In many ways I have found the Responsive module one of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of the course to date as not only has it been my first taste at live briefs in the real world but I have had to work to tight deadlines, learn to self-initiate my working process and prioritise my time to ensure all projects were handed in on time. Being set briefs by large clients such as Penguin Books, The Royal Opera House and BEAR has required me to think at a more critical and professional level to produce commercial work that would be appropriate for production on a mass scale in the real world.
The first brief that I chose to undertake was the Children’s Category of the Penguin Book Cover design competition. Designing book jackets is something that I have always had an interest in and the Children’s category provided me with an excellent opportunity to combine that with my interest in illustration. This competitive brief required a range of design ideas which were slightly out of the box to ensure my design would stand out against the thousands of other entrants. Therefore I had to consider a range of different approaches varying from obvious to extremely ambiguous, keeping in mind the whole time what would be engaging to a younger target audience. The approach I went for was a bold and eye-catching design that would attract the attention of children but would only become apparent what it meant once you had read the book. Working around tight guidelines in terms of content and size acted as a template to apply my creative thinking to, and provided me with the challenge of communicating the information in as engaging a way as possible. This brief highlighted the importance of a strong concept, as without that it wouldn’t have been possible to create an appropriate eye-catching and unique design which would resonate with the target audience.
The second brief I undertook and the first of two major briefs was the YCN BEAR brief. Again I chose a brief that was both aimed at children and would allow me to further explore my interest in Illustration combined with Graphic Design. However, I soon discovered that the most challenging part of this project would be producing a range of illustrations that I was happy with. The most time-consuming part of the brief was drawing and redrawing the same illustrations in different styles, formats and layouts until I was happy with an outcome. Collaborating with an Illustrator would have definitely been a much more time effective approach to the project as I soon became bored and frustrated with my own style of illustration, despite receiving positive feedback. It was extremely rewarding however when I finally finished the illustrations and produced layouts that I was proud of. The brief also presented the additional challenge of making a ‘Collectible mechanic’ to go with the cards. This gave me the opportunity to explore my digital design skills further and create consistency between the printed cards and the digital app. An improvement I could have made to my submission would have been to display how the game worked visually by animating it in after effects and adding sounds however this was difficult to achieve within the time constraints. If I was working collaboratively this may have been possible and would have produced a more rounded outcome for my submission. Overall I was really happy with my outcome, especially the way the cards looked when I professionally photographed them, however, if I was ever going to work on such an illustrative brief again I would definitely find an illustrator to collaborate with.
That being said another smaller brief which I undertook for Studio Brief 01 was for the Papyrus colouring Book brief. Although illustrative in nature, this brief gave me the opportunity to explore a completely different style of illustration, merging drawing from life with the creation of patterns like ‘zentangle’. Although I was extremely happy with the outcome I produced, I hope to push myself further in future projects by perhaps exploring digital illustration and vector drawings.
The final brief I undertook for studio Brief 01 was my first experience of paid client work. I had 10 hours to produce a poster for a new science programme being set up by the Worker’s Education Association. I had to create a design which subverted people’s perception of science as the Poster was aimed at a target audience who would otherwise think science was ‘boring’ and ‘not for them’. This brief gave me my first experience in liaising with the client, making adjustments and completing the business side of design such as invoices and payments. This was a huge learning curve for me and although the client was absolutely lovely, the pressure of knowing I was being paid and it would actually be used in the real worlds was extremely nerve wracking, in case I let them down. Luckily the client absolutely loved it and the whole team was really happy with the final design. The flier had a really positive response and the programme saw a huge influx of new participants to the scheme as a result of it.
Studio Brief 02 provided a completely different way of working and discovering how to successfully collaborate with a partner. Although my group was small, deciding to work with only one other person allowed communication to be straightforward and easy and planning to meet up was never an issue as we could easily reschedule if one of us was busy. The only downside to working as part of such a small team was having the same amount of work with less people to do it, which was reflected in the final outcomes. A bigger team with a wider skillset would have allowed for a more rounded project with more potential outcomes such as a video or an app etc. to go with the poster and banner series. However, I was proud of the work myself and Megan produced. Having an illustrator as a partner allowed me to step back and experiment more with the editorial elements such as layout and gave me a chance to explore a more typographic approach. Working as part of a team, you have the added pressure of not wanting to let someone else down, which meant the work got done faster as we had to deliver on the agreements we had set. The brief taught me that I enjoy working collaboratively as it enables you to bounce off of one another’s ideas and that there are equal benefits and negatives to working in both big and small collaborative teams.
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