OUGD 503 - Responsive: Collaborative

Today, I was lucky enough to join the third years during a talk given by Stuart Brown from Dalton Maag. As Harrison was attending a photography workshop, I made sure that I took notes and collected the information that we needed for this project. This was very relevant to the brief that we are currently working on; Stuart talked about the kind of things that Dalton Maag did, including:

• Library Fonts
• Logo Refinement
• Font Modifications
• Custom Fonts

They have created many library fonts, which includes fonts such as Co, King's Caslon and Aktiv (the unofficial typeface of Dalton Maag). Font's typically have to support multiple languages, as the typefaces are not only used within the english speaking language. They are often created in numerous different weights, ranging from hairline to black. 

Aktiv:

Cordale:

Effra:

When modifying a font, they mainly work on fonts that were originally created by them, but do occasionally work on other fonts and typefaces. He also discussed tracking and kerning and its importance within a typeface; he went into detail about kerning, which is the spacing between pairs of letters as opposed to tracking which refers to global spacing, and how this can make or break a font.

He also discussed how drawing the letters by hand initially is vital, which is something that we have already considered. We are creating our own grid to which the typeface will be designed, thus allowing the font to have a personal and honest feel to it without looking illustrative. Overall, this talk has been very helpful in opening my eyes to the various different considerations that need to be taken when working with typeface design. This information will prove very useful through out this project as a guide that we can be constantly referring to if we need.

OUGD 503 - Responsive: Collaboration

After the session we decided that this would be the best time to try and interview a 'Big Issue' vendor; we want to get a more personal feel for the company as opposed to taking all of our information from their website. We also wanted to buy the most recent issue so that when we are making mock-ups and experimenting with layouts, we already have relevant information ready. We found a vendor and spoke to him, and he gave us this information:

H: How long have you been selling 'The Big Issue'?
V: Just about a year now.

H: What are the benefits of selling 'The Big Issue', how has it helped you?
V: It's a big solid support network there, I mean I've just finished a basic DIY course for a company called Latch; they buy up derelict houses, do them up and then put homeless people in them once they've finished. So I volunteered for four months of the 12 month program and got onto that through 'The Big Issue'. It's just a massive support group there to help you get back onto your feet. They even help with just the simple things like getting back into the work set of mind, getting up every morning to get out and do something; it gives you a bit of self respect as well.

This information is very useful to us, as we plan on using it to create the grid for the typography. Instead of just choosing words that we feel represent 'The Big Issue' we can now create the pattern from the information from an actual vendor, thus having a much more personal and honest feel to it. From what he told us, we have picked out these words in particular that we feel will help us to create our typography grid:

• Support
• Network
• Self respect
• Self belief
• Motivation
• Unity
• Protection
• Security
• Housing
• Network

These words are all very representative of what 'The Big Issue' means to those who it affects the most: the vendors. From these words, we are going to look further into the meanings of shapes and create the grid from the shapes that best represent the words above. We have also thought about the name of the typeface, considering naming it after the vendor that we spoke to. From the photograph above we noticed that his name wasn't on the card, but was replaced by a vendor number. From this, we have thought about perhaps naming our typeface something along the lines of 'Vendor No. 30'.

We also bought a recent copy of the magazine and photographed a range of different pages in order to get a further understanding of how the magazine currently looks and feels:

OUGD 503 - Responsive: Collaborative

Today, me and Harrison have met up in order to further discuss our ideas about our chosen brief, 'Monotype'. We decided it would be best if we were to both research into 'The Big Issue' and then come together and show each other what we have found.

I started by looking on 'The Big Issue's' website which can be found here, where I found this:

'The Big Issue offers people who are homeless the opportunity to earn their own money; a livelihood. The Big Issue Foundation, as a charity for people who are homeless, offers vendors the opportunity of a life. We work tirelessly alongside our vendors to help them deal with the issues that have caused their homelessness or have developed as a result of hitting the streets.

It can be as little as 12 months from a significant life event to losing everything and arriving on the street. Last year alone we worked with over 3000 individuals, enabling people who are homeless to take control of their lives.'

'The Big Issue Foundation’s mission as a UK charity for people who are homeless, is to connect vendors with the vital support and personal solutions that enable them to rebuild their lives; to find their own paths as they journey away from homelessness.'

'Nearly 100 people a week turn to the Big Issue for an opportunity to help themselves at a time of utter personal crisis. The Big Issue Foundation is small but national charity for people who are homeless. We work with some of the most disadvantaged and excluded individuals in the land; people who have lost more than it is comfortable to imagine, their homes, their families and their sense of themselves in the world. We urgently need to offer more support and hope for the future.'

'We have a unique relationship with our vendors because they are our 'customers' and not our 'clients'. We offer the hand of support and believe that personal change is always possible no matter how challenging or complex the situation. We try to offer vendors the opportunity to integrate in all aspects of our work including all our fundraising events such as our London to Paris ride where several vendors have ridden the amazing journey with supporters to help raise vital funds and awareness for our work.

Never look down on someone unless you are helping them up. As you go about your daily life please do stop and say hello to a vendor, buy a magazine and go a little further. Our work is 100% reliant on the support of our donors, please make a donation to the Big Issue Foundation, join us on one of our amazing events, come up with your own idea to raise funds and do it yourself, or take the plunge and volunteer for charity.'

Their core value and belief is this:

"We can never tire of repeating the core Big Issue message – vendors are working; they buy the mag, they sell."

They also have a donation scheme:

To get a sense of how the newsletter and magazine looks, I found this on the website. We also intend on purchasing an actual 'Big Issue' and hopefully interviewing an actual vendor of the magazine in order to get some primary research from someone who knows more about what 'The Big Issue' does, and what it means to them.

Newsletter:

This is very useful, as it shows us that the magazine is currently very much typography and photography based. After we have created our typeface, we wanted to create some layouts to represent how the typeface would work in its intended context. From looking at these, we know what the current layout looks like and can now begin to figure out a way to incorporate both the old magazine and the new element: the typeface.

OUGD 503 - Responsive: Collaboration

Now that we have decided which brief we wanted to work on, we began looking further into 'Monotype' in order to further our ideas and give ourselves more knowledge of the subject matter. Here is what I have found:

OUGD 505 - Further Research

OUGD 505 - Workshop 1

In todays session we were asked to bring in our research design boards and got into groups to present and give feedback on each others ideas. Here are my design boards as well as a brief description of what I talked about and the feedback that I received:

When giving my presentation, I talked through my boards and what each board contained. I started by discussing my topic of table tennis in general, quickly going through its origins and making sure everyone knew what it was. I then talked about the Olympics and The Table Tennis World Championships, the two highest levels of competition within the sport; this led me onto talking about the way in which the Chinese dominate the sport, and have done for around 50 years. I went into more depth about the Chinese, talking about how I aim to incorporate the Chinese design aesthetic within my own work. I also discussed my last board, talking about my ideas of exploring the lines and patterns created by the movement of the ball.

Here is the feedback that I received:

• Why are the Chinese so good at table tennis? - This raises questions such: as how much money do they put into the sport? Is table tennis a more mainstream sport in China?
• What other uses are there for the various pieces of table tennis equipment, such as beer pong?
• From the ideas I have spoke about, I should look into perspectives and angles, maybe try filming a game of table tennis from above?

All of this feedback is very useful and gives me further research to look into. After the group critique had finished, I continued to talk to Harrison in order to get more feedback and further direction. These were the things that we discussed:

• Research into the specifics and the statistics, such as: angles, dimensions, weights etc
• Look into documentaries and films about the sport
• Think more about popular culture, how has this affected/been affected by table tennis?
• Iconic players of the sport, or iconic moments?

With all of the feedback I have received, I feel confident that I can successfully move forward with my research project. After lunch, we went through what should and shouldn't be on a design board. These are the lists we compiled as a group:

Shouldn't -

• Initial sketches, if not relevant
• First person
• Spelling mistakes
• Food stains/Printing errors
• Poor image quality
• Too much text
• Scrapbook (a lot of images and no text)

Should -

• Board numbers
• Name
• Titles
• Final work and outcomes
• Good quality photographs and images
• Consistency among the boards

Now that we knew what made a good board and a bad board, we then got back into small groups and used design boards that we had already created from previous modules in order to get feedback on their effectiveness. This was the feedback that I received on some of my old design boards:

We then did the same task again, only this time using our design boards for this new brief. This was done by two separate people in order to get the best quality feedback possible, as seen below:

I found this workshop very useful and think it makes it much easier for me to create design boards in the future. Although I know what should and shouldn't be on a board, seeing the mistakes that I have actually made help me to ensure I don't make the same mistakes on future boards. I realise now that the boards are much more important than I had previously thought, and will have to spend more time perfecting them for future critiques and deadlines.