The Brief Create an exhibition identity for the British Council’s: Dressing the Screen. The identity must be bilingual and represent the new age of fashion film.
Research I looked over previous identities for the exhibition seeing how the bilingual aspect had be handled previously and also what had previously been done and therefore not what there looking for. A common aspect is monochrome colour palette. This could be something to extend upon or to offer something different then previous years depending on how appropriate it may be to our ideas. Seeing the layout of the exhibition helped me visualise how the exhibition would function. They obviously like forward thinking ideas with the use of projections and hanging fabrics around the space.
After looking at the previous article I took several points from my understanding of the exhibition. The main thing that stood out to me was morphing/shifting of a new genre due to the technology revolution. I looked at the idea of morphing and this can be applied to design. When looking into visuals of morphing the shape of a triangle came up. I thought of the shape of a triangle and how its the strongest structure.
Resources I looked at the brief resources provided by D&AD in the pack and online on the site. This helped me get my head around what they actually wanted from the brief. I got a clear understanding of what fashion film was and how the exhibition hoped to explore and display Britians part in the development of the genre through advancements in technologies. I decided to look at some of people featured in the exhibition and the kind of work that would be displayed. I was fascinated by the videos they had, they were so dramatic and made such strong statements. They were extremely arty in this respect but I liked the exaggerated shots.
Ideas I expanded my initial idea looking back to the brief for what it was after and how this concept could work and apply to different aspects. I tried developing the ideas and visual I had already created trying to keep the key parts of the brief in mind.
Idea Development After my initial read through of the Brief Overview I did another read through picking out key words and phrases that stood out to me. I then defined these words using google to extend the vocab and to create a visual understanding of what this could extend to. ‘Parallel’ stood out, I felt that this could work extremely well with the bilingual aspect of the identity as well as create a representation between fashion film and contemporary media. I looked deeper into what parallel meant. There is a common diagram used which demonstrates parallel lines. This I felt was important and could work as a concept for the exhibition identity. From this I looked at visuals under parallel, lines and angles.
I sketched ideas down from looking at what parallel was noting what it reflected in the exhibition and what it did mathematically. I also noted what the diagram was doing physically. This was then how I formed the idea the diagram being a representation of different aspects of the exhibition: fashion film (the new medium), contemporary media, and the featured designers. The concept: The two parallel lines represent fashion film and contemporary media. The diagonal line which crosses across the two creating a join is the featured designers. The way the line hits across the two parallel lines creates an individual shape for the designer, a platform.
I also looked at how this could be used to create the overall identity of the exhibition such as the title. With it being two languages at one time the line could break, or slice, the text either both languages or combine both, one having the top of the line and the other below.
Experimenting I did some initial thoughts of how the concept could be applied in the design. I tried experimenting with the lines of the parallel diagram, splitting up the text diagonally and horizontally.
“Driven by technological advances in image making, the huge expansion of the internet and it’s capability for viewing video, a new medium of creative promotion has taken hold: Fashion Film. The new medium has grown and developed in parallel to dominant contemporary media platforms, giving instant access to a global networked audience and market.�
The concept behind the identity of the exhibition is based on the parallel of growth of these two factors: Fashion Film and contemporary media. The diagram associated with parallel lines in geometry was the main inspiration for the exhibition Identity. We assigned an aspect of the exhibition to each of the three lines, in the diagram.
Fashion Film
Contempory Media
The two parallel lines stand for Fashion Film and contemporary media as the run along side each other in growth. The diagonal line that strikes through both is the featured artists. This diagonal line is key and stands for collaboration as theses three aspects join forces to form the exhibition as well as a new medium
Design Development The key aspect of our concept was to show the collaboration between fashion film as a genre and contemporary media as well as different creatives (e.g. fashion designers and film directors). We need to apply the parallel concept to the design. We began by focusing on the title of the exhibition which would be they key to the whole exhibition identity. We experimented with different ways of working the parallel diagram within the title but were finding it hard to get the elegant, beautiful and simple aesthetic they ask for in the brief. We decided to change from the bold weight to the ultralight to escape the heaviness.
I altered the ultralight weight by taking away as many of the parallel lines as possible to keep the legibility of the word. This created a bespoke visual title which worked with the parallel concept. It was a lot more elegant and clean in comparison to the originally ideas therefore we decided to push this further. Through the process we tried working our ideas for the identity with the content to try and maintain a focused response to the brief working with what they identity will be used with.
Application Development Now that we had decided on the logo we started applying the same brand aesthetic across all the different deliverables. We wanted to maintain using parallels and the diagonal line. For title we did the same as the logo, creating a separation. We used the parallels by displaying things in two lines as physical objects or two paragraphs showing two languages.
Research We decided on white on black for the whole exhibition identity to keep it as a set.The idea behind the film captions was that there would be two plaques alongside the work parallel to each other. I chose plaques as they were adaptable and transferable as the exhibition is constantly moving location and the languages will always be changing.
The British Council is delighted to invite you to the private viewing of Dressing the Screen: The Rise of Fashion Film.
Британский Совет рад пригласить Вас на частного просмотра Туалетная экрана: Восстание Fashion Film.
Resolution The design for the exhibition is stripped back to create a simplistic identity that creates a beautiful aesthetic that is pleasing to the eye and attention grabbing however keeping the strong visual images of the work as the key focal point. The design adapts with different languages and environments to work with the exhibition which travels around locations.
The dashed line is used consistently to create a strong brand presence across all the different formats and platforms. Devices were used to make the branding interactive with the audience such as augmented reality within the catalogue and a perforated envelope that uses the dash as a means to open it.
Collaboration I worked with Seb on this brief and the experience was very different to working alone. We had to work within each others schedules which was difficult at times due to placements. This meant we had to learn to communicate away from each other in order to share ideas. I feel that we were a good team because we both brought different strengths to the brief. However I feel our time management could of been much more improved and organised.