Case studies miniature

C a s e Stu d ie s M i n ia tu re

R y a n M a t t h ew H ayd o n Pri n t & Pro d u c t D e s i g n e r

F o rewo rd: To by Ye l d , Pro m ot i o n a l D e si g n M a n a g e r, Chanel

Ryan f itted into the team quickly and easily.

Since an initial induction, he was completely self suff icient and able to take projects through from brief to realisation. This was helped dramatically by his attendance on a further induction and training course with the design team in Paris.

Working closely with the UK Marketing and Training departments, he produced numerous publications, manuals, training and marketing tools, as well as assisting the rest of the team wherever required.

He also express a great interest in store design so was able to complete some point-of-sale 3D projects furthering his knowledge in this area.

In addition to simply answering the brief, Ryan has a natural eye for layouts and graphics and is able to use his judgement to provide further input. This results in an end product of higher quality than the initial suggestions given to him at the time of the brief. He has also shown himself to be effective at project and time management, making him a valued asset to the team.

From our f irst meeting with Ryan, it was clear that he possessed a talent and natural eye for Graphic Design. He was a pleasure to have as part of my team for a year, working swiftly and eff iciently on a range of varied projects across the brand with minimal guidance. I would recommend him without hesitation.

Pr i n t v s p ro d u c t W hy I ch o se to s tu d y a p ro d u c t d e s i g n d e g re e, t h e n s p e cia l i se i n p r i n t .

Graphic design has always been a real passion of mine since my exposure to it at GCSE level. However at A-level my choices were more restricted which lead me to choose the closest creative subject on offer: Product Design.

At A-level I also studied Mathematics, Physics, Geography and Critical Thinking; these subjects in turn taught me a great deal about patterns, structure and detail which greatly inf luenced my personal design style.

Following A-level it felt ver y natural to apply for Product Design degrees, choosing Brunel mainly because of its contact with industr y - in-particular Chanel - and the offer of a placement year.

During my f irst year at Brunel the Graphic Communication One module really ignited my passion for graphic arts and particularly the beauty of printed material, which quickly became stand-out parts of any project I undertook ensuring the f inal print quality and layout was done to the best of my ability. Level two continued to encourage my passion through Graphic Communication Two but more importantly encouraging personal style through the C.V. and Portfolio projects which really set me apart from a large number of students in my year.

Throughout the f irst year and a half of my time at Brunel I really had my eyes set on carr ying out my placement year at Chanel, a brand I respected for their consistent aesthetic and incredible creativity. The fact that they offered a print /artworking position only aff irmed this desire.

It was April 2013 when I applied for the position at Chanel and was ver y happy with my application. I began

an unpaid work placement at CutLaserCut, a bespoke laser cutting agency based in Vauxhall. I learnt a huge amount about the possibilities of laser cutting and even began to cross the disciplines of print and laser by engraving my c.v. and business cards into any interesting material I could get my hands on, including leather, ply and my personal favourite, cork.

I began work at Chanel in August 2013 and over the placement year my interest in printed media really grew, acquiring a selection of inspirator y pieces that continues to grow. I was able to work with some of the best paper merchants to ensure each piece was as high quality as required. Chanel also taught me a huge amount about being versatile, deisgning for a brand and its guidelines.

During my f inal year at Brunel I have ensured that each project I have undertaken has left me with a piece of printed material I can really be proud of, even if this meant extra work in an already full schedule.

In retrospect, perhaps Product Design is not the course that I should have chosen, but as a 17 year old A-level student it’s hard to be too risk y. I believe that studying at Brunel has taught me a great deal that I would not have learnt studying graphic design such as user experience and human factors that really help to engage and connect with users, which allows for a unique insight into the design of printed material. It also encouraged me to pursue graphics based projects in my own time and developing a hard-working attitude that has benef ited me ever since.

C h a n e l: Re t a i l C o m m u ni c a t io n A r t wo r k i n g P OS

Chanel is a high fashion house that specialises in haute couture, fragrance and makeup. They embody simple, elegant design that challenges the over-designed excessive aesthetic that is commonplace in the luxur y goods market.

At Chanel I was responsible for designing, proof ing and overseeing the manufacture of printed materials including magazines, books and handouts. The role was in the promotional design team and as such I was exposed to a large number of POS based projects and being involved with installations in a number of different establishments including Selfridges, Harrods and Westf ield.

The responsibilities did not end with formal projects, I was a general advisor for graphic design enquiries, artworking a large number of invites or general stationar y all the while working on digital and instore elements.

The role taught me a huge amount about the fast paced world of graphic design, deepening my knowledge of the adobe creative suite and most importantly becoming familiar with designing to set guidelines. The guidelines initially felt restrictive as I struggled to work in the conditions, however they ensured all material looked consistent and once mastered, they provided a perfect base to design from, allowing extremely polished, interesting design within the aesthetic of the brand.

Bridal book, designed for the Quintessentially wedding fair.

Pa l e t te: U s e r ex p e r ie n ce I n te r f a ce d e s i g n I n te r a c t io n

Palette is an application that aims to increase creative conf idence in the kitchen by exploring and educating f lavour.

The application aims to change the perception and interaction of cooking.

Gamif ication is an extremely important aspect of that, ensuring that the user is challenged to learn but also motivated to progress, by offering rewards in the form of recipes.

The second half of the app provides f lavour combinations through a picture menu.

Palette provides a minimal, clean and elegant yet inspiring aesthetic and uses accessible intuitive interactions.

These give the application an adult professional feel, while at the same time using evocative imager y to help inspire and excite.

As the user progresses through using the app and becomes more prof icient in the kitchen, Palette encourages creativity by removing parts of recipes. The user must then use past experience, personal preference and knowledge gained to perfect the recipe.

Palette optimises the experience of cooking and using recipes by incentivising education, encouraging expression and inspiring culinar y experiences.

Palette opening screen

S cie n ce M a g azi n e: Pr i n t I n fo g r a p h i c s Branding

The New York Times was explored as part of a visual communications module. The goal of the project was to visually represent an idea through information design and the techniques related to this discipline. I decided to tackle the idea of public funded space exploration dying out, asking the question “[is this] the end of space exploration”?

I chose the New York Times Magazine as my publication of choice as currently they have no science supplement. Therefore, I had to create the logotype that would follow “The New York Times Magazine” branding. This was created based on the existing logos aesthetic, spacing and letterforms, ensuring a harmonious pairing.

The approach to the project was to bring to light the fact that a great number of technologies are ‘spinoffs’ from NASA missions, while at the same time comparing (US) spending on other activities and taxes to show perspective of the actual scale of the NASA budget and effect on the ever yday lives of people paying the tax.

Infographics were focused on in the piece to visually represent the data researched throughout the project and ease the understanding of the f indings.

Magazine cover

E x h i b i t io n Way f i n d i n g: O rg a n i s a t i o n S e m i ot i c s Ty p o g r a p hy

The Made in Brunel exhibition houses over 150 projects and the students that designed them. it is important that there is a logical, intuitive organisation system to ensure guests can f ind exactly what they require. As Publications Manager for Made in Brunel it was my job to research and implement a system that would make navigation as simple as possible.

The f inal brochure combines an A3 map using highlighting colours to symbolise different rooms and the type of projects contained within them, with an index of people, timetable and information on the surrounding area to ease the users’ experience of the show and the weekend as a whole.

The brochure uses a series of folds and cuts to create an A6, 8pp brochure that opens out to create an A3 map.

A3 Map of the Made in Brunel exhibition

S n a p s h ot s: M a g azi n e Pr i n t Ed i to r- i n - ch ief

Snapshots is Made in Brunel’s magazine. It gives an over view of what is getting Made in Brunel, with features on projects and people. These include inter views, projects and creative works from students that make up the design and engineering courses at Brunel University London.

Snapshots is published seasonally and includes a variety of contributors across all levels of study. The project highlight is a particular piece of work that deser ves a special mention, because of it’s thoroughness, insight and process. The level two feature focuses on the best submissions to the most recent project undertaken by second year students, including lighting, industrial week and design for manufacture. Major projects represent the largest projects that f inal year students undertake whilst at Brunel. They began their projects in October and through passion and determination with well over 400 hours of work, will be completed by April.

I am the editor-in-chief of the publication, managing a team of eight people that represent level 1,2 and 3. Together we collate, edit and design the magazine whilst liaising with suppliers to ensure the print quality and budget is met.

The project has taught me a huge amount about the real world of print and the thoroughness of the design process that is required to ensure a quality publication ever y time.

Snapshots cover

Snapshots internal

S c a n p a n: Branding Pr i n t Guidelines H yg g e H o m ew a re s At m o s p h e re Hygge (n.) : A complete absence of any thing annoying or emotionally overwhelming; taking pleasure from the presence of gentle, soothing things.

Scanpan is a Scandinavian cookware company who pride themselves in making professional tools. They approached us as a collective of designers to reposition the brand for 10 years in the future.

The project began with a visit to the family owned factor y in Aarhus, Denmark, where Scanpan provided us with deep and honest information regarding the organisational structure and brand values, both the positive and negative aspects.

From this point we analysed the food trends, customer market and social context to outline a full brand deconstruction and repositioning. The result of this analysis was the statement “functional and timeless tools to elevate the dining atmosphere�; this was used to inform our f inal design outcomes.

The second half of the project consisted of writing a set of brand design guidelines, outlining Scandinavian design principles, Scanpan semiotics and creating a framework to design in specif ic areas, allowing for a cohesive range of atmospheric homewares to be designed.

The f inal set of products represent Scandinavian tools that meet a need whilst always providing pleasure to the user.

Scanpan/Scandinavian design guidelines

U s e r E x p e r ie n ce H u m a n Fa c to r s Acce p t a n ce Usabilit y

User experience is a term that is usually synonymous with digital interface design projects.

Interface design was the subject of my f inal major project, improving user experiences of an application.

During the project I explored multiple facets of the user experience and found that many principles could be applied to disciplines outside of the user interface.

The principles outlined in many human factors processes are just as relevant to retail communication and printed material as they are to any digital project. This is because the basic ideas are to make projects more intuitive, easy to use and pleasurable.

When applied to marketing material, these ideas can translate to more understandable advertising for the viewer. Understandability can relate both to the comprehension of the information and the emotional engagement, with a high emotional engagement resulting in a increased desire for the product. All research on this topic was collated and combined into a set of principles for designing desirable products.

User experience inter views

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