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.