OUGD 406 - Studio Brief 4

Speaking from Experience

- For this brief I will be working alongside Priyesh.

This brief is asking us to create a graphic response of some sort that makes a comment, statement, observation or gives advice about our first year on this course. Being a live brief, the work that we produce will actually be given and presented by ourselves to the new first year students on graphic design in September. With this being our longest brief of this module, it holds a much greater weighting which means that this needs to be good.

We initially started this by thinking about things that we need to consider such as:

• new experiences
• difficulties
• new people you've met
• skills you have acquired
• emotions

We had to think about what we wanted to give to the next years students, something that we would have wanted to be given at the start of our first year.

We have been asked to create three boards; concept, method of delivery and production. We started this process by ensuring that we had a concept that we were happy with. This involved a lot of conversation and discussion of ideas before we decided what we wanted to do.

Our Ideas:

Polaroid’s – leaving messages, quotes, advice

Information Guide – what to expect

Individuality and Creativity – PPP, design blogs and resources

Mainly image based to keep interest

Aesthetics are KEY

Not too serious, informal language and tone of voice

What we've learnt:

Context – art movements, artists, theories, key dates

Type

Colour

Layouts and Grids

Blogs

Software Workshops – keyboard shortcuts

Printing techniques

Inspirational and Motivational – quotes, images

Pinterest and resources

The progress we have made

Features of other students work– past students, artists in Leeds

Tips and tricks we’ve learnt along the way

Re-use the hand outs we’ve been given

Design process – research, thumbnails, visual development

Primary research and Secondary

Other useful information:

Places to go – Nights out, pubs and restaurants
Events that are on - Calendar

Lunch

Galleries

Cooking

Time management

- This is basically everything that we want to include within our publication. With all of this information it means that the publication should become a guide that the receiver can refer to throughout the whole year, not just the first few weeks. It will help greatly with the course and their work as well as with more everyday things like cooking and places to go; hopefully becoming a 'bible' for them to have as a reference whenever they need it.

Method of Delivery:

Magazine or book

Newspaper

Production:

Screen prints

Photographs

Going to pubs and shops

How it’s printed and bound – Blurb, Independent or ourselves

Stock

Colour

Paper Size

Font(s)
Lay-out

Concept:

We plan to create a publication that contains all of the information that a new student could possibly need. This would include all of the things that we have learnt this year, information on useful websites and resources, advice from current students and handy tips about more everyday things such as cooking and where to eat at lunch. It would be a magazine format that is mainly image based in order to keep interest, with text where needed. We will use a very informal tone of voice, as though we were just talking to them as opposed to writing.

Within this project we have many ideas that we have brought together in order to create one big idea. This means that our final publication will have a lot of content that is very broad, covering a wide range of topics. These are our ideas that will shall incorporate into our final outcome:

• We want to keep our publication mainly image, with text running through out to explain, in order to keep interest. Being new students, they aren't going to want to get a big publication filled with writing because they just wouldn't read it. Whereas, if it was mainly image, this would engage them a lot more and encourage them to actually look through it.
• Polaroids - We are going to go around the college and take photographs, hopefully using an actual polaroid camera, and get them to leave a little message to the new student. This will be based around a question, something along the lines of 'If you could re-do your first year again, what would you do differently?' This idea is based around learning from mistakes and by advising the new student on what they would do differently, hopefully this will give them some sort of understanding of what not to do or what they should do.
• Information Guide - This information is going to be on a whole range of topics in order to put across as much information as we can. We will have different sections so that the information that they're trying to get is easily accessible.
• There will be something within the publication talking about individuality and creativity. This is a big part of our PPP module and will be something they need to think about in the coming year. Making them aware of this now will give them a head start and help them keep up within their first year.
• A lot of the publication is going to be made up from the things that we have learnt throughout our first years; this first hand experience is going to be the most informed and relevant information they are likely to receive. This will include design context, type, colour, lay-outs and grid, blogs and useful resources, various softwares, printing techniques, tips and tricks, design process and the different types of research. We would also like to add things that they will find very helpful but wouldn't normally find out until they had actually come here; these kinds of things are places to go, galleries, where to eat at lunch, events that are on, time management and perhaps even something about real student cooking.
• We are thinking about incorporating various examples of students work that currently attend LCA as well as first year students on this course. This would mean that we could showcase the talent that is currently at LCA whilst indicating to the student that they could be that good. By also showing some of our work from the start of the year, which looking back is mainly awful, we can motivate them even more; showing the difference between start of the year and end of the year they will realise how much we have progressed and thus they will progress.
• We are going to explain the different blogs and how they are used properly. This should allow them to instantly understand how to organise their work meaning they can manage their projects correctly from the very start. In order to help them further we are going to re-use old handouts that we have been given and include these. We are also going to give them good links to websites and design blogs, as well as recommend useful books, that will help them throughout the year and possibly even longer.
• We are going to go to various places near the college where people eat lunch and take photographs and possibly do interviews in order to give the new student some sort of idea of what is available. This is something that will be very handy within the first few weeks of starting.

Delivery:

We are going to produce a magazine/book that contains all of this information. Due to the sheer amount of information that we want to get into our publication, these are our only real options. We would also like to produce some screen prints, these being scanned and digitally put into our publication.

We have also considered creating a newspaper style variation of our final outcome. This would help a lot with the cost of printing as the paper is much less expensive and we wouldn't need to worry about binding. This is something we shall consider closer to the time of final printing and we shall make a decision after much consideration and testing has been done.

Production:

When actually producing our publication there are many variables that we need to consider. They are:

• Screen printing - This is something that we would like to do as it would visually demonstrate our understanding of the subject
• Photography - Throughout the publication there will be many photographs used, all of which shall be our own
• How its printed and bound - We have briefly looked into sending our final outcome to a company called Blurb but think this may be more expensive. We are going to look into more independent printing companies or possibly print and bind ourselves
• Stock - If we print and bind ourselves we will need to seriously consider our stock
• Colour - Although we are not limiting ourselves on colour choices, in order to keep the publication consistent we will need to agree on a colour scheme
• Paper size - In order to utilise and demonstrate what we have learnt, we are going to make our own paper size. However, we need to ensure that we can use our own paper size if we are to send our work off to a printing company as they may not print on custom paper sizes
• Font(s) - Again looking at consistency a font or set of fonts needs to be agreed prior to any design work
• Lay-out - This is something that will be a big part of our publication and could make or break the whole project. This is something that shall be greatly considered and thought about throughout the design process

 Boards:

In order to ensure that the information we display in our book is accurate and useful, I am going to do some further research into the topics by taking information from the internet, books and my own past research. As we have decided to go for a more 'heads-up' style approach, we don't need to include a lot of text that would overwhelm the student and prevent them from reading our book; it does however need to be of good quality. We are including many sections that involve us to do primary research as well as secondary which is good as I feel it will give our publication something that they won't have seen before.

We went out and took photographs and gathered our research. This consisted of photographs of various processes, places to eat lunch, pubs as well as advice from people in our year and examples of different students work. We included these sections as, in terms of advice, the best people to talk to about how the first year university is would be people who are currently on their first year. The advice that we get from these people, especially those that are on the same course and at the same university, has proven to be much of much greater use. We also wanted to include examples of other students work, from all different courses, just as a bit of incentive to do well. Showing them the level of talent from other courses could be a great way to show that not only are they at a very good university but also that they have a lot to compete with. It's pretty much win win I think. I also created a basic map of this campus that only contained the areas that I feel they will actually need, based on the areas that I have needed throughout my time here. I like this as it could prove to be very useful for them without being overly complicated or intricate.

These are the photographs we chose as the best from our first shoot:

Photographs of techniques:

Letterpress - 

 Book-binding -

Screen Printing -

These are photographs we have taken for the resources section:

These are photographs that we took for the cooking section:

These are the Polaroids that we created using photographs off facebook in conjunction with the advice that they gave us:

This idea was based off a project called 'Before I Die', and we thought that it would be a very nice way to display advice. It helps to portray the current students as just normal people as often when you start somewhere new you often feel intimidated by the other students.

As well as the Polaroid idea, we wanted to include the work of other students from different courses, with a bit bit of information from them. This is what we collected:

"Visual Communication allows you to explore different areas of the creative world and then branch into whatever matches your interests. At the end of my first year, I have found that I am most interested in illustration as I want to communicate my passion for nature, living creatures and all issues surrounding this via hand drawn imagery. I have investigated and practiced different ways of mark making whilst educating myself on different ecosystems and animals. This has helped to develop my own personal style.

- Briony Ebdon" - Visual Communication

 "As final designs, I have explored pattern and colour. From imposing my designs onto surfboards, I took one further and played around with repeat. I found this really nice effect that I’ve used because it is very peacock like. It has the body of a peacock which I created without realising. When I found the peacock image, I explored colour to see what exciting images I could create. To make the colours more vibrant I used the blend mode difference; It makes it a bit more unusual and thrilling.

- Daisy May Wright" - Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design

 "Our work is derived from a collaborative collection of ideas and shared influences that include aspects of popular culture through to the surreal. As individual artists we tend to favour painting and print making, but here have adopted the media of photography because with our collaborative work the media is secondary and more a means of documentation. Our photographs do hold an aesthetic quality, but we feel that ourselves in the work, the context and narrative that we portray is what is most important."

- Harry Griffiths and Karl Sims - Fine Art

 "I screen shot a picture of my Unity environment and drew over it. I realised that most of my environment will be covered in foliage and It would take me at least 2 days to draw something so detailed, so I then decided to draw a mountain top of my environment, as it’s a little bit easier for my first Photoshop drawing. The cube represents a small house that will be a part of my environment, however I haven’t decided what I want them to look like yet, so I kept it plain for now. I really wanted to capture the highlights of the moonlight to give the piece that creepy atmosphere my game will have and I think I’ve done pretty well. It may not be ‘professional’ or incredibly detailed, but I think I’ve got my idea across."

- Sophie Curwen - Animation

As well as this primary research, we also gathered quite a lot of secondary research. For places such as galleries and pubs/nights out/places to eat at lunch we felt that it could also be nice to get other peoples views and comments about it. If everything from the book is just our views on stuff, they may feel as though it is slightly biased. However, if we show what we think, backed up by other peoples views then it obviously seems much more reliable and useful. In order to reduce the amount of body copy within the book, which is something we have always wanted to keep to a minimum in order to prevent the student from feeling overwhelmed, we haven't included much detailed information about anything. For things such as the design context section, we used dictionary definitions and quotes in order to simply put the idea of that certain subject across. This enables us to make them aware of a wide range of topics without forcing our views across or giving too much information. This would make them choose things that they are interested in and go away to look further into them, something we are trying to encourage throughout. We feel like this is a vital part of growing as a designer and they need to experience it all for themselves without us telling them what to think about everything. 

Images of places that we took from the internet:

We also took some 'staying creative' tips from a book called 'Think Unstuck':

1. Look at things upside down -

If you don’t remember sitting upside down as a child and gawking at how fascinating things looked, now is a great time to remind yourself.

Literally sit upside down and look around you for a few minutes. What does the world look like when the ceiling becomes the floor? How do you feel about being on the roof with the rest of the world beneath you? Does an upside down world affect your problem or situation?
By looking at their problem upside down, Heinz - a world leading ketchup manufacturer - was able to design an upside down ketchup bottle, dramatically increasing sales of their product and increasing customer satisfaction globally.
Changing your perspective by looking at things upside down could help you see things you couldn’t see before. Sit upside down however you can and take a look around.

2. Cook something -

Even if you can’t cook well, go into the kitchen and try to cook something simple right now.

Cooking enables you to relax your mind, helps you to focus on a single task, and excites the part of your brain that is used for creative planning and problem solving.
By experimenting with cooking - having fun with the ingredients and physically mixing things together - you are presenting your mind with a physical problem to solve. You should be able to instinctively associate cooking with your creative problem or situation.
To get unstuck, get into the frame of mind related to cooking: having fun, mixing ideas, and creating something. If you don’t get unstuck by the end of the day, at least you’ll have something to eat.
Get cooking!

3. Take a shower -

A shower isn’t merely the perfect opportunity to get clean, it’s the perfect opportunity for something called “creative pause.”

The man who is believed to originally have coined the phrase “creative pause,” Edward de Bono, defines it as a deliberate pause to think of solutions to a problem... even if the problem doesn’t seem important.
Bono declared: “some of the best results come when people stop to think about things that no one else has stopped to think about.” The shower is the perfect place to go in order to stop and passively think about your problem or situation and why you’re feeling stuck.
Allow yourself a moment of creative pause - or idle thinking - by taking a brief, worry-free, and comfortable shower.

4. Create a mind map -

Build a mind map to visualise what you’re getting stuck on.

A mind map is a visual representation of ideas and how they relate to each other. To create a mind map: write an idea in the centre of a piece of paper. Then write down ideas that are related and connect them to the main one. Repeat that process several times until you begin to see new ideas form from completely unrelated ideas.
Creating a mind map is valuable because it gets around most of the limitations of other creative mapping techniques; the point of a mind map is to quickly and efficiently find links between ideas.
Mind maps are ideal for creating visual maps of related ideas, but they’re also great for recalling existing memories that can aid you in getting unstuck. Sit yourself down and quickly put together a mind map of your own to get unstuck.