OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Display Wizard entry

As a part of responsive I entered a competition brief in which I had to portray the social and cultural benefits of studying at Leeds College of Art through two display banners. I feel as though the brief was a success as I am pleased with the final outcome, and I believe it sums up what life is like at Leeds College of Art. In terms of undertaking the brief, it tasked me with working with bigger scale design and working with restrictions for print so this was a new experience for me.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 03 - Introducing collective

When we were briefed as a class for this brief it almost felt like a motivational reasoning to push forward an idea / collective that has been brewing for a while with myself and Luke. Furthermore this brief has allowed myself and Luke an opportunity to work on particular idea, but in more academic form and by allowing time for research and more development and consideration of our idea for a collective. In recent months we had briefly been talking about the possibility of collaborating on smaller things such as posters, but on the other hand bigger scale such as a blog.

We share a similar style and appreciation of design so we felt we could combine to create something but as I mentioned before, it was just finding the time and structure to do so. Life's a pitch allows us to rethink our idea like what skills and services we offer, target market, form and promotion.

Idea
Our idea is broad in a sense that we can could cover a number things as collective but the main form of our collective is a blog. Initially we discussed just making things together as a collective but as time passed we thought why not a blog to visually showcase not just own work as a collective but our influences. These influences don't just have to exist in the realm of graphic design but every discipline, so that could be fashion, architecture or photography.

By engaging with all creative disciplines through a blog it allows us forge relationships and dialects through common interests. This is similar to how the collective was formed, through mine and Lukes similar interest in design. By engaging with all creative disciplines it not only benefits us but whoever visits the blog, it allows people to connect with similar minds. This ticks off the target audience of the blog, as we feel the audience is open but constricted to people who simply appreciate the work.

As we pushed the idea further we had to truly consider why were considering a blog, and its simply to immerse ourselves in industry but through interests and influences and not our own work. The blog acts as a starting point for conversation and will be relevant in terms of design news but also world news and allows not only us but whoever visits to almost visual matchmake with people.

OUGD501 - Studio brief 02 - Creative report evaluation / reflection

To reflect upon a small but highly beneficial brief which I have enjoyed from start to finish. Although at first I wasn't sure which path to take as I contacted a number of big studios I admire but sadly they didn't get back in touch. Obviously I took into account that people get busy in this industry but I also had a change of plan, I started to reconsider what I wanted to gain from this brief and how I could personally relate to the practitioners I contacted.

Every practitioner has been a design student at one point and been in the same situation as me and this is where I found the answer to this brief and my concerns about the industry, the answer was Leeds. I focused on graphic design graduates, who graduated from the three Leeds universities and from this I gained so much more from their advice and experiences such as processes in the industry, changes to lifestyle and the current design scene in the north of England.

Getting in contact and conducting interviews with practitioners such as Eve Warren, Joey Barritt and Alex Dyson was an enjoyable process as it was confidence boost when emailing each individual. All were happy to help and provided some really insightful stories, but I'm keen to continue this contact so I've sent each practitioner a copy of the report.

Building on this brief, it has made me realise a number of things including:

• People get busy but are always open to help, therefore it is simply finding the time and being patient which is key.
• Contacting professionals isn't all that bad. This brief has given me such a boost in confidence for contacting professionals.
• Aim to relate to whoever your contacting, for example have something in common to start a conversation.
• Put yourself in their shoes

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Final printed creative report

Below are images of my final creative report based on graphic design graduates from Leeds within the last five years. In terms of the design of the report, I wanted something basic, that didn't represent any of the three practitioners styles. Although I was inspired by printed business reports which were aesthetically pleasing so I feel like the cover revealing the title in the second page is slightly inspired by this. The small book is A5 with twelve pages, and the stock is Arjowiggins with the spine being staple bound. In terms of the layout of the book, its clear, minimal and legible with the use of both Work Sans and Space Mono giving character to the basic layout design. One of the notable characteristics of the book is the index after each interview which gives lists of names and subjects related to graphic design which were mentioned in the interview.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 03 - Life’s A Pitch


Studio brief
An important part of my professional growth is to develop an ability to work collaboratively and productively with others. Working in small mixed groups drawn from a number of LCA creative degree programme’s I will  develop fully and pitch a professional proposal for a public facing venture to best showcase and promote individual works of the collective . This could take the form of ( but certainly is not limited to) an exhibition, publication or online presence , or perhaps a combination of these. Through research and planning I will explore the basics of how to identify an appropriate venue, audience and market, structure your team to optimize my individual and group skills and knowledge, investigate the legal and financial obligations of developing and launching a creative initiative, seek appropriate professional support & advice, plan and control finances and effectively promote, brand and communicate your presence to external parties and partners.

My team will pitch a fully developed proposal describing and visualising the showcase with appropriate visual aids.

My individual presentation should be based on the analysis and content that I have been introduced to throughout the module and my experience of working in a collaborative partnership.

Background / Considerations
I will need to consider the following:

• What skills and services do you have to offer individually and as a group?
• Who is your target market?
• What form will your showcase take?
• What are your costs, charges and financial considerations?
• How will you structure your collective?
• Who will be responsible for what?
• How will you promote your showcase? To who? Using what media?
• Is it set in a physical location ? then where?
• How will you manage communication through the group?

You must make reference to the module resources materials, books and web sites to demonstrate your understanding of basic marketing and business principles.

Mandatory Requirements
Responses to this brief should be recorded on my PPP Blog and should be labeled with the module code and appropriate 'Studio Brief Number'.I should ensure that any material, discussions and reflections generated during taught sessions, workshop and group critiques are evidenced for assessment.

Deliverables

• TA 10 minute Powerpoint/pdf or similar presentation
• Appropriate visual aids and printed material to support your presentation.
• Evidence of the research and development of your presentation and visual material should be posted to your PPP blog and labelled with the module code. You should also post pdf versons of your presentation, notes and handouts to your PPP blog.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Final creative report

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Contact with Caterina Bianchini

I recently got in touch with Caterina Bianchini who is a freelance designer specialising in branding, editorial and art direction. Although she is now freelance, she has worked for studios such as DixonBaxi but also is the senior designer at Boiler Room. And this how I came across Caterina's work, she produced a 10 year anniversary posterzine for the music streaming platform which caught my eye and since then Ive kept up to date with her work.

A lot of her clients are music based such as Boiler Room but also Truth Radio, L'atmonie and many other music event nights not just in the Uk but worldwide. Her involvement in the music industry triggered me to get in contact with Caterina over Instagram as I believed she could offer some valuable research for my context of practice essay which is titled 'What is the role of graphic design in the underground electronic music scene?' Not only was I looking for research but also a real insight into her practice and graphic design within the music industry. After we exchanged messages through Instagram I sent some questions over to her email and the response is as follows:

Her replies were just what I was after for context of practice, but I feel I got a lot more out of this personally for myself than for my essay research. She gives some advice and opinions which are inspiring but I could also relate to a number of points she makes such as having the time to continuously develop work and also the point of acceptance in your own work. 

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Alex Dyson contact

The third and final practitioner I contacted was Alex Dyson who graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2014 and now works at The Lift Agency in Harrogate. He has a more illustrative background in design as his portfolio seems to push flat design illustration more than anything, but I've always admired the work he did for Tokyo fixed gear and vaguely knew of his love for fixed gear cycling.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Leeds Print Festival

I recently attended Leeds Print Festival which celebrates traditional and contemporary print process through type and image. The one day event which was held at Leeds College of Music had a programme of exhibitions and talks covering all print disciplines. The talks especially delivered a dose of inspiration whilst drawing attention to print and it’s importance in contemporary design culture.

To start with the first guest of the festival, DR.ME. Both Mark and Ryan of DR.ME were cool and laid back guys but was I fully expecting that due to they’re style and practice of collage. Their talk was funny as it included some anecdotes from their past adventures such as landing an internship with mike perry in New York and hosting an exhibition in which they had make friends stay in a 4 man tent on site of the show, as mike perry refused to let them stay with him. The main focus of the talk was about curation even though its a small part of their practice but I could see how much they developed from early curation. Such as ones they set in university compared to ones in New York and Manchester. This was encouraging to see how they started off and improved upon each time of hosting an event.

Ali Hanson of ItsNiceThat was next up and seeing the process of Printed Pages was great. Finding out that idea process only takes 2 days and they aim to relate the cover to world affairs. He talked about the design process which takes 2 weeks which was surprising and its all seems very hands on. During the talk ali talked about how printed pages is now requested in Japan and Taiwan and he hopes to push the readership into European cities outside the major metropolitan areas. Then during the panel he talked about how he looks for especially graphic design work to feature that is elsewhere than the Uk and named Gent in Belgium for an example. Personally I think he must be looking in more niche places such as Gent to potentially further ItsNiceThat’s reach in Europe. Yes interesting work is happening in Uk but ItsNiceThat readership is most likely the biggest in the UK so featuring more diverse work from across Europe may entice people in the smaller cities to follow itsNiceThat more and potentially buy Printed Pages.

Pat Bradbury was after Ali and Pats talk was really interesting as he focused on education more than anything and how print can be used to teach and provoke. He delved into his adventures and how he used his collage style to help a school in Vietnam and and a town at crossroads in Iceland. His advice was to look at schemes abroad to broader your horizons after university and you never know where you might end up. The last talk of the day was from Macroy Smith, the founder of People of Print. Macroy talked a lot about the business side of print and how he set up People of Print, it was interesting to have an insight into the posterzines that People of Print make as they've become more popular than Print isnt dead (People of Print magazine).

I then went along to Colours May Vary to check out the exhibition curated by DR.ME which has some excellent designs from a range of creatives. My personal favourite was from Guy Featherstone who I researched as a part of context of practice as his work is mainly in the electronic music scene for Diagonal records.