The Brief Create a typography based campaign of your choice. We as designers are very aware of how much power typography has. This is a brief that gives you the option of picking your own campaign and using only typography to create a strong campaign for it. I decided to start on Unicef however, I decided to go for a campaign that is less known and could use some help to further their campaign. The campaign that I have decided to campaign for is The Water Project. The Water Project provides access to clean, safe and reliable water across sub-Saharan Africa. I really look forward to promoting this campaign as I strongly believe that these campaigns need our help as people and as designers. I really hope that my typography will inspire people to help donate. I intend to create an impact that will help benefit this campaign.
Daniel Carter - OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Monotype
Research Existing campaigns and posters For my own campaign I will not be using imagery but I will take forward the power that typography has and use it to its full. I intend to use strong typography to get my campaign across and this means using a bold and iconic typeface that could represent what I am trying to show. I intend to keep my designs minimal as these posters worked to a certain extent during the May 1968 Paris revolution. I believe the posters are inspirational and iconic. I like the image of the child with a powerful message used as the bubble of the bath. I intended to recreate this using ice and water.
Daniel Carter - OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Monotype
Looking at previous campaigns
What can I take from this research?
We are aware that the water in third world countries is not filtered or clean and therefore requiring walking miles for some water for their children. This is a successful poster because it makes you think with the simplicity of colour and text. The text chosen is bold, eye catching and makes you stop and think. The two glasses are both proportionate however you almost feel as if the dirty cup has been altered because you can see the water in the first cup but not so much in the second.
What I was really looking forward to this brief was working with typography alone. I’m aware of how powerful typography is but after doing more indepth research it has been used even since May 1968 to create a revolution created by students. I need to create a poster that is going to make someone stop and think. It’s important to notice that a lot of campaign posters are very simple, short and straight to the point.
Initial Ideas Initial sketches
Experinting with type
I began by starting a quick sketch on my notepad with ideas that I could generate further into the brief. I decided for this brief that I would approach this brief slightly different. I’m not used to working with only typography and therefore I found it difficult to sketch ideas that used only type. Because this brief focuses on typography only, I decided to come up with a few initial ideas using illustrator and type. I created numerous posters using type only using different typefaces that I downloaded that I wanted to try out to see if they matched my theme. I think the poster ‘Water is coming to an end’ has a clever concept behind it removing more and more of the word as you go along however, I think the text is too thin and doesn’t catch your attention. The ‘you drink water they drink dirt water’ is a poster which blends the two statements together which focuses on the campaign that I researched in my research above. I wanted to get a similar message across but using only typography. I also wanted to show a contrast of the two different colours that are layered above each other.
Badges and Websites It’s important to create accessories that are going to benefit a campaign. This means investing in everyday items such as badges, wristbands that could be handed out. I wanted to create a badge that would show that you donated and that you saved water. We are all very unaware of how much water we waste every day when there are people around the world who don’t have the same privledges as us. I started creating a website by creating very simple wireframes that I intend to further and get a website done that could encourage you to donate. Experinting with badges
Daniel Carter - OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Monotype
Website wireframes
Development Developing the campaign further. For my concept I decided to focus on water based typography. Since my campaign is about creating awareness for The Water Project I decided to create all my type with a water feel towards it. I wanted people to easily understand the relationship between the posters statement and the typographic choice. I personally really enjoyed creating these because its something that I have never done before. I think the posters are eye catching and short therefore hopefully making you stop and read it. I think these posters would benefit best from billboards and bus advertisement because they are very short messages and it is easily recognisable and easy legible. I created a set of four posters that would work well together. For the loading water posters I decided to use the most of social media and how we are quite a technological era. With the internet being big in the world I used the word ‘loading’ to make you think about the relationship between technology and water. When the internet stops the page says its loading and this is the same for people in third world countries who are ‘waiting (loading)’ for water. The water is also half visible to show that it is waiting to be loaded.
Daniel Carter - OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Monotype
Experinting with type
Developing the campaign further. I wanted to try experiment with badges as they are a way of further promoting the campaign. The new badges have a more subtle blue which varies throughout. The badges now have short statements that show that would make you think. I want these badges to catch other peoples attention when they are clipped on to bags or any other accessory. I wanted these badges to mean something so that people would be reminded of how lucky we are to be in the situation that we are.
Website Development Creating a new website Throughout this campaign I noticed that the website was a bit bland and wasn’t organised very well. I decided to re-create the website and add a new feature in both the desktop version and the mobile version which makes the websites now more interactive. The websites now have a bottle which would automatically fill up depending on the donations recieved. I think it is important to notice how much your donation helps. I wanted to use an everyday object like a bottle of water to demonstrate how much of a difference one person can do by donating a small amount. For the mobile version I decided to make it very easy to use. For me I noticed that on the mobile version it was quite difficult to navigate around the website. Therefore I have made it more spacious as well as keeping everything minimalistic. Page 1 is the front page which shows who the campaign is and what they do followed by a statement that would change on a routine. I also placed social media links at the bottom of the page so that people could promote this campaign even further. Page 2 consists of the donating page. Each ‘donation link’ is linked with the tap therefore each donation that you choose and donate will start the interactive tap which drops the amount you donated into water drops showing how much of a difference you can make. The website just like the mobile version has been stripped back. I have kept the idea of the bottle to show the importance of donating and how much of a difference it can do to a family. The second page is kept simple so that it is easy to read and easy to learn about the campaign. Daniel Carter - OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Monotype
Mobile website version Page 1
Page 2
Mobile website version
Mobile version using the tap as an interactive display
Desktop front page
Page 2
The welcoming page for The Water Project
Simplified versio
Final Outcome Final campaign designs. Here is the majority of the work that I created for the monotype brief. I think the posters and the website work well together because of the simplicity of typography. I am very happy with these brief because it was a brief that I struggled with at the start. I wish I could have worked further on the badges to create badges that would be similar to the website and the poster. However, in the time limit that I had I am very satisfied with the final outcomes. Once I had got going with this brief I actually found it very enjoyable and a pleasure to do. I intend to design for campaigns and campaigners in the future because I would like to start my own charity in the foreseeable future or atleast get involved with one. I really believe that we are unaware of the country and how hard life is for other people. Living in the UK we are very unaware of dirty water as even our tap water has been filtered.
Bus advertisement
Badges
Bus poster advertisement
Website and poster mock up
To conclude, I hope to get more briefs like this in the future because you realise how powerful typography is as well as the importance of design. I learnt a lot from this brief about the campaign itself and what we could do to benefit the world and the people who need us most.
Daniel Carter - OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Monotype