OUGD502 - Summer and Level 6 Planning

I am still in shock about how fast 3rd year and Level 6 of the course has come around, however, I am really excited for opportunities that are to come in these next stages. I have already started planning my dissertation which has been somewhat inspired by the OUGD502 PPP modules this year. Hoping to interview a range of professionals for valuable primary research and identifying creatives I could see myself working with in the future.

Amazingly I got shortlisted for the Children's cover category of the 2017 Penguin book awards this year alongside 10 other talented entrants including a Level 5 Illustrator from LCA. The award ceremony is in June and the first prize of the competition is an internship at the Penguin Offices in London over the summer. It would be an incredible experience however due to the competitive nature of the competition and the level of talent this year I'm not getting my hopes up and will wait to see what happens next. I have an internship lined up in Cheltenham at Cellar Door over the summer for a couple of weeks to look forward to if Penguin doesn't work out, which will provide me with some excellent experience regardless. It will be really beneficial for my practice to get some real world experience in before the start of Level 6.

As part of the 10-14 briefs we have to complete on top of Level6 Context of Practice I hope to do a number of live briefs again as I really enjoyed them this year. YCN, D&AD, Penguin hopefully secret 7 are the main ones I plan to take part in as well as a couple of collaborative projects. After talking to the 3rd years about their experiences in Level6 I really need to get my time management skills perfected in order to stay on top of deadlines and not lose my mind. Therefore I'm hoping to start planning my dissertation as soon as possible and making a start on the creative briefs in September. 

Over the summer Bethan, Anna and I have booked to go to Barcelona and are hoping to visit a couple of design studios whilst we are there including HeyStudio, Toormix and Studiostore. 

StudioStore

HeyStudio

Toormix

OUGD502 - PPP Module Evaluation

At the start of the module, I had already had my first taste at contacting creative professionals (through submitting illustrations to the Happy Newspaper), working with them on current projects in the industry and had had my first experience of paid work, designing a flier for the WEA. Having this experience before the module begun really boosted my confidence, therefore when it came to contacting the design studio's in Sheffield, I didn't feel as nervous, which I think was reflected in the way I got a response from everyone I contacted. 

Studio Brief 02 has helped me discover how I really love interviewing professionals and learning from their real-life experiences. The collaborative project for studio brief 03 'Life's A Pitch' was further influenced by this and as a group we are hoping to try and make our proposal a reality over the summer, contacting professionals for further interviews and expanding our number of contacts in the industry before graduating. 

PPP this year has really made a difference in the way I view design and has reignited my passion for the subject, making me excited for the possibilities this degree will present after university. Watching documentaries such as Netflix's Abstract and engaging in talks with some of the industries biggest names such as Justus Ohler from Pentagram, Berlin has been really empowering for me and reflecting on them has really benefited my practice. 

This year I have also found myself becoming more aware of the issues facing female designers once they graduate and have made it a personal goal to not let this get in my way or deter my efforts as I have the skills and knowhow to approach any brief as creatively and innovatively as any other designer, male or female. 

The interviews gave me some really valuable advice on how to approach both design in general and life after I graduate and I am now focussing on the steps I can be taking towards being a successful graduate and applicant for design jobs and internships.

Another way in which I have engaged with the design world more this year was by attending exhibitions, talks and studio visits. This has allowed me to make more of a connection and really see and understand what is happening within the real world of design. My next step for 3rd year would be to try and engage myself in conversation with more creatives at these events, to help develop my networking skills. I did this a couple of times this year by speaking to the girls at She Does Digital, but I would like to develop more confidence to approach people and build my network of contacts in this way.

Next year I'm planning on booking onto career track Tuesdays as unfortunately I missed out on the opportunity this year and I feel it would benefit my knowledge for getting a job. I'm also hoping to start considering the design studios where I would like to intern this Summer and in Level 6. 

Over the course of the year I have developed a lot from first year and have learned an array of both practical and technical skills, inside and outside of the field of design. Before the year flocking and foiling was a mystery to me but now I feel competent at both. Through working for and contacting professionals I have learned how to invoice, sort tax and simply liaise with creatives in a professional manner. 

This summer I have booked to go to Barcelona with Bethan and Anna from my course, where we are planning on doing a few studio visits to get a feel for the design scene in the city as it is somewhere I can see myself working in the future. I also plan on relaxing and having some fun after this hectic term and am excited to be going to Glastonbury for the first time. The Penguin Award ceremony is also in June and I am looking forward to using it as a chance to do some more networking and meeting professionals from the industry. Then I hope to get some internships under my belt at a few graphic design agencies that I am applying to such as Cellar Door in Cheltenham. I want to carry on designing over the summer whether that is for set briefs or personal projects as at the beginning of the year I found the transition back into studio life quite difficult after having three months off. I will also continue to practice using programmes such as After Effects so I don't forget the skills I have learnt this year. I also want to properly set up my Behance  over the summer and add more work to my Instagram by professionally photographing all the projects I have done since level 4. 

The presentations I did for studio brief 01 definitely improved my confidence and helped me feel more comfortable when speaking in front of a large group of people although its still an area with room for improvement. 

Overall I am excited for the opportunities that are going to present themselves to me this summer and through to Level 6 and this year has given me the confidence to reach out and grab them. 

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 02 - Design Boards for Creative Report

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 02 - Creative Report

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 02 - Finished Poster Designs

The final product effectively communicates the tone of voice of the interviews and is appropriate for what the content of the interviews covers.

The range has the potential to be expanded to interview any design studio, big or small with the same format on the posters shown here - Interview on the back, piece of design advice on the front.

The Posters could be distributed in various design shops such as Colours May Vary and Village book store in Leeds, Moonko, The Botanical Gardens and the Sheffield Art Institute in Sheffield aswell as online.

The project could also be extended into social media with corresponding instagram accounts and blogs interviewing creatives not just from Sheffield.

In hindsight I wish I had wrote a short paragraph of information on each studio to go alongside the interview as it would have given a bit more context into who I was interviewing for people who weren’t familiar with the studios or their work. This is something I would add if I was to revisit the project. Other than that I am really pleased with how to posters turned out and how the entire experience of interviewing the creatives went. The process has been invaluable to both me and my practice.

I'm really pleased with how the foiling turned out and the entire design is really, clean bold but engaging. 

Evaluation:

At the start of the brief, I was really excited to start getting in touch with creatives from the industry and found that if I was confident and articulate with my choice of words, getting a response from them was usually successful. I definitely think contacting them by phone was a good way of getting an initial positive interaction and is an approach I will use again in the future. Researching the creatives and studios first is definitely the key to good cooperation. 

Hearing the studios responses to my questions gave me some excellent advice and will change the way I view and approach design.

For the design of my creative report, I wanted something more considered than just a publication as I didn't think it most appropriate for the studios that I was representing. I think the concept I have come up with links the reports I gathered from the three studios nicely and has created an outcome that will be beneficial to both me and other students in my position. Designing the posters was a much more informed and appropriate response than a publication would have been. 

Overall I have really engaged with this brief and I have got a lot out of it, I'm hoping that I will continue to engage with studios, designers etc. going into 3rd year. I want to send my reports back to the 3 studios for them to keep and potentially put up on the walls of their studios. Although each interview was slightly different I felt like I made a connection with each of the studios and seemed to share the same values of each of them. 

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 02 - Designing the Posters

I knew that I wanted the design of the posters to be typography based so that they were bold, eye-catching and would look good hung up on the wall. Therefore I looked at a range of posters which I found inspiring that featured only typography: 

The common link between all of the above posters which I found eye-catching was that they all used bold, san-serif, modern typefaces for their designs and a clean, minimal colour palette. Therefore this is something I wanted to incorporate in my design. 

I experimented with a range of bold, san-serif fonts: 

Helvetica

I first tried Helvetica as it is the obvious choice when choosing a classic, san-serif typeface that would look clean and modern on a poster. However I decided against using it in the final design as it is so overused, I didn't want to go with the safe and obvious choice. 

Azedo Bold

I found this font as a free download online. I liked the fun lowered crossbars and x-heights of the letters and think it creates a more unusual eye-catching design. However some of the letters such as the P and H's could become illegible from a distance, especially when foiled, therefore they wouldn't be suitable for the design of a poster. 

Gotham

This is a new font that I have recently discovered that I really like the look of. It seems quite friendly and laid back which is the tone of voice I want to convey. It is clean, modern and simple, but has some nice looking letter forms in it such as the G. It is a geometric, sans-serif digital typeface designed by American type designer Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000. Gotham's letterforms are inspired by a form of architectural signage that achieved popularity in the mid-twentieth century, and are especially popular throughout New York City. 

Futura

Futura is a narrower, typeface with pointed overshoots such as on the letter 'N'. I feel like this makes the typeface look slightly more aggressive and brash. Again, it is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. I don't think I like it as much as Gotham for the design of the poster. 

ADAM.CG Pro Bold

ADAM.CG PRO - previously titled ADAM - is an all caps, sans-serif typeface inspired by Futura. Its sharp, clean appearance makes it a suitable typeface for headlines, posters, titles and captions. The typeface was designed by Shrenik Ganatra, a designer from Mumbai, India.

I prefer this typeface to Futura as I feel some of the letters like the S are more stylish and it doesn't looks as narrow. I'm still not a fan of the pointed overshoots on the N, as again as it emanates a more shouty vibe. 

For this reason I'm going to use Gotham on the design of my posters as it is a clean and modern, yet trendy typeface with a friendly feel to it.

As the design uses a simple and minimal approach, which allows the quotes to speak for themselves, I considered ways in which I could make the design more interesting. As Sheffield is known as the 'Steel City' I thought using foiling for the letters would be a subtle hint at Sheffield's heritage whilst adding an element of interest to the design. 

I researched a range of foiling to see what colour schemes were effective as foil and the glue to print it with is expensive so I couldn't afford to do too many experiments. 

I decided a Copper foil for Tonik's poster would be the most appropriate as Emily had mentioned in the interview that they were obsessed with copper foil as a studio, which was evident in their portfolio and online when you looked at images of their studio. Therefore I knew the design would be something that would appealed to them and something they would want to hang up on their wall. 

For Peter&Paul I felt silver foiling would be the most appropriate colour as it has a more more sophisticated feel and represented them effectively as a more established Design studio than Tonik or SideBySide, as they had been around for longer. 

For SideBySide I felt a dark navy/metallic black seemed the most appropriate colour for the foiling as they were a trendy design studio, run by a duo of young male designers, therefore I felt this colour scheme would appeal to them more. 

When it came to choosing stock I had to keep in mind that the interview was going to be printed on the back so I couldn't go too dark as it had to be legible to read and the contrast harsh enough. Ideally I would have liked SideBySide's interview to be printed on a black poster as black/blue foil on black paper gives a stunning effect as seen in the image above. However I would only have been able to print the interview using a specialist printer and white ink, and due to time constraints this was not possible. 

I went to Fred Aldous and chose a range of papers in muted greys and pewters at 270gsm thickness, a good weight for a poster.