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.