Gee Gee Design

2010-07-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

2010-07-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

2010-06-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

2010-06-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

2010-06-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

2010-06-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Blog Moved

2010-02-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

Blog moved to g-graingerfmp.blogspot.com for final major project work

Evaluation

2009-12-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

Evaluation
OUGD301

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

This module has helped me to mainly develop skills within working with a client, i took on the surf brand brief in order to experience real life work for a client as after I had under gone my work experience over the summer i felt i needed to improve on working faster and working with another persons opinions. Although i struggled with the clients views i continued to work on the brand logo and eventually came up with a design he loved. It has definitely benefited me by doing this and will be a strong piece of work to have in my portfolio.
For the headline brief i wanted to have a go at using cut outs as designs as i had been researching them over the summer although it doesn't look much of a skill in the end piece it takes a lot of patience and time for little results, although i think it can be very effective as a design piece. I tested various ways to using this method but also think i could of explored paper cut outs even further id of had the time.
The converse brief allowed me to expand my skills on working with an existing companies image, i also made it more difficult for myself by choosing a large well know company that has an existing audience. The image for converse isn't easily visual and i had to come up with something completely different that doesn't really have a connection with any other of the converse visuals.
The anorak brief was intended for me to improve on my illustration skills and to explore hand rendered type i definitely succeeded in looking at various ways to use typography as image and how it can be easily confused and hard to read.
I have developed my communication skills and feel alot more confident about working on a live brief for a client down to working on the Nalua brief.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
For the Nalua brief, because i had to make a logo from scratch, i found that i had to do a lot of research, first into the company and the surf culture also where the name had come from and an understanding Hawaiian culture. I already had an interest for surfing anyway so i know how passionate people are for it and some idea where to start. For the visual imagery i explored waves and there shapes also existing surf brands as my client wanted his logo to be totally different and stand out from the rest. Without all the researching i would not of come up with a successful logo as i didn't know a lot about the Hawaiian surf culture although i do need to speed up my researching process as logos should not take as long as this one did to design.
Also interviewing my client and asking him appropriate questions got me to get a real feel for what he wanted from this logo and also to see how pasionate he was about not just his company but the sport itself and spreading the feeling to others.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

From my past briefs in the 2nd year i only really preferred my PJ smoothies poster that was working with illustration and type so i decided this year i would explore this further and improve on my illustration and typography as image. I feel this is a strength for me again in this module i have included it in 3 briefs

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I feel i don't relate to my research well enough and always think of and idea and end up sticking to it as my final piece. I also need to gather more primary research as i got so used to doing my work experience over summer and just going straight into designing i couldn't get out of this method, til late on. I do try to push myself to think of more than one idea and always relate to my research but i need to learn how to speed up my decision making.
I usually stick within my comfort zone and would really like to create a 3D piece or have a go at using different methods of printing.
During the next module i will pick briefs that will allow me to move out of my comfort zone and explore different medias and printing ways.

5. Identify four things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

I will make more timetables and action plans that i will stick to and make sure i organise myself better.
I will speed up my decision making and design process.
I will blog all my design sheet and decisions and annotate and evaluate each one.
I will make sure i pick the correct briefs that will benefit me in experimenting different printing methods and medias.
I will push myself harder to use various sources for my research as i rely to much on the internet.
I will do a variation of briefs instead of 4 along the same lines of design and final pieces.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Myself
Attendance 5
Punctuality 5
Motivation 4
Commitment 3
Quantity of work produced 3
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 5

Ted baker Brief

2009-12-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

charcters for window display they will be manikins that are wearing the clothes on sale in the ted baker shop and will have vintage styled heads.

models i traced for these outfits from the tedbaker website.

Font appropriate for the vintage style and sayings i will use...

other fonts that could of worked but slightly hard to read.

Font with characters...

Testing colours for the characters, i have used colours that relate best to autumn.

simple layout of how the window could look

Design sheets for ted baker

2009-12-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

Brain storms

character style

tracings of clothes off models on tedbaker website

Sayings that could be appropriate for the window display...

Initial board layouts

2009-12-13T06:39:00.000-08:00

I need to make a lot of changes to my boards
it was suggested that i add page numbers, my logo, name, blog and my own way of branding them.

Final converse posters and billboards.

2009-12-13T06:17:00.000-08:00

These are the posters i have developed after the crit i experimented with colour and layout and got inspiration from the beetles artwork.

various tested colours for posters

I included the patterns in the background as they are related to the new shoe patterns that converse has introduced. Stripes, zebra and leopard print.

Colour of final nalua logo

2009-12-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

I have tested various colours for my nalua logo which can be seen in my design sheets... i tested various blues, and greens to relate to the sea and the turtle in the end i came up with a teal colour to relate to both sea and turtle.

I also got feedback from my client today and he loves the final logo :)

Email from samuel

I love the logo. however i would like to know whats your idea behind it is. How did you come up with it? What was your inspiration to it, and the story behind it. I hope we can comeup with a great story to incorporate it with. Great job.

Reply to samuel with my theory behind the logo

I came up with this idea because of a tattoo actually. I was researching the hawaiian culture and tribal tattoos and came across some turtle tatoos also known as honu, and apparently these tattoos are common amongst surfers. My main meaning behind this logo thought is that a turtle moves from land after it is born, straight to the sea and only ever goes back to lay eggs... reminded me how a surfer starts from a young age and never wants to leave the sea.

Crit questions and feedback 3.12.09

2009-12-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Questions

Converse
1. Any ideas how i can improve my poster colour wise?
2. How can i contextualize my converse posters other than the obvious?

Nalua Logo
1. Can you tell it is a turtle?
2. do i need to emphasise the wave shape?
3. Does the turtle need a tail?

The feedback i got for these questions was very helpful and i can now get to work and finish my briefs

converse
1. It was suggested that i try limiting my colour palette to make it more professional but stick to using bright colours as it relates well to converse.
2. People in my crit said it would be a good idea to put my posters in a shop selling converse and photograph them... also on buses, t-shirts, bus stops, hoodies and billboards.

Nalua Logo
1. everyone could tell it was a turtle
2. I need to consider the wave shape
3. I am going to test out the turtle with a tail

Converse development

2009-12-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

Posters i came up with based on feedback from justin... he said i needed to stick with the star shaped text and try out photography with illustration, i had a slight problem with photographing the new design of converse unless i bought a pair. These poster designs seemed to be too plain and not styled enough to fit with the converse image so i have experimented more with typography and come up with these ideas....

These are the ideas that i will take to the final crit.

Final Nalua logo - 'at last!!!'

2009-12-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

Various colours of logo.

Star text development for converse poster

2009-12-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

I wanted to communicate my strap line in the best way with type, so the text in a star shape it had to be...

I tested out incorporating the converse shoe patterns amongst the letters but this confused the text too much.

Nalua logo Developed

2009-12-01T06:31:00.000-08:00

To see the research i have recently looked at to develop my nalua logo see here.

Here i have tested out the turtle logo with wave elements involved and a surfboard shape included on the turtles head...

Final Nalua Logo

2009-11-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

Nalua logo doesn't work

2009-11-30T06:34:00.001-08:00

Justin suggested in my tutorial after i had shown him this logo

It needs to be more free flowing like a wave a lot softer as this appears really sharp and too stiff to relate to a wave. So i went away and played around with ink, paint and water colours.

and came up with these.

but because i wasn't suppose to be including the whole name into the logo i decided just to take the 'N' and develop this into a wave.

After all this i decided there was no way it was strong enough to work as a logo by itself so i went back to the start and delved further into the hawaiian culture. see here for research

changes to passive smoking headline

2009-11-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

Expanding the Headline brief into context with the NHS

2009-11-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

I made the text for violent appear as if an angry child had scrawled it i think it is a lot more successful than before.

After my crit on the headline brief, it was suggested to finalise the whole project that i make the violent word communicate the meaning better, and that i put the poster into context working for the NHS and possibly use my other headline 'children affected by passive smoking are likely to get cancer' as a set of posters.

here are my final 2 posters for the NHS

Converse wallpaper idea

2009-11-26T02:49:00.000-08:00

Headline poster developed

2009-11-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

The poster i submitted to the headline competition was not that successful at communicating the message through type as the violent word wasn't violent looking enough. So i have decided to work on this more...

trying to make the text more violent but keeping to the design.
This doesn't work well its just looking more runny instead of violent.

see design sheets for further development.

Converse

2009-11-16T13:46:00.001-08:00

Poster idea made in illustrator

Although i am no longer working with this strapline, i had a go at vectoring my drawing in illustrator.

Crit Feedback 12.11.09

2009-11-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

The feedback i got from my crit on the briefs i am working on was;
Nalua Brief; as i am having trouble with the clients decisions i am now going to design the logo how i think it would work and then present it to him after the deadline, and maybe he will like it.
Converse brief; stick to using the title but dont hide it with too much illustration just focus on the text to communicate the message.
Anorak; The colours work much better and now this brief can be finalised.
Headline brief; just finish off and finalise now with making the text a little angrier.

Anorak mag changed after crit feedback

2009-11-09T05:14:00.001-08:00

I have changed it to appear more as a christmas pudding, as Justin suggested that it made the text more readable using these colours.

Waves

2009-11-09T04:07:00.000-08:00

3 Types of wave
- Swells are formed when seas move away from their point of origin
- Capillary waves or ripples appear on smooth waters
- Seas larger waves

4 Factors influence wind waves
- wind speed
- distance of open water has blown over called fetch
- Time duration the had blown over a given area
- Water depth

Surf Wave terms
- Spilling/Rolling safest waves on which to surf
- Plunging/dumping these break suddenly and can dump swimmers
- Surging these may actually never break as they approach the waters edge as the water below them is very deep.

Feedback from client on the last Nalua Logo

2009-11-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

My preferred design is the bottom one as well. I like the originality of it and it has some potential, however it looks more like a drawing than a logo, it’s not capturing the logo momentum.

Due to this feedback from the client and also during my crit I am going to test out another idea i have to relate it more to waves...

Converse drawing in illustrator

2009-11-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

This was a test to see how the drawing would look in vector, though i am going to develop this a lot further...

Tutorial Feedback

2009-11-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

I found my crit very helpful with Justin and now feel that i can focus more on what i need to achieve with each brief.

For the anorak brief i need to define the outline of the words better with colour to make it easier to read.

The headline brief needs to communicate the message better through the use of type as it isn't looking angry enough.

For the Nalua surf brief i am going to research waves further and play with the shapes to make the name of the logo.

Nalua logo

2009-11-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

During my last crit it was suggested that i develop this logo further, and to make it appear more as the letter 'n' for nalua.

Heres the logos i ended up with through the development

Headline competition urban outfitters

2009-10-22T00:57:00.000-07:00

Because urban outfitters are looking for a screen print design my cutouts wouldnt really work for this brief... to save time from cutting them out in my crit it was suggested that i mock them up to test the colour scheme and layout...so i have mocked up how they could look as a screen print if the cut out was used as a stencil.

I have tested the design with various colours and prefer the chocolate brown colours as it still relates to cadburys and chocolate but is less like the cadbury adverts.

Final headline submitted for the competition

Daily star 30/09/09

Anorak mag development

2009-10-22T00:52:00.000-07:00

I began with adjusting the Anorak character to fit with the winter season, i want to keep the character on the cover as i feel he makes the magazine recognisable and kids would miss him not being there.

I have experimented with the colours and used a blue outline to see if it would work better.

i have stuck to a colour scheme like the anorak mag does in order to attain a style.

Here i have changed the character even further to relate to the topic and used the anorak man as a snowman

The anorak mag bases each issue around a certain topic so i am going to have my winter issue based on snow

I have tested my design with and without the black outline as there existing issues use a similar overall colour.

This is my final design, the text has taken the most time to make it as readable as i can, althought i want it to be slightly hidden so it does take a while to read... this is because it is suppose to look like a splattered snowball. I used the anorak characters outline and changed him into a wintery creature.

Headline competition urban outfitters

2009-10-19T02:52:00.000-07:00

Cut outs for 'children who eat chocolate everyday, are likely to be violent'

click here to view more of them on the behance site

These were an experiment for myself as i have always wanted to try this method out, and they dont answer this brief correctly as it is to design a screen print, so i shall put this design into illustrator and make it a flat image to be able to screen print it.

Headline competition

2009-10-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

My chosen headline is 'children who eat chocolate everyday are likely to be violent'
I want to create a poster with experimental typography but it also has to relate to a brand.

winnie the pooh headline.

2009-10-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Idea for the winnie the pooh headline....
'Lottie the ottie meets winnie the pooh'
Initial idea with experimental type

Anorak Questionnaire

2009-10-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Questions to children

1. What does winter remind you of?

2. What things do you associate with winter?

3. What do you like best about winter?

4. Do you like snow?

5. What fun things do you like to do in the snow?

Answers....

1. You can see your breath in the cold weather.

2. Earmuffs, scarfs, fires, snowball fights.

3. Christmas, and you can be all cosy in your new pjs.

4. Of course but not when your fingers feel like they're going to drop off.

5. go down hills on cardboard boxes.

1. snow, happy in some ways, sitting at the fire with my family.

2. Umm coats and scarfs.

3. Buying your good old pals prezzies.

4. I don't like it i bloody love it.

5. Snowmen and act like a lil kid who hasn't seen snow before.

1. Snuggling up with a pet and watching a movie, the best days of my life.

2. Snow, Lights, hats, scarves, new hair colour.

3. Wrapping up in different hats and scarves.

4. I love it.

5. Build snowmen and have snow ball fights with strangers.

1. cold, red noses, sneezing, christmas, family, happy times.

2. hats, scarves, gloves, presents loads of white snow snowball fights and snowmen.

3. family, christmas, cosy nights in front of the T.V.

4. Yeah

5. Snowball fights and snowmen.

1. Happy, My living room on xmas morning.

2. snow, xmas.

3. The snow and collection of scarfs that i get to wear.

4. err yes... who doesn't

5. snowball fights and making angels on the ground.

1. coldness and snow

2. snow, snow, snowww

3. xmas

4. yeah

5. Build snow men.

From this questionnaire it has helped me to focus on a subject matter for the magazine cover... snow seems to be the most popular answer amongst children.

Headline competition - Urban outfitters.

2009-10-07T04:27:00.001-07:00

Create a visual interpretation of a headline or news story from a newspaper of your choice.
It could be political or humorous, typographic or illustrative or all of the above.
Designs should be standard paper sizes A1 - A6
Deadline Monday November 2nd 09

Headlines i have found so far

'New friend joins Winnie the Pooh'

'Children who eat chocolate everyday, are likely to be violent adults.'

'Top ten most bizarre items to put up for auction on ebay'

'Orange to offer iphone'

Anorak Brief

2009-10-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

At Anorak we thrive on supporting young talent. We have hundreds of ‘little editors’ around the globe who draw lovely things, write lovely stories and review books. We would like to give art students & recent graduates the opportunity to be part of our crazy colourful world and showcase their talent.
With this in mind, we are extremely excited and proud to launch a very special Anorak Design Mission, in collaboration with our lovely friends at Tate, Sharpie Pens, DesignToyStore and Human Empire.
Open to all art students from around the world, we are giving you the opportunity to come up with an innovative design for the cover of our Winter issue of Anorak magazine. The cover must contain the following words: ‘Anorak the happy mag for kids’ and must be fun.  Anything else, we leave up to your imagination and undoubtedly mind-boggling doodling skills.
What do you win?  The first prize will see their drawing on Anorak’s Winter outside back cover, and will receive a bundle of Tate goodies picked by Anorak’s creative director, Supermundane, worth £100 and a doodling pack from Sharpie Pens.  We will also pick three runners-up prizes: their drawings printed within the pages of the Winter issue of Anorak. Each will receive £50 Tate book vouchers, a doodling pack worth £25 from Sharpie Pens, a £25 voucher from the DesignerToyStore and a ‘Tricky’ t-shirt by Human Empire.
Are you eligible?  To be eligible for this competition, you must be a student on any of Art or Design course at HND or degree level, or equivalent. You are also eligible if you are a recent graduate (2009).
How to submit your drawings?  • One entry per student. If you enter more than once, your entry will be automatically disqualified. Sorry peeps!  • This competition is open to ALL students around the world, so whether you live in Moscow or Morocco, Belize or Birmingham, Falmouth or France you can take part!  • Artwork size should be 220mm x 260mm.  • Closing date for entries: 30th October 2009.  • To enter, you need to email your entries to cathy (AT) anorak-magazine (DOT) co (DOT) uk with subject line ANORAK COVER MISSION. Students can also send their entries by post clearly marked ANORAK COVER MISSION c/o Oksar Ltd, 57 Connaught Works, 251 Old Ford Road, London E3 5PS UK. All entries need to include your name, age, details of art/design course, postal address and email address. All entries will receive an email to confirm that entry has been received.  • You are NOT required to send hi-res material for your entries.
Who will judge your drawings?  Anorak’s team! But not only: we have a team of ‘little art directors’ at Arnold House School (London) who will help us pick the best entries.

Converse Brief

2009-09-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

The four Briefs I have chosen...

2009-09-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

For this module I have had to choose 4 briefs,
1 being a competition which i have picked the 'Body Shop brief' for D&AD
2 is a live brief that i have been approached to do for a surf brand 'Nalua'
3 is a personal brief that i have always wanted to do and have written myself to create a brand campaign for 'Converse'
4 is for Anorak to create a front cover for the happy mag for kids

Converse

Problem audience
What is the problem I need to solve?
I need to create a campaign to advertise the ‘make your own converse’ function on the website.

What message or task do I intend to communicate?
I want to communicate a fun message to the wide audience of converse that we all have different styles and are all different but obviously all have the same taste for converse.

What is my audience?
My audience is 11 – 40 yrs olds

Concept and rationale
What is the overall idea and focus to my approach?
I want the posters to involve everyone in them so I need to think of a way to connect with a huge audience.

Product/context
What might I produce as a solution in terms of finished deliverables
I will produce posters for the poster campaign.
What context could I show the posters in to make them more understandable or credible?
I will photograph them in general places that posters appear (bus shelters, phone boxes, walls) and also I will try to inside shoe shops.

Process/Production
What processes are significant to my own personal design agenda but also could be appropriate for my solution?
I want to improve my illustration skills and have a go at hand rendered type design.

How will I produce this within the timescale?
I shall work on this brief for 4 weeks.

Timescale/Deadlines
Have I made a schedule for project management purposes?
I have made a timetable to follow, which will be posted on my blog.

Nalua Surf logo
Problem audience
What is the problem I need to solve?
I need to create a logo that is intended for the surf culture and will be a logo for the surf camp business Nalua.

What message or task do I intend to communicate?
I want to communicate a fun message but professional message, to show that surfing is enjoyable but the camp is serious about teaching surf.

What is my audience?
My audience is 11 – 40 yrs olds

Concept and rationale
What is the overall idea and focus to my approach?
I want the logo to stand out and be different to all the other surf-clothing companies out there.

Product/context
What might I produce as a solution in terms of finished deliverables?
I will produce a logo and t-shirt designs for the business.

What context could I show the logo in to make them more understandable or credible?
I will photograph and mock u p the logo on surfboards, surf shops, surf posters, and clothing.

Process/Production
What processes are significant to my own personal design agenda but also could be appropriate for my solution?
I want to specialise in branding within the clothing industry, I have already worked with fashion for women, but this time wanted to aim at something unisex and intended for a specific audience.

How will I produce this within the timescale?
I shall work on this brief for 6 weeks.

Timescale/Deadlines
Have I made a schedule for project management purposes?
I have made a timetable to follow, which will be posted on my blog.

2009-09-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

2009-09-16T14:29:00.001-07:00

Nalua logo

2009-09-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

I used elements from the previous logos but played around with the letter 'n' more and the surf board shape.

These were the logos i developed next the client really liked these although they are far too similar to quicksilver so i had to move away from this logo idea.

Nalua logo changed

This logo is two 'n's' together but appears as an 's' for surf this one i really like but want to develop further before i show the client. (see design sheets for development.

First logos i showed to the client i made one illustrative and one sporty
He prefered the sporty simplified style.

Logo and t-shirt designs

2009-09-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

These were the first logos i created and not very successful at all they aren't simple and strong enough to stand as a logo

These logos i created because i wanted to include the fun, warm hawaiian side of surfing thats why i included palm trees although it is a bit typical and obvious like every other surf companies logo so i am going to keep generating ideas.

Interview with client

2009-09-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Interview with samuel
I asked him various questions to get a real understanding of what he wanted to gain from the Nalua brand.

When i stared thinking about the idea of having a surf brand, i wanted to name it something that paradise waves could identify with. every surfer try to excape the real world, travel and do all the crazy stuff you can imagine just to catch that great wave. waves is what surfing is all about. catching that waves. so we wanted to name it waves however it didn't saw to original. so we translated waves in hawaiian and it was NALU. However NALU didn't sound nice to pronouce. so i make it NALUA. since surfing is a sport of hawaiian king we had to go back to it roots. NALUA representing our love for surfing.

We want to create clothing that appear to the surfing life style. Not just surfer. But to everybody that are into the surfing life style it surfer. We want to have a brand that embody the spirit of wave riding. Big corporation try to sale the image of surf life style that they think exist because people embrace it, and the corporate world made them believe that that’s the way it is. But we know better.

Those clothes packed with logos and image may represent surfers but they doesn’t represent of embody the spirit of riding a wave. Clothing doesn’t make a surfer or the surf life style. So what is surf life style? Is not the clothes, or the way people dress or have their hair neither their attitude. The surfing life style is something unexplainable but yet somehow understood.

That’s what we want to embrace the unexpected, unbelievable and unexplainable way of life and the feeling you get while riding a wave. We want our surf clothing line to be an inspiration for other. We are trying to make a statement with our clothing line. Life your life and life large life your dream. Nothing is unreachable, may be unexplainable but would somehow be understood. That’s our statements.

We want our surf clothing line to appear to surfers and no surfers to everybody who embody the life style we embrace.

Our business philosophy

our business model is the true essence of surfing and the surfing life style. That’s what make us who we are and that’s what we are after. The true essence of the surfing life style. Our model is change. Be part of a movement that was started back in the 60’s and was left out. We want to pick it from there and take it where they left off. We want our style to be creative, provocative, artistic and funny. We are a young business, fresh brain with a lot of guts. We know that there’s a business model and business ethic that each company has to apply to. But what is a young man without taking any risk? Without been creative and provocative?

The best thing about surfing is that the wave destinations are unknown. You don’t even know when the waves are going to come. You just wait there to for it to come. Is part of the nature. You chasing the moment of catch waves. With thing that life is the same thing.

Our mission statement? Simple surf life style is something unexplainable yet somehow understood ‘’.
We want to create a fashion statement that everybody can relate to who see things the way we see it. People who people in life the way we see it.

We want to position our brand medium class. Due to the fact that we don’t feel like the need to meet the needs up upper class. We want to be the underdog with a classy fashion statement. Our style represent the glorious moment. The happiness time like when you catch a waves. You can be sitting on your board all day waiting to catch a waves. But as soon as you catch one. That would be the happiest moment of your day. That’s the essence and the momentum we want to capture with our style and fashion.

Our style is hard to describe as it’s not formal neither casual. In between naughty in the sense of risky, funny while making a serious statement. It has to be daring and provocative in a nice way.
With our clothing line we want to attempts to express the beauty and soul of surfing and the ocean through artistic vision.soul of surfing and the ocean through artistic vision.

Surf Brand logo

2009-09-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

Samual contacted me to design a surf logo for him after seeing some of my old surf brand work i did for salamanda.

Photos i took myself as primary research for this brief

Final boards for totality

2009-09-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

3RD YEAR!!

2009-09-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

This is where my 3RD year work starts

Agenda logo changed

2009-09-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Tag development

2009-09-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

Logos

2009-09-04T04:05:00.000-07:00

2009-08-31T08:18:00.001-07:00

Work experience

2009-08-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

I have organised to do my work experience with Totality a Graphic Design company based in Leeds they specialise in Advertising, Branding and Packaging which i can relate well to with my work. I will be working with them during the end of August and beginning September and hope to gain better knowledge in corporate Identity and branding.

End of 2nd year evaluation

2009-06-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

Reflect on the relationship between your portfolio of work and your creative ambitions as a designer. !

I included some of my first year into my portfolio as I feel it relates to packaging and advertising thus giving me a flow throughout it. I received very long emails from some placements advising me on what to change and how to improve my portfolio and they also said that its clear I should aim for working in the advertising field. I have took this advice on board changed my portfolio and emailed these 2 companies as they are both brand identity and packaging led.
Hoohaa design is a print based company specialising in packaging and brand design. They are based in Grimsby with 10 years experience of working in design agencies and in house teams in London & Lincolnshire.
This was another company I contacted for work experience Design Friendship. They are a design company based in London. With nearly 15 years experience on projects that stretch from corporate identities to album covers. They work with various media from strategic and creative marketing, print, digital, moving image and 3D design.
I really love the style of work and feel I can relate most to this area of graphic design. I’d like to have my work placement with these because I would gain experience within printed design, the process from client to company and the finished product. I am inspired by their work because I would love to be able to have a portfolio full of well - known brands with promotional work that I have done for them.

Relate your own work to specific examples/areas of contemporary design practice. !

My ideas for work always have strong concepts and I have been told this by many work placements I have emailed, but the actual finish pieces I come up with need to be made to a more professional industry standard piece, so by reworking and testing the mechanisms of final pieces I should be able to overcome this.
Typography module: I found this module worthwhile for learning how to communicate a message successfully through just the use of type.
It has made me take more notice of type out and about in the industry and how to use it effectively learning from spotted mistakes.
Comparing by work to industry standard work:

take for example my pj smoothies poster compared to the coca cola poster its easily noticeable which is professional but because I can spot this I know that I have the understanding of what I need to change and develop in order to become an industry standard designer.

Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses against identified intentions and areas of contemporary practice. !

My weaknesses lie within digital design I would like to be able to be good at this because I have the ideas and enthusiasm about it just little patience when it comes to working with the programs, I will push myself to explore these programs further and hopefully progess within digital media.
I feel my strengths lie within concept ideas I can think of unusual ideas just not always brilliant at making the final piece or finding the way to communicate it best. I think to encourage this I need to move out of my comfort zone I will still stick to packaging and promotional work but try out briefs that I wouldn’t usually go for.
I am a very organized person and feel my strengths lie within short briefs as I can just get the research out of the way and get all my ideas out and developed quickly.
I need to improve on my typography skills when it comes to poster design and leaflets as I have experienced the problem of the hierarchy of text spoiling the poster from communicating successfully.

Clarify areas of design, skills development and professional concerns that you aim to investigate further from this point. !

I want to further explore decorative typography and look at existing work out there, that focuses on this. I want to develop more skills within illustrator and hand drawn type to have an original edge to the work.
I also want to develop my skills in layout, leaflet and poster designs as this will be the main focus within advertising design that I need to work on getting a lot stronger.
I want to learn more through practicing with dream weaver and flash so I can create websites for clients but also one to show case my portfolio I aim to do this over the summer.
I want to put into use my typography skills from the module to create a professional image/style for myself so I can base my website upon this and also have my own business card. This will help me to progress in the industry by gaining more contacts and having the professional outlook.

Briefly clarify the relationship between your creative practice and your proposed dissertation.

I am going to be writing my dissertation on whether brand identity sells products or not, and if people avoid home brands because of the packaging. This relates to my design practice because I want to continue with packaging and brand identity design within the 3rd year. It will also help to increase my knowledge in my specialism of packaging design and the research I come across can assist me in my studio work.

Evaluation

2009-05-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

OUGD203: Design Practice 2 - Evaluation...

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

This module has helped me to develop my packaging and illustrational skills which is what i wanted to get out of the 3 briefs i chose. The Feel good Brief led me to push my skills within packaging design to communicate a feeling the brand identity was already in place i just needed to spread the name so there wasn't much design opportunity i could experiment with in this brief. The Sainsbury's brief gave me the chance to use my own ideas as it was quite open apart from keeping the company name, this helped me to develop my illustrational skills and screen printing knowledge. The last brief i did was the PJ smoothies one which was less than a week. I wanted to use decorative type within this and experiment with type being the main communicator of my message.
I knew i would struggle with time management because i like to work on things separately and have one done before moving on to the other. Although i surprised myself that i managed to work on them all reasonably well and have them finished on time. I did make a timetable but didn't manage to stick to it due to other taught sessions and workshop times. I chose to do the o2 brief at the start with i change for the PJ smoothies one as i had already picked a brief which was packaged base (Feel Good) and wanted to benefit from type aspect in the PJ smoothies brief.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
The Feel Good Brief wanted to me to communicate a feeling so i researched existing brands and products other than health tips that were advertised to make you feel good. This helped me to understand what people feel good about and encourage them to do it together.
For the Sainsburys bag brief i researched existing shopping bags that are already in shops this helped me to find out what would encourage customers to re-use bags and what would make it easier. I also looked at the Sainsburys branding and illustrations that i recognised with on there site and promotional work and came up with some of my own in the same style and stuck to the orange colour so that it would be seen immediately as a Sainsburys bag.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Being organised was a big strength i needed within these 3 briefs in order to finish them on time, i am fairly able to work on more than one brief at a time. I will need to push myself to be able to work on many briefs to succeed in the future
I really enjoyed the PJ smoothie brief and creating decorative type i felt was a strength of myn which i will further pursue and improve on.
I feel i am leading towards advertising and packaging design as this is what i enjoy doing and many people i have contacted for work experience noted that this seemed to be my area of strength.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I feel i don't relate to my research well enough and always think of and idea and end up sticking to it as my final piece. I do try to push myself to think of more than one idea and always relate to my research.
I usually stick within my comfort zone and would really like to create a 3D piece or more illustrational style work, i will push these weaknesses more over the summer and gain more knowledge within this area of design.

5. Identify four things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

I will make more timetables and action plans that i will stick to and make sure i organise myself better.
I want to improve on my presentation of my final pieces and i will do this by not leaving it until the last minute and making several layouts before deciding on one so they will look appropriate for my portfolio.
I will make sure i pick the correct briefs that will benefit me from the start next time in order to not waste time or create more problems for myself.
I wish i had done four briefs now as it would of been more work for my portfolio and next time i will also make sure i develop the briefs outside of the course time for my own design development and to also to perfect any problems.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Myself
Attendance 5
Punctuality 5
Motivation 4
Commitment 3
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 4
Contribution to the group 5

Timetable for the 3 briefs

2009-05-29T04:01:00.001-07:00

Final Pj Smoothie posters

2009-05-29T03:59:00.000-07:00

Poster in context

2009-05-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

further development of PJ smoothies

2009-05-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

Development of PJ smoothie posters

2009-05-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Final Sainsbury Board

2009-05-23T04:03:00.000-07:00

Screen printed sainsburys bags

2009-05-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

The screen prints didn't work as well as expected. I have tested various materials but they didn't work well on the waterproof material like id hoped.

Hand Drawn Type

2009-05-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

Lizzie hunter

Pj smoothies

2009-05-16T15:31:00.001-07:00

Original Smoothie adverts

o2 brief changed

2009-05-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

I am changing my last brief because i want to expand on areas of design as so far i have just worked with packaging and existing brand image and i haven't incorporated illustration and due to poor time management i wish to leave the o2 brief till the summer instead of rushing it in 2 weeks. Instead i have chose to design posters for the PJ smoothie company although it is an old brief and this range of drinks is no longer around. I feel this brief will be more beneficial to my design practice.

Developed life saver bags

2009-05-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have tried the diagrams upside down like how they appear on a life jacket but it doesn't really work for the bag.

After my crit it was suggested that i use these illustrations that are similar to sainsburys style

Heres how the bags look with the illustrations

Designs for sainsburys bag

2009-05-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

diagrams for bag

Mock up of board layouts and photographs

2009-05-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

healthy celebrities

2009-05-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

YCN Sainsburys Brief

2009-05-13T05:36:00.001-07:00

I have chosen to promote healthy eating for this brief
My initial idea was to create a bag similar to this idea

but i will use the body organs in the form of fruit and vegetables it will be an illustrative design

so as the bag is held on the side of the body like the image above fruit and veg will replace the actual organs.

My other idea is to create bags in the actual shapes and colours of the fruit and veg that will close with a draw string and worn on the back

heres the fruit and veg that would be appropriate for this

I also think that people will remember to use the shopping bags if they could be made smaller and easier to remember such as on a key-ring. Having a case in the shape of a fruit or vegetable could also promote healthy eating as well as functional.

I also had the idea to create a bag to promote looking after the environment, which was to make a bag that took the form of a life jacket and would be called Sainsbury's life saver i will either put illustrations on the front of the bag how to use it or make a safety card.

Antimacassar designs

2009-05-13T04:23:00.001-07:00

links on webpage

2009-05-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

The challenge Webpage i have designed to fit within the orignal feel good website.

trees- www.carbonmanagers.com/tree

volunteer- www.muckin4life.direct.gov.uk

boat- www.charitysail.co.uk

panda- www.wwf-adoptan-animal.org

hot air balloon- www.balloonflightsuk.co.uk

Crit

2009-05-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

During my crit it was suggested that i change the daily challenges from idioms to general every day good deeds here are the changed lids

Also because i have had trouble trying to get the bands printed as they will be to expensive it was suggested that i should just mock them up on the final photos.
Wrist band quote

wrist bands

2009-05-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

There are a variety of wristbands which can be printed on such as rubber bands, polyester, paper, plastic, sticky, and sweat bands.

I thought about using a rubber band as it would stay around the drink bottle although my label design works better with a polyester one as it can appear as the medal strap and stay fitted to the bottle by sticking the label over the end.

antimacassar designs

2009-05-10T15:56:00.001-07:00

2009-05-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

I am going to make various colours of leaflets to relate to the drink flavors this makes them seem more of a collectable but also gets them noticed.

leaflet development

2009-05-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

I am going to make the leaflet appear as the bottle itself, the context these will be delivered in is either on the tables of sandwich/coffee bars or near the tills and charity boxes of shops.
The leaflet isn't giving any information other than visit the website to get started, i want to leave the audience in anticipation to make them visit the site otherwise this would just been seen as a throw away leaflet.
It will be printed double sided with the same information but possibly a different colored bottle to relate to the different flavours.

wrist band development

2009-05-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

I have created wrist bands that will be around the challenge bottles when they are sold. The reason for the bands is to encourage people to join the challenge straight away but also so that other people will know your taking part from seeing the band, this will encourage strangers to talk or tell others about the challenge, thus spreading the feel goodness.

An example of how the bottle and wrist band will work together

label layout

2009-05-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

i have incorporated the logo with the idea of it appearing as a medal, i wanted it to appear different so people immediately connect with the challenge.

I have added the feel good o meter to my label to my the product more interactive this will exist as a cut out scale that will measure as the drink is consumed...

orignal feel good o meter on the website.

lid challeneges

2009-05-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

My idea for the lid challenges was inspired by the existing snapple drinks that has random facts in the lid of the drink

layout tests

few examples of challenges

design development

2009-05-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Feel good factor

2009-05-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

The show feel good factor is also doing a challenge to encourage people to lose weight so my idea of the feel good challenge could become confused with this...

'feel good brief'

2009-05-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Brief: to spread the feel goodness in a fun creative way that will catch on and make people smile.
Target audience 16-34 year olds. consider digital media as this age group doesn't usually have time for much.

Initial ideas:
Chain letters-
Huge white boards in street- that can be swapped and changed with feel good moments
smile and the world smiles back - get everyone to smile at strangers
feel good challenge - a challenge based online and small ones on the packaging.

The feel good challenge idea was inspired by the volvic 14 day challenge

Ways of advertising the feel good challenge

2009-05-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

Leaflet and poster designs for food and drink

Antimacassars are great ways to advertise catchy phrases as someone traveling is usually staring at it for a certain amount of time

leaflets and flyers

Questionnaire

2009-05-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

What makes you feel good?
What do you do to make others feel good?
Do you like Challenges?
Do you take part in raising money for charity?

innocent smoothies and other drink ranges

2009-05-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

innocent are encouraging people to by knitted hats for there drinks and the money goes to charity.

Feel good drinks range

2009-05-01T11:01:00.001-07:00

Packaging

2009-04-29T01:12:00.001-07:00

I really like the simplicity of these designs and how the play on words relates to food, i could include this inspiration with the Sainsbury's shopping bags.

'Pick your nose cups' gave me the idea to use a shoulder bag that changes the shape of your body or shows the insides of a healthy body.

These bags are also similar and playing with the way the bag is held to what is printed on it.

Simplistic designs for another juice drink that can relate to 'feel goodness drinks' as these are using different themes to communicate a message.

o2 uses very simple designed package for there phones and heres another package i found that i could relate to for the o2 vip ticketing experience.

A different way of packaging food that is recyclable and also keeps the food fresh.

I like how the text has been used on these food products and how they can still be easily read.

Feel good brief

2009-04-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

I have chose this brief because it allows me to explore interactive ways and various media to spread the 'feel goodness'

O2 brief

2009-04-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

Develop a unique ticketing experience for 02s entertainment events that makes customers feel part of something special.

Ticket and VIP examples

Website for o2 arena

Packaging by o2 is always simplistic

YCN Sainsburys Brief

2009-04-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

>
I have chose this brief because i can experiment with illustration and screen printing and i will use this as my short brief to create some effective designs at a fast pace.

Create a piece of design or illustration for a limited edition range of Sainsbury's shopping bags.

Existing bads featured specially commisioned work by
Paul Morrison

Michael Craig-Martin

Anya Gallaccio

Sainsbury's illustraitions

Interactive store on the sainsburys website shows highlights the areas in which they are encouraging healthy eating and recycling.

Sainsburys would like the shopping bags to promote either: Respect for the Environment, Source with Integrity Or healthy Eating.
I shall make designs for each of these themes.

Sainsburys limited edition shopping bags.

2009-04-15T03:28:00.000-07:00

Existing examples of shopping bags

Clever way of advertising food...

Boots lunch Bag

2009-04-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

I really like the design and tag on the boots lunch bag and its been recycled out of plastic bottles too.

all 3 briefs

2009-04-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

Norwhich union advert

2009-04-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

Clever way of creating an image out of things hanging around

Music in the mountains: live brief

2009-04-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Evaluation

2008-11-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

DESIGN PRACTICE – SELF-EVALUATION

DESIGN PRACTICE: Evaluation and Review

What have you learned about your abilities as a designer?

I have learnt that i often tend to stick to the easiest option and not develop on a certain ideas because of the fear of over complicating things for my audience.
My abilities within my practical skills are limited and I prefer to stay within my comfort zone as I feel I am best at working on the computer instead of using hand rendered illustration. Although I would really like to pursue this in my modules I will make sure I push myself to improve my drawing skills and will hopefully use this way of working in the next module .
I am able to focus and learn new skills quickly and remember them when re-visiting the area, this is why I feel I am able to gain a lot out of the workshops we regularly have.
I feel I have the strengths when it comes to organising my work around my own time and have the memory to note things down and not miss out on extra areas to add to my work.
I can take critisim during my crits and go ahead and put the feedback into full use when making changes to my idea. I also continue to test my ideas with my peers to see if it does what is intended otherwise there is often the problem of being to close an idea.

What specific areas of interest have you identified and why do they interest you?

I have Identified that I am mainly interested in interactive design pieces. I like engaging my audience so they can become fully involved with a piece, interacting with something makes it more memorable and successful for its purpose.
I also like creating a piece to a professional standard like an original commercial piece that could actually be used in the advertising industry, this is because I can look back at it once its finnished and have something to compare it to.
In this design for print brief I really was interested in the process of screen printing and would like to develop my skills further within this area. This is because it’s a very versatile process and gives you the advantage of printing on nearly everything, such as materials, plastics, paper and tissues etc. I will definitely be using this process again.
I have also become very interested in typography and design layout as my brochures I made were very layout based and a lot of my time was spent on the design of how they looked and the way people interacted with them.
I feel I work best with some guidelines in a brief as this was basically all our own decisions, so taking the Homebase company gave me some the rules to stick by as if I was designing this for a client. The colour, fonts , and products were the main things that I had to include. I really like creating innovative pieces for companies that make the audience interact with it. I feel that this is maybe the area I would like to specialise in.
I am mainly interested in the designing side of the development process as I am not very strong in the area of creating the final 3D pieces, but I understand that in the design industry I would be involved in a development team when making a piece like mine.

What practical skills have you developed and how have you used them?

I have gained practical skills in Indesign and I have put these into practice with my colour for print brief. I thisI experimented with the various aspects of the program to generate double page spread designs and A3 layouts. I have also used these skills from this module to use with my ‘Good Brief’ in which I had to Iayout out my final design boards and with this knowledge I was able to make everything line up correctly to a profesional standard.
I have also had the introduction to letter press which I found very interesting and will be using my skills to revisit this print process to test it with different stocks and maybe on material. As this time round I only created my name and blog address card.
I feel a lot more confident within the area of screen print as I spent a lot of time making prints of wallpaper for my house package. I now feel I could quite easily use this process in my work effectively without the need of supervision.
The on going typography workshops have proved very well for my ‘Good Brief’ as I wanted to draw people in to mail shot, once they first received it and I have used my knowledge from these sessions to do this successfully with type.

What personal skills have you developed and how have you used them?

I have developed on my time managing skills as I have felt a lot of pressure with the heavy workload. This gave me the objective to organise myself and get the most out of my time. Also I’ve had to plan my working time around the workshops which we have had to make sure everything was done before the deadline.
I am continuing to develop my skills within my visuals of my ideas as I often find they are not neat enough or well designed to get my intended idea across.

What areas do you feel you need to improve on?

I need to improve on my drawing skills as I don’t feel my design sheets are my best work I will make sure I continue to develop this throughout the other modules.
I also need to improve on my decision making as I tend to just stick to one idea, so instead I need to push myself to make other choices in order to improve my work.
The presentation of my work throughout my sketchbooks and folders, needs to be a lot clearer and annalysed fully In order to make it easier for the viewer to understand. This is because I often find I repeat myself.
I would also like to improve on my knowledge of the graphic design industry by posting on my blog regularly. I do often blog my own work and interesting things that I have seen but I would like to know who are the most famous designers out their for a specific area and who is new to the graphic design world each month. I will need to improve on my research skills on the internet, in books and other sources to be able to find out this information.

General Comments

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed this brief and have been looking forward to the module as I feel I work best within this field. I think I have successfully created an effective design and will be working to improve my final outcome at a later date due to the test results I gathered from my audience.

How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
(please indicate using an ‘x’)

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance 5
Punctuality 5
Motivation 4
Commitment 4
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 3
Contribution to the group 5

Final Good Pieces

2008-11-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

Layout of brochures

I have changed my original layout of these brochures from the feedback i was given it now opens correctly and works as a wallet to hold the stands inside and as you can see in the context photos it works as a mail shot with the model house flat pack. If i had the time in this project i would develop my idea further with possibly advertising it on billboards thinking of a more professional way of getting it printed so it was stronger at longer lasting and also maybe so it can be wipe-able and not get dirty. Maybe also make some of the furniture bigger as some of my results in my testing questionaires stated it was too fiddley because of the size. Overall i have really enjoyed this project and like my final outcome and believe it would be successful as a brochure.

My mail shot in context