Penguin
The Penguin Design Award entails choosing from a selection of three books from different categories, and rethinking the cover design.
For this brief the options included A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Emil & The Detectives by Erich Kästner and How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran.
The choice was obvious for me when reading the brief, as I have detected my own working style during the course. A Clockwork Orange is a dark, adult fiction novel which immediately tickled my fancy. The work I usually produce has melancholic and dark undertones, and I felt the style of the novel would be best suited to my process.
A Clockwork Orange is a classic novel; meaning it has reached a large audience over the time it has been produced, alongside the film, which will have undoubtably reached more individuals. Due to the age of the novel, I wanted to create a contemporary cover that would rethink how the book is viewed, and take a new perspective on the themes of the plot.
It involves a dystopian Britain which has fallen into the hands of ultraviolence and crime, and ultimately become a corrupt and unpleasant place to live. The main protagonist of the plot, Alex, is part of a group of friends, or Droogs, which meet up and commit violent crimes and rape. In order to capture the essence of violence and the state of the country, I chose to use a satellite image of the UK, and manipulate it drastically.
The end result communicated a glitch within society, which was implemented into a contemporary design, modernising A Clockwork Orange, avoiding the stereotypical associations with the novel, for example a class of milk, the colour orange or the iconic eye of Alex, yet still successfully relate to the story and set the tone of the book.
Overall, I was impressed with my concept for the design, and felt it worked successfully. The problem I have with my final resolution is that only I can identify what the imagery is, as it has been heavily manipulated by myself. The imagery adds a sense of mystery, and is very subtle, however it could have been clearer what I was trying to represent, as this would have made the concept even stronger. This is something that I chose to work on in future briefs in the module and as an overall designer; concept is key.
Secret 7
Last year, entering Secret 7” was one of my favourite briefs, and it was made even more fulfilling when the design I did for Born Slippy .NUXX was chosen as part of the exhibition. Secret 7” gives the designer the ultimate freedom when creating, which is what makes the process so appealing
to me.
This year I entered the competition again as part of the responsive module. I entered because I knew I would enjoy it, and when you enjoy your work, the outcome is usually something to be proud of. For this exhibition, it is really down to what the judges like visually, meaning the concept of the design in some cases is not as important; yet should be considered in terms of the module, as the process of the design still needs to be documented.
The track I chose this year was Dream 3 by Max Richter. The more times I heard this record, the more I started to genuinely enjoy listening to it. As it is an instrumental track, it gives you the opportunity to really engage with the music. It mainly features piano and is designed to aid the listener to sleep.
Taking the concept of ‘sleep’, I interpreted this in terms of death, the act of passing away, ‘falling asleep’ permanently. I brought this concept to life visually by using symbols surrounding death; the coffin, the real life fallen grave and the raw definition of sleep in the form of dying. These three designs act as a set, as they all have different mediums and work separately and in sync.
I was exceptionally pleased with how my submissions turned out. The final resolution has an effective balance between darkness, and visual appeal.
Cell
This brief was submitted as part of the New Blood Awards in this years D&AD competition. It was set by Design Bridge, and involved the creation of a new cosmetic brand which is tailored towards both males and females. The aim was to think about the dismantling of gender stereotypes and abandon the reinforcement of unrealistic beauty standards which have been ingrained into our daily lives. Why do men’s brands look like power tools whereas women’s are always floral and pink?
I created a large gender neutral cosmetic range, mainly concerning itself with skincare, by the name of Cell. Since it would mainly be a skincare brand, I took the raw term for skin to communicate that the brand is for anyone; female, male, black or white, and it does not discriminate or appeal to any certain group more than another.
In order to be as neutral as possible, I used the most minimalistic colour palette I could - black and white, again referring back to the brand appealing to all skin colours, black or white. The logo has scientific connotations, which was created in order to demonstrate the biological theme, and also that the brand is professional, heavily researched and trustworthy. Cell represents pureness, and the process of taking care of the vessel we are given.
I chose this brief as I was aware of my own opinions regarding socially constructed gender roles, the stigmas associated with each gender, and my continuous passion in these topics. Initially I had a lot of trouble with this brief, and the whole concept came to me whilst half asleep. Once I had a concept, and a clear motive with the brand, the process became a lot easier, and came naturally to me. I spent a lot of time tightening up my concept and working on representing the brand in other deliverables.
If I am honest, although my resolution fits the brief, I felt I could have pushed this a lot further. Perhaps I could have printed out the branding and actually posted something physical for the judges to look at? Or maybe I could have taken more control and actually found real life people to represent Cell in my deliverables, instead of simply using Rick Genest. It would have also been rewarding to create a video to communicate the brand ethics, and gain a new set of skills.
However, saying this, I feel as though I did create a successful brand, which does answer the problem that the brief states. My solution is aimed at all genders and does not alienate anyone, or attach unnecessary masculinity and femininity. Completing this brief enabled me to build on a skill I already have, which is creating design that is gender neutral.
Telegraph
For the collaboration section of the responsive module, I chose to work with Jack. Jack also studies graphic design, and has an interest in UX/UI design. I felt that the Telegraph brief would allow me to work on something completely different to what I have previously created, and would be a great way to develop my skills in this area of design and ultimately let me discover if this is a potential field that I’d like to go into in the future.
Within the brief, The Telegraph expressed how they would like to attract a younger audience, those which would still comply with their ethos and hardy britishness; those who know their own minds. They also wished to form a community, and asked potential designers to consider how this can be done in terms of comments.
Me and Jack eventually came up with Your Telegraph, a news application which offers the user a fully customisable experience from beginning to end. Implementing this through the ability to choose the news categories they would like to see and avoid, and also the way they view articles. Users can also write their own responses to articles, allowing them to form a following. Responses enabled users to express their own opinions whilst educating others on certain topics. The app also gave them a profile page to interact with other members, adding a social element.
I think our resolution effectively answered the brief. We communicated our resolution through an informative video, which gave the app a slick appearance. In terms of how we approached the brief, the work load was split between us, Jack had a knowledge of After Effects and so he concerned himself with the animation of the video, whereas I concerned myself with creating a bulk of the files once we established our overall composition, organising layers for the animation and generally speeding up the process. Without Jack, I could not have made a visual submission like we did.
Although eventually I enjoyed working on Your Telegraph, I found it hard to get stuck in with it initially, but through encouragement and experimentation, I began to enjoy the process of creating a user journey. It did make me realise that UX/UI is not my speciality, and I work much better in different disciplines of graphics. This is a great learning curve and has informed my own development as a designer.
I find it hard to work in a group, and sometimes there was different opinions between us on what would work best, but in the end I feel we produced something to be proud of, and made a great team.
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