Studio Brief 2: Event/public space choices

Event 1

Leeds West Indian Carnival
'Leeds West Indian Carnival is Europe’s longest running authentic Caribbean carnival parade. What started in the 1960’s as one man’s remedy for West Indian homesickness is now the perfect blend of jaw-dropping costumes, infectious tropical rhythms, mouth watering food and entertainment for everyone.'

The carnival is held on the last Monday in August, in the streets of Leeds. 
There are carnival events, carnival arts and carnival workshops which attract a total of over 100,000 people. 
The poster that I could design could either be to advertise the date of the festival for 2017, or it could act a a tribute celebrating the festival within Leeds and the sense of community and celebration of culture it allows for.

Event 2

fig. 1

fig. 2

fig. 3

fig. 4

fig. 5

Hyde Park Picture House - 102nd year renewal
The Hyde Park Picture House opened on November 7th 1914, meaning that it was a valued building by the majority of the locals. It served as a place for news bulletins, the displaying of war footage and moral boosting dramas to distract everyone from what was happening in the wider world. 
I have chosen to research into this as an event in Leeds that is celebratory as it provides a lot for the community in Leeds for over 102 years. It has faced closure a number of times due to low funding, but it has always been saved as it is valued by many within Leeds. Recently winning the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project to protect and restore the existing building can start in August 2017, allowing it to be reopened again in November. 
The poster that I will produce could focus on the reopening as a public event and something that should be celebrated. It is an old building that has a lot of history and valuable memories for many people over the past 100 years. 

I visited the location to get some primary images (fig.1) that I could use for collaging, screen print designs and also to generally see the most important features about the building. Research into existing projects related to the Hyde Park Picture House was a useful way to see which features people distinguish to be the most important and unique to the building. A project which focused on the collaging of the most visual elements of the building (fig.2) was a way in which I was able to see the architectural history that the building held, highlighting that it may be something to include in my print if I was to choose this as the final location. Figure 3 shows a series of posters aiming to advertise the venue to a target audience of 65+, an age group that don't often use it. The posters focus on advertising the 'classic cinema' experience and have been presented in a way in which the target audience would find inviting and engaging. The project shown in figure 4 focuses on the different aspects of the Picture House and what it can offer that is unique to the other more modern cinemas. These elements are quality, atmosphere, history and community. I think that these are all elements that make it so successful and a very strong reason as to why it is being renovated after being open for 102 years. I like the style of the posters shown in figure 5 as they are funny and very relatable. The aim of the project was to encourage people to come to the Hyde Park Picture House rather than other cinemas, highlighting all of the annoyances and irritations that would be experienced at the modern day cinema. I could play on this idea and use it as a way of promoting the reopening of the Picture House, encouraging people to visit. 


Event 3

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Leeds Print Festival 2017

One thing that has surprised me about my move to Leeds is how big the creative scene within the city is, the links between music and art is massive. I have really enjoyed attending different art exhibitions, events, gigs and opening nights; encouraging me to look for one of the bigger festivals within the city to research as part of this 'Public Spaces/Events' project. I found that the next upcoming event is Leeds Print Festival (fig. 6), an event held to celebrate the use of traditional and contemporary printing methods. The event invites professional designers to deliver talks to a paying audience, this year there is an exhibition curated by DR.ME with a variety of exhibitors all with a unique style to print and then a music event held at Leeds College of Music in the evening with some upcoming artists. 

This event could be something to focus on as the reasonings for it shaping Leeds are that it bring all creatives and those with a creative interest together to celebrate how print has developed over the years and how now we are mixing old and new processes together to create some interesting and experimental pieces of work. 
Research has shown that there are not a lot of promotional prints for the festival, allowing for a project to be developed in order to help promote either the exhibition that will be held at Colours May Vary (fig. 7), or the music event that is in the evening at Leeds College of Music (fig. 8). 

John Maeda: The importance of writing

The majority of the year has been complaining about how much writing we have to do on our blogs, design boards and essay writing, but this article clearly highlights the reasons as to why it is actually important that as designers we can write.


Forget coding: Writing is design's "unicorn skill"
The article highlights that a lot of designers can code, which is seen to be a valuable skill when looking for jobs. But it has become very clear that few are just as fluent in their own language. It is thought that words are just as important and powerful in graphics and they are often not considered to be high in the hierarchy of importance when designers are working on briefs. 
An interaction designer may just be thought to be needed to concentrate on the actual coding, but they are actually required to imagine themselves as users and use this to develop a set of 'what if' scenarios. The completion of this requires the ability to write fiction, screenwriting and technical writing to a high level. 

Studio Brief 2: 'Leeds - Public spaces'

Brief:

The uses of public spaces help to communicate the identity and character of the city and in Leeds alone there are a number of carnivals, markets exhibitions, parades, sports events, protests, happenings, flash mobs etc. that are personal to the city.

The brief is to research the various events and happenings that have occurred in Leeds and that have helped to shape the city, choose one and then focus it for an A3 traditional print used to celebrate this event. The A3 print must only use traditional printing methods and will be exhibited in the level 4/5 exhibition in May.

Finished prints for this brief must not be digital.

Interpretation:

I think it would be interesting to use a media that is relevant or related to the chosen event. This could be in the form of existing leaflets, posters or artwork made for it specifically, or publications that are for similar or relevant things. 

It would be effective to experiment with screen printing, collaging and letterpress. 

Studio Brief 1 - Poster planning

The deliverable for Studio Brief 1 is an A2 research poster to identify and summarise:

- 2 key things you have learnt
- 2 key things that have really engaged you
- aims and ambitions for level 5 (and beyond...)
- 2 key things that you have not enjoyed

fig.1 

Over the past few months, I have visited lots of galleries and noted my inspirations within 
the Graphic field and also outside. I started by making a mind map for each of the bullet 
points of content that was needed for the poster.

LEARNT:
- weird work gets noticed - trends are boring
- "learn the rules and break them like an artist" - Pablo Picasso
- breaking the rules only works once you know them
- RGB does not print CMYK colours on printer
- book print slots in advance
- research = good concepts

ENGAGED:
- guest speakers are inspiring and make me feel motivated
- interim crits are useful to kickstart idea generation
- book binding workshop was informative and enjoyable

AMBITIONS:
- to do more photography
- to travel to more places
- to enter more competitions
- to have an internship or work experience
- go to more artist talks and local exhibitions

NOT ENJOYED:
- making sketchbooks for every project, I think it suits certain ones more than others
- blogging everything takes a lot of time
- all nighters are not very fun
- the amount of coffee I have to buy to feel human and stay awake is very costly 

Research: Chris O'Neill and his inspirations

As pairs we had to randomly select an artist someone else in the class considered to be one of their inspirations and research the artist and find out about their inspirations. I think that knowing about other successful artists' inspirations could help me to focus my attention to inspirations in my life that will help to inform my work.

'Chris is an Illustrator and fine artist living in Somerville, MA. You may also call him a draw-er of things. He was forged in the rolling hills of Vermont and weened on the pop culture teet of comics, animation, and video games. He really likes outer-space. His work can be found on the cover of the occasional alt-weekly or gallery wall. He draws constantly, and is super awkward in real life.'

One of his inspirations is his wife. He has a full colour sketchbook from over the past 10 years of being with his wife, documenting his progression as an artist and also their relationship. I found this to be the most interesting part of his artistic career because a passion has helped him to improve on his illustration and he also has a record of this personal development. 

Final submission and evaluation

Final changes:
- Removing the word 'by'
- Changing the packaging so that it only has the orange and green
- Centre the text on the back so that it is the same width as the barcode and fits 
within the same guides as the writing on the spine
- Change the blurb to 'PT Serif Caption' typeface, rather than 'Futura'
- Move the image of the chewing gum so that the bottom of the shadow is in line 
with the bottom of the barcode

Evaluation:
The brief required a design idea that was fresh and avoided the obvious iconography from the previous editions in print. This final design achieves this because the front cover design does not have the illustrative approach that a lot of the previous covers have, making sure that the mockingbird or tree were not included as part of the design is what helped to ensure this fresh outcome. The use of the chewing gum packet is effective because it is a product not obviously associated to the story, but when explored it has a lot of contextual relevance and deeper links that can be made to a lot of the storyline within the book. 
The final outcome is competently executed as it was finalised on Adobe Illustrator, using vectors so that it would not loose any definition when printed or expanded in anyway. In terms of strong use of typography, the design does fulfil the brief because it is heavily focused on the branding and design of the original Wrigley's chewing gum packet design in the 1930s. To further improv the book cover design, it may have been interesting to take the original branding design that everyone knows and play around with it, breaking the rules slightly so that it could become suggestive and represent different messages that occur within the storyline. 
The design will successfully appeal to a contemporary readership because it is minimal, allowing for questions to be raised and discussions to be started. The large amount of white space is something that has started to become a trend in contemporary designs, allowing for the focus to be solely on the one chosen element and not giving away too many details through the use of illustrations. 
The way that it does show a good understanding of the marketplace is the design style in which the book cover has followed, the minimal approach is something that is currently appealing to the target market and a lot of recent publications. The way in which it could further be improved to suit the marketplace is by looking at ways in which the spine could have been made more eye-catching when on the shelf in the shop. Market research did show that a lot of the current fiction book designs were quite dark in colour or had a large colour palette. This means that this one would stand out in the marketplace, but it would be interesting to research more into colour psychology and what could have been changed on the original packaging to fit in more with the storyline of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.
The concept for the final book design does have a point of difference from the other book covers it is competing against, but to improve this further it would have been interesting to not only rely on using digital software. The chewing gum packet could look interesting if mocked up, photographed and then digitally inserted onto the page with natural shadows etc. 

Final crit feedback

The final crit allowed me to get further feedback on the last few small design details that I needed further opinions on. The comments all confirmed that the concept was strong and that it was a unique approach to presenting the story of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. It was thought to be a concept that held a lot of meaning and caused the audience to be curious about what it could represent, but successfully not giving away too much about the storyline of the novel.

Despite the concept being quite modern and minimal, I wanted to see if the orange/red background (fig. 1) positively added to the overall design or just added another visual element that didn't necessarily add anything to the concept. The feedback seemed to suggest that the red is overpowering and that by having the fonts in the colours of the palette is the most effective way to add the colour throughout the whole design. I agree with the feedback on the colour as I feel like by including it, it can appear as though I was too scared to leave it blank and fully accept the idea that it is a minimal piece of work.

In terms of general design decisions, I chose to accurately recreate the typeface that is present on the original 1930s Wrigley's chewing gum packet. The inclusion of the word 'by' before the authors name was seen to be too cluttered and that the design may improve if this was to be left out. Another improvement that could be made for the final design is to limit the colour scheme to only the orange and green as the red does look like it has been added in wrong. The only way it may work successfully is to change the red sections on the package design to the orange, but making it very slightly darker. 

The placement of the text on the back was something I had found difficult to decide on, wanting to stick with the minimalism that is on the front, but also not wanting it to look empty of wrongly positioned. Feedback suggested that the positioning of the text in fig.3 should only be like that if there is an image or something that is pushing it to the left. I t was suggested that the positioning of fig.2 was the most suitable. Having the blurb on the back centred wrks well, but the positioning still needs to be refined a little bit more. I think I will keep it centred, but change it so that it is the same width as the barcode at the bottom. Having it centred aligned rather than left works better as more closely represents the text on the chewing gum packet. To allow the back of the book to work alone, the text will need to be made the same width as the barcode and the font will be changed to 'PT Serif Caption' rather than 'Futura'.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Final changes to be made:
- Removing the word 'by'
- Changing the packaging so that it only has the orange and green
- Centre the text on the back so that it is the same width as the barcode and fits within the same guides as the writing on the spine
- Change the blurb to 'PT Serif Caption' typeface, rather than 'Futura'
- Move the image of the chewing gum so that the bottom of the shadow is in line with the bottom of the barcode

Final 3 developments and feedback

Idea 1

Idea 2

Idea 3

The organisation of an extra small group feedback session was very useful as I was undecided as to what design to continue the development with ready for the final crit presentation. 

It was decided that idea 1 was a good mixture of the concepts in idea 2 and 3. A negative about this design is that the concepts may not be understood by a large number of people, making it appear as just a geometric design with typography placed as part of the composition. It was suggested that a way of improving this design would be to incorporate the green arrow as part of the typography on the front cover. I have decided against the development of this idea as I think it could look too complicated and the concepts would become weaker because there wouldn't be the focus on just the one.

Idea 2 had positive feedback, but it was decided that this was because it was a safe option and that it fits with current trends of design as it uses geometric layouts/designs and pastel colours. Previous research into the other penguin books and winners has shown that   

subtle reference to the book rather than the use of obvious imagery is something that is seen to be much stronger and favoured by Penguin.

Idea 3 was seen to be the strongest as a concept and most different to other existing book covers for this title. The feedback was still very focused n the adjustment of the layout on the back of the book, showing that development still needed to be made to this part of the design concept.