2Mark Collins

Semester

Semester 2

1. Type of Brief: I think that I respond best to a brief that has some boundaries set in place. A brief that is open to the point of letting me essentially do what I like (within reason) is a brief that at first I struggle with. When there are a set of restrictions to initially consider I feel I can begin to make decisions instantly without that period of feeling ‘lost’. I like the feeling of having something to push against. This is perhaps why I have set myself personal restrictions on some of my work. 2: Integral elements: This semester I have focused on typogra-phy as I feel it was (still is) my weakest area. I have also explored ways in which to create images using a more experimental approach - keeping away from the ‘stand-ards’ of illustrator or just using photography. 3. Success: I feel my most successful work has been the product of me pushing outside of my comfort zone and taking more calculated risks. By being more experimental and forcing myself to work with elements I am less confident in (for example typography) my quality of work has (in my opinion) increased. Adopting the culture of starting the day at 9.30 and working most days until atleast 4 has also been beneficial, my time management has improved and I feel I have more time for both design work and activities I enjoy outside of university. 4. Problems: My biggest problem is still, I feel, a lack of knowl-edge of available typefaces and typography in general. This was an issue at the start of the semester, although I have consciously made a big improvement I still think it is what is currently limiting my work the most. 5. Personality: I am currently interested in work that is mainly typography based. I think this interest stems from me wanting to improve my skill set in this area. This also comes from me challenging myself to improve by basing a lot of this semesters work around type; some admitedly more successful than others. However I feel personaly satisfied for trying and I know I am improving. I want to continue in this direction of improving my skills in this area of design, adding a better sense of ‘style’ to my use of type.

Overview of semester 2

Visual Summary

Manifesto

UoC Logo

UoC Logo Meltdown Festival

Photography Book

Little White Lies - Black Swan

D&AD Ministry of Sound

1. Which brief did you choose and what opportunities and con- straints did you identify in relation to the brief? Which aspects of your initial research have influenced your design work? I chose the Ministry of Sound brief as this was my first pro-ject in which I had decided to improve my use of typography and to be more experimental with it. The dance music scene is also something I am interested in personally (at the time I was unsure if this would be a positive thing or if it would cloud my judgement) At first I wanted to focus on the music that was being played and how to convey that through a combination of image and type. However, after more research on the MoS I became more aware and interested in its long history and small beginnings. I wanted to focus on the small begginings and how the brand has become a major ‘super club’ experience. 2.Explain the concept you have come up with?

The concept was based on the idea that the MoS came from humble beginnings in a run down building, however it has grown into a worldwide cutting edge brand. They have made their stamp on the world of music and clubbing. I wanted to mirror these ideas by projecting the brand onto the environment around me just like how the MoS has made an impact on the clubbing world. The type however I wanted to have a modern feel to it - juxtaposing the slightly run down surfaces it is pro-jected onto. 3. Do you feel you have successfully met the creative demands of the brief? Indicate how you have done this or where the flawed decisions have adversely affected the design solution.

I think I have met demands of the brief with a good degree of success. The concept is clear and is easily identified with, the posters are eye catching and display all the key information with a structured hierarchy. My determination to experiment and try something out of my comfort zone resulted in work I am very pleased with. Although why I chose to change the main font for one of the posters (out of 3) I still do not know which is a slight blemish on work I am averal highly satisfied with.

Investigate

Shape

Refine

Articulate

The final series of posters

Little White Lies Black Swan

Right

The final collage of all the posters combined and then cloured. The user would take the

poster and have to interact with it by turning it different ways to read the information.

Meltdown Festival Posters

University of Cumbria Logo

5 steps transforming the current University of Cumbria logo to a redesiged version (top left with final logo above). The final logo mirrors the ‘green’ nature of Cumbria’s scenery. The 3 circles represent the 3 strands that form the university. The circles form an arrow pointing North-West, which is the location of the University.

Manifesto 1. What ideas were you trying to communicate through your written manifesto? I wanted my manifesto to be very personal to me and not something that could apply to anyone. Although some points may be a little more ‘general’ (Many people may feel/think the same way) they are ideas that I hold close to me. The aim was that after reading my manifesto you would have a better under-standing of what I like/dislike and what I am interested in. 2. Explain how you translated your written concept into a visual artifact? Explain how you feel you have done justice to your concept. If you haven’t, tell us what improvements you would make?

My manifesto contains 5 things that I either admire, enjoy or believe in. It also features 5 things that annoy me or I dislike. Due to having the two sections I decided to split my manifesto into two. My manifesto is revealing parts of myself to the reader, this is reflected in the way that it is presented. The pages require the reader to unfold them and to ‘reveal’ what is inside - essentially unveiling another part of me. In hindsight my pages potentially become a little repetitive, allthough I am generally pleased with each individual page and I think my ideas are solid, they do become a little ‘samey’. This is slightly countered by it being split into two individual items (allthough presented together)If I were to go back to the project I would attempt to make the pages seem a little more varied. 3.Having written and designed your manifesto, how do you think can: use it to inform/direct your process? to bring your own agenda to design problems? to suggest directions for future exploration? Using predominantly type was something that I enjoyed and that I hope to carry on through to future work. I have gained knowledge of what is possible using just letter forms and this can only be a good thing for improving my skill set, after all ‘Practice and hard work pays off’

Manifesto

A small collection of things I love, and things I hate.

Love

1) Practice and hard work paying off. It’s surprising what you can achieve – surprise yourself more often.

2) Being so engrossed in a book that it interferes with life itself resulting in lost sleep and skipped meals.

3) Inside jokes. When you, and one other person, are the only ones with tears on your cheeks.

4) Organisation when organisation is needed.

5) Working hard is easy when it feels like play time.

Hate

1) Breaking promises. If you say you’re going to do something do it.

2) Consistently bad grammar. Their. There. Your. You’re.

3) Getting my hair cut. It’s not relaxing neither is small talk.

4) People with no personality. Don’t be a parrot.

5) Indecisiveness. Just pick one…or the other.

InvestigateSome of my initial ideas relating to what I wanted to include in my manifesto. Trying to pin down exactly what i want to say and the lan-guage I wanted to use. Almost straight away i knew I wanted to keep my points short and concise.

Some ideas on how I physically wanted my manifesto look. Different ways of presenting the information with various formats.

Shape

At this stage I was playing with shapes, type and image; often combining these elements. I am trying out various encarnations of how I want to communicate each point of my manifesto, shaping my ideas so that they effectively convey my intended message.

Here I began to move towards using just type and shape. This was a move away from many of my first ideas as the majority of those focused on images with accompanying type. These focused on just typography with the use of basic shapes. By this stage I had also pretty much commited to the square format.

left

The work I did using just shapes to try and convey my message was crucial in opening my mind up to the possibilities of what abstract objects and achieve with some creative thinking. This thinking was then applied to my work on the screen which helped me to make a big improvement in my execution of my ideas.

RefineBy now I had figured out how I wanted my manifesto to fold and I had settled on using a series of pettle folds stuck together to make a book. I had moved my work to the screen. Quickly finding that some of my ideas worked instantly in a digital form and some (many) required more work. The majority of the work from this point was done using the computer.

These are some of my initial experiments on the Mac, and some showing how they developed further. At this point I had a colour scheme of just orange and black, I had also decided on using just two typefaces.

Dont be a parrotDont be a parrotDont be a parrotDont be a parrotDont be a parrotDont be a parrotDont be a parrot

PersonalityHave your own. Don’t just parrot the opinions of others,they are what makes you, you.

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Have your own. Don’t just parrot the

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Inside Jokes When you, and one other person, are the only ones with tears on your cheeks

INSIDE JOKESEnjoy it...Working hard is easy when it feels like playtime.

OrganisationThings that need to be

organised should be. Spotaneity is however a

good thing.

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Inside Jokes When you, and one other person, are the only ones with tears on your cheeks

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Articulate

A selection of some of the final pages of my manifesto. There rest of the book can be found on Issuu and in my physical portfolio of

http://issuu.com/markcollinsdesign/docs/manifesto_mark_collins_design

Photographers Book

http://issuu.com/markcollinsdesign/docs/sarah_jackson_-_the_importance_of_an_al-ter_ego__pa

Click the below link to view the entire book

Personal Development Plan1. How will you develop and broaden your technical abilities?

I intend to improve my abilities through continued practice of the areas that I am less profficient in. This will be done through pushing myself to try new things and move out of my comfort zone. 2. How will you develop and broaden you knowledge of con-temporary practice in relation to your own interests?

I hope that through my confirmed placement (and another in the pipeline) I will be able to gain a good insight into the way that a professional studio is run and how its designers operate. This will give me a good momentum when entering the third year. 3. How will you nurture and develop you current strengths?

Nurturing my strengths can only be done through using them regularly, I intend to use the areas I am strong in to help me improve my skills in the areas that I am weakest in. I think I have a very good work ethic that will put me in good stead to work on these weaknesses. I fully intend to coninue the culture of coming in around 9.30 and leaving between 4 and 5. This has allowed me to get so much more work done and has given me more free time in the evenings to do with as I please, this better balance has made working during the day more fun and my evenings mostly guilt free.

4. Where do you need to strengthen your game and more importantly how are you going to make this happen. What action needs to take place?

Despite concentrating on it this semester I still have a big way to go in improving my use of typography. I am comfortable with the basic rules etc however I need to keep pushing myself to use type in interesting and creative ways. This also stems from being more aware of what is possible and what work is being done by my peers and the larger design community.

Contact

markcollins@markcollinsdesign.com

www.twitter.com/MarkC128

www.issuu.com/markcollinsdesign

www.markcollinsdesign.com