OUGD503 - Studio brief 01 - Display Wizard development

Once I knew what I was working with in terms of content and what to specifically communicate I started designing the 3x3 banner stand first. I chose to design the bigger stand first as I felt it would communicate the message in more depth, and once I had decided upon one 3x3 banner stand then I could apply the same style to the smaller pop up stand. This would also help with keeping the style consistent as this one of the requirements Display Wizard encourages you to consider.

Instead of sketching rough visualisations of the ideas I decided to jump straight into Illustrator to mockup the ideas up in different variations. Once I decided upon a few variants of type layout and compostions, I could then apply different elements in the banner design to get a number of distinctive ideas to potentially take further.

The first idea uses the theme of the mosaic which is at the core of LCA's identity, the mosaic itself is versatile and can be applied in numerous ways as I learnt from looking through the brand guidelines. The mosaic of LCA has been around for many years now and is a fundamental part of life at this college so I deemed it necessary to include it a backbone to my ideas in my cases. This variation pairs only the message and big bold mosaic for a striking design. By using the colleges colour palette it allows each mosaic to visibly stand out in a rather colour saturated design.

A variation to the colour saturated design is a more subtle approach which uses outlines instead of block colour for the mosaics. This alternative is a basic version of the idea it still has the unique qualities of the original design but in a more restrictive way.

The next variation is more bolder and combines a number of elements but also offers a different version of the message. The content is placed at the top of the banner which allows the message to take centre stage in the design, but this time the 'Ey up!' being placed underneath the message. The eye is drawn to the 'Ey up!' straight away but with the message being overlaid it almost counteracts the 'Ey up!' The mosaics are used again but this time to help frame the message in the centre of the banner and the numbers within the message are also highlighted to signify importance.

Using the strictest colour palette yet this idea utilizes space with the use of two larger scale mosaics, the contrast of pink and blue help the white display type pop out from the rest of the design I believe. Another way of using exposed space in this design is the body copy at the top, instead of the title and copy all being aligned within one block. The title sits to the left of the copy which uses up more space which I feel is needed in a more simple design which doesn't include many elements. 

Similar to another idea this one uses 'Ey up!' to welcome possible students to Yorkshire in a more up front manner and this achieved with the enlarged and altered type that sprawls across the banner. 

In my opinion this is the boldest design but the one with the least amount of elements, in a sense it is less is more. 

Feedback

I required feedback on my designs to allow me to choose an idea to further develop, therefore I asked a number of my peers which idea stood out to them from a glance, and which one communicates the message the best. I required feedback on other factors such colour and layout as these could be further tweaked in development.

The feedback was split 50/50 on the 3rd and 6th design as people believed these two were my strongest outcomes. People noted that both were different designs in their own right, which they think swayed them towards the designs more than others. But one thing my peers all settled upon was the need to maybe change the tone of 'A Yorkshire way of saying hello', they remarked that all the designs are playful and exciting but the tone of the message dulls it down a bit.

They suggested to say 'Hey' as its more inviting and suiting to the target audience, this was a valuable piece of feedback. And another addition to make to 'A Yorkshire way of saying hello' was maybe to include a numerous message to end of it like 'A Yorkshire way of saying hello, but you'll grasp it soon enough' or 'A Yorkshire way of saying hello, you'll be hearing more of that'. By adding these extra lines it acts as a invitation to the university and the way of life in Leeds.

I do question why I never received similar feedback in prior development of the message. Now I look back I think its because when the message stands alone without the playful design it has no context and works sufficiently.

All my peers believed that which ever idea I take forward, I should definitely experiment with the bold colour palette I selected. I took this on board as I was aware that some of the designs I put forward heavily rely on the colour palette.