OUGD301

My briefs have overlapped alot on this module, which has resulted in a very jumbled blog. Please use the 'relevant lables' widget on the right hand side of this page to view each specific brief. I am only submitting Brief 01, Brief 03. Brief 04 and Brief 05 as major briefs.

Brief 01 - Exhilaro
Brief 02 - Achitecture publication. Postponed (possible FMP)
Brief 03 - A Type of Show
Brief 04 - D&AD Ministry of Sound collaboration
Brief 05 - The Specials
Brief 06 - Digital print resources. Postponed (possible FMP)
Brief 07 - Louise Tiler (small brief no boards submitted)

There are also lables for Crit/Tutorial, Evaluation and Time Management on this blog.

Here are my final submission boards in PDF form...

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

End of module evaluation

The briefs I initially choose for this submission were all type based, an area I wanted to build my skills and interest. This could have gone badly wrong if I decided I hate type throughout the module, however it has done the opposite. This is the first module  can say I have enjoyed thoroughly and feel I have truly learnt alot about design practices and my own professional place in the industry.

Brief 01 threw me into the deep end, designing a font. This was good for me as I couldn't slack. I pressured myself with an intense brief and it really made me work hard from the beginning. A negative is that I didn't give myself enough time to digitise the letterforms and make them into a usable font. The file is digital, but the kerning is all wrong. Also the finishing of some of the letterforms is a bit messy, which could have easily been avoided.

Brief 02 and Brief 06 were both took big a task to complete for this module and are possible briefs for FMP. I have some research for them already.

Brief 03 focused on identity, which was never a massive part of my practice before, however I like applying one concept throughout a range, and this exhibition design was a high for me. Seeing it come together after hating my chosen stock was such a positive step. It taught me to keep with something and find a way around a problem, don't just give up.

Brief 04 is potentially the one which will change my future... Steph Bourne and I worked so well together, we listened and shared ideas and in the end came up with a product neither of us would have done on our own. There is a possibility of us starting our own practice after university, it is an avenue which I personally am going to think about over Christmas and decide upon in the New Year. Before This brief, I would never of thought about setting up on my own, but the work that both of us have produced this module has surpassed my expectations in both quality and quantity. I am not blowing my own horn, but finally I believe some confidence in my ability is appearing.

Brief 05 has not reached its full potential. This could have been taken so much further, but I ran out of time and, in honesty, patience. I do feel like this could have worked so much better as a bigger range and for that I am disappointed. The typefaces for each song are acceptable, however they could have been pushed further also. As one off pieces, I like them and would have the prints on my wall, but as a range, I believe they are quite weak.

In conclusion and in reference to my rational... My vision of what I wanted to achieve this year has been surpassed. I have produced more quality work than I initially thought I could in the time available. This is down to realistic time management and working with hand-drawn typography. I could draw letterforms all day long, and probably for 20% of this module, I have. Truly believe I have found my place in Graphic Design and intend to stay on course for FMP and my Dissertation.

Deliverables for Brief 01

Exhilaro font
1x specimen booklet
1x specimen PDF
1x A2 double sided print
10x A6 postcards
Online promotion

Open publication - Free publishing - More font

Online prescence

On my Design Context I looked at which online foundrys could sell my font and came down to You Work For Them and Colophon Foundry. Shown below are the images I would be Photoshopping to make it seem like they are selling Exhilaro.

Personally, I like the look of Colophon Foundry and think this would compliment my font better. I have edited the web page shown above to be featuring Exhilaro.

PDF specimen

Finally got round to making the PDF version of my specimen booklet. From looking at Playtype and Process Type Foundry, along with my main influence, Colophon Foundry it was pretty easy to know what information needed to be included.  This is a downloadable file form the internet and will be available for free from the same page as the font. I now need to mock up my banners and images for the website promotion and information. Mocked up the PDF in context on an iPad to show the use.

Open publication - Free publishing - More font

Final crit

FINAL CRIT! This was really good to get feedback from my boards. Other people can see things which I have missed. I can make the changes to my final boards as and when I finish the projects.

IMAGES OF FINAL BOARDS AND CRIT

Evaluation of week 9

Woah week 9. After a chat with Momma and Pappa Gage, I have realised that I have got into the habit of designing stuff that looks cool, but may not be legible and work as a piece of communication as well as it could. I need to be able to balance the aesthetic of something as well as the clear communication. A few bits of my exhibition identity (Brief 03) need tweeking so that they make sense to the general public and outsiders.

Another review is that of my involvement in pop-up shops and fares. I am feeling pretty deflated after only selling 1 print at the Vernon Street pop-up shop. I don't think it is the quality of the work, but more the audience who attend such events. I am glad that I have a large number of these prints to give away to studios, however I need to think about the audience in future about any selling opportunities I go forward with. I am hoping to sell some of these in a different avenue, but not at such 'craft heavy' events.

More work needs to be done on our collaborative competition brief (Brief 04) and hopefully me and Steph will be wrapping this up tomorrow. I am hoping to extend this brief slightly, but am unsure yet how to do this until we have the main part completed.

A Type of Show identity (Brief 03) made a bit step forward this week, and I made quite a big change to the identity by simplifying it and only using one logo rather than a range. This will make it more visually similar and I am proud (yes, proud) of the one logo I have created and am using.

This coming week I also need to spend some time on extending Exhilaro (Brief 01) I can do this easily, I just need to DO IT!

Evaluation of week 8

Well, finally, all of my posters have been printed and the packaging is sorted! Also, I know how to best use my stock for Brief 03 (exhibition) annnnd the layout for my collaborative competition brief is done. It has been another one of those higgeldy piggeldy weeks where again I have not completed a brief, but I have done alot of major bits for a few of them. This week I need to complete 2 of my brief to get back on track.

By Friday I will have Brief 03 and Brief 04 completed! This will leave me a bit of time to expand Brief 01 and Brief 05 and also create my boards to a high standard.

Evaluation of week 7

Feel like I could have done alot more this week. I have been doing little bits and bobs from each brief, but nothing major. The crit on Thursday went really well and I have a new direction for my briefs. By letting go of some of them I can focus on the 4 major ones and get more out of them than I would have previously been able to do.

This week, I am working extremely hard to start and finish the competition D&AD brief (Brief 04) with Steph Bourne. We have already rewritten the brief and defined a concept for the form of the posters, we need to define roles and also experiment with folds. In the evenings I am working on the 10x logos for Brief 03 and so hopefully by next week I can vectorise these and apply them over my deliverables and complete this one by next Friday, giving me the final week to push my Brief 01 and Brief 05 as far as I can.

Also, I need to print my 20x posters for the pop up shop (Brief 05). As these take a long time and only one machine can print them I will need to keep going down to the print room to check on the progress and send some overnight. It will be a total of 10 hours printing!

Time management

Another change of my time management after the crit on Thursday. In order to complete all the briefs in time I have adjusted my schedule.

One immediate issue I have is printing my posters from Brief 05 for the Pop-Up Shop.

4x MAJOR!

It was said that my 'laziness' was that I was holding onto 7 briefs and not letting them go. I am continuing OUGD301 with only 4 briefs. It was advised that I focus the next few hours on deciding where I could take all my briefs to make them better. As I now don't have to think about all 7, I can spend more time on briefs which I thought were complete (such as Brief 01) and push it forward.

The briefs I am taking forward is Brief 01, Brief 03, Brief 04 and Brief 05. The two which I am focussing on taking further are Brief 01 and Brief 05 which I thought were pretty much complete. In a short space of time, these could become huge!

Huge crit

I felt a bit scared by this crit. I feel like I should be more stressed than I am, and I was not sure if I was kidding myself by thinking I had done a fair amount.

The crit was so helpful and honest. I have let go of pretty much half of my briefs and will push the remaining ones further. This way, the deliverables will be more exciting and innovative (what I want).

My evaluation was good and at the right time for a truthful reflection of my progress.

EVALUATION.

I have had to abandon some briefs as I could push 4 major ones alot further. It will give me something more to aim for and more of a range of deliverables. I need to look at what I am producing for each brief so that I do not end up producing 4x posters or 4x publications.

MAJOR BRIEFS

Brief 01 Push this further, where else can this go? The hard work is done and pretty quickly I could create some really interesting deliverables.

Brief 03 Loads of research done and a clear idea of deliverables and design style. Continue with this.

Brief 04 Need to have this as one of my 4 main briefs as it is the only competition one. Push this further than what is expected.

Brief 05 Make this into one of my major 4 briefs. This could be a great range of deliverables. Think about what else I could make. More typefaces, more songs...

ABANDONED BRIEFS

Brief 02 This could be huge, but I haven't got enough research to make it as good as it could be. Maybe have this as part of my FMP.

Brief 06 This was postponed anyway but could quickly do this over Christmas or as part of FMP.

Brief 07 Leave this... not into packaging and will not get used in the real world.

Ready for the crit...

To be prepared for the huge crit tomorrow, I have organised all of my work to show early. I want to get as much feedback as possible, especially as I was unprepared for the first one and missed the second, I do feel like I have not had as much structured feedback as I should of at this point.

I have basically shown everything which I have done and where I am at with each project.

Final images

YAY! Ever so happy with this brief! All my deliverables are done and they all look super! They communicate a more fun character than Helvetica Bold, while still being informative.

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

Printing Exhilaro

Finally got round to comepleteing this brief properly! By making all the elements which can be emailed out to clients for the font it will work pretty well as a promotional pack.

I decided to print them not on yellow stock, but to keep to my original colour plan of cream, pink and black for consistency. If I had printed these other deliverables on yellow, they would not look part of the set unless shown with the photographs of the specimen booklet rather than the actual specimen book.

I intend to photograph all of these items properly on yellow paper as it compliments the work and stands out. Alot happier with these deliverables than I thought I would be!

Evaluation of week 6

Again things have slowed down last week and I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. However the parts that I did get done have been of a very high quality and I am extremely happy with.

This past week I have completed 3 briefs, so this week I need to continue researching and pulling elements together for my final 3 briefs. I have worked out a new time management structure so hopefully I can keep on-top of all of my briefs.

Brief 01 - complete
Brief 02 - to do
Brief 03 - to do this week
Brief 04 - collaboration with Steph Bourne to do
Brief 05 - complete
Brief 06 - postponed
Brief 07 - part-complete

This current week I have a busy day on Wednesday with pop-up shop workshops and dissertation tutorial. Thursday we now have a whole day crit. I am going to stay extra late on Wednesday and Thursday to make up for the time I am unable to do practice work. I am hoping to make a progressive start on Brief 03 and a proper start on my dissertation.

Time management

Another shift in my time management! It is really good that my time is fluid and I am as a designer to make the most of oportunities as they present themselves and adapt to the research and development of where I am on each brief.

Postcards, prints and PDFs

All of these deliverables for Brief 01 will be printed in the yellow stock with I photographed my specimen book against. I think it is a beautiful colour and sets off the typeface really well. I will make an envelope for my specimen book so that it can be posted to potential customers, which will also be this yellow stock.

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

Skill set

Reflected upon what I want to get out of each brief.

Tutorial

Had a tutorial with Amber today. Unfortunately I missed the one last week so this was my chance to show that I have actually been working! I took the mood boards for Brief 03. She seemed most excited by Brief 02 and suggested I could talk to Ric Bell when he comes in on Friday. I want to take this brief in a different direction and make it more interesting than another magazine or booklet. I have been looking at different forms of publication so maybe this is the direction it will take!