OUGD504 Module Evaluation

I have throughly enjoyed this module it’s been perhaps the best module of the course so far and this is because not only have I leant a great deal, I also feel like I’ve grown immensely as a designer, in particular throughout my the design for print and web brief. When I first started back in second year I felt like I had nothing to do and spent most of my time procrastinating, we’d been given the design for print brief but it felt like I had a long time to do this so I sort of let time drift by which was a big mistake! I should have started work on the brief straight away and I defiantly regret this now. Although I did manage to complete the brief, it was not to a standard I felt pushed me a designer, because I wasted time and didn’t allow myself to explore any new options the final products I created was fit for purpose and met the brief criteria it did nothing to push me in a new direction. However throughout researching the information for the print manual I let tremendous about commercial print, which is a valuable skill I take in industry right way and is something I don’t think many of my peers will have. If I were to re do this brief again I would one hundred percentage use all of the time given to me to explore idea and experiment with how this sort of information can be presented interesting and creative ways. Additionally I did feel I also learnt a lot from looking at what other people did with the brief, people approached the brief in completely different and was nice to see in the studio as the range and breadth of ideas shown inspired me to more creative and try to push the boundaries of graphic design.

The design for web brief within the module was heaven for me. I’ve been designing and building websites for a long time and I feel it’s a real skill I possess as a designer and this brief really allowed to explore how I can use my skills to do new and innovative things as traditionally I have been creating websites for clients which often stifles creativity over practically and ease of use of the website, but this module meant I really experiment and explore with the medium of the internet. Furthermore I felt like I had a strong summer brief and a defined identity that I developed as part of that and this transitioned over well into web design. I used many of the aspects and aesthetics of my summer brief within my web design but I felt like it worked well because it allowed me to explore the synergy between the printed publication I produced as part of the summer brief and how web can work symbiotically with this. Although I quite a good knowledge of web design I did learn a lot from Simon’s web design workshops and it also helped me to solidify the knowledge I already had.

Within the design for print and web brief I think I’ve faced some of the greatest challenges I’ver ever faced within graphic design but I couldn’t be more happy about the experiences I’ve had and what I’ve learnt from them. Through the many problems I’ve encountered within the brief I’ve been able to overcome them and grow as a designer. Initially I struggled with the name and ended up changing my name of the TV channel the day before a crit but I’m glad I did this as it was a better idea and concept than I previously and I understand now that sometimes the times needs to be spent figuring out the concept and having a solid concept rather than jumping straight into designing with a weak concept that ultimately results in mediocre result. Furthermore my struggles with colour that I faced where also a big issue for me and spent a lot of time figuring this out but again my knowledge of colour theory and working with colour as part of colour branding has been beneficial to my practice and I can take these skills forward with me. Additionally I felt like this brief allowed me to combine the skills I’d learnt in the previous two brief and experiment will applying to an actual brief and I have benefited greatly from this learning process.

Overall I am happy with my how I have worked throughout this module, however I needed to sort myself out a bit more at the start the module but I believe I’ve conquered that issue now. During the time on these briefs I’ve also finally understood how valuable it is to my design practice to stay later a college, when I started to this I began to be much more productive and had a happier home and social life and I didn’t have to spend all of this time doing graphic design. All in the module has a great learning experience and I’ve learnt a lot and they contribute to skills I need to be a graphic working within industry.

Design For Print & Web: Final Presentation Boards

Design For Print & Web: Printing the Unprintable

James large HP colour printer had the ability to print extremely close to RGB colours, it also printed my photographic images with great depth as displayed on screen, overall the print quality was extremely high quality and gave brilliant vivid colour depth within the final printed images. 

Design For Print & Web: Foiling Experiment

I wanted to experiment with foiling to make the booklet more of a tactile piece and make people want to interact with it when they open the envelope, foiling adds another dimension to printed designs. To foil I first printed my design onto a neon green stock using a laser printer. I then cut the foil down to size, placed in a heating pocket and ran it through the laminator and then when the foil is peeled away is leaves the shiny foil on the printed areas of the page. Overall the technique looked but I wasn't completely happy with the result as some of foil didn't adhere and left silver speckles over the foiled area. However it still made the booklet more interactive and tactile and also more visually interesting to look at. 

Hellfire: Final Boards

Hellfire: Further Proposals

I wanted to push the brief a little bit further and spend a spend a bit more time on the brief to see where I could, Initially i deviated from the specs of the brief and considered how else the label could be printed, such as producing a vinyl sticker which in terms of my design works much better as the beer itself becomes the background for the bottle. 

I also used the set of imagery I had created to develop a series of beer mats which could also be used a creative network events to create more of a brand identity out of the beer and for people to take for notice of the speciality beer that has been created for the events. 

Hellfire: In Context

As this was such a short brief that I worked on in the studio environment it was easy for me to get feedback of others throughout the design process. I asked my peers which was the strongest design out of the selection of ideas that I had come up with, After making a few adjustments this is the final design I went with. I decided to also spread the design across a range colours as this makes the bottles slightly more unique and more of a talking point at events. Showing the design in context is crucial for such a brief as the concept it's realised until it's seen on a bottle. 

Hellfire: Idea Generation

As this was only a short brief, I decided to take a different approach to the ideation process and being designing straight on the computer, this is something I would normally never do! but as it's such a quick turn around brief I thought i'd give it a shot. After doing some basic research I jumped straight into illustrator and began designing. As I was designing and developing ideas in this way I wanted to come up with as many variations as possible. 

I had the idea to fill the label with an image of smoke, to symbolise the fire, however it ended up looking more like clouds. Though the typography and colour do contrast well with the image. 

I worked with geometric shapes to develop fire based imagery, the design works well but the typeface is slightly to 'friendly' for such an aggressively named beer.

I explored just using type within the label design, however without any imagery or iconography the label does little to wow the audience and create something unique and memorable. 

I continued working with simple shapes to make fire based imagery, I think this design works well, it's simple, effect and modern as required by the brief. However the typeface maybe should reflect the bolder thicker lines of the imagery more?

Wordplay..works well, slightly humorous but may confuse the audience? not very clear! Also slightly too young perhaps for the target audience

LOOKS NOTHING LIKE FIRE!

Doesn't have much relevance to the brand of beer.

Hellfire: Brief

I have decided to tackle the Hellfire brief as in the briefing I was enthused by the brief and what it was trying to achieve, as well as having previous experience in packaging design. I also thought it would be a nice brief that I could complete in a couple of days.

Design For Print & Web: Takeover Mail Shot

For the mail shot I have also used the new concept that I have devised to run along the existing concept and this features on the outer of the envelope however the design within the leaflet return to print style used throughout the rest of my print products.

The concept behind the overall design of the mail shot is to hide the leaflet and disguise it in a normal envelope, the reason for this is that a lot of junk mail about TV, such as sky and Virgin Media gets sent through people letter boxes and consequently isn't read and I don't want the image I just within my design to make my work appear like these other generic mail shots. This is why I have packaged the leaflet as normal envelope and this is because everyone like to open an envelope even if it junk just to see whats inside.

The leaflet booklet itself, inside of the envelope is a series of pages which detail the shows and programmes coming to the channel and also explain each of the different types of takeover that happen on the channel, this is so people understand the format of the channel and will encourage them to tune in.

I again used neon green stock for the leaflet, but in a thin paper variant, however the stock is only neon green on the one side so I used this to my advantage and printed the colour images on the white reverse of the page and the black text on the neon green side of the stock.

Design For Print & Web: Stickers

As another smaller printed piece of ephemera to be included in the promotional pack I have designed a reserve print vinyl sticker, I thought it would be effective to include stickers because people can stick stickers anywhere and it acts another form of free advertising for the channel. The sticker is a simple neon green and black print which is reverse printed so it is ideal to be stuck on glass. It also brings back the idea of old school radio sticker people used to have in there cars, but this for a TV channel. The finish result works well, the colours are bold and vivid against the background, the clear vinyl has makes the design appear as if it's over laid on the background which is how I have branded and designed the channel. 

Design For Print & Web: Postcards, Leaflets, Flyers They're All the Same

For printed ephemera I have created a series of leaflets that function as both postcards or flyers, they can either be handed our to people or they can form part of the pack of items that will go in the tote bag.  The design of the postcards uses the added concept of the hacker, old computer pixelated imagery one side and this side is aimed at promote what the name of the channel and getting the brand out there, whereas the reverse side with features images of upcoming shows in about attracting the auidence to watch the channel as it's a place where they can find some of the best TV that they want to watch.

Design For Print & Web: An Added Concept

I feel like I have a pretty solid concept with the copy of 'Take back control 10.02.13' which I am now also using a my slogan within some of the branding on the channel, but I wanted to expand upon this concept so that all of my printed didn't look exactly the same and communicate the same message. This is why I have expanded upon this concept and added a slightly different visual aesthetic to compliment the existing aesthetic. The slogan is still used with the design but plays less of a central role, I have chosen to still incorporate the slogan as this creates continuity between the products even those with slightly different aesthetics. The concept's aesthetics is based around a sort of hacking visual style and also the old fashioned computers. The copy opens with 'This is an interrupted transmission' here I have used TV language but presented in how an old computer would have text written in lines, and this is because it's based on hacking and hacking is about taking control which is what the brand is about. Takeover, take back control and the date then follows in the same pixelated, hacker style.

Design For Print & Web: Promo DVD

Within the promotional pack I have also included a promo DVD as I though this would be a good way for the auidence to get to know what the channel is about what type of programming the channel will be offering. As only items that are going to be flat can be printed with James I decided to print in black onto neon green card to give me the same colour branding but through a different method of printing that meant I would be able to fold the final print without it being destroyed. To use this print method I simply printed with black ink, no colour was used, onto a neon green stock. The results came out well, however the stock has an extremely smooth surface which didn't allow ink to be absorbed into the paper therefore when using an Inkjet printer the ink sat on top of the paper and didn't sink into the paper leaving the black to less intense than it would have been on white paper for example however it's not a major noticeable issue. It is something to consider in the future that screen printing or printing on a laser printer may have given me a much richer and deeper black.

Design For Print & Web: Popcorn

Continuing along the line of including products with the promotional pack that link with objects related to TV use I have designed a package of popcorn which is a common food that is associated with watching TV or film. The designs continues the brands style and is printed onto a neon green card. 

Design For Print & Web: T-Shirt Design

I wanted the printed products to have a cohesive look and feel there I am continuing the same copy, colours and type across all of my printed products. With the t-shirt I have chosen to go for a white t-shirt with neon print to match the tote bag. I think that the green is strong and bold against the white and stands out will, especially within the context of the hustle and bustle of the city centre the t-shirts and tote bag will stand out against the other bags people will be carrying.