Typogateux - Evaluation

For this project we were to design and bake a cake based around the idea of Typography. Not having much knowledge about baking prior to this brief, I decided to keep my outcome simple and fairly easy to make. It involved a process of initially brainstorming ideas in order to think of an appropriate design that was effective yet simple; once I had my idea I then had to go about baking my cakes which resulted in much practice until I finally managed it. My outcomes, I feel, were successful in that they strongly resembled the letter blocks that I was basing my designs around. My lack of baking experience restricted the complexity of what I was producing and with more time to experiment and practice baking, I feel that I could have produced a more unique, complex and visually more pleasing set of cakes.

Studio Brief - Research, Collect, Communicate: PRODUCT - Evaluation

For this second part of the brief, we had to take the research we had been given and create some form of info-graphic.

As I had been looking into Dry Dock, I continued to do so and began looking at 'Scream Pubs' which was the chain that Dry Dock belonged to. I then became aware that there was another Dry Dock in Leicester that had a very similar appearance. I found this very intriguing and decided to start looking into how chain pubs make each of their establishments aesthetically similar in order to make them recognisable. This then led me to look again at the branding of Dry Dock: it's promotional material, menu's, website etc. When looking at it from this angle, I realised that none of the design work done for Dry Dock had any visual links to Dry Dock or to other material designed.

From this, I decided that my project would be to re-brand Dry Dock whilst thinking about info-graphics. To do this, I initially set about writing down some information and things that link with Dry Dock. I then went on to start producing a series of illustrations of small icons that represent various aspects of Dry Dock. In conjunction with this, I was looking at the work of other designers such as Kate Prior who was a huge inspiration to me throughout this project. Once I had created enough material to work with, I then had to simply design some form of composition that contained some of my icons and imagery. From these, I made a logo, menu, flier and a series of 12 beer mats.

As a whole, I think that my design work was strong and fits into the current trend. The style of illustration is very suitable and applicable to my project and target audience. I think that I worked very well within the project as I approached it from the correct angle and by creating all of my imagery before starting my final visuals, I was able to create effective, appropriate and aesthetically pleasing designs with some ease. If I was to continue this project further, I would look into other various methods of printing as well as creating a wider sense of a brand from Dry Dock; I would look into creating a more coherent website and more flier's promoting various other events that Dry Dock is home to etc.

Studio Brief - Research, Collect, Prepare - Evaluation

This was the first part of the brief, in which we were to research into our given themes; the theme I got was 'Cheers', the 1980's and 90's hit sitcom. As I knew nothing of my theme, I hadn't even really heard of it until this project, I started off by looking very vaguely into the program and then actors who were in it. From here, I then wanted to look further into the actual program and find out what made it so unique and successful. I found that throughout the program, the main element of it that never changed was the setting: the pub. I found this very interesting and felt that this was something to look further into. From deeper research I found that the pub from the program was based on an actual famous pub named 'The Bull & Finch'. I decided to look into famous pubs in the UK as the thought of a pub being so famous was strange to me; when looking however I came across a list that had been compiled by the company 'Famous Grouse' that stated it was the most famous pubs in the UK. Amongst that list was a local pub named 'The Dry Dock' and so, with it being so close and familiar to me, I decided to look into  The Dry Dock. I was looking at various different aspects of it, such as promotional fliers, menu's etc. to try and get some sort of an understanding as to why this pub is so famous (it's boat decor and appearance has a big impact on it's memorability).

I liked this part of the brief as I felt like through it I went on a journey; a journey from my given theme to 'The Dry Dock' which is where I ended up. It means that although my current theme is still completely relatable to my original topic, I have now tailored the brief so that it has become more about something that interests me as an individual and as a designer.

Studio Brief - Design Process – Software Workshop Photoshop - Evaluation

This project involved a process of attending workshops in order to ensure you were capable of using the software, before then independently creating a set of post-cards based around a given theme. My theme was triangle, and so I initially went around taking photographs of college and looking on various design blogs to get some research and inspiration. Once I had come up with my idea of creating a set of 4 post-cards with a final post card showing the others put together, I then made sure I had enough photographs to be able to work from. I chose my 4 photographs that I felt gave an interesting perspective of college that you wouldn't normally see. I then designed my diamond that was split into four sections; my plan was to put a section of the diamond on each post card; the last design having the entire diamond on.

I took my image and my section of the diamond and, in Photoshop, selected the area of my diamond that I wanted to use. I then deleted this selection from my photograph, leaving me with a white diamond  on my photo. To ensure that the diamond was instantly noticeable, I changed the levels and curves of the photograph making it become higher in contrast. To add some variety within my designs, for my final outcome, I made the selection inverted meaning that the diamond was made out of sections of the pictures. This makes it appear as though the sections that are missing from my four designs have been put onto my last design, keeping consistency throughout. I think that within this brief, although I have used Photoshop to edit my photographs in numerous ways, I haven't used it enough. However for me to produce work based around my idea, this was the most I could use Photoshop. I feel that I have kept my designs simple and minimal, clean and effective; I have also fulfilled the brief and like the way in which my designs create visual interest from not having any context.

Studio Brief - How To… - Evaluation

This project came in two parts: Research and Outcome. We were put into groups to collect a body of visual and written research on a set theme, ours being 'Healthy Lifestyle'. As a group we broke this vague topic down into, what we thought, were the 4 main aspects; the 4 main aspects we chose were Sleep Routine, Balanced Diet, Fitness and Exercise and Drugs and Alcohol. We then took a category each and, working for this part of the brief as individuals, created 3 boards containing as much visual information and research as we could gather on our subject. I had been given 'Sleep Routine'. I found this part of the project very interesting as we were forced to collect different types of research that I previously wouldn't have thought about gathering such as primary research. By asking people about elements of sleep, and creating a Questionnaire, I was able to generate my own information that was unique to me and unique to this project. 

After we had all individually collected information about each of our topics, we then brought this back to our groups and presented ours findings. For the second part of the brief, we were to create something that would 'help people maintain a healthier lifestyle'. After much consideration and discussion as a group, we decided to create an App containing our research that would inform and educate the user. We felt that, with our target audience being that of people between the age of around 18-30, an App would be the most suitable and applicable. We decided to go off again as individuals to create some designs in a way that we felt best represented our research; we were then going to bring our ideas together and choose what we felt as a group was the most effective. My designs were chosen and became the centre point of our project. We produced the entire App which included a logo, a loading screen, a menu page, various pages containing information and a page showing how the App would be displayed in the App store. We also looked into creating info-graphic's from our imagery in order to represent various statistics and facts effectively and in a visually interesting way. Once finished, we then put all of the design work into a presentation that we then presented to the rest of our group. 

I think that, due to my design work being the strongest, I had to do almost all of the groups work. I designed everything apart from coming up with the name. Despite this, my group did do work and direct much of the work I was doing. I just feel however that I did more than my fair share. However, as a group I still felt that we worked fairly well. We had a bad start, but once we got started we were constantly working together and helping each other to create our designs. This meant that the whole group got a say in how our end product was going to look, something that is essential when working in a group. If I was to do this project again, I would simply want a better start. I feel that the end design work is interesting and successfully displays the research and information we gathered.