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All Completed Briefs:

Threadless 3x Arcade Fire Submissions Design a Monster

Design Crowd

Vovomo Bookiniste Best After Dark Airlie Beach Music Festival New Media Illustrations Character Illustrations

Hellfire Beer Label

YCN: Forestry Comission

Secret 7:

Laura Marling Nick Drake

D&AD L:artisan Parfumeur

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Contents:

4-5:

Intro

6-7:

Threadless

8-9:

YCN

10-11:

D&AD

12-13:

Secret 7

14-15:

Development

16-19:

Evaluation

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The Responsive module has brought with it a lot of oppurtunity and has taught me a lot about how I work and, also, how I can improve the way I work. This report will document key briefs from the module and also personal observations of development and process, ending with a summative evaluation of the module.

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INTR

OIn

tro

to R

espo

nsiv

eThe Responsive module has brought with it a lot of oppurtunity and has taught me a lot about how I work and, also, how I can improve the way I work. This report will document key briefs from the module and also personal observations of development and process, ending with a summative evaluation of the module.

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Thre

adle

ssAr

cade

Fire

Com

petit

ion

& D

esig

n a

Mon

ster

7

Vote based competitions are incredibly frustrating and disheartening.

Over the course of this module I have taken part in a lot of short scale competitions- mainly on Threadless.com and Design Crowd. The winners of Threadless competitions are decided by votes, this is often disheartening when you think that worse designs than yours are getting chosen, but, at the same time this reinforces the idea that you shouldn’t design for yourself. The artwork that the community like, is the artwork that will sell the most which, ultimately, makes it the better design.What I’ve learnt about designing for t-shirts is that, more often thatn not, the simpler ones

win. A 2 colour palette with a simple but bold image will appeal to the most people. The difficult thing to push against with Threadless is the fact there are a lot of very technically competent illustrators who’s skill instantly grabs attention and over shadows wearability or unique design. The majority of Threadless voters are the designers themselves so getting a lot of votes generally means you’ve got a good design but sites such as Talenthouse often go soleley on public vote that is gathered through Facebook and Twitter which turns it into a popularity contest with no regard for design at all.

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YCN

Fore

stry

Com

issi

on

Cam

paig

n: M

an T

rip

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Taking time to present your work well is* more important than the work itself.

Something that I have always neglected with my work is taking good photographs of it. I have always hoped that whoever is looking at it would take the time to understand what it’s for and look at each product. Entering competitions and live briefs has erradicated this mentatility as it is essential to instantly impress and grab attention. Knowing this, and wanting to win some competitions I took more time in crafting products, photographing and summarising projects in short paragraphs to

* kind of.

grab the attention of the judges.In some respects this is more important than the work itself, like a confident, well dressed person going to interview up against a shabby well qualified person, first impressions count for a lot. Putting a sufficient amount of time in presenting final products is something that I will continue to do with all projects and also displaying products in a relelvant and unique way rather than complying to trends is something I want to make sure I dont fall into the habit of.

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D &

ADL’

artis

an P

arfu

meu

r

Col

labo

artiv

e Pr

actic

e

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Working collaboratively improves productivity dramatically.

During the collaborative partners brief me and Sam Lane chose to work on the L’artisan Parfumeur brief. This is the first brief that I have worked on with one other person, I have found this to really encourage and motivate progress on the project. When working in a larger group on a relatively small project the work that is divided to you isn’t very important or integral whereas as this is a large project with only 2 people contributing it encourages you to put in a lot more time and effort.

Because you’ve got another person that has an equal share there is more pressure to deliver to the project and get things done such as speaking to people, booking slots, asking people how to do things and sorting out problems that arise with the project. I am very happy with our final products for this project and think that we stand a good chance of winning the competition. This has been one of the most interesting and engaging projects that I have done as part of the OUGD503 module.

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Secr

et 7

Imag

e M

akin

g

Laur

a M

arlin

g &

Nic

k D

rake

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Keep it simple for instant visual impact.

Secret 7 is a competition that runs for charity in which designers need to communicate the mood of the song and artist without physically writing the name of the song and the artist.The artists that I chose to design for were Nick Drake and Laura Marling solely because I like them. I have entered this competition and competitions like this before and I find that it is really easy to over complicate a design with decoration to make it look like more effort and time has been spent on it- regardless of the contribution

to the sleeve. Out of my two submissions the one that got chosen was the Nick Drake sleeve (pictured top) which was very simple but also delivered the most instant visual impact. It is quite difficult to know when to leave a design alone and easy to keep adding to it becuase you feel you haven’t spent enough time on it, this is something that I will always consider in the future- to only do what is relevant and appropriate to the brief.

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One of the briefs that I completed was the Creative Networks design a beer label brief. I was excited to start this brief mainly because I love unique beer labels and branding, and it is a competition against the class and Creative Advertising, so there is a lot at stake.

The initial concept that I came up with for this brief was to really push the fact that you are meeting new creatives and professionals so the label should aid this. I thought that the user

could interact with the label by writing their name and circling their specialism etc and giving the beer as a present to someone/ they could write someone elses details on it (see fig.1).

After really planning and thinking how this would work in practice- if I was being honest with myself- I didn’t think that the judges would go for it. There was too much faffing around when really all people want to do when having a drink is have a drink and a chat.

With this in mind I scrapped that concept and went about designing a label that is aesthetically pleasing that has some hidden symbolism that visual people can decipher and appreciate.

Fig 2. is the design that I submitted that got chosen as the winner. This brief gave me my first experience of working and compromising with a client as Creative Networks still wanted some changes before sending the label to print. I am very happy with the finished label and looking forward to seeing the printed products.

Fig.1 Fig.2

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Deve

lopm

ent

Des

ign

Proc

ess

and

Dev

elop

men

t with

focu

s on

Hel

lfire

brie

f

Don

’t be

pre

ciou

s ab

out y

our

initi

al id

ea, e

spec

ially

if c

rack

s ap

pear

in th

e co

ncep

t.

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This module has brought a lot of new elements into the way I design and the mindset that you need to create a project that has potential to be better than rivals. I definately prefer working on a large project that has the ability to communicate and act in new and innovative ways rather than just designing a flat logo that is already hugely restricted by the clients ideas. Skills that I have built on in this module are photography of finished products, working quickly and also being a productive part of a collaborative partnership. There is a distinct difference in state of mind when you know that you are going to be compared to much more technically proficient and experienced designers that makes you want to make a really unique and well designed project. With all future briefs I am going to aim to be much more of a perfectionist and focus on creating a project that goes beyond just fulfilling the brief.

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Something that I have been introduced to over the course of this module is designing branding for businesses. With this I have found that clients simply want an identity that is simple and professional.Fig.1 shows business cards that I designed for a company that does location recording. I initially wanted an alternating green/ red colour scheme to mirror the LED’s on recording equipment. However the client didn’t want to print 2 sets of business cards and also thought that the colours were to vivid.

I think that it is these kinds of compromises that clients want that make brands blend into of being ‘professional’ but not unique and outstanding.

With all future projects I want to spend more time on designing how the brand can be promoted and exist in uncommon and alternative places. Designing a logo and putting it across a range of products is something that almost anybody can do now with simple internet tutorials etc. My OUGD 501 publication will look into this

idea further, but I want to define what it is that a designer brings to a company that makes them essential. In the future I will try more radical and uncommon approaches and design ideas to make my work stand out from others and also make a more interesting and engaging project.

Fig.1 Fig.2

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Eval

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The

best

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to s

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is to

st

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to fi

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