OUGD603 - Fresher's Designs - Guide Development

For the guide I decided to keep the same colour scheme as used within the logo and limit it to just those two colours and black. I wanted to really play with the layouts and the SU encouraged me to be as playful as possible. I started out the styling of the guide by deciding to duotone all the imagery to keep to the colour scheme. I feel like this adds a new contemporary quality that couldn’t be achieved by full colour photographs. It also meant that the guide and the branding were more cohesive as a whole.

I played a lot with using full bleed imagery and text over the images as well. I used a lot of lines within the guide to create additional movement and intrigue to the spreads. As well as including basic shapes of a triangle, rectangle, circle and cross. I wanted it to feel almost like someone sprinkled confetti onto the page.

This stage of development involved a lot of meetings with the SU to get everything just right within the guide before printing.

When it came to the actual printing of the guide I pushed to get foiling on the cover. I felt like it would add quality to the guide as a whole. This involved lots of going back and forth in emails to Pressision but we finally managed to fit it into the budget by not including the events in the guide. This means creating a separate poster for the events.

OUGD603 - Fresher's Designs - Initial Ideas & Logo Development

My initial developments played a lot on the idea of tetris and were heavily inspired by the isometric style of one of the brands I researched. I tried creating 3D geometric lettering that was unique yet legible. I feel like these do look like type that has come out of a retro pixel video game, which in hindsight doesn’t reflect the ethos of the college at all. While these designs certainly are playful I felt like something was off. The SU agreed with this commenting that perhaps it wasn’t legible enough. Additionally I started off with very bright colours, unsure on a colour scheme. But I took inspiration from the Vernon Street building, looking at the colour of the bricks and picking out colours from the mosaic I found a nice combination of brick red and green. They did like the use of the patterned background and the colour scheme and asked if I could take that forward.

For my next design I replicated the typeface by Ben Buysse, creating the numbers myself. As a whole this design is so much more legible. I will have to ask permission however to use this design so it all depends on whether I am allowed to use his design. I also feel the hierachy of this text is much better than the previous design, making it clear that it is fresher’s. However, I still brought the colour scheme forward as the summery colours were liked by the SU.



After taking this new design to the SU they loved it. I also heard back from Ben Buysse who allowed me to use the design, saying that he liked the direction I had taken the logo which I really appreciated. There were only a few small tweaks to be made, to use the colour scheme and change the typeface to one that is readily available. I also changed the patterns within the type to halftone instead of the confetti and I think this adds a bit of sophistication while keeping the logo playful.
Overall I’m really happy with the outcome of the logo, I feel like it reflects the creative yet playful nature of LCA.

OUGD603 - Fresher's Designs - Research

I started researching by looking into bright and playful designs. I wanted to find some inspiration to create a design that would be memorable and really stand out. Specifically, I wanted to find a design that used geometry as the main focus as I go forward with my theme of shapes.



In Figure one the use of a bold sans serif contrasted with the bright colours and shapes means the design really stands out. While the text is on quite a busy background it still stands out really well and remains readable. Though these designs seem really colourful, the colour scheme that they have used is quite a limited palette. With each design having only 3-4 unique colours. 



In Figure two the use of 3D, slightly isometric styled, shapes adds a really originality to the piece. The use of patterns within the shapes adds a contrast and interest to each shape and even though they are all the same shape, each feels different and unique. Once again a sans serif has been used, most likely for readability and legibility within the design.



I found this version of a block typeface on Behance by Ben Buysse and instantly fell in love. The use of the halftone effect to create shadows really makes it feel like a three dimensional object. It feels sophisticated while remaining playful. I plan to get in touch with the designer of this typeface to ask if I could use this within my designs.

OUGD603 - Communications Officer Role - Fresher's Designs

I was successfully elected a member of the executive officer team at the students union last year as Communications Officer. One of the main parts of my role is to create designs for the fresher's guide and fresher's events.

The first thing that I wanted to do was create a concept to work around that would apply to all of the designs. I also had to present these to the student's union team as they were technically my clients for this brief.

I composed my inspiration and ideas into a short presentation. In the presentation I put a mind map together for the SU to go through my initial thoughts of themes that I could follow for the brief.

I thought of 4 different themes, each with their merits. For exploring Leeds I thought that I could encourage the new students to explore all of what Leeds has to offer being a very creative city. I also thought that this could include a sort of passport to LCA with things adventure or travel themed. However, when I got feedback from the student’s union I found out that one of the previous designs was very similar to this using a briefcase as the centre of the design.

For the Stereotypical artists idea I thought of creating a mascot of sorts for each of the courses and having them interact within the collateral. However I still wanted to emphasise that students didn’t have to fit the stereotypes given to them and I feel like this might make them think that they do. The SU shared my concern with this.

For Time I thought that I could use this theme to encourage new students to do as much as possible while at college. Because one thing I have learnt is that time can really get away from you while studying so you need to grasp every opportunity that you can. The SU liked this idea but I’m not quite sure what the design would revolve around a part from clocks and watches.

Finally I thought about using unique shapes to show different events and courses. I thought of how tetris blocks all fit together, and thought that maybe this could represent the college. With all the different blocks of each course fitting together to form the community that is college. This was my favourite idea by far and I think the SU agreed. I will develop this further into some logo ideas and look at some designs with a similar concept.