OUGD603. Extended Practice. BAGD Yearbook Design Brief. Development and Outcome.

we thought it would make sense to look at some of the past yearbooks and how they appeared. while we liked aspects of each past year book we thought that certain aspects didnt work too well. some of the bios were a bit disjointed and the layout was either too messy or too simplified and cliche  so we thought about how we could progress from these things.

from these ideas we went onto develop our instagram idea. we thought that a digital showcase on a social media platform that many people use would be a really good idea to get our year out there. we thought by including various works from all our students and day to day activity in the third year studio we would really be able to promote and highlight our year as a group. the benefits of this account are that it can be passed down from year to year as each third year class leaves. the base hashtag 'lcabagd' will remain throughout and the annual hashtag 'lcabagd1215' will change each year depending on the graduates i.e. 'lcabagd1316' and so on. we have already gained a number of followers and intend to progress this as a digital aid promoting the year. we will also be able to doccument the development of the yearbook itself keeping the class updated and allowing for outside and class feedback.

this can be seen on the following link:

https://instagram.com/lcabagd/



i came up with the name 'In Conscious Style' as a potential title for the yearbook. we were thinking about what defines our class and how its different to others and we gathered that many people are becoming increasingly aware of the global impact of graphic design and the associated practices. our class has become a lot more poitical and active and so are becoming more 'conscious'. we also noted that our class, while having minor disagreements and the odd tiff, are gebnerally really community based,. we are all able to tyalk to each other comfortably and so we thought this should be incorporated somehow. a final thought we discerned about the class is that everyoner has really developed and individual and wholly defining/signature style to their work and associated practices and so we thought that some reference to originality should be invoplved this came in the form of 'style'

we decided that we would each do some research into layout that we liked in order to inform our development of layout and format for the meeting we have scheduled for next monday.


we met and discussed our potential ideas and i wrote some notes -

having made some more consideration into the yearbook and end of year show we decided to delegate tasks for each of us. i was tasked with coming up with a concept for the end of year show and developing some of the promotional ephemera.

having considered some ideas i came up with a concept that i thought would work quite well for the end of year show.

since we had to consider every course that the college offers and attempt to encompass each one seperately and as a whole i needed a concept that would work in line with that. i was watching a doccumentary about chemestry and chemical compounds and the idea came to me:

• each course is a part of a whole (the college).
• each course contains disciplines within it that separate and individualise the students and their work
• each student works as an individual that collectively make up the whole course

i considered how each course could be thought of as an element. this worked because each course is the element that creates and develops each student. it also works because within each course are different practices which could each be considered chemicals which together  would create the chemical compounds that are the students. 

the concept worked well as a representation of the college and each course and each student and would be well suited to the design style of chemical compounds and elements within chemestry.

i did some research into chemestry and the iconogrpahy associated to it and then went on to develop some of my own iconography and logo exploration.

i began by considering how the periodic table of elements could be translated into the elements that are each course. i wanted to maintain the style and realised that i could involve the course information and name in somple but effective icons.

i then went onto consider how the show logo might appear. noticing that the leeds college of art logo is similar to a hexagon (as seen in most chemical compound visual explanations within chemestry) i deicded that it would work as a translation of that concept with the show name and other relevant information as attached 'chemicals'.

i decided on the name 'creative compounds' because all the students are creative but are also the creative result of the compound of the different practices and disciplines they pertain to.

i considered how a poster series and gif could work as part of the promotional material. since creativity is explosive and alive i thought a four part cartoon style gif would be interesting featuring the archetypal 'mad scientist' cooking up the elements that would explode into the show logo.

from this established basis i went on to digitally explore, develop, and formalise the iconography i had created.

using illustrator i explored the different possible formats for the logo, along with the application of different fonts and type setting considerations.

i then went on to develop the individual icons that would represent each course. we had decided to use this same style for the icons that would be featured on the poster for continuity purposes and leo used the element box idea to develop his work on the brief.

i then went on to develop some poster layouts that inlcuded all the courses and would promote the show itself. this was difficult at first because getting the layout looking good while including all the icons for every course was very fiddly and required constant revision but i got there in the end.

leo made the point that all courses should link up somehow and so this became a further consideration that i applied.

we decided that the poster would be quite flat without any sort of background and so i applied a hexagon pattern at a very low transparency to create a layer based geometric background. we considered a few different colour schemes and decided that this contrast would be striking and eye catching and so applied it.

the final design:

OUGD603. Extended Practice. Studio Brief: D.B.A. - Northern Powerhouse. Development.

today me and anna met to have a brief chat about what sorts of things we should be thinking about prior to our group meeting which is scheduled to take place on monday.

we talked about what the breif entailed and what sort of progression we thought we should take. we considered what different investors and businesspeople might be interested in the north and what different emerging markets the 4 cities are harbouring. we talked about how there is a need for investment in infrastructure especially in internet/digital communication technology. we talked about how investors might be brought in or ways to catch their attention. 

we considered that there should be four icons one for each city and then an overarching worded logo of capital north and so decided that we would each produce preliminiary examples to give the group an idea or our individual design ideas and stances and to progress towards a synthesised combination producing final logo concepts. 

i said that i would look into the economic progections of the four cities and try to determine emerging markets.

having completed some research into the different economic and business forcasts of the cities i went on to do some design development. since it was the start of the brief we had decided that we would each go away and consider some preliminary logo and poster designs.

i did some visual exploration of the four cities and considerd what recognisable features each city has to offer.

i then went on to do some potential logo explortion in order to present to the class and the guys from DBA so that they could crit the work so far. i also considered what they had mentioned about unity between the four cities and how the campaign aimed to connect them all together as one northern powerhouse  - 

while i thought some of the logos had aesthetic potential i didnt think any one them were strong enough to encompass the campaign. the guys from DBA came in and i presented my visual ideas to them to which i recieved some feedback. this can be found on a separate post on my extended practice blog. 

OUGD603. Extended Practice. Studio Brief. Design Business Association (D.B.A.): Northern Powerhouse.

some members of the DBA came in to talk to us about them as an association and what they did, along with setting us a live brief to progress with in groups to their deadline.

the design business association, they explained, is somewhat like a trade union to which members subscribe and in turn get protection, legal advice, the collective creativity and knowledge of all the members and a host of other benefits. they also are able to connect and commuinicate with each other as professionals within the creative inductry.

i went on to rewrite the brief myself -

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN Level 6 Module Code: OUGD603 Module Title: Extended Practice Learning Outcomes: BRIEF TITLE: DBA: CAPITAL NORTH (NORTHERN POWERHOUSE) STUDIO BRIEF. Brief: The UK government has made plans to bring economic and political power to the north of England and make a break from Westminster. Part of this initiative is to construct the HS2 and HS3 train lines that connect the northern power cities (Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Hull) to each other and to London in an attempt to create better political and economic unity. The designer must design and produce a concept driven campaign, and related brand, to both generate awareness about the initiative and to attract global commerce and business to the north of England. Background: The HS2 and HS3 train routes are in production to try and connect parts of the north and the north/south with shorter traveling times to try and bridge the gap and encourage northern entrepreneurship. Since the four named cities have become the ‘northern capitals’ and are experiencing considerable economic growth and power, it is important for global business and the macro-economy to recognise this and, hopefully, invest. Considerations: What the north has to offer the business world How such business might be attracted What things could be involved in the campaign Mandatory Requirements: Logo design Series of 4 posters promoting each city Train livery Taxi livery Environmental application Target Audience: The audience is extremely broad as the point of the brief is for the brand to attract as many people, business, companies, groups, investors, entrepreneurs etc. as possible to boost the northern economic name and power. ·                           Tone of Voice: Professional and progressive Sleek and business minded Modern and encompassing of the cities in question Deliverables: Research and development into the campaign See mandatory requirements

OUGD603. Extended Practice. Studio Brief: D.S.M - Design Something More.

we had a lecture and a studio brief by Something More Studio (DSM) in which they talked about their progression as creatives and what their studio did. the lecture was interesting and i took notes. they talked about how they work past just the actual design work and consider how to imporve a company/client in order to inform the design.

we were then introduced to the brief 'The Ministry of Wonderful'

in relation to the brief we were each randomly given a service to brand and imporve

The services available were;

• Water.
• Recycling.
• Library.
• Retirement home.
• Train operator.
• City council. 

 i got train service to brand.

unfortunately due to personal reasons i was unable to attend the next session with dsm and so missed the crit. these personal reasons continued and very unfortunately resulted a family loss. bevause i was away for a considerable time i missed the period of development and the presentations to submit the work and so had missed the brief. i considered competing the brief later on but due to the volume of work i had to complete i decided against it.

OUGD603. Extended Practice. Studio Brief: Ditto Press; Working Methods. Session 1 Crit.

following the first session with ben from ditto press about developing our own personal methodology we had a crit on our methods developed so far.

i presented and explained my flow chart and procedural list to ben, which he thought was inclusive of the things one should do when researching, who made the point that its inclusive because its generic. what i did was consider all the education and academic learning id recieved and regurgetated it to form an all inclusive research methodology. while this is applicable to any project it is not personally applicable to me, which is the point.

he asked me to try and separate the points that i had made that were my own methods and things that i do every time. he wanted to get me to highlight the things that i do naturally, by force of habit, or because i enjoy doing so and genuinelly get something out of. 

having looked back on past projects and remembering how i tend to operate at the start of a brief or project i considered how i often think and explore ideas through drawing. a lot of the time i dont think about what im drawing it just comes out and so i think this is a good way of exploring ideas while not delving too deep into specific considerations until the broad ideas have been explored.

because i am intereseted in language and communication i was talking about cultural cosiderations and cultural ramifications and ben advised how i could use culture to influence my working method. think about the culture associated with the topics of the project and work with that to produce the method.

having identitfied the moethods that work best for me and that i most naturally use often, i should then consider a way to synthesise these indivdual methods into a working moethodology. and then i should name it.

the crit was useful in helping me better understand what the brief and its requirement entailed and how i should proceed in developing my methodology

OUGD603. Extended Practice. Studio Brief: Ditto Press; Working Methods. Session 1.

on the 28th of october we had a member and co-founder of Ditto Press, Ben Freeman, come in to talk to us about design methodology and working methods and to set us a brief based on these.

http://shop.dittopress.co.uk/

he gave us a brief talk on his progression as a creative and about ditto press and then went on to explore what a method means and what it entails, along with how they can be useful when tailored to the individual. we then got a print of the brief

having recieved and read over the brief i then explored what it meant through notes and considered what a methodology, research, and connection to a topic really means and where it can come from.

from this i went on to develop a working method to apply to any brief or creative concern which should be able to be successfully applied and successfully useable to deliver research, inofmration and data.

having developed this all inlcusive flow chart, which at the time i thought was useful (and still is but to a broad not personal methodology), i then went on to refine it to a step by step process which could be applied to a research concern.

i thought that this process would be pretty successful and inclusive of any creative concern in order to gather research, data, and understanding of a topic(s) to do with informing a design project. we were then asked to participate in a group crit with ben to discuss our ideas so far and how they could be developed, improved, and personalised. the crit can be found on a separate post labelled crit.