OUGD406 - Studio Brief 01 - Secret 7 - Evaluation

This project was the first time I had been allowed to explore my own illustrative style for a brief and allowed me to be as experimental as I wanted for the first time in the module as there were no restrictions other than the fact it had to fit on a 7" by 7" album sleeve. 

Coming from a fine art background I hadn’t had a chance to play around with illustration in this way and the brief gave me an opportunity to really explore my illustrative style without having to make everything realistic and in proportion.

It gave me a chance to look at how other artists such as Jean Jullien are celebrated for their naive style of drawing and has given me the confidence to use this approach more in my work. 

Up until now the briefs had been very rigid in terms of the deliverables we had to produce eg. something suitable to be used in a practical sense by all of the public. However this brief was the complete opposite and encouraged us to explore as many different routes and styles as possible. 

It was a really proud moment when my design for Jack Garratt's 'Worry' got chosen to be in the exhibition at Sonos Studios in London. 

If I was to do the brief again I would explore a range of different processes including collage and screen printing / monoprinting rather than only simply scanning my illustration into the computer as I did in this project. 

Many of the designs I made would lend themselves perfectly to being screen printed as they only had a maximum of  3 / 4 different colour separations.

I would also submit a handmade physical sleeve rather than a digitally printed copy, as it gives a much more personal handmade touch to whoever buys the record. 

Overall I really enjoyed this brief and will definitely be entering Secret7 again next year. 

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - Individual Practice - Licence to Print Money Page - Evaluation

This project definitely had it's highs and lows for me. At the start I felt really inspired and managed to conduct lots of useful research into potential idea I wanted to explore. 

Even though I am happy with the final concept I had 'make money out of things money can't buy'. I should have explored more potential avenues before settling on this one idea. 

I struggled to make the design look 'finished' for a long time and spent many hours trying to work out what was missing. I feel like I could have resolved this issue a lot quicker by conducting more research into pre-existing banknotes and coupons rather than trying to resolve the issue without any extra sources of inspiatiom. 

Once I got to the stage where I was ready to print I simplified the bank note to just two colour separations as I wasn't confident with screen printing as I had never done it before and thought it was really complicated. 

Screen printing and aligning the different colour separations was a lot easier than I anticipated which made me regret not being more adventurous, however for a first attempt at screen printing I was really pleased with how it turned out.

The colours were really vibrant and everyone seemed to love the finished piece. 

This brief was great at introducing me to the college’s facilities and I’ve discovered that I absolutely love screen printing, although it takes 10 times longer than digital printing, the finish is much more interesting and you can acheive effects a digital printer wouldn’t be able to like using fluorescent or metallic inks and printing onto more unusual stock.

I can’t wait to do it again!

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 03 - Collaborative Practice - Exhibition Branding - Evaluation

On the whole working collaboratively with my group was a good experience as we worked really well as a team. We delegated roles as fairly and evenly as possible and helped each other out wherever we could. 

Anytime we came up with a new resolution for a set task eg. Making the press pack or the posters etc. we posted it in the group chat for feedback on where it could be improved. 

We also set times to meet up in person in the week at stages of the design process where we felt it necessary. We also stuck to the set time plan, ensuring that we met all of the deadlines.

The communication in the group was fast and reliable and we all got along really well, bouncing off each other’s ideas and taking any feedback on board. 

I used to despise the idea of working in a group as I am a huge control freak and like things done a certain way, however this experience has shown me the benefits collaborating with other people can have including sharing the workload and getting new ideas through group discussions.

Working in a group was also helpful for when you hit a creative wall as there were a lot of
people there to support you and give you a fresh perspective and to help steer you back in the right direction. 

Our group got shortlisted to present our ideas to Bank House and first direct which I think proves how successfully we worked together as a team to come up with an appropriate resolution for the brief. 

OUGD406 -Studio Brief 04 - Reflective Practice - Evalutation

I really enjoyed the final brief in OUGD406 as it gave us an opportunity to reflect on what we had learnt over the course of the year and allowed us to think about the challenges we have overcome as well as a few mistakes that we have learnt from and would do differently in level 5. 

The brief allowed me to explore my own individual style and gave me a chance to use the screen printing facilities at the college, building my confidence in this area of design. 

I was really happy with how the prints turned out. Despite the process of actually making the prints taking 2 full days the end results were definitely worth it as they gave a more personal hand made finish. 

Obviously as screen printing is a handmade process there were pieces that went wrong / smudged/ used too much ink however it was these imperfections that made each print unique. 

I made sure I had a few spares of each print incase something went wrong on the next colour separation. Luckily nothing went too wrong and I ended up with 3 good final resolutions.

I had to retouch some of the black lines on each of the prints where the ink hadn’t gone through and due to my screen not being properly stripped at the beginning of the process, the blue on my calendar prints went a bit patchy however everyone I asked said
they liked this effect and asked how I got it as it makes the print look more textured. 

If I was to do the project again I would maybe try effects like layering the colours rather than printing out each colour as one layer onto the white paper to see what effects I could acheive. 

I would also make the skin tone on the arm bolder and more vibrant.

Apart from this I am happy with the results and I feel like I was successful in creating a piece of work that first years would like looking at and be able to relate back to throughout the year.

Hopefully the fun and laid back nature of the prints will help new Level 04 students feel at home in their new environment as it will help them to relax and have fun with their work.

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Reflective Practice - Final Pieces

These are my final posters for the project. 

Overall I’m really happy with the way the prints turned out. Obviously as it is a handmade print process there were ones that went wrong / smudged/ used too much ink however it is these imperfections that make each print unique. 

I made sure I had a few spares of each print incase something went wrong on the next colour separation. Luckily nothing went too wrong and I ended up with 3 good final resolutions.

I had to retouch some of the black lines on each of the prints where the ink hadn’t gone through and due to my screen not being properly stripped at the beginning of the process, the blue on my calander prints went a bit patchy however everyone I asked said they liked this effect and asked how I got it as it makes the print look more textured. 

If I was to do the project again I would maybe try effects like layering the colours rather than printing out each colour as one layer onto the white paper to see what effects I could acheive. 

I would also make the skin tone on the arm bolder and more vibrant.

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 02 - Individual Practice - Licence to Print Money Page - Development

This was the point I got stuck at when it got to the the final crit. I felt I had hit a wall and was really not happy with how the design was looking. 

These are the Questions I asked and feedback I received from the crit: 

Which of the different colour schemes work best? 

- The 1st and third are the cleanest I think 

-  I really like the poppy visual use of colour and would recommend taking advantage of spot colours when screen printing, for example fluorescent inks. 

- Pink / Green / Yellow works the best as a colour combo.

- Pink, green and yellow as it is vibrant and bright works well to motivate and pops off the page. 

- Red / Blue / Orange - the bold colours help the design stand out. 

- I prefer the last one, pink and green as it goes with the funky retro feel.

- Second and third - would be amazing screen printed due to the well balanced tones. 

- Green and orange for me

- I like the last colour scheme however would consider adding yellow for more contrast. 

I feel like there is something missing from the design like a pattern in the white spaces. Any suggestions on how I could make it look less bare / tie the whole design together? 

- Look into the composition of current banknotes. Maybe reducing the size slightly of the individual components would allow for more white space to experiment with introducing other aspects such as patterns etc. 

- Maybe include NYC - Casey's love for it and where he works? - He loves 2 dollar bill, maybe use as a denominator? 

- Look into guiloche patterns?

- Something as simple as textured paper to print on could help? you could even experiment with different boarder colours (this could help to contain the design and give it more structure) 

- Incorporate a jazzy collage perhaps? Maybe some cool leaves poking out or even the number of the note repeated in different sizes? 

- maybe framing the design with a pattern? 

- Bright stock would make the design pop! and be more eye-catching. Adding a boarder would also add definition to the design and break up the white space. 

ONCE I had got this feedback there were some new aims I wanted my design to incorporate: 

• Add boarder to design
• Look at features of existing banknotes 
• Look at different coloured stock 
• Use flourescent inks
• Play around with existing layout to incorporate more elements. 

I also wasn't happy with the typefaces I had chosen as they were still the same ones as from my initial quick sketches. 

I looked on pinterest to see if there were any different forms of typography I was more interested in that I could apply to my design. These were a few that jumped out at me. 

I loved the bold, eye-catching letters as well as the colour schemes of these screen printed posters. Casey had also mentioned in his vlogs how he loves the colour scheme green and pink so I thought it fitted in perfectly!

The typography in this poster instantly stood out to me and I thought it would be really interesting to replicate through screen printing. 

I replicated the type in illustrator using 'HalloEuroboy' a font I downloaded from online and then copied and pasted it over each other multiple times to make this simple yet effective typeface. 

I also discovered an old coupon I found from Fred Aldous with the same colour scheme that I had been looking at. This gave off the kind of retro vibe I had been after and incorporated many of the features I wanted to include such as a boarder and bright colours. I thought to keep the design futuristic and to tie in with my theme of 'money as something money can't buy' I decided to go down the route of making my design more like a coupon than a bank note. 

I defined the sunglasses on Casey's face to make them stand out more as they are his trademark accessory so were an important part of the design.

 

I also switched the side that he was positioned on to make it look more like the format of current bank notes. 

Inspired by the collaborative branding brief that was running at the same time as this project I incorporated patterns commonly found on receipts to break up the design and make it more interesting. I felt my note was finally beginning to take shape. 

I added the star sign ' 24 hrs' to make it look like a 'sale' sticker however decided to replace it as it made the design look a bit clumsy. 

I still felt like there was something missing to the design. I then realised a lot of people might not recognise the figure as Casey Neistat as he is a relatively new celebrity after only becoming youtube famous in the last couple of years. I felt the design needed his name to be included so people could at least read who the design was of if they didn't recognise him. I also added two flexing emojis to represent motivation, making the design more universally understood, which was one of my initial aims in the brief. 

I then began considering how I was going to produce the design. I had never done screen printing before or used the college's screen printing facilities so was nervous about the next stage having only had an induction up to now.

For this reason I decided to simplify my design from a 3 colour separation to 2. I felt this would help me get the prints right first time as it was less lining up to worry about and I could easily try and redo them if they went wrong. I also felt using just two contrasting colours instead of 3 would create a more eye-catching and vivid effect. 

This was the outcome I got from altering the design to two colour separations. I then wanted to add a border and a patterned background behind casey's head just to fill the space more. 

This was the final design of the bank note. The border was made from more patterns inspired by receipts and the dotted background was inspired by multiple screen prints I had seen. 

I then made it into two colour separations which I thought looked pretty cool on their own!

I chose a range of GFSmith stocks to print my design onto including the following: 

• Colourplan / Cool Grey / 135 gsm
• Gmund Action / Clear Blue Sky / 310 gsm
• Gmund Action / Alpine Sparkling Water / 310 gsm
• Colourplan / White Frost / 135 gsm

Gmund Action / Alpine sparkling water / 310 gms was my favourite stock as it was white, which allowed the colours to stand out against it but also had a subtle irridescnet shimmer when help in the light. Unfortunately all the prints I did on this stock had imperfections so I couldn't use them as my final piece for submission however for the exhibition I may print a few more to put display. 

These are my final prints being made:

Final Outcomes:

Final result: 

I'm really happy with how it turned out! The colours were really vibrant and everyone seemed to love the finished piece. 

Screen printing and aligning the different colour separations was a lot easier than I anticipated which made me regret not being more adventurous, however for a first attempt at screen printing I think it went really well.

This brief was great at introducing me to the college's facilities and I've discovered that I absolutely love screen printing, although it takes 10 times longer than digital printing, the finish is much more interesting and you can acheive effects a digital printer wouldn't be able to like using fluorescent or metallic inks and printing onto more unusual stock. I can't wait to do it again!

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Reflective Practice - Sketching and Development

After the crit I decided to narrow it down to 3 ideas:

- You’ve got bear blogging to do

- Book the print room now

- Always proof read

I began sketching layout and characters for these 3 posters, keeping in mind that they all had to work as a set so to keep the colour scheme, typography and illustrative style coherant across the 3 designs.

These are the first sketches I did. I sketched everything out in pencil first to get an idea of the composition on each poster. 

I then re-drew them in pen and scanned them into photoshop so I could play around with the possibilities of different colour schemes. 

As I knew I was going to screen print the posters I needed to keep my colour choices simple so limited each screen print to a maximum of 4 colour seperations.

To make the set of posters coherent I decided to focus on a limited colour palette so they all looked good when displayed together on the wall. It would also make the process of screen printing cheaper and easier as I wouldn’t have to buy as many different pots of
medium or spend as much time mixing the colours. 

I experimented with various layouts and sketched out a number of variations of the type using hand lettering. 

I decided to change ‘you’ve got bear blogging to do’ to ‘blogging is bearable’ as it reassures freshers and makes blogging seem less daunting rather than frightening them with the amount of blogging that is required. 

I found it quite challenging to position both the illustrations and typography together effectively on the page so it took me various attempts to come up with an appropriate layout for each poster. 

These 3 coloured images were the first resolution I got for the posters. 

I asked my peers for feedback and I soon realised that they weren’t as visually eye catching as I had hoped them to be. 

The typography across the set wasn’t consistent which made them look
unfinished and clumsy and many people didn’t understand the ‘Book the print room now’ until I explained that ‘You have to book the print room so far in advance you’re not even born yet’.

This dawned on me that if my own classmates didn’t understand then freshers definitely wouldn’t as they would have never experienced a drop in queue. 

This would mean the project was pointless as one of the main deliverables was that it had to be suitable for freshers.

I went back to the drawing board and decided to make each poster with the same typography. 

I also changed the illustration from an unborn baby to a calendar on the ‘book the print room’ poster. After making these alterations the posters looked much more consistent and worked a lot better as a set. 

I chose CMYK colour #608091 in photoshop to try and replicate with the screen print inks as it worked well as the colour for the bear’s fur but also looked good as the stripes and the calendar headers. 

Once I was happy with the colour scheme and composition I printed out the different colour separations for each poster and got them exposed onto 3 large screens.
 

The process of getting the screens developed and actually printing the posters took a total of 2 whole days.

Fortunately everything went according to plan and I didn’t have too many major issues when screen printing. 

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Reflective Practice - Speaking From Experience - Initial Ideas

Aiming to entertain, inform and give advice.

I wanted to take mistakes I had made in the year and make them into funny posters using screen print to create them, focusing on typography and illustration. 

These are my initial ideas: 

• 'YOU'VE GOT BEAR BLOGGING TO DO' - with an illustrated bear blogging. 
• 'ALWASY PROOF REED' - purposely spelt wrong. Maybe on a tattoo.
• 'BLOG DON'T SLOG' - with the definitions of both words underneath. 
• 'BOOK THE PRINT ROOM NOW' - Maybe an unborn baby to emphasise point. 
• 'DON'T CHASE GRADES - EXPLORE!' 
• 'THROW YOURSELF IN AT THE DEEP END!' 

I would use a simple screen print and nice stock to make a fun A3 poster. 

This is the bear I drew for one of the ideas:

Feedback: Add pencil to his ear and scraps of food / paper / pencil sharpening in his fur to show the stress of the bear. 

I know I've spelt 'there's' wrong, OOOPS!

Other Idea:

For the 'Aways proof read I was considering using an illustration like this one by jean jullien to emphasise the point'. 

To get some peer feedback I asked 2 questions about my ideas:

Which is your favourite idea?

- 'Book the Print room' Screen print will make it cheap to reproduce

- 'Book the Print room' 

- 'Blog don't slog' - a good slogan, very relevant as a lot of us leave it to last minute.

- 'I like the bear pun' 

- 'Bear blogging' - love the illustration and the humour is simple yet informative way to get the point across' 

- 'I like them all, maybe you could produce a series of posters to go on the studio walls.' I think you could produce 4/5 posters quite easily. I think if they were framed in the studio people would be engaged and take the advice. Love the illustrations but I'd work on your typography., not a fan of the drop shadows. Maybe use book the print room as that's very important advice!! 

- Bear! I love it!

- The print room poster is so clever!

- They all look good but would be great to produce them as a set!

- In terms of usefulness the the blog it info is the best idea, the screen print is my favourite idea though. 

- You've got bear blogging to do is my favourite as it's playful but highlights important advice.


Anything I could do to improve the designs?

- I feel the slogan 'Blog don't Slog' is strong and would be more effective without the word definitions. The small text takes away the impactful, bold coloured type.

- Add some food / bits of paper to the bear's fur to make it look bare stressed out. 

-Perhaps just use the slogans by themselves to make them more visually appealing.

Other Feedback

- Create a series of similar prints with 3 -4 of the concepts, there are a lot of strong funny concepts here that could follow a consistent theme. 

- I feel engaging the audience is key in this brief. Think of the target audience - Design students - what would engage you? they're all really good ideas. 

- It's really engaging and the tone of voice is really refreshing and posh

- Purely type screen prints might look really good, use neon stock etc. Create something people would want to stick up in their bedroom

- IT is engaging, perhaps experiment with other colour combinations. 

- The tone of voice is obviously a soft, humorous one. 

OUGD406 - Studio Brief 04 - Reflective Practice - Speaking From Experience

BRIEF: For this brief we have to produce a graphic response/ graphic product /piece of work that makes a statement, comment, observation or gives advice about your experience on out first year of this course. We can work with any appropriate media or format and develop and identify the content within the work whether that is entertaining, advisory or informative.

To get us started we must to think back to the new experiences that we have had, the difficulties that we have overcome, the new people we have met and the life skills that we have acquired this year.

The brief is an opportunity to help next years graphic design students make a comfortable transition into the student experience, and make the course more welcoming. 

AIMS:

• Take advantage of the processes and facilities at uni, particularly screen-printing 

• Show that Graphics doesn't have to be all about Swiss design and can incorporate illustration, bright colours and be not taken too seriously.

• Include a fun light hearted observation or piece of advice to reassure first years and to encourage them to relax and feel at home and exited to be here. 

• Create a vibrant, fun and interesting product

• Aim to create a one off professional piece that brightens the look of the first year studio aswell.