The first brief in responsive I undertook was the Penguin student design award which was an opportunity for students interested in pursuing a career in design to experience real cover design briefs first-hand. I decided to undertake the brief firstly because I felt it would give me an opportunity to undertake a book cover design in more depth. As in the past when designing covers for either a book or publication I feel as though I've rushed this stage, therefore this brief would give me more time to depict the content within book. In the brief you have the option of three books to design a cover for, I decided to design for To Kill A Mockingbird as from briefly reading about the book it created the most enthusiasm and made me think more visually.
Overall I believe this brief was a success for a number of reasons. My extensive research into Penguin and the book itself proved to be very informative during the idea generation process which resulted in me having a range of ideas which I could later develop further. In the end I chose the social class and hierachy of Maycomb idea as I believed it was an ambiguous and a response that has a point of difference compared to current TKAM covers. ‘A point of difference’ was one of the aims of the brief and I certainly believe I achieved that as the cover feels timeless and can be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting, as well as digital retailers such as Amazon. Another enjoyment was looking into TKAM for a first time, before this brief I’d heard of Harper Lee’s famous title but I’d never delved into it. It was enjoyable learning about the book then creating ideas that try not emulate previous covers, it made a challenge of the brief which overall benefited the ideas.
As a smaller brief for responsive I undertook the Papyrus student brief, and in all fairness the only reason I did this brief is because Secret 7 didn't run this year meaning I couldn't do that as a smaller brief. Nevertheless as I looked more into the brief I become more interested in it, as I was attracted to the colouring books potential as it allows freedom and not much constraint to create what I wanted. With it being a smaller brief, only a small amount of research was undertaken into Papyrus and what helps relax people. Therefore I set a time plan to make sure I undertook the brief in only two days, I knew this was short amount of time but I understood that considerations into type, colour, size, and target audience will all be avoided due to the brief.
Overall the brief was short and enjoyable for me, and it was satisfying to know that I set a time limit and stuck by it. This is encouraging for the future as in industry you have a short time to produce work, unlike usual university briefs in which you have months to develop an idea. I was also able to produce a solution that is relatable to my own views on how to relieve stress and hopefully the design can help. In terms of the competition side of the brief I don't believe its strong enough conceptually to stand a chance of being featured in the book, but nevertheless it was nice to be involved with a brief that hopefully will make a difference.
For the substantial brief I chose Display Wizard and I decided to pick this brief as one big motivations to undertake this brief is the prizes available, the winner will be rewarded £500, a Wacom tablet worth £250 and an option of undertaking a summer internship at Display Wizard. With second and third place winning £100 and £50. Also it was a great opportunity for me to work on a real-life marketing project and showcase my work to The Design Council, University marketing department, the large-format print industry and the wider design world.
To talk about the brief in more detail, it tasked me with designing display stands focussing on the social/cultural benefits of studying at Leeds College of Art. I needed to ensure the branding was consistent across the display stands and the design fits with the dimensions of the stand, whilst all the time trying to appeal to prospective students who may want to study at my institution.
My final outcome of the brief I feel is a worthy representation on life at Leeds College of Art, and therefore I have fulfilled one of my personal aims of the brief. To touch more upon my aims for the brief before undertaking it, I felt like the brief would be personal to me as I spend five days a week within the college, so having the chance to reflect the institutes core values from a students perspective was something I looked forward to. And now looking back on the brief I feel as though I've done the college justice and painted a nice image of life here. Furthermore I am happy on how I executed my ideas, because from a glance this brief may seem dry and maybe doesn't offer the opportunity to express the style of an individual. But nonetheless I was able to showcase work which has a subtle hint of my style, while also having a Leeds College of Art feel to it.
In terms of undertaking this brief and how I managed my time, I did leave the brief for a while which I don't necessarily deem bad. As the time away from the brief allowed me to develop my thoughts about the brief, and without noticing it aloud me to further research about what is the social and cultural benefits of studying here. What I can take away from this brief is the experience of working with a larger scale outcome, at times during development I had to question the layout and composition as though it was blown up to real size. Normally during a brief I'd simply be creating something small scale such as a book or poster, therefore its easy to test print the outcome. This brief restricted me to imagine the banner in real size so made me think more about designing for environments and space. From this it made me more enthusiastic about the opportunity to do this type of design, so hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do so in the future.
For studio brief 2 I collaborated with Ben Cooper (Graphic design) and Joe Baker (Illustration) for the D&AD Monotype brief. In this brief Monotype challenged you to embody and express the importance of cultural diversity through a typography solution or campaign. I decided to pick this brief as one i’d be interested in doing because firstly I believe it was current in terms of world affairs, relating to immigration and politics and gives the designer an opportunity to communicate personal views on certain affairs that may interest them. Secondly having the chance to engage in a topic that is vastly diverse such as culture allows you to have an open mind for this brief, referring back to my first point it can make it personal. And lastly being able to work with type attracted me to the brief, as I am eager to further my practice involving typographic responses.
When it came to the task of finding other people to collaborate with I was surprised at how only a small number of people were interested in the Monotype brief but in the end I was lucky enough to find an ideal group to work with. We all share similar interests in and outside the creative world which made this brief, in my opinion the best I've undertook in two years studying here. I think it was cumulation things that made it such as success. Such as Parisian youth culture which was the culture we chose to communicate, the understanding between the group, the respect we shared for each others work and ultimately the desire to produce great work and get along.
I can address the endless positives of this brief but to focus on maybe one worry I had prior to this brief and how as a group we solved it. Before the group even undertook any work we had to fill out a creative partnership form. One of the questions was ‘What do you see your specific job roles being in collaboration?’ This question made me mull over what the specific job roles of two graphic designers would be in this brief. My response is as follows:
‘As we have two graphic designers and an illustrator, then it may seem that the two graphic designers need to find distinctive roles. This is because we don’t want two designers doing the same job, nevertheless the brief is big enough to accommodate two graphic designers. For example I could focus on the typography while Ben focuses on layout and editorial which could be another touchpoint of the brief. As Joe is an illustrator his role is pivotal as his skills in both drawing and traditional print will bring a lot to the team’
From my response you can see I stressed that finding distinct roles for this brief was key and now that its all done, I can say that it all worked. To start with research we all separated tasks which was time efficient and made it easier to collate all our findings but when it came to production, myself and Ben were able to easily decided upon the jobs a graphic designer would have to undertake.
To talk more about the brief itself, picking Parisian youth culture to represent was a shrewd group decision as I feel like I’ve learnt so much about this upcoming youth culture. I especially liked the research process as it allowed me to research French graphic design and the industry within Paris which was insightful to say the least. In terms of what the team created, I couldn’t be more happier as we all feel its such a well justified concept and final piece. From the use of Noto sans to the colours used in the posters, video and stickers we felt the amount of research we undertook paid off in the end.
To evaluate on the entire module which has been a long and rewarding module, and if I cast my mind back to the briefing in October if I'm right. Back then I don't think I could have imagined how much I've learnt about my own practice. Learning about what I like and don't like within graphic design but also the way in which I learn and work. For example undertaking the Penguin book cover design made me realise that designing book covers isn't so easy as it may look, so in the future I may approach book cover design differently. Other factors such as designing display stands made me consider working in larger scale and stepping away from what I'm used to which is editorial and poster design and mix my practice more.
Each brief has expanded my knowledge in and out of graphic design as extensive research on most of briefs has broadened my horizons on topics I was totally unaware of before responsive. Other learning curves have been the simple things such as learning about D&AD, YCN and all the other student briefs that have opened my eyes to the possibilities of briefs to undertake in level 6.
The most valuable part of this brief has combined the way I work and learn into one, and that is collaboration. Studio brief 02 presented me the opportunity to experience industry I believe. To expand on this you’ve always got to be open minded and from what Ive learnt this year in college and off my own back if you don’t collaborate with people, you don’t get different points of view. Design is about combining things and in studio brief 02 each member of team combined something to create an outcome we were all proud of. And without the collaboration I think the final outcome would have come out much differently if we did it alone.
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