Penguin Random House, Feedback - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

After showing my initial sketches it was clear that the third design was the most favoured. The other designs had potential but it was too much for a book cover to include or fit on without making the design too complicated. Everyone enjoyed the fact that the design was based around the diary as it is straightforward. People did say that the rough sketch look worked for the intent of the design and that it should be kept throughout to make it seem a bit more child like rather than fully refined. It was also clear that an analogue approach should be used.

Penguin Random House, Processes - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

A digital approach could be used for this brief but because the book is about a 13 year old boy in the 80s it would make more sense to use media appropriate to that time and the character. Hand rendered means of production would work to fit this criteria whilst still creating a publication that would stand out on a shelf.

Methods to consider:

Printing, Lino/Screen

Water colour

Letterpress

Foiling

Stamping

UK Greetings, Production Methods - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

Often the work I have produced for this course has been through digital means but this brief has a different feel to it. Digital could be seen as easier to produce on a commercial level but if a hand rendered method is more feasible then it is often seen as more desirable to the buyer. If created using hand rendered methods then the cards would not all be made individually but instead as prints scanned in after being created through analogue means.

Methods to consider:

• Pencil Sketch
• Fine Liner
• Gouache
• Water Colour
• Acrylic
• Screen Print
• Lino Print
• Letterpress
• Photography

These ideas will be brought to another critique.

UK Greetings, Initial Character Design - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

Initial character design started with a quick few sketches in a notebook. The design was to show a simple robot design often large exaggerated features such as eyes or head are seen to be cute in character design. The design needed to show a lack of emotion so that the character could be seen as misunderstood giving even more depth to the meaning. Elements still need to be worked on and developed once back in university feedback will be taken on.

Penguin Random House, Initial sketches - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

These are some initial sketches based on centering the cover around the diary. The first is based on the idea that Adrian is sat at his desk writing in his diary whilst events that are described in the book happen all around him. The second having all the events flying out of the diary from the open pages. Finally the third just a simple design featuring a diary with a ribbon going around to make the book seem playful but not over complicate the cover.

Penguin Random House, The Secret Life of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

 

The book is written in a diary format explaining the life of a teenage boy (Adrian Mole) and his confusion about the world. Although Mole believes himself to be an intellectual he often gets the wrong end of the stick when it comes to what is going on around the world and in current affairs. He sees Margaret Thatcher as his almost nemesis throughout the book. The story lasts just over a year (1981- April 1982) and is the first in its successful series, so successful the series was made into a TV program in the 1980s on ITV. The show was altered slightly from the original book series but still featured a lot of the original content.

Overall the book has been described as "The funniest book of the year" by the Daily Mail and became a very accomplished publication. To design the cover for this book would be a fun and playful task that wouldn't have restrictions on colour choices and design as much as a more serious fiction publication would.

UK Greetings, Things to Consider - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

"Together UK Greetings and American Greetings have one of the largest and most talented creative teams in the industry all around the world, publishing cards in more than 20 languages, in more than 70 countries." 

This is quoted from the brief background, this was chosen to focus on for the point that the cards are published in more than 20 languages. From this it's clear that the card is needed to be almost universal and pictures speak louder than words. The main focus will be on imagery for the brief.

From research familiarity is something buyers will look at so a theme or character is really needed. How can a character be made to reflect this?

A cartoon is often relatable it can be considered as cute or more relatable somehow meaning that people would much prefer to interact with fiction. 

The designs must work as a set and must work across different media; greetings cards, note cards, notepad cover, tote bag and as a repeat pattern. How can a design be created to work cohesively like this?

"For more than 100 years we’ve been proud to create products that help people connect."

UK Greetings have been connecting people for over a century, the design must reflect the company and it's intentions meaning that the designs should bring people together.

Penguin Random House, Former Winners - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

Above are the former winners of the competition, many of the cover heavily feature typography for the main focus. Others have an illustrative element to them but as you would assume the illustrations are to give a visual to the title or bring the book alive they're not there to distract from the content. Some a very literal whereas others have a more subtle complex meaning behind them which leads intrigue and is maybe only there for people who have read the book before.

The example above has been chosen to show off the typographic entries. All the type has been influenced by the language used in the book itself the colours are inspired by the book title and previous book covers. Even the typeface used is influenced by the dystopian art nouveau style in which the book and the film have been written in.

The book is not a familiar one but from the cover being heavily illustrative an idea can be made up of what may be waiting on the inside. The playful nature of the character design being a non realistic body shape suggests more of a children's book or a young adult story. The title has been pushed tot he side a bit but it does lead the eye to look as if the book is being revealed within the illustration.

Although the patterns used on this cover are quite complex the lack of colour gives a very quiet minimal feel overall, this suits the title. Solitude can be very quiet and lonely so the lack of colour and other distractions leaves this almost hollow feel to the book as if you need to fill it by reading the story inside thus giving the book it's colour. 

This cover has been included to show the use of stock imagery/photography within the design, the idea behind the cover is quite a strong one showing that Wonderland isn't actually real and rather drawn up from real life. In practice the cover could have been taken further, the typography seems almost wedged in and lazy, the colour at the bottom seems to have been added in just to fill empty space. The idea can be seen but as a whole it doesn't seem to have been followed through fully.

How to navigate the app - OUGD504

Mock-Up Soundtrack App, Navigation from Joshua Storey on Vimeo.

The video above is to demonstrate the navigation for the app. From each page you can easily get home and navigate to other pages in less than 2 clicks. The app has features spoken about previously and shown through an advert that cannot be shown with the current resources. One of the features is to be able to search using sound, it can be seen as a mock up page as the microphone is clicked in the search bar but it cannot yet be fulll used.

UK Greetings, Feedback - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

For my initial idea there was a lot of positive feedback plus points on where the project could head towards;

• The idea to make the project cute gained lots of positive feedback, many people explained that when purchasing cards they look for something that interests them but also would be suited to the person they are buying for.
• They will also take into consideration the design for each card and use that to base how much is appropriate to pay. If the card looks very cartoon like for example a superhero card then they know it would be suited to a younger audience mainly boys and therefore wouldn't expect to pay a lot. If the design was simple elegant or maybe delicate they would expect to be buying for an older audience meaning they wouldn't mind paying slightly more. 
• A few people suggested that when purchasing cards they buy in bulk using cards from a set for any occasion and others explained how they would specifically buy for the occasion. 
• If the card features a mascot people were considered of how the cards could be refreshed or kept up to date.
• How could a card mascot fit in with other merchandise.
• An animal was the most popular option during feedback but people were also interested in the robot as it offered some sort of different feeling to the card.

Overall the points received help to push the idea forward. There is a lot to work on and once a solid idea is established more feedback will be needed.

Advert 1 - OUGD504

Mock-Up Soundtrack App, Advert from Joshua Storey on Vimeo.

This advert is used to demonstrate the new innovative search function for the application. Showing that the user can hum a tune to search for a song or still use the standard type and search function. The use of the film clip was to demonstrate how the app was created to help immerse the viewer back into the film world.

UK Greetings, Research - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

Looking at some well known mascots for card designs above, a lot head towards the direction of being cute and cuddly mainly with animals. These are designs that have been around for years and although only used for gifts they are more often than not a household name at this point which means people are comfortable buying them as a force of habit and familiarity. 

Some cards do not feature a familiar or famous character but still have this cute aesthetic about them. Often the inside of the cards are considered to reflect the design of the card as a whole. Below there are cards that show a humourous side which, is something different to the majority of cute and delicate cards. Although a cartoon look is still the forefront of the whole design.

Other cards feature famous characters, again bringing in this element of familiarity into design to help with ease so that the consumer doesn't have to fret over purchasing.

Final Design/Mockup - OUGD504

Above is a final mockup design for the app. The top row shows off the main pages and their menus, below is the search function and finally the playback menus.

The design has taken inspiration from various places as well as taking on critique from fellow peers. From the main app pages you can use album artwork to navigate through saved songs, followed albums and suggested music. 

The search function allows a standard type and search function but if the microphone icon is held down then a feature to hum, whistle or sing the tune of the song will appear giving an easier way to find a song whose title may be unsure of.

The playback windows have not changed much from the first mockups apart from features to loop or shuffle the songs.

For the overall design of the app I have taken inspiration from the recent Instagram update which took all the colour out of the apps interface apart from the images the user uploads. Making the app black and white meant there was more freedom with the colour choices for the album artwork and for the playback options. This also means the app is not over complicated or garish with bold block colours constantly staring at you.

Although the app needed to be familiar overall the design has still shown new innovative ideas, that still may need work but for now is a good direction to be steering towards. 

App Logo Idea - OUGD504

The idea behind the usability of the app is to be fresh and sleek therefore the design for the soundwaves would have to reflect this within the app, the app is fluent but not fluid so a standard soundwave design wouldn't work like Siri's interface. Since this will be one of the biggest features of the app the thinking behind using the soundwaves as an app logo was quite a simple one.

Although the bottom design is not yet the official design this is a strong contender and definitely a good place to start development.

Mockup (Playback) - OUGD504

From the critique on Friday feedback stated to be innovative and original. If the app is to stand out the design must be different to similar existing ones. As the app is trying to bring to life and help the user relive film and TV experiences one of the ideas that came along was to use colours from the films themselves to give a sense of this reliving. This would make the app very colourful in certain areas and would mean it would be hard to stick to a colour theme. Bearing the last point in mind the rest of the apps design will have to be thought out thoroughly to decide what would work best.

Films often release a set of colour swatches they work from, on a similar note with films there are certain colours that stand out from poster design or simply from the film itself. Above there are mock ups using a familiar playback menu with album artwork in the centre. The colours used are ones associated with the films themselves, the colours need to be obvious and not subjective whether or not they are truly linked to the film. 

UK Greetings, Initial Idea - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

Use a mascot that either has a hard time being understood or expressing emotion, for example:

A robot giving a heart or showing some form of human emotion to try and understand it. The character would be holding objects to show the different occasions such as a heart balloon for valentines. For happy birthday the character could be shown drawing a smile onto their face with a marker or for get well soon trying to comfort someone.

UK Greetings - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

The uk greetings brief took a while to get into. The idea of creating work that would then be owned by another company was sort of daunting especially if it had a theme, character or series that could potentially work for years.
Once over the initial scare thinking about greetings cards as a whole the market is huge, caters to all people and all occasions. A big selling point that stands out within greetings cards is a cute character that people feel comfortable buying and can keep coming back to the same character making the selection process much easier.
The project will be based around the idea of a character or theme these are some of the initial ideas:

• Robot
• Insect
• Animal
• Plant

Use this mascot in some sort of fashion that caters to a specific audience or a wide range of people. When buying a card it isn't necessarily the person purchasing the card that needs to be catered to but in fact the person the card is being bought for.

Idea Feedback (Critique) OUGD504

Problem:

There is no dedicated service to locate and playback your favourite film and tv soundtracks.

How can this be achieved?

Idea 1:

The app will be linked with Spotify.

Would this make Spotify too cluttered?

Feedback:

The general feedback stated that it would not clutter the Spotify app as it already has many features and manages to cope and Spotify strives to be innovative. The idea could work better on it's own as it would have more freedom, Spotify already has an effective layout.

Idea 2:

Create a stand alone app

Would this work alone or should it be tied to a service?  There are many apps similar but none dedicated to this cause.

Feedback:

Overall people agreed that the app would work alone as it would be new the only issue is it has to be fresh and original and to suit the target audience. Some people suggested that I add a feature similar to Netflix or a buying a film service which I do not think fits with the current idea or brief I have laid out but I could look into it as a side note.

Summary:

After collecting all the feedback on ideas I think it is best to go with a stand alone app as Spotify already offers a range of services and could over complicate. With a stand alone app there would be more freedom and more expression in the service, it would be more personal to the client and has lots of ways to be innovative. 

Penguin Random House - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

Penguin, a brief suited to show off creative skills in a way that may not be available in other briefs. There is almost a more creative freedom with this brief with only a small handful of guidelines to work towards.
Three books;

Adult Fiction Cover Award, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Adult Non-Fiction Cover Award, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote.

Children's Cover Award, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 133/4, Sue Townsend.

All books are highly rated and offer a completely different theme to tackle when creating a cover. To Kill a Mockingbird and In Cold Blood both have a serious note around them and are aimed at adults but because one is based on fact and the other on fiction there are different considerations. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 133/4 is a children's book based around a child who classes himself as an intellectual but instead quite often gets the wrong end of the stick.

If time permits it would be good to look at all the covers and attempt a design for each.

UK Greetings, The Brief - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

UK Greetings

Create your own range of greeting cards and gift dressings

The Brief 

Imagine nipping out to the high-street, or a cool little local shop, or even the place you buy your food, and seeing your designs on display. 

UK Greetings is the UK’s leading direct-to-retailer publisher, making innovative, beautiful, cutting edge and classic greeting cards and gift dressings.

We want you to develop your own collection of greeting cards and gift dressings. 

Background 

Back in 1906, young entrepreneur Jacob Sapirstein had only $50 in his pocket, but a wealth of ambition. He took to the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, selling penny postcards from a handcart.

These postcards made a pretty penny, and Jacob’s business became the world’s largest direct to retail greeting card and gift company! In the 1990s UK companies continued hopping aboard, resulting in the creation of UK Greetings, the UK’s leading direct to retailer publisher and manufacturer of greeting cards and gift dressing.
Together UK Greetings and American Greetings have one of the largest and most talented creative teams in the industry all around the world, publishing cards in more than 20 languages, in more than 70 countries.

Creative Challenge 

Create a collection of greeting cards, notecards, notepads, gift bags and wrapping paper.

We are open to any graphic or illustrative style — geometric patterns, painterly illustrations, designs that feature characters or that use humour in a playful way.

You should come up with a name for your collection too.

Remember to have variety within the range, but make sure your designs comfortably sit together to create a cohesive collection.

We’d also like you to demonstrate how your ideas work as a collection, so one of your design sheets should show your work displayed together.

Target Audience

When developing the collection, it’s worth considering the age range and gender of your target audience, thinking about the occasion or sending situation (birthday, Valentine’s Day, congratulations, everyday etc.) and choosing a flexible but cohesive colour palette. 

Mandatories 

• 4 x Single greeting cards: size 105 x 159mm, 121 x 184mm or 140 x 140mm — consider the designs of the envelope and the inside of the card too
• 1x Boxed notecard set: size 110 x 132mm
• 1x Gift bag: size 267x330mm
• 1x Repeating pattern for wrapping paper: show one or two swatch samples
• 1x Notepad Cover: A5 or A4
• Design sheet demonstrating how your ideas work as a collection. 

Deliverables and Additional Information 

For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main Deliverables information which can be found at the YCN website. 

Any additional information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting Project Pack at the YCN website.

Taking inspiration - OUGD504

Above is the old layout and design of the instagram app. Although not much colour is used there is still a theme running throughout.

The new design (above) uses only black and white for the interface and saves the colour for the users own images. This helps to focus solely on the content and not be distracted from the surrounding design, you become completely immersed by the images rather than being influenced by other themes around. 

Netflix is a brilliant starting point for many user interface designs as it strongly shows off all the content, helps you browse with ease and suggests content you may enjoy based on your previous selections. On a personal level my grandad is even able to use this interface once he has found it from his tv menu and he is near to a technophobe. The large icons showing you what you have selected make it easy to navigate on all platforms.

Wireframing - OUGD504

Above is a layout to show how each page is accessed, the key is that from every page there is a way to get back to the app's home screen with ease.

Below are detailed outlines of wireframes for the app showing where content will be displayed and buttons. Each page is layed out to demonstrate how they would be accessed from each other using the map above this should give a simple understanding of the navigation for the app.

Mockup - OUGD504

Starting with a familiar design and layout helped to set a basis for the design and get everything into the correct places. The design used to create this familiar layout was the Spotify app. The design will not be copied but as stated before familiarity is helpful both for the designer and for the user. Mocking up the design meant not attempting to add colour to the design too early on as it could confuse or complicate processes, just getting the bare basics out was the first step. 

This process was also achieved without wireframing or planning out the apps navigation and instead comparing to something already known to work. Later wireframes will be mocked up to give a better understanding once the actual design has started, this was more of a test to see the idea come to life.

Putting the Idea into Practice (Rationale) - OUGD504

Problem

There isn’t a quick and simple way to search for and play your favourite film soundtracks. Without knowing the name of the song or the film you may not be able to find a song you have heard wishing and want to find again. Already there are systems in place to help find the track names or to play the songs but there isn’t a dedicated service to bring you this outcome seamlessly without having to search relentlessly or click through many other links to only find information rather than being able to play the song. The service would also appeal to directors and producers of films to easily find a certain genre of song to suit their projects.

Objective

Create a simple app to help movie goers and film buffs search and play their favourite tracks from films. Make an experience like no other to help directors find the right tracks for their films or simply for people to relive their favourite on screen moments with a few taps.

Audience

25-45 year olds, film goers and movie buffs.

Resources

IMDb - http://www.imdb.com/

Spotify - https://www.spotify.com

Apple (siri) - http://www.apple.com/

Google - https://www.google.co.uk

Shazam - https://www.shazam.com/

Key Considerations

The software has to feature a database of films and songs, you have to be able to search with ease and listen to the song or soundtrack you're looking for. 

Keep the idea simple - don't add too many complicated features.
Keep the interface simple - Stick to only a few clicks to get to the final goal.
Add new searches - search by, genre, song, artist, director, film, popular
Link to other intercase - consider linking to Spotify (but how will it differ)

Overall I need to focus on the good and the bad of already existing interfaces and how I can improve it but still keep some of the features. I need to look outside of this area of music and films and study interfaces all around also on the target audience, how they like to search and how they find the concept. 

Royal Opera House / AKA brief - OUGD503 Studio Brief 02

Brief:

The Royal Opera House and AKA, the international entertainment marketing agency, are challenging you to create a campaign that will encourage culturally engaged young people aged 20-30 to experience ballet for the first time.

Considerations:

• How to get people involved.
• How to show people ballet isn't an old boring artform just for women or the rich and elderly.
• Ballets can draw from a wide range of influences from fashion to literature and rock/pop music to full orchestral work. There are no rules. 
• Show ballet is exciting.
• You need to show how your idea will work as an advertising campaign – across digital, print, out of home and social media advertising.

Get an insight into ballet, look into ad campaigns and new looks on old ideas (how to refresh things). 

First Critique - OUGD504

The critique gave me some new ideas that I was already looking into and some that I hadn't thought about. Talking about the target audience, the searching issues and to look into systems that had tried and failed with similar intentions. 

Critique -

Appeal to film lovers

Appeal to music lovers

Issues for searching -

search by lyric

shazam/siri 

suggesting artists/radio on spotify

tie in interests between films and songs

look into spotify song suggesting 

tidal - fail

keep it simple not cluttered look at what to improve IMDb/Spotify

Problem -

No way to easily find soundtracks on IMDb and then can’t listen to them.

Spotify can play and find them but not specifically for that purpose.

Only - OUGD504

Only Studio came in to talk to us about designing for screen, I hadn't been too involved or invested into the current brief because it didn't seem to excite me in any way. After having the chance to listen to only and see some of the projects they have worked on my inspiration went through the roof and I wanted to get started straight away.

Below are some of the suggestions made by Only:

Phase 1, Research:

• Who wants it, users
• Target audience
• Problem

Phase 2, Wireframing:

• Mockups/Sketch out ideas
• What can be done
• How it works, no design just functionality
• Plan and organise
• Test

Phase 3, Design:

• Take over mockups
• Test again

Phase 4, Front End:

• Talk to developers about design
• 
  

Integrate brand into the project not just banged in the corner

Don’t ever offer an inferior experience

Come up with optimum design for any device

Device agnostic

Colour compliant

Make it accessible 

Distinguish what content fit with what - spacing

Find a way to make the design happen, despite developers

What will the application be used on primarily?

• Phone
• Desktop 
• Tablet

Look into brand guidelines

Designing for screen:

Not boring

it is design

don’t need to code

Spotify Research - OUGD504

I have included two examples of searches for a film on Spotify. The first shows a playlist that has been made by a fan who has had to research the tracks in the film and put them all together. The second shows the entire soundtrack as released by the film.

The issue with fan made playlists is that they don't always feature the versions of the songs made for the film therefore they don't sound the same or give the same experience. 

The benefits of this is that all the songs are in one, the only issue is this seems to be a rare case, the soundtrack featured is for Iron Man 2 but as you can see all the songs have been provided by AC/DC one artist for the entire film. When it works it works brilliantly and you can listen to the soundtrack you've been looking for but to get to this stage you had to know the film and know what song you actually wanted to hear. The whole process could be made a lot easier.