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Contents Summer Pre Tasks 4. Knowing Me, Knowing You 10. Smooth Criminals
Out There Project 16. Practitioner Research 22. Interview 1 - Publication 60. Interview 2 - Motion Piece
96. Website 100. Small Talks Presentations 102. Employability 108. Professional 120. Final Reflection 121. Final Outcome Links
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Knowing Me, Knowing You. BRIEF: From the 2 options available I chose A: Conduct an interview with someone not originally from the UK, preferably someone who doesn’t have English as their first language and that has moved to this country from elsewhere. Use the following guide questions as a starting point for the interview: • Are there any immediate stereotypes or clichés associated with their culture or language that they can identify or have experienced? (e.g. Germans have no sense of humour, the French are rude, Africa is full of hungry people) • Are there particular words or phrases in their native language that strongly link to a cultural or national identity? (think for example how cockney rhyming slang is seen as typically English or certain Australian phrases like ‘no worries’ suggest a laid back attitude to life)
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• What are examples of ways design has been used to project their cultural identity? This can be colours, symbols or images and examples can be found in advertising, fashion, film and other forms of media. Consider questions that engage your interviewee with issues around difference, identity, history, gender, social issues, geography (location), relationships with the world, politics, etc. Produce your findings as either: A publication that uses text and imagery / 24 pages minimum in length / size, format and stock are up to you. Or as: A two minute documentary film piece / to include titles and end credits. (final outcome uploaded to vimeo or brought in on a memory stick)
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APPROACH: First of all I decided that I wanted to make the interview into a film, I have made a few in the past and felt I could capture more on film then I could in a publication. I thought about who would be the best candidate for the interview based on a few criteria, first of all they obviously needed to have moved to the UK, but also I though it would be better to talk to someone I know so that they would be comfortable working with me, especially in COVID situations, and finally someone who I think can be articulate on camera as I know that it is a skill that shouldn’t be taken for granted. I have a very close friend called Jeremy who was born in Egypt and has lived in other countries before settling in the UK, and he is also used to performing in bands (with me) so I knew he would be comfortable in front of the camera. Most importantly, he agreed to help me with the interview.
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PROCESS: Questions sent to Jeremy: I formulated some questions and sent them through to him in advance, which gave him a chance to formulate his answers, ask questions and send me his responses ahead of time to look through. We set up a day to shoot the interview and decided that his home would be the best location. When I arrived we discussed how the interview was going to run. I asked Jeremy to give his answers in a way that included the question so that the film didn’t require the questions on screen (which I find clunky and breaks the flow of the interview, especially when it is so short) and also means I could get better sound quality by not having to record my voice as well. We set up a space to conduct the interview and went through all questions individually until each was answered in a way that we both felt covered everything. Next I wanted some extra shots of things around his home that represented his heritage including souvenirs, photos and any examples of Arabic that he had.
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Name, where are you from, how long have you lived in the UK?
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How much does your cultural heritage play a part in how you identify yourself?
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How connected do you feel to that culture?
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Were there any immediate stereotypes or clichés associated with your culture or language that you can identify or have experienced?
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Are there particular words or phrases in your native language that strongly link to a cultural or national identity?
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What are examples of ways design has been used to project your cultural identity? Such as colours, symbols or images or examples found in advertising, fashion, film and other forms of media.
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Did you’re cultural background create barriers or bridges when it came to integrating into your new environment?
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Egypt has had a very turbulent political past, has this in any way shaped your political standpoint?
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I understand that the majority of your family now live in Canada, what are the reasons that you decided to stay in the UK over moving on or returning to Egypt?
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Has the transition from living in Egypt to the UK changed how you view other countries and the wider world?
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PROCESS: When it came to collating and editing all the shots I had even more material in terms of answers than I thought, even with all excess footage cut out, the interview alone was 8 minutes long so I had to make decisions on what answers to keep and what was left out. Fortunately because I had asked him to give his answers including the questions it made it easier to cut parts out and move them around so that I could get a cohesive narrative without any breaks. I then used the extra footage to cover up any cuts. I had to find extra photos from Jeremy’s Instagram and Facebook as well as the image of the Iron Maiden album to help cover all the edits so the visuals would flow smoothly. I then colour graded the footage so that each shot looked more consistent. Finally I mixed the audio using plugins that reduce hiss and noise and added a part of the song that Jeremy requested to be the underlying soundtrack. Before uploading the video I sent it to Jeremy so he could check that he was happy with how he was represented and offer any comments. After a couple of requested edits, I uploaded the video to Vimeo.
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Screen Shots from Final Cut Pro X
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FINAL OUTCOME
https://vimeo.com/456514023
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Smooth Criminals BRIEF:
APPROACH:
Find 5 examples of cultural appropriation used in a design context.
I wanted to find specific contemporary examples of cultural appropriation and more importantly, I wanted to find examples that had opinions from the people who’s culture has been appropriated from as I didn’t feel it was up to me to decide what is and isn’t appropriation. I wanted to design them with a combination of a poster and an editorial, so that they were hopefully eye catching but also had an article to read so the audience can get a good understanding of WHY it is appropriation and how it AFFECTS those whose culture is being appropriated.
Cultural appropriation is defined as ‘the adoption or use of the elements of one culture by members of another culture.’ The practice is often criticised because elements of marginalised cultures are often not respected or celebrated in their own right – and only seems to find widespread acceptance when a ‘dominant’ culture steals it, repackages it and sells it. The examples you find could be adverts, products, campaigns or objects. For each example you find, identify what may be the irresponsible nature of its cultural thievery. A few suggested questions to ask are: • How are they disrespectful of the culture they are ‘borrowing’ from? • Is there any effort made to acknowledge the ‘stolen’ culture’s origins? • Who is being affected by this example and why? Produce as a series of five A3 portrait printouts using a consistent designed approach to lay out the images and text for each.
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News articles used in research
RESEARCH: I spent a long time searching the internet for specific examples that had at least one news story written about it. Many of the examples had a couple of stories written about them and I would take reference and quotes from each, making sure there were specific names attached that I could use as quotes. I found many stories, especially in fashion, that had examples of cultural appropriation however I wanted a breadth of items to write about, plus I think that some of the examples were more in the realms of (in)direct racism, not necessarily appropriation.
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RESEARCH: For the design I looked at some contemporary poster designs, I liked the idea of using block colour for each poster. I also liked the halftone look when it came to showing images.
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PROCESS: Once I had each item researched and selected I started on the first poster, editing the image and working on the copy, I felt it was important to start with a quote so it gave context to the rest of the article, finally I gave the poster a title. I then used this as the template for each subsequent poster. With each image I used the halftone / torn edges effect and made them monochrome. I did so to give a consistent look across each poster, to give me the option to colour the poster however I wished and also to combat the different resolutions of each image as some were not very large but the poster needed to be A3 format. Once I had the image and text laid out I would work on the colour scheme for each poster.
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FINAL OUTCOME
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Practitioner Research BREIF:
Categories:
Given a list of design-related professions (see next page), each student chooses 3 categories (i.e. art director, animator, product designer)
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Each student has to research (via web, personal contacts, etc.) 3 professionals from each of these 3 areas, based in Bristol, the South West or further afield, to create 3 x 3 A4 PDF docs for upload to tutor padlet ahead of week 4 session. Each sheet should display name, short ‘about’ biography, contacts (email/web/ phone) and at least one image.
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Art Director/Editor Artworker Web designer Digital Designer Fashion/Costume Designer Packaging Designer Set Designer Production Artist Lighting Designer Book Designer Type Designer Game Designer Film Maker Product/Interior Designer Architect Information Architect User Interface Designer Story Board Artist Prepress Specialist Lettering Artist Creative Director Copywriter Animation Designer 2D Animator/illustrator Photographer Printing Specialist Food Stylist Professional DJ Design Consultant Foley Artist
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APPROACH: Because of my own personal interest and because it is a large proportion of any professional work that I have done, I wanted to research branding agencies and individuals first. I have friend who has worked for a couple of agencies in Bristol so I wanted to include them. I also wanted to include another friends Bristol based photography business which then gave me a chance to research new photographers in the area. Finally I wanted to research web designers as I feel it is a solid route professionally in terms of building a career and it is a perfect blend of being creating and having a solid technical knowledge.
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Practitioner Research Continued DEVELOPMENT: From this set of different practitioners we were then asked to choose a field that we wanted to delve deeper into. This choice would then lead to the formation of groups which would be the basis for who I would be working with for the rest of the module. I chose to pursue branding and with that formed a group with fellow branding enthusiasts Cleo Richardson and Rhys White. We were then asked to research potential candidates for an interview who work in our chosen field, preferably locally. I spoke with a friend who works at Epoch Design as an Accounts Manager if they could recommend anybody either at their agency or her previous employer, Taxi Studios. I asked as there is very little information about the teams and the individuals at these firms, so it was difficult to get specific names and contact details for designers and art directors. My friend offered a selection of people to take a look at. As a group we had to put forward 2 creatives each.
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My chosen candidates for interview:
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From this research we then chose 1 primary and 1 secondary creative to contact. We decided on Beatrice Menis as our primary as she has worked with Taxi Studio, a large design agency working with brands such as Coca-Cola and Carlsberg but was now working independently under her own name working primarily with start ups and small businesses. We felt she would have a breadth of insight into the branding world.
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Out There Project: Interview 1 Publication. BRIEF:
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Our first brief for the Out There Project was to create a minimum 16 page publication using the transcript attained from an interview with our chosen creative, Beatrice Menis. The publication also required 10 illustrations or photos inspired by the interview content.
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SECURING THE INTERVIEW: Beatrice was suggested to us by my friend at Epoch because they worked together at Taxi Studio so this mutual connection gave us a good start for making contact. My friend asked on our behalf is she was happy for us to contact her, she replied positively so we then set about drafting our first email.
Cleo put herself forward to get the ball rolling with the first draft. We used the ‘7 Steps To Write An Email’ workshop as a checklist for the initial draft. Cleo wanted to be explicit that we understood that Beatrice’s time was very precious especially during the pandemic. Once the first draft was put together, we added a couple of personal touches to keep consistent with the contact our mutual friend had already made.
FIRST DRAFT: Good Morning, We are students writing to you from The University of the West of Englands Graphic Design course. Our names are Nathaniel Stevens, Rhys White and Cleo Richardson, and we have chosen to reach out to you in the hope that you will be able to help us in a project. We are inspired by your business basis, and would like to take the opportunity to ask if we can book some of your time to speak with you in an interview style conversation about your freelance company, some of the projects you have completed and some of your opinions on the industry. Due to the delivery of our course we do not have much time to work on this project and we hope to be able to conduct this interview sometime before the 8th of November, but we understand that these are unusual times, and that time is incredibly precious as a working creative at the moment. If this does not fit with your schedule we would greatly value a response to decline this request. We hope this email finds you well, and look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you, Nathaniel Stevens Rhys White Cleo Richardson
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FIRST EMAIL SENT: Good Morning Beatrice, This is Nathaniel Stevens, Rhys White and Cleo Richardson. To add some clarification to the contact you have received from Sam Hurley yesterday, we wanted to send this email to you so that you can understand what we are asking of you. We are students writing to you from The University of the West of Englands Graphic Design course and we have chosen to reach out to you in the hope that you will be able to help us in a project. We are inspired by the way that you work, and would like to take the opportunity to ask if we can book some of your time to speak with you in an interview style conversation about your freelance company and the way it has developed, your work with Taxi Studio, as well as how you have approached some of your projects and clients and get some of your opinions on the industry. The interview will be centred around the practice and process of branding, but we would like to take the opportunity to explore some of the deeper complexities of this field with you. Due to the delivery schedule of our course we do not have much time to work on this project and we hope to be able to conduct this interview sometime before the 1st of November, but we understand that these are unusual times, and that time is incredibly precious as a working creative at the moment. If this does not fit with your schedule we would greatly value a response to decline this request, or arrange an alternative date.
We hope this email finds you well, and look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you, Nathaniel Stevens Rhys White Cleo Richardson
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FIRST RESPONSE: Hi Nathaniel, Rhys & Cleo, Thanks for your email and yes Sam mentioned you were going to email :) First of all thanks for your kind words, I'm happy my work inspired you and I'd be more than happy to chat you through my freelance journey and overall experience. How would you like to have the interview? I'm happy if it's via email, zoom or even face to face, whatever it's easier for you. Would you be sending the questions upfront? In terms of availability I could do Tuesday 27th anytime in the morning or Thursday 29th anytime during the day. Looking forward to hearing from you, Best, Beatrice Menis
OUR RESPONSE: Hi Beatrice Thank you so much for getting back to us so quickly. We really appreciate you taking time out to talk to us and we are very excited to do our interview with you. We would love to conduct the interview face to face (adhering to all social distancing guidelines of course) and we are all available on the morning of Thursday 29th. Would you prefer for us to meet you at your studio and what time would work best for you? I would anticipate the interview taking about an hour to conduct, give or take. We will send over all questions on Monday afternoon for you to look through prior to our meeting. From this interview we will be making an online (and hopefully physical) publication plus it will be featured on the Out There Project's website. Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you next week. Nathaniel Cleo Rhys P.S. Great to see that you have a new class on Skill Share, I will have to reinstate my membership and check it out!
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SECOND RESPONSE:
Hi Nathaniel, I hope you had a great weekend. No worries, I'm happy to help and I'm looking forward to receiving the questions. My design/business partner Kira will be joining as well, we've been working together since March and planning on launching our new studio collaboration KIBI in December. It would be best if we met at Society Cafe as it will be more comfortable than our tiny studio :) Would 9.30am work on Thursday 29th for you? Thanks, Best, Beatrice Menis
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On our second response, Beatrice informed us that she would be joined by Kira Gardner, her business partner and ex desk buddy at Taxi Studio. They were launching their own design studio together in December. This was exciting news as it meant that we would have the combined answers of 2 creatives.
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PREPARING FOR THE INTERVIEW: Once we had secured the interview we started drafting questions. We wanted to questions about her practice and her experience but we also wanted to ask some wider questions that focussed on the responsibility of branding and design when it comes to representing brands, whether branding agencies have any responsibility to represent companies with honesty and authenticity or if the role of these agencies is to fulfil the wants of the client, irrespective of any moral compass. First of all we all came up with a set of questions independently, then we looked to see if there were any similarities and started to edit down the questions, either removing or merging any duplicate questions. During this process we noticed that our questions could quite easily be grouped into 3 main sections: •
Process
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Responsibility
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Moving Forward
Once we had our questions set, we emailed them to Beatrice and Kira to look through prior to the interview.
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PREPARING FOR CREATING THE PUBLICATION: We split the job roles between us and researched how we each wanted to approach the look of the publication. Cleo was responsible for layout ideas. Rhys was responsible for colour and typography. I was responsible for illustrations and images. I looked through some design and branding books to get some ideas for content, the main texts I looked through were: Michael Johnson’s ‘Branding In 5 and a Half Steps’. Aaron James Draplin’s ‘ Draplin Design Co: Pretty Much Everything’. Paul Rand’s ‘A Designer’s Art’. And finally a book released by Garage Project Brewing on beer can design and development called ‘The Art Of Beer’. I wanted the designs to represent an element of process and development, from drafts to finished items.
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CREDIT: Rhys White
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CREDIT: Cleo Richardson
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CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW: We had originally arranged to meet in Society Cafe but due to potential COVID infections we had to move the interview online. Beatrice and Kira were more than happy to do this and we conducted the interview over Zoom. With their permission we recorded the interview both through Zoom itself and the audio via Logic Pro X, this meant I was able to edit the audio quickly, cutting out anything that we didn’t want to include in the first draft of the transcript. Rhys was then responsible for getting the transcript drafted up ready to edit down further before laying out the publication. The interview went really well, they were both very open and easy to talk to and gave us a really good insight into their work and their views on responsibility in the branding industry. As an ice breaker, Cleo asked each of them to describe the other in 3 words and offer a colour that represented them.
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Illustration Rationale:
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CREATING THE ILLUSTRATIONS: After the interview it gave us a really good idea of what they were both like. I wanted to create fun colourful designs to match their personalities that were based on things that they had said during the interview. We also wanted the colours that they had given each other to feature heavily in all visual aspects of the publication. These were mint green and yellow. I also wanted to use similar colour palettes to those used by Beatrice and Kira, taking two of the major colours from their own branding. Subsequent colours were taken from other projects that they had work on such as the branding for House Of Pops, and even their office walls. The colour choices gave a nice cohesion throughout the publication and kept them looking relatively clean and simple which was done to further reflect Beatrice and Kira’s own design style.
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CREDIT: Cleo Richardson Initial Layout Planning:
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Layout concepts by Cleo Richardson
CREATING THE LAYOUT: To continue the idea of process and development as discussed in the initial illustration ideas, we originally opted to go for a bullet journal style as they are synonymous with a process document. Cleo created a set of layouts based on this design idea. However after further discussion it was decided that a bullet journal approach would look too busy and in order to really capitalise on that style, we would need to create the layout and illustrations simultaneously which would have proven too difficult given the COVID restrictions and Cleo’s health complications making it impossible for us all to be working in a room together. So in the end we opted for a simpler more editorial approach and gave more space for the illustrations.
We created a rough layout, laying out which pages would be text lead and which would contain illustrations. We then came up with ideas for each illustration based on which question the image would be next to. Once we had this mapped out I began to create the illustrations for the publication. TYPEFACES: We searched for a few typefaces that we wanted to use in for the publication, at the time Creative Market were offering the OK Regular font for free. We liked that it was a bold sans serif font that had a soft almost hand drawn finish. We felt this summed up Beatrice and Kira really well and used it for headers, numbers and questions.
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SHOP-U-LIKE NEW-4-YOU!
SHOP
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EST
‘20
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LAYOUT - FIRST DRAFT:
As I had created the illustrations, I began to create the layout using some ideas that Cleo had put together and the rough sketches that Rhys and I had done. We decided to use colour and shape to identify who is speaking, using the colours given by the interviewees and shapes chosen by Cleo which are shown in the opening pages of the publication to give an indication. We felt it was a more creative and playful solution rather than just using the names before each answer.
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Finally, we created a front cover and introduction and decided to give ourselves the publisher name of Stevens Richardson White. I made a simple logo for this and we featured it on the front, inside and back covers. During a crit session on the publications, it was mentioned that by having the questions larger than the response text, it was giving more importance to the question and not the answer. So we resized the numbers and questions to fit better with the body copy.
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FINAL OUTCOME: https://issuu.com/nathfiction/docs/ branding_20document_20pro_20prac_20single_20pages_
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SLIDES FROM OUR PECHA KUCHA PRESENTATION
CREDIT : CLEO RICHARDSON
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PECHA KUCHA PRESENTATION SCRIPT
Cleo :) SLIDE 2: Choosing our field We had chosen branding as a field to research further into as we all shared a common interest in the field. (Cleo) I have an interest in the field of branding as I find the process of how you can be the person to define an entire company with a small icon or few words fascinating and want to learn more about how it is done. (Rhys). (Nathaniel) My interest in branding has stemmed from my freelance work where logo’s branding and identity make up a lot of my work. SLIDE 3: Selecting a Creative To begin with we had to choose our creative. We very quickly decided that it was best in the current climate to try to play on our direct or mutual contacts, and so we selected Beatrice Menis as she was a mutual friend of Nathaniel’s. SLIDE 4: Securing an Interview Once we had selected our creative we moved on to drafting our emails to send. We wanted to be very definite with our terms in regard to dates and times, but also remain considerate of the fact that time is incredibly precious to working creatives at the moment. We were lucky to receive a response from Beatrice so quickly, and it was a bonus to be told that she would be joined by her friend Kira who is also a working creative. They are in the process of setting up a company together. SLIDE 5: Tackling the restrictions Initially we had planned to have the interview conducted face to face, and had settled on Society Cafe. It however became apparent that this wasn’t going to be possible due to some COVID-19 induced difficulties which meant we had to rearrange the interview to be done online. We opted to use Zoom to conduct the digital interview, and prior to the official interview we trialled our recording methods in order to have a recorded version of our interview to allow for our transcription.
Rhys :) SLIDE 6: Questions we asked We had decided we wanted our interview to be split into definitive sections, and the overall research basis was to discuss the field, and some of its deeper ethical complexities. When establishing our questions to ask we each wrote down a few in a collective google document which meant we can work together on the same document whilst simultaneously on a zoom call together. SLIDE 7: Ethical Discussion So the ethical discussion idea came from us wanting to add a new layer of discussion to the interview. We were interested in something a bit deeper in the underlying basis of branding rather than what was ‘on the surface’ so to say. We found that from our conversations and question brainstorming the natural direction was to have a more philosophical and conversational direction to the questions.
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SLIDE 8: Our Direction Determining our direction was quite easy. With our question document, when reading through it we found that all of our questions seemed to take the same kinds of direction, and this established it for us. When narrowing down the questions we split them into three sections: Processes in Design, Responsibility and Ethics, and Current Climate.
Nathaniel :) SLIDE 9: Creating our Content In order to split the workload, we agreed each to take a lead on certain aspects of the project. I took lead on the illustration, Rhys took lead on type, and Cleo took the lead on the layout. This means that everyone was able to work on sections of the project independently which was crucial as a change in circumstances meant it was impossible to be able to all work in the same room. We remained in contact throughout, discussing ideas and making sure we all had a common vision for the end result. SLIDE 10: Working with our Content Whilst Rhys worked on completing the transcript, I began producing illustrations which were heavily inspired by the colourful and playful styles seen in Beatrice Menis’ work taking colours from their portfolio and incorporating it into the designs. Originally we wanted to work on a bullet journal style publication to reflect Beatrice and Kira's love of the design process, with the intention of showcasing some of their sketches and development work. However they were unable to send us any material due to them being extremely busy. As a result of this we took a much heavier illustrative lead on the editorial taking influence from their answers, and wanted to make something joyful and bright as we felt it encapsulated both interviewees. SLIDE 11: How we changed our Publication and our conclusion After a tutorial session with Marco we revised the bullet journal idea as it was too complex, and would take away from the content. As a result we restructured to an editorial style, streamlined the layout and focussed on 3 main colours and 2 typefaces for the entire publication. Once we had gathered all of our content together, we were able to finalise the layout and put the publication together. We learned that delegating tasks and good communication were key to completing this brief successfully. From the interview we learned that building good relationships with clients was paramount to the work that they do, as some of these relationships last a long time. Thank you.
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We presented our publication and process using a Pecha Kucha, with each of us taking a share of the slides each and talking through our work. Finally we uploaded the publication to ISSUU, a website that was new to me but looked super useful. I set up an account and uploaded my summer zine project onto ISSUU as a tester before uploading this publication. I was also one of those that helped with the mass uploading of interviews onto the Out There Project website, I learned how to use the basics of Word Press and uploaded our interview onto the site.
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REFLECTION: I feel I learned a lot though this project, it was incredibly interesting talking to Beatrice and Kira and seeing the energy they have for brand identity, package design and helping companies find their place in general. I think what was most surprising was how busy they had been during lockdown as many people took the loss of their jobs as an opportunity to do something new and positive which was great to hear. Working on the illustrations and layout especially, gave me a great opportunity to practice, play around with different compositions and push myself further.
I am really pleased at the work that we all did as a group, we gelled very early on, had really good and successful communication despite not being able to work all together in one space. We kept a consistent and unified vision for the publication, making often unanimous decisions throughout the process and I think that shows. I think our publication is stylistically appropriate, visually consistent and reflects our interviewees very well.
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Out There Project: Interview 2 Moving Image.
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JAMES YEO For our second interview we had to create a motion piece of about 2 minutes, it could contain anything that appropriately represented our interviewee and what they had to say. We looked through our previously researched creatives and those suggested to us from Beatrice and Kira however, some suggestions were already featured on the Out There website such as Gavin Strange. We wanted to talk to a single creative rather than another branding agency to get a more specific perspective. Cleo suggested Dylan Shelton AKA Sir Scrub, an ex UWE student who is working as an illustrator. His style reminded me of James Yeo’s work, an illustrator and product designer for Left Handed Giant Brewery based in Bristol. We felt he matched our criteria perfectly, he is the Creative Manager and product designer for the brewery and is also responsible for their branding and merchandise but is working ‘in house’ rather than for an agency. I also had a personal interest in talking to him as I also work for Australian based brewery Blackflag Brewing and was keen to get an insight into the way that he worked.
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Examples of James’ Work:
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SECURING THE INTERVIEW: Once again Cleo was responsible for drafting the first email using the 7 steps technique, I then used that as a basis to develop an email to James. I knew one of the founders of Left Handed Giant and wanted to include that in the email to show we had some mutual friends etc, I hoped that would build a quick rapport and potentially give James more of a reason to allow us to interview him.
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FIRST DRAFT:
Good morning James, We are three students emailing from UWE’s Graphic design course. Our names are Rhys White, Nathaniel Stevens, and Cleo Richardson. We wanted to reach out to you to see if you’d like to be a part of a project we are working on. We have been briefed to produce a two minute moving image pieced based around a short interview conducted with a Graphic Designer of our choice. Once produced, our content will be featured on The Out There Project which is a design database produced exclusively by UWE students. We’ve chosen you! We are all big fans of your design work produced for Left Handed Giant in Bristol. We’re researching into the field of Branding and Company associated Graphics and we would like to ask if you would have some free time to speak to us in regard to a few short questions about your works and your experience within Graphic Design. Our course has an extremely fast turn around, so we would ask if you would be able to help us complete this interview by November 20th. We would greatly appreciate if you would be able to let us know how you feel in regard to this proposal, and would request that you inform us if this is not viable. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you, Nathaniel Stevens Rhys White Cleo Richardson
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FIRST EMAIL SENT:
Hi James My name is Nathaniel and I’m a second year Graphic Design student at UWE working alongside fellow students Rhys and Cleo on a project that focuses on professional practice. We are reaching out to you to see if you would be willing to take part in a short interview about the work you do for Left Handed Giant, your product designs and your role as creative manager at the brewery. We have chosen branding as our area of interest and we really love the work that you have done for LHG, I have been following your work for a while, I’m also a big fan of LHG beers and have known Jack since he was manager at The Hare On The Hill. The interview would consist of a few questions and will culminate into a 2 minute motion piece that will feature on the Out There Project website which is a design database produced exclusively by UWE students. Our course has an extremely fast turn around, so we would ask if you would be able to conduct the interview by November 20th. We would greatly appreciate it if you would be able to let us know if this something you would be happy and able to do or if it’s not possible. Many thanks and we look forward to hearing from you. Nathaniel Rhys Cleo
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FIRST RESPONSE:
Hey Nathaniel, I’d be happy to do this with you guys! Fridays work quite well at the moment. Let me know what time you’re thinking of and how you want to do it. Happy to help in any way I can! Speak soon, James
OUR RESPONSE: Good morning James, First of all, thank you for getting back to us so quickly! That's great, thank you for helping us, we are excited to talk to you. Can I suggest next Friday 20th November at 10am? With the current circumstances I am going to suggest that we conduct the interview via zoom if that works for you? (we will send you a link closer to the time) We would have loved to have come to meet you in person, perhaps when all these lockdowns are over we can catch you at LHG. In the meantime, we will send over the questions in advance of Friday's interview, hopefully on Monday, I suspect the whole interview wont last longer than 30 - 40 mins maximum. As this is going to be a video, can we ask if you could send us any of your artwork files (any format is fine) that you would be happy for us to use in the motion piece to showcase your work, accompanied with an image of your lockdown workspace? We will also be filming some of the LHG cans as well. We hope this is all ok, thank you again for agreeing to the interview. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. Many thanks and we will be in touch again soon. Nathaniel Cleo Rhys
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INITIAL QUESTION IDEAS:
How have you developed your style and who has influenced you alo basis of the LHG brand? - How important is the artwork on the can stand out in the craft brewing scene where great can artwork is an ev a can design what influences you the most, the name of the beer, the approach branding LHG? - As the sole artist and creative manager parameters to create within when designing? - Although the artwo consistency? Is this done to create brand recognition? - Do you hav your process when creating each design? - How did the beer can com in your Graphic History which culminated in your distinctive design developing branding opportunity for young designers? - How did y illustrators that have influenced your work? - What steps do you go t is your favourite and why? - How much have the designs in the alcoh beer would you be? - How do you find your clients? - How have you Did your style develop or solidify when it became the basis of the LH to selling whats in it? - How do you ensure that you stand out in the expectation of the craft beer drinker? - When creating a can design w or your own personal creative process? - How did you approach bra did you give yourself brand guidelines or any strict parameters to cr each can, how important is it to keep a stylistic consistency? Is this d that you like to illustrate the most? - What's your process when crea
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ong the way? - Did your style develop or solidify when it became the when it comes to selling whats in it? - How do you ensure that you ver increasing expectation of the craft beer drinker? - When creating e type of beer or your own personal creative process? - How did you r for LHG cans, did you give yourself brand guidelines or any strict ork is different on each can, how important is it to keep a stylistic ve a particular subject that you like to illustrate the most? - What's me to be your canvas of choice? - What process did you go through n style now? - Do you feel the craft beer scene is an evolving and you begin designing beer cans? - Are there any specific designers/ through in your design/illustrative process? - Which beer can design ol industry changed over the last decade? - If you were a beer which u developed your style and who has influenced you along the way? HG brand? - How important is the artwork on the can when it comes e craft brewing scene where great can artwork is an ever increasing what influences you the most, the name of the beer, the type of beer anding LHG? - As the sole artist and creative manager for LHG cans, reate within when designing? - Although the artwork is different on done to create brand recognition? - Do you have a particular subject ating each design?
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After we had each submitted every question we could think of, we then whittled it down removing duplicates etc. we had also read an interview with James conducted by the website Craft and Slice and were conscious not to choose questions that had been answered in that interview. We worked using google docs to each select our favourite questions in order to get our final 6 questions. After making our selections and discussing our choices we worked the questions until we were happy with them and sent them to James in advance of the interview so he could prepare if he wanted to.
REVISED FINAL QUESTIONS: •
How did you develop your distinctive design style and what influenced your creative practice?
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What did you do creatively before working for LHG?
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How did you approach branding LHG?
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When creating a product design what influences you the most, the name of the beer, the type of beer or your own personal creative process?
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How important is the artwork on the can when it comes to selling what’s in it?
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With the craft beer scene now full of products that focus on creative artwork as well as the beer its self, do you feel the craft beer industry is a good and viable opportunity for young designers?
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Design Research Presentation:
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RESEARCH: Due to the pandemic it meant that a face to face interview and recording on location at the creative’s studio or workspace was impossible so we had to look into alternative approaches to create the visuals. I was responsible for looking into how we could overcome this obstacle and I put forward 3 directions that we could use within our motion piece. Making sure we had enough material to fill the 2 minutes required. After discussions we decided that we should narrow our approach to a couple of more manageable ideas. We were limited in the sense that no one in the group was particularly proficient with After Effects and so
creating our content purely on the computer would not be the best plan of action. As James’ artwork is featured as the designs for the Left Handed Giant cans themselves it meant we could get physical products and film them in different ways. We decided that we could use the photography studio to do this. We also developed the idea of creating our own cans with questions or quotes on them that could be placed amongst the Left Handed Giant cans as a way of introducing a connection between the visuals and the audio of the interview.
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Mock up of beer can with question label wrapped around it. The design is based on a Left Handed Giant beer named ‘Sleepy Head’
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THE INTERVIEW: We conducted the interview in the same way that we conducted our first interview with Beatrice and Kira. We knew that audio was even more important this time so while James was giving his answers we were mindful not to make any noise or interject or comment until after he had finished speaking. We recorded the interview via Zoom and through Logic Pro X so I had a copy of just the audio that I could edit.
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James was great to talk to, his answers we’re really well thought out and thorough and even though we only has 6 questions, the interview lasted just short of 40 minutes. He was friendly and honest and gave us plenty of great, insightful content to work from.
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PREPARING FOR FILMING: After the interview I got to work editing down the content, taking out anything that we has said that was not needed, any information that we knew wouldn’t be in the transcript and also as many of the “likes”, “kind of”, “sort of” etc that I could so that these wouldn’t come out when we process the audio for the transcript. It took just over 400 edits to get the interview down from 40 minutes to 14 minutes. After that I began to extract sections that we would use during the motion piece. During this time Cleo was working on some music to accompany the visuals, she also took the interview and cut sections into the track to illustrate what content she wanted to include. Between the 2 of us we managed to get a cut of the audio that we were all happy with. We didn’t want to include our questions in this interview, we were aiming to have just James talking throughout without having our questions on screen, this was chosen for 2 reasons, first of all James’ answers for each question were very long with all being over 2 minutes per answer also when editing the clips down we started to merge answers together if we felt the content flowed more succinctly. Second of all was about pacing and flow, we thought that what James was saying didn’t need clarification with questions and by adding them we would be disrupting the flow of the speech and in turn the visuals. Cleo continued to work on the music piece remotely as her deteriorating health situation meant she was not able to work with us in person.
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PREPARING FOR FILMING: We needed some of James’ can designs to feature in the video so we made a couple of orders to Left Handed Giant and bought cans that we liked the artwork of, in the end we had 9 unique cans that we could feature during filming. We also needed extra beer cans that we could stick our own labels to and place into the shots with quotes from the interview. We bought a few cans from a separate brewery which were printed using labels rather than directly onto the can so we were able to peel the label off and have a blank canvas for the labels. Once we had the revised audio that we were going to use for the video, we started to pick out quotes that we could use as the basis of our quote cans. We all pitched our preferred quotes and again edited down to the final set. Once we had these decided I began to make some can sleeves using colours and elements taken from can designs that James had done.
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•
We were trying to go for a more modern, progressive, look.
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Gives people a reason / to pick it up
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"I liked the way it looked"
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A lot of graphic design stuff is pushed to the back so people have to turn it around and actually engage with the product
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There's always tiny little bits
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Ultimately the beer will influence the look of the label
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You wouldn't want to use a lot of colour
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or a lot of flashy imagery
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West Coast IPA: Orange Green Purple
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New England IPA: Yellow Blue Pink
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outgoing
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Hustle
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Be smart about it
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Free and supported way
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It takes a very trusting person to be / able to give that much of their brand to / someone else, and trust them with it.
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Initial design idea:
FINAL LABELS:
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FILMING: Rhys had hired a Canon AX30 from central loans for us to use to film the piece, we printed out all of the labels and got them ready to insert into the shots that we wanted. Each quote was created as a sleeve so we could change out each one non destructively and meant we only needed a few blank cans at a time. Rhys and I wrote out a loose shots list that corresponded to parts of the interview, we then went through each shot making changes and adjustments as we went. We wanted to have shots that showcased the artwork and highlighted parts of James’ process but also had us interacting with the cans to as way of creating movement and illustrating the tactile nature of the product.
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The final tracking shot was by far the hardest to get right, we had to make a dolly out of a skateboard and any large pieces of wood we could find around the studio, propping it up with boxes and furniture to get the right height. In the end we were pleased with the shots Rhys and I had created, we are both very meticulous and detail orientated which meant every aspect was scrutinised and worked on, this made for a longer shoot but meant the quality of each shot was much better, this in turn will make editing a lot easier.
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EDITING: As we had filmed the sequence in chronological order, editing was fairly straight forward, Rhys had also been quite strict with what we kept and what was deleted so that also meant there were not lots of shots to go through when putting the clips together. Once I had edited all the shots down, I adjusted the audio to make sure it all flowed nicely. We wanted to make sure it sounded like one cohesive response and explanation of his process. I also edited the music track that Cleo had provided so that it fit well with the interview audio, this took a few mixes until we were all happy. I then went through and colour graded each shot, adding LUTs (look up tables) to each shot and adjusting them individually to try and make the shots as consistent as possible. I added stabilisation when needed and added grain and saturation to help the visuals match the graininess of the audio as it was recorded via Zoom. There was a lot of discussion about getting the balance between degrading the visuals using grain and making the audio as high quality as possible so that we had a good balance between the two. The final touches were adding light leaks to some transitions and adding text at the beginning and then end. Once again we used the SRW logo as used in the publication.
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FEEDBACK: Through a tutor lead session we had the opportunity for some peer feedback as well as feedback from the tutor. Thankfully most of the feedback was positive with only small changes required before our final review.
Feedback for Cleo, Nathaniel and Rhys Quality of Interview: Audio is good —> It’s nice to have authentic audio from the actual interviewee. Technical Aspect: Really professionally shot. Nice touch having the cans with quotes on which relate and reflect Yeo’s design. Accessibility: Interview audio is good quality Like the music in the background —> Really nice piece of music that doesn’t get annoying after the two minutes. Stage of Development: Nice integration between the real cans, and our designed cans. Overall Design Approach: Nice zoom change on the extended shot with the quote at the end. Clever shots considering the area used to shoot Creative and entertaining. Developments: Wasn’t notable that the audio was ‘rough’. Keep the actual audio it’s more authentic. Possible to blend in the graininess on the audio —> Although the audio is a very minor fault and wouldn’t be considered a flaw.
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Quality of the interview. Good insight into the chosen professional. He spoke clearly, however, the recording was ever so slightly grainy. Wasn’t too noticeable and could probably be blended in aftereffects/premier if needed to. Techniques chosen to execute the video Simple layouts, clever shots and not too many effects. Was very effective. The transitions to get from one can to another also slotted into the whole video very well. Recording of an actor or the real professional Real recording of the professional. He gave a good insight on to his style and where and what influenced him. Left us wanting to know more about the professional. Easy to hear? Easy to read? The interview was clear enough to hear and the additions of text on the cans was designed in a clear and obvious way too. Stage of development. What needs to be done for next week. The video seemed completed. There didn’t seem to be too many loose ends or flaws to highlight Overall design approach? The clean design approach, colours popped against the white background. The music in the background really worked well for the whole 2 minutes.
Marco Feedback: Add your name at the beginning or the end Think about creating better contrast in the type at the beginning Adding a notch of saturation to the video. Be careful about distorting when adding too much. Increase the sharpness to the sound. Maybe remove some of the dampening on the music?
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FINAL OUTCOME: https://vimeo.com/487841146
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UPLOAD:
REFLECTION:
The final task before uploading to the Out There Project site was getting a transcript of the interview. We uploaded the full audio with an image onto Youtube which has an annotation feature. Once it had analysed the audio we were able to copy the annotations for our transcript. We then went though the copy to make sure it had been annotated correctly and catch any errors.
This project was really useful for me on a personal and professional level, as someone working in a similar role with Blackflag Brewing in Queensland, it was incredibly useful to talk to him about his process and colour choices as well as how hands off the owners are, allowing him to create what he wants. Because of this interview I have structured a set of questions which will be given to Blackflag before we take on any new product design work to make sure that we can create a brief, as without one there have been several times where owners change their mind on designs and beers and it becomes a nightmare to get any concrete direction. I have included questions about hops and beer colour as this always informs Jame’s colour palette.
I then uploaded the content to Vimeo and the Out There Project website as part of the larger upload of all content for this years entries to the site.
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Website I found the workshop really interesting however I found myself having to play catch up as most people were carrying on from last years workshop which I did not attend as I wasn’t a student yet. I picked the coding up reasonably quickly however it is a lot to remember and had to refer back to notes etc when developing the site. My first design was quite chaotic and full of colour, however I didn’t think it served to showcase the content very well so I made this much simpler black and white redesign. I created a custom button to for my CV link and also played around with positioning as a percentage rather than a fixed position, meaning images would move left or right depending on the screen sizes, I also put all information as a single column as when playing around with layouts previously, I would find
that elements would begin to overlap and cover each other at different screen sizes and resolutions. When researching ideas for the website, I found plenty of designs that I really liked, however my extremely basic understanding of coding meant that I did not have the skills to recreate these sites, this is another reason why I kept it simple as simple done reasonably well is much better than complicated done badly. I think with more time I would really enjoy coding, it really is a complex skill and demands a good amount of practice. Perhaps it is something to work towards in the future. I would certainly like to continue improving my page and working towards some of the examples I looked at when putting the page together.
RESEARCH:
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Small Talks I attended all Small Talks lectures from this series and found a lot of what the past students were doing really interesting, whether it’s in their practice or in their philosophy towards design and their relationship with it. One of my favourite talks was with Stacey Olika, I think she had some great perspectives on networking and how to use design to help further understanding, especially with her work with the Bristol Museum. There were 2 main points that I took from her presentation, the first was a quote that way given to her which states “Finding your why is the equivalent to finding your creative voice”, she explained that this is different for everyone and if you find something that you care about then every thing else will fall into place. This really resonated with me as it takes design back to its core, rather than focussing on the end product, the minutia, which is something I tend to focus on a lot but if you don’t have a strong ‘why’ then these details don’t really matter. The foundation is key and there are lots of things that I am passionate about so should use those as my why when creating work in the future. The second point she made that really stuck with me was the idea that it is ok to move forwards and backwards with you progression. Not everything that you do has to be better than the last thing that you did. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be always striving to get better and feel disheartened if I’m not constantly pushing forward. It was nice to hear a
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professional say that progression is not always linear and it’s ok to fluctuate. Stacey’s talk was great for the philosophical side of design and professional practice in general. In Jamie Burns’ workshop I really liked looking at his technical process especially when it came to building the website for Creamer & Co. I thought it was great to see his progression with the concepts through to finished pages. I also liked his way of using design and art as a way to assess children’s needs etc, I have worked a lot with special needs young people in previous jobs, using arts and music as a way of generating engagement, so I found his hospital installation really interesting. Finally I liked the philosophy he put forward that you should be able to explain any design idea in 1 sentence or draw it with a simple diagram. Another moment I found interesting in these talks was the way Yee Poon would tailor her work that she uploads to her social media in response to who has started following her or engaging with her posts. She would create or post content aimed at people that she would like to work with as a way of almost baiting them into asking her to work with them, this worked especially well with a chicken shop in London. All the talks were very interesting and offered a good range of advice and insight into different areas of the industry which I really value as someone coming into design from working as a part time designer.
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Employability PROFESSIONAL PROFILE WORKSHOP: Personal Qualities 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Meticulous Ambitious Energetic Creative problem solving Thorough
Myself as a designer 1. 2. 3. 4.
Client Focussed Inclusive Good at creating copy Good at processing and summarising ideas 5. Creating illustrations and symbols “I aim to use creative solutions to create visual and verbal communication that effectively gets to the heart of the message�
EMPLOYABILITY WORKSHOP: I attended the employability workshop that looked at how confident we were at looking for work and what we would want to know before we started applying for jobs. For me I wanted to know what the benchmark requirements are for most design jobs. The presentation was really useful and illustrated in depth the sorts of skills most often needed from designers, we followed this up by looking at some current job vacancies and finally went through some forms that help us pin point times in our careers that we have used certain skills and what desirable traits those skills represent. I found it interesting looking at average pay per area, and looking through the job sites to see what kinds of design jobs are available at the moment. Finally we looked at reflective writing and good practice for this which was a great refresher for me and has helped me think about reflective writing even for these module files. As a mature student that has been working as a freelancer for well over 10 years, some of the things covered were things I was already familiar with however it was good to see them in the context of design jobs and I certainly see the value in workshops like these.
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The following pages show completed forms that we were asked to fill out, one using the STAR technique to give examples of positive traits, the other about confidence in using set skills.
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Professional In my current role as a freelance graphic designer for Blackflag Brewing based in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia, I am responsible for creating marketing materials, signage and creating concepts and finalising product designs alongside their in-house artist Ross Holloway. My employment was originally just on an ad hoc basis but over time I moved into a set amount of hours per week which allowed me time to work on extra marketing materials and strategies. However most of the time I am asked to create something with very little or no time before the deadline is due, which often means the first idea wins and I just have to make something. This way of working has meant there has been very little time for research or developing core branding and aesthetic values. During this semester, through talking to creatives, working on briefs and through my own personal study I have really enjoyed having the opportunity to properly research ideas and give them time to develop into something more solid and substantial. Blackflag were having an issue with wider branding, most notably with their ‘why’ and were throwing out ideas that didn’t have any cohesion, just to fulfil a certain last minute purpose. So I pitched to them that I take the lead and help them dial in
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what the company was all about, what our core values were, our why, and in turn create a document outlining this which can then inform creative decisions in the future. They were happy to do so which was really encouraging. I first set about sending over a set of questions that I wanted them to answer individually, before organising a discovery session where we could go through all the answers together. This was really useful, not just for me to get a deeper understanding of the company and what it was about but also for the members of the company to really focus on their core and not the day to day running. It was really insightful and actually threw up some values that came across very strongly that I wasn’t expecting. What was interesting is that the main through line that everyone had spoken about even though they answered individually, was how important the community was to the brewery and how they wanted to involve the community as much as possible. The second main thread was how the brewery is run, by everyone, this is very unusual in business anyway, so it was very special that everyone gets to input their ideas on everything from product designs and names to all helping with production and canning. This was a very big point of difference.
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Blackflag: Building the story. •
What do we do?:
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How do we do it?:
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What is it about our approach that differs from that of others?:
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What does Blackflag value the most?:
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What personality does Blackflag have?:
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What is our long term ambition and how are we going to get there?:
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What does success look like?:
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What is the most important aspect of Blackflag that we want to come across to the customer?:
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What are we able to do that other breweries can’t or don’t?:
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What kind of customers do we want to attract?:
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What gap in the craft beer market are we wanting to fill?:
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What personality gap in the brewing world do we want to occupy?:
Where we are at now. •
What elements of the brand have worked so far?:
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How have our expectations of the brand changed since we started? (i.e. what we hoped to achieve with the brand at the start to what we need the brand to do for us now)
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Are there styles / design elements / approaches to can design that we are happy to continue with? (this doesn’t include process for creating each design)
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Notes taken from discovery session used to create ‘Who We Are’ document
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From all of this information I was able to collate everyone’s input and put together a document that I called ‘Who We Are’ which focussed on the 6 key statements of a company, a technique I had picked up while reading ‘Branding in 5 and Half Steps’ by Michael Johnson. I created a manifesto, tagline ideas, a quick look guide and also a more detailed document that went into each of the areas in much more depth.
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Excerpts from the document:
MANIFESTO Beer is not about exotic ingredients, knowing every hop variety or something to be consumed in isolation, beer is about coming together, it’s about sharing stories, having fun, it’s about community. We take the idea of community and the collective to our very core, with everything we do, brew and present to the world. We are beer drinkers too, we want fresh, interesting and fun beers to share with our friends, so we work as a team to make beers for us, for you, for the collective. We want an Inclusive scene, an alternative space to share ideas, a place to enjoy what we do and an opportunity to push the standards of craft brewing. And we are going to make This happen, for everyone who calls Blackflag home. RAISE THE FLAG!
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Collectively Crafted, INDePENDENTLY brewed,
The Beer is just the beginning.
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Excerpts from the document:
Who we are here
To the point
People who w They can con Part of the c Enjoy beer t Supposed to
[A quick guide to blackflag]
What we value most
Bringing likeminded People together, building a Community and Cultivating an Appreciation of exceptional Beer.
WHY we Exist To Bu exciting, p Inclusive brew c
What makes us different
Creative and individual products That are developed and crafted By every member of the team built On our love of art, punk & having A good time. Our ambition
To set standards a Build a national co Promote an inclus
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e for
want a brewery nnect with. be community and the way it’s o be. What we do and how we do it
Working collectively To create fun, artistic, Delicious beers that we Love to drink and share.
t uild an progressive, e & Creative culture
Our personality
Informal, open, honest and friendly. We love what we do and drink what We love. Like you, we want a space That represents us.
across Australia, ommunity and sive way of brewing.
I presented the document to the rest of the team and this became the basis for my development of a couple of core company branded items the we were in need of, most notably the development of an overall Blackflag beer carton which could then be filled with any product and have that products’ label on the outside as well as menus, website elements and overall marketing materials.
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With the idea of punk ethics and a focus on building a community and scene, I was influenced by my own musical background in punk, which is shared by those that started Blackflag, where you would show your appreciation for a band by plastering their sticker everywhere, or covering your guitar or skateboard in all the stickers of your favourite bands and brands. I really liked this concept as a way of almost handing the branding over to the consumer, they can put the stickers wherever they want, it also gives us a constant creative output and are also cheap to produce. For the designs, I created gritty illustrations, thinking again about punk, skateboarding and tattoo culture, all of which align nicely with what Blackflag have put out before. The idea for the family crest came from how the brewery is run. Thankfully, this design concept was approved by the rest of the team and the idea was then actualised through the carton design, marketing for a current beer awards campaign and for new menus that are in development (see overleaf). This work has really helped solidify what the other creatives had been saying, about research and spending time getting the core values right, “finding your why” at the beginning so that it has a stronger foundation for the future, and also, taking the initiative as a designer to push for this. When I first started, I was a very passive designer, just making what the client wanted, even if I didn’t think it was a good idea or concept, until a designer friend said that it is ok to disagree with a client, as long as you can back it up with good design, it’s ok to take the lead and from this experience, take the initiative to push for something that will be used (hopefully) for years to come.
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Online ad encouraging people to vote for Blackflag beers
Carton design 3D printer’s preview:
Full carton design sent to print:
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Printed cartons with beer labels:
Pizza menu example as part of a larger menu:
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Final Reflection This module has offered some great opportunities to work with other students and get some really useful insight into other working creatives. Most design projects I undertake for either clients or personal work is almost always a solo endeavour so I really appreciated the chance to work as a group for the majority of this module, throwing ideas back and forth and the general creative energy of working as a team. I really enjoyed working with Rhys and Cleo, they were both very open, good communicators and were committed to completing the work to a high standard. Cleo’s health issues are really unfortunate and I am gutted that it meant we were not able to work face to face at all during the majority of the projects however with the current climate the way that it is, it made team work more difficult anyway and we managed really well using Zoom and Whatsapp to communicate throughout, often having zoom meetings for well over an hour. I really look forward to working in groups again if the opportunity arises. I also really appreciated talking and listening to all the creatives, not just as part of the Out There Project but also as part of the Small Talks series. As someone who has been self taught until starting this course in September, it has been really difficult to gauge what the expectations are for designers, what skills are needed to push a career and how I should feel about my achievements so far. These talks were inspiring but also reassuring. Many of the creatives
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struggled in their early careers, not just in terms of employment but mentally as well, being productive and having a good sense of self worth has been flagged as just as, if not more important than knowing all the Illustrator shortcuts or being an After Effects genius. Having confidence in your work and building a solid ‘why’ and having passion seem to be at the foundation, and graphic design is their way of actualising this, rather than generating it. This for me has been particularly inspiring as I know that I can get carried away with the detail and not the big picture, however I do try my best to be aware of this as much as possible. From all these talks and research it has really opened up the breadth of work available to a designer and what Graphic Design really encompasses, some of this work is more creative than others and I hope I am able to pursue the more creative side. In terms of the projects themselves, I have put a lot of energy into each one and taken as many opportunities to improve as I can, given time and pandemic restraints. I feel my research skills have gotten better, as have my layout and illustration skills and through the brackets workshop, my understanding of (very) basic HTML and CSS coding. Finally I have enjoyed seeing the work done by other students, as we aren’t able to have that studio hive experience because of COVID I have made a point of looking at everyone’s work, it has been a great source of inspiration.
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Professional Practice
FINAL OUTCOME LINKS:
Knowing Me, Knowing You Final Outcome https://vimeo.com/456514023 Out There Project - Interview Publication https://issuu.com/nathfiction/docs/branding_20document_20pro_20prac_20single_20pages_ Out There Project- Interview Motion Piece https://vimeo.com/487841146 OUT THERE WEBSITE http://www.out-there-project.com/
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Nathaniel Stevens
