Semester 2 by Rachel Garry

Semester 2

Overview of the Semester 1. Type of brief: What type of project do you feel you best respond to – is it a “tight brief ” with very clear guidelines and demands or an “open” brief where the outcomes are far more open and unspecified? I think that I work better on a tight brief. I believe that with more options I spend too much time researching and a lot of that research then becomes unnecessary. I feel that with the one day briefs I found them better to work on as I was able to get on with them straight away rather then spending time looking at pointless things. Although I liked working on the D&AD brief as we had the option to choose the brief, also there were few restrictions such as minimum 4 spread and the logo had to be on the cover. I enjoyed this one as there were a few restrictions which made me think about how I could make my project different to others so it would stand out but so it would still keep in the guidelines given. 2. Integral elements: Are there integral elements that often form key elements within your work – in other words does photography play an important part in you work or is it typography or illustration or hand drawn lettering or a text and image relationship. What have you identified and how do you wish to develop this? In a lot of my work I mainly focus on typography. Especially in the D&AD brief where the focus was an interview with the designer, I had to ensure the typography was perfect for example the spacing. I am very interested in letterpress and the texture that it can produce. I tried do something similar last semester but found it difficult as it did not turn out how I would have liked. For the Manifesto brief I changed what I was doing half way through as I wanted to focus on typography more and went in to letterpress. I like the effect it produced but unfortunately it was not the font I wanted. I am very interested in editorial design and would like to push towards producing more work that combines editorial work and hopefully more work in letterpress. 3. Success: What are your strengths? Where have you been most successful? What do you think was the reason for that positive experience? I feel that this semester I have progressed with typography and this is becoming one of my strengths. From the first semester where it was all editorial, I feel that I have wanted to progress the skills that I have learnt and this encouraged me to choose the editorial brief for the D&AD project. I enjoyed having to play around with different type faces to figure out which one worked best for the design. 4.

Problems: Where have the problems arisen; have you been able to overcome them?

The main problems I have had was in the manifesto brief. I researched and developed ideas to what I thought I wanted to do and what I was hoping would define me as a designer, I found that half way through I was not enjoying the brief and I wasn’t happy with the work I was producing. I then had to go back to the beginning stages and start my research again were I looked at more typography based designs, which is where I think my strengths lie and I then continued to produce designs that I was pleased with. 5. Personality: What are you interested in, what are you about? Do you feel you have been able to introduce your personality and interests in your work. In what creative direction do you want to proceed? I am very interested into typography and editorial design, I have thoroughly enjoyed working on both and combining all the different elements. In my work I feel that I have been trying to introduce colour more and of my personality, to make it more fun and interesting. For example the D&AD brief how behind the red acetate you could not see the orange text and you had to work with it to get to the final spread.

Visual Project Summary Page

D&AD

University Logo

Meltdown Festival

Manifesto Photographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Book

D&AD project. Introduction 1. Which brief did you choose and what opportunities and con- straints did you identify in relation to the brief? Which aspects of your initial research have influenced your design work? I chose to do the Pentegram brief which was to design a supplement for the Typographic Circle. The brief stated that I had to produce a publication on people that had given talks for The Circle. They could be of any size or format and should not represent the designer individually. I had to produce 3 supplements which included a cover, which included the Circle’s logo and at least 4 spread on the individual. When I first read the brief I initially thought to produce a booklet, I then stepped away from that idea as I wanted to make my work individual so it would stand among the other entries. I had to look at how if I wasn’t going to produce a book, how I would include 4 spreads and a cover. My initial research helped in the way I looked at different ways of presenting typography, which then helped me come up with my main theme of overlaying type. 2.

Explain the concept you have come up with?

The concept I came up with for the cover is that it is an envelope format but has a die cut-out on the front which makes it a collectable. The cut-out is an interpretation of one of the pieces of the designers work, for example for Anthony Burrill on the cover it had the words, “It all makes sense”, which is taken from a piece of his work. The cover was also made out of red acetate so that the orange text on the booklet can not be seen when placed in the envelope. I chose to this as on the cover I wanted for you to see the logo which was a requirement from the brief and to see the cut-out but that was all. This made it look more mysterious as unless you knew the designers work you would not know who the supplement was about. The supplement took the form of a folded leaflet. I chose this format so that the user could interact with it. I also chose questions that weren’t necessarily relevant because I wanted to produce something that wasn’t like every other interview and where you got to do other things about the designer. 3. Do you feel you have successfully met the creative demands of the brief? Indicate how you have done this or where the flawed decisions have adversely affected the design solution. I feel like I have successfully met the creative demands as I have produced a publication which could be sent out by the Typographic Circle. The main flaws that I came to when producing my design was firstly the colours that would disappear when presented underneath red acetate, as this was a key element I found a few different colours but some did not fit the design of my supplement and did not look like a professional piece of work. Another problem I had was as I had to print it double sided, on a lot of the mock ups it printed wonky so I had to be very careful when printing and lining up the paper. The last thing I found to be a flaw to my design was that on spread two and three the paper edges sometimes cut off the words or there was too much spacing, again I solved this by printing mock-ups until I had ensured it looked ok for my final print.

D&AD project. Investigate

D&AD project. Shape

D&AD project. Refine

D&AD project. Articulate

Meltdown Festival Posters

University Logo

Manifesto Introduction 1.

What ideas were you trying to communicate through your written manifesto?

Through my manifesto I wanted to show my personality. I want people to look at it and get an idea of what I am like as a person. I wanted to show my views but also get across but also show what was important to me. 2. Explain how you translated your written concept into a visual artifact? Explain how you feel you have done justice to your concept. If you haven’t, tell us what improvements you would make? When I first started the brief I had totally different ideas on how I wanted my manifesto to look. I played around with the idea of having a book and telling my manifesto through pictures, to purely misprinted and cut up typography. After choosing that I wanted my manifesto to be all typographic as that is an area I am very interested in, I looked at different ways I could portray this looking at various designers for inspiration. I eventually came to the conclusion to keep my designs very simple but I don’t feel like it shows a lot of my personality. I feel that it portrays my design personality, in the way that it shows what I am interested in and what have a passion for. 3. Having written and designed your manifesto, how do you think can: use it to inform/direct your process? to bring your own agenda to design problems? to suggest directions for future exploration? I am happy with the final outcome of my manifesto. I feel that I could mail it to potential employers and hey would get an idea of what I am like as a person. I like the concept of the fact that they are post cards because they can be put up on a wall or equivalent, so you don’t have the limited usage as you would a booklet, also it would be simple to admit and add to. My main theme of the typography in my manifesto was the effect of letterpress. I explored this effect by going into letterpress, but unfortunately there wasn’t the right font. I then played around with different eroded fonts on the computer to try and mirror the effect that letterpress gave. If I was to explore this more I would love to do the entire manifesto with letterpress as I think it gives the work a more hand grafted feel.

Manifesto 1. Everything happens for a reason 2. Don’t be a dick! It gets you nowhere 3. Consider and boundaries as a challenge 4. Everything needs to be a bit brighter 5. Find the right balance between said ideas and open possibilities 6. The power of positive thinking - If you think it, it will happen 7. Don’t take shit! 8. Odd socks are the way forward 9. Love what you do 10. Family and friends are very important 11. Stay open minded 12. Think “Who’s it all for?” - if the answer isn’t me what’s the point 13. Laugh, a lot 14. Don’t settle for second best 15. Constructive criticism is tough but necessary 16. Bobble hats are a necessary item 17. Have fun and be happy 18. Learn to snowboard 19. Use yellow more!

Manifesto. Investigate

Manifesto. Shape

Manifesto. Refine

Manifesto. Articulate

Photographers Book

Photographers Book To view the full book, click http://issuu.com/rachgarry/docs/georges_book_issuu

Photographers Book

Personal Development Plan 1. How will you develop and broaden your technical abilities? I feel that in some ways I have been a bit lazy through my technical skills this semester, and I have focused on work on hand done techniques. For example, I mainly focused on how I was going to make the cover work. I feel that if I had enough time I could have made the manifesto better once I got on to the computer but I felt I lacked the skills due to spending too much time on the other parts of the brief. In future projects I plan to play around more with my idea rather then once I have one idea set just carrying on with that. 2. How will you develop and broaden you knowledge of contemporary practice in relation to your own interests? My main two interests in Graphic Design are Editorial and Typography. I am hoping to get a placement over summer, were I can develop the skills I already have and learn some skills as well. I hope to expand my skills and apply them to future projects. Also in future projects I am going to try and focus on my interested areas. 3. How will you nurture and develop you current strengths? I feel the only way for me to develop my skills is to use them more. I plan to do more work in my free time that can help develop my skills and to try and get myself into a professional working environment. I think that by coming in the studio and doing proper 9.30am - 5.00pm work hours. I think by doing this I will be more motivated knowing that I will have some free time at the end of the day. I also think that coming in the studio will help me develop as I can receive feedback and I find the studio environment also helps. 4. Where do you need to strengthen your game and more importantly how are you going to make this happen. What action needs to take place? I think that I do need to come in the studio more. I feel the environment helps and I get less distracted then I would if I was at home. I think that when I have been in the studio working I have produced more and better work due to being able to receive feedback from peers and tutors. I feel that with me wanting to focus on mainly editorial and typography, I need to focus on typography and explore different types and how they work in different settings rather then sticking to a few fonts that I am comfortable with.

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