My Work Placement

Toni Pilling 1303565

Northumbria University 2nd Year - Design for Industry Visual Architects Design Placement 10th March 2015 - 29th May 2015

ABOUT THE COMPANY Visual Architects are an event decor, lighting and installation service. They have become one of the most respected event transformation companies in the UK and Europe working with club promoters, festivals and corporate/wedding co-ordinators to provide unique venue customisation suitable for all occasions. The company have been going for 10 years alongside their club night ‘Illuminaughty’ working for several famous festivals and venues such as the O2 Arena in London, Kendal Calling Festival, Manchester Academy, Parklife Festival and The Ritz.

The customers that Visual Architects usually cater for are Event Organisers, who are responsible for the production of events from conception through to completion. The company works with them to help organise the event decor and design it to suit their needs. This could be for a range of events • Corporate Events • Fashion Shows • Birthdays • Student Parties • Private Functions • Weddings • Club Nights • Festivals

MY PLACEMENT During my placement I had a range of design briefs which I completed both on my own and within a team. I worked in an office (fig. 1) most of the time as I was mainly doing graphic design tasks but I also from time to time worked outdoors and in a studio to help make props for events. I would be set all sorts of tasks on Asana with deadlines to get through. This diary shows a record of everything I produced and contributed to.

WEEK 1 One of the first things I did for the company was recreate their logo, when I arrived there they had the same VA symbol with text but with a yellow and green colourway. After trying several colour combinations on photoshop and different fonts, we ended up deciding to use the purple and blue logo I designed with ‘Walkway’ font. The final version has now been used throughout the company as will be shown throughout my other tasks.

fig. 1

The company also wanted new Facebook and Linkedin cover photos creating as they constantly change these to stay in touch with social media and keep their pages active. I used their photos which had been taken at events and arranged them in indesign to create 33 seperate banners, one for each of their themes, one for each of their types of products and an overall Visual Architects cover photo. A couple of examples of these are shown on this page (fig. 2).

When I joined the company, the website for Visual Architects was being re done, we worked as team on the layout of this and my main contribution to this was the way the companies they had previously worked for were shown. They asked me to arrange the logos in a creative way and the final outcome after discussing several ideas I had is shown on the next page (fig. 3). The website is now live and active and so can be seen here http://www.visual-architects.co.uk

fig. 2

On the Friday of that week I spent the day painting and making. The company had just started a new Egytian theme and had some boards that had been cut out on the CNC router which needed painting. The excess cut outs were also being using to hang from the ceiling so needed painting too.

We spent most of the day doing this and then attached frames and stapled tissue paper to the back as lights were going to be shone behind them.

Below are the pictures of how they looked during the process of making and painting and then the final result at an event (fig. 4).

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WEEK 2 During my second week I helped create some concepts for an Olive Oil Company my manager is building up on the side of Visual Architects. I had been given a pretty broad brief to come up with several concepts for logos, bottle and labels for the name ‘Tree of Life’. I created numerous designs over 2 days which I have shown some examples of (fig. 5). The logo on the bottom right corner is the final one that will be used in the future. I used illustrator and photoshop to come up with all the designs.

Every now and again email HTML newsletters are sent out to the Illuminaughty mailing list. I had a task to create a newsletter that was easy to read but still graphically interesting to look at and would appeal to the festival going/clubbing type of customers that Illuminaughty cater for. This was the final result (fig. 6). I then had to use Mailrox to cut it up into several parts with each part having a function e.g. a click for the Facebook link to take the customer to the Illuminaughty Facebook page.

fig. 6 fig. 5

WEEK 3 On week 3 I had several tasks to complete. The first one was to create some logos for Apps on facebook. These are the images that are used for links on the fan page. I created several different designs to try out and ended up with this design after discussing it with Ana who runs the social media side of the business (fig. 7). One of these was created for ‘Buy Tickets’, ‘Events’, ‘Instagram’, ‘Line Up’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘Youtube’.

Illuminasty is another part of Illuminaughty and at Sunrise Celebration Festival this year they were going to host a stage called Twisted Playhouse.

One of my tasks was to create a cover photo for Facebook to advertise this (fig. 8). Overall we decided to go with a simple banner that had hints of a summer festival on it with the 3 logos hanging above it.

fig. 7

As I have created a new logo for Visual Architects they then wanted some new t-shirts designing to be printed with this new logo. On photoshop I tried out several variations and presented these to my manager. This was the final design that got printed out a couple of weeks later (fig. 9) Throughout my placement I was also tasked to do research for new themes and ideas. On this week I researched quite a lot of Egytian themed ideas, I showed all these on my Pinterest which we joint with the Visual Architects one they use for inspiration (fig. 10)

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fig. 9

WEEK 4 Even though Visual Architects have done mainly club nights and festivals for their event decorations, they have only done one wedding and are looking into doing more so I had been asked to research into wedding decor ideas. I created a powerpoint with all sorts of ideas for them to look through for inspiration (fig. 11).

From Tuesday - Friday this week we went to Copenhagen for a business trip.

Whilst there we went to and decorated an event called Paske Tam Tam. The whole experience was amazing and we did a lot of sightseeing for inspiration. I took lots of photos and have shown some of these below (fig.

12).

fig. 11

fig. 12

WEEK 5 As it was getting near Easter time by this week I had been asked to quickly design a Facebook post taking ‘the goblin’ from one photo which is the Illuminaughty logo and someone dressed up as a bunny rabbit at a party from another photo and photoshop them together (fig. 13).

Another theme that is going to be created in the future is based around the Caribbean, I was asked to do some market research into prices for hiring things such as barrels, palm trees and treasure chests. All this was put into a spreadhsheet and keynote presentation to be used in future (fig 14).

After these two tasks for the rest of the week I had been asked to re do the layout for the VA portfolio. It had not been changed for a few years so was starting to look a bit outdated. The new one shows all the products and themes that Visual Architects have. I used Indesign to create the layout and Illustrator to do the swirl details. They are really happy with the new portfolio as in their words it looks professional and suits their business.

The full thing can be viewed here - http://issuu.com/visualarchitects/docs/ compressed_final_portfolio_pages I have also shown a preview front cover and a couple of the pages below (fig. 15).

fig. 15

fig. 13

fig. 14

WEEK 6 This week we mainly concentrated on the Egytian theme. One of the new decorations that was being created were pyramids. These were planned to be cut out of plywood on the CNC router and then sanded painted and built. I had a huge task to do all the designs of these on illustrator • 4 x large pyramids (14ft tall) • 9 x medium pyramids (4ft tall) • 15 x small pyramids (2ft tall) • 15 x extra small pyramids (1.5ft tall) The pyramids were cut on 8ftx4ft plywood boards on the Friday once all designs were finalised, the 4 large pyramids being split in half when designing to then be built back together once cut (fig. 16) As these pyramids took a long time to design and finalise this week my only other tasks were to carry on researching for the caribbean theme and then also to start looking into augmented reality for an advertising campaign in the future.

fig. 16

WEEK 7 + 8 It took 2 weeks to create all the pyramids and even in this time we only got the 4 large ones completely done. Everyone got involved at work to help with this as we worked as a team to 1. Sand down the wood 2. Paint the wood 3. Add gold paint to edges of cut outs 4. Add frames to each piece for extra support 5. Staple plastic to the backs of all the pieces 6. Build up the pyramids as a whole unit In these photos I have shown the process of making and the final result of a couple of them at a party in London. They were also used in France at a fesitival called French Tek.

WEEK 9 As Illuminaughty are having a stage at several festivals over Summer they wanted a large sign making to show where they are. After researching what we could possibly do, the decision was made that we were going to use the CNC router to cut layers of the sign into wood, some engraved, some parts routed deeper and then some parts cut out, the different colours represent the different levels. I had to use illustrator to create the line drawing for this to be sent off (fig. 17). This is going to be cut out in a few weeks.

Another task I had this week was to create another HTML newsletter, the layout and design was very similar to the last one however this was not for a merchandise offer but a competition for free tickets to different festivals (fig.18).

As it is the 10 year anniversary of Illuminaughty this year, the company want to create a large ad campaign using augmented reality. I had been asked to research this extensively from prices that companies were charging to use their apps, how to use it, what would be possible and to come up with several ideas for campaigns. I downloaded several apps and pieces of software to try this on including Layar, Zappar and Metaio Creator. After spending most of the week on this I then presented the ideas to the office to see what they thought. We have decided to go ahead with a couple of my ideas and hopefully over summer will be creating a 3D goblin to jump out of the flyer, stickers and other advertisements. With this we can use it for competitions such as treasure hunts for the goblin and funny instagram pictures with #thegoblin #illuminaughty. As I cannot currently create a goblin myself we just tried the concept with models I downloaded from grabCad and using Metaio Creator and other software (fig.19).

T REE

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ET ICK

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WIN FREE TICKETS TO SUNRISE, XSTATIC AND NOISILY THIS SUMMER! Illuminaughty will be taking part at Sunrise, Xstatic and Noisily this summer so we are giving away two free tickets to each festival.

fig. 17

Here is your chance to win a pair of free tickets for either of these festivals for you and your friend.

How to enter?

Simply fill in yours and your friends detail in the link below...

http://bit.ly/2IllumiNaughtyFreeTickets You can only recommend one friend per form BUT you can do this as many times as you want, the more recommendations the more chance you have of winning the tickets!

Final entry is 5th May and results wull be text to you and your friends mobile phone on the 7th May. Good luck, we are looking forward to seeing you at either of these three amazing festivals!

If you cannot wait for this click below to buy tickets with the Illuminaughty discount.

SUMMER FESTIVAL TICKETS CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS

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WEEK 10 This week I had quite a few tasks to do. The first one was to create a Visual Architects advertisement for Gumtree. I was asked to make it stand out and to also look professional (fig. 20). To go along with this a few more things needed making to advertise Visual Architects online and for printing out • Poster for at events (fig. 21) • Advert for online and handing out (fig. 22) • Business card that was editable to each person in the business (the top one was the one we decided to go for) (fig. 23) • New improved pricelist with all new items on with pictures (the blanks are going to be filled in once prices have been determined and pictures have been taken (fig. 24) A couple of other things I needed to create this week were more cut out boards for the CNC router. One of these were some candy skulls which were being made like the Illuminaughty festival sign with several layers, some engraved, some routed and some cut out (fig. 25). The second board that needed to be created was an 8ftx3.5ft circus themed board to go up in front of the dj booth at Cirque Du Soul (fig. 26). This is going to be used in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne at Digital 02/06/2015 and I am going to the event to see my work being used on stage.

indoor electronic music festival www.illumiNaughty.co.uk

fig. 20

indoor electronic music festival

www.illumiNaughty.co.uk Lefteris Angelidis - Event Manager

lefteris@visual-architects.co.uk

07879693332

forbiddenjungle

fig. 23 fig. 21

fig. 22

IllumiNaughtys Indoor Festival merges bass-heavy beats, circus performance and carnival carnage to bring you an unforgettable, festival frenzy!

fig. 24

fig. 24

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WEEK 11 This week I had quite a few graphic design tasks to do. One of the main ones was to create a layout for the sponsorship proposal for the Halloween event. This is an advert to other companies to get their brand to be part of the Illuminaughty promotions for example having a featured advert on the new flyer. We ended up deciding to use two of the layouts I had created, one that looked simple and professional (fig. 27) to be sent out to companies such a taxi firms and then another that matched the Halloween flyer that an illustrator created for us (fig. 28) from this style a cover photo for Facebook was created (fig. 29) and the second layout for the sponsorship proposal (fig. 30). Both are 3/4 pages long explaining all the different sponsorship options.

The other tasks I had this week were advertsing tasks -

fig. 27

• Visual Architects Youtube cover photo (fig. 31) • Graphics performance Facebook cover photo (fig. 32) • Creative grant poster (this is something the company does every year to try and encourage people outide the company to present their creative ideas for the company to use in their decor installations) (fig. 33) The last task I had this week was to do another CNC board 8ftx3.5ft for another event. The design was based on one of the Pyramids I created (fig.

34).

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WEEK 12 On my final week of placement I had quite a lot of graphic design tasks to do. One being the facebook post to engage people into talking about world environment day. I used illustrator to draw symbols that represent the day and used the goblin head to combine the logo in with these (fig. 35). I also had a couple tasks to do with advertising for the upcoming Halloween Event • Live Painting & Graffiti poster (fig. 36) • Applications for dj position poster (fig. 37) Illuminaughty also want to create their own app for their events so I researched companies that can help create that and ended up producing a sample app for the office to try to see whether they wanted to go ahead and pay to publish it (fig. 38). As this was my last week I left them all the details of what I did so they can carry this on.

The other two tasks I had this week were making tasks. On the Wednesday as a team we designed a chandelier design and I drew it up on illustrator (fig. 39). It is basically made from 2 layers, a large circle and a small circle, which will be attached together on top of each other with clamps and wire and then in the small holes strips of LED’s are going to be hanging. On the Thursday we had this cut out in the CNC router and I spent some of my day painting this (fig. 40).

The other making task was the Cirque du Soul light up board, this had also been cut out and needed painting red and having a plastic backing and wooden frame adding to it for the event on Tuesday. On my last day I spent time painting this and someone else is going to the add plastic and frame (fig. 41).

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fig. 39

Feedback Overall I think my my work was recieved positively. At the end of the placement I had a talk with my manager and he told me that I worked quickly, met the deadlines and that my work was creative. Every project we would go through different designs I had created and decide on one to use or improve and he would give me suggestions on how to make it better.

Throughout the placement I felt like my work for the company improved as I went a long as I picked up their style which then sped up my work.

Reflection

fig. 40

From this whole experiece I feel like I have learnt what my strengths in design are. I loved being a graphic design intern as I enjoy using photoshop and illustrator and while on the placement I believe my skills on these softwares improved substantially. I feel as though working in an office with new people has improved my confidence, I had totalk to people about the work I was doing and I had to present quite a few things to the group. Another thing that has improved my confidence in my work is the fact that it is all being used by a real life company and for real life events. I feel like I have achieved something because of this and I am proud of myself for all the work I have produced.

As for my future I feel like this placement has had a positive effect on my direction. The company have said that I am welcome to come back again and that if I ever need any help, they are happy to do this. It has made me start to really think about what area of design I would like to go into. As I have enjoyed stage designing and graphic designing so much I am now considering it as a possible career route.

fig. 41