OUGD603 Module Evaluation

The last year has been an eye opening experience and has made me realise crucial elements that are key for my own design process. The most important process I learnt was the fact that it is absolutely crucial to create a concept to develop my work. I realised this as I found my work flow was a lot more productive and informed when there was research involved that lead me to that point. I also learnt the importance of blogging and making notes of ideas, as it made the final resolutions a lot easier to understand as I had step by step guides of idea generation; this was really useful for group critiques, and I believe it will definitely be useful in industry when explaining my ideas to work colleagues. 

My favourite brief that I completed this year was the poster zine based on MUNA’s album ‘About U’. The final outcome is so successful because it was informed through research for every step taken in the production. I also really enjoyed it as I hadn’t previously thought about combining my interest in music with my interest in graphic design.

My least favourite brief was the map that I designed for Chevin Forest. I really like the final outcomes for the project, but I struggled to find a concept for the work, which made me really struggle with the design process, as all I knew is that it had to be legible; this didn’t leave me with much to aspire to within the design and I believe the outcome isn’t very original. 

This year I have become aware that my critical awareness has vastly improved compared to other years; I have realised the importance of research prior to designing and how important it is to have my design decisions informed. This not only improved my design process, it also improved my cognitive skills. I find it a lot easier to discuss and reflect upon my work using the concepts created informed by research, compared to the work that I created in previous years that didn’t have an informed concept. I believe this set of skills will definitely be transferrable to industry as I will be able to discuss my ideas thoroughly and they will have meaning behind them.

A strength of this year has definitely been my research prior to designing; it is clear through-out every project that I have thoroughly researched each and every aspect, and every design decision has been informed. A weakness of this year has been my time management. The briefs I completed were all managed really well, however I didn’t realise how close the deadline was until it was too late, which made me a brief short of ten. This is disappointing, however I will make sure that I learn from this and always keep time management of all tasks in mind. 

Overall, this year has been really useful and I believe my portfolio is very strong and industry ready, and I believe that I am prepared for interviews as I can talk about my work confidently. 

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Revised Design Boards - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Design Boards - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Evaluation - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

The brief was to create two poster designs for Creative Networks, run by CCE in university. The aim of the brief was to advertise and inform the five Creative Network events of the year, the first being Mike Mignola. This project was a collaboration between myself, Cameron and Izzie, for which I contributed the background design, Cameron contributed the label design and Izzie contributed the concept. We all decided to work together as we had collaborated in the past and we knew that we all brought a different set of skills to the table. Our group worked really well together, as we all contributed an equal amount and the final outcomes are really different from any of the work we would’ve produced individually; they incorporate a lot of different styles of work, which all merged really well together. 

The concept of our designs was to incorporate different elements of the speakers work, however keep each poster consistent. I believe this worked really successfully, as the two poster designs we created focused on relevant elements to the speaker, for example, the poster design for Mike Mignola focused on his colour palette and the shape he often uses within the backgrounds of his comics. 

I really enjoyed participating in this collaboration and completing this brief as it was challenging due to the fact that my team all have a very different design style, which meant we all had to meet in the middle and alter the design so that we all felt it was successful. The final outcomes will look great in my portfolio due to the fact I currently don’t feature any collaborative work, and including this brief will prove that I can work well both individually and as part of a team. 

Our time management of the brief was really well executed; as soon as we were briefed on this project we set a date that we would all meet back up to discuss the ideas and mock ups that we had created, and from this point we designed the final poster designs, incorporating different elements from each team members concepts. 

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Submission - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

After finalising the poster designs, we decided it was time to submit them. Below is the email that we sent to the Creative Networks' management. 

We decided that we should include an image showcasing how the background design was created and how it is relevant to that artist. This image can be seen below.

We also included a short summary of the concept which was as follows:

The main components of the poster designs are large distorted sections of work or images representing the selected special speaker. This abstraction makes the poster visually intriguing and exciting, creating a sense of mystery surrounding the event which will hopefully entice audience to find out more.

We wanted to keep things simple, as we see simplicity as being the key to achieving an effective aesthetic and overall tone of voice. The simplicity is achieved through our considered type decisions and compositional treatment.

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Final Poster Designs - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

Below are the final poster designs created for Mike Mignola and Amma Asante. They work as a set which is something that, as a group, we really wanted to achieve, but we also wanted to get an element of the speaker across through the use of the background. This was achieved by using the colour schemes of the artists, and also incorporating elements of the speakers work through the distortion - the poster design for Mike Mignola focuses on the background of a lot of his artwork, whereas Amma Asante's poster design focuses on the clear separation of colour, which symbolises the new movie that she has directed, which is about the separation and prejudice of black and white people. 

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Label Development - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

We then decided we would design a label for the posters. To go along with Izzie's idea of creating a 3D poster, we thought it might be interesting to have the label printed out 3D as it could grab the viewers attention further and add more engagement. The only issue I had personally with this label design was that the Creative Networks logo wasn't included, and therefore it looked very odd when placed on the distorted background. We decided it would be interesting to try printing it out 3D anyway to get an idea of what the poster could look like.

We printed the label design out 3D along with the poster and played around with the placement. As a group, we decided that the 3D aspect of the poster design wasn't necessarily needed as the background design had 3D elements, and therefore it didn't seem to fit as well as we had originally thought that it would. The poster designs definitely caught the viewers attention, however they were very fiddly to put together and the creases in the 3D box made the poster looks quite tacky. This was probably due to the use of stock, however it was very fiddly to put together, meaning it would be whichever the stock choice, and one error would make the poster look this way. 

It was decided that the 3D aspect of the poster design wasn't working, so we all individually went back to the computers and played with the label further. Cameron came up with the idea of keeping the label design more consistent with the poster by including a colour that was used heavily in the background design. We thought this was really successful, however still didn't incorporate the Creative Networks logo and therefore needed some adjustments.

These are the label designs that I created that incorporate the Creative Networks logo design. These were a lot more successful as everything was central and would be placed centrally onto the background design. It flowed a lot more as a poster design and was a lot more legible. The typefaces were chosen to represent the speaker - Mike Mignola creates dark cartoons, so we chose a thick serif typeface as it represents the artist very well. The sans serif typeface was chosen for Amma Asante as a lot of the movie posters that she has directed use sans serif typefaces - similar to Futura. We chose the typefaces that were legible, but also represented the speaker as closely as possible. 

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Background Mock-Ups - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

When discussing the poster developments, we decided as a group that it would be good to incorporate some of the colours used by the artist into the background design. To do this, I thought it would be interesting to try to create the background for the posters using the artists actual artwork. Below are the designs for Mike Mignola. As a group, it was decided that these designs were a lot more interesting and engaging to look at as a viewer, and they also stick with Izzie's idea of creating a 3D poster design - as they look a lot less 2D than all of the other poster developments to far. 

I then began creating similar backgrounds for one of the speakers at LIFF30. Below are the poster designs created for Amma Asante. These designs were also a lot more engaging to the viewer, so this style of poster design was decided as a group to be taken forward and developed.

The concept of these poster designs was to create an excitement and intriguing visual which would entice the viewer to find out more about the event. The designs create a mystery and therefore engage with the viewer on a different level than the previous designs. The poster designs for Mike Mignola also follow the idea of using the specific shape he uses in a lot of his backgrounds, as the shape of the distortion follows this pattern.

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Discussion of Individual Posters & Concept Creation - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

Myself, Cameron and Izzie all got together and showed each other the poster designs we had come up with so far. Having looked at all of the posters, we thought that the most successful idea so far was Izzie's design. She had created a poster that was 3D (see image below). We weren't all hugely thrilled with the content, but we thought that the idea of using a 3D element to the poster would definitely make it stand out from other submissions. We decided to run with this idea.

We also discussed the fact that we were finding it really difficult to work with the artwork of Mike Mignola, and decided it would be really interesting to see if we could take an element of his work and make that an element of the poster, instead of using his actual artwork. When looking through his work, we realised that the background of most of his artwork is very similar - there's a specific shape behind each figure (see images below).

It would be really interesting to try to recreate a similar shape for our poster design, as it would feature an element of the artists work, but also wouldn't need to feature an actual image of his work. This development can be seen below. The style of these poster mock ups were a lot more successful than all of the other poster developments so far, so as a group it was decided that this style would be taken further and developed more.

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Mock-Up Poster Designs - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

This is the first poster design mocked up. The idea would be to use two sheets of paper, one with the speakers artwork and the other introducing the event. This was unsuccessful as the front sheet of paper looked really empty and there wasn't really a way of getting around that - as you can see below, the type was experimented with heavily.

This is the next poster design. This was definitely more successful than the first design because the type fit a lot more appropriately and it was legible, however the colours used weren't great and the whole poster seemed very 2D and didn't grab the viewers attention.

The next poster design was a lot more successful and played with the type on the image of the speakers work. This would definitely grab the viewers attention, and it also was very legible and easy to follow. The only thing that didn't work was the fact that the poster was quite boring - it grabs the viewers attention, however it doesn't really engage with the viewer - it would be interesting to see if there was a way of making the viewer have to think about what they are looking it further.

This is the final poster design, which was a lot more successful and had a heavy focus on negative space, however there is too much negative space and the poster looks very similar to a lot of posters out there - it's unoriginal and so for that reason it's not successful.

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Primary Research - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

It would be beneficial to find out other peoples views of posters, rather than basing the design decisions for my mock up poster designs solely on my own opinions of posters. Below are the questions asked to the participants. Not many people took the survey, however it is clear to see that most of the people that did have very similar views on what makes a poster design a success, which I agree with.

Q1. What catches your eye when looking at poster designs?

A1) When I look at poster designs, the colour is usually the thing that stands out the most - it's the thing that usually catches your eye at a glance, and then the rest of the poster is key to keeping my interest.
A2) Colour, attractive people and shocking images.
A3) Type
A4) Type and colour.

Q2. Do you prefer posters that a) have a lot of type or b) posters that rely on imagery?

A1) b. I think a poster shouldn't hold an insane amount of information, if the person is interested I assume they will go and research the event or what have you further.
A2) Depends how well the type is executed, if it is badly executed it is better to rely on images.
A3) a.
A4) A mix of both a and b. it needs to have the right balance and be aesthetically pleasing.


Q3. Would you take the time to read body copy on a poster?

A1) no, I will only really look at a poster for 10 seconds max at a time - the information should be very visible straight away.
A2) no, not unless i was interested
A3) probably not. it does sometimes look successful though.
A4) no, unless it was a poster online/i was really interested in the event.


Q4. How do you find out about events that you want to attend?

A1) Posters, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. mainly online but posters do help.
A2) online, facebook
A3) posters, Facebook, word of mouth
A4) all of the above ^

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Initial Ideas - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

Before jumping into designing and drawing mock ups of ideas, it will be beneficial to outline the problems that are posed by the brief. Below is a mind map of these initial problems. 

The most important question that came out from creating this mind map was taken directly from the brief and is as follows: 

"How will each event be unique?"

This is the most important problem so far, as each five artists will vary in specialism, however the poster designs must be consistent, irrelevant of specialism or style of artwork. This is one of the most tricky problems to try to solve, as the poster design must be functional with each speaker but also showcase a style or element of their work.

Before discussing with the rest of the group, it will be beneficial to make some very rough mock ups of layout to get an idea of the layouts that could be successful and the layouts that may not be. From creating these mock ups, it is clear to see that the more simplistic designs (the top two designs) will be a lot more successful than the more complex designs (the bottom two designs), as they will be a lot easier to keep consistent over the five poster designs, and also the type and imagery will stand out a lot more due to the use of negative space. It will make the poster a lot easier to follow and hold the viewers attention longer than a design that is complex and needs decoding. 

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Research - Collaborative / Competition (Brief One)

Before trying to tackle this brief, it will be helpful to look into previous Creative Networks posters and branding to get an idea of the designs that have been chosen in the past, as this may prompt idea generation and also give a rough idea of the aesthetic that suits within the college. Below are two of the posters that were used as promotion in a previous year. They're effective as the bright use of colours make the posters really stand out, however the use of colour is also kept constant with the speaker - Matt Forsythe has a washed out colour used for the stock on his poster, which fits well with his artwork and use of watercolour, whereas the bold sky blue used for Cameron Stewart is a colour often seen in his work, and is therefore relevant to him. The constant in both posters is the use of the title type - the use of typeface is consistent throughout each poster design and the logo placement is also kept in the same position. This is definitely something to be considered as the poster designs will have to work both individually and as a series.

The most unsuccessful thing about these poster designs is the use of body copy text. Body Copy on a poster isn't common, and it's something that would 9/10 times get overlooked by the viewer, as they are more likely glimpse at the poster than analyse is fully. Posters should have information very clearly organised, so that the most important information can be obtained within seconds.

This is the branding for the talk from Elaine Constantine (from the same year as the above posters). This is key to note, as if the poster designs created are chosen, the rest of the branding for the evenings will need to be designed. It is clear to see that the branding is from the same year of Creative Networks, as the typeface used is the same, and the use of negative space is also sustained. 

Below is another years poster designs for the Creative Networks events. These poster designs are minimal and legible and very easy to follow. The imagery used is very strong and instantly grabs the viewers attention using both colour and the focus of negative space. The logo placement and use of text is also consistent throughout both designs, and the LCA logo is shown using the shape of the imagery - this is very well designed, as it hints to the location of the events - Leeds College of Art. The information included is very concise, however both posters lack quite useful information, such as location of the event, the date and time. The posters also don't mention how to purchase tickets. This is something to be considered within my own groups poster designs.

It may also be helpful to look at other posters around college organising different events, such as SU events. For this reason, I walked around and took some photos of existing poster designs. Below is the first poster that could be relevant for the Creative Networks brief. The use of bold uppercase text really makes the information stand out from other posters, and the uniformed layout makes the poster really legible and flow well. The use of the LCA logo is what stood out mostly, as part of the Creative Networks brief requirements is to include both the Creative Networks logo and the LCA logo, so this is something to definitely consider. The poster is, however, quite dull as it uses very little imagery and looks very much like a certificate, so using imagery is definitely something to consider.

The next poster design is for a Student Union event within the college. The poster uses very bright imagery to catch the attention of the viewer, which is incredibly successful as it stands out from a lot of the posters on this wall in the college. There is very little text on the poster, which is key as all the information about the event is very concise and the attention of the viewer is kept from start to finish. The logo placement on this particular poster is also interesting to note, as it isn't a focus of the poster (unlike the previous). It is still a successful placement of the logo design, however, as the logo is still visible and it is mentioned through the text in the poster that it is a society of the university.

Finally, this poster design is for NEST, the college publication. In my opinion, the poster doesn't stand out at all from the rest of the posters reviewed. This is most likely due to the lack of colour, as this poster blends into the background due to the use of affordable, white stock and the black outlined text. This poster, however, was most likely considered in great detail, as the outlined text and lack of colour means that it was incredibly affordable to print in bulk - which was very apparently done as the poster can be seen on almost every wall in the university. In this sense, it is successful as the poster is hard to avoid. It is also apparent the reason for the lack of imagery - the person wanting submissions doesn't want to influence anyone submitting work and simply wants the work 'Focus' to be the focus of the poster, hence the central positioning of the word and the use of negative space surrounding the word.