Propercorn Penguin Random House UK Design Awards -Freakonomic Pan Macmillian -Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland j20 Pushkin Press -The Allure of Chanel Fedringoni
I chose a number of live briefs, including my individual practice substancial brief (propercorn) from the YCN students awards, an annual programe that challenges students from a range of creative courses to submit resolved work for briefs written and set by diverse partnering organsations.
Propercorn Brief: Creativily bring to life their ethos of ‘done properly’. The brief requests the creative to think of places their customers are most likely to be receptive in engagement with their product, and to produce a campaign, which will enforce their brand and the brands beliefs.
My concept: As the brief states a specific demographic for the campaign to be aimed at, and asks the creative to think about where these people are likely to be, I wanted to create illustrations that illustrate scenes or situations they can relate to, therefore making them feel personally targeted. Within these illustrations I have included the Propercorn product to demonstrate how these everyday situations can be made ‘proper’ or ‘better’ with their popcorn. As this was a advertisement and promotion campaign, it forced me to think of illustration in a different way, I enjoyed this concept as it gave me a specific
direction and purpose, It also allowed me to revisited and elaborate on promotional skills i had gained in previous courses (a-level product design). Evaluation: To begin with I really struggled to decode the brief in a way that would allow me to produce straight forward yet imaginative illustrations that communicated the brands ethos. To gain a better undertanding of Propercorns audience i began by researching and exploring their social media webstites such as instagram, i thought this would be an ideal way find out what type of sitiuations their
demographic eat the product in, i used the instagram pictures to spark off my own ideas. Though I liked the fact the brief was fairly open and allowed me to illustrate whatever I felt necessary, this also made me question most ideas I had, wondering weather they were appropriate, and if they answered the problem of the brief. However after peer reviews and seeing work by others for the same brief, I regained confidence and knew I was on the right track. In future I need to believe in my ideas and realize that there is no right or wrong, as long as I can justify my decisions. Because of my uncertainty of what I needed
to produce to answer the brief, I feel I have produced a exhausted amount of idea generation which has allowed me to distill ideas that perhaps were not good enough and improve on ones with potential, which has hopefully left me with a strong idea. Though this is a good position to be in, i will need to be careful in the future to manage the time I spend on idea generation, especially with commisoned work that is paid by job not by hour/time spend onthe project, as i could end up spending weeks on one proejct but only be getting paid the equivilant of a few days.
The brief: Create a book cover for the non-fiction book ‘freakononomics’. The client asked for a design that hints at the various subjects covered in the book in a humorous enlightening way, illustrating the many topics that bedevil us daily such as parenting, crime, politics, etc. the book asks provocative and profound questions and aims to change the way people see the world, therefore the client requires a cover to entice and intrigue the viewer to do so.
My concept: I tried to think of everyday things people do, no matter who they are or what they do. The well-known Beatles album cover of abbey road inspired me to re-create the layout with a number of people/ topics mentioned in the book crossing the road instead. The idea behind this concept is to creatively visualize a commonality in everyday life (such as crossing the road) experienced by people and how no matter how different 2 people can be, we all walk a path in life with similarities and difference and we are all effected by the same world issues . Because the cover is so recognizable, i hoped this would intrigue the viewer and draw them into the book. Evaluation: I chose this brief to challenge myself as I have never experienced working with adding mandatory text (titles and promo text) or working with the format/layout of a book cover. i also chose this brief because the book talks about a variety of people and topics we as a culture face, I thought this sounded like a brief that i could illustrate people, something I enjoy. however, i did find the book and the
brief very broad, which made it very difficult to come up with ideas that I thought were appropriate, answered the brief, or even visually described the content of the book. As I struggle with self-assurance in my work/ideas I found myself leaving ideas behind and starting new ones, which took up vital time and i inevitably put myself under more pressure. I eventually decided to stick with one of my original ideas after feedback from tutors and peers. Once I knew what idea to go forward with, thankfully the project developed quickly as I could focus on technique and production. Becauseof my difficulty of settling on a idea I was satisfied with, regrettably I made the problem of composition and context my last priority, this then made it hard for me to add my design to the correct measurements of the book cover. Though I think I made this project a lot more stressful than it needed to be, I am glad I went on the journey I did as I have definitely learnt from my mistakes! I am happy with my final design; I feel the concept is strong and original. I also feel I
pushed myself to develop the illustrative technique I used, the combination of digital and hand drawing is something I have little practice in and although It can be improved, it has definitely inspired me to develop the technique in the future. i found the freedom to choose where i placed the text and the what font to use extremely challanging, time consuming and very tedious, i found myself getting very annoyed that my illustration could look fruitless with particular fonts and depending on where i places the text, the covers proffesionalism could alter dramatically. i think if i were ever to get involved in a book cover design like this again, i would try to colabrate with a graphic designer, as this would drastically improve the quality of the design and inevitably benifit my i llustrations.
Brief: In your own style, create a new book cover and illustrate up to two interior pages for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’s 150th anniversary book.
My concept: the composition of the front cover illustrations is to represent a significant part of the book where Alice falls down the rabbit hole. I wanted to communicate the whirlwind of adventures Alice experiences after she falls down the hole into wonderland within this composition. To tie the compositon together, i have used the chain from the pocket watch to spell out part of the book title and lead back to the pocket of the rabbit at the top of the illustation.
profesional, like it belongs on a book cover. Using this process also saved time as the design was already the correct size for the book cover. For me the most challenging part of this project was to illustrate fictional characters described in the text. My illustrative practice is usually based on drawing from reference in a realistic manner, therefore this approach of illustration was new to me. At times I found it very frustrating when working on the characters as I didn not have a final image to work towards or compare the likeness to, in that aspect this project has really pushed me out of my comfort zone and even though I am Evaluation; not 100% happy with my characters (on Learning and Improving on my the interior pages) , this is a process i strategy I used when designing the can develop on as I feel it will help my freakonomic book, I began my idea illustrations become more free, helping generation considering the me move away from replicating format of a book cover, keeping in reference material I work from. To mind that my illustrations will need overcome this problem with this project to incorporate a title, and have I collected a number of reference space for a logo. By material, taking inpiration from each, considering this before I start, creating a new illustration. my design looks more
Similarly, in this project I found it difficult to create original illustrations without getting side tracked or influenced by the existing illustrations/art work that is commonly associated with Alice in wonderland, such as the cartoon illustrations that are iconic from the film. Overall, this has been the most fun brief I have worked on, I think this is due how straightforward the brief was, making it simpler to
interpret and produce work for. This shows I work better with particular directions and specifications, reconfirming that illustration Is the right profession for me. As well as this, because i am familiar with the story, I already had a good understanding of the tone of voice I would need to use for my illustrations – fun, adventurous, childish, and for the entertainmentof the viewer.
THE BRIEF The challenge with this brief was to make j20 a product which appeals to an adult audience of 25-35 years, rather than the younger demographic of children and teenagers it is currently associated with. They do not want to be linked to the stereotype of ‘cheap’ and ‘chavvy’ which some customers have descried it as, and want the creative to make a design adults would be proud to hold in bars, restaurants or at home whilst still maintaining their playful unpretentious brand personality. The deliverables asked for from this brief was to designs the neck and body of their mango and apple, and orange and passion fruit flavored drinks along with the packaging designs for both.
My Concept: i chose this brief as I wanted to challenge the digital designs that the majority of drinks products use ,by creating hand crafted illustrations to advertise J20 in a creative, effective and simple way. I wanted my design ideas to feature both of the combined fruits to reiterate that each drink is a blend of 2 flavours, Instead of depicting these fruits with just colours to hint at their existence, i have created detailed line drawings which the viewers can immediately visually recognize and therefore see what fruits are in which drink. I have used watercolors to create bold burst of colours to represent the fruits flavours and combined these with the line drawings to create an abstract version of the fruits.To appeal to a older demographic, I have added subtle colours to tone down the saturation, which I feel makes the design look more sophisticated. I have also used a modern type face which adds to this. Again, to appeal to a more mature audience, I have subtly added the colour black to the bottle labels, I feel this makes both the bottle design and the package design work better as a set as the black line drawings match with the black lines of the labels. Though I have used a different colour
pallets to illustrate the different flavoured drinks, I wanted both packs to be related in style to retain a strong brand identity so the customers can instantly recognize they are both products from the same brand.To do this I have used a lime green background
colour on both packs, as this colour was present in both of the watercolour bursts, it is also a lighter shade of J20’s synonymous green colour, which I have also included to draw existing customers into the new product design.
Evaluation: This is one of the last briefs I started, this was mainly due to the fact that i put off starting it in the hope I would find another which was better suited for me, I was apprehensive to proceed with the brief due to my knowledge of the current j20 logo/designs and the description of the brief itself, i thought it would require a creative with a more graphic based or advertising forte, I was uncertain that my more hand-crafted, detailed style would be appropriate. However I decided to bite the bullet and commit to the brief with the notion that it is asking for a re-designed branding of j20, therefore a change in design/style may be just what they are after. Surprisingly my illustrations for this brief were quite straightforward and fairly quick to design, the time consuming and most challenging part of the brief for me was maintaining a strong, simple and clear brand identity across the pack templates provided. I found it difficult to come up with a effective layout that did not overcrowd the packaging yet still managed to fit all the mandatory information as well as my designs on,Though I liked the fact
the client was very directin with what they wanted to remain on the packaging, I found this quite difficult to conserve whilst trying to make the design look dissimilar to the original . After seeing other peoples resolutions to this brief, I definitely think my designs could be improved digitally, however I am still
proud of what I have managed to produce due to my amateur status with computer software. Saying this, I think my forte will always lies within handcrafted illustration, so I am glad I maintained this aspect in my designs, this will hopefully set me apart from other competitors who have concentrated on a digital design entry.
Brief: Create a completely new illustrating that can be used to epitomize the book (collection edition) ‘the allure of chanel’. The illustration must intice and inspire the reader to find out more about the enigmatic and iconic woman who is Coco Chanel. The brief asks for a stand alone image produced in any media that is able to be reproduced in their collection cover layout.
My concept: The concept I settled on after idea development was to illustrate a portrait of Chanel herself. With this portrait I wanted to communicate the career she is renowned and recognized for to draw in fashion/Chanel enthusiasts, however as the book is so much more than just her career, and more about her personal life, I chose a challenging portrait of Chanel to captivate the viewer. her expression is quite stern, connoting her guided and stubborn personality she herself admits she had in the book. I wanted the cover to read in the viewers minds ‘you have no idea’ and therefore dares them to find out about the ‘real’ or ‘Allure’ of Chanel. Evaluation I was really happy when I got a email i nforming me about this competition brief. Creating illustrations about a person’s life and researching into another’s life is something I have always been interested in and enjoyed doing in past projects, such as my level 4 project ‘person of note’. As Chanel is a well known iconic character, I was really excited about discovering aspects of her life I, or the public may not
know about her, and communicating them through my illustrations, in hope that they will entice and create questions in the viewers mind that will only be answered by reading the book. Because I enjoy this type of research and brief, I found it the least stressful out of them all. I think this has benefited my project because I found my ideas and concept were stronger as I completely understood her as a person. Without the stress, it made the project more enjoyable thus allowing me to be as creative as I liked. Having said that, having made the decision to choice one of my ideas to take forward, I am not sure my final designs visually describes the books content/channels life as much as my other idea. However I decided to go with the more simplistic design, as I felt this would initially stand out due to its more effective layout and design with bolder noticeable details.
The Brief: Design a marketing tool to promote our latest range of uncoated black papers and boards: Sirio Ultra Black.
Our Concept: My collaborative partner, Joe Boyd, and I decided to base our concept on the quote ‘the darker the night the brighter the moon’. With this in mind, we have used the night as a metaphor for the black paper to illustrate and promote the blackness of the Sirio Ultra Black by comparing it the not so black paper it is covering up to improve the brightness of the moon. To advertise the versatility of the paper, we have also used a range of processes when producing the design. Evaluation: When we were informed about this collaborative brief, I initially thought I would want to work with a graphic designer as they have skills I feel as a creative i lack. However i did not manage to find a partner and ended up working with a fellow illustrator Joe Boyd. Though me and oe did not choose to work together, I think our collaboration worked really well as we both have different skill sets which allowed us to distribute our responsibilities and work load according to our capabilities. For example, I tend to create handcrafted work, whereas Joe specializes more in the digital and editorial area. as we both
enjoy exploring potential concepts we both worked on developing a strong concept together. Because Joe’s styles and mine are dissimilar, our preferred briefs were different. For the first couple of weeks I was not sure about our chosen brief as I was finding it difficult to develop or find a concept that could be illustrated simply and clearly in a graphic or digital format that makes for a successful advertising campaign. However after plenty of contextual referencing, this became easier. I am really glad I proceeded though these difficulties as I think the design ideas I was coming up with and we were developing together are ones I would never imagine myself to be doing. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and this has improved my capabilities as a creative. At times I found collaborating quite difficult as we both were responsible for the success of our project. Annoyingly, I am quite a worrier whereas I think Joes is much more laid back, therefore at times I felt stressed that we perhaps were not as far on as other groups, I think this is something I need to work on as we managed to complete what was needed in the set time. However, I do think our
work personalities were a good balance - I definitely learned to worry less, but at the same time i hopfully influenced a less casual approach to our project and work load.