PROJECT REPORT
SAM COOK OUGD503
INDEX STUDIO BRIEF 1 COMPETITION BRIEFS D&AD - PURDEY’S REDESIGN SECRET7” - ELBOW SECRET7” - LORDE YOKE - DIALOGUE EXHIBITION LIVE BRIEFS F/11 - PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION PROMOTION SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY SUMMER BALL STUDIO BRIEF 2 COLLABORATIVE BRIEFS D&AD - WPP, AL GORE
PURDEYS REDESIGN THE BRIEF -
EVALUATION-
This was the D&AD brief that I chose to focus on as my main brief for the responsive modules. The brief was set by Purdey’s to redesign and repackage Purdey’s two energy drinks.
Over all I am really pleased with this brief. This was one of the briefs that I spent the most time on. However, I didn’t ever have the time to souly devote large periods of time to develop the brief. As a result I don’t think that the end resolution is as well developed as I would have liked.
MY RESPONSE -
NATURAL ENERGY
REJUVENATE
ELIXIR VITAE
ELIXIR VITAE
330ml
330ml
For my response for this brief I decided to redesign the existing bottles. I opted for a more simple and clean design as opposed to the busy design previously used. This is because the brand wants to portray healthy living and cleanliness of body and mind. Colour choice played a big part in my design decisions. I used a range of natural subtle colours with a soft gradient to connote the brand ethos of health and well being. I created a brand consistency so that the bottles worked as a pair but also had their own individual appearances. One of the strengths of the final outcome is the end design and the concept behind it. I think a weakness of the brief is the final resolution. To make my chances of winning this competition greater I could have focused on the bottle in situation and ways of portraying the bottle in a 3D format.
This brief has taught me a lot about time management and distributing my time evenly between different briefs. As this was one of my first briefs I started I think I have learned lots from it.
SECRET 7” THE BRIEF -
EVALUATION-
Create a 7” vinyl sleeve inspired by the song Grounds for divorce by Elbow. The mandatory requirements specified that the band and song name should not be included with in the design. The deliverable was a 7” vinyl sleeve.
I really enjoyed this brief as light relief from all the work heavy briefs that were going on at the same time. The brief was also enjoyable as it has a lot of scope and allows you to be as creative as you chose.
MY RESPONSE -
I struggled with my ideas generation at the beginning of this brief. It was daunting as there was so much freedom when designing the sleeve. However after revisiting the lyrics and researching further in to the meaning of the song it became more clear of which direction to take the brief.
For this brief I employed a conceptual and abstract interpretation of the brief. The song is about the band members losing a close friend. The four patterns represent the three band members and the friend they lost. The spiral design was inspired by the lyric “there’s a hole in my neighbourhood” and represents the spiral of decent and feelings of depression, mortality and death. I decided to opt for a very minimal yet eye catching design for this sleeve. The song is also about drinking, the design subtly plays with the viewers eyes, as if they are under the influence.
I have learned a very important lesson throughout this brief to always consider research behind the design and designing with a strong concept instead of designing purely for aesthetic purposes to make things look “nice”.
SECRET 7” THE BRIEF -
EVALUATION-
Create a 7” vinyl sleeve inspired by the song Team by lorde. The mandatory requirements specified that the band and song name should not be included with in the design. The deliverable was a 7” vinyl sleeve.
This brief took me about a week in total due to the photography aspect. Over all I am pleased with the design. It was a relatively short turn around and I was able to learn from the experience of the fist secret 7” brief that I had completed prior to this. Because of this starting the brief and creating a solid concept was a lot quicker.
MY RESPONSE For this brief I focused on one of my strongest skills, photography and image manipulation. It was exciting to use skills that I knew I was good at. In retrospect I could have maybe challenged my self slightly more. The response for this brief was inspired by the chorus of the song “We live in cities you’ll never see on screen, Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things, Living in ruins of a palace within my dreams” The main influence was imagery of Hashima Island in Japan. I took the photograph at a beach near where I live. The concrete textures mixed with the monotonous colour scheme and soft film grain help depict the grunge connotations that I took from the song lyrics.
F/11 EXHIBITION THE BRIEF -
EVALUATION-
This was a client set brief from a photography student at Sheffield Hallam university. The brief was to design a promotional leaflet and poster for a photography exhibition that she and a group of other students were holding. The deliverables include a poster at both A3 and A5 format.
I learned a lot throughout the process of this brief. I feel that my conversational skills were good, and I maintained a level of professionalism throughout the process even when the client was being awkward and indecisive.
This brief was my first experience of working with a client and was at times challenging. The client wasn’t very clear on what she wanted, or the aesthetic she was looking for. Because of this the brief, which could have had a quick turn around, lasted about two weeks. With various conversations between us as to what she was looking for. It was also challenging as every change and decision had to go through the other members of the exhibition, which made the process even more lengthy. MY RESPONSE My design process throughout this brief was varied. I used a range of techniques including photography and water colour painting in order to provide the client with a choice of design aesthetics as she wasn’t sure what she wanted the posters to look like. The end result has an organic, natural theme. The minimalist design aids but doesn’t over shadow the event logo.
The time management of this brief could have been a lot more efficient but this was through no fault of my own. I often found my self chasing after the client and devoting more time then i would have liked to the brief as result. Overall The client was really happy with the end product and said that she would be in contact if she ever needed anymore work doing in the future.
SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY SUMMER BALL
THE BRIEF My second live brief was to create the invitation for the Sheffield University summer ball. In contrast to my previous live brief it ran a lot smoother. I was contacted by the Social sec of Sheffield university after they saw my work on Behance. I made a point of making sure the mandatory requirements and specific considerations of the brief were clearly defined before undertaking the brief. The brief set was to create an invitation that would be sent out to invite Sheffield university students to the Alice in wonderland themed summer ball. The constraints of the brief were as follows: Two colours plus stock, double sided design, A6 format. MY RESPONSE This brief was very challenging. It is not my normal area of design. The client wanted an illustrative design with obvious links to the theme. After conducting my research I decided to focus the design around the Queen of hearts, in particular playing cards. The colour scheme was inspired by playing cards in particular the suit of hearts. I tried various layouts and lots of different borders in order to frame the design. I was reluctant to feature too many Lewis Carol illustrations on the final resolution, but the client expressed a great need for these. As a compromise I included one of the images and the
client loved the end result. I think the back of the invitation works well. It was a pattern that i created by hand then scanned in to illustrator and live traced. Illustrator is one of my weaker areas when it comes to adobe software so it was good practice and an interesting challenge. EVALUATIONI think this was one of my most important briefs in terms of progression and learning. The brief has allowed me to produce work that will be seen by a lot of people, as well as being my first large print job. I feel I have made a good contact in my client who said she would employ my skills again if any other design opportunities arose. Although I was out of my comfort zone in terms of design aesthetic I feel I have coped well and learned new skills that I will employ in future design work. If time and budget were not an issue I would like to have screen printed the designs and tried edge painting as well, but due to the short nature and quick turn around of the brief this was not an option. This brief has taught me the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things. It has definitely opened my eyes to new possibilities and broadened my horizons when it comes to selecting briefs.
DIALOGUE EXHIBITION THE BRIEF -
EVALUATION-
This was a brief set by the design duo yoke. The brief was to produce art work themed around the topic of dialogue. The art work would then get paired with another creatives and overlaid using screen printing. Specific mandatory requirements: A3 landscape or portrait, 300 dpi, vector or half tone images, black and white.
At first I was reluctant to do this brief as it was small and I felt I could have used the time developing other briefs. However it proved successful in a number of ways. This brief went well from start to finish and was only a small task. The exhibition provided a good opportunity to see how other people had interpreted the same brief. It also offered a great chance to meet other creatives and network with some agencies.
MY RESPONSE I produced four designs in response to this brief. The Morse code image was the design picked. The design idea came from thinking of abstract forms of communication and hidden codes, i thought this was an interesting way to interpret the brief and spark dialogue between creatives at the exhibition. The brief had a short turn around time. My design decisions were based around my research. The production of the art work was relatively straight forward once I had decided on the concept.
COLLABORATIVE - WPP THE BRIEF -
EVALUATION-
The WPP brief required a campaign to be created in order to raise awareness and prompt change regarding global warming, climate change and carbon emissions. The brief is also supported by Al Gore.
Working as a collaboration was a lot easy than I had anticipated, I feel that me and Danielle worked well as a team and conflict was never an issue. One problem we faced was our different pace of working. I found that I wanted to spend more time developing work, where as Danielle was more reluctant to do so, and more eager to finish everything very quickly.
MY RESPONSE When creating the concept for this brief I feel I was able to refine and hone in on the ideas generated. I think Danielle often mistook my methodical and logical way of working as slow paced. I feel as though Danielle and my self had equal roles throughout this brief. On most parts we were able to work efficiently as a unit as well as individually. I designed a number of the final products: All packaging, the posters, and exercise books. As well as designing the logo and being in charge of photography. Working as a collaboration was exciting as it allowed us to generate a large amount of work. We made rational decisions throughout the brief, it was the first time either of us had designed for a child target audience whic was a challenge but one i think that we succeeded in.
I took a more passive role when it came to organisation and time keeping as Danielle is stronger in these fields, once we had got used to each other’s way of working the project came on leaps and bounds. As a result I think we have interpreted the brief in a conceptual and strong way. I do however feel that i should have been more assertive when it came to the quality of finishes and end products as these were things we could have paid more attention to. This collaborative experience has been vital in my development as a graphic designer. I feel I have learned a lot from Danielle such as time management and organisational skills. I have also learned to be forth coming and not afraid to voice my opinions and concerns, which hasn’t always been a strong point for me in the past.