OUGD402 | Studio brief 01- Wedding Invites

Recently, I was commissioned to create the wedding invitations for my brothers wedding. This was an exiting opportunity for me but proved to be a very challenging one. The couple had a very fixed idea of their design already, so I had little input on this. So my job was to bring their idea to life.

The reason the invites were so challenging was because of the complexity of the design. The couple had created their own paper mock up already. The design was A4 size, with two folds into the centre. The folds were sealed by a shell shape. When opened, on the inside of one of the folds was 3 pockets, each with a different informational card.
The amount of information required on the invites only complicated the invites, this included a map, addresses, gift list information, a RSVP form, 2 methods of RSVP contact, a full photo strip, dates and times for 3 events during the day, names of the brides parents and the couple themselves.

The design stage was fairly simple, because it was already created for me - I simply advised on the most visually professional way to create the design. The issues lied in fitting all of the information on to the invite itself, as well as making the process simple, CHEAP but high quality.

To make the invites cheaper I had to shrink the size to less than A4 which allowed me to add a bleed around the outside. This then caused issues with the cards as there was less space for information on these. The couple also wanted the invites double sided. I decided that if they wanted to keep within their budget, the best option was to stick coloured card to the backs of their invites.

I kept printing black and white mock-ups to ensure the document was perfect for print. This made me realise the serif font I had been using was not ideal for the cards as it was on a dark background at a small pt size, making it too difficult to read. I changed this to Gill Sans to make the cards readable and professional looking.

Below is the final result -

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 01 -TOPSHOP Free Magazine

Editorial design is what sparked my interest in graphic design, I was always a regular reader of fashion and beauty magazines, mainly for the design rather than the content. I am still considering this as a career option for when I graduate.

Recently, I picked up Topshop's free magazine in store. I was instantly struck by its cheeky design that would probably annoy some graphic designers. The magazine for me was refreshing in terms of design because I feel that Editorial design has hit a wall. The majority of fashion/beauty magazines are designed in the same style and it's probably not helped the already decreasing sales of the physical copies. In my opinion, these magazines need something different and new, and Topshop magazine is a good example of this. 

So what make it so different. The text size is particularly interesting, considering the size of the magazine is just larger than A4 and the body copy is 20pt +. This unusually large text size would be frustrating to some designers but I am a fan of the rule breaking. The larger text makes the magazine much easier to digest for people like myself who find reading large amounts of text difficult. Similarly, the titles are HUGE, which I love. Larger type allows you to admire the details of letterforms, in my opinion, type usually looks better in a larger pt size. The design of the magazine is also very simplistic, yet it somehow achieves a quirky feel, fitting of Topshop's style. Perhaps this quirkiness is because of its unique style compared to the normal magazine design. 

Another fun detail is sticker-like eyes and hearts dotted across the spreads, encouraging readers to scan the pages and interact with the magazine as well as giving a scrap book feel. The sticker images have a childlike feel which I love - they are so different and I love the sense of rebellion against design that ties in with it. 

Finally, I have always loved fashion photography, which the magazine is full of. The images sit perfectly on the choice of stock which feels like a lightweight newsprint, simply staple bound. The magazine as a whole is playful, cheap to produce and something new. I am beginning to wonder if breaking the rules (well!) is a style that I would like to adopt! 

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 01 - Little Peach

http://littlepeachco.com.au/

Recently I came across Little Peach. A company specialising in letterpress and in particular wedding invites and business cards. What drew me to the company was the physicality of the collateral, the business cards looked really nice to touch and I am learning that every element of the design improves the professional feel, not just the digital design. What is useful about the website is that the stock and production method are sometimes explained with each image, which is helpful to me to understand how to create something similar.

What is great about their designs is that they all have a handmade feel but remain sleek and professional. They are playful with their use of stock and use embossing/debossing for an extra touch. I am eager to stretch my designs to the next level at the moment and I feel that by using similar techniques I can achieve this.

Their website design is really friendly and incorporates their letterpress way of working. I particularly like the image they use on the homepage with white logo/symbols. I do however think the website would be improved as their are too many colours, patterns and typefaces which I do not feel show off the professionalism of their work.

Here are some examples of their work which inspired me...

Printing: One colour on K.W. Doggetts Buffalo Board 382gsm. Finished off with a coloured ribbon.

Printing: One-Colour Letterpress Print on Crane & Co. Lettra 600 gsm with edge painting

Printing: 2-Colour Letterpress on Buffalo Kraft 386gsm

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 03 - Brief Analysis

The final personal and professional practice brief offers us the opportunity to reflect on the past year in the form of a 7 minute presentation.
For this we should we should be reflecting on ourselves as a learner and a designer and where our aims/ambitions currently lie. I should go on to identify my plans for summer and level 5 and what design wise I would like the explore.
As the brief suggests, rather than identifying just my mistakes and what I have learned from these, I should aim to identify my strengths also, which should hopefully improve my confidence.

I have decided to approach this brief by answering the questions that are stated on the brief -

What have you learned and what do you want to learn? 
Type & Grids & Type setting - the basic rules
Design movements - modernism and post modernism 
Where to find Graphic Design inspiration 
Techniques - screen printing, mono printing, book binding, DSLR photography
Understanding of graphic design studios
Illustrator and Indesign
Stock 
Presentation of work skills 
General eye for good design
How to critique work.

I want to learn animation, improve my photography, learn more techniques on illustrator, visual skills improvement, a greater understanding of communication, how to be creative with materials. 

What mistakes have you made and how have you learned from them? /What are your weaknesses and how do you intend to address these? 
Using bad typefaces - understanding what typeface works and what doesn't
Not using grids because I am scared of them - now my work is gradually becoming more aligned,professional and neat.
Not creating test prints/mock ups - now I try and do these
Not making bookings in time. 
Not taking time over my work but rushing instead- trying (but still learning to become a perfectionist)
Not spending enough time researching - my ideas have been limited.



How will this affect your future development? 
I plan to take more time over projects and become a perfectionist with my work, my work should appear more professional as a result.
I feel that mock-up will lead to more professional results also.

What are your strengths and how have you/will you develop them further?

My illustration skills are strong and being able to take this into illustrator will take my design to the next level, I want to learn how to use the software effectively to create professional illustrations.
Producing a large amount of work over a limited amount of time. 
Organisation skills - I feel I have developed a structure for approaching a brief and this has made my submissions more organise overall.
I am beginning to master photography which is presenting my work for professionally. I am regularly taking cameras out to practice this.  

What have you enjoyed and why? 
Book binding because it showed me that I can produce a professional looking book, and it has shown me how I can make my own products. 
I have enjoyed the branding briefs as this has helped me imagine my designs on products. This is graphic design that I see every day and it excites me to have the opportunity to practice this. I am beginning to become interested in this as 

What have you disliked and why? 
Grids as I found them very confusing and I am still trying to understand how they work. 
I have disliked research briefs as I was unsure what this was leading on to. I find it easy to get distracted when I am researching.  
Blogging - again I have a very short attention span. I have found it difficult to know what I should write and writing about my work professionally. I have become lazy with blogposts and I feel that I need to write them as if professional graphic designers are reading them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
How does this affect your ambitions? 
Not understanding grids will effect the professionalism of my work for the future. It is a concept that I really need to grasp in order to produce work to a high standard. Writing about my work is important to explain to clients and other designers. So this is a skill I need to acquire. 

What did you want to get from the year? 
Here are the 5 things I wanted to learn at the start of the year. This was our first task. 

1. How to use Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator to a professional industry standard.
2. How to extend my professionalism in all areas of graphic design.
3. New techniques which I had never considered or experienced before.
4. How to cook! (well) 
5. The reality of being in a graphic design job and how to prepare myself for this.

Have you achieved this? 
I have learned the basics of the software that I wanted to learn. This has been extremly helpful in extending my professionalism. I will learn more with each project but I already know what program is best to create a certain product and how I can produce this to the highest quality.
I am beginning to discover new techniques such as book binding, screen printing, foiling, embossing, debossing, lazer cut, different stocks, monoprinting, letter press, paper cuts and many more.
Cooking well on a low budget is becoming second nature to me.
I am only just beginning to understand the realities of a graphic design job but speaking to visiting professionals I am beginning to learn this and know that I can contact studios/designers to ask them first hand what it is like.

What have you discovered that you weren’t expecting?
Everything that I was doing wrong! I approached the course feeling that I knew a lot more about Graphic Design than I actually did. I feel that through the course I am developing a professional knowledge.

How has my learning journey influenced my future aims? 
When I first came to the course I wanted to work in fashion editorial. Now my interest has grown and I am considering starting my own studio in the future or beginning some sort of business on my own. My interest has grown in handmade products such as books and I am very interested in branding. I am also beginning to work out that illustration is a form of graphic design I would like to develop further. I see myself as an illustration based graphic designer in the future.

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 01 - MOSTYN Art Gallery Llandudno

As my family has recently moved to Llandudno, Wales, I have has the opportunity to visit their local art gallery which I was pleasantly surprised by.
Although the gallery is only small, the interior is particularly striking -

MOSTYN interior 

Although the work was interesting, it was the graphic design around the gallery that caught my eye. The challenge with graphic design in Wales is that a lot of type must be put in english as well as in welsh. This was particularly interesting in a large vinyl display as part of the exhibition, with both languages aligned oppositely, forming a strange butterfly shape. The text was poorly type set in my opinion but the logo in the centre was particularly striking against the wall.

Despite being in a gallery, it was the design within the cafe space that inspired me most. I was drawn to this logo "Gallery Oriel 6" I was unsure what it related to as it was just on a bare wall, but I feel that minimalistic circular logos are really effective as they are simple but have a professional and modern feel. However, I do feel that this style of logo is beginning to become a bit overused. 

Some typography on the wall also caught my eye, this was a script typeface in white with a shadow. I love the style of this and the way it stands out against the neutral brown background. I would like to start getting more adventurous with stock and backgrounds as I have got into a bad habit of using stark white backgrounds. Now I would like to take my work to the next level. 

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 02 - Critique

The night before our critique, we were surprised with the fact that we had to create a 5 minute powerpoint form presentation rather than show our work in whatever form we had it. The aim of this was to introduce us to the reality of the industry and help us prepare for these surprises.
As I had already presented my work on art boards in illustrator in a presentation style, I used these to construct my presentation. I had to create this in the morning due to not having a working laptop at the time. I did try to use my presentation grid, however Google Slides, the format I was using to create my presentation would not allow me to adjust the grid to the correct size. After seeing others grids during the presentations, I am rethinking my own and considering whether I should simplify it for the purpose of my presentation for studio brief 03.
As I was third up, I did not receive much feedback. The group seemed to like my colour choices and my idea of using "playful" as they felt that this described my way of working. I feel that my presentation skills were good, I spoke confidently about my idea and tried to engage with the audience. I feel that my confidence is really growing with presentations. I enjoy talking about design so I think that this is helping me when it comes to presentations.

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 01 - Salts Mill, Saltaire visit

Salts Mill is a large art gallery and shop located in Saltaire, which is a 20 minute train journey from Leeds. Myself and some friends went to visit.
It was helpful to get out of the main city and see something new. The space inside is amazing, as it used to be a mill. It is now filled with art work, mainly by David Hockney, as well as hundreds of art books, materials, stationary and more. The place was a great source of inspiration and resources and it was nice to see design in such an unusual setting.

I was drawn the the row of coloured lampshades across the ceiling.

In the stationary section I found a collection of notebooks and sheets by Rifle Paper Co. I was attracted to the patterns, as well as the small sleeves around the books which featured a classy serif font, which I felt added value to the notebooks. I have been interested in creating my own patterns to print on to notebooks to potentially sell, so this was a good source of inspiration for me. I would like to create sleeves for my own books and maybe foil any lettering or details on the front of my notebooks. 

What was useful about Salts Mill was the large section of graphic design books, the main books on display highlighted to me the popular graphic design books that I should be reading to inform my studies. Although I did not buy any, I plan to look in the LCA library to see if any are available to borrow. 

I fell in love with the large vases of lilies on each table

An example of David Hockney's work

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 02 - Evaluation

I felt that this was a brief that I really engaged with as it is something I have attempted in my spare time. So having the opportunity to create a more professional branding was good for me.
There were a number of successes during this brief, I was pleased that I created a business card and website despite these not being deliverables. This is beneficial to me in that I can use this to benefit my own practice outside of university and begin to establish myself as a freelance designer - potentially earning some money in the process.
I was pleased that I approached this brief by producing some initial sketches. I find it easy to jump straight on to a computer without thinking first, and then I find myself left in the experimental stage and soon later stuck for ideas. My idea generation was also aided by my different approach of research - a mood board. This method of research was really helpful to me and an approach I had not considered before, so I plan to use this in future briefs.
I feel that photographing my business cards with a DSLR really improved the look of my business cards overall. I am beginning to understand how to use a camera more with every brief so I really enjoyed photographing the cards.
To improve my approach I would have considered the points on the brief more, relating to myself and my practice. I was unsure what to advertise myself as and I feel that if I defined this more clearly I could have directed my designs. I feel that I could have also been more creative with my business cards in terms of shape, creative design and a clear visual representation of me. I would have created a sleeker logo which was in the form of text or had a clever meaning but despite my research and experimentation I could not come up with anything creative.
My time management was okay for this brief, however I began designing quite late after the briefing and feel that I need to make a clear time plan at the beginning after a briefing so that I can create everything in time. I did manage to finish in good time, but I feel that with a time plan I could have been more effective with my design process and created a better result.
Finally, I feel that my research needs to improve, as I am too eager to get designing. I do carry out research but I have not recorded this very clearly. I also need to expand my research sources as I jump to Pinterest too quickly without considering primary sources.

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 02 - Full Final Branding

My final branding consists of 5 elements a logo, colour scheme, type, business cards, website and presentation grid. My logo is ideal in that it can be used in many different colours, for example, the text colour can be changed as well as the stripes. This allows versatility when using my logo. The colour scheme I opted for consisted of shades of blue, turquoise and pink. I wanted an element of girliness in my colour scheme but also allowing it to appeal to a wider audience. I feel that the harmonious colour in my scheme will appeal to all. 

My typefaces are useful in that both of these can be used for titles/headings etc. My type was very informed by my website as I was restricted to certain typefaces. I felt that Bebas has a bold look that is striking and catches your attention, The overall structure of the letterforms appeals to me. Montserrat is a clear and legible typeface at any size, it has a crisp look and I felt that I wanted to get away from the typical fonts such as Helvetica and Futura. 

My website and business cards were a construction of my logo, colour and type. The website itself is very simple, including the following pages - home/hello, about, portfolio, services, contact. I want to make it clear and simple that I currently design and that I am easy to contact. I have also advertised my prices as being highly reasonable considering I am a student. I plan to improve this website during my spare time in the summer break and also will use this time to advertise myself. As for my business cards, they follow the simplistic feel, the only details I gave were 'graphic designer/illustrator' and my website and email. I decided not to include a telephone number as I feel that my phone is currently for personal use only and feel that I can be more formal though email contact. 

For my presentation grid, I wanted to create a grid that gave me a lot of freedom to play around with the design if need be but still have some order. 

Overall I am pleased with my design but I am finding it difficult not to change. I feel that this is because I see so much design that I love every day that I just want to keep redesigning when I am inspired by something. 

sophiegracedesign.weebly.com (work in progress, will continue after full deadline) 

Presentation Grid 

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 02 - Continued research

I have been researching creative branding on Behance to give me some more inspiration. I am inspired by so much design that it is difficult to select a style that I would like to recreate. So I am currently looking at a range of designs.

Yairon Martinez

What drew me to this design was the bright colours as well as the logo which is easily placed with a variety of patterns yet it remains bold and recognisable. I would like to apply a similar concept to my logo/logotype whereby it is recognisable with different patterns and colours. I feel that if you can achieve this your brand has a stronger presence within the industry and can more easily be applied to various collateral whilst looking professional.

www.tinnecornelissen.com

The illustrative style of this branding drew me in. I am a fan of this 'wobbly' style of illustration, I feel that this branding has a really personal touch and the pastel colour scheme is friendly to whoever would receive it. As much of my work takes an illustrative approach I feel that something illustrative would be appropriate in my branding. 

Vittoria Miceli

This branding is more graphic design based but it has a playful triangular pattern on the back of the card using a bright colour palette which follows more of an illustrative style. The type clearly communicates that the person is a graphic designer, I like how small icons have been used to clearly communicate the information being given. The pattern is easily transferred to other collateral which provides a consistent and professional design.  

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 02 - Business Cards

After finally deciding a final business card, I went to digital print and printed them on 300gsm matt stock. I did have the option of a glossy stock but I felt that this would not suit the style I was going for. I felt the matt stock had a more hand made feel whereas glossy would potentially look tacky and like I was trying to look too professional. 

I set up the designs to print in InDesign with the front on one page and the back on another in a 16 x 16 grid. I used the alignment tools to ensure everything was lined up correctly. I analysed the business cards and created grid lines to ensure everything was centred. The back of the business cards do not look centred, however this is because of the nature of the 3D box and how your eye interprets it. I created some minor differences in colour for some of the cards to have a variety but consistency at the same time. 

I then took out a DLSR with a macro lens which allowed me to photograph the business cards professionally and highlight the details. I placed these on a variety of surfaces such as chip board and blue and lilac stock to explore where the cards photographed best. Unfortunately, the lilac stock made the cards look a very unusual colour so I scrapped these images. I am still mastering using a macro lens so some of the photographs are blurry in areas, but I feel that this creates a quirky effect. Below are the photos I achieved -