Studio Practice: 2017

Wednesday, 20 December 2017

Astro-Beat Collective: Visual research

The visual research began by looking at the idenities of other colectives, to see if there was a particular approach that worked best, the elements that I needed to consider and to also make sure that I didn't repeat anything that had already been done.

Tight Lines

'Independent Record Label presenting emerging bands from Leeds such as Garde Dog, Têtes de Pois, Skwid Ink and DULAHLI. As well as putting out releases, we also put on a wide variety of events around Leeds including Chill Withers and Tight Lines Jam.'

Endless city - cosmic slop

'Endless City is an Art & Music collective based in Leeds & Manchester. Putting out boundary pushing club nights, exhibitions, print fairs and launches.'

Unified Soul 

'Unified Soul, a new dance movement. Formed out of Leeds, UK.
We intend to inspire, create and grow. No limitations. The Unified Soul movement begins now.'

I found that each of the collectives had their own visual identity that could then be applied to different pormotional images and merchanidse. This was not a major part of each of the individual events that they hold, the posters for particular events did not focus too much on the identity of hte collectives but more on the actual event.

The next part of the visual research was looking at the social media presences of the two bands that are performing at the event and then also the identity and some other posters released at the venue of Hyde Park Book Club. This part of the visual research will be most useful when designing the pormotional materials for the collective.

Henge

'Attention Earth!
This is Henge.
We come in the name of rave.
We bring you the gift of Cosmic Dross - a kind of music new to your world.
We have news. Planet Earth is an experiment.
Your species was sent codes from space, to help you love and dance.
But your leaders grew scared. They hid the codes from you. Now your consciousness shrinks and they destroy your world with weapons of war.
Ravelings of Earth, rebel! Absorb the mutated frequencies of Cosmic Dross. There are no Earth words to describe these sounds. But you will learn how to love and dance again.
This is your future. Put down the weapons. Unite. And colonise space.'

The band 'Henge' have a very strong and unique identity based around the creation of their own alien language that the often communicate with on stage and within their music. Alot of the visuals released in relation to them are space related, bold typefaces and very illustration focused. There is alot of imagery held within shapes such as circles and squares and then placed on a alrge area of white space with the infor mation carefully placed.

Morpher

'Born in Leeds, fusing acoustic instruments with electronic effects, they
blend their Jazz upbringing with hints of Drum and Bass, Hip-Hop and
electronic music. Their live performance is an unforgettable experience
where you will be exposed to unheard sounds and grooves that are guaranteed to blow your ears off.

Made up of Jasper Cole on Saxophones and wind synthesisers, Frazer Kerslake on electric bass and Chris Mcintyre on hybrid acoustic/electric Drums. They draw their influences from artists such as Kamasi Washington, Nerve, Thundercat, badbadnotgood, GoGo Penguin, Avishai Cohen Trio, Tigran Hamasyan, J Dilla and Kendrick Lamar.'

The identity of Morpher will be dfferent alongside the release of the promotion materials for the Astro-Beats event as the re-branding of this band is also something I am working on. The social media presence of this group of musician seems to be playful and also space realted, soemthing that iwllneed to be portrayed within the deisgns for the promotional material released. The band do not have a consistent identity developed as of yet as they are a fairly new in the usic scene, so this collective project has been seen to be a goood opportunity to rebrand and release in January 2018, in the hope that from then on all promotional material will be consistent and have a professional finish.

Hyde Park Book Club

'Coffee//Arts//Space//Food//Wine//Beer//Djs//Performance on Hyde Park Corner, Leeds, Yorkshire.'

Astro-Beat Collective: Brief

I was contacted by a friend at Leeds College of Music asking if I could help with their 3rd year events management project. The project was to set up a collective and host an event night of their choice.

The discussion with the collective lead to the agreement that I would design an identity for them as a group and then also all of the pormotional matieral needed to hold a music event - social media designs, posters, tickets, flyers etc.

Brand Name: Astro-Beat Collective
Project Deadline: March 2nd is the event, but promotion needs to begin before christmas
Brief Description (brand philosophy): 'Astro-Beat is a collective of young musicians and promoters aiming to create the greatest, craziest and spaciest events in Leeds.'

Outcome Required e.g. Logo, Poster: logo, social media content for facebook, poster, flyer, ticket
Applications: will be used across social media platforms, on promotional material and merchandise

Now that I have intiially filled out the brief form, the actual brief canbe determined between me and the client and also the concept/proposition will be something that I go back to fill out after research and intial ideas have been generated.

Brief
Astro-Beat is a collective of young musicians and promoters aiming to create the greatest, craziest and spaciest events in Leeds. The collective would like a logo to portray their style of events and all of the pormtoional materials needed for the music event they are hosting at Hyde Park Book Club in March 2018.

OUGD404: Review of design process

Interrogation:

Did you analyse/ interpret the brief?

I wrote the brief out and then went straight to mind mapping the different directions I could take. To improve this in other projects I will concentrate more on the wording of the briefs and try to pick out exactly what the brief is asking for. This will ensure that I am able to explore every possible direction in which the brief could be taken and interpretation has not been taken wrong.
For this brief, I spent more time interpreting the requirements and different considerations that I would need to make in order to respond in the most appropriate way.

Did you think about the contexts of the brief?

Yes, I looked at other books that were sold in art shops or places of collectable books. I also looked in shops such as Urban Outfitters as they are popular with the particular target audience that the book design was aimed at.
I could have focused more on other apps aimed at students, but yes I did consider the context and how the app would be used in the mornings so based the colour scheme on a sunrise.

Did you outline the problem?

The problem identified was that there is not an easy and aesthetically engaging publication on the history f decriminalisation of the lgbtq+ community, so the book needed to be designed with this particular style in mind.
The problem was that there was not one singular platform in which all creative articles can be found, meaning that students and young designers find it hard and intimidating keeping up with all of the creative news that is published each day. The problem was that time was being wasted scrolling through social media each morning rather than a timeline of creative articles that could potentially inspire decisions throughout the day and generally set up a creative person in the morning rather than reading about other peoples nights out etc.

Was your research thorough and meaningful?

The research focused a lot on existing publications published with this particular community of people in mind which was useful to see what was working and what wasn't. Research into the different production method was also meaningful, but maybe could have been a little more extensive and then there wouldn't have been any design problems at the end of the process with foiling.
The analysis of existing news apps was thorough and the successful elements of these apps was taken and applied to the design of ‘creō’ to ensure that the content was accessible, fulfilling the purpose of the app to be a quick solution to keeping up to date with creative news. The research into the iOS human interface guides was meaningful as it ensured that the designs fit the intended devices and reacted to the user interaction.

Did you arrive at some ideas through research?

Sans serif typeface was taken from research into existing lgbtq+ magazine and other publications. The perfect binding/squared spine was decided upon as it seemed to be the most popular in terms of aesthetics and also to achieve the high quality finish that the client wanted.
The decision to use a white background came from research into existing news apps and creative websites, ensuring that the focus was on the content and not just the visuals. The typeface choices also were a result of research into magazine layouts, finding out the idea that there is often 3 typefaces used to ensure visual contrast and the ability to split the different parts such as titles and body text.

Did you generate more than 1 conceptual idea?

The Initial idea generation stage showed the different routes I could have taken in terms of concept. To improve as a designer I need to focus less on how the final outcome will look and experiment more in the early stages, potentially resulting in stronger ideas conceptually.
This part of the app design was explored in terms of layout and colour to portray different concepts. But could have been taken further initially in order to have more experimental concepts.

Did you generate multiple visual/creative solutions?

There was a lot of idea generation throughout the whole process, it could have been enhanced by making each idea extremely different and more experimental rather than playing safe the whole way through
visually there were a number of solutions proposed at the beginning of the process, once again it is a personal weakness of mine by not initially being risky in terms of exploration.

Did you go through an iterative process of experimentation and improvement?

Yes, there was a very large number of improvements made throughout the design process. I designed and re-designed in response to feedback constantly until it was time to submit a final design in time for printing.
Yes, the feedback sessions in the studio helped me to see which parts fo the design did and din’t work. One of the biggest changes was to have the overall logo as a black typeface and then use the colours throughout the app to differentiate between the different sections.

Did you propose a number of possible solutions as prototypes?

Experimentation with foiling was one of the most vital prototyping as it then resulted in a complete re-design of the front cover. If I was to approach a similar brief again then I would prototype a number of binding solutions to see which one worked the best. For the book i had never perfect bound before, so luckily the research into the process was effective or it could have wasted a lot of money and time.
The prototyping of the app took place on Adobe XD and yes, the linking of each of the elements was initial proposed as a solution and had to be changed a number of times in order to have a finalised app that works together.

Did you leave enough time to ensure your final outcome was as good as it could be?

I could have started the final production process earlier, but I left more than enough time to complete the production of the book and it was finished to a high standard. To improve, I would have liked to have played around with stock variation more than I did.
The animation of the app would have been the part in which I would have spent more time on if I was to re-visit this brief. As I had never used Adobe After Effects before, this meant that the animation process was longer than necessary and I wasn’t able to animate the whole app in use to a high quality.

Books:
Creative process in graphic design
From problem to solution
An introduction to research methods in graphic design

Individual Practice - Generating briefs

In order to receive a brief from a client with enough detail in order to produce an outcome that they are satisfied with, I researched into Graphic Design Brief templates and what is often included in these. I will be able to send these over to the clients or cross check it for a personal record to ensure that I have asked the right questions.

CONTENT
The template I will be using covers all of the things that I will need to consider when starting a new brief. The information below is what I found when looking for the details which need to be included in each of the sections. Things such as budget and tone may have previosuly been things that I would have assumed myself, rather than confirming with the client.

Background Overview - This section provides information about the company, service or product. How would the client describe their business? What background info is relevant, including previous marketing campaigns? What do you need to know about their product or service for the current project?
Objectives - Goals need to be clearly defined because they will affect all other decisions on a project. Does the client want to sell more products, increase brand awareness, or attract more donors? Do they have a call to action? How will they measure success? Having a concise objective provides a focus for the rest of the project roadmap.
Target Audience - Who is the buyer or intended audience? This may include demographic information such as age, gender, education, or income level as well as info on how often they use the client’s product or service. Knowing your audience will shape the style and messaging of your campaign.
Message - What are the key points that need to be said? What message needs to be conveyed to the target audience, and what is the best way to deliver it?
Tone - What is the tone or image that suits the client’s message or brand? Are there certain colours or fonts that help communicate this? Ask the client to describe the tone, whether it’s sophisticated, fun, or bold, and for to share color, brand, or style guidelines.
Scheduling - Having a timeline is critical for planning any project. Find out if there’s an advertising or publishing schedule you need to track against and solidify your deadlines are for each deliverable.
Assessing Competition - Who is the competition and what do they offer? What makes your client unique? Understanding the competition can provide a clearer picture of where your client stands in the market, which will help you shape your campaign.
Budget - The budget sets the parameters for how much time you have to work with and what materials the client can afford. It’s also how you get paid, so make sure you have a detailed understanding of what costs are included in the budget.

As this module is responsive and very much down to our own management and sourcing of briefs, having a document set up for each of the briefs that either the client or I have filled out will allow me to keep on top of my work and make sure I am meeting each of the briefs requirements and the individual deadlines for them.