Friday 22 March 2013

OUGD406 - Speaking From Experience


We had a crit today, and presented our ideas on three boards:





This is the feedback that we got:

'Look into finishing techniques especially with the cover as an emboss.'

'Make sure the symbols are legible designs to define them.
Be careful with perforating a ready made book, you might damage other pages.'

'Broad subjects - be precise in each one.
Very pictoral - keep it simple to an extent - don't overwhelm the viewer.
Format is well thought out - would you do the foil blocking at college?'

'Own experience of food is good to put in. The idea of including your own recipes is a great idea. 
Dust jacket experiments sound really interesting, maybe a range of jackets could be produced catering towards different audiences?'

'Canvas a broad range of people for contents.
Really like the scoring methods although could be location specific.
Infographics effective
Ensure everything is consistent.'

'Colour co-ordinate each section
Two-three colours
Map - wallet size.'

'Calling it a bible - how will it stick to your meme?'

'Friendly and light-hearted approach.
Keep illustrated - will keep the theme relaxed for new people.
Good idea with bible - maybe have 10 GD commandments.
Look at comparisions but maybe style totally different.'

There are some really good points here, like having 10 GD commandments - as that fits in with the bible theme. Everyone was really positive about the idea, so I think it has given me and Sarah confidence to go through with it, as we have been a bit apprehensive of how ambitious we are being.

I really like this type of crit, and think it would be really beneficial to do them more frequently. It is good experience to stand up and talk to the group about ideas, but not too daunting as it isn't the whole class. I think having a third year in the crit was also really helpful, and I think the feedback was really constructive. I think because there was only a handful of people, we all gave each other good feedback, cause if it was the whole class then people would have gotten bored towards the end I think.

Sunday 17 March 2013

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus Self-Evaluation

As a group what problem did you identify and why in response to Drink Tea?
We wanted a network for tea drinkers and enthusiasts to be a part of, and discuss tea. We wanted a place where everybody could access it, and every part of tea would be addressed. Because we had interactive polls, it could also be very useful for research purposes. We wanted to communicate the benefits of tea, and just encourage people to talk about it, as we realised that coffee was a lot more popular than tea, and we wanted to address that.

What methods did you use to gather your evidence to prove this was a problem and what forms did it take?
We looked at the prices of different teabags so that we could pick the cheapest option to use for the video to keep costs at a minimum (we bought 6 boxes (80 teabags each) for 27p each), which happened to be Tesco's own brand. We made a Twitter, had a lot of polls on the blog and an interactive poster to let people choose what their favourite tea was, so we could see how many people would be interested in talking about tea.
We looked at online blogs and websites to research what information was already out there about all aspects of tea, as we wanted to distribute information through the twitter and blog about tea. I also looked at an origami book and craft blogs to see how to make your own teabags and the kind of responses that these had already had. This helped me realise I didn't want to carry on that idea further. 
We had polls on our blog asking different questions about tea; a 'taste and tweet' leaflet to see if people could name a unidentified tea; an interactive poster asking what tea people preferred and followers on our Twitter and Blog, who responded to our tweets.
We discussed as a group our thoughts on tea, who drinks it, the kind of things people would be interested about hearing etc.

What methods of research did you find useful and why?
Initially when we had the idea of creating a tearoom, I found it incredibly useful reading a book called Package Design Now, and reading why designers made the design choices that they did. I feel this changed my way of thinking when in the idea generation process, as I wasn't just thinking about how it would look, I started thinking about how it would fit/look on the shelf, how it would be transported, how resourceful it could be and how it could be easily opened by people. This has definitely helped the way I looked at package design, and I don't think I could have learnt that by just looking at existing examples of packaging.
When I was thinking about the 'make your own teabag' idea for a viral video, I looked at origami books, videos on making own teabags, and other websites that featured tutorials on it. Doing this helped me realise that the idea wasn't that great actually, as the websites/blogs it was featured on were very crafty and were generally mums who had small children, and that isn't necessarily the audience we wanted to aim our idea at. I also realised that you had to use a sewing machine to stitch the bags, and that there wasn't really a specific net for them, so it helped me know that I didn't want to do that idea. I am glad I did the research into it though, because if I had just booked the photography studio and drew some sketches of a teabag I wanted to make it wouldn't have been very successful. 

What research could you have carried out that would have proved more useful?
For the initial idea of the tearoom, I think just by reading that book alone it was so invaluable, but I also did some research on the internet. At that stage, I don't think I could have done any more research that was needed because we only wanted enough research to discuss further ideas with each other, and I had some solid ideas that I wanted to share.
For the idea of the video, I probably could have researched more about the photography studio, as when we got there, we realised that we needed certain equipment like a big tripod and video lighting. Luckily the photography technicians were there to help us and they let us use the equipment, but if they hadn't have been there or we weren't allowed to use the equipment then I don't know what we would have done, as the tripod was an essential part of the video being shot from a bird's eye view.

How did you manage the workload as part of a group?
I think this is definitely a part that our group excelled in, because initially when we were doing research, we talked about the ideas that we had and what we were going to do, and broke up into sections the areas that needed to be researched. We then chose a topic that we were happy with, and set deadlines which everyone stuck to.
 We also helped each other a lot with what we was doing. For example, when Kirsty was making her typeface out of tea, me and Sophie helped her do it, and in the end we got a bit of an assembly line going on, where I was drawing out the letters, and Sophie and Kirsty were cutting out the tape and putting the tea on. 
Also, when I had the idea to do the video, me and Kirsty made the poster with the tea typeface on that would be featured in the video, and everybody in the group came to the studio, and helped put up the equipment, and once we were all set up James and Priyesh went to print the posters, and me and Jane, Sophie and Kirsty filmed the video, sweeped the tea and made sure that everything was going well. Then James took the video and edited it that night, which helped me because I didn't know how to use video editing software. Because we had communicated with each other and he knew what I had envisioned for the video, and had come up with some good ideas himself, everyone was really happy with the finished product. 
When me and Kirsty were making the poster for the video, Jane was also in the studio creating the leaflet on Illustrator, and when she got stuck on certain parts I helped her so that she could do the leaflet more smoothly, and have a better understanding of the software. 
When Priyesh printed out the flyers and posters, me and James cut them to size, and then me and Kirsty distributed the posters around the college, and James and Priyesh distributed the flyers, so that we could spread out the workload between us. 
All in all, we all helped each other out with what we were doing so that the workload wasn't as large as it could have been if we had done all of our tasks individually, which I think is one of the most important parts of working as a group. 

Tuesday 12 March 2013

OUGD402 - If You Were A...?

Based on the ongoing investigation of your personal and professional identities that have formed the basis of the last three PPP workshops/tasks, respond to the following questions:

If you were a book what would your subject be and who would read you?


Penguin books are a well established, household name with a positive brand image. They have brilliant bookcovers, which vary so much as they have books aimed at a wide range of audiences. The fact that they target at all ages, children and adults is what I like about the brand because I would like to design for all ages, therefore this is the perfect example of what I would like to be if I were a book.


Here is an example of an adult book designed by Malika Favre (one of my favourite designers) for Penguin. 






Here is a children's book cover designed for Penguin, and my favourite childhood characters.





Here are some of the Penguin Classics bookcovers designed by Jan Tschichold (who is a great designer), and I really enjoy reading classic literature. Penguin publish such a range of different books, and I think no matter what genre or era the books are, they all have great bookcovers, and there is something for everyone.





If you were a package what would you contain and who would open you?

I enjoy cooking on a personal level, but I absolutely love food packaging on a professional level, and I am interested in ways of reducing waste in this area.  Everyday consumers will open me, hence why it is important to me that it is as Eco friendly as possible because it will be mass produced.

This is an extract from the book Package Design Now, and it says why the product has been packaged like it has. The strong tube stops the rice from getting damaged, the inner polythene protects the rice from moisture, and it says how the environment is also being protected. 'Off-the-shelf tubes and caps are reusable and recyclable, and contrast beautifully with the texture of the rice grains to express the products natural origins and environmental and sustainable aspects of growing rice. Production processes were kept to a minimum in order to save energy and money.'





Here is some food packaging that I love on aesthetic ground. I think the type and the colour scheme are really elegant.







If you were a shop what would you sell and who would buy it?


I really like the food industry, different food packaging, going to restaurants, interiors and branding of restaurants etc, so if I was a shop, I would be somewhere that sells food. I really like the Crepeaffairs branding, and I love crepes so this would be the perfect shop if I were one. I love the typewriter style font that is used throughout the identity, and I like how clean and descriptive everything is while still being fun and engaging.








If you were a poster what would you promote to whom and why?

If I was a poster I would be promoting an event because I think this is a really effective way of raising awareness about something that is happening. When they are placed in busy places like around a city, lots of people see them, which is important so that people can attend.

Posters promoting events



If you were a brand what would your values be and why would they be important?

If I was a brand, my values would be ethical in the sense of being economical and respectful to the planet and to the people who make the products. I also want to promote gender neutralness in brands, for gender equality. I think that being sustainable is important, because there is so much more that we could do to preserve the planet, and stop destroying forests, killing animal's habitats and polluting the air. 

As for gender neutral products, I don't believe that just females should be featured on products such as cooking, cleaning or other home-making products because it shows what society think women's roles should be, and restricts them to the home as it has done for centuries. It also puts males of buying such products because they think they are specifically for females - especially when it comes to children.
 I think that if children's packaging was gender neutral then it would help eliminate stereotypes from an early age. I'm not saying that packaging is what brings on gender stereotypes, just a contributing factor. 
Here is some branding for What On Earth, who are an ethical company, creating organic food products. I also love the hand made illustrations which were made using linocutting, which I like to do.






Another brand who have ethical values are Innocent, and believe in Sustainable Nutrition. They want to produce their products leaving the least environmental and social impact that they can, which is what I want to do.







On the gender neutral side of things, here are two examples of how I think children's packaging should be marketed - no gender stereotypes. 


Hip Peas 

This features both male and female illustrations on the packaging, and uses a neutral colour scheme.


Namaste Kid

I think this is perfect, it's a product aimed at both boys and girls, as they are both featured on the product, the colours work well together and in the rest of the range, the girls wear blue as well as the boys.




If you were an exhibition what would you show and where would you show it?

I'm not interested in exhibitions such as Saatchi Gallery, who has featured 'artists' such as Damien Hirst, Marcus Harvey and Tracey Emin before, as I hate their work and what it stands for. For example, Hirst once said 'I can't wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it'. So the type of exhibition I would like to be would show all mediums (sculpture, woodwork, paintings etc) of art and design, but wouldn't include anything that was pretentious, meaningless, uses materials that aren't made for art and design purposes (Tracey Emin's 'My Bed'; Damien Hirst's 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living') and wouldn't use offensive subjects to seek attention because their artwork isn't actually anything special (Marcus Harvey's 'Myra'). I would show it in Leeds as there is a big arts community, local artists and designers could get involved, and add to the already many creative events that are held here.


Damien Hirst

Tracey Emin


Work from current exhibition at Saatchi Gallery





If you were a leaflet what information would you contain and who would read it?

I would be an infographic of information and data which had been collected for a specific subject. I think that these types of publications are really interesting when they are laid out well, even if I wasn't that interested in the subject in the first place. People who would read it would be those who are interested in the subject it was on, or just like infographics.
Here are a couple of examples:

Andy Chung
Chung has made a leaflet on information collected from different areas on the internet, and includes conversations, statistics and diagrams. I just think that it is interesting to learn about facts that are around us.




Nicholas Feltron
Although he produces annual reports, not leaflets, the content of what he produces is the sort of thing that I would have in a leaflet. He records every part of his life for a year, and then turns it into a report. 




If you were a sign what would you show, to whom and where?

If I were a sign, I would like to be like Massimo Vignelli's subway map; since seeing this I really admire and appreciate modernist design, and I hate the opposite that is postmodernsim it isn't there to make things easily understandable for other people. What I love about this map is that it is simple, easy to follow and universal. I think that to be universal is a very important part of design, because the object is to communicate, and it should do on a global level. As many users of the subway may not speak English, as New York attracts a lot of visitors, it needs to speak to everybody, which I think it did. When I first got interested in design I knew I always wanted to produce design which had a purpose, and through attending LCA I realised that all good graphic design is there for a purpose, and I think that this map is a good example of that, because it is necessary that people understand the transport system as it is so widely used.  So if I was a sign, I would like to communicate to people universally, and to show something that will be of use to a lot of people.








If you were an app what would you do and who would use you?

If I were an app, I would like to be one that existed for good causes, such as Orange's 'Do Something Good' app or 'Charity Miles'. Do Something Good is all about doing small tasks like answer a survey or take a photo to help out lots of charities so that in the end a big difference is made. I think that this is a good idea because you don't have to donate money to them, just help them out with various tasks, as a lot of people don't have money to give. I think being able to help charity through phone apps is a good way of getting younger people to help out, because most young people have a smartphone and download them a lot.

These are some app screenshots for Do Something Good.









Another app, Charity Miles, allows you to track your running or walk distance, and the more you travel, the more you will earn money for charity, as other businesses donate.






I think these are both really good ways incorporating technology and charity, as they don't require a lot of time or money.


If you were a blog, what would you be about and who would follow you?

If I was a blog, I would be easy to navigate, and be about different aspects of design so that people could research and find different studios and work easily. 

Porciento 
Porciento is a spanish blog, which can be translated into English. It is so useful because it has different sections you can look at, depending on what you want to find. It has categories for different areas of creative subjects like typography, editorial design and photography, as well as more blogs which feature sources of inspiration. The layout is very easy to understand.



Designspiration
Designspiration is also useful because it has different ares you can look for, and a search bar which is really handy. All the pictures link to an original source, so you can find out more information about the things that you like. The layout is very image based, so you can quickly scroll through until you see something you like the look of.


If you were an event, what would it be and how would you promote it?

If I were an event, I would be all about design, and I would want it to be longer than a day so that more people could get chance to be a part of it, in case they are busy on one of the days. I would want designers, students or people interested in design to have talks about their ideas, exhibit their work, collaborate with others and just discuss, help and inspire other people. I think through posters and a website would be a good idea, to alert people of local events, and what the event is all about, but I think Twitter would be the best way of promoting it. This is because so many designers and studios have Twitter, so they could let people know about talks that they are doing, what they think about the events, and ask if they could get involved.

San Francisco Design Week

This is an annual event held every year, and want to raise awareness of the impact that all creative mediums have on San Francisco.






Leeds Print Festival

Leeds Print Festival is a local event that was held over a week, and was very popular on Twitter with lots of followers and conversations happening. It held talks, workshops and exhibitions all about print, and this is the type of exhibition I would be because it has a diverse range of things to do, and spread out over a week.





Sunday 3 March 2013

OUGD402 - 10 Statements

I have to write five statements about what I believe in, my preferences and about me. 

Cooking

I love cooking, finding new recipes, making my own and cooking in a group is one of my favourite things to do on a daily basis. I think working in restaurants has helped me because I know lots of different dishes, and the chefs help me out whenever I need them. I was used to eating all the time at work, and my grandma cooking homemade meals for me, so when I moved away from home I needed to learn all of these. My favourite meal to make is a roast dinner, with the chicken cooked in a slow cooker.




White Hart

This is where I work when I'm at home, it's the oldest pub in Grimsby and I love it, it's one of my favourite place to be. I love all the people there, it's really good fun, and it's good to have a drink with everyone after a shift. I prefer working when the customers aren't there though, like in the mornings when we do coffee rounds, or after we've closed and we make use of the bar, or when we prepare for a wedding and have to layout all the tables and cover the chairs etc.



Independent
I've always been independent and not relied on anyone for anything. I had two jobs at home because I wanted them; always worked hard at college and school because I wanted to do well, and just work of my own back. I've always been allowed to do whatever I want at home and come and go as I please and I think that was a good thing because I can stand on my own two feet, and moving away was easy for me.




Film Cameras

I have 8 film cameras, and I love them. A wide angle Minolta and Canon are my favourites, and I take one everywhere with me. I love the fact that you can't see what photos you've taken, and it always takes me ages to go develop them so I love seeing them and forgetting that some of the photos that I took. I also love the actual process of developing photos, I find it very therapeutic, and have developed photos since I was 13. For a few years I wanted to do photography until my second year at college. 





Literature  

I really enjoy reading novels and plays, and it's one of my favourite hobbies. I much prefer reading a book to watching a film. 




I have to write five statements stating what I want to be as a practitioner.


Website Design

Since learning about grids, and learning about coding from my flatmate (he studies computing), I have become really interested in learning about website design, and I can't wait to learn more about it. Hopefully if I get some spare time though I am going to start learning how to code, cause I think it is a really good skill to have.




Identity 

What I love about branding and identity is that there are so many things to consider such as packaging, promotion, environmental, screen, print etc.. and one example by Mind Design is amazing. It was for Metropolitan Wharf, and they created a typeface (one for sandblasting and one for print), which was sandblasted onto pieces of driftwood to act as signage for the interior of the building. All of their work is amazing and I would love to have a placement there.




Sustainability

It is really important to me that when things are mass produced that the resolutions are as economical as possible. This includes fairtrade products and keeping waste to a minimum. Be Green is a packaging company which offer sustainable catering packaging.





Package Design Now

What I love about this book is that it says the designers reasoning behind the package designs so it helps me to understand the kinds of decisions that are involved when creating packaging.




Gender Neutral

This article on Dieline pretty much sums up what I feel about this subject. 









I don't believe that just females should be featured on products such as cooking, cleaning or other home-making products because it shows what society think women's roles should be, and restricts them to the home as it has done for centuries. It also puts males of buying such products because they think they are specifically for females - especially when it comes to children, as the author of this articles says: ' I'll admit it: when I was a kid I always wanted an Easy-Bake oven. But alas, I always felt ashamed to want a pink and purple toy with girls on the box.'

 I think that if children's packaging was gender neutral then it would help eliminate stereotypes from an early age. I'm not saying that packaging is what brings on gender stereotypes, just a contributing factor. 

Here are some gender neutral children's packaging which still work really well:





Hip Peas: This features both male and female illustrations on the packaging, and uses a neutral colour scheme. And it is a much more aesthetically pleasing design that Easy Bake!





Namaste Kid: I think this is perfect, it's a product aimed at both boys and girls, as they are both featured on the product, the colours work well together and in the rest of the range, the girls wear blue as well as the boys.