Projectreport

OUGD503 / Studio Brief 3 Project Report

Emma Nicholls / 257322

Studio Brief 1 / Individual briefs

YCN - Fever Tree This brief also stood out for me as what the brief was asking was quite different to the others, essentially it is more pattern/surface designing rather than your typical graphic design, but this appeals to me. I feel this will further my practice as there are a range of skills involved. This also is a good opportunity to undertake a campaign and a set a good challenge for myself as there is plenty of scope to create different responses.

Once reading the brief, it was quite confusing what was being asked in terms of specifications. It is a very specific brief but I find this as a good thing as I enjoy problem solving. This brief was asking for pattern/surface design for the bottle and not a rebrand and to not change the Fever Tree label. I feel my concept was successful and my research really helped to inform this. I do feel however that there was more that could of been done. My time management was good up until the last minute where I found I had my concept and patterns, yet I left it quite late to actually produce these. I would of liked to of made the final designs more sophisticated and my advertisements to a higher standard. This has really taught me to keep on top of things and not let my time management effect the impact of my practical work again.

However, I really have learnt a lot from this brief. I have come away with so much more knowledge than when I began. When starting, I knew nothing about pattern design despite it being something I'm interesting in - now I feel confident in the processes in creating pattern/surface design and have learnt a lot of new skills. This brief was a challenge. Although I did interpret the brief in a way that other responses could be made, I feel I can apply this mindset to other briefs. From now on I shall always think how I can go further with briefs, and in particular I am reminded of just how important it is to really plan my time.

Penguin Design Awards I chose this brief as I thought it would be interesting to delve into publication design and would be a good skill set to have. The fact that we had to interpret the books given to design the cover really appealed to me. The book 'How to be a Woman' for my selected category appealed to me even more as this is such an open, broad statement that there were so many possibilities to explore.

There was a lot of problem solving tackled during this brief. I wanted my design to be really concept driven rather than going for obvious. This was a challenge but a challenge that I really enjoyed. I feel that my design ultimately is a lot stronger due to it being concept driven. This has taught me different ways I can interpret a brief and how important concepts are within design.

I believe my design achieves my aim of clearly conveying that the book is entertaining and humorous. This is one of the main deliverables of the brief, and what really drove my ideas for my design, as well as my research which really helped to inform my final design.

Therefore I feel I have successfully achieved what the brief has asked.

I would of liked to of made the illustrations more clear as one of the illustration is cut off and looks a bit unfinished. Unfortunately my time management wasn't the best it could be, and I made a decision to accept it how it was to move onto other briefs. I still believe however that the final design is successful.

Secret 7 As I thoroughly enjoyed Secret 7 last year, this was a good opportunity to undertake for one of the smaller briefs. Design for the music industries is something that really appeals to me and something I want to explore for the future. In addition interpreting the song to create a design is very open, therefore there are a lot of possibilities to explore.

This brief allowed me to explore more concept driven designs as well as psychedelic designs which I really love. I feel I interpreted the song and my research really helped to inform my designs. Psychedelic and distorted effects is a skill I've always wanted to explore and this brief had a lot of scope for this. I also found a new way of working as my designs were made using an app, which was new and refreshing. I believe this brief has allowed me to learn new skills as well undergoing problem solving in terms of interpreting the song to create a concept, all of which will really help me in my future practice.

I definitely had a weakness in terms of feedback as I didn't attend one of the critiques for this module, so I could of got useful feedback for my designs which could of really impacted my final designs. However I know now how important critiques are and need to get used to showing my work despite my confidence. Despite, I feel this brief has been a challenge for me and I have gained a lot from this brief, which has expanded my knowledge and will help me grow in the future and learn.

Studio Brief 2 / Collaborative

YCN - Orchard Pig My group and I all mutually agreed that there was a lot of potential to have fun with this brief. This brief stood out to me from the beginning as reading the brief, you could tell that the whole brand ethos is fun, mischievous and bold. The phrase 'Notorious P.I.G' certainly conveyed this, and brand identity is something I find a weak spot of mine, therefore I felt that working collaboratively on this brief could really benefit me.

I was able to interpret the brief once reading it, seeing that they were asking for a campaign and not a rebrand. As this was a large brief, it was a good challenge for us collectively and individually. There was enough breadth to the brief that we could develop a range of different responses.

We all mutually decided upon the concept and idea and we then split the tasks for us to complete individually, which allowed us all to focus on our own practices as well as this brief.

I believe our campaign was successful as we achieved our aims and correctly interpreted the brief. We created a campaign using festival culture as our concept, using quirky and playful elements. This represents the brand well and accomplishes what was asked of the brief. I completed my individual task but wanted to go further and create another element for the brief, unfortunately I had a lot of trouble with Photoshop and couldn't achieve this. While asking for help on this however, I was able to learn a lot of new elements on photoshop from the technician which will be really helpful in the future. I was also unable to help create the animation as the only time we could really do it was while I was away on a trip with my course. I was able to put my input into the animation, but as I have no knowledge on making stop motion animations. It would of been interesting to learn, and if we were to redo the brief, this is something I would of liked to be a part of.

I found this brief challenging but not unachievable, more mentally stimulating. I was surprise at how much work you can really produce working collaboratively. After having a previous bad experience working in a group, it was refreshing and reassuring to have such a positive experience this time round. Our communication within the group was superb and our time management was fair as we stuck to our timescale.

In the future I hope to do more work collaboratively, especially across other courses again. I have learnt a lot from this brief, as previously said, I feel that brand identity is a weakness of mine and believe that this brief has benefitted me. I have learnt how to really deconstruct a brief and work efficiently in a team - both can really impact my future practise positively.

Summary I have found this module to be really insightful although also very challenging. Designing for live competition briefs has been different to any thing I've done before, but I can see my professionalism and technical skills improving. I have learnt a considerable amount from this module, and it has spurred me on to improve and undertake take competition briefs in my spare time/the future. I really learnt the value of project and time management in this module and this is something I must work on. I have expanded my knowledge hugely and gained new skills along with developing my technical ability. There is always room improvement and this module has gone on to teach me that and to impact my future practice.