07SHED

#07

Name_ Ross Francis Student ID_ 102181 Level_ 06 Module Code_ OUG603

Brief Title Type Of Brief Skills Collaborators Nature of Collaboration

SHED

Brief

Design and produce a poster and flyer for ‘SHED New Music Sessions’ and independent charity gig put together by Leeds College of Music students.

Background

The gig has been arranged by Leeds College of Music students. The gig will take place at the Shed in Leeds a bar and small music venue in the heart of Leeds. The acts playing are from a varying number of genres and are all students at Leeds College of Music. The gig is being put together by students who have never put on a gig before, so there is a certain DIY attitude to the whole arrangement.

Considerations

The gig will not be a polished event. The event will be put together by amateurs.

Live brief for an event Art Direction,Type Design, Layout, Screen Print, Joel Burden In this brief, I conducted some visual and primary research concerning the location and feel of the event and venue. I brainstormed a variety of concepts to which Joel critiqued them and allowing us to collaboratively determine a design direction.

Joel produced illustrations while I designed the type. Joel produced the defining layout of the poster and I later made some type adjustments.

Consider the setting of the gig and how this impacts the aesthetic of the poster.

Consider the audience base and who will be possibly attending. How can the poster appeal to this market.

Solution

The branding of the event and the print that we created was very disjointed to represent a mash of styles, interests, and influences.

The DIY motivations of the event became ingrained into the over arching feel and content of the print delivering a level of intrigue through engagement with the poster. The red and black used were directly taking from some visual research and the impact the two colours have together. A selection of board and seemingly disposable stocks were used to print on to reinforce the tone of the event and venue.

Evaluation

This brief was very quick turnaround, going from research/concept to print in less than 3 days. The brief was very refreshing, the previous briefs relied heavily on concept, which made for a slow and testing design process. The frustration at not finding the spark immediately was completely averted in this brief. The concept arrived from being completely process driven, and seemed to mature as we made quick and instinctual decisions. The quick choice of content and flippant decisions made over stock seemed to compliment the design direction rather than compromise it.

I was happy with the design process, I was happy with the design, and I was very happy with the direction feel of the poster. If I could change anything it would only to be push the brief further. To consider that this is a for an event I would have loved to have a wider input into the art direction of the event itself. Bring the feel of the print to the broader context of the event. Similar to the BLADE brief, I feel that my job as a designer has only been half done. I am starting to think what good is it to design a poster or visual appearance for an event, brand, or institution without following it through to it’s live context. As graphic designers, we create and manipulate form, colour, tone, usually within 2D space, whether it be within a print or digital environment. It only seems to make sense to me that my natural progression as a designer is to take these sensibilities and follow them through to the 3D contexts. While I realise this is not for the case for all designers, I think that might prior experience as an architecture student gives me a desire to move into the 3D environment to create the visual consistency of a brand or event’s tone, shape and form.

I think the visceral and natural process of this brief has allowed me to think about the context of my design. I have realised that I like to think about cultural events and brands as a defining part of my practice and this is something that I want to capitalise on with my remained briefs, and my practice after college.

Research

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

What did I do?

Why did I do it?

What more could I have done?

At the beginning of this brief I immersed myself in primary research. I visited the venue that the event was held at and I took a walk around the surrounding area to see what there was from the surroundings.

I looked into the music that was going to be played at the event and I also looked into the branding of the venue and the tone of the suroundings.

I conducted this type of research as I felt that once I had collected all of the influences that make up the event, I would have all the material I needed to put together a visual that would represent this event in the most honest way possible. The brief lasted 3 days, and during this time I immersed myself in the cause, through the quick, but in depth (for the size of the brief) research that I conducted, I was able to create my own narrative for the poster that came from making connections through it’s components.

I was very happy with the amount of research that I did. As the brief progressed and I created a narrative and feel for the event, I felt that I could start to involve more visual research. This stage happened when I fully understood what needed to be communicated.

While this brief was quite short, I feel that the amount of researched I gained impressed myself. Understanding the event allowed me to design a very appropriate visual and I felt that from this moment I started to develop a good methodology for researching briefs.

SHED Brief #07

Design Direction

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

What direction did I take?

Why did I take this direction?

What influenced me?

After deciding that the brief should have a DIY aesthetic. I started to think about what a DIY aesthetic actually is, literally and metaphorically. I looked into jazz posters with it’s improvised visual approach and hand printed aesthetics that found beauty through imperfection.

I then decided, after drawing up some potential visual directions, that the direction should take a more literal approach, and mash the DIY SHED theme with the theme of music.

I took this direction because I was inspired by creating a visual reaction to the music. Not so much in the way that I would visually represent sound waves by looking at the music through a media player then rip off the shapes, or paint the typeface while listening to music.

Rather I would take elements from my research and insert their nuances into my design, so that the direction would be accessible, but with meaning and reference.

I was influenced by the space of a shed, and the organisation of the shed. I liked the way that these things were stuck on walls as a reference point, but I felt that their arrangement was too pristine. I liked the idea of organised confusion found in Jazz improvisation, and I felt this had a very DIY feel. I became inspired by bespoke typography, and very characterful type designs. I was also particularly inspired by the limited colour palettes of some of the examples above, and I felt these would work nicely against a more liberal layout.

SHED Brief #07

Development

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

How did I develop the brief?

What problems did I have?

Was it successful?

I developed the brief by initally doing various layouts on paper. After realising I would be taking the direction of a tool wall, I started finding inspiration and direction for my type decisions. I decided to create each letter independently. This was a lot harder than I had thought as It took patience to create letters that had some relevence to one another without looking entirely the same. Joel created illustrations that he layed out against my type and I finally inserted the last bits of type in a uniform typeface that I thought looked quite lo-fi, but legible.

Due to the brief having quite a small turn around time, the allowance for problems was quite minimal. Luckily the majority of the brief went swimmingly. A couple of difficulties were had making stock choices, however we resulted this by having a ‘f**k it’ attitude, which became a defining point of the over visual. We chose a variety of stocks that had a synergic relationship with one another. Having a free and open mind to the different stocks only added to the mashup that defined the event itself.

The students we created the poster for were very happy, and their tutor expressed his thanks and appraisal.

Due to the quick turnaround of the brief and the quality of the outcome it is quite difficult to say it was unsuccessful. Even if the visual is not particularly refined, it is a success to say that it was enjoyable to produce, and a pleasure to work on at the very least.

I think that a healthy graphic design practice certainly needs these quick, but worthwhile briefs, that have a refreshingly blasé workflow.

SHED Brief #07

Presentation

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

SHED Brief #07

Poster

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

SHED Brief #07

Poster Range

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

SHED Brief #07

Flyer

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

SHED Brief #07

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

SHED Brief #07

Ross Francis 102181

Extended Practice OUGD603

SHED Brief #07