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.