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.