Brief One:
Looking for trouble was one of the first briefs that I started this year. I originally intended for this brief to be a smaller two week brief but I misjudged how much work Looking for trouble would entail as the brief developed. Looking for trouble was a brief that has allowed me to develop many skills such as the ability to deal with high quantities of research and information. This is due to the high validity of information and research that I had to do into each hotel, trip advisor, cities and more. I feel that this brief as it developed got pushed further and further and has become a resolution that I am happy with. It answers the brief and serves the purposes that I intended by creating a promotional piece for hotels whilst keeping the tone light and whitty. Another skill I developed through this brief was my awareness for aesthetic and quality when it comes to the process of print and production. Although if this book was to got to print it would be bout by machinery I decided to bind the book by hand as I wanted it to look as authentic as possible. I took time and consideration making sure this book was printed on the correct stock and tested my binding skills as I did not foresee how thick the book was going to be. If I was to re do this project I would try to organise the information that I recorded from research better so that I could insert it into the book easier which would save more time. I would also develop it further by moving it forward and creating a restaurant version. I am happy with how this brief has worked out and although it took along time to complete I feel it was worth it as I have a resolved physical piece of work that is well crafted and with a developed concept behind it.
Brief Two:
Tamarillo has been a brief that has experienced some issues. It is a live brief that was set to be and has been ongoing throughout the year and it was meant to build up into a large brief by the hand in that would feature several EP covers, an album LP cover, promotional posters for gigs, around three music videos and promotional merchandise to sell at gigs. This brief however did not evolve into such a large capacity due to the fact that the hard drive of the band broke, meaning that Tamarillo lost all of their music and had to start again which left us with not a lot we could do. The plan and agreement that was set up with the band was that each month their would be a song release and we would design the ep/video/promotion for that song but this could not be done. Although I am happy with the cd we created and the interactive logo, I am disappointed that this brief did not get the chance to evolve as it is one of the briefs that I allowed to be set as an ongoing brief. This brief had a lot of potential and this is why I chose to do it, that and the fact that I am very interested in design for music. Although this brief was cut short by circumstances we could not control myself and greta will continue with it once hand in is complete and Tamarillo have their new music.
Brief Three:
The alternative christmas postcard was a very quick brief. I decided to do this brief for the reason that I wanted to treat it as a limited brief where I would only allow myself one hour for research, half an hour for concept development and an hour and half for the actual design work. By causing time restrictions it allowed me to develop this brief quickly and successfully. From working in this way I gained an insight into the ways in which you can make yourself work faster by instilling mini deadlines so that you feel the pressure and work more concisely. I am happy with the outcome of this brief, although it is only a small project I feel that the concept of the postcard is strong. If I was to do this brief again I would treat it as a slightly larger project and develop it into a whole rage of christmas post cards based on the theme of Edward Scisor hands, but as I wanted this to be a short sharp design sprint I limited myself to just answering the brief.
Brief Four:
TRM is live brief that I set as a two week brief. I am happy with how this brief resolved I developed a strong concept that answered the brief and was appropriate/designed around the work of Tom. The time limit that I set helped me develop the concept and design work swiftly, although because I wanted all the promotional material to be relevant to Tom's work I chose to screen print all of the work that I designed, this was a little bit more time consuming in the way that due to the time of year that I instigated this brief I struggled to find the time to screen print and left it till much later in the year to complete the finishing touches to this brief. Although it was quite frustrating not being able to label this brief as done until the screen printing was done later in the year, it was well worth waiting as it was part of the concept to haver everything screen printed and it makes everything appropriate to Tom's work. I was able to develop my own screen printing skills through this project as it was screen printing form mass production as I was producing business cards and promotion packs. I was also able to develop my web design skills, it is the first website I developed this year and it was good to brush off and further develop the knowledge that I already had / learn new web skills. I feel I successfully answered the brief and created something that is appreciate to the client and serves the intended purposes. If I was to redo this project I would further develop Tom's identity by creating things like receipts, letter heads, tube stickers, labels but as Toms work is not quite ready for sale I felt that it was not appropriate to create such things as of yet.
Brief Five:
Old book new was a brief that I set a deadline of two weeks for. It was a beneficial brief as it developed my skills of targeted research, I was able to home in on certain parts of my research and take out from it what was relevant to the brief. As it was a fast passed brief and it involved reading it was quite a struggle as quick reading is not a strong area for me, but due to the pressure of having a deadline for this brief it allowed me to push my reading skills. I enjoyed this brief and I was going to develop it further into a range of old books new subscriptions but I realised that the illustrative style is not something that I want in my portfolio and although I did benefit from this project, the style and actual brief does not sit well with my statement of intent so I decided to cut the brief short and just make it into just one edition. The idea is there and I could develop it at another time in my life.
Brief six:
The Flag brief set by Dr.Me was a fast pace collaboration with Greta that was a great opportunity to be in an exhibition and to explore meanings of things which in turn helped me develop how I approach concepts. As it was a short collaborative brief that had to be completed and in a physical form for the exhibition it was very important for us to demonstrate strong organisational skills, which I feel for this brief we had. The out come of this brief was a concept that we felt represented us and represents the collaborative relationship that with have. If I could re do this brief I would change the execution of the flag as the print quality could do with being improved as the double sided flag looses its impact due to the fact that the fabric shows the other side of the flag through. I would solve this problem by not printing the flag double sided, instead I would print the flag all on one side and then fold the flag down and sew it together to make it a two sided flag. The chance to be in an exhibition was great as it gave us the chance to see our work in the correct context that we designed it for.
Brief seven:
Adopt a band is a collaborative brief with greta. This is another brief that was set as an on going brief that was due to finish at the end of the year. This brief has been a success as the brief was answered and responded to, we have five bands interested at the moment in starting the adoption process. We were going approach this brief in two section, part one the promotional campaign, recruiting bands and then part two which would involve answering the needs of the bands who get 'adopted', but due to poor time management and brief falling and taking priority as they did we had to make the decision to perspone part two of the brief as if we had pursued it, it would have hindered our ability to meet the deadline for ougd 603. As we have had a response from a number of bands I see this as a sign of a success of the brief, we have managed to speak to musicians portray our concept clearly. I have developed skills in creating a targeted campaign and gaining the ability to home into a very specific audience. I feel that this project was a successful collaboration between myself and Greta as we developed a clear concept and some interesting visuals but I do think that if more time had been allocated to this project it would have been able to be pushed a lot further and could have been something portfolio worthier. Non the less it is a project that can be continued and pursued into the future which is an exciting thing.
Brief eight:
Winterlight festival was a collaborative project between myself, Lizzi and Mike. This was a really great project as it allowed us to pitch our ideas to the winterlight festival committee. Know that this was a live brief and a great opportunity pushed us to develop a strong concept that is unique and appropriate to their festival. Working with Mike and Lizzi was very beneficial as it allowed us to do a lot of work in a short space of time. I am very happy with the outcome we produced for this pitch as we felt it represented the winterlight festival well and this was confirmed by them selected our pitch and choosing to involve us in the Winterlight festival next year which we are all very excited about. From this brief I feel I have developed my communication and pitching skills as we successfully pitched and communicated our ideas, as well I feel I have improved my concept developing skills through this brief as we managed to develop a concept centred soley around light which is what winterlight festival is built upon. As this brief was a pitch everything we produced at this stage was mocked up, so if I was to do this project again I would produce all the mock ups in real life.
Brief nine:
Lotions and Potions is a brief that I gave myself a month to do. I decided to give myself a long period of time for this brief as I really wanted to develop a strong concept for the shop Lotions and Potions, which I think I managed to succeed as the concept of freshness was applied through out. The time scale allowed me to be more experimental with this brief as it allowed for mess ups, through this experimentation I developed hand made paper that would be created by using waste paper and waste fruit that would otherwise be thrown out and thus creating paper that has a shelf life just like fruit, embodying the fresh concept and feel of fruit even through the paper. If I had not allowed the time I did I do not think I would have been able to achieve this. This brief was very beneficial as it allowed me to create a white range of appropriate items for the branding and identity of this shop. If I was to do this brief again I would have liked to develop and create more items for the range. I am glad that I produced the physical items for this brief as it showed me that photographing your work is an a lot more effective way of showcasing your work and it is something that I continued to do for other projects once I had seen how the photos came out.
Brief ten:
Brief ten was set to be secret 7 which I completed but due to it being a small live brief I decided to move it to a PPP project rather than extended practice as it is more appropriate to PPP.
Brief eleven:
The year book has been a very trying brief but all with beneficial consequences. The year book was a collaboration between myself, Lizzi and Mike and it was a very smooth process on our side. I feel we worked well as a team and answered the brief correctly and successfully. We wanted to approach this brief we only our brief restrictions, and our year book course in mind, we did not want to do anything for the sake of ourselves, we wanted the year book to be 100% about interdisciplinary as that is what the brief is about. We did this by listening and reacting to what interdisciplinary wanted and by creating opportunities for them to individually make their marks on the year book. We feel that we have created something that represents their course well and although there where obstacles along the way they have just made this brief more satisfying as every time one was thrown at us we would just step over it, react to it, and solve the problem. so that is one skill that I have definitely developed we know how to deal with issues diplomatically and fine tuned our listening skills to learn what the client wants. As I said this brief has had it's bumps but I would not change any aspects of this brief if i were to do it again as I feel that each bump had beneficial factors that outweighed the negative.
Brief twelve:
The end of year show pitch was a collaboration between myself, Greta, Mike and Lizzi. Although the pitch was not chosen and therefore unsuccessful I do think the concept of the show would have been visually strong and would have therefore worked to gain peoples attentions and draw people into the end of year shoe. We wanted to design something that would encompass the whole college so we didn't want to create and end of year show that just uses say typography as we felt that represents only graphic design. From our concept of Out with a bang I feel we successfully represented the whole of the exhibiting students through a concept that everyone can relate to. This brief was a quick turn around which did not leave us much time to experiment and play even though we were producing the idea through an experimental way, and although we did achieve a look that we could put across a range of promotional goods it would have been better to experiment with the balloon filled with powered first so that when it came to filming / photographing it it would have been spot on. If I was to redo this brief I would re take the photograph and use the colours that we intended to use so that we could have shown our actual vision for the end of year show and not relaid on our imaginations. Other than that I feel the brief was a success , it ran smoothly and we created a concept that we were proud of.
Brief thirteen:
Face in-t'mud was a brief that was first instigated as a second year brief but I decided to develop it into third year brief as I felt the concept of the magazine had potential to be developed into something bigger. As the year went on the timing for the magazine never seemed to be right as it involves going on a 'field trip' out into Yorkshire and a spare day mid week was rare to come by. The brief was brought back to life by the interest of Mike, Lizzi and Greta who all seemed keen to collaborate on this project. By having a larger input on the magazine it made organising, going documenting and then forming the magazine a very fluid process. We did want to make more than one magazine but due to time constrains we were only able to make one edition. We want this magazine to be something that we continue and develop as a free magazine that aims to promote a different yorkshire town in each edition to do this we needed shop and local business to be interested in what we were doing and once their interest to be featured had been expressed we were going to seek funding so that the magazine could be sponsored by the local business of that specific town. This is something that we tried by emailing and trying to talk to people but it did not come to anything as no one replied. This was a shame as we waited around for some time before we put together the magazine to hear their responses to know wether we should feature them or not. Learning from this mistake I think the next time we try and create Face in-t'mud we need to try and engage in conversations with the local businesses before we go so that we know who if anyone we need to include in the magazine. Even without the development of a range of magazines I am happy with how it turned out as it a good way of encouraging people to visit less known towns of Yorkshire.
Brief Fourteen:
I enjoyed this project for Sunday Best as it involved working with a client as it was a live brief. It is also the only fashion brief that I instigated this year so it was a great experience as it is an area of design that I am interested in. I kept the brief it's quite short as I wanted treat the brief as you would in industry and not spend months over it. The client stated what she was after, and then allowed me to develop a concept around her shop concept . It was a great working relationship as the client trusted me and didn't second guess anything I was doing and as a show that the brief was a success she was very happy with the design work that I did and can't wait to process things further into production. I felt the process of developing this brief was a liner smooth experience as I was able to talk to the client and find out about her business, her plans, and her concept that surrounds Sunday Best, this was really useful as it meant that straight away I had an understanding of what Sunday Best was about so I was able to portray this into concepts for the identity. From doing this brief I have developed my skills of client relations as although I had a lot of freedom and trust I still had to communicate with the client to find out information about the brand, this client communication is something which graphic design is built upon so it is a very beneficial skill to be aware of.
Brief fifteen:
Petplan was a two week YCN brief that I decided to collaborate with Lisa on. I decided to do the pet plan brief as I felt that it would be a challenge. All this year we have chosen and written briefs ourself so I wanted to have brief that is difficult and challenging to answer. The thing that made pet plan difficult was that it is stated in the brief that you must stick to the brand guidelines. This was my first brief where I have had to look at brand guidelines and stick to them. We had to derive methods of how we could stick to the guidelines but also make this brief unique and visually interested. Although it was hard it was good practice as this will most likely be a regular occurrence in the professional world and learning to work with brand guidelines is a valuable lesson. Working with Lisa worked really well as she has more experience with brand guideline than I do and together we were able to develop strong concepts and visuals which fit with pet plan but also with ourselves. If I were to redo the brief I would try a variation using a typeface of my choice and colours of my choice to see what alterations of theses things can achieve. Overall I think this brief was a success it was difficult but it was good learning ball.
Brief sixteen:
Celebrity worship is a brief that like many other briefs took a hit from real life. This was meant to be a brief that would be developed into making the actual exhibited goods such as the stained glass windows but due to the fact that the professional I was going to collaborate with Caryl, got commissioned to create a piece of public art to commemorate the tour de france coming to Yorshire, she has had a large spike in clients. For that reason and the fact that we were no longer using an extended practice piece for the end of year show (I was planning on adapting this brief) I decided to just create all the ephemera and the develop the concept for the exhibition instead as I felt that was more relevant to what I am doing. By doing this it means that the exbhition is ready to go and propose to gallery / spaces as it is still something that I want to curate with Caryl. I am happy with how the exhibition promotion has turned out it is appropriate to the audience and playful enough so that even though the topic of the exhibition is a real issue it is showcasing and highlighting it to people in more of a light hearted way which will in turn get more peoples attention and they will then gain an awareness of celebrity worshiping that happens in the 21st century. If I was to do this brief again I would have scheduled my time better and communicated with Caryl better as this would have allowed us to work out a time when we were both free, but due to me not sticking to the timetable I had set for this brief it did not leave either of us with enough time.
Brief seventeen:
The brief Mum + Dad was in response to the brief set by Ditto press. I wanted to create a way / concept that would fit around pictures of my parents as like most parents they have their lives before having children stashed away rarely spoken about and forgotten about. I feel that I have successfully answered the brief to sort things you collect / research into a publication and have done so in a interesting way by researching into things like printing methods. I have learnt many skills about printing methods and developed an understanding of traditional printing methods such as wood carving and linocut. If I was to do this brief again I would like to develop the publication into a range and delve into the lives of other parents and maybe look at other generations or grandparents. I am pleased with how the publication came out, it was very time consuming, which was part of the concept, but it was worth it as the finished aesthetically is very interesting.
Brief eighteen:
The print club brief was a short competition brief that I decided to do to break up the larger briefs that I was doing at the time. I decided I was going to approach this brief as a two day brief one day to for research, concept and design and the other day for screen printing. By limiting myself to a tight deadline it ensured that I did not waste any precious time as I had chosen to undertake this brief in a busy period I didn't want any time to spill over and make the brief longer. I am happy with how this brief developed as although it was quick I think I achieved some interesting effects using the glow in the dark concept. Having a time limit on screen printing was also useful as it mean I had to work at a pace rather than meandering along. If I was to do this brief again I would develop it further and make more of a range of screen printed posters, I would also of liked to develop the poster from an anonymous band poster for the the purpose of the competition, into an actual gig poster with the title of the band on the poster to give it more of a context but due to only wanting to treat this as a two day brief I held off from the developments.
