OUGD603 - YSS Posters - Finals & Evaluation

In the end I produced 14 unique posters, and a roll up banner with pretty much unique designs on each of them. I’m really pleased with the playful element these posters bring, with the use of the bright colours and simplified illustrations. I tried my best to replicate the unique environment of each of the courses and I think I have been successful in this.

Strengths & What I liked

I really enjoyed illustrating the scenes from each course, trying to get the character of each course into their individual posters. It made me realise that I have a certain style of illustration when it comes to vector illustration.


Weaknesses & What I didn’t like

Like I said before I have struggled with the scale of posters in the past but because this used illustrations as the main element I just focused on this and added the text around it. I also felt like I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew with the timing of this brief, as I was at Hallmark all day doing designs and then came home and had to do more designs for this brief.


Time Management

I had to turn around quite a lot of posters in a short period of time, while on placement. This was exhausting but I managed to push through in the end.If I had more time I would have used some more unique assets in order to differentiate the posters better.


Final Outcome

I’m really pleased with the playful element these posters bring, with the use of the bright colours and simplified illustrations. I tried my best to replicate the unique environment of each of the courses and I think I have been successful in this. Additionally I feel that they will really stand out on the noticeboards because of the use of bright background colours, hopefully encouraging people to fill in the YSS.

OUGD603 - YSS Posters - Development

After I submitted the first poster design concept I was given feedback to change it around as it looked too much like the research I had done. So at this point I decided to separate the imagery of what life meant at LCA. I thought that I could create a unique illustration or scene for each course to make it feel more personal like in my initial ideas.

So I moved onto creating illustrations of desks that one might find in the college. To make the type match the outlined style of the illustrations and make it stand out more I decided to add a coloured drop shadow. I think the 3D effect this creates makes the type stand out from the background and demand as much attention as the illustrations. I also created an outside scene of the college building to represent the college as a whole. I was also asked to change the text used slightly and add in more relevant links. I think that cutting off the colour to highlight where to go to take action is a good idea as it makes it easier to understand and read at a glance.

I heard back from the SU that I had been chosen to complete the posters! They gave me some really good feedback and a big list of things to do. This meant I had more designs to complete as I had originally thought but I was able to plan accordingly. However I do like a challenge so I cracked on with developing my ideas.

I particularly struggled with some of the courses that might not necessarily be desk based, like photography, fashion and fine art however I managed to create a scene away from a desk that I feel suits them. Additionally I tried to add pictures in frames to the walls that would represent the course as well to further strengthen the connections. 

OUGD603 - YSS Posters - Initial Submission

My initial design heavily played off the creative typography that I researched, using a similar colour scheme and style of illustration. The colours I felt were really bright and eye catching so they could stand out against other posters on the noticeboards. I also think that the colours remind you of a summers day with the yellow for the sunshine and blue for the skies. I wanted to sum up life at LCA in lots of different icons. I wanted to create an overall scene that could sum up LCA as a whole. I sent this off to the SU, so I will wait to hear if I have been chosen or not.

OUGD603 - YSS Posters - Initial Ideas

After looking at the previous years design as well as research into successful poster designs I decided to start sketching. I played with the idea of using hand writing to encourage people to write on it, as this will be an interactive poster after all. Maybe if the call to action is in a hand rendered font, it might encourage more people to engage with it. I also still really liked the idea of creating text like in the Creative typography I research, using objects illustrations across the text, but not too many so that it is still legible. Additionally, I thought about doing a scene of the college, stylising it a bit so its not picture perfect, but still resembles the building. Building on from the scene idea I wanted to play on the idea of create a working desk scene for different courses. Additionally, I thought about prompting words again in hand-rendered type, then leave a space at the bottom for people to add their own word onto it. However I feel that because it already has words/answers on there people might not want to write their own answer on.


I think my favourite ideas have to be the icon typography and the working space scenes. I feel they represent the brief best and get the message across clearly. As well as being eye-catching and different they also stand up to the concept of encouraging interaction in my opinion.

OUGD603 - YSS Posters - Research

The previous design had a really strong concept, the type choice and colour combinations didn’t inspire me. So I started looking at an exciting way to do typography. I found this typography and loved how active and alive it looked. All the little icon illustrations represent something within the design process, which is really relevant. I was thinking I could use icon illustrations to represent each course like this. Also the simple colour palette highlighted by the use of outlines really grabs your eye. The only thing I would say about this design is that it might be hard to read from a distance because of all the illustrations over the type.

I looked more into icon illustration with figure 3, I really liked the simplicity of the illustrations yet they are so accurate. Also the positioning of it is visually interesting, almost like it has been taken out of a backpack and spread neatly on a table. I believe this type of layout is called knolling. Again the colour palette that has been used is limited to 3 main colours.

Figure 4 once again uses knolling to arrange objects in an interesting manner. I really liked this illustration because it reminded me of what my desk might look like when working on a project. I thought that I could recreate people from different courses’ desks in illustration form to represent the design process of LCA as a whole.

I like the way in which the illustrations are broken up by text in figure 5, leading your eye logically downwards. Also I really liked the use of simple outlines contrasted with coloured shapes making a really graphic effect. The colours used here are really eye catching contrasted against the off white, I think using multiple colours like this would make the poster stand out on a noticeboard.

OUGD603 - YSS Posters - The Brief

Students’ Union Brief Title: “Your Student Survey” 

The College wishes to improve upon the success of student feedback by running a College wide campaign.

The campaign will aim to increase awareness and engagement on the importance of student feedback, focusing on improving response rates to the Your Student Survey [YSS]. The main aim of the campaign is to ensure that students understand the importance of giving feedback in the College’s Your Student Survey.

We would like you to produce a distinctive and exciting visual design for the Your Student Survey. Your designs should provide a consistent visual identity to promote the value placed upon the student voice throughout College.

Please take note of the previous years’ creative advertising campaign. Your design should be centred on incorporating the following phrase:

LCA life is: ______?

Please note, the complete campaign includes multiple different phrases in this format. Keep in mind that the design should be transferable with different phrases.

The successful designer[s] will be asked to produce artwork for a range of print and screen based deliverables that will be taken through to professional production. All design work will be used throughout the Colleges efforts to promote the campaign to all Level 4 and 5 students.

This is a fantastic opportunity to gain experience working on a client led brief and to see your work displayed throughout the College. The successful designer[s] will be awarded £250.

The deadline for all submissions will be 5pm January 9th

Background & Considerations 

Your Student Survey [YSS] is a survey initiated by the College, asking students to provide feedback on a range of areas and aspects of their experience whilst studying at LCA. The YSS is open to all Level 4 & 5 students giving students the opportunity to provide honest feedback about their learning experience in College.

Using your experience as a student at Leeds College of Art, how can you create an exciting design to interest students?

What do you find visually appealing?

How can you create an attention grabbing promotion?

You may need to consider the application of your visual concept to a promotional package comprising of:

- 7ft x 2ft banner

- 200cm x 80cm roll banner

- A0 Poster

- A3 Poster

- Web page & social media

- Digital media – for example gifs/animations

You will therefore need to consider responses that work across a range of scales and media.

Submissions

Please submit at least one A3 poster design in order to be considered.

Your completed designs should be submitted as a 300 dpi PDF or JPEG by email to student.union@leeds-art.ac.uk – Alternatively, feel free to WeTransfer all files to our email address.

The deadline for entries is the 9th January at 5pm.