, and so I went back to basics and looked at the messages I thought about the purpose and the audience, which were women. I found that shapes could be linked to womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body shapes and specifically fruit shapes. I decided

oasis

that a fruit theme would run throughout, I looked into sayings- or idioms that involved fruit and wrote them down to discuss with Melissa. Melissa liked the concept and we sat down together and thought of ways to say the messages involving fruit. We decided that the headline would be punchy and fun, and then the subtitle would be the message Oasis wanted us to deliver. We decided to photograph fruits and have a realistic aesthetic throughout. Melissa photographed the fruits, whilst I found a font and laid out the poster, I chose to have this job as I felt that this was one of my stronger points. I then put the two together, I also had to select and edit the photographs, for the backgrounds of the posters. After creating the nine posters, we could move onto other deliverables that we had decided would be appropriate. I was delegated with all of the online/ digital design originally, as well as a body shapes guide, and Melissa was meant to do the print deliverables. We delegated the jobs like this as Melissa was more confident with the print side and I wanted to explore more online/digital design Originally I thought that this would go well as we had all of the basic imagery in place and we had the font and colour choices too.

oasis

And so I looked online at the oasis website, I saw that they have a rectangular and square format. for the images on the homepage I thought that our messages would easily fit in the spaces and they could range in position as well as which message was being displayed. I thought that the nine messages could be on a rotational basis and each time the home page was selected a different message would show. This would just remind the audience of what the store has to offer and it may encourage them to come to store as they have more services and more personal services than online has to offer. But its not to discourage online shopping either. With this in mind I developed a simple way that the messages could also encourage online shopping. This would be in the form of a small fruit symbol next to the item of clothing it was appropriate for. I also thought a more advanced way that this could be used is that the symbol could be filtered and every item of clothing appropriate for that shape would appear, whether it be tops, trousers, skirts, dresses etc. So for instance the fruit symbols would be in-between the information of the name of the item, and the price, the fruits would vary when unfiltered and all different fruit symbols would be visible. This is so anyone could see the variety the store has to offer. When the item is select a larger information box appears, I placed the fruit symbol in the top right hand corner aligned with the name of the item and price. The fruit symbols also connected to the fruit labels that Melissa had designed to go onto the clothes. I also thought about how the concept would work on social media sites- after all one of the messages states that oasis loves social media. And so I mocked up an instagram post, where @oasisfashion would post new items or items that where appropriate for the fruit shape they where writing about for instance what I had written as an example was ‘absolutely pear-fect’

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for pear shapes. But instead of just these kind of posts Oasis could show celebrities and their shapes and use the hash tags to show this. For Facebook the time-line would simply change fruits and messages every week, And twitter could act in the same way, but Oasis could also tweet about new arrivals etc. I think that I had devised a good online aspect and I felt that it would work in reality and it would drive more customers to store and reach the target audience even further. I also think that the development of the fruit symbols could be helpful to women and for people buying for their friends, relatives or partners. As well as this I created the ‘guide to fruit body-shapes’ leaflet. I felt that this fit its purpose and I particularly liked the simple statements on the back, the colour stood out against the white background, as well as a really good font choice. I made the inside of the leaflet similar to the labels once they where ready. Also for the final presentation boards I mocked up examples of how the messages would work on shopping bags that customers receive when purchasing an item. The fruit idea is fun and vibrant, the imagery is very bright and would stand out in store. I do think that it is slightly different to the Oasis brand who seem to go for subtler designs and a softer colour palette, but the brief was to devise a new range of messages and so I think that we did this successfully. However I feel that I was left with a lot of the responsibilities and deliverables of this project, I learnt from this that I should try select someone to work with more immediately and I should also pick someone who will keep up their motivation, and be willing to take on a bigger role in the collaboration.

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10 Summary

Summative Evaluation This module has been a big learning curve. It has been very different to any of the modules I have previously done. I found the module challenging in lots of different ways. But I enjoyed the module to some extent, and I feel that some of the work I created was good, as well as this I have learnt so much from this module and I am happy to have had the opportunity to learn now. The first thing I found challenging was picking the briefs. As I had never really done a competition brief of my own choice before I found this new freedom quite daunting and looking through the main competition sites, that I was aware of D&AD and YCN, there was so much choice. When going through the briefs, looking back I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think I took into consideration my own aspirations and my own preferences within graphic design. I think I was slightly blind sighted by all of the language within the briefs, I found it quite difficult to read through them and gather what they where actually asking and then thinking about what I could produce. And so the first brief I chose was the Body Shop, I think that I chose this brief as I felt comfortable with the target audience, and I was interested in the social side of the brief. However upon reflection I felt that this brief wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t entirely suitable to me, but I did get to explore a new way of working and so there was good and bad parts of picking the brief.

However I think one of the most suitable briefs I picked was part of the collaboration. I enjoyed the sector it was aimed at I liked that it had a lot of type and layout. I also liked this brief as I got to explore design for web, and I really started to think about social media, which I had not previously done. The second challenge was time management. This module required a lot of commitment and motivation; it required that we answer at least five live/competition briefs. At the start of the module I was very slow in choosing my brief and I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t completely dedicated to the one I had for various reasons, it took me along time to start the brief and when I did the way I had chosen to create artwork was out of my comfort zone, and it took me longer to create work that I was happy with. Also with the Body Shop brief there where so many other aspects to consider it overwhelmed me and I lost my commitment to the work, and my progress slowed right down. As well as this it took me a while to begin other briefs, and I started mainly all of them after Christmas, as I spent a lot of time doing my other work for a different modules. This meant there was quite a build up of briefs I had to do and complete. But once I felt more confident in what I was doing and I had learnt new techniques such as mock-ups I got on with briefs a lot faster, and my motivation improved. For the future I will aim to respond to briefs and start the module imminently, rather than having it in

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the background. But I feel that I will now be able to do this as I have more awareness of what I am selecting when I chose a brief and I am now able to create mock-ups and I am now able to think about a range of deliverables, as I have had the experience. When I started this module I had no idea of how to make mock-ups, I was okay on Photoshop but I had never really tried to mock-up. At first I really struggled with this, it took me a while to learn how to use templates. However after more attempts, further into the module I had become more confident and I understood what I was doing, for instance using smart objects and layers, and understanding more about the effects etc. My first real attempt at mock-ups was for the Cath Kidston brief, I tried to apply the print to a range of products, I learnt from doing this that some applications are easier to use than others, for example, the iPhone template worked really well, whereas the notebook template was of less quality and this is purely down to my selection of what to download. As well as this I tried to place my print onto photographed items such as pillows, I think that I did this relatively well but there is room for improvement, and I will aim to improve upon this. However once I had learned how to mock up my designs onto various applications, I really enjoyed thinking about how I could expand my original idea and apply it to product range. I liked seeing my design being applied it made them feel more realistic, for instance the Tigerprint brief was a quick brief that only required me to make the designs, however I mocked them up onto a range of stationary and I think that they looked good and I was more confident in what I had produced. Although I feel that I still struggle with store mock-ups, I found this really difficult for the Body Shop brief as I could not obtain photographs of the actual store well, for instance the poster in the store where a different orientation or they had products in front of them, there where quite a few problems to overcome, and using

photographs from online was also difficult as they where small resolution and ended up being too pixelated to use, and so for my Body Shop final presentation I did not include examples of the posters in-store as they just where too poor quality. I do feel that I should try to include the distribution aspect for every brief like this in my presentation boards in the future, as it shows the designs in situ. I have also learnt a lot about not only managing myself but working with another person. I think that in the future I need to select more carefully, and as well as this need to be a little more vocal when someone isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as committed as they said they would be. And so in the future I will consider not only my brief selection wisely, I will also be careful when selecting another person to work with. The last major thing that I learnt from this module is presentation skills, and creating presentation boards, a lot of them ! I actually enjoyed designing boards to present, but it was hard at the same time as having all the other work to do. I think that my boards improved throughout the module, and I went back and improved some of my boards. I gained an important skill from doing this and I think I have grasped the idea of presenting my work quite well. Overall I think that I gained over everything else a lot of experience and knowledge that I can use to my advantage in the future. I have also learnt a lot more about myself as a designer, what I like and what I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. For instance know now that I like layout design, and I also orientate towards type based work. As well as this there are areas I would like to continue to improve and explore such as digital/ online design.

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AMY HILL OUGd503 RESPONSIVE