OUGD406 | EVALUATION

As this was the last module to be briefed for first year, I wanted to be able to demonstrate all the skills I have picked up and learned over the course and aimed to push myself further. Overall it was probably the most enjoyable of all the modules I have completed because I felt I have improved a lot from OUGD403 in terms of analysis and quality of the work. I managed to try different ideas instead of just going with one design, by experimentation and development, and documented my progress on my blog more elaborately than I had done at the start of the year. 

I also felt as though I had began to finally establish my own way of working, or my own 'style', and throughout most of the briefs for this module I was able to show this through my creative practice. Being proud of what I was producing was a big factor for this module. As a whole I think for the most part I was pleased with how my work had developed, which spurred me on throughout the briefs. 

Secret 7 was probably my favourite brief of this module as I had never really competed in a live brief before. It was a different experience than any of the other projects we had been set this year, and was actually a lot more fast paced. It was a challenge as it did put me under pressure but the design process was a lot of fun and experimental. I enjoyed using hand rendered elements such as continuous line drawings and paint to create something  digital in the end. The stress of this brief did pay off however as one of my designs ended up being chosen for the Secret 7" exhibition in London which I went to. It was a really exciting brief and gave me a lot of experience.

Redesigning a library book cover was also fun, and allowed me to finally learn how to screen print. Although I wasn't as into the process of screen printing, I did really like how the finished design looked, and it gave me some insight into other methods of printing design, not just tapping a button. I will definitely try screen printing again even if it isn't my all time favourite method.

The collaborative group work wasn't my favourite brief and was probably my weakest aspect in this module. I recognised that group work is important but I feel as though I do work better alone as it is easier to please myself with my own design decisions than 3 other people. Throughout this brief however I did enjoy creating something collaboratively and was quite pleased with how our exhibition branding turned out. It gave me a lot of experience with working with other people and learning to manage time as we had to plan who was in the studio at what time.

The brief Speaking from Experience was also a brief I thoroughly enjoyed as it gave me a lot of freedom to create something I was personally proud of that reflected my own style of working. It was also interesting to be able to sit and reflect on my experiences throughout the year and how much I have enjoyed being on this course, even when I faced challenges. I managed to create a zine that I felt is one of my best pieces of design so far. I'm incredibly pleased with the progress and way I worked with this brief and felt it was an appropriate resolution.

Overall this module has been very enjoyable and taught me even more skills that I can apply in second year.

OUGD406 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | BRIEF

For this project we were required to write our own brief.

Studio Brief:

Produce a piece of work that will help comfort, reassure and relax the new first year students. Your aim is to reflect on your progress in the year so far and use these experiences in order to create a piece of design. 

These experiences should be either focused on graphic design as a course or able to be generalized to university life. 

What would you want to be told in your first week of university? What advice would you give?

Deliverables:

A physical or digital resolution to the brief
Design boards
Blog posts 

OUGD406 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | PRODUCTION

Since my target audience is obviously first years, there's a lot of things given out during freshers, and this is probably when I would be aiming to distribute my zines. Since there wouldn't be a small amount of graphics students, I need my production to be quick, easy and cheap of course. I tried out using just black and white for cost purposes and did a mock up of how it would look:

At first I printed this wrong, not setting it to landscape to fit on the double A5 size.

 Printing these in black and white would cut the cost massively however I still wanted to print a colour version. Since I had worked in RGB, as I had focused on the booklet being digital, I realised the aqua blue colour would not come out as vibrant. I decided on a very thin stock, again to make the production much cheaper. 

 

As for my binding method, to again adhere to the cheap feel I was aiming for, I chose a simple staple bound method. However I'm not very accurate and so this ended up coming out wrong and the staples are visable on the front. You could say this is appropriate to the style of my book, because of how I have mentioned breaking rules of graphic design and doing things your way...

The zine is also available digitally, which would hypothetically be uploaded to eStudio for the first years to access at any time. 

OUGD406 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | FINAL SPREADS

These are the final spreads for my zine completed with the text content. For this brief my main aim was to help prevent future first years from incessantly worrying about the things that I had actually worried about myself. I took personal things and tried to generalize them to a larger amount of people. The titles of the spreads can range from being specific to Graphics, or be applied to other real life feelings and thoughts.

I took a hand rendered approach to this brief because it conveys a personal tone of voice, which will hopefully relax the target audience and allow it to be easily relatable. I kept the titles concise and not too wordy to also reinforce this relatability. I wanted to avoid the zine sounding instructional, and more conversational in the titles and also the discourse. I also wanted to refrain from sounding patronizing as this wouldn't be an appropriate or effective way to address the new first years; it would definitely put me off.

The colour choice was a bright aqua blue/green, chosen because I thought it would maintain a calm tone throughout. It was said to be a neutral colour which would be relaxing to look at. 

I kept the text size small as the page is already quite filled up, I also chose a very basic typeface (Helvetica medium) to keep the content fairly minimal.

 

OUGD406 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | DIGITAL PUBLICATION

In order for my zine to be more accessible for first years, I decided making an online version of it would be a good idea as some people may misplace or not take one, and want to look at it at a later time. Potentially this would work as a pdf uploaded to estudio for the first years to access at any time they want.

http://issuu.com/mothsblood/docs/don_t_worry

OUGD406 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | FINAL CRIT

The final crit was really great to get some useful feedback to help with analysing my work. Above is the student/tutor comments. It was good to know that my colour choices and hand rendered style effectively communicated the specific informal and personal tone I was aiming for. I'm happy that the tone of voice was said to be appropriate for the target audience. My briefs resolution is aiming to calm, reassure and inspire those starting university and doing a graphic design course in particular.

It was also useful to think about the production as I had already decided I was going to print it out and staple bind it, it would be great to use thin stock also as it would be suitable alongside this binding method - cheap and easy to produce for the fresher's fairs etc. An idea that arose was that it would also be great to put a digital version in my submission, such as a pdf, as it would be useful to be able to have on estudio so that first years could access it whenever, say if it gets lost.

OUGD406 | STUDIO BRIEF 4 | CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

The first step to designing my zine was to decide on what the content would be. I wanted to keep the content quite personal as the brief is about our own reflection on the first year of university. My zine will be about worrying, and feature the things that I would have liked to have heard before starting the course. It's going to be personal and I plan for it not to just be about graphics alone but maybe in all aspects of moving to university. Here are the titles for the pages in my zine that I thought would be relevant:

• go with your gut
• blog blog blog
• crits
• find your style
• its not all digital
• don't compare yourself
• making friends 
• anxious? talk to someone 

Since my favourite way to work is by using hand rendered elements this is where I will begin for this brief. I created my titles using water saturated with black brusho, to create an ink-like texture, but more watered down. 

 This was the first set of letterforms I made but when I began to use them they didn't have the look I wanted, something just wasn't right about it. I think they looked a little too neat and thick. The 'don't worry' however I felt looked nice and I started creating the cover of my zine from this scan. 

I didn't have a set colour scheme in mind at this point but I was leaning towards a pastel colour, or the bright aqua green for the whole publication. I did some mark making to create some patterns which I decided would look best on the back cover:

I then began to experiment with the content. I wanted to capture a chaotic, spontaneous vibe trying out hand rendered titles and other elements.

I began by experimenting with a font at first. I wanted something capitalised and bold because that was my preference, however in retrospect, I feel this may look too 'loud' as Bebas could be said to convey volume and is a little too ridged. As I have used hand rendered type on the front cover I thought it would make sense to use it throughout. As for colour I tried out a pastel pink colour after getting inspiration from this image:

I found this image on designspiration.net and really liked the off white background and pastel yellow colour alongside the hand done type. This is the aesthetic that inspired me for my own zine.

The shape on my page is also extremely experimental, It began as a brush I had created on photoshop and used the liquify effect on it. I was simply messing about to be honest and found the shape I made really interesting. I thought it would match the page about anxiety as it reflects how being nervous feels, all mixed up:

 Some more examples of rough experiments with colour and texture, along side my own type. These didn't really work for me though as I preferred using a brighter colour, so that it's more fun and lively and inviting than looking a bit too serious and dismal which that mustard colour looks.

These designs are much more to my liking. I used some of my scans to create a messy hand rendered effect, which I'll be doing consistently on all the pages.

Here I have incorporated colour using a square to separate from the grey background. Added splatters to match the other pages, but I want each page to look a little different than the last. I tried this design in yellow but felt the aqua blue looked more calming and yellow could subtly represent danger. I increased the gamma correction on my type to make it a more bolder black and then felt the words looked better closer together.

 

Here I added the colour through my type, after deciding firmly to use the aqua blue. I also decided to add my own photo of my uni pin fineliners, as they're my favourite pens to use for drawings, and personal to me. I also added the same pattern as the back cover to match and have a running theme.

Again the entire page is hand rendered (except the text content that will be added). I used salt on brusho to create the background. It creates a lot of different darker shades alongside the lighter ones.

For these two designs I have also used the scans of my brusho ink and inserted a 'column' of it whilst overlapping the type. This is to fit in with the whole 'no grid' system I've been working with for this zine.