OUGD406 - Studio brief 1 - Interim Crit

For the interim crit we had to write down some questions that we wanted answering about our designs and then they could be answered when people came to review your work. At first I was unsure what questions to write as I had already had some of my work critiqued by the second years, but I had made a new design since then so I asked some things about that. 

My questions were:
1. Is the media that I have used relevant? Why?
2. Which song do you think has been interpreted? Why?
3. Which design is your favourite? Why?
4. Do you think my font choice is relevant in the typographic peice? If no which typeface would you use + why?
5. Which design portrays the strongest message? Again why?
6. Do you prefer the more detailed vectors or the simpler ones?


Most people said that the media was very relevant because it relates to the song "Digital Witness" so it is suitable that all my designs are digital. However some people thought that I could consider other ideas and even try using a traditional media like screen printing for the less digital designs. For example on the robot/St. Vincent design it was suggested to try screen printing for the human side and juxtapose it against the illustrator robot side. I quite like this idea so if I want to submit it to the secret 7 I may take it further. 

Almost everyone guessed which song it was because I had used images of her as well as technological feel to my designs and the use of lyrics. Someone said that maybe the links to the songs were too direct in some of the songs and not subtle enough.

Favourite Tally:
1 = 1
2 = 2
3 = 2
4 = 1
5 = 1
6 = 0
7 = 2
8 = 1
9 = 1
10 = 0
11 = 3
12 = 0
13 = 2
14 = 0

The most favourited was number 11 - the CCTV camera with the Yellow background as people said that it had a gentle and delicate aesthetic with the use of thin lines and a warm welcoming background yet it represented something quite sinister. Another person said that it was the best because it had a subtle link to the song and some of my other designs may have been seen as too obvious. 

For the font choice most agreed as they said it was geometric and slightly futuristic, but if I had shown them other font choices for comparison it would have been easier to decide. I was worrying that this choice was too bold, but after getting this feedback I think I will keep it how it is. 

Pretty much all the people who answered the questions said that number 7 had the strongest message (the boy with the TV).

The detail vs simple vectors answers were very mixed in opinions. Some people liked the cctv outlined images however other preferred my other designs. I think I will submit two designs because of this as I thought this would help me decide what design to submit but it hasn't!

Studio Brief 4 - Interim Crit

For my interim critique I took some of the ideas from my rough sketches and illustrated them neater. I also created some new ideas to see if any of them worked. 

A lot of people seemed to like the skull that was created out of mushrooms, however they said that it looked like the skull was laughing or smiling so if I am going to use this idea I will have to alter it slightly. 

As I had already decided, people agreed that the mushrooms made out of glyphs didn't really convey my message even though I had tried to in the last thumbnail. Someone said that the skull I had made out of glyphs looked like an owl so it didn't convey the message as clearly as I would have liked. I think for my type only poster I will go with the 'mushroom' with the skull in the o's. John even suggested that I add a question mark to this to draw the viewer in more. However after trying this digitally it looks more like someone asking if they would like a mushroom, or even questioning what a mushroom so it is rather confusing.

For my type and image posters I really liked the design I did based on the poster I researched with the deer in, I think it is bold and punchy. However upon receiving critique I was told that maybe it could be too serious, and that I should include some humour. I do agree with this, but I loved this design from the minute I drew it and it is hard to let it go so easily! I think that the "Can you tell the difference?" posters would work well with humour and perhaps by saying something like "One of these mushrooms can go in soup, the other is deadly." could work quite well to lower the tone of voice slightly.

Overall, I found this feedback really useful and it has enabled me to choose my final designs to digitalise.