Studio Brief 4 - Design Boards

Studio Brief 4 - Final Crit

FINAL PRINTED DESIGNS

In my critique most people said that this one gave the strongest message and was their favourite. I find this funny as it is my least favourite. Additionally they liked the stock that I printed on because it represents nature and the organic feel of a mushroom. 

I also got complemented on the colour scheme as I explained that it is meant to replicate the symptoms of poisonous mushrooms by making you feel sick and I was told that it was successful.

Someone mentioned that I could have made the image of the skull clearer, in my opinion it is quite clear and I am unsure how I could make it clearer. However another comment was that it was very clever. 

Overall the feedback I received was helpful, and it was nice to be told that my posters worked well as a series with a coherent colour scheme. 

OUGD403 - Self Evaluation

Throughout the OUGD403 module I have attended most if not all of the classes, so I feel like I have managed my time well as I finished early than I expected. I believe that I have worked very well in this module as I have spent extra time in the studio whether it was after 3:30 on a normal day or all day during studio development. This has made me push myself further and in the end I think that it has made me produce better work.

I found the tutorials that we received throughout the module, such as the illustrator workshops and the print inductions, very helpful as I learnt lots of new things. Even though I was already familiar with how to use illustrator at the start of the year, I learnt more nuances to do with the program including some shortcuts and advanced options. Moreover without the help of tutorials I have managed to teach myself basic skills to use InDesign, which I had never used before coming here. I created all of my design boards using InDesign and even though I have a lot more to learn about the software I am beginning to feel more and more confident in using it.

This module it has made me really appreciate feedback from my peers – in previous projects at other institutions I hardly ever received feedback on my works as I was too scared to show it to other people. After having interim critiques and asking my peers I feel a lot more confident with my work and it has helped me develop my skills a lot further than I would have done without any feedback whatsoever. Also feedback helped me overcome any problems that I faced. I often asked people what they thought or how they would overcome the problem that I had to help me solve it myself. Additionally I would try and return the favor as much as possible to anyone else who needed help.

  

If I were to do this whole module again I would probably spend more time planning and brainstorming my ideas before putting them down on paper. That way I think that I would have produced clearer work with clearer messages. But overall I think that I have done quite well considering it is my first completed module.

END OF MODULE QUESTIONNAIRE:

OUGD403 Design Skills

Question 

1. What was your attendance for this module? 90-100%
2. Do you believe that the content of the module was relevant to your development? Agree strongly
3. Do you believe the projects/ briefs were relevant and appropriate for the module? Agree strongly
4. The workload was appropriate to the the level of the module. Agree
5. Do you believe you have fulfilled your learning potential during the module and that it has helped/ will help you to progress? Agree strongly
6. Support from the programme and/or module team during this module was useful and offered an opportunity to discuss my progress. Agree strongly
7. The feedback I was given was useful and helped me progress with my work. Agree strongly
8. Were the assessment criteria explained to you, and did you understand what you were aiming to achieve? Agree 
9. The Library and LRC resources were satisfactory. Agree
10. Appropriate resources (e.g. workshops, equipment, computers, studio space) were available. Agree
11. Approximatley how much did you spend during the course of this module on materials? £19 - On printing.
12. If appropriate write additional comments to the above here:

2. The content of the module was very relevant as most of the work that we will be doing involves Typography in some way shape or form, so being taught about this at an early stage means that we will be more competent in this area for other modules.

3. The projects and briefs were very relevant especially to the study tasks we were given. This meant we could immediately apply the skills that we had just learnt. For the first 2 briefs we applied our knowledge about typography and type anatomy into our own typeface and letterforms. For the second 2 briefs we combined this knowledge with text and image which I found really helpful, also applying what we learnt about grids.

4. I believe that the workload was just right as it meant that I could finish everything as well as doing extra work on some of the briefs. 

5. I definitely think that I have fulfilled my learning potential and I have learnt skills that I can take forward to other modules. 

6. I found all of the module team very helpful during this module. Especially when we had studio development times when tutors would come in and give one to one feedback which really helped me to progress my ideas further. 

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.  

Studio Brief 4 - Initial Poster ideas

To start with I had to decide what message I wanted to portray within the posters based on my article. I thought at first I could take it in one of two ways, to promote wild mushroom foraging or to demote it. But then I also thought that I could focus on the  danger of mushroom foraging for people who aren't experienced, or even parents with young children. Also I thought that I could even create a series of infographics that could act as a guide for foragers, however I think that this message is not strong enough to produce a set of 3. 

I have decided that I will create the posters to create awareness for the dangers of wild mushrooms. I started to plot out some designs that I thought might work in rough.

For my type only posters I thought that I could just use some of the facts that I researched and emphasise the key parts. I thought that this would definitely provide a strong tone of voice and would probably appeal to parents. 

For the type and image posters I played around with the idea of adapting some of the letters into images, like in the word 'mushroom' I could change the o's to create a skull. I think the skull idea works well, but the forage one isn't quite as effective. 

This idea could work as image only if I removed the "Don't risk it" slogan. It is supposed to represent how some mushrooms can be edible where as others can be deadly. 

I also played with the idea of trying to create mushrooms out of glyphs and letters inspired by Patrick Svensson's series of movie posters. I found this idea really simple but effective as it is abstract and would force people to look at the poster until they realise what it is. But then this doesn't convey a message really.  

More experimentations of using glyphs and letters to create forms that look like mushrooms. 

My final ideas for both type and image was to use pictures of mushrooms that look similar (like the Blusher mushroom and the Panther Cap mushrooms) and question the audience which one that they think is poisonous to test them on the spot. I also thought that I could just use one mushroom and ask them if it is edible. I like this idea because it would make the viewer think about the content of the poster. 

Studio Brief 2 - Design Boards

Studio Brief 2 - Final Critique

FINAL DESIGNS.

I printed my final designs on acetate in the digital print studio as I thought that it added to the 'techy' and futuristic feel of the typeface. This is because the shine on the acetate reminds me of a computer screen. I'm really pleased with the outcome and I think that it would work really well as a display font or in large text. 

If I was to do this project again, I think that I would focus on making each letterform cleaner, and perhaps have a grid structure that matched up the circles and rectangles to make each letterform coherent instead of placing them randomly. 

The feedback I received was mostly good - I was complemented on the layout of my type specimen poster and how well the font works overall. 

Studio Brief 4 - Message and Delivery - Delivery Research

AWARENESS POSTERS

I researched into awareness posters and how they are laid out and I found the Frank posters from 2011 produced by Mother Ad Agency in London. The posters aimed to encourage young people to seek accurate and impartial information about drugs. They did this in a very simplistic style, with a colour palette of a emerald green, black and white. They have used big, bold type as if to force this message onto the viewer and make them read it. Even though the subject of this awareness campaign isn't that similar to my topic I still think that I could take ideas from this design. 

This poster by Studio8 also inspired me quite a lot. I like the idea of taking something and making it into another shape to give it a different meaning. With this they have used a photograph but within my own work I could use an illustration. Additionally I like the way the white space frames the poster, with everything central to the image. I could use this idea either for type and image or just image perhaps.

I found this poster in a book about 2 colour graphic design and it really stood out to me. I love the use of the deer illustration in the background as it makes it look like the text is layed over a wallpaper of sorts. Also, the varied positioning of the text is effective in making the whole piece feel organic and hand made rather than any other digital poster. I think that I will try to replicate a similar effect but with mushrooms rather than deer in my own work. 

Studio Brief 4 - Posters that inspire me

Mark Gowing  - Personal Works.

I really like how simplistic Gowing's work is yet it can convey such a strong message. Both of these posters are some of his personal works, one against shark culling in Australia and the other protesting about oil. Both of these subjects interest me as well so it helps to draw me into the posters. Both posters only use two colours to add to the impact. I like the play on shapes within the "Culling is Killing" poster, how he has added fins to coffins emulating sharks. 

Animal Canon

I really like all of Animal Canon's work as they are all screen-printed posters and I love the effect that screen-prints produce. It makes them feel more hand made and organic than normal printing methods. I particularly like the "Crane your Swan Neck" with it's use of geometric shapes and hatched patterns. I also like the fact that it is black and white, it adds to the drama of the hatching and draws your eye to the white triangle where the text of the poster is positioned. 

TYPE ONLY POSTERS

Minimalist movie posters by Patrik Svensson.

Find the whole series here

Patrik Svensson created a series of film posters using type only to try and represent the film with 2 characters. I really like the effect that this makes, as you have to look hard to see how they have been made, like with the 2 Days in Paris poster, two 2s have been combined to create a heart. Also the monochrome look works very well, with the gradient that works almost like a spotlight on the characters.  

IMAGE ONLY POSTERS

Race to Death Project and Personal work by Aron Vellekoop León

The style of these posters remind me of the cubist style posters like the ones by A.M. Cassandre. Both of these posters convey a message without the need of type. I have interpreted that the poster on the right is supposed to represent someone's life - with parts like the hole punch, coffee maker and paper clip representing work, the drugs and cigarettes representing habits and the money represents the individuals motivation in life. The poster on the left however is named the "Race to Death" project, which could mean that the design thinks that we as a society rely on transport too much. It shows the progression from child - with children's toys - to adult with cars and other transport - to old age - with a stretcher and wheelchair. 

Studio Brief 3 - Design Boards