Project Report By Naomi Crompton
Content Index Individual Competitions •
D&AD New Blood: DesignBridge- Beauty Product. 3-4
•
Japanese Embassy: Manga Jiman Competition. 5
•
Secret 7. 6-7
Collaborative Competition •
YCN: Royal Opera House - Advertising Campaign. 8-9
End Of Module Evaluation 10-11
D&AD Design Bridge Brief Create an new-to-world, accessible mass-market beauty brand that breaks established category codes.
! • • •
!
! ! ! ! ! brief because I wanted to challenge I chose this myself to do of different competitions that ! a series asked different things of me. Product design is not
something I am comfortable with dealing with personally However the challenge of designing a g e n d e r i n c l u s i ve m a ke u p b ra n d wa s ve r y interesting to me. This brief forced me to look at things not just from the perspective of a illustrator but as a product designer as well as a forcing me to think of my idea from a business point of view.
!I named
the product Per Tu because the non english name tends to sound classier to Britons and Italians are renowned for fashion so the language association alone will make the brand seem established. Also Per Tu means for you in italian and the brands tagline is how its not made for society its for you.
!Using
the advantage of being a non-binary and knowing other genders of people researching what and where the lack of gender inclusivity in makeup products themselves was easy. However designing the brand was a lot more difficult.
!There is always this worry that your making your
design too feminine. That every colour except camouflage is too girly. I felt restricted in what I could do. I didn't want my work to just be grey or black. I wanted colour and illustration within it. It was when I decided to stop focusing of the idea of what is viewed as masculine and feminine and focused more on the how my product was going to be viewed is when i started to have more fun with the brief.
3
Essentials
!
Create a concept Find a name that reflects the brands values. Design at least 3 different product packages that embodies the brand as well as demonstrating how thus could work as a range of products.
Once I let go of my inhibitions with this brief I was able to work with the brief. I ended up doing statues just because I enjoy them. There is always going to be someone saying its to feminine this or masculine that, so I thought why not go with something that I would feel confident putting forward. Using statues also allowed me to use basically blank canvas to put makeup on, the grey stone base meant which every creature i wanted to emphasise I could. Much like the image to the left the simple brown brows instantly indicate that the product being advertised is some kind of brow palate or pencil.
!Taking this idea forward I stated to design a ‘classic
makeup brand that was fun enough in it’s theme that it didn't feel to daunting for people but design and pitch in away that showed that it was a higher quality make up for everyone to enjoy. I started to look towards the more business side of the brand. Like what would set Per Tu apart form the others. Deciding to be an online company was a result of the lack of gender inclusive/neutral makeup aisles in stores, making it more intimidating to buy for men and non-feminine associating genders. Also begin online means we can be more international and have tips and tutorials for different genders and how best it would be for them to do their makeup. Towards the end the product became a bit more focused on being a foundation makeup brand for those people who are just starting to wear makeup.
! Overall this brief was taxing but it taught me a lot about product design and branding. Although this brief at points felt like a lot for one person I felt that doing it alone was probably the best choice for me, due to having such strong opinions and ideas on it. If I were to do this again, I’d put more time into final product mockups and looking at the range of products as a whole. I also think that my final presentation skills when I sent the brief in could have been better. I found that most of the briefs where I had longer deadlines I began to loose steam towards the end of them and the standard of work can suffer a bit. All in all I’d give this brief a 6/10 it wasn’t too bad but it was open enough that I lost myself in it a bit. 4
Japanese Embassy: Manga Jiman Brief •
Create a 6-8 page manga based around the theme ‘Bright Young Things’
!
! !
Essentials
! • •
!
Must be 6-8 pages No explicit violence or themes of a sexual nature.
This Brief was a mistake. I’m not gonna lie, I chose this brief for 2 and only 2 reasons. First reason was because my younger self always wanted to make and manga and because the first prize was a trip to japan and I wanted to see if I could win it. If i’d of step back an look at this brief and timeframe for a moment i’d of realised that alongside my other module work getting this done onetime would be very difficult to do and would need precise time management skills and strong self discipline. Unfortunately I had neither of these skills or the foresight needed to see that having these skills was a must for not destroying my work and social life.
5
The idea generation and Character design itself was fine. It was the panelling, roughing , inking and shading that were mismanaged. Alongside this I had gotten the the deadline date wrong causing unnecessary stress for myself by trying to rush work when I could have focused more on 504. On a more Positive note I created a finished 6 page manga and Idid learn a whole lot from this experience. I learnt of the importance of time management, translating a plot into a sequential narrative and the importance of getting date right. Overall I give this a 4/10.
Secret 7 Brief •
Create a vinyl sleeve for one of 7 songs.
•
It cant have the name of the artist or the song on it.
When doing all 3 of these vinyl covers I found that the more time i spent trying to conceptualise on songs that I knew (Etta Jones-At Last) I couldn’t make work that i was happy with. With this in mind i decided that I’d do all of my submissions digitally. Using my home computer i could experiment with different textured pens but also it also me to create faster and cleaner piece of work without that much refining. And I wanted to see if I could create finished pieces of work in a less than a day or 3 hours. I found that giving myself less time and just focusing on a point to get across really worked for me. 6
Colour was a key component in making each cover design I tried to focus on what colour came to mind when i imagined each song. Some where easy (such as clearest blue) and others where more difficult (worry) once I had an idea of colour I would usually start to come up with a quick concept of narrative to each piece. which is something I do automatically with most music I listen to. I found that the newer the son is to me the quicker it is to start visualising and illustrating it. if it’s a well known song to me I tend to flail, worried about not doing it justice, however when the artist isn’t really
as well know I’m able to become more confident and free flowing within my work. My two most successful images to me personally where the ones that got chosen for secret 7, worry and clearest blue. I felt like when making both of these images I could see a development and a slight maturity to my work. Overall this brief has helped me realise I can make good clean work fast. I give this brief a 8/10
7
YCN: Royal Opera House Brief •
Encourage culturally engaged young people aged 20-30 to experience opera for the first time.
This brief was one that I really wanted to do however if felt to big to do alone which I why I chose to do it for collaborative instead. I worked on this brief on with an animator and found the cross platform collaboration tone alright. I learnt how different courses seem to have different thought processes about going around things which meant we ere both able to look at this brief from different stand points. Matt was more about the analysis and process where I was more visual and contextual in my approach. A key thing about this brief is knowing your client, the royal opera houses whats to engage more with culturally engaged 20-30’s and they want an campaign that looks at how to do that. The first thing we did was see what and how they engaged with young people already and I realised that they aren’t utilising
technology and student deals as m u c h a s o t h e r co m p e t i t i ve companies such as opera north. They seem to lack any social awareness when it comes to young people and students and who they interact with things like theatre, ballet and the more classical arts. After finding the flaws and gaps in The Royal Opera House it meant we needed to start looking for a solution on how to fix it. Since neither of us h a d ex p e r i e n ce d t h e o p e ra ourselves going to the opera and experiencing it first hand gave us the ability to see what the positives of the opera were. The environment and story telling are big positives about the opera but as a young person there are a few etiquette and social things you should probably know before hand that would help take the stigma off the opera and help you have a more enjoyable experience.
8
Apps are such a big thing in society and are used as ways of communicating, spreading and giving information to people where ever they are, especially young people. The concept of helping engage more young people with the Royal opera House via an app was my idea. Since an app is something that is easy to access it can become a quick link between the Royal O p e ra H o u s e a n d p o te n t i a l visitors. They can use it to help demystify the opera and get rid of its social stigma. It also would allow people easy access to buy tickets and see the deals that where on then an there. User experience and engagement is a top trick of this app to help create a greater age of engagement between established institutions south as the Royal Opera House with the ever advancing technologies used today.
Overall this brief was pretty successful. I think because it released more on us verbalising and writing down what we planned to do rather than drawing or animating it forced us to become more critical of our ideas viability but I still think we came up with something great. I found it difficult to not go off on wild tangents and create illustrations that had nothing to do with the concept we’d created and was more to do with me over thinking the idea and drawing honestly non related ideas. Though when back on track I was able to create a visual mockup of our concept which I think works really well with the context of the idea. We tried to look at this project as a problem that needed a solution and although there a probably many of different solutions to this brief I believe our app concept is one of the most effective ones. On top of this I believe that marketing it as the royal opera youth allows the royal opera house the ability to use it as a platform to establish a stronger and better relationship with young people without the daunting expectations that come along with the royal opera house. Working alongside someone on this brief made me realise the importance of communication and clarification, you always need to make sure your on a similar wave length with your partner and keeping a constant line of communication out side of the studio is key to a good partnership. Because we set ourselves deadlines to get certain things done by it allow both of us the stay in control of the project. Personally I need to work on my self when in a team as I am used to just doing all the work and tend to steamroll ahead in some senses leaving my teammate not always on the same page as me. This was an enjoyable brief however i’d like to do another collaboration at some point with a brief with more of a visual end product. I give this brief 7/10
9
End of Module Evaluation This Module sure has been something. Although more frustrating at times than rewarding in hindsight I have learnt a lot from responsive. By choosing a variety of briefs I was able to see where my bodies as skills like in some parts of the creative field as well as learning how I work with other creatives in different fields to mine. The importance of time management couldn’t have been emphasised as a more desired skill i need to gain than in entering the Jiman competition, although this brief could be seen as my most least successful one it’s the one i have learnt the most from. By being forced to work on my anatomy, positioning and general sequential narrative skills I have become more realistic in what can be done in certain time periods as well as what I as an individual can do around the time and ongoing briefs/modules I already have. As someone who like to use language within their work the importance of type and placement has started to come through more in my work, especially towards the later briefs. Responsive has started to make me think more about how type and the placement of type can be used to
10
enhance and professionalise work. From this I want to push myself with how I use type as well as maybe venturing into handwritten type myself. Hindsight has been the main theme of this module as I seem to learn more form the creative process of doing the briefs than the actual finished product. However this way of learning and feeling accomplishment works much better for me as a creative then when i focused more on trying to finalise a perfect product without reflecting on the processes I was using and if they were effective for what was being done. D&AD thought me that I don’t like fully open briefs being set for me, well I do, but to help me focus on creating more efficient and beneficial end products I need to set myself my own personal restrictions in my work. It allows for more creative and well thought out imagery and stops me from going off in a tandem.
!
Secret 7 held a new challenge for me in that I’d never done any musical related illustrations before and apart from scheduled quick briefs in the first year I hadn’t personally sought out any more quicker briefs to do however when doing these briefs and setting myself shorter and shorter time limits as I went along I found that I started to come into my own element. I’m thinking of doing some editorial illustrations under similar time constraints to see how that compared to longer more developed pieces of illustration I do stack up.
!
Collaborative was a lot more conceptual than visual and it made me more uncomfortable that I thought it would Having put something time and effort in the idea generation and refinement of a thing only to come out the end with maybe one or two mockups to illustrate your point was really weird to me and I think it was also weird on my partner as well. Working with someone on a similar brain wave to myself was really nice as it allowed for us to get along well both personally and professionally. However I think i’d like to work with someone whose work is and personality is more different from mine as the idea of bouncing ideas and fighting our cases as to why certain things should be certain ways would be interesting and challenging when tackling an different
collaborative brief. I personally prefer to do more visually led brief/ work but I do like idea generating although I don’t know if thats because I enjoy the idea making process or if it’s because I just like talking.
!
I’d say responsive has helped me develop my creative mind more than my creative skills but it has put me in good stead for 505 and I feel more knowledge able about what I do and don’t what to do in my professional practice. I’ll probably do a few more briefs independently to help me keep refining and defining what I want to do as a creative. Having a long briefs and shot briefs going on at the same time helps me as I can change focus from a long brief to a short one which can help me when I get art block. And maintaining a longer brief allows more time for reflection and refinement than most short briefs do.
!
All in all I found that responsive to me is like going to a foreign country for a holiday and having a brief but passionate love affair with one of the beautiful local men there. It’s not something I would do all the time but it does help me get my mojo back as well as getting me to reflect on myself as a person and what I want to do and where I want to be.
11