OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Presentation practice

For some more practice at presentations I signed up to present an example of ethical graphic design. I based the presentation on a design solution to helping refugees, as one Syrian - American designer decided to help in a different way. Instead of attending marches and protests which are both worthwhile causes she designed a series of posters depicting the dangerous boat journey from Turkey to Greece. 30% of the money made from the posters would then go towards helping refugees, with the funding going towards necessities such as blankets but also art supplies for the children.

My presentation was quick and informative with a 90 second time curfew, in the time I had I was able to tell my peers about the project in small scope but hopefully justified the ethical side of the project. Feedback included that the verbal presentation was strong and clear, with a good use of language throughout. As the presentation was only a small one I wanted to include as little slides as possible, but my peers suggested maybe to include a few more slides as they were fixated on one for a majority of the presentation. Comparing this to Alex's presentation in which he had moving images for the duration of the presentation, this allowed the presentation to flow with both verbal and visual being in sync. Another thing I got from watching my peers was Kate's presentation on the successful Samaritans campaign, she talked about the project from a number of perspectives and touched upon the recognition the project received. In my presentation I only really talked about it from the ethical perspective, so maybe could of talked more about the actual design.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Saul Studio

Recently we had a visit from Leeds based designer Dan Saul Pilgrim, the studio he runs embraces a minimalist, pared back aesthetic that is heavily down to contemporary and clever typography. His talk started with him talking about graduating from Leeds university and the short time after that, but it was captivating to hear about his self initiated project Coffee Shop North which combines his two passions of design and coffee. Coffee Shop North was made possible by Kickstarter which is the world's largest funding platform for creative projects, in total the process of setting the Kickstarter up and getting the book published took one year. Since its release the book has been extremely successful and it was cool to learn that its even being stocked in a coffee shop in Tokyo.

What I got from the talk was seeing how he applies typography to a certain project, it was evident that he uses new and contemporary typefaces within all projects such as Druk which is becoming more common within cooperate graphic design. I related to his focus on typography and was intrigued to know where to find some of these typefaces he used on projects such for 'The Hubbards' and 'Salvation'. He later informed the class that a majority of the typefaces were from an independent french foundry called Velvetyne who supply free fonts. He concluded the talk with advice such as getting yourself in the right position and finding your niche such as he did with the food and drink sector.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Nest issue 10 launch

Recently I attended the launch of Nest issue 10 at Colours May Vary. I was excited prior to the exhibition as it was the first issue issue of Erin's (fellow graphic design student) as she took the rains from Josiah Craven who made Nest so successful. I was excited to see the changes Erin made to Nest, I believed she had to make changes to fully make the publication hers as Josiah created a visually striking style in which was in sync with his practice and style.

When I first caught a glimpse of the new Nest, the changes were clearly apparent as Erin decided to scrap the half cover and replace it with a slipcase. The theme of the issue was Focus and it was cleverly interpreted in the editorial design, the content itself was submissions by LCA students. These submissions gave different viewpoints on focus but the editorial design is what fascinated me the most, as Erin shrewdly used grey type to make the legibility low therefore you had to fully focus on the page to read it. The night itself was a success as it was great to see a LCA community in Colours May Vary and to see how much people appreciated the revamped Nest.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Berlin posters

"Anyone who has visited Berlin will remember the proliferation of posters. They are an integral, ever changing part of the cityscape, giving oxygen to the streets" This quote is from graphic artist Patrick Thomas who is based in Berlin, Ive been familiar with his work for a while now through Instagram. Only recently through Instagram he has been documenting the ever-shifting visual face of the city around him. By looking at the letterforms within the posters, Patrick encourages us to linger over details which may go unnoticed in the rush of daily life. He describes the posters of Berlin as the cities DNA, and hopefully i'll have time to observe these posters while in Berlin.

In my spare time leading up to the trip I decided to step away from university work for a bit and focus on creating Berlin posters relating to the trip. By creating these posters It created more enthusiasm for the trip and and the free creation / freedom was an enjoyable process. The first poster is referencing the Berlin wall and I used poppy colours and a contemporary German type to create an ambiguous poster design. The yellow typographic poster was created using Bavarian inspired typography, I 3D rendered the type in illustrator to create a ambiguous title saying 'Going To Berlin'. The overall style of the poster is influenced by contemporary Bavarian typography, in which I'm hoping to see plenty of this brash style of typography while in Berlin. 

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Penguin design award competition

I decided to enter the Penguin student design award as a live brief, my response is for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I found this brief highly beneficial as to me as I'd never undertook a lengthy process of designing a book cover before. This brief gave me the opportunity to spend more time on designing covers as in the past I've rushed this stage of a book brief.

My final book cover is all about social status and Maycomb where TKAM is set.Its a small, close-knit town, and every family has its social station depending on where they live, who their parents are, and how long their ancestors have lived in Maycomb. The relatively well-off Finches stand near the top of Maycomb’s social hierarchy, with most of the townspeople beneath them. Ignorant country farmers like the Cunninghams lie below the townspeople, and the white trash Ewells rest below the Cunninghams. But the black community in Maycomb, despite its abundance of admirable qualities, squats below even the Ewells. These rigid social divisions that make up so much of the adult world are revealed in the book to be both irrational and destructive. Differences in social status are explored in my final design as the ladder symbolises class within the close-knit town. The general aesthetic is influenced by patterns from the 1930s and geometric art deco typefaces while a subdued colour palette reflects the black and white theme in the book.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Build talk

Michael C Place of Build recently paid a visit to uni to conduct a talk to all three year groups of the course, in his talk he indulged us in his long and successful career as a designer. Prior the talk I'd already attended a number of events associated with Build as I greatly admire the studios work, so I was unsure what to expect this time around. As this was the longest talk I've seen from Michael, he was able to go into more depth about his practice, from studying in Scarborough to meeting Peter Saville for the first time, a experience he noted as 'sexy design'. My admiration for the studio only increased after the talk, as he showcased his work throughout the years it was even more apparent that he is incredibly influenced by music. This is similar to me but in his talk he was stern to advise to look elsewhere for inspiration, he mentioned to look further than Itsnicethat and broaden your design influences. I gained a number of things from the talk, he talked about how he is more likely to employ someone for their love of design over how good they are at actually designing. Also he can notice if someone is fully immersed in design, and that eventually gets noticed. 

OUGD502 - Film presentation

As a small study task we had to undertake a 90 second long presentation on a film of our choice. The point of this study task was to improve confidence in presenting in front of a group of people, and with ppp presentations upcoming it proved helpful to ease nerves about presenting. The film I chose was The Nice Guys, which is crime comedy set in the 1970s starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. For the presentation itself I had to provide a synopsis of the film so I provided information that wouldn't ruin the story for people who haven't seen it. I mentioned why I chose this film which is because it was one of my favourite and funniest films of 2016, due to its witty humour which is similar to Tarantino films. I touched up upon the acting performances of both Crowe and Gosling and how they matched so well as a comedy pair similar to Laurel and Hardy.

I had planned to finish the presentation with footage of examples of the witty humour I talked about but due to technology difficulties the video didn't play as the computer didn't trust the footage. Other than this small hiccup I believe the presentation went well, with me receiving positive feedback. Such as, the main points came across really well with the relationship between Crowe and Gosling being the main talking point. As many people were unaware of the film, I used other films to reference The Nice Guys such as Tarantino titles which people liked. The timing of the presentation was good but would have been better if the video worked, but feedback also included that I shouldn't rely on technology.

I picked up a number of things which I enjoyed in other presentations such as in Ed's presentation he didn't reveal the title of the film till the last slide. This led people to be more intrigued and eager to know the title, as I knew the title of the film already I picked up on this technique as I was awaiting it at start of the presentation. Barney talked about grids within Drive, this made it relevant to our practice which actually made me want to watch Drive again to spot these grids used by Nicolas Winding Refn. Connel related to pop culture and this is what made me realise that relating and referencing other topics which are current engages the viewers.

Slide selection

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Unit Editions : Studio Culture

I recently purchased Studio Culture which is a series of  interviews about the mechanics of building and maintaining a  studio culture. Studio Culture is a book for both seasoned professionals who have been running studios for years, and for idealistic designers contemplating starting up. Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy conduct the interviews in the first Unit Editions book with 30 visionary graphic designers who have formed and run landmark international design studios. The book has a brilliant introduction by Ben Bos, the former member of Total Design gives his opinions and insights into the culture of a graphic design studio then the writings of Adrian Shaughnessy lead you into the book. I come across the book through reading an interview on Michael C Place in which he whole heartily recommends this book to any designer who is keen to understand the studio. Instantly I knew this book would help my research for this brief, and  from reading the book I have gained interviewing techniques that will help studio brief 02 and later interviews in the future.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Berlin research

With the visit to Berlin only around the corner I find it necessary and beneficial to me that I do some research so I make the most of my time in the capital of Germany. I've been eager to visit Berlin for a number of years now, so once the opportunity to go with Uni arrived I was excited as its a chance to blend my graphic design practice with my own personal interests, as well as it being a holiday (a well needed break).

From what I know we have an itinerary prepared for us from the morning until noon while in Berlin, then after that we are free to roam around the city and explore as we please. This provides me with the opportunity to explore the city at my own pace and take in everything around me, I have a number of things which I'd like to fit into my time in Berlin, which include:

Muting The Noise

Muting The Noise is the record store of Innervisons (my favourite music label) ,the record shop, event location and art space which has recently been renovated and is equipped with a soundsystem and dj booth.The shop is located on Blücherstraße in Kreuzberg, and is open on Thursdays from 4 PM through 8 PM which is lucky as Thursday will be my last full day in Berlin. I've been longing to visit Berlin for years but one of the main factors maybe is this store, its the home of Innervisions, Dixon and Âme; easily three of the biggest names in underground house and techno and certainly my personal favourite. I based one of my design principles books last year on Innervisions and hopefully will come away from the store with a greater understanding of the label and maybe even a chance of meeting the guys behind Innervisons.

Smirnoff Sound Collective – Inside Innervisions

No74

No74 is a established leading-edge spot and go-to venue for statement fashion, essential sportswear and chic design. Located on Torstrasse 74, in the heart of Berlin’s fashion and culture area, No74 has been helping redefine this once neglected district that might have been described as being off-the-beaten path not so long ago. ‘Torstrasse’ has since developed into the main stage for cool in Berlin, hosting a wide range of up-to-the-minute boutiques, galleries, bars, and high end restaurants for the cities growing taste for the culinary arts. With its commitment towards innovation and community, No74 illustrates the diversity of fresh ideas found in Berlin today. I discovered this store a couple of years ago on Instagram and have always had an eye on their feed since, even more so since Haw-Lin recently redesigned the store, the design is minimalist with bold colours and shapes paired with floating light which I'm eager to see for myself as well as a bit of shopping.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Highlighting designers I can contact and why?

Prompted by the need for even more engagement with professional contacts, I am required to seek out an industry practitioner or practice who I will base the report on. When this brief was mentioned to us before Christmas I took the opportunity to think about practitioners and practices that I admire but also ones I believe I can forge a link with.

Studio Build
I've recently attended events in which Michael C Place the creative director of Build has been talking, these events have gave me more of an insight into MCP and Studio Build as they've been a studio I've admired for a while and would like to engage with the studio more. A strong portfolio of brand identities, websites, packaging and books for design-led clients inspires me and the fact that the studio has recently moved to Leeds is a bonus. I've already conducted some minor research into the studio by reading interviews and articles relevant to them, as i'm sure reading these interviews will prove to be helpful for whoever I choose to interview as its showing interviewing techniques.

Jan Weidemüller
Jan Weidemüller is an art director and graphic designer currently based in Berlin who specialises in Art Direction, Branding, Identity Systems, Digital Design, Type Design, Packaging and Consultancy. This is a ambitious and maybe irrelevant option as I want to try and focus on practices and practitioners that live and work in cities that I could see myself working in once I graduate. Berlin might be a step too far at this stage of my practice, but nevertheless Jan is someone who's work I admire and would be interested in seeing his story.

Founded Studio
Founded is a Newcastle based graphic design studio producing creative responses for a varied and international client base, I discovered this studio when researching for OUGD504 : Studio brief 02 as I produced a web app for the Baltic which is a client of Founded. I was surprised to learn the studio is based in Newcastle, my hometown. To step away from this brief I'm contacting the studio anyway to gain feedback on the web app and hopefully can build on from this.

Studio Crême
Studio Crême is a London based design and motion practice, operating within the fields of fashion, music, culture, hospitality and commerce. They craft effective design, delivered across digital, print and motion. I first came across Crême, through one of the designers at the studio, Jack Featherstone. His work inspired me during college so I've kept an eye on his work since.

Studio Blackburn
This is a studio who's work I got interested in over the summer break, the Euro 2016 wall chart which the studio produced was a piece of beautiful design. Which later inspired me to produce a smaller Euro 2016 personal project. They produce bold and effective work which I admire, and would love to know more about projects of the studio.