OUGD502 PPP 2 Leeds Arts Party Further Work

Although I produced numerous pieces of work for the leeds arts party that I submitted as part of my responsive module, I have carried on with them and have just started work on the programme. I have put together the basic frame work and put place holder text. I have also talked to Fran about a list of images and the number of words per section. As this information gets collated the programme will take a more definite shape. I used the colour guides set out by my earlier website design for them and it seems to have worked out well.

The timetable is something that I am yet to design but using the colours of the events should make it fairly simple. We made the time table central to the booklet so that it would naturally open to this most useful of pages.

The map is also something that I am in the process of designing but once again the colours will be of great use here.

OUGD503 Responsive Leeds Arts Party Flyer for Showcase Evaluation and Reflection

Evaluation:

Using hand draw lettering in this brief was a justified decision in the fact that it communicated a hand crafted more human approach which fits with the message of the arts party. However, in this situation I am uncertain about how effectively it has worked in situ. I am uncertain why this is but it could be the hand drawn type on top of hand drawn type, too much perhaps. Through the development of the design I have learned about the aesthetic that the arts party wants to create and how I can best achieve this. Mostly through the use of colours it seems, although the colours are very light pastels and this can seem very girlie and soft, perhaps the colours require the harsher edges of digital design to counteract this. I also learned a lot from working with a group of people that aren't necessarily graphic designers. This means you have a few communication bridges to cross but the effort is worth it and having crit with them was a new experience entirely. I think one thing that this project highlighted was my need to step away from my work before someone critiques it. I found that working on it and then the next minuet getting a crit meant I was much less open to making changes and could (internally) get quite defensive. I am glad I have learned this about my process because now I can mediate this. I really liked helping out on the day of the showcase because I got to see the delivery of my design and gauge a response. The response was overwhelmingly positive, despite my hang up about it and this was heartening and also very motivational, just to see my work in use out side of the college.

OUGD503 Responsive Penguin Book Cover Competition Submission and Evaluation

This was a very self pleasing project that was supposed to be quick and simple. However, nothing ever is with me. I did very little research for this project and was simply inspired to do this from an exhibition of book cover illustrations I saw recently. However, I am very happy with how this has turned out. I really enjoyed the process of creating this and treated it as a kind of respite from other work. I love the deep symbolism of the illustration and the way this came very naturally from reading and enjoying the book. The lettering work is not my best by a long way but I think it works in this context, creating a human feel to the design and an imperfect emotionality that fits the book and its tone of voice. The only concerns I have are to do with the target audience and the business of the cover. I feel like perhaps this is not a gender neutral cover design, it is very feminine (this is because the book is so) and this may not help its chances in the competition. The quote on the front of the book was not something I knew about until half way through the brief. So, perhaps because of my carelessness, the cover is a little busy. it doesn't need the extra visual texture of the quote but it had to be there. Apart from this, the brief has been a thoroughly enjoyable one and I hope to do it again next year.  

Development work can be found at:
http://b-taylor1316-dp.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Responsive%20Penguin%20Book%20Cover%20Competition

First Real Life Brief

Recently a couple of self employed graphic designers have moved in next door. We go talking and they soon gave me one of the briefs they had just got for a logo design for a web design company just starting out. This is war I received.

Hi Beth,

Hope you got your photography sorted

As you know the brief is, there is no brief - so just have a play

His web address is www.aimhighsbs.com

Plus Logo colours he likes

http://www.spiritexecutive.com/

http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/

http://www.russianstandardmoscowmule.com/age-gate/

http://www.glassesnow.co.uk/

http://prollective.com/

http://mmidentitylab.com/

http://www.houzz.co.uk/

https://www.theprivatebank.com/

http://www.norwichwastedisposal.co.uk/

http://www.innershed.com/

http://accentdesign.co.uk/

Hand rendered type is something tat I am very passionate about at the moment and so I wanted to use this brief to learn to do brush pen calligraphy. I felt this would really match the directional connotations that the name 'Aim High' Had and The logo needed to have more hand made connotations than it currently had. I new though that I needed to talk him out of 'small business solutions' because that doesn't communicate that the company is mainly involved in web design. I started out by just experimenting with the shapes the words would make.

 Then honing my use of the bush pen which took some time.

I looked at combining digital and hand drawn type but it interrupted the flow of the words.

Once I had improved my skills considerably I looked at the ornamentation properly.

Then began to strip it back to basics.

 Below is the sketch that I sent to the client. The idea was that the arrow was a kind of hand glider, suggesting flight in an upward direction.

I sent a color option sheet once i had gotten the go aead for the general logo.

I then spent some time beefing up the type so that it worked well bot as a small and large version.