OUGD603 Module Evaluation

On reflection, the module and the briefs I have completed within the timeframe I am proud of. I have attempted a broad range of briefs and new challenges this year, with results I am happy with. I made it my mission to attempt a range of briefs, make use of the college facilities which would encourage me to leave my comfort zone and just go for it as its final year. Looking back over this module has made me realise that I have produced a good amount of work. I was initially concerned with the amount I had done, but everything seemed to fall into place in the last few weeks. I found that the workshops organised over this module, were extremely inspiring and helpful for me. I really enjoyed being able to speak to creatives and work with people who have years of experience in the industry.

I learnt about the importance of collaboration and have really benefited from working collaboratively within large groups, small groups and with other students on different courses and outside of the course. I enjoyed the constant feedback amongst one another, I feel that feedback is really important even when refining your own ideas. Also that research really drives design. However, if I were to have more time on the module, here are some things I would do differently:

• Blog as I go to save more time in the long run. I just find blogging the worst.
• Manage my time better, so I can achieve a higher quality of work in a short time frame. However, I already think I am good at working under pressure. 
• Set more time to produce design boards, I did not rush my design boards this year. However, they are a lot more time-consuming than you can imagine.
• Take more pictures of the processes involved in the development of my projects so that I can keep a visual record. I always forget to take screenshots and pictures of what I am up to. 

At the beginning of the year I admittedly struggled with motivation as I realised that Design is something that I do not necessarily want to do in the long run, so found it quite difficult to get my mojo and interest. Since adopting the gym last year gym a lot and I find it really helps with my attitude towards life as well as my degree, it keeps me calm and I find I do not stress and I can really find my focus. I simply can’t stand just spending the day sat on in front of the computer screen, I have to get up and do things. It has been a huge learning experience and I have finally started to come to terms with what I want to do when I leave!

My confidence in myself and design is something that has changed dramatically, I would never have thought I would be able to speak clearly and confidently to a room full of people. Since placement and receiving good feedback has made me feel so much more confident in my abilities and just feeling overwhelmed by the feedback, I have adopted "I am good enough mentality", and I honestly feel I've reached a new milestone. For this reason, I now feel ready to approach the world of work. Whereas in previous years, I felt I was as good as others people on my course. However this mentality has changed, and I believe that self-belief is everything, and so crucial if you want others to believe it too.

Overall, I am looking forward to work on the final show and produce something that I really happy with and am proud of, especially as it does not have to fit into any learning criteria. It will be really nice to let my creativity run free without any limitations, such as the blogging and design boards.

At this point in time though, I feel that I am concept-led Graphic Designer with a focus on branding and editorial. I strive to develop innovative and authentic ideas with creative solutions that will make an impact. I enjoy working collaboratively as a team in a busy studio environment. However, in the future, I hope to study a Masters in Business Marketing. This will really develop clear and conceptual thinking, as well as improving on analytical skills and strengthen my project management skills, as well as translating marketing theory into practice.

OUGD603: Brief 10 / Oblivious

Oblivious – Client
Madeleine Westbrook is a conceptual women’s-wear designer. After finishing her Fashion Design Degree at Leeds College of Art, she plans to launch her fashion brand, ‘Oblivious’; a brand focused on creating ethical and organic, unique fashion pieces. The brand is called Oblivious, because as consumers we can be sometimes “oblivious” as to where and how our clothes have been made/produced.  I took on this brief as an opportunity to delve into my interests of Fashion and branding. For the swing tags for Madeleine to use; I used a thick white card stock to print on. I printed the logo onto acetate as well, the double effect works well for the brand and the word Oblivious. It looks contemporary and modern which fits well with the target audience. 

Madeleine was really happy with the outcomes as was I. If I were to have more time on the project I would like to have experimented more with printing methods and stock. However, this is something I can do now for Madeleines End of Year Show.

I was also working to a deadline that added pressure, however with Madeleine also being very organized this was not an issue at all, and everything was completed and within Madeleine PPP deadline.

OUGD603: Brief 9 / Feathr

Feathr – Competition
I entered into Feathr last year, and decided to enter it again this year as I find it is a brief I can try out something experimental with. I painted a floral painting, using a Winsor & Newton inkset. I got to work on Photoshop cutting out the illustrations and boosting the colours and contrast. Overall, I am really impressed with how the final wallpaper looks and what I have managed to produce in such a short time frame. I am fond of the delicate colour palette, which really connotes the spring and summer months. I wanted to create a calming, relaxing and soothing wallpaper which is suitable for a bedroom. Taking inspiration from William Morris’s early floral wallpaper patterns from the Arts and Craft Movement, but updated it to a new, contemporary, and modern customer/audience.

My final wallpaper entry to Feathr suitably named, “Florals for Spring”. The colour palette created is calming and refreshing for a personal bedroom. I used a combined skills, hand work and digital work. Regarding repeat pattern, I used a 1/4 drop, eg. the adjacent tile drops down 1/4 length of the design. This worked best, and created a wave/rippling effect of flowers across the wallpaper (see more development on blog). I took inspiration from early William Morris’s wallpaper from the Arts & Craft Movement but brought it to a more modern contemporary audience. Overall, I am impressed and happy with what I have accomplished within the three days. I feel I have stepped out of my comfort zone as I am no painter!

OUGD603: Brief 8 / Reflect / Leeds Student Union

Reflect – Leeds Student Union – Live Brief

The Reflect brief for LCA End of Year Party, was a chance for me to do a quick live brief! I found out about the brief late, which only gave me the afternoon to complete a poster. I enjoy working under pressure and from my experience of working industry you do only have short timeframes to complete things. Being able to work under pressure and priotise work is something I pride myself on.

I looked at posters produced in 1990s such as posters for Fantazia Raves. They are a great example of visual imagery and surrealism! As I only had an afternoon, I had to source my own imagery instead of creating my own. By using 90’s imagery it was relevant as the 90’s seems to be back in fashion.

The brief improved on my layout and type skills. I wanted to create a contemporary modern poster with an element of interest by using eye-catching surreal imagery. I wanted the type to be clear and easy to read as well as appealing to my target audience of designers and creative students, sometimes simple works best. I wanted all the information to be clear and easy read with the sponsors at the bottom.

From my final entry to Leeds College of Art Student Union you can see I have kept to a clear and minimal design, this is because I am appealing to a creative young audience of designers. Despite only spending an afternoon on this brief I am happy with what I have produced, especially as poster design really is not my forte, I feel I have stepped out of my comfort zone with this brief.

OUGD603: Brief 7 / Olivia’s Delicatessen

Olivia’s Delicatessen – Collaborative

Olivia’s is an award-winning Delicatessen based in the river town Topsham, in the heart of Devon. Selling a range of high quality cooked meats, local cheeses, bread, and unusual and foreign prepared foods to a middle class market.

Olivia’s Delicatessen brief was a rebrand I worked on with course mate Helen Street who has strong interest in branding and packaging. Our target market for Olivia’s is the middle class who have the money to spend on delicatessen products as they love local products and authenticity. So our branding design reflects this. By using a hand brushed logo this symbolised the hands on approach, as well as appearing refined and upmarket to reflect the target market and the high quality produce.

I enjoyed working on the illustrations, something I am not used to doing and they really created a strong aesthetic. A strong visual aesthetic was important especially because the printing was limited to black and white. For our photoshoot, we bought a selection of fresh breads, coffee beans, brown paper bags, croissants to give more context and background to our photos, as well as making fresh baguette sandwiches to photograph. I am really happy with how the photographs look and will look great in the portfolio.

Overall, I enjoyed this brief the most as it was fun and light-hearted. For the End of Year show Helen and I will be extending Olivia's Deli. Extending it for the end of year show will give us plenty of time to create lots of elements such as a laser cut menu, screen printed bags, as well as packaging for preserves and pasta. We had grand ambitions for the brief but with looming deadlines, we could not do everything we wanted to do. For End of Year show I simply wanted it to be interesting for people to look at, I didn't want to just produce a poster and stick it up on the wall, woow. Below, is a quick sketch I did of a potential set up. A rustic looking counter would provide a surface for all the food packaging to sit as well as clipboard menus, shelves to the left will hold a range of different branded mugs and takeaway cup. We also have ambition to create a laser cut menu to go on the wall behind. We also plan on having a roll of brown paper which has specials etc.

OUGD603: Brief 6 / Hillview Honey

Hillview Honey – Client

With this brief being live, one obviously strength was working with a client. . As a client, Ann was very easy to work with, as she helped put together a substantial brief with enough detail to work with. For the design I chose the particular typeface, “Bromello” which is a modern script font. I felt this gave the overall look a real rustic, organic, hand made vibe which would appeal to my target audience. I used Inconsolata as my secondary font, which gives it, again, a rustic vibe as it looks like a typewriter font which adds to this high quality yet handmade vibe.

With my new found interest and close eye for typefaces, it was fun to create a custom logo form. I am pleased with my final photographed outcomes, and I am happy with the overall look of the honey jars. The hessian jar toppers and hexagon honey labels really complete the rustic look my client and I were after. The brown paper gift bag with the logo looks good and works well.

I have never done a packaging brief before, so I was out of my comfort zone. Overall, I am really happy with my honey jar labels, and one happy client! I used Hessian materials tied around with brown twine to use as a topper for the honey jar. I felt this added a real rustic, authentic earthy vibe to the honey jars whilst making them look really appealing to buy. For the photoshoot, I used props of a honey drizzler, and brown paper gift bags to make the shoot look authentic. The honey jars are simple and clear, the “Made in Devon” adds a homey rustic feel, hopefully tempting customers in Devon to buy the honey. I have really enjoyed this client-set brief and I hope to see my labels in use.

OUGD603: Brief 5 / Secret Seven

Brief 5: Secret Seven – Competition

I enter this competition every year not necessarily to win but as an opportunity to try a different and new style of design, allowing for experimentation and development with my skill set whilst broadening my visual tastes. The music video of Less I Know The Better is full of sexual imagery, and the lyrics are about suppressing the feelings of jealousy after a break-up, when both try to date new people and usually one of them (in this case the guy) still has the hope in retaking the relationship or at least there are remains of sexual attraction for her he cannot control. He still has her in his mind and cannot forget her. He may still have feelings for her and suffers while imagining her with the new guy, “Oh my love, can’t you see yourself by my side. No surprise when you’re on his shoulder like every night. Oh my love, can’t you see that you’re on my mind”.

My design is an entry for the song ‘The Less I Know the Better’ by Tame Impala. It has been influenced by the music video, which is full of sexual imagery. The colour scheme has also been influenced by the video, in which mostly red, blues and pink are used. The song is about a boy finding out the girl he is in love with is in a relationship, visually the bright vibrant colours symbolise the feeling of being in love - his world being full of life and happiness. The eyes-on-you resembles his loved up world being shaken and disrupted. In the end, I just wanted to create a visually pleasing and interesting design that people would want to own, the less you know the better.

Working on a short-term brief, such as Secret Seven, which is an open and experiential brief, I find stress reducing. I find that I work a lot better in shorter periods of time and am often happier with what I’ve produced. This is because I get a lot more involved and dedicated to the brief when the deadline is shorter and tend to find that working on longer briefs, I can be easily get distracted and get bored of working on them for so long. Overall, I am really happy with the outcome, within the short time frame for the brief and I feel that I have been able to create a fitting design.

OUGD603: Brief 3 / Christmas Cards!

Overall, I am really pleased with what I have accomplished within this week brief and it was a good way to have a break from Context of Practice/Dissertation which is well underway. I think the gold screenprint and thick off-white card stock adds a real quality to the overall style of the card. I have stepped out of my comfort zone with the brief and improved on my illustrative skills which is something I have been putting off.


However, if I were to have more time on the brief I would perhaps like to have done a series of Christmas Cards! However, at this moment in time Context of Practice has been my main priority. In the future, maybe in the next couple months or so, I would like to do more hand-drawn work and I think with a lot more practice I could do even better. I would like to add illustration to my skillset. I definitely developed and improved on a variety of skills (printing processes/drawing) throughout working on this brief. My lettering skills have progressed and I am starting to feel really confident with how my hand-rendered designs are coming along.

OUGD603: Brief 2 / La Petite Maison

I spoke to owners of La Petite Maison a restaurant in Topsham looking to rebrand and update their current dinner and drinks menu. With freshly prepared seasonal, local, organic and wild food, on an ever evolving menu, guests can enjoy a taste of La Petite Maison, served in the relaxed ambience of the restaurant. The owner/client allowed me to give the rebrand a go and want to see their new menu to reflect these qualities.

The dinner menu must be be printed as A4, on a stock of your choice and displayed however you choose on each table. Due to limitations on printing cost, the client would like to keep the design down to black on stock. It must portray sophistication as the chef is michelin star trained and the food served is of high quality.

I chose ‘Sophia’ as my chosen brush typeface for the restaurant. This font is fairly shabby chic but it appeals to my target audience as it gives the restaurant a rustic yet high quality charm. As my header font I chose Futura, the classic geometric sans serif. It is crisp and clean forms and reflects the appearance of efficiency and legibility. I chose Edmondsans as the Sub-Heading typeface as it is clear and contemporary and works well, as it is very legible for the customer. For body copy I used italics ITC Playfair, a transitional  typeface design, this works well stylistically for the bodycopy, when explaining the food it adds a real flourish and flair to the menu.

I first began by doing some initial research into menu design. I took huge consideration into type hierachy and typefaces. The menu created really emphasises the fresh good quality local produce served at Le Petite Maison as well as encompassing the personality and ambience of the restaurant.

Overall, I am really pleased with what I have accomplished within the two week time frame. The menu’s portray sophistication and quality, especially as the chef is michelin star trained and the food served is of high quality. Type Hierachy and knowledge of typefaces have been taken into consideration. I have created a menu design which emphasises the fresh good quality local produce served at Le Petite Maison as well as encompassing the personality and ambience of the restaurant. I am happy with the professional looking photographs I have taken for the brief as well, more can be seen on my blog. Overall, I hope the client likes what I have produced, and hope to see it used in the near future.

OUGD603: Brief 4 / Heir

It has been exciting to work on a live brief with my work displayed across both Colleges, Jumbo & Crash Records, around the city as well as Headrow House. The event, ‘An evening with Heir’ went down a real success, with and we made a profit. This brief was enjoyable mainly because it gave me the chance to collaborate with people outside of the course and people I have not worked with before. As a group of creatives we get on really well, which made the whole process much easier.

The event worked well as it helped to create variation and difference. With the venue booked being brand new; people were curious to discover what it had to offer as a venue. Fortunately, we were able to hire Headrow House at a discount of £100 due to one of the LCM boys working there. The hire free only cost £100 allowing for cheaper entry prices for guests. Heir themselves already had a loyal and established fan-base in Leeds with the support acts also bringing fans and family members to the show. With new forthcoming material being released imminently, people anticipating the EP launch perhaps could not wait to hear the band’s new music, resulting in a good turnout.

I believe the marketing strategy was extremely successful, partly down to the design and branding for the event. I used a contemporary, minimal design style, non gender-specific, as we wanted to appeal to a young creative audience, whilst keeping in style with Headrow House and Heir.

Overall, I have really enjoyed working with Leeds College of Music Students, ie PHAC Promotions putting on an event at Headrow House. I have managed to pack a lot within this two week brief which included; Logo Design, TV display Advertisement, Flyer Design, Poster Design, and Cover Photo design as well as involved in ticket sales and setting up the event. We hope to work together to in the future after deadlines are out of the way.

Since success of the event with my collaborative Extended Practice Brief with LCM students, ‘An evening with Heir’ which was hosted at Headrow House. I received really positive feedback for the promotional work I designed. Leading on from that, I was approached by band member, Sam Perry, to do their posters for their EP Launch! Above are the final posters for the event, they simply wanted a full bleed image with type along the bottom. Which was great as the event actually sold out completely, so hopefully my poster was seen by a lot of people and gained some recognition.

OUGD603: Brief One/Dr. Me

For this brief Dr. Me wanted to see a piece of work that sums up your creative practice. This could be a beautiful bit of hand drawn typography, a collage that makes us question your sanity, a psychedelic drawing, a mind bending painting or something indescribable. They wanted us to create something unusual yet brilliant and then send it to their studio address.

I created three “mailers” the size of postcards to be sent to Dr.Me’s Manchester studio. The collages do not really say much about me as designer, but I want to create an eye-catching surreal mailer. Something that will make them want to meet the creator of these trendy collages! The brief was light-hearted and fun and it was good to get away from the computer and create some collages. After I scanned them into the computer, I printed them off on a thick matt stock, postcard size, so they could be pinned up on wall.

This live day brief was good fun, mainly because I took a step back from working digitally, and spent my time working with images. Using collages is something I have not experimented with on my degree, but something have done in the past. I used images from old Vogue magazines and various graphic design magazines. The middle poster I feel is my strongest, and it was used as part of LCA Triptych weekly trio of posters, from students on the course. I love the psychedelic pattern against the woman. I also like that there are faces within the pattern which really captures you, there is something mesmerising about it.

Time Management

Evidence 

My time management throughout the module has been good, through use of calendars and writing to-do lists, which have kept me on track.

Final Swing Tags

Final Swing Tags 

Oblivious: Swing Tags

Today, I printed Madeleine's swing tags for her garments. Maddie was really happy with how they turned out, and as was I. I also managed to get hold of some black waxy string. I like the double effect of printing the Oblivious logo onto acetate I think this really works as a word. 

Olivia's Deli Photoshoot

This morning, Helen and I photographed our work for Olivia's Delicatessen. We bought in a wide selection of fresh breads to give more context and add depth to the background of our photos, as well as making fresh baguette sandwiches to photograph. 

We took a range of different photos to make sure we covered all bases, such as breakfast & lunch etc. However, unfortunately we forgot to clean the lense of the camera before we began shooting so all of the photos have smudge marks on them. Whilst this was an idiotic mistake, I have learnt a lesson. I am really happy with how the photographs have turned out. Below are a selection of images: 

Olivia's Deli: Preparation for Tomorrows Shoot

Tomorrow, Helen and I are shooting our Olivia's Deli Range so we spent some time preparing our food to photograph! We went to the super market with a list of what to buy: 

• Speciality Breads: Plaited Bread/Ciabatta etc
• Fresh French Baguettes 
• Cold Meats 
• Olives/Olive Oil
• Cheese: Gouda Slices, Stilton, Camembert 

We then went ahead and got labelling and baguette filling. Apologies for the poor quality photographs: 

Concentration on making the baguettes look as photogenic as possible , my Deli Bar experience coming in handy haha.  

Labels applied to oil bottle, coffee cups, olives and cheeses and baguettes wrapped. We are both pleased with how they have turned out! Unfortunately, our kitchen surface clashes with the design. 

Lovely!