Timetable. Tha plan.

My timetable! well atleast a rough copy for day to day organisation. I always do them, get out of the habit of updating them and creating new ones and wonder why i'm so disorganised. hmm. This should put me in good stead, factoring in work, actual deadlines and rota'd crits. Ill refresh the timetable towards the end to plan for the next few weeks afterwards.

Progress crits. Feedback.

The feedback and my thoughts from the crit recently. Such a good group to be in this time around. With this being the first real crit looking back at work I feel that (especially in my group) everyone has taken it to a another level with how the crit is run, better feedback, more questions, much more indepth and detail and much more understanding. This particular crit I wasn't best looking forward to, with the format of the module being very self-directed, I definitely felt a few occasions of the feeling of plodding on with work, no real deadlines and understanding of the time-frame. This, something I have definitely learnt from the crit. My current work ethic had little structure to it, picking pieces of work and briefs at random and progressing in each field. This lead to basically not producing enough work on a whole for the crit (at least I felt that way.) The feedback I received was clear and concise and very useful to build from,  rising many questions to make myself and make decisions with my practice. Clarification was a key part of the feedback. Give myself clarification. understand the problem in hand, and create a relevant solution. This I feel was partly down to partly bad constructed briefs, and keeping to a timeframe.

Ok, so whats next?

Organise some timeframes for briefs

Plan a timetable to stick to factoring in dissertation, identity briefs and larger briefs.

More visual research more 'Graphic Design' on the context blog.

Clarify briefs/themes.

Statement of intent right?

End of brief Evaluation.

Overall I've really quite enjoyed this brief. Originally when we were proposed this brief I was a little anxious about what was in store, in the previous brief with a collaborative partner decisions were shared and direction was taken forward together. For this brief it felt at first like the complete opposite.. What do I like? What do I want to produce? What limitations do I have? The first time you write a brief feels very weird, calling all the shots and making decisions with noone to tell you different.

At the end I'm quite surprised with the results, I'm quite proud of what I've achieved with the time I've had and with few limitations to what direction I can take. A strength to the brief has been the ability to create and experiment in some cases so much more than I would. I had a small set of guidelines to produce typefaces which would eventually promote skype and was left to it. I think writing the brief yourself makes it much more personal, and much more important to achieve in. The nature of the brief mean't I wasn't by a mac all of the time and sketching to try and visualize ideas, it was more of a case of trial and error throughout the brief. If something worked, I kept it and tweaked it, if something didn't then it was reattempted or stopped altogether, making progress and developing stronger ideas gradually.

I think that was one of the weaknesses of the brief throughout the 5 weeks, I knew how long I had to produce a body of work but the brief was very open ended, knowing I had to produce typefaces but with fewer other restrictions. Should I have set time scales to produce certain amounts of type tests for certain dates? Would I have produced worst typefaces because I would of felt rushed? or more possibilities to have a wider variety? should this of been one of the considerations to direct the brief throughout?

Crits and feedback sessions were really varied in quality throughout, the 'show and tell' crit we had wasn't as expected, not with the actual feedback I received but with how people used the time. In the partners I received only 3 pieces of feedback from the entire group whereas we (my pair) made the effort to give constructive feedback to each member of the group which felt alittle selfish. I did enjoy the initial concept crit for deciding briefs and the final crit format. Both felt like very professional environments and I came away with really useful feedback for both.  

Since beginning the brief and as I have progressed, the idea of directing my own brief and creating my own projects seems so much more inspiring to direct what I produce, I'm realizing so many things i want to produce that I haven't considered before- more identities, merchandise, skateboards, DVD covers. I think I'm going to enjoy writing my own over summer.

Post Crit. The fire has been lit.

Woah. Pretty strange crit. The crit was of a show and tell format, where your work was left to explain itself, and then pairs would walk round and comment on your work. I didn't mind the format at first, both my partner Hannah and Myself gave feedback to everyone in the crit both of something constructive and positive, and something that could be worked on if we saw fit, but unfortunately that wasn't seen through many peoples eyes. I had feedback from 4 pairs in total, with repetition of the same points. Too brown? what stock? too brownnn..

I wasn't feeling too confident until I found the mountain of a list from Rebecca and Heather they had wrote me :) the bloomin' legends! 

they had considered the designs and suggested directions in which to take, and raised a few key points to consider to do with context, and placement of the final adverts, they had even wrote me a to-do list! 

Taking on board what was set, I knew what was needed to produce and create effective pieces. The typefaces needed more context, the possibility of a scenario to apply to and re-considering the audiences and possibilities. 

Progress Crit. Feedback

Okay, bit of feedback time. Mixed thoughts and a few ideas raised to continue with, moving in to the crit I wasn't 100% confident and struggling with a little bit of a direction to work from. 'Bringing people together' I knew was working, just how to apply it and by how much. I took my chocolate type, money and screen experiments and saw what people thought.

The message of what was trying to be protrayed was a little lost just by itself, maybe not the right choice of medium for type? In the crit I did need to explain a little bit too much which proves things weren't working, but I did get a few positive feedback points to work from. The suggested cards as another dimension and range to the designs went down well, a way of sharing skype my handing cards out looks like a good direction to take.

Okay, so a few notes I made. Business cards good, but the typefaces need to be re-enforced alittle more. Try variations of the chocolate and placement of the advertising to give more context. What could be a good variation of chocolate could be dusting chocolate.. one I want to try straight away.

Crit. Get readyyy!

Brief! Post Crit.

The crit went really well, getting feedback from the proposal and what everyone though. It made me think much more about what I want to achieve, originally listing what sort of work you want to produce, then applying it to a brief. From the crit, I opened my eyes a little bit to realise I may just be trying to incorporate ideas into the brief, because I want to do them and not considering wether or not it is relevant. From this, I'm considering dropping the ambient styles of advertising, and aim for more conventional techniques, depending on development.

Also, for the target audience I focused originally on producing advertising specifically relationships/love. But, with a strong concept statement 'Skype brings people together' I want to open up the brief again and develop why skype should bring people together, as strangers then eventually friends.

So yeah, thats the next step, work more literally with the concept statement with a wider audience in mind. And get researching!

Are we being too soft?

Feedback from the crit was varied and really useful, the different format was quite useful for the initial stages. It really helped bringing up points that we hadn't considered. The Original concept on the boards shown is quite confused and I think we are trying to please H.Samuel with just tweaks to what they already have instead of redesigning and challenging them as a Jeweller. Are we being too soft? The crit opened our eyes to many more possibilities and questions to consider.

What gifts do a younger audience purchase?
How do other retailers sell to 18-35 year olds?
How is the packaging going to be appropriate?
What are we trying to say to customers about H.Samuel? Why should you shop there?
How will the designs accommodate to the wide target audience?
What do 18-35 year olds wear?
Does H.Samuel need a rebrand?
Consider your language used?
Are you being too superficial?

I think with much more to consider.. we first need to tie down our Concept statement before any development begins.

First Crit. Problem + Concept

Colour theory.

From the crit on wednesday, I was asked to investigate further what colours to decide on and how I made the decision on which colours I chose, and to be honest I wasn't too far off. Taken from versa creative, this gives a simple explanation of colour theory and their meanings. Click the image for a larger view. Now, I will re consider the colour choices I have made to make the labels more successful.

Crit round up.

Little round up of some work so far with the good brief, coming on quite well and sort of to plan, with what I wanted to achieve. I used to always over complicate designs and wanted to just get back to basics and make it work. 'Less is more' is a phrase i've adopted and is quite obvious here. I wanted just type, and maybe only one colour to the design, try and use the techniqes and theories learnt in the type workshops with have had, letting emotions come through with a typeface, and the use of colour. Through surveys and experimentation to form initial designs for the 'emotions' teas (name not final) Ideally I would want each typeface different to truly define each tea but they're not. This will change, but the each have their own characteristics and hopefully the typeface relates with the word, so you think of mellow when you read it, slightly curved, lighter weight and the colour is relaxed.

Overall the work went quite well, and I was only brought up on things I didn't have with me, my blog for one with all the contextual research. the designs themselves just need to be developed further, a better connection between the labels, choice of container, more information on the label and just basically continuing with the project and make decisions.

Daft blogger has made the images blurry and the actual designs are very crisp. Silly blogger