Progress Crit 29/04/09

This afternoon I had a group crit to discuss the latest, and final brief we want to do as part of our FMP. We were to go along with a written brief, which didn't have to be final, and initial ideas with a clear direction of where we might want to go with it.

The brief I've decided I want to do is the one I discusses with Justin just before the Easter break. To produce an identity and appropriate promotional material for a confectioners. A confectioners completely made up, in a location of my choice etc. It's not a rebranding brief.

I want to come up with a name, create an identity, and from there create the shop signage, a business card, letterhead, promotional leaflet or postcard, a carrier bag, a design for the receipts, a proposal for a webpage, point of sale/shelf labels, an idea for the uniform and then proposals for some packaging. For example, sweets jars, the paper bags you put sweets in.
Not 100% what I'll be producing for the packaging, as I want to do a bit more research, both looking in books, but also visiting existing confectioners. Especially in York down the Shambles and one I've come across in Pateley Bridge (North Yorks).

I would like to focus mainly on the old traditional confectioners as part of my research. Looking at how typography was composed, the colours they used and other old trends that were functional but are now forgotten about.

The other side to this brief, that I'm not focussing on too much, but is there in the design process when it comes to it, is sustainability. So that it links with my SOI proposal along with working with type, layout and print. But this isn't going to play a huge role, I'm going to go as far as 'Unpackaged' (see previous post), it's just going to play a part when it comes to printing onto recycled paper and limiting the amount of packaging I decide to work with.

Anyways, the crit went well. Took a while to get going and for people to understand where I was coming from, but that was probably down to me not explaining it as well as I could have.

Some feedback I got was..
- have a look at retrosweetshop.com
- as well as having an organic feel to the print stuff, also consider organic produce as a selling point
- Keep it simple, don't over complicate it!
- Look back at how confectioners used to function. Mimic it. i.e sweets covered in flour, the ways in which it was measured etc.
- Consider a floor plan, have different sections for different kinds of products.
- Look at the market now, in competition with posh chocolate shops or somewhere like Woolies. Woolies shutting has made a huge gap in the market.
-Play around with different ideas.

So the next step for me is researching. Visiting some confectioners, in York, Leeds, Harrogate etc. Find old traditional ones, try and get photos and samples to bring home.
Alongside that, look in retail books, see what's going on already in the industry.

I'd better crack on with it then...

Multistorey

I'm currently keeping my eyes peeled for some inspiration for the latest brief I've written. The create an identity, promotional material and anything else appropriate for a confectioners.

I can across the work of Multistorey from looking at 'Unpackaged', the grocery store in London that avoids all aspects of packaging for the products sold there. But anyways, design agency Multistorey helped them out, creating the brand identity originally, but then helping them out with the creative thinking within the shop.

So, from discovering them whilst researching Unpackaged, I had a look at there website. I have a new aim in life....I would love, more than anything, to work for Multistorey! All aspects of their work is amazing, from the type, to layout, to print quality, to paper construction, I love it all. It's all inspiration for all areas of the next brief I want to do and in the future.

Worth keeping an eye on.

Design Context Graphic Product

I'm now at the stage where I really need to be considering what it is I'm going to create for my graphic product as the final stage of the design context part of the FMP..

My subject throughout has been Sustainability Within Design, and I've spent a lot of time discovering designers who work sustainably, how they work sustainably, theories behind becoming a sustainable design, new technologies and all sorts of stuff like that, from searching the internet, to reading magazines and books. But I now need to combine it all together and make some kind of sense of it all.

There are two ways I could take this..
Here is one possible example of the contents page for one idea...
1- An introduction
What is sustainable design?
Why become sustainable?

2- Step By Step Guide to becoming Sustainable
In the studio
Changing you design process
Production
Example of who's already doing what (case studies)

3- In The Future
The benefits of considering sustainability within design

4- Useful Links
To services
Waste/recycling sites
Sustainable designers

So it would almost be like a handbook to sustainable design.

Then the other way I was thinking of putting it together is very much the same, but more of a simple straight forward guide.
Having headers to pages like...
-Accept The Fact You Need TO Change...
-Design To Last
- Help Make The Invisible Visible
- Re-engage With The Making Process etc etc

Then under such headers would be a bit of information about what to do or what it means.
But I think the first idea would make more sense as a book and sum up everything I've learnt whilst doing the Design Context side of things!

Anyways, the production of the book, I'm not sure what to do there either. As it was recommended to use an online publishing service and get it all printed and bound really nicely...but seeing as I'm doing sustainable design, shouldn't I really be doing something like printing onto unwanted paper/scrap paper/junk mail?! I know I should, but I want it to look nice and be a high quality! I'll have to have a ponder over this. As it can look nice, the images below are of an invitation created by Thomas.Matthews, but is printed on an old publication of the Design Council's. It looks really nice! But I'm not sure if I could create something to this standard!

Salvedge Website Ideas

The website is the final stage to the Salvedge brief. We've done the identity, he's chosen which range of stationary he'd like to go with, so now we just need to see which of our 4 (2 each) website layout ideas he will prefer to use.

These are the 2 website ideas I've put together. They're very basic ideas, but I think are appropriate for what they are intended for.

Idea One...



Idea Two...

60 Bag

60 Bag is a biodegradable bag made from flax-viscose (flax fiber industrial waste). It doesn't exploit any natural resources and requires minimal energy during its production. The bag can naturally decompose around 60 days after being discarded.

Ideals Creative

Ideals is a social enterprise run by a group of young creative professionals who simply want to make people aware of the great stuff people are up to nowadays.

They provide multimedia communications solutions for development organizations. They construct strategically planned designs and materials that cater to the specific needs of cause-oriented organizations.




Fantastic website with loads more of their work on it.

Piece Studio

Piece Studio is a socially-based collaborative design studio in Baltimore, MD. We work with everyone from community organizations to activists, in search of creating positive change.
They have produced all sorts of work for all sorts of organizations. Working to raise awareness surrounding the social problems facing our cities. Many issues are swept under the rug, and as long as these issues are kept 'out of sight', nothing will be done to fix them. This being the objective of the project below, 'If you don't see it".





Their work is done to a high professional standard, but there are all the aspects of being produced in a sustainable manner.

Room For Change

The Room for Change was unveiled at LONDON AWARE 08, the UK’s biggest green lifestyle event, at The Barbican on May 10 – Sun May 11 2008. Installations included a goat made from hubcaps (to encourage people to consider buying ethical or recycled products) and a toilet full of mobile phones to communicate how recycling your mobile can fund capital projects in the third world.

COOKI CD Design

Chris has chosen his required logo, the type with the headphones, but also available in a variety of colours. As that is all he wanted, I thought I would adapt this brief in my own way and create a CD cover design for an imaginery cd!

I've only just made a start on these today, coming up with about 10 different ideas, but these few probably being my favourite's. The next step I will take will be to try out different layouts and typefaces with these ones and see where that brings me.

Front & Back


Front, Back & Inside Spread


Front & Back


Front & Back

COOKI Feedback

Today I got a message back from Chris with some feedback about the Cooki logo's I sent to him earlier in the week. (shown below)



Which is good news! I was unsure what his response would be as I wasn't 100% sure what it is he's looking for. The two images below are the two he mentions in the message, that he likes the one with the headphones but prefers the other typeface, and suggested combining the two....




...which is what I've done here. I prefer this one much more to the others I did too, so I'm glad I sent him the PDF at that point in my progression with this work. In the reply I sent to him, I mentioned I might have a go at putting together some other ideas. But instead I think I'll just send him this one, as he wanted and see if this is the one he wants to go with...



If he does choose this one, putting a closure to the project, as I don't think he wants to to do anything else, ie a flyer or cd cover, I think for the sake of my portfolio and too boost this brief a bit more, I might take it a bit further and do a cd cover.
But we'll see.

Salvedge Stationary

The next step for the Salvedge work was for Kyle and I to put together a couple of ideas each for the Salvedge stationary to be sent off as a PDF to Steve as soon as possible really, to get it out of the way. A letterhead, business card and compliment slip.
I had a go at doing about 7 different ranges, but these are the two that have been included on the PDF. Very basic and straight forward ideas. I can't help thinking I should have been a bit more experimental, especially with the symbol/logo.
Hopefully we should hear from Steve within the next week, so all that'll need doing then will be waiting until we hear what to do about the printing of it all. But the hardest part is over with and it can pretty much be put to bed.

Group Tutorial 02/04/09

This morning we had a group tutorial with Fred. Just summarizing where we're at with our briefs, the deadlines for each of them, where we see our work going after the Easter break, what briefs have we got lined up, whether or not I have any concerns and how does all this relate back to the Statement Of Intent (SOI).

So I briefly explained that I had three briefs almost at completion, the Stuff-O-Meter, the Salvedge branding and the new one, to design an identity for COOKI, the DJ.
The Stuff-O-Meter one at this stage just needs finalizing, printing everything to a high standard, taking photo's and putting together the submission boards.
So far I have created the proposal for a website (non functional as Dreamweaver is a bit too much for me to learn as well doing everything else for my FMP), but put together on InDesign. Then there's the swing tag that would be on hair related products, i.e Heat Defense Spray and Shampoos. A flyer, a sticker to go on the packaging of hair dryers, an internet pop up ad, a wall mural/banner at the point of purchase in the shops, all of which promoting the website.

The Salvedge production is currently at a stand still due to the printer and finding out what is available to us in terms of printing facilities. But in the mean time, the logo has been chosen by Steve, and Kyle and I are currently putting together 2 ranges of ideas each for the business card, compliment slip and letterhead to send off to Steve later on today. Once he's chosen one of those ideas we can basically put this project to bed. Although the print still needs to be resolved, but as long as we get the design aspect of it done it can be forgotten about for the time being and I can concentrate on other things.

The COOKI logo is currently at a stand still too. I put together some ideas and I've emailed them off to Chris, and that was at the beginning of the week. But I've still not heard anything back from him. But I'll give him a few more days and then I'll start hassling him! The whole COOKI brief I set myself has been on my mind a bit as I was concerned it wasn't really appropriate for my FMP, seeing as it doesn't really have a sustainable aspect to it. But as Fred quite rightly pointed out, in my SOI I have the intention of working with type and layout, so as far as my design PRACTICE is concerned, this is appropriate. Also, another way I want this to link with the subject of Sustainability Within Design is to produce it and get through the brief in a sustainable manner. Doing everything by the book. For example, avoiding printing and just sending PDFs. But I'm finding this way of working quite difficult as I'm having to document my progress for the sake of submission. I could always PDF everything for this brief and hand it in in a disc format?

I then explained what I intend to do during and after the Easter break and what briefs I have in mind. But before I consider starting any other briefs I NEED to get the other briefs completed and out of the way. To clear my head and be prepared for some new ideas. This can all be completed by next week, the first week of the Easter break. The final printing might not be possible, depending on the opening of the print room. Also, during the Easter break I want to complete all the PPD work, mainly my portfolio, print and digital, my CV and to have a look at putting together a simple website. PPD is something that's constantly playing on my mind and I just need it out of the way.

One brief I'm particularly interested in looking at when all this other stuff is out of the way is the one I discussed with Justin the other day. About the sustainable confectioners. So during the Easter I want to get some research started for this. But I'd like to consider at least one of the other briefs I've kind of put together. Either 'If You Could...' - If you could design anything tomorrow to improve the way we live today what would it be? or 'Delight In Design' - How can consumers be more involved in a products development and production (to help reduce unnecessary waste).

Some points that came out of the tutorial relevant to my work and the FMP in general ...
- Think about the problems of doing a huge research based brief (the confectioners)
- What do I actually want to produce?
- Write up a simple brief of where I want to go after Easter
- What am I trying to do? To who? How? Why? - Be prepared to answer these questions at the next crit.
- Come back after Easter with a strategy or a plan
- Look at what I've got and what I can work with
- Exit strategy? Where do I want to fit in the industry? What do I want to do?

Revised Statement Of Intent

'Stuff- O -Meter' Evaluation

The brief for Stuff-O-Meter was to create a representation of the lifetime of a durable household product. I chosen to do a representation of a hair dryer.

My first intentions with this brief was to focus on information graphics. But that soon changed. Although I created the big hair illustration, the time-line of a hair dryer form cradle to grave, that hasn't really been included in my final resolution. As after a few crits, and hearing what people had to say, I soon realised I needed to make more sense of it, make it clearer as a project as a whole. As the brief was intentionally aimed at a target audience, those about to purchase a hair dryer.

So my resolution for this brief was a proposal for the website, www.birthlifedeath.com. Creating examples of the different pages, what information might be included on those pages, what points are raised etc. A site for customers to go to when considering buying a hair dryer but those who want to find out all the hidden information.

Then to back up the website I created some promotional material. Such as the website pop-up ad, shelf labels, product labels, a product sleeve, a leaflet and the swing tag to go on hair/heat defense related products. Using facts to encourage them to go check it out to find out more.

At first, I intended this brief to be resolved in 2 to 3 weeks. But once I got going with the research into hair dryers, trying to find out the materials it made from, where those materials are mined etc, I soon realised this brief would take much longer than 3 weeks, that being because I wanted to get all the necessary research to help fuel the actual design process.

It took a while to get off the ground once I did have the research, but too be fair, I really enjoyed this brief, doing the research and trying out ways I could take it.