OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | INITIAL IDEAS

I struggled in coming up with some ideas at first, as website/UX design is something very new to me, and something I haven't really considered before. I thought about doing a simplistic website with just a countdown on until the album is released, but that seemed to obvious and quite boring, because people will know what its counting down to. I want to build hype and excitement within the community of fans, and get them thinking.

I want to have the number 2 as a large focus on their promotion and branding, as its the 2nd album in the trilogy. A way to engage with fans would be to have a secret gig promoted on the website leading up to the release, with a slow trickle of clues to keep them guessing. I think 1 clue a week would be appropriate, for 4 weeks until the release, and the show would be The Smashing Pumpkins performing their new album in an undisclosed location. There will be a few rules, e.g. first come first served, but also some "prizes" for the fans if they can guess where the gig is. Everyone gets a copy of the album, free drink and first 10 people will get to meet the band. Info about this will be released on the day of the show on the website (but still not disclosing the location).

I'd like to keep the website quite minimal up until the release of the album, with small clues bring released:

Clue 1 - Let people know, build hype
Clue 2 - Where?
Clue 3 - When?
Clue 4 - Lyric to build hype and give a bigger clue to where the show is being played.

After the album is released, there will be a link to purchase the album and tour dates/posters announced. This will also be on the bands social media and their actual website.

OUGD503 | PENGUIN | FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Once I had created all of the new houses in the more "hand-drawn" art style, I moved onto creating and laying out the actual cover.

This looks a lot more attractive already, the buildings are charming and the colour pallet is very soft and child-like. I moved onto creating the spine and back, using different variations of the buildings following the same layout:

I left enough space to add in the blurb and extra copy on the back. The copy we have to include is: 

"Emil is excited to be going on a train all by himself, with money for his grandmother safely tucked into his pocket. But a strange man wearing a bowler hat is acting mysteriously, and soon Emil starts to feel sleepy . . .

The next thing he knows the man – and the money – have gone! Emil is determined to get it back and teams up with a gang of young detectives in a hair-raising chase across the city to catch the thief."

"After him! After him!"

"Fun Facts, Quizzes and much more inside!"

"Stories that last a lifetime"

Obviously that's quite a lot to fit in the small space I have. I started off from the top of the page, adding a large cloud to give a clean background for the text:

I experimented a lot of this layout, as I also need to place the Puffin Logo and barcode on the back. I added in the extra supplementary copy and also added some hand drawn money, floating through the sky. Emil is walking below, looking quite sad as he doesn't know it's right above him. The audience can see that it's right there, which causes a sense of dramatic irony for the viewer. 

This is my final variation on the book cover. It answers the brief and has a strong theme of dramatic irony, and the colours contrast with the tone of the message portrayed. I feel this design will be eye catching to children, as its busy but has a clear narrative. The colours are quite unusual for a childrens book (from the primary research I gathered), and I feel this is a positive as it will stand out on a shelf easily. 

OUGD503 | PENGUIN | DEVELOPMENT

Once I had a solid foundation from my initial sketches, I moved on to draw out some buildings that could be used in my cover. I used a fine liner for these designs as its the tool I find easiest to use, and it makes a stroke that is very bold on the page:

I vectorised the second set of houses to see what they would look like, and experimented with colour variations:

I used a website called Coolous to generate a colour pallet, but this variation isn't really what I had in mind at all. I decided to take the background buildings out, and focus on one larger row of buildings: 

I changed the colour pallet to more subtle blues and a pop of pink. I think this approach is more effective than previous designs. I played around with the colour of the design and created some more simplistic clouds: 

I think a pink sky is more effective as it resembles a sunset, and can be linked with how Emil is running out of time to find his stolen money. After I created this design, I developed the buildings further by scanning in my drawing of the houses, and adding colour to them through illustrator, using large, uneven shapes:

I think this style is more appropriate, as the vector buildings look too perfect and clinical, especially as I wanted this book cover to have a more hand drawn, relatable feel. 

OUGD503 | PENGUIN | INITIAL IDEAS

To begin designing, I started drawing out some initial ideas. I wanted the cover to show the scale of Berlin, and how Emil is lost in the city. I also wanted to include elements of dramatic irony in the cover, where the audience can see what's happening but the character can't.

I first made a list of things to do with the book, and hopefully sparking some ideas off using word association:

I knew I definitely wanted to do something thats bright and illustrative, with hand rendered type. I drew out some initial sketches of some ideas that I had, featuring Emil surrounded by buildings, with a feeling of loneliness to it:

I liked the skyline image at the top. I feel it has more substance and isn't as sad or scary looking for a childrens book. The figures across the top are The Detectives helping Emil catch the criminal. I think the skyline idea has a lot of potential, and I drew out a bigger version here:

Here we have Emil at the bottom of the scene looking quite sad and lost. Although he isn't the main focus of the image, I think this encourages a focus on the artwork and an appreciation of what will eventually be illustrated buildings. I also sketched out an idea of what could work for the title, as I know I'd like it to be hand-rendered type:

I feel this style works more for childrens books as its friendlier and doesn't look too serious. This book is aimed at around 7-13 year olds, and I think they'd relate to this sort of book cover more, and want to pick it up, rather than a solely vector based design. 

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | RESEARCH

After much consideration, I've decided to choose The Smashing Pumpkins as my artist for this project. I came to this conclusion by researching other artists in the previous post and I feel that they have the strongest concept. Their latest album is part of a trilogy named Teargarden by Kalideyscope, and I could play on the fact that this album is the 2nd in the trilogy, and that it's part of a set. The first album is named Oceania and the second is named Monuments to an Elegy, and their album artwork and inside covers are quite decorative and especially striking with the colours they use:

A lot of the promo they produce is very illustrative and complex. Here are examples of recent tour posters:

Although their most recent world tour provided a very rare lithograph that has been signed by the band members, and has more of a vector based approach: 

I'd like to create something more toward this approach in my promotion for the album and in the website. Obviously there are some constrictions with this as the album artwork already exists and it should link to that somehow, but this poster shows that things don't always have to be totally coherent for it to work. 

The Smashing Pumpkins have a very large, loyal fan base as their first album came out in 1991. I'd like to include and reward the dedicated fans within my website leading up to the launch of the album somehow, as I feel the fans are an integral part of the band.  

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | FURTHER RESEARCH

After researching into The Smashing Pumpkins as a band, it would be useful to also look at recent website campaigns to see whats relevant.

Bombay Bicycle club - a band that I was interested in choosing for my website, recently released a new album. Their online campaign had a core idea of loops and cycles. Starting with the way the album was composed and built up, sampling sounds and instruments from all over the world, looping and overlapping them – through to the end result of the album artwork and the concept behind that. The shot a video that followed the zoetrope idea and created a world-first: an interactive music video for their first single, ‘Carry Me’, that allowed invideo animation by the viewer by dragging the mouse from side to side. The results were convincing: 80k views in the first day; 130k in the first week; 480k in the first month. Their campaign has shown that interactivity within the website is key, and user experience should not be pushed aside.

The Foo Fighters campaign for Sonic Highways was highly engaging with the user, as they traveled around America exploring the musical history, and recorded their album using analogue techniques. HBO and The BBC accompanied them along their journey, and as a new episode went live, they made a new track become public. There was an interactive map on NME featuring interview footage, so the user could follow the band as they made their way around America. This campaign was highly successful, with daily album pre-orders rise by 60% and new Twitter followers by 95%.

The aim of the campaign was to reinvigorate the existing Oasis fanbase whilst simultaneously captivating a new younger audience who weren’t old enough to have caught the band in their Nineties heyday. They built a new website with full discography and integrated streaming players.Oasis’ socials promoted their channels and #OasisExhibition and shared the best of their content. Over the duration of the campaign they gained a further 100k Twitter followers (up to 503k) and 56k Instagram followers.

Tho Who celebrated their 50th anniversary with the release of a new album. Celebrating this, the marketing team came up with the idea of using emerging technology such as the Oculus Rift to engage a younger audience. The apps use interactive technologies to produce music and visual experiences around the band’s rich heritage, helping to create a deeper engagement with fans. A 30% CTR to purchase from within the Immersive app, and over 7k visits to 50 Fascinating Facts landing page (over 26% as returning visitors). The Who have demonstrated that using newer technologies to involve a younger audience with a slightly older band is important, as it makes them feel more updated.

Looking at artists with a similar genera has helped me understand what kind of approaches are acceptable for my target market. It's definitely the top priority to engage the user and ensure that they keep coming back to the website. Engaging with social media and making that a part of the campaign, e.g. the use of hashtags, is extremely important in promoting the bands online presence and increasing sales.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | TARGET AUDIENCE/LEAN PERSONA

It's important to know who you're designing for when creating an online campaign. You need to make sure you appeal to the audience and grab their attention using the best processes and methods possible.

Here are 2 different Lean personas of what the target audience is:

Profile 1
Gender: Male
Age: 42
From: UK
Marital status: Married/Partner
Family Arrangements: Lives with family and children
Job: Low to mid tier pay

Behaviors -

• Re-living punk/rock era
• Quite relaxed
• Cares about family

Needs and Goals -

• Easy to use website
• Not very internet savvy
• Needs clear information

Profile 2

Gender: Male
Age: 21
From: UK
Marital status: Single
Family arrangements: Lives alone/with friends
Job: Student

Behaviors -

• Spends time with friends
• Listens to music on the go
• Has lots of studying

Needs and Goals - 

• Interactive website
• Links to social media
• Keep engagement through FOMO (Fear of missing out)

Through analysing the target market, its easier to create a more engaging and successful website. There are 2 very different profiles here, and catering to them both will be quite difficult. Profile 1 is not very internet savvy and needs extra help navigating websites. Profile 2 is used to the internet, and will be looking for a more complex solution to keep them engaged.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | CHOOSING AN ARTIST

After receiving the brief, I had a list of artists compiled that could be considered for this project and narrowed it down to 4:

- Drake
- Florence and The Machine
- Bombay Bicycle Club
- Smashing Pumpkins

Drake has had 2 big mixtape releases this year, one solo and one featuring Future. Both of these albums have striking cover art, and throughout his music he mentions "the six" which could be a starting point for a concept.

Florence and The Machines latest album is called How Big How Blue How Beautiful. Her album art is quite simple and minimal, featuring a black and white image of herself. The title of the album is also a song, and it was inspired by the wide open sky in Los Angeles. Florence has a big connection to nature, and mas a magical and spiritual feel about her when she performs. The album also has a symbol connected to it, which could be used within the website and to promote the release.

Bombay Bicycle Clubs latest album is named So Long, See You Tomorrow and their music is quite relaxed. Their album art is very illustrative and looks vector based. The album artwork could be used as a gif for building anticipation.

Smashing Pumpkins first album was released in 1991 and are still making music today. Their latest album is called Monuments To An Elegy and was released in 2014. They have a huge and loyal fan base due to their many years in industry. Using this to my advantage, I could use social media to cause a stir in the community, and build hype around the new album. This album, and the previous album (Oceania - 2012) are part of a bigger project - Teargarden By Kalideyscope which started in 2009 as a 44 song concept album, but has now changed into a 3 part album collection with the 3rd due for release in 2016.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 3 | EVALUATION

This brief was the most substantial brief in the module so far, and it was refreshing to be given longer than a week on a project. Editorial design is one of my favourite parts of design, so I went into this project feeling confident. I was already happy with the content I gathered in Amsterdam, so I felt optimistic that I could create something suitable, but something I was also proud of.

There were a lot of considerations for this brief. The binding, stock choice, size of the book, layout, images (edited or not?), typesetting and print finishes all needed to be thought about in this project, and I found it quite methodical to work through each of these considerations and document them as I went along in the project. I liked having total control over a brief, yet felt an initial stress/pressure as I didn't have a solid concept yet.

Experimenting with the layout and images first helped me come up with a concept subconsciously. Initially I wanted to take quite a contemporary approach and create an aesthetic that didn't really match my actual content. Eventually I scrapped this idea and moved forward with using the colours of The Netherlands flag as the main anchor for my publication. I kept with a minimal design and layout to not distract from the images, which I felt were high quality and pleasing to look at, so they needed full attention on the page.

I wanted a thick, glossy stock for my images, and although the stock I ended up with didn't match what I imagined perfectly, I think it was the most appropriate choice in the end. It was difficult to find double sided gloss, and looking back it would be easily spoiled and could look worn quickly. I knew I wanted to sew the book together, so I needed a substantial, hardy stock that would be able to withstand constant handling.

The binding was quite a trail as I decided I wanted to coptic bind it. I had previously done a coptic bind in a Level 4 project, so I knew what it entailed. After spending hours creating a mockup and binding the book, I wasn't happy with the end result. It was clear to me that the binding had to change for this to be a successful publication, so I changed the bind to a Japanese Stab bind, which made the book much more tactile.

Overall I'm pleased with how my book has turned out. The constant handling and changes I've made have made it slightly worn, but if this was to be produced properly it would look more professional and clean. I did enjoy this brief, and it definitely helped to have a longer, more substantial project that allowed ideas to develop and improve over time.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 3 | JAPANESE BIND

After receiving feedback for my book and deciding that the binding wasn't suitable, I used the resources at Vernon Street to re-do the binding to a Japanese Bind, and also adding folds into the pages so that the book was easier to open.

This has made a vast improvement to my book, it is much easier to open and holds together perfectly. The only disappointing factor is that I couldn't get access to coloured thread, but  I think the white thread looks classy and doesn't distract from the cover.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | CONSIDERATIONS

As this brief is designing for screen and creating a website, there are many new considerations to think about.

Firstly, the design will have to work in many different dimensions. As we must create designs for web and mobile, I need to think about how my design is going to translate across these different sizes.

Desktop - 960 x 1024 px
iPhone 6 - 750 x 1334 px 

As the design is catered for web, being restricted to web fonts is something that needs to be considered. There are many different typefaces to choose from, but if they aren't compatible as a web font, they can't be used in a real website.

The size of the typeface should also be considered, as within website design, the developer will be able to choose between sizes H1-H6. I need to ensure when creating my website that the fonts are all in the correct ratio, and can be used within this context.

Creating a grid system could also be beneficial to this project, as it will help me when designing and the developer when coding. A grid system ensures that everything is aligned and consistent throughout the website.

The budget and timescale are other consideration that must be agreed with the client. The designer and the client should both agree on a suitable budget and timescale for this particular project.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | BRIEF ANALYSIS

Studio brief 4 is different to any other brief we've had so far. We have been asked to create a website for an upcoming album of any artist of our choice. The album can already be out, but it has to be their latest one. The website should be interactive with the user, and active for 4-6 weeks before and after the release.

The brief: Create an immersive and engaging campaign website to support the release of your favourite band or artist’s latest album.
Business objective Marketing objective: Increase sales of the album and ensure chart success.
The role of the communications: Deliver a world class digital experience that gets both fans and media excited about the upcoming album release and achieve cut through in a crowded market place. Get fans of your chosen artist to pre-order the album and get involved in the campaign through sharing content with their network by creating a world class digital platform that encourages fans to engage with the campaign at every available opportunity.
Considerations: Must be global — The band/artist has five key markets (Australia, USA, UK, Germany and France)
Promote activation points — Promote key ‘activation’ points (shows, signings, appearances etc) across the five key markets.
Use mixed media — A combination of image, audio and video should be used to communicate your message.
Remember: This is a campaign website. It will be live for four to six weeks ahead of the launch and approximately four weeks afterwards.
Deliverables: Low-fidelity wire frames in an optional format Design of a desktop

I'm going into this brief with trepidation as I have never created a website before, and I don't really know much about UX design. Hopefully this brief will open up some new doors for me, and I can discover some new techniques. The first thing I need to do with this brief is consider artists that would be appropriate, and which one I'd like to focus on.

OUGD503 | PENGUIN | FURTHER RESEARCH

Anorak Magazine:

 

 

Anorak magazine is a childrens magazine that emulates the hand drawn, quirky style I want to go for with this brief. It uses bright, attractive colours and lots of hand drawn textures that will appeal to the younger audience. I like their style of illustrations, as they aren't completely perfect, but thats what gives them their charm.

Okido Magazine:

Okido are also a childrens magazine, but use more vector style artwork. This is more suited to my personal style and ways in working. This magazine looks like it is aimed more at a younger audience as the simplistic artwork would suggest.

OUGD503 | PENGUIN | PRIMARY RESEARCH

I thought it would be beneficial for me to look at existing bookshelves and see what childrens books were the most popular. I visited Waterstones and took pictures of the childrens bookshelves. The layout is interesting, as it has certain books facing outwards - which I presume are the most popular or eye-catching covers. I noticed that a lot of the more serious books had covers that mimicked generic adult book covers, e.g. the book facing forwards on the 2nd row down of the first image.

I also took some pictures of the book covers that stood out to me the most:

All of these books have illustrative elements to them, and are quite simplistic in their overall design. I think this is a style that I would like to emulate in my design, with bright eye-catching colours and a minimal yet quirky style. 

Many of the books use bright colours, usually red and blue, so it looks like it would be quite difficult to create something that will stand out dramatically against the rest of the selection. 

Overall, I found it very useful to look at existing book covers, and now I need to focus on initial ideas and getting a style together.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 3 | FEEDBACK

The feedback I got given for my book was really positive and helpful. My binding had loosened even more by the time it came around to the crit, and the pages started to come away from eachother:

Because of this, I don't feel its appropriate to keep this bind. I'd considered using PVA glue to stick the pages together, over the top of the stitching, but theres a danger of the spine looking messy and the thread not working as it should. As there are already holes in my book, I thought about changing it to a Japanese stab fold. This idea was popular, and I could use the folding machine at Vernon Street to add a permanent crease to the stock so it's easy to fold, rather than struggling with the thick stock. I think this is a better idea, and will make my book look more professional and tactile.

OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 3 | BINDING

I decided to bind my book using the coptic method. I feel that it's the most appropriate, and will make my book look really special and interesting if done correctly. There is a risk of the book becoming loose and it not being very tactile, and if that's the case I'll have to review my options once it's been made.

The process was lengthy, but in the end the book tied together well and the spine looks impressive!

The binding could be tighter, although I think this is down to the thread I've used. The thread is very thin, so I used red and blue together. As there is a crit soon, I'll see what people think of my binding method, and if they could suggest any improvements.