UNIT X: PUBLISHING
S T U D I O
D U M B A R
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M A N N E R S
These are the card designs of what we handed out to people while holding the door open for them. It was a very quick test of manners. Yellow - for not saying thank you once. Red - for not saying thank you more than once.
T O P M A N
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C O N C E P T
S T O R E
L O G O
I went with the word “chillen” because it translates into “chilling” (German to English) I wanted the store to do the usual topman stuff of selling clothes but also gave people a space to chill out. There would be a bar, an area to chill and various things to do like table tennis, pool and old school arcade games.
T O P M A N
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T O T E
A N D
P A P E R
B A G
The bags would be used for sold items instore whether it being a t-shirt, poster or vinyl.
T O P M A N
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I N V I T A T I O N S
The invitations are colour coordinated with the German flag. They just have the address and the date on but with each invitation brought to the opening of the store you’d receive one free drink and a poster.
27.5.16 8 ROCHSTRABE 10178 BERLIN GERMANY
G U T T E R
P R E S S
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F I N A L
L O G O
G U T T E R
P R E S S
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P H O T O S / C O N T E N T
These images are just a few taken from the magazine. They represent the style and image quality of photography used throughout. All 35mm.
G U T T E R
P R E S S
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M A G A Z I N E
Front (top) and back of the magazine. The image is full wrap of the cover, spine and back.
G U T T E R
P R E S S
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M A G A Z I N E
The opening pages (top image) showing the inside print on the cover and the first page. Second image (bottom) showing content inserts with images that correlate with the textual content.
G U T T E R
P R E S S
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K I C K S T A R T E R
Screen shots of the video created for kickstarter. (Left side first)
V I D E O
G U T T E R
P R E S S
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P O S T E R
Final poster design that has the ripped up collage. The photos used are all taken from the content of the magazine.
What are the key influences you have identified out of your research and why?
Well being in chronological order for this unit studio Dumbar came first and this was more of a quick thinking task so not much research influenced this task it was more of how we felt about a topic and tackled it how we felt necessary. With Topman it took me awhile to generate an Idea through looking at different concept stores like Boxpark, Colette and Story. The layout and design of these stores helped me chose the style I carried out through the logo I made, the invitations and posters. I prefer to make clean design and so looking at how each of the other stores are created I thought I’d go down a similar route with the design but the idea behind the shop was an idea that came from the name. “Chillen” in German means “chilling” in English it is pretty obvious but what I wanted to do was create a shop vibe that allowed the usual things of selling clothes and other items but also gave people somewhere to relax and chill out. Also looking at the beer industry and seeing what is out there and I guess seeing how bad the adverts can be, yes the shop would sell alcohol but the design of mainstream beers tend to be shite and so this was something I wanted to stay away from with the store. This may sound a little corny at first but throughout my research the Ideas that have influenced the work I have done for the project have mainly all come from inside the group. The style/feel that we set out to create for the magazine was definitely a main part of how I worked for this project. I personally prefer to work in a clean and organised manner, usually computer based so I can set out grid on InDesign for the work I create as I can be a bit OCD. However with this project and working alongside people that work in a various different ways has helped me change the way I would usually create my work. James (the video geezer) is great at creating weird and wacky videos. The video he made for the kickstarter helped me generate ideas for the posters and magazine covers I created for this project. For the actual magazine content looking at magazines out there like Dale, Gym Class and even the book I Repent of Tomorrow they all have that very crisp and clean feel to them. As a group we discussed how a lot magazines out there at the moment all have a very similar feel/vibe to them. The trend of clean and organised style of many magazines (how I would usually work) wasn’t something we wanted to follow and so from outside in we made sure it was different to the usual.
Identify aspects of the projects that you developed further in line with your own creative practice?
Again starting from the Studio Dumbar workshop working alongside Liam Chilton with this we work in a very similar way to each other so as soon as we had an idea it wasn’t too hard to find something that we both liked. Doing that project it did make me realise how much easier it is working in groups of two instead of groups of 5/6 like we do for most of Unit X however I did enjoy the group that I worked with for the publishing brief and there was 5 of us. With Topman, branding isn’t something I had done previously so it was cool creating a logo for a shop and finding meaning for it. However creating a poster, tote bags, invitations etc. is something I had done before so I didn’t find it too challenging. I guess in my opinion it was very bog standard stuff that Topman wanted us to created, the images that we were given weren’t great either but that is also why I decided not to use them. I was pretty pleased with the outcome that I ended up with. It had meaning behind it with the idea of just being a chill out space, you couldn’t buy anymore than two alcoholic drinks. I understand it’s not everyone’s limit but to be on the safe side it was a good number to go for. Similar to the last question a lot of what I created for the group was influenced by those in the group. The way I worked in this project was very different to usual style of design I would create which was nice as you slowly start to widen your horizon on the types of work you can create. In my own opinion it was a messy style of design that I created for the publication brief as it fitted with the style of the magazine we created. It was nice to create something different for once, the logos I created were very much me and how I would tend to work but the actual magazine covers and posters were completely different to the norm of my design.
What are the key influences you have identified out of your research and why?
I personally enjoyed the studio Dumbar workshop, it was fun to be able to rant about something that you either felt strongly about in a positive or negative light. Liam and I both agreed that manners was a big thing as there are just so many people out there who just lack them. It really doesn’t hurt to say please and thank you but it seems like so many people struggle to do so and have come across loads while at university. Rude people really do piss me off. Anyway the outcome that we had was a very quick and effective experiment that tested people’s manners on our own course. Using the same system from football but in a way for manners, so if you didn’t say thank you once you got a yellow card that had “twat” on but if you didn’t say thank you more than once you got a “cunt” card that was red. Some people clearly took offence to it as we handed them out but once explained they laughed it off and was more than happy with it. With the Topman stuff because it was during the Easter break and I hadn’t been home in almost 2months so I didn’t feel as if I applied myself to this project as much as I could, I didn’t hand in any work at first because the work I created didn’t feel strong enough to be given in. I eventually created work that I was happy with but it was after the Topman deadline which was annoying for me but I’m glad that managed to create some work for the brief instead of having crap that I wouldn’t have put into the portfolio. Finally the publishing brief, working with the boys for this project was enjoyable to say the least. A little stressful at the start trying to find an idea that we wanted to work with as it seemed like we was all coming up with Ideas that weren’t working or not everyone was game for but the idea we finally pushed through and created the magazine on came from an Image taken in Manchester New Years Eve 2015 where a drunk guy was laying on the floor with his pint and another guy was being arrested. I said to the boys why don’t we celebrate and put out there the things that people don’t like to see but secretly love. The rough and tumbles during nights out, the nitty gritty, it is always the best parts but usually always filtered down to one photo where people look good before they get f*cked up. The content we used for the magazine was generated by James or out sourced by James from friends of his. I felt like I helped out with magazine from the way the cover looked and the logo created as me and Jack worked simultaneously on both and ideas come from the way we was both working. Eventually we used Jack’s designs for logo, magazine cover and poster but across all three things I can see where some inspiration has been taken from some of the designs I created which is nice. I tried to be in every day that the group wanted to be in so that we could progress the magazine smoothly, some days I did become a little frustrated as I felt like I wasn’t doing much but in truth there wasn’t much to do as we were still gathering content and deciding on the style of how we wanted to present the magazine. With all the final pieces created from kickstarter to the magazine, I was proud of the worked we had created as a group, it wasn’t a piece of work that I would create myself and that’s what I really like about this unit as I got to try something that was different to my usual design.