design 456: practicum

Dsgn: FOU ffty sx y’all.

SIMON SOK PROCESS. SUMMER 2011 @ MATCHSTIC

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Table of contents 01. Goal Checklist 02. HOW Design LIVE 03. Blog Illustrations 04. NTMA Icons 05. Socialvest 06. Church Kiosk 07. Bryan Gibson 08. Leadercast 2012 09. Booster: Epic Adventure 10. Matchstic Stories 11. Thoughts & Reflection

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Goal Checklist What would I like to achieve during my time at Matchstic?

Working more hands on with branding/identity.

Maybe adding 2-3 solid pieces to my portfolio.

Becoming more familiar with web design. Coding possibly?

Obtaining more knowledge behind the concept of branding and sharpening my skills in brandmark design.

• Conceptually • Physically • Process Seeing the process of working with a client Collaborative working, in a team and or group setting.

Be curious. Question everything. What does it mean?

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HOW Design live I was asked to help with the graphics and illustration for Blake’s keynote presetnation at the 2011 HOW Design Conference, held in Chicago. There are intial sketches and concepting done before the illustrations were finalized.

designer vs. NPO

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2011

25,000

graphic design firms

200,000

nonprofit organizations

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25% graphic design firms

30 YEARS nonprofit organizations

15 YEARS nonprofit organizations

50% graphic design firms

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10.6 YEARS nonprofit organizations

75% graphic design firms

2011

25,000

graphic design firms

200,000

nonprofit organizations

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= graphic design firms = nonprofit organizations

= graphic design firms = nonprofit organizations

25% graphic design firms

30 YEARS nonprofit organizations

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= graphic design firms = nonprofit organizations

50% graphic design firms

15 YEARS nonprofit organizations

= graphic design firms = nonprofit organizations

75% graphic design firms

10.6 YEARS nonprofit organizations

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high cost of giving

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giving sucks y’all

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THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

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THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

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THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

$$$$

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING the problem with probono

$$$

$

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THE HIGH COST OF GIVING (the problem with probono)

$$$$!

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING the problem with probono

$$$$!

THE HIGH COST OF GIVING the problem with probono BLAKE HOWARD | MATCHSTIC.COM

top 10 reasons

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X

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top 10 reasons why giving sucks.

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Now that the recession is over, the designer gets “too busy” and pushes the non-paying client to the end of line, Client is left out to dry.

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The client becomes crazy needy and abuses your generosity with tons of email request for different file types.

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Client starts to draw their new “logo” to show what they were thinking all along and really wanted in the first place.

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Client reveals a 52 person board of directors that need a unanimous vote to approve the new design 5.

Client sends over round 14 of revisions to a gradient bar in an email newsletter template 6.

Designer never really wanted to help but didn’t have the balls to say no.

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Client thinks the new design is “pretty good” but was hoping for more “pop”.

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Designer ignores client’s input and simply wants to make something “look super awesome” for their portfolio.

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Client needs a new name, logo, website, and brochure for “this big event” in two weeks.

10.

Designer hates clients feedback and decides to delete their email account and get a new phone number.

Top 10 Reasons probono goes wrong

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top 10 reasons top 5 reasons

5. The Friend Card The Scenario: A friend starts a non-profit, runs into his designer friend at a party, asks him for help, and despite his reservations about the cause he decides to help out of a guilty conscience. The designers looses heart two weeks into helping and gets annoyed at the client and just flakes out (also seen in #1 reason).

4. The Unknown Decision Maker The Scenario: After completing some amazing work, the designer is made aware of a 75 person board of directors that will need to 100% approve the new (and free) work. We call this the “SWOOP Factor” and have seen it happen time and time again completely destory any hope for a positive change in an organization.

3. The Needy & Gradually Annoying Client The Scenario: The project is pushed to the point in which a disgruntled designer erupts with “They do remember they’re not even paying for this, right?”. A preliminary red flag for this condition is seen when a free client says, “I sketched out an idea for our new logo, what do you think?”.

2. The Choking Mouthful The Scenario: The designer has bit off more than she can chew and didn’t clarify the expectations or deliverables to the free client. The client is expecting a new name, visual identity, brand standards, and 15 year launch strategy/ marketing plan but the designer thought she was just making edits to an email template… oops! (Then the designer reverts to the #1 reason below.)

1. The Designer Flake The Scenario: A designer agrees to help a wonderful and budding non-profit, since the recession is so bad (and there’s not much to do anyway) only to get busy with “paying clients” and pulls a smoke bomb ninja move completely disappearing off the radar of the free client.

Secretly to themselves they justify the flake out with “I’m going to get to it next month, I’ve just got too many paying clients I need to get to first.”

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1 The Designer Flake

No.1

Rule No.1

No.1

The Designer Flake

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No.1 The Designer Flake

No.1

The Friend Card

No.5 The Friend Card

Top 5 Reasons probono goes wrong

The Friend Card

No.5

No.1

No.4

The Friend Card

The Friend Card

The Unknown Decision Maker

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new illustration top 5 reasons With consideration, the top 10 reasons were narrowed down to top 5 reasons. The first iteration features similar illustration with the square (designer) and circle (client) relationship.

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5 The Friend Card

4 The Unknown Decision Maker

3 The Needy & Gradually Annoying Client

2 The Choking Mouthful

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1 The Designer Flake

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new illustration

/ no. 2

top 5 reasons The direction changed as far as the style of the illustration goes. The style was changed to of a more line art illustration.

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5 The Friend Card The Scenario: A friend starts a non-profit, runs into his designer friend at a party, asks him for help, and despite his reservations about the cause he decides to help out of a guilty conscience. The designers looses heart two weeks into helping and gets annoyed at the client and just flakes out (also seen in #1 reason).

4 The Unknown Decision Maker The Scenario: After completing some amazing work, the designer is made aware of a 75 person board of directors that will need to 100% approve the new (and free) work. We call this the “SWOOP Factor� and have seen it happen time and time again completely destory any hope for a positive change in an organization.

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3 The Needy & Gradually Annoying Client The Scenario: The project is pushed to the point in which a disgruntled designer erupts with “They do remember they’re not even paying for this, right?”. A preliminary red flag for this condition is seen when a free client says, “I sketched out an idea for our new logo, what do you think?”.

2 The Choking Mouthful The Scenario: The designer has bit off more than she can chew and didn’t clarify the expectations or deliverables to the free client. The client is expecting a new name, visual identity, brand standards, and 15 year launch strategy/ marketing plan but the designer thought she was just making edits to an email template‌ oops! (Then the designer reverts to the #1 reason below.)

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1 The Designer Flake The Scenario: A designer agrees to help a wonderful and budding non-profit, since the recession is so bad (and there’s not much to do anyway) only to get busy with “paying clients” and pulls a smoke bomb ninja move completely disappearing off the radar of the free client.

Secretly to themselves they justify the flake out with “I’m going to get to it next month, I’ve just got too many paying clients I need to get to first.”

Find the right fit!

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yeah!

beauty is only skin deep ≈

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dna skeleton skin

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beaUTy is only skin Deep The best identity design processes usually follows this basic model:

The Dna

The skeleTon

The skin

DNA: The set of foundational truths in which your company stands on.

Skeleton: The internal alignment that shapes your internal culture.

Skin: The tangible external surface that shapes and determines people's perceptions.

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Beauty is only skin deep

The Dna The set of foundational truths in which your company stands on.

The best identity design processes usually follows this basic model

The skeleTon The internal alignment that shapes your internal culture.

The skin The tangible external surface that shapes and determines people's perceptions.

skin The skin is the tangible external surface that shapes and determines people's perceptions.

skeleTon The skeleton is the internal alignment that shapes your internal culture.

Dna The Dna is the set of foundational truths in which your company stands on.

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03.

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blog illustrations I’ve created some illustrations for some of the matchstic blog posts.

Blog illustration No. 1

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Blog illustration No. 2

04.

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NTMA I was asked to help create some icons for the development process for NTMA. Here are some of the illustrations and graphics I’ve created below. Most of them will be used on the website or a brochure.

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The icon’s I’ve created put into context (I did not create the layout).

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Icon’s in context (I did not create this layout).

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We’re oPen oPen

We’re oPen

oPen

05.

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socialvest I was involved in a rebranding development for a organization called ‘socialvest’. I was brought on this process for experience and to have a feel for a client, designer relationship.

This one was definitely an interesting progress that’s for sure. I felt situation between the designer and client was a rocky path. The client had preset notion of what they wanted and almost directed the designer. This process leaves the designer as just a machine to produce whatever the client wants and leaves the creativity for the designer out. Here are some iterations of the development of the brand.

What is SocialVest?

SocialVest is a for-profit company that allows consumers to earn money for non-profit organizations every time they make a purchase with one of our hundreds of retail partners.

How does it Work?

Simply register one or more of your credit cards at the SocialVest website. Then, whenever you use one to shop with our nearly 600 retail partners, the retailer will rebate between 0.5 to 10 percent of the purchase price into your personal Giving Account. You can distribute your Giving Account funds online, however and whenever you like, to any non-profit organization in the U.S. If you prefer not to register a credit card, you can download the SocialVest toolbar to your web browser or access retail partners through our website, and accrue rebates to your Giving Account when you make online purchases.

mind map

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sketches

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This is one of the three identity that was presented to the client for the first round.

The feedback was that it was too feminine for their brand.

Because of the quirky name of the brand, we thought it wouldn’t hurt to play off of the name. We thought it would be a good direction to go in the route of a literal vest. Not only does it have a deeper, conceptual meaning, but it also is very memorable.

These are sketches of vests

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everyday purchase

PURCHASE ON PURPOSE

PURCHASE ON PURPOSE

PURCHASE ON PURPOSE

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This is the final brand mark for ‘socialvest’. The connotation of a vest can be thought of a conceptual symbolism for service and gratuity. For examples, servers at restaurants, girl & boy scouts, etc. There are lots of deeper meanings within the vest and I think that’s what we tried to achieve. The slight distortion adds to the playful and modern atmospheric identity that will be along side with their competitors. Though I helped contribute, I did not create the final logo.

(I did not create the layout above)

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church kiosk Blake approached me asking for help with an idea for an information display that would be installed in a church. The basic idea was to sketch a couple ideas that dealt with the strategic way in delivering news to a church of 200 members.

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IDEA NO. 1 3 sided structure

Three sides for three different content for display.

Display

Large TV mounted on each side for ease of information display

Shelving

Use to place physical materials.

IDEA NO. 2 Display

One large TV mounted on a wall for large display.

Shelving

Use to place physical materials.

IDEA NO. 3 3 Displays

Three individual TV for displaying different content.

Blackboard

The use of a blackboard to write quick updates and information.

Shelving

Use to place physical materials.

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07.

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bryan gibson This is a poster I redesigned for Bryan Gibson, a cellist. The previous poster had no sense of hierarchy or interest. The type and image does not mix well.

I was thinking of all the distinctive concepts related to music. The first idea was dealing with sound waves and vibrations. I presented the mockups to Blake and he felt like I should focus on the characteristics of a cello. The warmth, brassy, deep tones brought me back to classy and sophisticated letterpress. The old style of the quality of a letterpress better defines the message of the poster.

before

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Preliminary sketches

1st iteration

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2nd iteration

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idea 1 light

idea 1 dark

cellist

featuring:

tim brantley

Part of our S atur day night music series occuring

all summer long

1009 Mariet ta street nw / atlan ta , ga 30318

9—10pm

9—10pm FREE EVENT || 2 1+ TO DRINK

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idea 2 light

idea 2 dark

cellist

cellist

Final printed poster

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08.

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cfa Leadercast Chick-fil-A Leadercast is a one-day leadership event broadcast LIVE from Atlanta, GA to hundreds of locations around the world. Featuring world-renowned speakers, applicable content, and an experiential environment, Chick-fil0A Leadercast is affordable and accessible to all leaders, at every level.

I was asked to create some banner ads, emailers, and a splash page for the 2012 event.

banner ads

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emailers

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1st iteration

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final emailer

splash page

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1st iteration

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Final splash page

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booster: epic adventure This was something small I was asked to create. I designed a coloring sheet for grade school children. This was a piece of collatoral that was part of a bigger brand system. The feedback was something along the lines of ‘the coloring sheet is a big hit among the children.

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matchstic stories Matchstic Stories is series of client testimonial videos. In each video, the client speaks about their experience and relationship they’ve had during their time at Brand Camp. I was asked to come up with some ideas for a title sequence that would appear during the beginning of the video. Here are some of the iteration and ideas I’ve sketched. As well as the icons, I’ve mocked up a few different version of layout that will host the video.

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Final icon for Matchstic Stories.

This layout incorporates thumbnails that are right aligned. There are texts on the left that corresponds to the thumbnail when one hovers over a specific one.

Here is one idea of what the page will look like. The large center hosts the video player. On top of the large player, there are thumbnails of other videos. As one hovers over the thumbnail, the title appears.

This layout incorporates thumbnail that one can click to get to the video. As one hovers over the thumbnail, the title of the video will appear.

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Final layout

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thoughts & reflection I am truly grateful for this experience and opportunity. The things that I’ve gained from interning at Matchstic will further better myself as a designer in the professional field. I took this opportunity and challenge seriously, as if it was my real job. The work ethic that I put in hopefully came across in my work. I went into this having no expectations and only imaged the designer juggling to do everything. The fact of the matter is, to run a successful firm it has to be a collaborative effort. Without project managers, nothing would be organized. Without business analyst, the financial situation would be a mess. This whole process takes a multitude of people contributing under the same roof. I’ve learned from each and every one of the team members, ranging from junior designers to the project manager.

The atmosphere and environment I was surrounded with definitely affected the work I produced. To encircle yourself around creative people not only will it better your design, but also improve your communication skills. With that said, I believe my communication skills has sharpened while I was at Matchstic. Finding the correct lexicon during conversations and critiques makes a huge impact.

Organization is also an immense priority. Without organization, it is hard to find specific things and it only defers you from your work time. I’ve learned that having a good system of file naming and sharing can drastically increase the production level. As a result, time management is vital. The act of balancing which project needs more emphasis will ultimately result in your own pacing and scheduling.

One of the most important factors in working in a design firm is the client to designer relationship. I was a part of a rebranding project where I’ve help create a brand. I’ve learned that your must communicate your ideas effectively because if you can’t sell the idea to them, how is the audience going to relate to it? By witnessing an unsteady relationship between a client and designer made me realize that these are real life situations. As a designer, we have a duty to work and sell the “product” to the client. But sometimes the “product” is amazing yet the client doesn’t seem to see eye to eye.

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There are definitely areas where I wished I could have learned/ experience more. The only thing that I wished I could have gained out of my internship is more identity branding work. However, I do understand that it’s a long process and it’s something that doesn’t happen over night.

Overall the experience was wonderful. To work in the same playing field as a full time designer really gives you a sense of validation, a sense of belonging to the industry. As a student, we are often in this contained bubble, surrounded by your peers and professors. It’s truly boils down to the real work environment. I would love to explore other avenues of design to better understand myself as a person and as a creative thinker.

Left to right: Alana Dy, Alvin Diec, Becky O’Mara, Simon Sok, Dustin Britt, Blake Howard, John Bowles. Bottom: Jason Orme (Not pictured: Staci Janik & Craig Johnson)

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