END OF MODULE EVALUATION

OUG406 has been beneficial to my overall practice as a designer. Particularly the money brief as I was able to develop my skills in screen printing, to a level where I feel comfortable. I enjoy taking full advantage of the resources available at this college. I found the research criteria in this brief very interesting and took a very hands on approach to this brief, it was a shame at first that it was not a digital print brief, as I produced a design that was well informed and looked great, however saying that I still like my screen printed version, it was just frustrating having to simplify my design so much, as my skills severely lacked in screen printing. For this brief my imagination far outweighed my talent.

In response to Secret 7, it was a release to be able to take a much more free approach to working, a much more postmodern approach, sometimes it is not always beneficial to take this approach however in a brief such as this, you are inclined to just go for it, with an array of ideas and approaches. It was a much more artistic style of working and I enjoyed it. 

In relation to studio brief 3-4 these were my least favourite of the briefs. As I was not enjoying what I was producing and did not particularly like the final outcomes. I understood why we needed to do reflective practice however I would have preferred another type of brief. 

As a module I would say this has been my least favourite, mainly do to the deadline days, if it was more spread out I believe my final outcomes could have been more refined and my design boards more articulate as a response to the briefs. I felt rushed with this hand in and it ultimately effected my final hand in. Next year I will be more efficient with my time management, this has been a big issue for me this year, I will pre plan and try to finish work at a more suitable time so I am not playing catch up. This approach to work is not good, and will effect my time on this course. Saying that it is good when it comes to self evaluating moments like this where I can identify where I have gone wrong and look to improve on these points in the future. 

STUDIO BRIEF 04 - REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

I have experienced a lot during my first year of studies, and my brief stems from the evaluation of my peers more directly than myself. Focusing particularly on what might be useful to graphic design students starting their course. As we know not every student that started their course here came with the basics knowledge of adobe applications. Many students came from a fine art background for example, so their knowledge maybe limited. I wanted to produce a guidance that would help ease that transition for students who may feel their skills are inadequate coming into the course. 


The main deliverables for this brief to produce a publication that works well as a quick-tip manual for one of adobes applications, focusing on the content being informative, so it provides a genuine use for a student. The actual design process is secondary in this sense. 

CONTENT 

I had to imagine what it would be like to open an adobe application for the first time. What would be your first questions? What would intrigue you first? What is the fundamentals you need to understand the programme? The toolbar. If a student has a full understanding to the toolbar and all its uses then this is the real first step to understanding the fundamentals. I was not looking to go into a how to guide, as this brief would go on forever. My main concern was underlining the key basics to my audience. I want to explain every basic aspect briefly but also so the student leaves with the understanding of what each icon achieves. 

RESEARCH

I looked into other publication designs, to get some inspiration, the difficulty with producing this booklet is trying to make it visually/aesthetically pleasing, whilst still demonstrating all the content.

I want the icons and images to be simple screenshots of the actual icons, so it is clear as possible. However by doing this producing a working design template around this is difficult. Screenshots never coincide well with a publication. It does not blend well with the overall aesthetic.

This is the sort of design template I am looking for.  None complicated, simple use of shape to make the content more approachable, but the main facet here is the content, as illustrated, placement is organised and recurring. The overall design accommodates the content, an attribute I shall try to input in my design.

Front cover ideas:


I originally wanted to make it authentic, as if Adobe themselves had made the leaflet. So I was looking for it to be professional

This was more leaning towards th style I was looking for, really expressing the authenticity in my design. Do I like this particular design? No but it fits with the theme, simple friendly typeface, different levels of opacity patterned.  However I really did not like this style, of working, I had the colour palette, it perfectly visually represents the content, but the design is not personal to me and my style.  

 I thought the blue was not working, I wanted it to be more exciting design for a graphic design student, so I looked into Tetris design and Piet Mondrain, and tried to come up with a playful design, that would make it more colourful and interesting to read. I wanted to use Mondrains style however not as bold in it’s approach, more subtly. I preferred this concept, but did not like the visuals I was producing, as it is not just a front cover design, the front cover will depict the recurring theme in the document. 

Even though this design so much more simpler, I visually prefer it, it is minimal in it’s approach and feel much more satisfied with this style of design, as it is personal to me and representation of my style, I did not think ahead in doing this brief, I did not think how boring it would be for me to create. 

EXPERIMENTING WITH FORMAT

I found it difficult to find an appropriate way to arrange the text. It was hard to get the ‘feng shui’ correct. The main problem being each definition would range in size so the spacing in-between  would not be consistent. I needed to find a way to display my content in a way, that looks appealing, does not convey too much on one page, or too little. As it is definitions dominated, I think the most appropriate layout would be listing. It may be boring, but it will provide more visual satisfaction and order.

Heres an example of how I shall display my content. As you can see there is a lot of information, but I feel this is necessary so my audience understand the concepts. It is all well and good for a leaflet to look nice, but if the booklet is not informative and provides an actual use, the soul point of this brief would be lost. This is why I found it difficult to produce a visual concept for this brief.  

STUDIO BRIEF 03 - PRESENTATION

STUDIO BRIEF 03 - COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

This is where the coinage idea spawned from, as a team we experimented with a range of ideas, however majority lacked in practicality, and would be difficult to actually achieve. Using coinage as the medium of way-finding felt like a unique idea at the time. 










Initial poster designs:

This was an original first drafted idea, I do not like this design, however our concept was with coins, so I tried to work around the theme, using a piggybank to convey the purpose.  I was trying to find ways to promote the exhibition with a symbol of money, but not just a generic symbol, something slightly more out of the box. I do not like the type in this design, it was just to accomodate the vectorised pig. As a concept and early inception of the brief I liked the idea of incorporating the pig because it fit well with our overall theme of coinage.

I was looking into the location, Bank House, and I stumbled across a design, I love this design, its very minimal in it’s approach yet beautifully created with vectorised shapes. This is an idea I wanted to experiment with, as I thought it could work well as a poster, it would be engaging with colour and shape, and would represent the exhibition well, as the poster would have more context and relevancy. 

I wanted my design, to be clear, direct, simplistic in its approach, but relative and eye-capturing, the concept of two block colours contrasting against each other. It is plain, but you focus on it and its clear in it’s message. Displaying block text so you cannot miss it, in a stencil design. These tools can make a poster very engaging, in its simplicity, as it is direct in it’s intent.

I like the architecture, gridded blocks can create a good contrasting shape if it is designed as a stencil, against a contrasting colour. It could look good as long as it does not distract from the content.

Our initial colour palette.


This was my new take on the design. I liked the outcome, believed it fitted the theme nicely, and everyone was positive with the final design in the group. The content is the most important part, so I wanted to illustrate this in my design, and the overall design to act as background noise.




This was the original template design, for where the content should go.

Considerations:

- Location
- Exhibitors
- Contact Details
- Format

I think I will stick with this grided layout, it is easily accessable, readble and functionable, these are the first elements I need to producing my poster and an effecient/informative way to establish content. 

In terms of the opening night invites, I took this deep into consideration and believe if I have a poster design, this can be sent out as the invitation. Eve from our group designed a nice envelope that fits well with the aesthetic, and all the information needed is on the poster already. 

One regret from this brief was not delving deeper into the content displayed. Now that the process is over, I realise we should have designed a social media template, this really should have gone on the poster, perhaps a hashtag with licensetoprint etc. It’s the way exhibitions and events are run now , and is the best method possible to get correct exposure, it could have been tweeted from Leeds Art twitter account, this would be so much more accessable than a printed invite ever would. In world that is dominated by social media, this should have been a main concern for us as a group.





I made the design decision to use the poster as an invitation. It had all the necessary content. 
Considerations included are:
- Location
- Content
- Contact Details
- Format

- Opening night Invites



Feedback:

Overall feedback was positive on our concept initially, as it was a unique take on the brief. The feedback we received was very resourceful, in helping us to correct our mistakes, the 2nd years were very informative in critiquing our process. 
The main points were:

- have a recurring style
- good concept
- difficult to do, would need a lot of coins
- not all coins would look the same colour
- not enough visual evidence of brief
- lack of teamwork evident
- change the name

We made the decision as a group to change the name, going back to my original idea of  ‘In the Money’  I thought this was the most suitable title as it expresses the nature of the exhibition. 


I also needed to make changes to my poster and the content, as we developed a new logo, and in order to attain to a recurring style, I updated the font, so we have the same typeface in all our designs.

STUDIO BRIEF 01 - DESIGN IS ABOUT DOING

SECRET 7:

Leif Podhajsky is an artist and Creative Director. His work explores themes of connectedness, a psychedelic experience and the relevance of nature. Creating his designs for a number of brands, labels and musicians around the world such as: Tame Impala, Bonobo, Nike, Wired Magazine, Sony Music etc. 

It's Nice That
"Come dip your toes into the psychedelic stream of Leif Padhajsky’s imagination for some striking abstractions of nature – mirrored vistas, engulfing waves, rippling, melting cosmic landscapes."

Wired Magazine

                                     

Young Magic - Melt Album Cover

A personal favourite... its emotion its intensity, the material, the blend of colour, the curiosity all come to one in this piece. A real masterpiece with so many definitions. 

      






For research criteria involving Dream 3, I looked heavily into minimalism as a main design concept.






I have been waiting for a brief like this since the course started. A brief purely based on the creative aspect, obviously some of my designs will offer substance and reasoning/context behind them. But for the majority of this brief, I will unleash an array of design approach’s. That was my main goal from this, sometimes in my work this year, it started to get repetitive, and tiresome always having to justify the reasons for why I did this or that, when really to be truthful, I base a lot of my design decisions on feeling. When a brief comes along such as Logotype or Money brief where you have to take a lot into critique as there is a lot of background information, and evaluate before you make your next move, that is understandable. But a brief such as this, I find I will use to promote and express myself in a more artistic approach. I much rather the postmodern style of working, but I also know when it is not/is necessary to use it. This brief is the perfect opportunity to ‘strut my stuff’ (haha)

The most overtly psychedelic album cover belongs to Cream. The image was created by Australian artist Martin Sharp. Sharp would also contribute lyrics to the album in the shape of the song ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses. The loud colours used is something I want to apply in my design. This is an early representation of my ideas, I want mine to be a bit more crisp in its own approach, perhaps its also to do with the quality of print back in the 60s, it is much less defined. 




Designer Peter Saville's decision to go with pulsar radio waves is right up there with Martin Hannett’s spellbinding production in making this album a goth classic. Disney's Mickey Mouse shirt parody four decades later only reaffirmed its legend.

I designed the image above, taking inspiration from Joy Division, a little more abstract, in relates to the brainwaves theme well I believe, however this was just an experiment, I like it but I am going to be experimenting a lot with this brief, with a range of approaches and outcomes.

I designed the image above, taking inspiration from Joy Division, a little more abstract, in relates to the brainwaves theme well I believe, however this was just an experiment, I like it but I am going to be experimenting a lot with this brief, with a range of approaches and outcomes.

This is from the image on the previous page I took it in Vancouver, This was a positive design from the feedback. A lot of people liked the idea, however they said it was not really Tame Impala, but Dreams. I personally do not like the first two, but the last version is one of my favourite designs of this process. I am going to apply twice, and hand the 3rd design in for Dreams. I do not have much purpose behind this design, I thought ‘currents’ could represent a calmness in its approach. Sometimes you have the right design staring you in the face, but colour scheme does not fit, this can completely alter your design decisions if you do not evaluate a range of the same idea, with appropriate change in colour, so you get the best elements out of your design.

This is my attempt endearing to the same style, with my own twist, it is the design from the previous page duplicated multiple times, blending different levels of opacity together. I like this design, as it is visually satisfying, a lot of people in the feedback enjoyed this design, many said they were physically drawn to it in a literal sense. Again going off on a tangent, but I enjoy this style of working, free expression. It feels less confined. My ideas are more fluently generated, theres no restriction, so a wider range of ideas are made to select from.

This is the image edited. Repeating the image on itself. Feedback said this was more dreams. So I decided early on that I would experiment with both, but final design for the brief would be Tame Impala. The soft colour palette suggests a dream like flow in it’s approach.

I took an image from my Berlin trip, the Holocaust Museum. I feel this design, evokes a deeper rooted meaning, exploring the never ending space in our mind. The gaps inbetween represent the same way the folds and ridges are displayed in the human brain. 

This is a piece by Leif Podjhasky, it is very expressive, no recurring general theme, very post modernism. This is the general style Tame Impala choose for their album cover art.

“Nowadays, it’s crept back into vogue as people realise how key it is to connecting with an audience. Visuals are usually the first thing people associate with a band or record and it has to tell the story of what’s inside. I like to think of [my job as creating] visual stories for musical adventures.”

Something I really wanted to experiment with for my final outcome is Leif’s fondness for images of the natural world, to his use of distorted colours and graphic repetitions. He is equally as influenced by album designers such as Peter Saville, Mati Klarewein and Storm Thorgerson.

As I lost my final Tame Impala design, I had to come up with a new design, my only problem with these designs is they felt quite rushed, and feel that is evident in the designs, however it has that expressionist element that Podjahsky likes to experiment with. I realised a lot of mini crits had to be undertaken for this brief. It was hard to base a decision purely on my judgement, so I asked for constant inquiry as I was indecisive a lot for this brief. Which I believe is understandable, when you have different versions of the same design, your judgement becomes clouded.  When looking into the background context, such as the music video and listening to the song, it lacks coherency, it is a mish mash of styles, unexplained but yet it still works, I have no idea what was going on, or what the context was but it worked. The visual expressionism in this track, implies loud, vibrant colours with random appropriation, this is something I have brought to my design, of course it is not my original design and I do not deem it better in the slightest. 

Album cover art used to be all about opening up a gatefold record, and sitting back gazing at the artwork, it was key insight into a bands ethos, and acted as a visual representation of the music.Visuals are usually the first thing people associate with a band or record and it has to tell the story of what’s inside I wanted my cover to express the feelings associated when listening to the music. 

I feel I have explored a lot of content in this brief, taking “design, is about doing” to it’s full literal sense. Experimentation was the goal, to produce an array of designs, with different themes and contexts applied. Not sticking to one specific style. Of course this has its limitations, as you have less refined ideas, but a range of designs you can delve into if you like the concept and look of where its going. Sometimes working on the laptop can make you rigid in your design process, as more strict guidelines are applied to the process. This brief felt like I was stepping away from this method of working, as I saw the laptop as a canvas to which I could express myself, and just throw my imagination onto the page, it was much less informed. This has its negatives, as the actual process can become disjointed and less structured which lengthens other aspects such as the selection process. 

Feedback was really helpful, it enabled me new insight into my work, the only real problem with it is when people do not provide justification to their comments. I did not think my work was suited to two albums, once I realised this I made the decision to continue with both album covers as I had already done a substantial amount for both. I know this is not the brief however it makes no difference as I went through the same processes for both and would deem it a waste not to submit a strong idea/design. 

In relation to my Dream 3 album, I am happy with my final design. If you consider the beginning of my evaluation, there should be a relation between the artwork to the music, I devised a visual test for this brief, where I would listen to the song and look at my designs