Project Report for Responsive Module

British Council Eastpak Kings Weston Ale Lara Lindsay Secret 7�

Secret Solstice Pieminster

PROJECT REPORT

OUGD503

Responsive

Jamie Pudsey

Pudsey Pickle Co.

Introduction This has an important module for me in terms of my development as a designer and realising the type of work/brief I’m interested in. I have an even stronger appreciation for working on heavily conceptual work, branding & identity and Illustration.

It’s also been a huge contributor to my future portfolio as I feel the briefs I have chosen to work on shows a wide variety. It’s also been significant in helping me realise importance of time management, communication and presentation.

Contents Eastpak

App Design / Promotional

Dressing the Screen

Branding & Identity / Environmental

Lara Lindsay

Branding / Web

Pudsey Pickle Co.

Branding / Packaging

Kings Weston Ale

Branding / Identity / Illustration

Secret 7”

Product / Packaging

Pieminster

Illustration

Secret Solstice

Vinyl Graphics / Exhibition Publication

Eastpak YCN Competition Brief

The Brief - Connect Eastpaks’ Heritage to a wider audience.

- Make their brand more ‘sharable’ and ‘interactive’.

- Communicate the Eastpaks’ Urban lifestyle solutions are more relevant to the ‘Emerging’ audiences’ new life stage rather than just the original Padded Pak’r

Why? The brief appealed to me because the strict set of brand guidelines came with it but this is something that many designers have to get used to working with. I’ve also wanted to get better at presenting my ideas, this brief asks ‘target consumers’ through ‘modern media channels’ and to present something like this purely with image text is a difficult challenge in itself.

The Solution I came up with a concept which changes the way that people interact with a city. I proposed an app which located ‘hidden gems’ of the city of London and ‘gives access to some of London’s less conspicuous destinations’.

Evaluation Looking back at the boards I submitted for YCN I wondered whether i should have chosen to show more examples of the ‘hidden gems’ and possibly explain how they relate to the ‘Emerging’ target audience which Eastpak stated in the brief.

I also wish I had spent more longer working on the promotional campaign for the app as I think the concept behind the advert isn’t particularly very well refined and doesn’t target a consumers effectively.

Eastpak YCN Competition Brief

British Council D&AD Competition Brief

The Brief - Create a bilingual identity for the Dressing the Screen’ exhibition through the physical graphics, way finding, web presence, brochure, physical graphics and print design. The identity should be clean, simple and elegant. The design needs to be flexible as it the tour starts in Moscow and then travels to Brazil, Thailand and Mexico.

Why? I particularly excited by this brief as the subject matter was really interesting and unique compared to all the other competition briefs. Lizzy and I are very concept driven designers and this brief suited the both of us as the brief asked for a strong concept. Another positive aspect of the brief was that the concept behind the

Identity would have to work across loads of different application, including print, web and environmental graphics, this meant that Lizzy and I could spend a lot of time on the concept and then assign each other different roles depending On our strengths and work separately as well as we did together.

British Council D&AD Competition Brief

The Solution Our solution came about by working backwards. Instead of sketching ideas on how to create strong, simple and elegant visuals, we tried to solve the problem of how we separate the two languages. This was done by the use of two different colours throughout the exhibition way

Finding systems we then used the colours throughout the identity of the exhibition to keep it consistent. We created a backdrop image using the two colours of thread and wrapping around a square frame. This was reinstate the concept of ‘Dressing The Screen’

Evaluation I’m very happy with the outcome of the collaborative, I think it’s possibly one of my strongest pieces of work so far on the course. In terms of technical and aesthetically execution, but also in terms of the concept behind the identity.

However, Lizzy and I took longer than intended to nail the concept of the identity perfectly which meant we were a little behind in crits with things such

As well executed design boards and solid concepts. Once we had the idea we both worked hard and fast to make sure everything was produced with a high attention to detail and with a consistency.

British Council D&AD Competition Brief

Lara Lindsay Live Brief

The Brief Was to simply brand her business by designing a logo and put this across all promotional platforms. This involved redesigning her website and designing some business cards and other printed material.

Why? I worked with Lara Lindsay over the Christmas break and she showed an interest in my area of study and was keen to get me working on a branding project. I had never taken on a live branding project before so this was an exciting challenge for me.

After the web design brief we had covered in Design production earlier in the year, I was keen to practice designing and coding a website which would go live but hosting problems that I wouldn’t actually get to do this so I have just proposed this.

After the disappointment of the website, I was hoping that the print aspect of the branding would be a creative challenge, however Lara already had a clear idea of what she wanted the logo to look like and the printed material to follow the same colours as the branding inside of her bags so this was brief was more of a simple case of putting everything together instead neatly.

Lara Lindsay Live Brief

The Solution Design the logo was simply a case of turning a drawing she showed me into a vector image which could be used across all platforms.

Lara was interested in getting some business cards printing and the branding needed to be consistent with the branding inside of her bags so this was a simple case of using a black and gold colour scheme across everything.

As there was no particular deadline for the business cards I took it as an opportunity to practice some screen printing and photography and present these to the client.

Evaluation Although this brief didn’t challenge me conceptually, it did teach me that the client is always right and that briefs in the real world are not always as stimulating as you might think in the end.

As there was no real deadline for I had to time to learn some new skills in screen printing with metallic ink and photographing branding print ephemera. I think that both are very useful and something that I will

Most likely use in the future. However, I would have preferred a tighter deadline or more of a creative challenge involved in the branding. I was hoping that the business card would be printed so this would give me experience in communicating with printers on behalf of a client and working with budget.

Pudsey Pickle Co. Live Brief

The Brief To redesign/re-brand Pudsey Pickle Co. Using either an A4 Black and White printer or other solution.

Why? I chose this brief to help out my parents with their relatively new business but also because it offered a very real life scenario.

This brief came with a few limitations; my parents have an old printer which can only print black and white and this how they print their labels.

The Solution This brief forced me to think outside the box and I came up with a slightly archaic, nonetheless cost effective but perhaps labour intensive way allowing my client to print their labels.

I designed a stamp which would be made by laser-cutting some grey linoleum with the design I had come up with and placing that onto a stamp using adhesive and foam to soften pressure of each stamp.

The actual label isn’t printed with a stamp but it can be printed on my clients black and white printer.

Evaluation Although it’s quite a simple idea, I’m quite pleased with it as it genuinely a money saving solution and the stamp and the label design are going to be used in the near future.

Pudsey Pickle Co. Live Brief

Kings Weston Ale Live Brief

The Brief To design the branding and beer label for Kings Weston Ale, which is a business which is yet to be set up. The identity has to reflect the rich heritage of Kings Weston House itself and but a with a crisp, modern aesthetic.

The Solution As the brief was completely wide open I thought that it would benefit me to place some restrictions on myself to make it more a challenge. One restriction was to not include any images/drawings of Kings Weston House and keep it mainly typographic. Another restriction was to keep the design black and white so that it’s cheaper for Norman to print.

Why? This was brief I found from one of my dad’s old friends Norman. I had heard that he was planning to set up a small microbrewery in the Cellars of his business investment Kings Weston House. This was another brief I offered to do for free as it was purely for the love of design beer labels.

Evaluation I chose to take part in this brief purely for the fun of designing a beer label for a microbrewery and designing a product for which is based in such a historic house.

Secret Seven” Competition Brief

The Brief Secret 7” is a brief The organisation take tracks from seven of the best known bands and artists around. They ask creatives from around the world to submit graphic artwork for 7 Inch record sleeves. 700 sleeves will be exhibited Downstairs At Mother in London on April 12th & 13th, then on Record Store Day - 19th - you can get your hands on one, or more, for £45 apiece. The theme of the competition is you don’t know who created the sleeve, or even which song it’s for until you have parted with your cash.

Why? I am glad I took part in Secret 7” again this year as the design competition raises money for a different charity every year, this year it was war child, and it felt good to enter a more ethically aware design competition.

It’s also brief which is very open to interpretation, this meant I could also work on honing certain artistic skills such as illustration or photography.

Lorde Team The Solution I wanted to work on my skills on Illustrator and Photoshop to create the artwork for this brief. For Lorde - Team I wanted to reflect the dark, gloomy aesthetic of the music video for this track literally so I used took a screen shot of a scene which I though encapsulated the mood of the video as a whole and experimented with different filter effects tools in Photoshop.

Evaluation The concept is a very literal and the approach I took was a very aesthetically conscious approach. I restricted my self to using just Photoshop which forced to me to learn far more about the software and I am far more aware of the different techniques and tutorials available to me now. From looking at the winning entries this year I have realised that entries with interesting and well written concept usually wins the competition and this is something that this entry lacked.

Secret Seven� Competition Brief

Massive Attack Karmacoma The Solution As massive Attack are a very considered band I thought it would be best to work more conceptually but I went for a very abstract approach, using only a few various colours with some textures and effects inspired by abstract art.

Evaluation Not winning this brief taught me to come up with a concept that other people can relate to rather than an abstraction. I think my down fall is not relating the imagery directly to the artist.

Roxy Music Virginia Plain The Solution As the name of the song or artists cannot be displayed on the record cover I though it would be interesting to try take Roxy Music’s infamous album cover for this record and turn into something that was a lot more difficult to recognise. Looking at Pixelized art gave me the inspiration for the idea and challenged me as I had no idea how this art was made. I found a solution in the effects tool of Photoshop.

Evaluation I learned another image making technique in Photoshop by using the pixelate effect and then made this into a vector image in Illustrator. This entry also didn’t win and again I think that this is because there was no a strong concept behind the image and I designed it purely to learn new art-working skills in design software.

Secret Seven� Competition Brief

Marc Bolan Get It On The Solution I wanted to really reflect a modernised view of glam rock era that Marc Bolan was apart of. Using a stripped down colour palette and I made the artwork.

Evaluation I was sure this should have be a winning entry as it was a simple idea, with a stripped down aesthetic which something that Secret Seven� judges seem to go for but it was not to be. I am still glad I took part in this competition though.

Pieminister Live Brief

The Brief This brief was to come up with pie based statement, pie puns and visual jokes and to create graphic that communicate these using simple imagery and typefaces (sent from Pieminister) to be viewed on Pieministers social media sites such as twitter and Facebook.

Why? I was given this brief by the in house designer at Pieminister as I worked with him on a couple of briefs over summer.

I wanted to design a few puns and keep sending it to the designer to just as a way to keeping in touch with the designer so he doesn’t forget me.

The Solution I came up with only a handful of graphic puns for this brief as I actually did find it quite hard to come up with puns related to pie after a while.

Evaluation This wasn’t a brief that I spent a particularly lot of time doing and but i enjoyed them because the imagery and text has to be fairly minimal for it to work. I was also given some free typefaces by the in house designer.

Pieminister Live Brief

Secret Solstice Competition Brief

The Brief Create original graphic artwork as inspired

by Iceland, music, the midnight sun and the idea of the Summer Solstice.

Why? The competition offered 15% in royalty of net profit, $1000 cash prize, 2 VIP tickets to the music festival and exposure of the design across all Secret Solstice’s social media channels.

I am aware of the different ways in which competition briefs are exploitative, especially from Talent house, but it was the creative freedom and subject matter which tempted me to work on this brief as this would allow me to work on technical skills.

The Solution I wanted to learn the way he makes images on the computer. Like the Secret 7� briefs, I restricted my self to using just software on my laptop to create the artwork as i felt I still need to improve my skills on Photoshop and Illustrator as I know there is still a lot to learn. I experimented with using halftone and 3D effects to create the artwork. My concept was to reflect visually the Mountain and the Sun as these are the main themes of the festival.

Evaluation Although I discovered some new skills on software I feel, looking back the outcome of the brief I regret restricting myself to using software as at the time I was quite interested in using photography and 3D model making for the production of the artwork and not pursuing this was down to bad time management. It also taught that sometime it’s best to come up with a stronger concept rather than improving artworking skills.

Conclusion

At the start of this module I knew I wanted to work on a diverse range of briefs and I strongly agree that this project report shows that I have managed this. From areas of graphic design such as Information & way finding to Illustration, I feel that I have touched upon a broad range of areas of graphic design. It has been through working on these different areas that I have learned a lot more about the type of designer i want to be and the kind of work I want to be producing in the third year. Although i still feel like I could have worked on a lot more briefs for this module I have amazed my self at how much work I have produced.

From working on the British Council and Eastpak briefs i have enjoyed thoroughly analysing the briefs and investigating ways that fits the brief but also, as they were competitions, creating something that would stand out from the crowd.

However exploitative competition briefs are, I have found that they have been fantastic to work on as, unlike live briefs, they allow for a lot of creative scope. The briefs are usually quite broad and crits sessions have helped us narrow down audience and pin point specifically what they are asking us to do and I feel that I am far better at analysing vague briefs now.

Creating a bilingual identity for Fashion Film Exhibition in Moscow is definitely

something i never envisioned myself doing at the start of the module and this is why I think, however exploitative competition briefs are, they are beneficial to my practice as a whole because they allow me to work on briefs that i would never normally work on if I was to rely on live briefs from friends/ family or set by my tutors. I think i will carry on working on my competition briefs next year to strengthen my portfolio.

Working with a creative partner also opened a new dimension to me as a designer. Before this module, I had never really enjoyed working in groups, but I think this was in the past they were mainly larger groups which is difficult for communnicating. I found that it’s far easier to communicate and far more work is produced in a shorter space of time. I am looking to collaborate a lot more often in smaller groups in the third year as i believe that two heads are better than one.

Lizzy and i weren’t without our problems though, we did differ in opinion at the start about how we de-construct the brief and they were also a few crits where our design boards weren’t prepared to a good enough standard. We also agreed to split the work down the middle however, there were times where i thought i was bearing a bigger chunk of the workload than she was but I was happy to take it on as i didn’t want to

compromise the quality of our entry to the D&AD judges.

One skill I have realise the importance of and refined heavily, is the knack of good presentation. The nature of this module meant that we practiced preparing design boards for each crit and this put us in good stead for the YCN and D&AD and other such submission dates.

I have learned that the key to good presentation is clear communication, impactful imagery and a well refined concept.

Through creating design boards I have also learned that taking good quality photographs of work is as important as the work itself as the photograph is what you are sending them.

One of my main disappointments during this module was the live briefs that I took on. I started with the attitude that it was far beneficial for me to take on more live briefs than competition briefs so they were given priority. After meeting Lara Lindsay for the first over the Christmas break I was excited to work on a full re brand of her business.

This brief took priority over Eastpak and I ended up switching my main brief to this one. Overall it didn’t feel like a very professional brief as Lara wasn’t the best at replying email so there was a lot of time in between contacting where actually not a lot

of work was getting done. The only brief I found satisfying was working for my parents as this offered real life restrictions such as money issues, black & white printer, etc.

As I would was designing for friends and family it meant that deadlines weren’t set in stone, this meant that I could produce work in my own but this isn’t very reflective of real life situations. For next year I want to invest time in finding slightly more industrial standard design brief s and clients to work for.

Looking back I’m disappointed at the work I produced for various competition brief, including Secret 7’ and Secret Solstice. I’m a very concept driven designer usually but i saw these brief as opportunities to create artwork and improve my technical illustration skills on various software. I strongly agree that if i had taken more time to work on more of a concept which people can identify easily then I think I would have had far more success with these competitions. This has proved to me though that I much prefer a brief which is restrictive as this as this forces me to solve problems.

Overall I have found that this module has made realise my potential and I have found the direction of the type of design i am interested in pursuing both at the end of this year and the next academic year.