Festive Brief

For the festive brief, we had to create a piece of edible type. This could be anything that could be eaten, and had to be submitted by 10am on the 12th of December.
Me and Lo decided to have a look on the internet for research for different kinds of edible type to get ideas:

We really liked the pie idea, so we decided to go with that. They look really professional and exciting to view and eat. We thought that we should play on the word pie, so we looked around for different fonts and found one called Sugar Pie.

We decided that this font would be suitable for our pie and decided to make a stencil out of it:

On the day before the competition we made our pie. We bought the ingredients from Morrison's after our visiting professional talk and got to work:

Overall I think it could have turned out better, as when we cut out the stencil and transferred it to the pie it warped and the type wasn't as legible or similar to the typeface we picked out. The pie tasted nice though, so we're happy with that! Next year I think we'll stick to something more simple but come up with a great idea so we can execute it well.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 02 Interim Crit

Today we had our studio brief 02 interim crit. I discussed my idea about taxidermy and I feel like it's what I should go for. I am looking to have images like this: 



My flatmate is hopefully going to get me these images over the christmas holidays, and if not, I'll gather my images from the internet or books, or visit some museums. 

I am also considering ways in which my research could be presented. Here are some ideas that I have thought about:
- Scrap book
- Zine
- Exhibition/display
- Double sided cards

I particularly like the idea of printing out my designs so that they are interactive. People can touch them, pick them up and look at them at their own pace. I think I am going to seriously consider printing them out on double sided card, so that on one side it has statistics, and on the other side facts, for example. I could design these in a way so that they look vintage and interesting. I think this idea would be more successful than a verbal presentation, because talking about taxidermy and going through each statistic and fact one by one wouldn't be very engaging. This way, I can incorporate my design skills and make my research look interesting.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 01 Final Crit and Analysis

Today we had our final crit for Studio Brief 01. Here are my finished designs mounted in frames:

During the crit we were all given some general feedback that could be used to improve our work as a whole. We were told to think about the context of the design, for example, where the design is going to be used, and what audience are we aiming for. We also need to explain our design decisions within our documentation, and explore a range of different approaches during the process of our design.

For my designs, I chose a geometric theme, as the brief stated that shape should be our main consideration. I looked at the frames in urban outfitters and liked the funky colours and designs, as they were quite quirky and fun. I wanted my designs to relate to something like this because I liked their backing paper and thought I would enjoy doing a design similar. I chose 3 different colours for my different sizes so that they were distinct and different from each other. They also had a different shape, the smallest frame had triangles, the middle frame had diamonds and the largest had hexagons. I did it in this way so that the smaller frame had the least amount of sides and the largest frame had the most. I chose ostrich sans to state the frame shape as it is a bold, condensed font that grabs attention, and sofia was for "photo frame", as it was a contrast to ostrich sans and it relates to the customer more as it is a script font.

The feedback that I received on my designs was mostly positive. Although, looking back on my designs and seeing what other people produced, I feel like mine could have been more professional and sleek looking. I was told my designs attract attention with the bright colours, but the type was slightly illegible on some of the designs because of the colours. People said they liked the muted colours that run throughout the designs, and that they liked the way it fades out.

I am quite happy with is, as my design wasn't a complete failure, but I feel I could have done more in the end because I couldn't really see my designs on a shelf.

If I were to do this brief again, I would probably change my demographic and make the design more sleek and exciting to look at, rather than lots of colours and repeating geometric shapes.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 02 Briefing

Earlier this week we had our briefing for studio brief 2. This brief is all about collections and documenting research. I found this brief hard to come up with ideas as I don't have many collections myself, but me and my flatmate who studies photography at LCA came up with an idea.
I am going to base my project on taxidermy, as it is sometimes seen as quite controversial and I think I could create something interesting out of it. My flatmate is interested in taxidermy, and said we could team up for this project and he'll allow me to use any pictures he can take.
I think this will be interesting for me as I haven't really thought much about taxidermy before, and will allow me to form my own educated opinions about it, as well as designing something aesthetically pleasing to display to my peers to show everything that I have found out.
So far I have researched into facts about taxidermy and asked a few people over social media what their opinions on it are.
I need to consider how I'm going to display my research, but I don't think a presentation is the best way to get this across. I think a visually pleasing display of some sort would be better than a verbal presentation, but I need to figure out what I want to do with that.

OUGD405 - Frame Shape: Idea Development and Final Outcome

After the crit, I decided to take my ideas and develop them even further. I experimented on Photoshop and Illustrator with geometric shapes, straying quite far from my initial designs. Here are the developments:

I experimented with my original triangle design, looking at different colours and tones.

After that I decided to experiment with other geometric shapes, but I wasn't really happy with any of them. They all lacked something that made them stand out and fit my target audience. I started over again, this time referring back to my original designs:

I made this design using diamonds, but again it looked too messy and didn't seem to fit what i was trying to do. I changed the typeface to Ostrich Sans Black for the dimensions, and Sofia for "photoframe". I liked this idea and felt it made the type stand out more rather than the pattern in the background. I developed from here further and created my final outcomes:

Overall I'm happy with my designs, I think they look interesting, the colours are rich and will attract my target audience. I think if I had more time I would have tried to make the hexagonal design fit in with the others more but I think they have turned out well.

OUGD405 - Study Task 01

Today we were given a study task that involved us re-branding a company and coming up with a concept. We were split up into 10 groups of boys and girls, with only 5 companies to go between us. My group were given Fosters Lager.
We first started off with trying to come up with a concept. A concept is a starting point, that everything can be based off. For example, the Fosters current concept is feeling relaxed and chilling out with a beer. Their tag-line, "good call" resonates this concept, as they are reinforcing that having a Fosters will make you feel good and relaxed.
We had a few ideas but struggled to get something solid. We started looking at Australian culture and how relaxed they are, as opposed to how stereotypical British people are usually quite uptight and stressed a lot. We thought we could portray this by a "relaxing on the beach" vibe, but that idea didn't really work. We also tried thinking of ways we could use negative space, but again, we had no luck.
There were several different concepts that we'd tried, and here they are produced digitally:

At this point we were struggling with ideas. Nothing we had produced had a strong enough concept for us to take forward and develop. We talked to Danny, and he suggested that we just show it how it is, a no-nonsense cheap lager.

We decided to run with that, and develop this idea. We kept the same colour scheme as the original Fosters (Gold and Blue), as we felt that it didn't really need changing, it fits the target audience - adult male, and keeps the identity of Fosters Lager.

We experimented with different colours:

We decided that the paler blue was too feminine  to appeal to the target audience, so we changed it to a darker blue that is more true to the original: 

We also experimented with the addition of a tagline "just lager":

But we decided to keep that out, as it wasn't really working with the rest of the design as it was quite hard to see. We also looked at making half of the O yellow, to represent beer:

Here is our final outcome:

I personally don't like the design that my group produced. It's hard to work within a group with different personalities and design methods. I felt like my ideas didn't really get taken into consideration, but its hard to please everyone when working within a group.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 01 Interim Crit

After deciding on my target audience - Urban Outfitters, I started designing my photo frame backing papers. I created some simple geometric designs in illustrator using different shapes for the different sizes, then moved them over to photoshop and added a texture and played around with the different levels and colours. I took these 3 designs into the interim crit: 

I got some positive feedback and although these designs are unfinished and don't completely work as a set, I have a clear goal and know where I'm taking this design. The bottom two work together well, but the first design is one I'm not very happy with. Some of the feedback that I got includes:

- Good initial ideas and shapes.

- Could use different patterns and colours to make a really crazy, jazzy image for Urban Outfitters.

- Play with type a bit more, change where the "middle" shape is so the type can go elsewhere.

- Experiment with other shapes and fonts.

Overall I'm happy with my progress so far, I've got some good feedback to work with and I know what direction I need to take my designs for them to work as a set and appeal to the target audience.

Photography Induction

This week we had our photography induction. I was taught some valuable skills that I will now be able to use in my work. We looked at changing the settings on the camera, including the white balance, ISO and the depth of field, etc.
We were asked to take 4 pictures with the camera on different settings:

- Shallow depth of field, selective focus, blur the background
- Deep depth of field, think landscape, everything in focus
- Slow shutter speed, to blur movement
- Fast shutter speed, to freeze movement

These were the 4 pictures that I chose:

Although photography isn't a major interest of mine, I think its important to grasp the basics as it may be a valuable skill one day.

Photoshop Induction

Today we had our photoshop induction, and the task we were given in this was to create a film poster. I chose the film The Prestige, which is quite a dark film that focuses on two rivaling magicians. I wanted to capture this within the poster, and leave a sense of mystery to it.
After messing around on photoshop for a while and creating various other posters, my favourite one was this:

It features the tagline "are you watching closely?" and has two hands, both with the same fingers cut off - a major plot point in the film. I also added the birds at the top because these feature quite a lot in the magic tricks. The gritty, rough texture was used to make the poster look more interesting and also because it was set in the end of the 19th century, and one of the characters has struggles within his life with money, etc.
Overall I'm happy with what I've produced, since I'm not a big fan of creating film posters, and I think this poster I've made fits well with the film.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 01: Frame Shape research

This week we were introduced to our next module, Design Process, and our first module briefing which is called Frame Shape.
We have been asked to design the backing paper that goes in a photo frame in 3 different sizes that all work as a set, using shape as the main concept.
I have a few ideas, which involve using different shapes for the different sizes, but keeping the same style so that they still work as a set. The different sizes could be colour coded, or all in the same colour but a different aesthetic so they still look part of a set.
I conducted some research into already existing photo frame backing paper from places such as Next and Urban Outfitters:

These photo frames from Next seemed quite classy and elegant, but I also found them quite boring. The majority of them are in black and white and they seem to all look part of a set, which is something I need to consider.

These frames are from urban outfitters, and I think these designs appeal to me more. They're quite funky and fit well with the frame. They draw you in and compliment the frame well, which makes you want to buy it even more. I think this is the sort of style I'm aiming for when creating my photo frame backing paper, as I think this appeals to me more so than the other frames I've looked at.