OUGD406 Speaking From Experience Brief (Studio Brief Four)

For this brief, we have been asked to produce a graphic response, product or piece of work that makes a statement, comment, observation or gives advice about your experience on your first year of this course.

Work with any appropriate media or format and develop and identify if the content will be entertaining, advisory or informative. I must think about the new experiences I have had, the difficulties that I have overcome, new people that I have met and new life skills that I have acquired.

Remember what it was like starting your first week, how did you feel and what emotions did you experience? What might you say, do or give to next years GD students to make the transition into the student experience, particularly this course more welcoming?

OUGD406 Feedback From Pitch (Studio Brief Three)

The final pitch went really well and we all contributed very effectively and I think we managed to get the concept across successfully. We got a lot of constructive feedback. They seemed the like the concept but the brand lacked consistency as a collateral of design. I think this is true, as there was a lot of different colours used, however I also think it's a little unfair as the designs did fit together, it was just the changing of colours. They said that our costings were quite high and they would be able to reduce them using methods such as mass screen printing and double sided digital printing.

OUGD406 Final Pitch (Studio Brief Three)

This is the final presentation that we are going to pitch to Simon and a few Level 5 students. Below is the speech that I have prepared for myself, as we have all divided the slides up evenly between us all. 

LOGO SLIDE

Our logo was based around the idea of lines representing the four sides of a screen printing screen. We thought the idea of using lines in a sort of movement would show the screen printing process, as you have to drag the squigy back and forth to create a print. We also thought that the deconstruction of the word 'print' using lines would represent the two colour separating process, as we had to split our book covers into two different colours for a successful print. We used a sans serif typeface as we think it is very contemporary, which is relevant as we all created new book covers to replace existing book covers. We think this logo (and pattern) is successful as it works in an array of colour schemes, and it was also useful for creating a pattern across all of our designs, which in turn helped keep everyone's exhibition branding consistent. We also created a typeface using this deconstructed type which we ended up finding very useful on our name card designs.

NAME CARD SLIDE

Our initial idea for the name cards was to have them look almost like a book cover design in themselves. We decided to keep our design portrait instead of landscape for this reason. Our name cards use the repeated logo pattern to keep inline with the overall exhibition identity. We have decided that the name cards would be printed around the size of A6, and we plan to spray mount them to foam board for a professional feel, and then attach them to the wall using double sided magic tape.

OUGD406 Name Card Designs (Studio Brief Three)

I then started designing the name cards. I started by using the exact same layout as the posters to keep every design consistent. I think these are effective as they're all constant, however each uses a different colour that the designer has chosen, sticking the the theme of individuality. We decided to keep the constant colour white and black, however alternate with 1 colour for each person. 

Cameron suggested that I try the designs portrait. I think these are also successful as they are portrait and therefore look similar to book cover designs in themselves.

I then decided to try create a name card using Cameron's other poster design that he has put in the leaflet. I don't think these are as successful as the previous as they don't really match with everyone elses designs.

OUGD406 Typeface (Studio Brief Three)

I decided that as we are using the design with the obscure type saying 'print', that I would keep it a constant within the name card designs. I want the artists names to be just as important as the title of the exhibition, so I think I am going to create the namecards with the designers initials in this typeface. I figured it would be quite easy if I created a typeface in the style. This is the typeface below. I think it's effective as although it's obscure, I think it's very Wim Crouwel as you can still read it and make sense of which letter is which.

OUGD406 Interim Presentation (Studio Brief Three)

We presented our work and got some feedback from Simon which we found very constructive and helpful. It gave us a clear idea of where to direct our project and how to go about doing it.

We were told that the exhibition isn't only screen printing (which we originally weren't aware of), so we were told not to focus on this aspect too closely. Also the exhibition will be aimed at creatives, so the idea of using the photography would be a little forward and the exhibition can be more ambiguous as people will already know about screenprinting.

The posters showed a lot of contemporary ideas, and therefore we thought it would be a good idea to use this more obviously throughout the rest of the designs that we will produce, rather than having each design look seperate. Because of this feedback, we got together in the afternoon after university and agreed to continue the development of one of our preferred contemporary poster designs, that Cameron had designed.

OUGD406 Initial Ideas (Studio Brief Three)

We decided as a group that our content should look similar. We decided to all stick to the font 'Typo Grotesk' as it will be a constant within all of our work. We also decided that the little pattern/distorted 'print' should be a constant as well, as it's our sort of logo for our exhibition. We took photographs whilst people screenprinted so we could document some of the process and get some images to use. Although personally, I think this design looks quite childish.

I then experimented with type and colour. I think this idea could be successful if the 3D print was constant across everyones designs.

I then simplified my design. I think this could definitely work for the name card designs as it's legible and easy to read. I don't think the designs should be over-complicated, as in most exhibitions they are usually just typography.

I then experimented with the title. I don't think this is successful as I had to use lowercase instead of uppercase for it to fit properly, and therefore won't look like everyone elses designs.

I then experimented with the progression of the building up of layers of the title. I think this could definitely be effective as it shows the process of layering up different colours whilst screenprinting.

I then used the original design and took away the image in the background. I think the simplicity is definitely effective and it's quite a modern design as there is a lot of negative space.

I then simplified it even more, and personally I think this is the most effective design as it's legible and informative.