This module has developed my graphic design practice in all areas. I have thoroughly enjoyed this module and having live briefs to work on seeing my work out there. It has opened my eyes to the real world and graphic design.
The first project that I worked on was the cheese society as I was promoted the graphic designer. This is an on going project that is still going now. I can see how my designs have developed throughout this project, looking back at my first design now I know where I went wrong and how I could improve my designs. My process was a lot of hand drawn type and sketching to get it right, I then scanned in all of my designs and added them to illustrator and Photoshop. I have developed a lot of skills on illustrator through out doing this brief.
The next project I worked on was the Ohh Deer.com cushion design brief. This brief was completely open and there were no requirements other than for it to work with the brand. The competition was voted for online by how many likes shares and tweets your designs got. I knew I wanted my cushion designs to be bright and colourful to add some colour into any room. I also wanted texture within my design so I decided to experiment with paint and cling film. The cling film allowed me blend the colours and add texture. I added paint to the paper and got piece of cling film lifted the cling film and transferred it to another piece of paper to create a unique pattern. Overall I was really happy with my designs I think they fit in with the brand well.
I also did an advert for Nest the student magazine for Leeds College of Art for Sela Bar in Leeds a bar that specialises in cocktails, pizza and unique beer. I researched into Sela Bar and their previous designs and found they used a lot of red and blue in their designs so I used this as my colour palate. I used hand drawn type and an illustrative design making the type look like the actual thing for example the ‘Pizza’ type to look like dripping cheese and the ‘Beer’ type to look like the refreshing bubbles of beer. On the advert I also included the icons to their social media sites including their Facebook, twitter and Instagram.
I was approached by my fried Jack Read to design a logo for his radio session in Manchester ‘PD Sessions’. I found this logo quite difficult to design. He showed me what another designer did for him and explained why he didn’t like it. He told me that he would like a graffiti style and showed me images of styles that he likes. I initially thought of designing him something hand drawn and graffiti, after a while of drawing my designs I realised it wasn’t working. The graffiti style that Jack wanted made it look quite tacky and after my research I noticed that all of the designs for radio station logos were very simple and clean designs. I explained my issues with Jack and sent him some images of some moc up ideas that I had and he loved the idea with the mic and understood what my issues were. The overall logo looked nice and simple it only needed to be in black and white, Jack also wanted it in inverted colours for use elsewhere. The ‘PD’ is the icon he is going to use on his Youtube channel and other social medias and for the end of e-mails, letter heads etc he will use the full logo.
Feathr was another brief I did, it caught my eye as I am interested in pattern design. I wanted the wallpaper to tell a story and to include colour and texture. I decided to base the design on the Grande Palace in Thailand a place I visited and admired in the summer. I wanted the wallpaper to have an oriental feel. I researched using library books on pattern design and researching into artists online such as Cath Kidson and Tyler Spragler. The design we made needed to be a repeat pattern and look right when repeated. I experimented a lot digitally using illustrator and adding textures on Photoshop. The vectors are simple colourful but I still think they show oriental and Thiland well.
I wanted to leave enough time for a YCN or DandAD project and I did. After much reading of all of the briefs I finally settled to do Interflora, the brief was to make younger people more aware of grandparents day, after further reading into the brief it went on about young people who don’t see their grandparents as often as they would like and sending them flowers to celebrate grandparents day. I researched into grandparents and the products out there already, they all went for quite a humours tone so I decided to do the same with my campaign but still get the tone of voice right for Interflora. I used a simple character design of some chattering teeth thought the whole campaign to keep it consistent.
This has been my favourite module of uni so far as I have enjoyed doing the live briefs. I have seen my work develop throughout each brief. There were other briefs I would of liked to have done for this module but there just wasn’t enough time.
Surprisingly I think I have managed my time effectively thought the briefs, I have enjoyed working on all of the briefs equally and have really expanded my skills.
