End of Module Evaluation

Evaluation OUGD603 – Changes from Statement of Intent

Over the course of the year I have only completed 1 of my original briefs from my statements of intent. I found this was because I worked much better with strict deadlines, and also wanted to take on as many live briefs as possible. Working to someone else’s brief has been much more focused. I find when I am carrying out self initiated briefs I find it hard to make design decisions and more of the time end up designing with myself as an under lining audience. Working on live briefs has enabled me to take into consideration the client/studios interest as apposed to my own. I have found this to be a really enjoyable but challenging experience as many of the briefs I have undertake over the course of the year have been completely out of my comfort zone and definitely work I would of never considered taking on off my own back.

This has resulted in some really interesting work, which has enabled me to push my skill set and broaden my horizons. I have also really enjoyed the chance to work with various studios and found that the crits we had helped to develop my presentation skills and has also boosted my confidence. I was not always that confident in voicing my opinions and thoughts when it comes to my design, however this year I think I have really engaged with the entire process and have tried to say yes to as many opportunities as possible. I feel this year I have really grown as a person and also a designer. I have tried to take on as many random projects as possible sampling various aspects of design, from pattern design, animation, printing, advertising, editorial, typography, branding and illustration. I have not really found a true focus over the course of the year but I think this is a good thing as it shows me passion to take on any project whether its new to me or not.

Although I didn’t really do any of the briefs I set out to do, I still exploited the various skill sets, which I would have done if I had completed my briefs. I have also gained some professional experience this year taking on 2 client briefs, one of which was for Google, which I am over the moon about. This was a brief, which was completely unknown to me and something I would of never taken on. However I wanted the challenge and also didn’t want to pass up such an amazing opportunity. I found that working as a team really helped in this brief. Each of the team members brought something different to the table, which allowed for the perfect combination of ideas and knowledge. Together we produced some amazing idents, which I believe to be of a really high standard. This also taught me the importance of being professional and meeting deadlines. During this brief I think we worked harder than ever before putting in so many hours to make sure that everything was just perfect and in tune with the brand. It was a exhausting experience but invaluable.

I think if this course and module has taught me anything it is that hard work really pays off. You can pretty much do anything if you put in the time and effort and are confident in yourself and your abilities. It has also taught me to embrace the unknown and jump in at the deep end sometimes, as you will never progress unless you keep pushing and upping the bar. I have learned many things over the course of this year and I will keep on doing so as I develop my practice.

I have found that allot of the work I have produced this year has definitely got my creative stamp on it this isn’t exactly a bad thing however I feel like I could benefit for some more corporate briefs as this is more likely to help me get a job, I plan to take on some more briefs over the summer period in order to balance out my portfolio.

I have developed many skills over the course of this module pushing my letterpress / type setting skills working with both wood block type and lead type. One of my main goals at the start of the year was to improve my printing skills and I think I have definitely achieved this. I have experimented with screen-printing producing several different projects with this print production method. I have also tried out spot varnishing and produced lino cut prints. I feel I am comfortable with my abilities now and will be taking on more personal projects through out summer.

I have also tried out creating anamorphic type for one of my briefs which actually turned out to be a major pain however It was a learning curve, due to time restrictions I had to knock this on the head however it is something I hope to experiment more with in the future. From day 1 in first year I have wanted to improve my Photoshop knowledge and finally this year I have started to make a stab at it, I now feel much more confident using the program and feel comfortable using the software. I am by no way a pro, however I feel much better about using this for my briefs.

I have also become a bit of a whizz on InDesign this year, I have always avoided this program, but have no come to love it. I have realised that it makes designing allot easier. In the past I have designed everything ton illustrator including boards, which made the program, grind to a halt on many occasions. I have just realised how much faster and more efficient InDesign actually is and have utilized it to the best of my abilities.

I have also experimented with new book binding techniques, for my Cop book I used acco fasteners, which made the binding process much quicker and efficient in comparison to saddle stitching. This was a new thing for me and saved my socks in the final run up to the hand in.

Over all this module has been really beneficial to my practice and has opened up many doors to me. Although I don’t feel like I have a firm direction down for the future I feel confident that I could probably give most things ago. I hope that over the course of the summer I narrow down where I want to be in the future. I have a placement sorted at DUST in Sheffield which is a small studio which does allot of traditional printing projects, this seems like a studio I might fit into, so I plan to see how this goes. Hopefully this will give me an insight into my future direction.

Josh Douglas

COP BOOK - 2014

This year we were instructed to design and produce a COP book which consolidates our inspiration over the past 3 years. This was a pretty hard task as to what to include as we could be here all day. I wanted to produce a publication which shows a breadth of my interests in graphic design. Some of it which has informed my practice over the past3 years and other things that I just like. They may not have had a direct impact on my work however they do interest and inform my bigger picture of graphic design.

What I Did

To start with I went through my entire blog from the duration of the course and started to make a COP book folder for my indesign file. I figured using in design would be the fastest and most effective way of producing my book. I sifted rthrough all of my reserach and inspiration and started categorizing my inspiration and research. I wanted to create a research publication which was split up into sections dedicating a double page spread to each designer/studio/piece of work.I kept everything neat and organized so when it came to putting in the images it would be made easy.

I decided I wanted the content of my book to be a square format. I planned to use an Acco Fastener to bind the book so would need to leave a pretty big margin to compensate. I went about drawing up a grid to work with so that the content was neat and tidy.

Once I had the layout set up I went about drawing differeent image boxes to fit in the grid. I wanted them all to work as a series but differ across the pages. I used a similar layout throughout and then went about inserting the images into the right boxes.

When it came to inserting the images I used a double page spread per designer/studio. Depending on the image I slightly changed the boxes to accommodate but always worked to the grid.

Once I had inserted all the images for the book I started to write the content. For each designer/studio I displayed contact information for future reference to their website and email address. I wrote a short sentence about who they are and why I like the work and how it has inspired me, or what I have learned from it.

For each of the images I referenced what it is giving it the title. The book was split up into different sections, poster design, editorial, packaging, environmental, printing & smart inks and typography

Once I had inserted all the content, I added a short introduction to complete the publication. The next challenge was printing and binding the book.

Final Publication / Inspired

The publication was printed on cartridge paper giving the book a nice srurdy structure. The printing took a couple of attempt and I had to experiment with the printer settings in order to apply more heat as at first the ink wasn't bonding with the paper. Once I had printed the book out I trimmed it down to size. I used various different coloured stock to seperate out the chapterts of the book. The final stages were the tricky part. I split the book into too sections and made sure everything lined up nice an neatly. I then clipped the book sections securely and hole punched them in order to make room for the fastener. This was the finishing touch for the book. I am really happy with the outcome and also the content. It is a brief but well informed publication of my inspiration over the past 3 years. Creating the book was good editrial experience. I played about with different layouts in order to get something which is different throughout but also works well together. I also found the difficult part was choosing what content to include as I have had so much inspiration over the past 3 years. In the end I had to narrow the book down a fair bit and just concentrate on some of the main aspects. I initially had a fair few extra chapters planned, but due to my time scale I had to cut a few sections out.


Photos

 Front Cover - Hot Pink Stock

Service Plan

 Alan Kitching

 Jason Dean

Sawa Tanaka

  Benedikt Luft

 Stefan Sagmeister

Niels Nolta

Boa Mistura

 

Jacques Pense

Streets of Leeds - Animated Logo

After sending my illustrator file to Tom he worked with the separate layers to animate the different sections. The first part showed the pagan farmers tending to the field, then the crops then disappear, and the first set of building rise with the arrival of the homeless. The final section shows the last set of buildings rise along with the appearance of the blooming allotments and workers. This is when the type appears. Throughout the clip the sun rises and the trees constantly grow to show the change in time. He has overlaid the title sequence over a beautiful time lapse shot of some rolling hills in the surrounding Leeds area. The animation sits nicely over this clip and works well with the scenery. It was nice to see my illustrations come to life. The animation tells a brief story of the progression of Leeds and its involvement with the homeless. This was an enjoyable project for me and Tom was happy with the outcome, which made it all the better.

Animated Title Sequence

 
Click HD for High quality

Streets of Leeds Feedback and Changes

Adding the Figures

One of the other elements that needed adding to the design were the silhouetted figures I drew several different frames for each so that they could be animated.

  I drew a few different types to see which would work best. The figures act out digging in the fields.

I also had to animate the homeless drinking on the streets. I kept the same colours to show the transition of the lifestyles from being homeless to tending to the allotments.

 

Feed Back

After a meeting with Tom we made some new design decisions on title sequence. Tom wanted some crops adding to the fields in the first slide so he could animate afterwards so that he could show them growing. I illustrated several different frames for each of the characters so that they could also be animated. This showed the farmers digging and tending to the crops in the first slide, followed by the homeless drinking in the second slide and finally the homeless tending to the allotments in the final section. Tom also wanted the fields in the last slide to look more like blooming allotments as they were needed to show change and progression. I added several bushes with various flowers and plants to bring some colour and life to the sequence highlighting the positive out come of the project. I also added a second line of buildings to emphasize how Leeds has developed and changed. Once I had created all the imagery and Tom was happy with it I sent him the files so that he could animate the logo and add it to his documentary.

Flowers for Allotments

Scene 1 Changes

 Add the crops

Scene 2 Changes

 Adding Figures

Scene 3 Changes

 Adding the Plants

Streets of Leeds Digitizing Sketches

The first version I did I was not feeling so started to try one of the other ideas which worked much better. This illustration looked pretty rubbish and I didn't like the perspective.

1st Frame

Once I had the sketches down I started digitizing my ideas. The initial Idea was to have the one hill with the trees on top etc.. but this looked a bit too simple and didn’t give the illustration much depth, so in order to emphasize the Yorkshire county side I added rolling hills which broke up the image creating a much more interesting composition.

I experimented with the fields until we were happy with how they looked. I played around with the colours and illustration style until Tom was happy with how they were looking. I chose a natural colour scheme to fit in with the scene.

 2nd Frame

The next frame needed the Leeds city scape adding the design. I produced simple vector artwork to keep the design style consistent and used a grey which complemented the other colours.

3rd Frame

Tom drew out what he envisaged, displaying blocky bold letter forms. I went about searching for a typeface which suited the rest of the design and complemented the rigid structure of the buildings as this is what the type would be laid over. I came across the typeface Liberator which worked well with the design and was bold enough to stand out against the quite busy imagery. I tweaked the letters so that they curved with the hills this brought the ‘logo’ together to create a much more balanced composition

Arched type

Final Type Arrangement

I also added in a second line of buildings which will be animated in the final frame of the video this balances out the logo more as we the type needed to sit in between the trees and the buildings.

Streets of Leeds Initial Sketches

 I started off by drawing up different sketches and working out a composition and style until tom was happy. He decided he wanted a circular composition as this would sit nicely over the video and also had a that logo like aesthetic.

STREETS OF LEEDS - LOGO Primary RESEARCH

I researched visual references to base the logo for streets of leeds, I wanted to find compostions which worked with the idea Tom had proposed. As I wasnt creating a lgo which was specifically for a homeless charity I didn't feel it was necessary to look into existing logos and essentially I was creating an illustrated title sequence for an idea Tom had already envisaged. All I had to do was make his vision come to life and also inject my own personal touches to finish it off and make it more suited to the video.

Simple Structures nice use of colour. Prefer the top 2 left ones.

I love this arrangement with the rolling hills I think this works really well around a circular composition. Something like this would sit niceley over the opening sequence.

I like the top left composition and also the bottom middle one. They have a simple colour scheme which could be expanded on within my own design but in terms of the layout I like this format.

I like all of these except the bottom left. They are a bit more ambitions and include more creative shapes I think something with a bit more detail would work better as I have to illustrate quite a few different elements in the title sequence.

I like the white gaps in between the different elements this is worth experimenting with. The composition of this logo works well and flows around the circular format we would like to work with.