DR ME BRIEF - COLLABORATIVE FLAG

For this brief we were paired up alphabetically as this is how Eddy and Ryan from DR.ME met at Uni. So with this in mind I was paired up Natalie Dyson. We were given the task of designing a flag between the 2 of us. The flag needed to be 1m x 1.5m and we were to work by hand to start with, then we had the option of scanning in our components and doing any digital editing we saw fit.

Coming up with a Concept

At first we didnt really know how to approach this brief as it was so broad, we could literally do anything we wanted. In order to make it more focused we started thinking about the idea of collaboration and the importance of it. We also wanted to try include aspects of our own personal interests and style within the flag too. The first thing we thought of was a checkerboard as there is essentially 2 opposite components and we could play on this idea of 2's.

From here we decided to go down the route of linguistic couples and objects that are always paired up. We wanted to represent things that cant be seen without the other in an attempt to emphasize collaboration and working together to create something whole and complete.

We decided to work with 2 colours to start with sticking with the pair theme, We wanted to to include the checkerboard idea with coupled illustrations to go in each section. We decided to split the flag up into 15 sections, 3 along and 5 down. We then started researching into linguistic couples and came up with a list of couples that we thought we could relate to and said a little bit about us.

Linguistic Couples

Me

Knife & Fork

Fish & Chips

Peanut Butter & Jelly

Death & Taxes

Cap & Gown

Shits & Giggles

Lock & Key

Both : Business & Pleasure

Natalie

Cat & Mouse

Pen & Pencil

Bed & Breakfast

Eyes & Ears

Ladies & Gents

Tea & Biscuits

Bacon & Eggs

Making the Flag

For this brief we worked predominantly by hand. The majority of the flag was hand crafted using different coloured paper ripping and cutting to create our imagery. This was a very different style of working which I am not usually used to. However I was really happy with the outcome. It was nice to get away from the computer for a while and concentrate solely on crafting. After a couple of afternoons we had created all our imagery.

 Death & Taxes

 Cap & Gown

Peanut Butter & Jelly

 Lock & Key

 Knife & Fork

 Shits & Giggles

 Fish & Chips

 Business & Pleasure

 Cat & mouse

 Pen & Pencil

 Bed & Breakfast

Eyes & Ears

 Ladies & Gents

 Tea & Biscuits

Bacon & Egg

Digital Editing

Once all our illustrations were finished we scanned them into the computer and dropped them all into photoshop in order to mess around with the layout and colours etc.

We split the flag up into equal sections and then placed the images in order and resizing where necesary.

In order to emphasize the checkerboard aesthetic that we were going for we overlaid 2 different colours over the top of the sections. Because we had done the majority of the work by hand we wanted this style to carry through so we left all the overlapping sections and imperfections.

We experimented changing the colour values and contrast until we got a colour scheme which we liked best.

Final Design

This is our final design, we are both really happy with how it has turned out. Its something that neither of us would of probably ever done on our own, but the fact we  both had to collaborate meant that we have come up with something totally unique to our style of design. Its been a really useful and beneficial brief to get us out of our comfort zones and produce original different work. The overall aesthetic of the flag works really well, its not exactly your conventional flag but definitely expresses our creativity. The concept behind it is quite humorous we have not taken the task that seriously. I think the imperfections make the flag much more unique. The hand crafted element makes the flag look much more humane.

I found working with Natalie was great, we didn't have any conflicting ideas and seemed to collaborate quite well. I found the brief quite enjoyable and not half as stressful as I initially anticipated. I think having someone to work with really helps to push your ideas further. Having 2 opinions is always better than one. 

After the huge commotion about printing we managed to get our flag printed in college rather than try barter the price down from Holland. We are really happy with the print quality and have managed get our flag sent of on time for the exhibition.