OUGD402 - Three Ads

I had to look at the three ads that I created, and write some words down about what I thought they portrayed.

Modernism

Clean

Thorough

Minimal

Hand drawn

Monochrome

Ethical

I also had to write what I thought about the ads that myself, James and Jake created for me.

For James'

I liked:

Sustainable meaning

Colour scheme

Use of shape

For Jake's

I liked:

Paper stock

Papercutting

Shapes

Natural - tree shapes

For Mine

I liked:

Colour

I disliked:

Brush style

Shapes don't go

Boring

OUGD402 - What Is Design Practise?

Here are my notes from this mornings session.

Appropriateness of Response
What is the problem?
Who is the audience?
What is the context?
What is the method of delivery?

Is what I am producing effective?

Design has different functions
Ask a question, make a statement, give an order, deliver an instructor, make someone laugh/cry.

What is your rationale?
Concept 
Idea
Research

Audience
Context
Media

Handmade
Digital
Lens-based

Creative
Ethical
Commercial

2 Dimensional
3 Dimensional
4 Dimensional

I usually begin with research, then I can come up with a concept which leads to idea generation. Although this changes with different briefs.

Quality of Resolution
Depth of appropriate research
Breadth of initial ideas
Selection of potential solutions
Thorough visual development
Attention to detail/crafting
Clarity of presentation

All of these affect work:

Message                                         Creativity                 Skills
Communication           +              Concept           x       Organisation
Clarity                                            Ideas                         Discipline
Context                                                                             Commitment
____________________________________________

                                         Boundaries
                                         Limitations 
                                             Rules
                                             Time


We then had to answer these questions.

What is your professional name and contact details?
Danielle Harrison
Daniellejayharrison@hotmail.co.uk

What words best describe your design practise?
Informed ideas; minimal colours; simplicity.

What words best describe you as a person?
Organised; hard-working; independent; straightforward; honest.

What are you strongest design skills?
Competent with Illustrator; papercutting; 

What areas of graphic design interest you most?
Packaging; sustainability; ethical - for a cause etc.

What are your favourite designers/studios?
Malika Favre
Saul Bass
Naomi Shiek
Anagrama

What makes these your favourites?
I like how Favre and Bass use shape and colour to communicate a design. I think the clean, simple branding produced by Anagrama is really effective, and the skills Naomi Shiek possess are really impressive.

What are your favourite design blogs?
Dieline; dspn; typeverything; pentawards.

What things do you want to be?
Create worthwhile design - charities and causes; for ethical businesses
Be successful at it
Become better at drawing
I also want to go into packaging

What do you need to do to achieve these?
Determination
Good knowledge of graphic design
Opinions and knowledge of causes/problems/businesses
Don't stereotype

We then got into groups of three, I was with James and Jake, and we talked about our answers, and I now need to create an ad for me, James and Jake based on the information here. 

Here is the ad I created for myself:



James Keefe
Here are his answers:


What is your professional name and contact details?
Jimbo
jameskeefe.design@gmail.com

What words best describe your design practise?
Clinical; minimal; digital; logical and contemporary.

What words best describe you as a person?
Dedicated; professional; reliable; ambitious and laidback.

What are you strongest design skills?
Software; inspired by non graphic design things like architecture etc; professional standard; informed by modernism and attention to detail.

What areas of graphic design interest you most?
Product and packaging; branding and identity and editorial design.

What are your favourite designers/studios?
Noma Bar
Experimental Jetset
Yuna Kim

What makes these your favourites?
Noma Bar utilises negative space for ambiguity 
Experimental Jetset are inspirsed by modernism

What things do you want to be?
Successful in creative industry
Confident when communicating

What do you need to do to achieve these?
Be well informed by contemporary designers

Put into practise in crits and socialising

These are some of the works from his favourite artists:

Here is some of James' work:

Here is the ad that I created for him:

At first I worked to a Swiss Grid System on InDesign, as his work is informed by modernism and I wanted to portray that. However, I didn't think it worked as well because there wasn't that much text. So I turned the design on a 45 ° angle and added some shapes as for one of his pieces of work he was inspired by the Bauhaus, and these are typical characteristics of the work produced at the Bauhaus. He also said he likes light fonts, so I chose to use Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Light for the bodycopy, and Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Bold for the headings. This is a popular sans serif font which is similar to Helvetica and Univers, making it relevant to modernist design. I chose to do it in black and white because a lot of the work that his favourite designers have done is in monochrome, and I feel that it works with the modernist look. I tried the shapes in the primary colours but I think that it looked a bit tacky, and that isn't what I wanted to go for considering he works to a professional standard.


Jake Greenhalgh
Here are his answers:

What is your professional name and contact details?

Jackson Steel

jake--jake@hotmail.com

What words best describe your design practise?

Hand drawn; cartoony; humorous; not computerised.

What words best describe you as a person?

Cool; calm; collected and ruthless.

What are you strongest design skills?

Papercutting; computer editing; drawing.

What areas of graphic design interest you most?

Screenprinting; poster design.

What are your favourite designers/studios?

David Shrigley

What makes these your favourites?

Simplicity and well designed.

What things do you want to be?

Freelance

Skateboard design company

Here is some of David Shrigley's work:

Here is some of Jake's work:

Here is the ad I created for Jake:

As Jake likes hand drawn design, I decided to use this font, and a brush as a background for the text. This creates a laidback approach and is quite simple, which suits his personality and preference for design. 

OUGD406 - Design Is Doing

Here is the final design that I submitted:

Here is the email I received from Talenthouse after I uploaded the design as evidence that I submitted the design on time:

Here is what I wrote about my design:

OUGD406 - Design Is Doing

Here are the designs that I made for the Secret 7" brief, focusing on the song Better Off by Haim.

OUGD406 - Design Is Doing

I posted these to gain feedback of people to see what they're opinions were, as I couldn't decide between two designs, and how to improve them. As I wasn't too keen on the design that the people in my crit preferred, I decided to include another design that I liked for further feedback.

I asked Abi what she thought of these two designs:

I like the first one. I would say that one compared to other one. But I think if you simple the second one down a bit like getting rid of the boxes and stuff that would be better. I agree with the feedback you got from the crit.

I edited it according the feeback from the crit and she Abi then said: 

I think if you move it up it may look more in proprtion.

She then said: What about getting rid of the poles? They're a bit overpowering.

I changed it again so that the blue and green bar weren't as high, but I still wasn't happy with it, so I decided to look at the other design.

I also asked Sarah what she thought, and she said that she loves the eye design, and the reasoning behind it.

I asked what Sarah thought of these two designs, and she said that she prefers the pattern on the yellow/grey eye, but prefers the three shades of blue in the first design because it is easier to see that it is waves.

So I tried the same design with the shades of blue.

As I liked the yellow in the design better, I tried more vibrant shades. I preferred the yellow in the design because I think it fits better with the song.

I then tried more subdued grey tones to see how that worked, but I think it looks too bland.

I then tried red tones as it is quite a powerful song, but I don't think it worked at all.

OUGD406 - Design Is Doing

I had a feedback critique on the designs that I made for Haim - Better Off, and decided from this which one I am going to submit. 

This was the favourite design, but as I had printed it on antique white stock it had quite a faded a background, so one of the suggestions was to print it out once I had made amendments to it, then scan it back in and submit that version.

Other suggestions were:
Let the three blue paths on the right hand side go all the way to the end.

Get rid of the squares in the top right corner.

Extend the guitar to the edge of the page.

Change the platform the door is on.

Add a handle to the door so it is more recognisable.

Extend the platform with the heart on to the top of the page.

Change the heart from an anatomical heart to a pictogram heart.

OUGD401 - Politics, Society, Culture and History

Today we learnt about two manifestos - the First Things First manifesto which was rewritten in 2000 and the Incomplete Manifesto of Growth by Bruce Mau Design.

This is the definition of a manifesto:

man·i·fes·to  

/ˌmanəˈfestō/

Noun A public declaration of policy and aims, esp. one issued before an election by a political party or candidate. The Incomplete Manifesto of Growth was written in 1998 and Bruce Mau Design follow this in their design process. So far there are 43 statements in it, and here are a few that I liked:3. Process is more important than outcome.  When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there. 8. Drift.  Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism. 15. Ask stupid questions.  Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant. 16. Collaborate.  The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential. 29. Think with your mind.  Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent. 39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.  Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations. And here are some that I disagree with: 18. Stay up late.  Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world. 25. Don’t clean your desk.  You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight. 26. Don’t enter awards competitions.  Just don’t. It’s not good for you. The First Things First manifesto was originally written in 1964, but was re-written by 33 graphic designers in 2000. It expresses how people perceive designers to be very commercially driven, designing things like 'dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes', amongst other things, because that is what a lot of designers do. The designers who wrote this manifesto think that our skills are capable to designing towards more worthwhile things such as 'cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design projects'.  TASK In pairs we had to write down 20 words that came into our head in a list, to do with the words Politics; Society; Culture and History. POLITICS Government David Cameron Conspiracy Theories Speeches Voting Tax United Nations Downing St Corruption Cuts Law Money Spending White House Capitalism Obama Parties Loans Ballots Elections Riots SOCIETY Class Divisions Political Correctness Controlled by Media Diversity Racism Opinions Dole Newspapers Coexist Areas Cities Statistics Education Segregation Jobs Unemployment Teen Pregnancy Public Transport Lifestyle CULTURE Arts Crafts Dance Music History Social Global Events Festivals Rituals Traditions Religion Innovation Diversity Language Creativity Pilgrimages Society Design Trends Styles Cosmopolitan Costume Fashion Theatre Drama Food Habitat Lifestyle Architecture Landmarks HISTORY War Law Monarchy Empire Slavery Fashion Art Religion Global Women's Roles Anarchy Revolution Experimentation Architecture Inventions Globalisation Cultures Tradition Climate Then we had to sort these words out into positive and negative aspects of the headings. POLITICS + Government Speeches Voting United Nations Downing St Law Money Spending White House Obama Parties Ballots Elections POLITICS - Government David Cameron Conspiracy Theories Speeches Tax Downing St Corruption Law Cuts Money Spending Capitalism Parties Loans Elections Riots SOCIETY + Community Diversity Opinions Newspapers Coexist Areas Cities Statistics Education Jobs Lifestyle SOCIETY - Class Divisions Political Correctness Controlled by Media Racism Opinions Dole Newspapers Areas cities Statistics Segregation Unemployment Teen Pregnancy Lifestyle CULTURE + Arts Crafts Dance Music Hype History Social Global Events Festivals Rituals Traditions Religion Innovation Diversity Language Creativity Pilgrimage Society Design Trends Styles Cosmopolitan Costume Fashion Theatre Drama Food Habitat Lifestyle Architecture Landmark CULTURE - Music Hype History Art Tradition Religion Cosmopolitan Fashion Lifestyle HISTORY + Law Monarchy Empire Fashion Art Religion Global Women's Roles HISTORY - War Law Monarchy Empire Slavery Religion Art Women's Roles We then had to write five statements that were positive about Politics, Society, Culture and History. POLITICS A democracy is good because everybody's opinions is counted. Law is good because it gives society order. Having numerous parties is good because it gives people a choice to vote for as they all have different priorities. Spending is good because it means education and healthcare are free, so everybody has the same opportunities to learn and get better. The United Nations is a global organisation which ultimately aims for world peace.  SOCIETY Diversity is good because people learn about a range of foods, religions and culture. Education is compulsory so everybody has an equal chance of getting a job and knowledge to do so at school. Cities are good because there is so much to do and see, there is a wide range of things to be interested in. Newspapers are good because we get to hear about news from all over the world. As a country we are lucky that there is free health care, because in places like America you have to pay for it, and have health insurance, and if you are dying but can't afford the care then it isn't fair. CULTURE There are so many events, exhibitions, galleries, courses and shops to do with art, design and crafts which are educational, informative and engaging. Learning about other cultures foods is fun and interesting, and there is so much choice for whatever you fancy. There are so many genres of music, and there are festivals and nightlife which cater for these which are fun, and is a very good way of connecting with people. Having different cultures fashion is good because everybody looks different and has different styles and are individual. As Britain is very multi cultural, it is good that you don't have to travel the world to see culture, as there are many food and clothes shops etc that stock things from all over the world. HISTORY Abolition of slavery was a victory. Learnt about historic events such as women's suffrage and revolutions. Interesting films about history such as War Horse, Django Unchained and Saving Private Ryan. Changed the way we live today (war victories, inventions, slavery, empire, deaths). Learning of past mistakes helps us not to make the same ones today. We then swapped sheets, and wrote down things that we don't like about these subjects. Here is what Sarah wrote down: POLITICS I don't like the misuse of taxpayers money on unnecessary or selfish reasons. I don't like the dishonesty the government radiates. I don't like the fact that people feel they need to riot and protest to get their point across as they feel the government isn't listening. I don't like the negativity associated around the government and the negative relationship the majority of society has with that. I don't like how the law is inconsistent; harsh punishments for small offenses and therapy for unforgivable offenses. SOCIETY I don't like how there are some societies who live in this country but who never make an effort to be involved with it. I don't like how you can be on the same amount of income if you are employed or not (unless you have a disability). I don't like how some societies are estranged and uninvolved from one another. I don't think some societies embrace cultural diversity as much as they should. I don't agree with the inconsistency of opportunities for different societies from the government. CULTURE I don't like how computer generated music is monogomising the style of popular music today. I don't like how postmodern art can receive as much credit for cultural impact as traditional or computer generated art styles. I don't like the prejudice and stereotyping of people interested or involved multiculturally.  HISTORY I don't like the lack of enthusiasm from younger generations about learning about what has gone before them. We now have to do a task which is to write a manifesto for our own views on politics, society, culture and history.