postcard one day brief

From the Library Special Collection tour we were given a quick one day brief of creating a postcard inspired by a chosen book. We were asked to rant about the piece whether that be positive or negative! Upon reflection I feel that my rant was very on the fence, it doesn't come across as either a love or a hate. Regardless of how I feel now I chose to design my postcard directly inspired by the magazine I had chosen. Issue 5 of Veneer magazine, an issue that came covered in foam and a protective bag. 

"Issue 5 of Veneer magazine drew my attention due to its destroy to reveal nature. What is hidden beneath, the unknown, can only be enjoyed after destruction. I questioned the point of the issue, did they want the audience to view the inside, is there anything even on the inside? I feel the designers were working towards a reaction from their audience, identifying two types of people. Are you the kind of person to display it proudly or rip it apart? Owning such a precious piece of design would you be able to act recklessly?"

Part of the task was that we were only allowed to use pencil due to the delicate nature of the special collection. This goes against techniques that I would usually use within graphic design. I took the time to produce my design digitally on indesign and then traced over the image in order to maintain a consistent typeface. 

From this point I decided to create a puzzle with my postcard, with the message needing to be rearranged. If you cut up the sections of text then you are able to align the sentences and make sense of the paragraph. I adding in several dashed lines to hint towards the instructions that should be followed or equally ignored. This concept is used to express the fact that the piece has to be destroyed to be understood. It brings up the question of whether the design or the written message is more important. Do you always need to make sense of type?

logo pin up

Going into the presentation of our logos I was apprehensive. Although I know the true amount of work put in, I was unsure of how this came across in one sheet of paper. Working on a piece of work until the last minute is something that I am used to but the organiser within me refuses to accept as the norm. I argued with myself back and forth the night before over how my logo looked. Was this centered, was this too bold, was this the right thickness? However I agree with the feedback that I failed to see the bigger picture, how was the triangle shape so ignored. The main feedback was therefore to make the triangle more defined, push my crude type and create a believable gradient.

Further to this we have been given a 7 day resubmission. Athough part of me is relieved that I have an opportunity to redeem myself, part of me just wants the project to be over. I have contextual studies, postcard, typographic poster, photoshop project etc to also do so what time I will have avaliable to complete this will be a true test of time management. I hope to produce a logo at the end of this week that I am proud to put my name to which I cannot say at this stage.

typographic one day project

Once again we were given a one day brief, something that would act as a much needed break from our logo project. We were only told in advance to bring in newspaper and masking tape, little did we know that two rolls wouldn't cut it! After being randomly put into groups we were given a number with my group being assigned the number 3. We were asked to create the tallest number out of our materials keeping in mind a style of typography.

My group went with the idea of triangles and pyramids for our foundation which we would carry through the sculpture upwards. We created a heavy base and the layers became fewer as fewer as we went up, helping it all to balance. One of the main issues we had with the number three is the fact that one side has no support, an issue which eventually was the downfall of our sculpture (literally). 

Although we did not win I was surprised with what you can do with so little. Beyond that how each group although working closely together in a room had come up with such unique and individual ideas. 

library special collection & indesign refresher

When visiting the library we viewed its special collection and were given a brief to match. This was the first time that I have been given the opportunity to view such a prized collection of books. We were asked to create a postcard taking inspiration from a chosen book. I decided to choose issue 5 of Veneer magazine however it was a rushed decision on the spot. I was initially drawn to this piece in particular due to its destroy to read nature. The idea of surrounding the book in foam and further concealing it away within a bag. In order to read the content you would have to destroy part of its beauty. I have yet to produce the postcard but feel inspired by the destroy to reveal aspect. The idea of how I can encourage an audience to become reckless in order to reveal a concealed message.

After being absent for the photoshop workshop I was keen to learn as much as possible about Indesign. I used Indesign for a magazine project on my foundation course previously but since then haven't felt the need to use it for another project. Although the basics felt familiar the mentioning of shortcuts were very noteworthy. Practising a skill really helps to perfect itself, I look forward to experimenting with the typography poster brief yet to come.

further logo development

After condensing my list down I was able to put it directly into a logo format. I started with the idea of expressing hierarchy through the use of olympic style podiums with the words encased within them. From there I moved into a pyramid stye system which came with problems as I moved into using 5 words. From here I was urged to continue on in an analogue approach, hand drawing curde like I briefly explored above. I was advised to use capital letters and ignore the computer generation in the meantime.

grid presentation

For our first brief from contextual studies we were asked to get into groups of 4 and present one example of a good grid and one example of a bad grid. 

For my section of the presentation I introduced our good grid and explained the reasoning behind our choice. 

"We chose swiss designer Max Bill for our use of a successful grid, focusing on his work Bildsäulen-Dreiergruppe roughly translated as triplet statue. The sculpture comprises of three elongated towers, reaching heights of 32 metres. Each tower follows a mathematical system as part of a 9 part colour wheel. Each of the three towers start and end on different colours, creating an upwards colour wheel spiral. Each cylinder of colour is separated by a line of steel, acting as the gutter within a grid. Allowing breathing space for the colours to be appreciated individually instead of merging into one."

Following on from this we spoke about its later use for Mercedes Benz and how from a birds eye view it creates their logo. The idea of it meaning something to us today, how it still remains modern years on from its production. 

We continued with our bad grid choosing the CSM website due to its spontaneity and lack of breathing space. The UAL website featured varying pages for each college, some of which we thought worked but CSM stood out completely as bad design. The way the images are extremely disproportionate to the surrounding page and squashed together. The lack of a gutter makes all the individual components appear as one cluttered mess with no hierarchy. We decided to focus on a good and bad grid that are both very linear and how it can work in sculpture/architecture but fails when it comes to web design. 

Overall I feel that the presentation went well and we were able to communicate our points affectively. We gained feedback from our peers that perhaps the colleges have designed their webpages individually to express their differences. In response I would argue that if a successful grid were in place then multiple designers would be able to still produce individual outcomes. With the grid it would enable a cohesive feel when moving from one page to other, creating the right balance between being an individual college and being part of UAL.

logo development

At this stage of my project I was rather lost and not sure what to go next. I began looking at words, I have always loved writing and found that these were finally giving me some inspiration and enabling me to understand the meaning of my phrase.

I then decided further to our previous A1 sheet challenge to open up to new materials. With my new understanding of the words I wanted to see how I could write words in a crude way. I used ink to create a large amount of quick A4 illustrations, doodles and whatever came to mind. I tried to think about this as a single task away from the project enabling me to be impulsive and make marks without worrying about mistakes.

This then lead me back to the idea of words and them having a journey, a start and a finish. I thought about making a list of stages and where crude and basic would fit into the list. From here I started cutting down the list into a basic amount of levels that would enable a logo to be created from them. I struggled with the idea of how I could turn a complicated list into a simple and easily communicated logo.

generating more ideas

We were given A1 sheets of paper and given various quick tasks to completed. From a 1 second representation of our logo to opposite handed. We used various materials and techniques that pushed us away from our comfort mediums that we used to produce our initial 100 logos. I struggled with this task as the idea of having to come up with ideas on the spot doesn't come naturally for me. I felt it even harder when we swapped with other students and were asked on build upon their ideas. Although it was difficult it was helpful when people who haven't seen much of your work before added their ideas. They were purely based on how they envisioned your phrase, it created unique ideas that I couldn't previously see. I feel that sometime you get too close to your work and need that time to take a step back and think from that same perspective of your peers.

100 logos

Above is my work towards creating my first 100 logo ideas that we were to present. We were asked to present all 100 on an A3 sheet landscape, neither or which I presented. I relied on the library to be open in order to print my work out which was a mistake due to the fact that I presumed the opening times instead of checking. In future I need to leave enough time to be able to print out my work in the specified format.

Feedback focused mainly on the way I ignored creating a logo that symbolised what I was saying. Instead I took my phrase of "start crude and basic" and changed it to "SCAB" and made logos from that. Although I didn't realise at the time I wasn't embracing my phrase but working around it creating logos that would lose the original message. 
From here I was advised to try the following:
-Start written in a crude way.
-Change the word start to a cruder version of itself.

first three weeks

I haven't post on here since I was requested to do so on my foundation course. I have now been asked by my degree course to evaluate my work via my blog. For someone who has been a keen writer in sketchbooks I'm aware that this change will be difficult for me to adapt to. I'm already on my fourth week of uni, some would argue this blog should have started before? I wasn't too sure if there would be specifications but aside from the content I believe the rest to be free reign. 

Here I am on my third project without anything typed up about the previous two. My first two projects were group orientated, a concept that scared me. We were told to go to a specific area that was located around my universities campus and to inspire. We found a road that was behind the others, tucked way from view. The coloured buildings stood out from the dull monotone surroundings with unusual cobbled streets to match. It took me to the seaside far away from zone 1 of London that was until we saw the signs. The houses were covered in aggressive signs mainly focusing on parking. 

The feel of the road began to change, I felt like we were being watched by the neighbours, we were not welcomed. We saw this one sign that said, "Offenders will be clamped and melted down" making it sound like the person instead of the car. I thought about how I could apply this to other issues within the social housing that surrounded this street. I wanted to tackle the issues of litter, dog waste and noise with signs saying "Offenders will be put down", "Offenders will be silenced" and "Offenders will be disposed of" etc. This idea was half met with positivity from my group as a result we decided to stick to purely parking. I was disappointed with this decision because I felt that we could of stretched ourselves further but not all members were willing to put the work in. 

We decided to embody the residents of the street and create our own individual signs for no parking. We agreed on the language for all 8 signs but then went our separate ways to produce two each. I feel that this was a mistake and felt that although we were becoming individual residents we weren't fully embracing the team qualities of the brief. We aimed to plaster these around the building to mark our territory before our presentation. Due to team members this was no longer possible, as they didn't complete their signs until the morning of the presentation. I found that we weren't very prepared to present resulting in something that I wasn't proud of. Upon watching the other presentations I realised that talking over imagery wasn't very engaging. Videos and even a quick fire quiz were exciting to watch. We spoke about the process and what didn't work instead of delivering a presentation. We went with the typographic route embracing a graphic design discipline however I feel that it wasn't fit for purpose.

The second project was another group project, which I wasn't totally enthusiast about however I was wrong. It was a one-day brief entitled piece of paper, with us given exactly that! We were given a large piece of white paper, which we could only cut or write on. Put in a group of five it became clear that it was two against three with many decisions. Although that was a fair democracy I ended up being in the group of two students 90% of the time. This was a turning point for myself and decided to take a positive spin on the situation. Where I had spent the first project hating the course I decided that I wanted to throw myself into the project regardless of the fact that it wasn't my preferred idea. I ended up having a great day compared to how I felt when faced with the previous group. 

We decided on a game called candy warfare that even came with its own hashtag. We set up an Instagram page as a simple way to be able to display our imagery at the end of the day but also to encourage members of the public to engage with us via social media. We cut out a circle from the sheet of paper enabling you to place your head in. We created rings around the hole creating a target with the aim of the game to throw sweets into someone’s mouth. We hit the streets of London with our game first going to Trafalgar Square although we soon had to move on. The security at Trafalgar Square we failed to consider as we were thrown out after around 15 minutes. This experience wasn't as embarrassing as I imagined however it was still a first for me. Moving on to other areas of London I took on the role of photographing our interactions with the public. I felt safe in this role as I found it difficult to confidently advertise ourselves to strangers in the street. On the way back to uni I uploaded our images to Instagram and we took a short amount of time to discuss how we were going to present. Although we prepared in a similar time frame to the previous brief I felt that our stronger content allowed for a more successful outcome.

From these two projects I have learnt new things about working within a group. From previous experiences I find group work extremely stressful, as someone will always let you down. However this was the beauty of a one-day brief, you were all in it together. The limited time scale didn't allowed for people to shy away from work. It sounded scary at the beginning, the thought of having x amount of hours but now I'm excited for the next one day project. On Friday we have been asked to bring in masking tape and newspapers, the unknown excites me. The idea of bouncing of each other’s idea but ultimately having these random days away from the major briefs that have been set to fully enjoy the course and have a laugh with my peers.