Project Report An evaluation of live briefs completed within OUGD503
Responsive
Secret 7”
Studio Brief 1; Individual Practice
Brief Selection After completing Secret 7 last year and not getting selected to take part in the exhibition, I wanted to try this brief again and hopefully show my improvement and development in this years submission. Secret 7 allows and encourages complete creativity througout the brief, and as I am always trying to develop and experiment within my own practice, I felt this competition brief would be suitable and exciting for me to enter. Production When developing my ideas for the brief, the media experimentation I had intended to try throughout this brief was becoming useful. I admire the effects that can be created through analogue and more traditional print methods, therefore marble ink was the method I decided to go ahead with and develop further, eventually creating my final outcome.
Evaluation The work I submitted to Secret 7 did not get selected as one of the exhibition pieces this year, however I plan on submitting once again next year to try and achieve this. I found the openness of the brief exciting and interesting to work to, and hope to take part in more live briefs similar to this one in the future. This way of working encourages me to continue developing my own practice within experimental production methods, and allows me to apply my own way of working as well as my own style to live briefs. Music is a strong interest of mine, therefore this brief was very enjoyable for me, and is something that I plan on doing more of in the future as my design practice continues to progress. I aimed to mirror the song title ‘Dream 3’ as much as possible within my design, and I feel as though the visual effects created with the analogue techniques I used communicate this title well.
Penguin Random House
Studio Brief 1; Individual Practice
Brief Selection The Penguin brief was something that I found extremely exciting to take part in. I decided on the brief as book cover design was not something I had looked into or considered before, and I felt that it would be a good opportunity to test my creativity and skill within this area, as the design will be going up against 100’s of other entries. I decided on Emil & the Detectives as I find childrens illustrators extremely inspiring, and design in this area is something I would be interested in looking in too more to help develop my own practice. Production I handled the brief how I handle all of the others I participate in, by starting with a pen and paper. I wanted the design to look hand-made and like something a child could recognise and attempt to create, therefore I used a lot of illustration within the development of my ideas, as well as experomenting with ink and paint. The fingerprint people was the most well recieved design I showed to others, and seemed the most suitable for the brief and particularly my own interpretation of the brief.
Evaluation I submitted my work to Penguin feeling confident about my design. I feel as though the concept of the design comes across in a subtle yet interesting way, and I think the addition of the background texture to the colours used was a successful decision to help elevate the design aesthetic further. The small details I included throughout the design were recognised throughout various peer feedback sessions, encouraging me to feel more confident that I had made the right choice in submitting the design I did. I found the brief enjoyable yet challenging, and book design, more specificaly for children, is something I would like to look in to further in the future. I enjoyed working specifically for the target audience for this brief, and I was often surprised at how much I was enjoying designing for a very different clientele than that of what I am used to working for. I aim to take the skills that I have learned about commnicating to a younger audience and apply this to other work elsewhere in my practice, and another aim of mine is to take on more projects for this younger target audience.
Love Arts Festival
Studio Brief 1; Individual Practice
Brief Selection The Love Arts brief appealed to me in a number of ways. I read up on the brief to find out a little more about it, and once I had discovered that the festival was a celebration of mental well-being, combined with creativity I wanted to get involved. These are two subject matters that are both extremely important to me, therefore I felt as though it was a suitable and relevant project choice. Production The production time for this brief was kept quite concise and efficient. The submission for the brief was via e-mail and therefore was a digital finished product, allowing me to dedicate more time to experimentation and idea development without having to think too much about print costs (the brief specified that they would like the cover design to be full colour).
Evaluation I think the work I submitted for this brief was appropriete and suitable for the festival target audience. The brief stated that a ‘friendly tone of voice’ was preferred, therefore this is what I kept in mind throughout the development stages of the project. Time management throughout this brief was nessacerry, as other briefs running along side this one were also coming closer to submission deadlines, however I think that using my time efficiently helped me to create a better piece of work than I would have done, having elongated the entire process by a few weeks and running the risk of possibly over thinking design decisions. Designing for possitive causes such as this festival inspire me as a designer, and encourage me to put a lot of personality and character into my work, therefore working on projects such as this one is something I would like to try and do over Level 6 extended practice.
D&AD Design Bridge
Studio Brief 1; Individual Practice
Brief Selection The Design Bridge brief for D&AD appealed to me whilst deciding on a project to take on, as I already had a strong interest in packaging design, and felt as though more experience would help encourage and develop my skills within this area Production As much as I was excited about taking on this brief, I came to find that it was a brief much larger than one I had done on my own before, therefore before any production could begin, planning and conceptual development had to be done first. I found experimenting with brand names, concepts and ideas very challenging, as well as trying to create an identity that was gender neautral. This made the process take a lot longer than I had originally thought it would, and therefore once I had decided on a finalised brand concept to go ahead with, I had to make quick and efficient decisions based on what final outcomes I could achieve in the given time frame.
The production of my final work took a great deal of planning and included several trial runs and mockups. From the start I wanted to create physical versions of my final pieces, and this took up a lot of time and created more of a need for effective time management. I am confident that the final outcome is suitable for the brief, and answers the brief effectively. Evaluation The project overall has been successful for me and my own design practice & development, as it has taught me the importance of time organisation as well as limiting myself and controling the work load I take on at the begining of a brief. The ambition to create the final resolutions in physical form was a learning curve that I will take into future briefs, as this added to the length of time needed to create a final resolution which then resulted in me rushing work towards the D&AD deadline. If I am to take on another project of this size in the future, I will ensure
that a strict time plan is made at the very start of the project, meaning that I will have enough time to get the work finished and submitted to a standard that I am happy with and proud of. I have found peer feedback particularly helpful throughout this brief, as I found that because the process was over a long period of time, it became easy to loose my way slightly with the project, and to go off topic or loose my original idea when developing new or altered ones. The brief has encouraged me to think about how I handle taking on a lot of work at one particular time, and how I can work to the best of my ability in future, whilst still trying to balance various briefs at once and stay focused on creating new and exciting outcomes for each.
D&AD Adobe
Studio Brief 2; Collaborative Practice
Brief Selection This brief, being part of the D&AD New Blood awards, was particularly challenging, however I collaborated with another Graphic Designer and an Illustrator to ensure that we could create the best possible outcome to submit to the awarding body. Once we had seen eachothers work and recognised that we have similar styles and that we could work together, we felt that this brief would allow us to be the most creative out of all of the options available to us, and because of this, we thought it would be the most enjoyable to complete. Production As there was three of us working on this brief, we had to come to an agreement of who would do what pieces of work within the project, as the workload for a brief of this size was better suited to being divided between us. Production took longer than originally anticipated, as the Illustrator I was working with was attempting to do all of the illustrative work for the brief (upon her own request)
however ideas were constantly back and forth during this time and it took a long time to come up with a clear concept for us all to work along side. Once this was decided and agreed on for a final time we agreed that there was no more time for any other changes within the concept of our project. The theme of ‘build, explore, invent’ came to us through development and experimentation, however the production of work seemed to be pushed to the side as we waited for the Illustrator to complete the work she had promised us at a sooner date. This made producing work more of a challenge for myself and the other Graphic Designer I was working with, as it gave us significantly less time than we originally thought we were going to have, therefore some extensive experimentation and development throughout our design production may have been cut short, or not explored to their full potential.
Evaluation This brief was the most challenging brief I took on throughout the module due to the collaboration aspect of the project. I believe the project had the potential to be more exciting and impactful than our final resolution, however with time being low towards the D&AD deadline, the more ambitous plans we had had to be put aside and we had to focus on getting the most important pieces of work complete before anything else. Working along side an Illustrator was particularly challenging, as the idea of ‘conceptual’ design and showing continuity throughout the project seemed to be something that was difficult to explain and stress. Myself and the other Designer I was working with were often finding that the illustrations were taking longer than what was originally said, and that the ideas had been changed without a group discussion, therefore the Graphic Design based work load was getting higher as time was running out. This kind of confusion within the brief concept caused us to have to focus on producing work with very little time to develop and to experiment with our own ideas (for collateral such as mock-ups, printed aspects etc).
This being said, the illustrations are the central point of our campaign, therefore we could not do much of our own work without having them to go off (for style guide purposes, etc). Towards the end of the brief and with the deadline getting closer, the three of us worked together a lot of the time, and particularly with the animation we submitted to the awarding body showcasing our response to the brief. Although the three of us meeting and working together (either on seperate pieces of collateral or working on the same thing) was difficult at times, I always found the work load more managable and easier to understand if the three of us were all there to work on it together. This is because of the confusion that working seperately (but still on the same project collateral) often caused. Overall, I was happy with the work we submitted to D&AD, however in future collaborative work I have learned that organisation and time management are the most important factors within a group brief, and key to a successful submission.
Overall Module Evaluation
Responsive has been a challenging but enjoyable module. I found being able to decide on my own briefs an exciting aspect of the module, as it encouraged me to challenge myself as well as develop existing skills within my preferred areas of design. The collaborative project for Studio Brief 2 was the most challenging part of the module, as working along side two other creatives proved difficult and often time consuming. Although we faced challenges as a team, we each felt that the final outcome we submitted to D&AD was completed to the best of our ability given the limited time frame we had (particularly towards the end of the brief). I tried to ensure that time management was at the centre of each project, however an overall time plan across the module would have been useful, and could have possibly resulted in me completing another smaller brief. Having said this, I am confident that the work I have submitted for the module is all done to the best of my ability, and although each brief has had challenges I have enjoyed the module overall, and learned a lot about my own design process and became more confident in my skill and ability as a Graphic Designer.
Emily Patrick OUGD503 April 2016