Overview of the semester. 1. Type of brief: I feel like I best responded to my Ministry of Sound project. It had clear guidelines of type to be included, as well as a colour scheme but the idea was ‘open’ so I enjoyed coming up with my own ideas. I think I work better when I have atleast a few guidelines to start me off. 2. Integral elements: I seem to work in mixed media, a lot of the time involving hand drawn elements with photography and type. This is the way that I enjoy working and think most of the time my projects have been succesful. However, I don’t want to get into the habit of everything looking similar and would like to move away from using hand drawn illustrations too often as drawing is not one of my best skills. 3. Success: I think my strengths are that I can work to a set time frame e.g. D&AD. I enjoyed my Ministry of Sound project because I set out to get the best out of it that I possibly could within the time that I had. Which led me to work in 3D instead of sticking to what I know. I also balanced out my work to leave some time to meet the Little White Lies brief. I think the reason I had such a positive experience with the D&AD briefs was because I aimed higher than what I already know and wanted to learn something new as well as get a great set of work from it. 4. Problems: I think my main problems have arisen in the Manifesto brief. I came up with lots of different ideas but couldn’t seem to find one suitable for a long time. I would also have loved to have made my Manifesto interactive on my website so viewers could complete the maze there and click the boxes but this is something that would have taken a lot of time and css knowledge that I don’t have. 5. Personality: I am very interested in Typography which is something that I worked on in my Ministry of Sound brief but haven’t pushed a lot in other projects. This is something I want to do more of in the future. I also really enjoy editorial work and especially enjoyed my Garden of Fashion project in the last semester. This is something I would also like to take further. I feel like I have put my persnality across in my work by combining hand drawn elements with design giving it a personal touch.
Visual project summary page.
Clockwise from top left: D&AD Little White Lies, D&AD Ministry of Sound, Meltdown Festival Poster, Photographers Book, University Logo, Manifesto.
D&AD project. Introduction: A brief explanation of your project. 1.I chose the Little White Lies brief as it meant I had to come up with a graphic illustration to display Black Swan which I saw as a challenge as I am not a great illustrator. My initial research was based on 3D design which I saw as a great route to attempt as it was something I had never done before. 2. I came up with a 3D concept to make it more graphic than illustrative based and saw it as a great opportunity to use photography skills and lighting techniques to create shadows. 3. I feel that I met the creative demands of the brief because I was out of my comfort zone and created something much more appealing than the usual flat design poster as I had the 3D element. I found it difficult to get the photographs perfect as the designs would move but feel that overall the project was some of my best design work. The way that I worked is now something that I would like to do more of in the future.
D&AD project. INVESTIGATE Little White Lies.
D&AD project. SHAPE Little White Lies.
D&AD project. REFINE Little White Lies.
D&AD project. ARTICULATE Little White Lies.
D&AD project. Introduction: A brief explanation of your project. 1. I chose the Ministry of Sound Brief because I found an opportunity to create some typographic skills. My initial research was based on 3D design which I saw as a great route to attempt as it was something I had never done before. 2. I came up with a 3D concept including typographic shapes that I would then photograph as posters. I saw it as a great opportunity to use photography skills and lighting techniques to create shadows. 3. I feel that I met the creative demands of the brief because I was out of my comfort zone and created something much more appealing than the usual flat design poster as I had the 3D element. I found it difficult to get the photographs perfect as the designs would move but feel that overall the project was some of my best design work. The way that I worked is now something that I would like to do more of in the future.
D&AD project. INVESTIGATE Ministry of Sound.
D&AD project. SHAPE Ministry of Sound.
D&AD project. REFINE Ministry of Sound.
D&AD Project. ARTICULATE Ministry of Sound.
Meltdown festival posters.
University Logo.
Manifesto. Introduction. 1. My written Manifesto is telling people what to do throughout their journey through the maze (life) and gives a reason why you should avoid them. 2. The idea of it being a journey gave me the idea to look at maps for Influence and then the idea merged into a maze design. I started looking at Motherboard as it relates to me more than maps. Motherboard reminds me of maps and a birds eye view of a place. I think my idea was successful as it is interactive as well as a piece of design. Something I would improve is to make it interactive on my website. 3. I enjoyed creating something so personal and used one of my regular techniques of hand drawn elements to emphasise this. However, I did find it difficult having completely no guidelines as the brief was so open so this is something I need to work on in the future. I did feel that my manifesto was successful so hope to get projects more often where I can set my own design agenda.
Manifesto. 1. Never run out of money. You always want something when you have none. 2. Don’t have a favourite song. It will be put on an advert and you will soon hate it. 3. Never put earphones in a bag. They will always come back out a tangled mess. 4. Always buy new clothes. You will never have anything to wear. 5. Avoid the bird section of the zoo. You will get attacked. 6. Refuse ice in your drink. It will end up more water than alcohol. 7. Don’t swim in the sea. You never know what’s swimming around you. 8. Avoid all elevators. You have no control of when they will plumit to the ground. 9. Never trust a compliment from a shop assistant. They’re told to do it. Their manager is probably watching. 10. QR Code - The best designers get you to their website - Now let’s arrange an interview.
Manifesto. INVESTIGATE.
Manifesto. SHAPE.
Manifesto. REFINE.
Manifesto. ARTICULATE.
Photographers book.
Personal Development Plan. 1. I am going to develop and broaden my technical abilities by trying out new things with typography as it is something that I am highly interested in but haven’t had as much opportunity to persue it as I’d have liked to. I still enjoy working in mixed media but would like to maybe move away from too much hand drawn elements as it is not one of my best abilities. This will enable me to learn new techniques. 2. I am going to develop my skills by looking at more contemporary design to inspire me. I have recently updated my website and got myself a first blog which has helped get my work out there, get feedback and progress further as well as looking at other work. 3. I feel like my strengths were shown most in my typographic Ministry of Sound project as I feel like it has been the most succesful for this semester. However, this is something I need to develop as I haven’t done much typography work and it is something I seem to enjoy. Working in 3D is maybe something I should also do more of. I also felt that my photography book was one of my best pieces of work this semester which was helped by having a good relationship with my client. I enjoy working with photography and in editorial design. I would like to try and be more experimental with some editorial work. 4. I think I sometimes need to push myself to try something new as I did this with D&AD and ended up really happy with the outcome. Something I tend to struggle with is deciding on an initial idea as I go through lots of development work before deciding what my final outcome will be. I need to strengthen my game by looking at more work that’s out there so that I can get inspiration and won’t struggle as much with my own ideas. I also need to learn new skills as I tend to work in a similar way throughout projects. I will do this by working and developing my skills over summer.
Contact Details katiejayne-@hotmail.co.uk 07724281641 www.katiejayneroberts.co.uk www.katiejayneroberts.blogspot.co.uk