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Fellow classmate Nick Entwistle had an idea of challenging yourself on one-minute briefs. He recently felt slightly bored and pressured working on the project he had at the time so he decided to step away from the project and work on random suggested briefs from other classmates and try to design something within a minute. I was intrigued about this and decided to give it a go. I was to re design the Nike logo and funnily enough, it had positive results. My idea was to change the wording from Nike to Swoosh, as the identity is not a tick, which Nike is passionate on letting people know about. I enjoyed taking part in this I plan to do this more often.
Looking back on my work once more was a nice feeling for me. I have briefly been searching some old data discs with some old work I had forgotten I had done to see my improvements as a designer. The particular project was to promote the 2008 Word Festival. A poster campaign was the main deliverability for the brief but designing a logo, flyer and ticket stub was extra work, which I had done and presented in my final show. All though I feel I have improved as a designer, looking back, I still feel proud for work I completed back on the HND and this motivates me to try my best with the projects I have today.
I had recently come across my first ideas for the Word Festival brief his week. I noticed how differently I think now to how I thought back then. I feel my final was the best looking back on the project but still like the idea of playing with magnetic type.
I was looking back (again) at some old work and came across this stationary for the Type Factory. The project (set last year) was to produce an identity and in due time, some typographical elements for a museum exhibition. Since then, I have focused a great deal on kerning, leading, scale, tracking and legibility. These are vital elements to know within typography and I look back on this to see where I can correct the mistakes I have made within these areas, besides the design on the logo. Maybe in the future, I may decide to come back to this and work on the brief again.
As the talk with Craig Oldham went well, one of the things what I have noticed sticking in my mind was the method of good, fast or cheap in relation to speaking to a client and offering them a service. If you say to the client that they can only have two out of the three elements, this will show what level of service you would provide as a designer. I myself have been working on some real live briefs and in the past, dealing with clients has been slightly hard in relation to how much effort I put in and what I charge. This method is a good use of showing the client what to expect and I plan on using this further in my career.
During the past few days, I was closely considering researching Paul Rand for my journal as a resource in creativity and establish design but I have noticed over the past few weeks, I have closely documented Vince Frost’s work. His unique thinking and ideas have fascinated me greatly and I feel very comfortable researching more about him. What strikes me the most with Frost is he has similar compatibilities with myself. He completed a BTEC National Diploma in Graphic Design as well as taking it up on himself to do screen-printing t-shirts like myself. I however completed a diploma in Fine Art but find myself on the same pathway as Frost. I look forward to finding out more within his work and creative process.
My research for the journal carried on this past week, as I was lucky to interview Music’s Craig Oldham. While researching his work over the past few months (as well as attending his 12 on 12 talk back in April), this was a designer I definitely look up to. Working for the Chase before Music, his website is motivational and inspirational to say the least. I was fascinated on his creative thinking and his philosophy on design and ideas generation. I was slightly nervous when getting ready to interview Craig but he made me feel very welcome. I attended the interview with fellow classmate Kat Speak, who I recently worked on the Tolerance brief with. We were taken to the meeting room in Music studios and Craig sat down and was happy for any questions we had.
Similar to Paul’s interview, we talked about the industry and the thinking process behind getting that final idea for a brief. Craig explained that when starting a brief, researching is important but only if it’s needed. If your familiar with the subject, the more vital part of the brief is the meaning of what the client is asking for. For example, if a client is asking a advertising campaign to sell tickets for a football game and there idea is a poster, Craig explained you can open the brief to a scale to however you a feel will work to the best of its capabilities and make suggestions to the client for other areas of promotion, which could work better.
Craig also explained you play different roles when starting a job. When reading a brief and understanding it, you become an editor. When having ideas you become a creative thinker and when you decide you may need a photographer of an illustrator you become an employer. He explained this is a journey you take as a designer throughout a brief and you gather emotions from the process you take. When an idea doesn’t work, you try all different ways of making it work but when there’s no way through, Craig explained its ‘’soul destroying’’ depending on how strong your personality is within you work when an idea is not working.In regards to advertising, Craig explained the good, cheap, fast option when talking with a client. He explained taking away one element and leaving the other two options will show the client a realistic option of what they can expect. If they want it cheap and good, the deadline would be later than expected. If the client wished for the brief to be cheap and fast, more likely it wouldn’t be as good as it can be. The talk was good and in regards to research for the journal, it has helped a great deal.
As the months are flying bye, it is now time to focus on the academical side of the degree. We have a choice to choose between a dissertation (8000 words) or a journal (5000 words and a 20 minute presentation). The two are completely different regarding content and style of writing but also, as the journal requires a presentation, the decision to choose the journal would involve my presenting skills be worked on to a slightly more serious, professional level. After comparing the two, I have decided to opt for the journal. The requirements for this particular piece of work will need a subject to research and find out more of. I chose to do the journal simply because I have always wanted to research the creative process designers go through to get the final, end idea. I want to establish the emotions, ideas, strengths and weaknesses throughout the creative process and also base this on my own work and document it step by step leading up to my deadlines.
I recently arranged an interview with Paul Heaton from Reform Creative. We had a very in-depth conversation about the industry and what the elements of the creative process really are. I was fascinated to hear what Paul had to say on the subject and his methods of ideas and working on a brief helped my research for the journal a great deal. Some of the responses I got were very useful. Paul made me feel very comfortable as always and seeing Rich and Chris again was great.
Paul explained when receiving a brief from a new client, it was vital to research other design agencies to see what work they are doing at the time as when making a pitch or designing something new for a client and produce an idea or artwork similar to a competitor, it can have a negative response to the chances of getting that particular job. Paul also explained when working with a new client, depending on how big they are, it is wise to research there website or any other source related to them as you then get an understanding of who they are, what there likes, dislikes and values are. Also, this helps you understand what type of character they have as this gives you an idea of what direction your thinking will go.
A couple of weeks ago, as I was watching the television, I came across the advertisement for Apple's iPod. I noticed the unique look Apple has for there brand and thought it was clever in their use of colour. They adapt all bright tones so the viewer can see the product to be jazzy, funky and fresh. I have been focusing closely on branding recently and the iPod adverts have kept fresh in my mind. For fun I decided to make myself an iPod ad. I have had plenty of laughs, which is great. I plan to look further into branding so my understanding can be improved.
