OUGD603 - Fresher's Design - Final Collateral & Evaluation

Fresher's Guide

Risograph Fresher's Event Poster

Fresher's Fair

Strengths & What I liked

With this being my first brief of the year I was really eager to make it count. I think that my enthusiasm comes across in my design. My favourite part of the project was creating the logo, after I made this everything seemed to fall into place. I believe that the logo and branding overall are really memorable.



Weaknesses & What I didn’t like

I usually don’t enjoy editorial design, but I quite enjoyed creating this guide because of how the SU encouraged me to be as playful as possible.



Time Management

I had to manage my time really well in order to get all the designs ready for the print deadlines I was given. However I think I did this succesfully and got the designs to the SU a couple of days before needed to be sent to print. If I had more time I would have liked to create some sort of motion graphic, however looking at the amount of work I achieved for this brief I am still very happy with the outcome. I think that this brief was a perfect way to kick start 3rd year, starting me on the design process through summer.



Final Outcome

The final outcome was better than I could have imagined. Having the print finishes really makes a difference to the quality and feel of the product. It adds a tactile quality like the risograph did for the poster. It was really interesting to see my designs all around the college, the SU had made the shapes into vinyl and created a tote bag and t shirt from my design also. I feel that as a brand as a whole it is successful at capturing the audience. I received lots of very good comments from students and tutors a like about my design which was very promising.

OUGD603 - Lifting Tower Projection - Development and Proposal

Based on my initial sketches and research I created a stylised illustration of a couple, heavily inspired by Veronica Grech. Though they don't have very detailed faces I feel like they are still quite expressive within themselves. I wanted to keep the colour palette quite cold with dashes of warmth to bring the couples to life using hints of red. 

I also created some simplified illustrations of some of the interesting architecture from shops around Leeds. I wanted to make it look like it could be any old high street while also recognisable as being in Leeds. In this particular illustration, I used the Pret and Lloyds bank buildings as pictured below.

I also mocked up a little illustration of the couple in situ, looking as natural as possible. This was heavily inspired by my first initial sketch of the couple. I loved the idea of using their breath in the cold air for added depth and atmosphere. 

My proposal was for the Romantic scene of a couple Christmas shopping. As I was creating the storyboards, however, the story evolved a bit more into them meeting within the Christmas Markets and getting to know each other along the way. I am really pleased with my concept and think that it will have a good chance of being shortlisted further. 

OUGD603 - Creative Networks - The Brief

The Brief

Please provide a 1x a3 PDF and/or moving image file designed for the next guest speakers. One design for Mike Mignola and one for Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF 30) with a guest speaker of your choice. This could be someone you would like to see talk at creative networks or someone you have seen speak. Submit to Joshua Edgingtion. 

This taster brief leads on to a further 5 briefs with a more extensive nature and will be expected to do a1 posters, vinyl branding, guest speakers poster, signage for guests, GIFs, promotional material, flyers, postcards, floor stickers etc.


Background/Considerations

Target Audience - Staff and students at Leeds College of Art are aware of the events. Our main objective is to bring professionals from the creative industries. Each guest speaker will appeal to different types of industry and so the work will need to adjust to these needs. A large majority come from Leeds with some who attend repeatedly, but the events are welcome to all from Yorkshire and surrounding cities. The main channels of promotion are print (posters) for within the college and around Leeds, social media and email campaigns are used to contact everyone about the events.

Background - Creative networks has been running for a couple of years now and has gone from strength to strength. Creative networks is our own major professional events programme, and the largest network of its type in the region. Its a fantastic chance to mix with people from the industry and to hear fascinating talks from leading speakers in a relaxed environment. Students, former students and staff at Leeds College of Art are all welcome to attend. For a list of previous speakers please look on the Leeds College of Art website under creative networks.

Mandatory Requirements

• Deliverables 
• Research, Idea & Development 
• Design Boards 
• Blog Posts 
• Leeds college of art & Creative networks branding must be used on all material. A link to the Eventbrite page where tickets can be bought will also be needed. 
• 1 x A3 Poster for Mike Mignola 
• 1 x A3 Poster for Leeds International Film Festival with a Guest Speaker of our choice Optional 1 x Moving Image 

Deadline

Friday 14th October

Winner announced 18th October - Design work will then commence for the following events

OUGD603 - Final Briefs

OUGD603 - Lifting Tower Projection - Stylistic Research

I created a small mood board of stylistic ideas for the kind of style that I wanted to go for with the animation. A mixture of hand-drawn qualities with a vector element to them. I wanted to keep it really simple as I think that this will project best onto the brick surface. 

One of the illustrators that I was particularly inspired by was Veronica Grech. I love her flat yet graphic style and was thinking of using this kind of simple and bold style with my illustrations for the animation. I also looked at a lot of illustrations that had a limited colour scheme, as with the brief we are only allowed to use a few colours. The use of a pop of red or blue in the illustrations like in most of these images really adds interest to the piece and draws the eye. Also I feel like red and blue are both quite Christmassy colours, so combining the two makes not only for a good contrast but also a Christmassy combo.

Although something that I will need to be aware of is that the projector will not project tones of colours very well. So in examples like Grech’s mountain scene, the lighter blues would simply come out as grey brick where as the more vivid colours would project really well. This is definitely something that I need to be aware of when illustrating.

I made a sort of style test using a style that is a culmination of what I liked from the illustrations above. I really liked the idea of using tonal blues with a pop of red. 

I showed this to my peers and they said that it was really good and to continue in this style. However this idea of an ice skater will not be one of our final animations it gave me a good standing of what I want to do. 

OUGD603 - Lifting Tower Projection - Initial Sketches

I got in contact with the animators that I worked with last year for responsive and asked if I could collaborate with them again for the Lifting Tower Christmas Projection and they were happy to. So we had an initial meeting to discuss what sort of things we could come up with for it.

We decided on coming up with some short narratives to tell in the 1-minute time frame. We also went through the brief to get an idea of what they might want just from how the brief was written. We picked up on the fact that the brief seems to mention Leeds independent music scene both directly and referring to Brudenell Social club. So we decided to take a play on this. Also, we realised pretty early on that the window would be a black object in the middle of the building that wouldn't show any design so we should work around it. Below are the notes from our first meeting.

After this, I had a couple of small ideas that we could work with so I created some quick sketches. Initially, I took the idea of someone ice skating around the building and then disappearing or skating into the window. I had a certain style in mind - because the building is so textured - I thought that flat vectors would work really well. In addition, the limited colour scheme meant that it couldn't be too realistic so this style would be suitable. I also sketched out an idea for the design of a couple who could go Christmas shopping. I thought what better to show Christmas without being too festive than to show people coming together.

OUGD603 - Lifting Tower Projection - Brief

Studio Brief
Propose 3 visual concepts for a set series or sequence of 1 minute animated projections based on the theme of Independent Creativity at Xmas.

Your visual concepts will need to communicate a contemporary, creative and ‘cool’ representation of a Xmas or winter theme. Think - Harvey Nichols meets the independent music scene in Leeds or John Lewis meets the Brudnell Social Club. Your response will need to appeal to a wide audience of 18 to 50 year olds who look beyond the traditional but still want to feel festive.

The client is not looking for traditional representations of Santa in a sleigh or cheesy looking elves dancing around. They are not asking for a critical or moral discourse on the validity of xmas. They want cool, festive and creative.

The moving image based projections will be mapped onto the Lifting Tower building on Wellington Street and should aim to interact with the features of the surface. The scale of the projection will be approximately 10m x 10m and so you will need to work to a square format. You will also need to consider the use of simple high contrast imagery on a dark background in order to maximize the
effectiveness of the projection media and surface.

Background/Considerations
Leeds Bid is a private sector driven initiative to enhance the perception of Leeds as a vibrant, culturally significant and economically viable centre in the north. During the build up to the Xmas period, a number of projects, events and initiatives are being planned to enhance the retail experience of visitors to Leeds city centre and the surrounding work-based/residential developments. The projects will be funded by some of the leading retail organisations in Leeds and will aim to showcase the breadth of creative talent that Leeds has to offer.

Mandatory Requirements

• You will need to work in a square format that will match the final projection.
• Your colour pallet is limited to black white, red green ad blue (think festive winter colour pallet.

Deliverables

A set of 3 x A3 presentation boards containing visual concepts and storyboards for 3 x one minute animated sequences or pieces of moving image

From the brief, I can tell that they don’t want the typical Christmas animations of baubles on trees or wrapped presents. The target audience is much older than one would expect for a Christmas animation so maybe it would be best to play on what they do at Christmas time. Based on the fact that they have mentioned various independent venues in Leeds as inspiration also I think that they want something a bit different, maybe even a bit experimental. I will get in contact with my friends on animation and see if they would be up for joining as a group.