Evaluation - OUGD505

This module has been a bit more of a challenge than first expected not in the sense of research but instead on the design side. There wasn't a lack of time management or organisation but instead the research seemed to overwhelm the design decisions and the projects felt to precious to do anything with but as soon as design work started with both ideas were flying and development pushed through to create final outcomes I am confident to show off.

Studio Brief 01:

The first project was amazing to give an insight into the history of Leeds, it meant I could find out more about the city I am living and studying in. Designing for this project was very open and used print methods I am very found of. I see my practice leaning more towards the traditional print side of things but not completely disregarding the digital side. Screen printing is not a new process for me but I now feel more confident using the print room and using this method, I feel I could experiment more with aspects that I may have been afraid to touch upon in the past due to lack of experience. The project had influenced me to create a poster series featuring some of the most well known artist to perform at Leeds University to show off it's heritage as a great music venue.

Studio Brief 02:

Over the course of this project I have learnt new skills and lots of new information. This truly was a project I was excited about. Moving on from to the future, the skills learnt and confidence gained through contacting charities and organisations as well as creating surveys to gain feedback and relevant information will be able to push my practice further. To create a project like this and make sure it all linked together was a challenge but was also very intriguing as if I could stay engaged the audience would be able to. I was interesting to learn some of the information I did both from online sources and from the survey to see not just what research had been carried out but also what the public thought on the matter. I often do conduct research to influence my design and to make sure all the relevant information is covered and displayed but this time there was almost too much research. I spent hours reading through articles, watching videos and collecting information. This was easy to do because I was interested and passionate about the campaign but meant that I felt a bit too precious over the project and was worrying about starting the design aspect but once I started it quickly set off into a fully fledged campaign. This kind of project is great to get the mind going and concentrate on issues in the world that aren't solely design based I feel better about my work from doing it and feel I could have found a career if I keep practicing in this area to help with charity work on issues like this.

Finalising the Campaign - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

The final designs for the campaign are all below:

Posters:

Booklet:

Video:

Learn to talk from Joshua Storey on Vimeo.

Distribution - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

Posters will be distributed throughout cities in public spaces on billboards, bus stops, in clip frames and both inside and outside centres. This will make sure the message is spread around all means and will hit the target audience outside of solely online.

The designs will also be posted online to make sure all social media is covered to reach people in online community. This will also give people easy access to the information and the website from a few simple clicks.

The video advertisement will appear on YouTube as this is the most used video platform online and often people get lost on it meaning they will spend hours clicking through videos or stay on distracting them from sleep. The video will appear after the user has been browsing for a certain amount of time similar to the Netflix feature and will also appear at night and in the early hours of the morning. 

This is not exactly how the booklet will be distributed but just to show that it will come through as direct mail. The booklet will also be placed in public spaces such as waiting rooms and universities to engage the target audience.

Video Development - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

The text heavy design has been tackled by including paper cut icons to come up on screen to back up the speech, meaning it will tie in to the rest of the paper cut designs. The backgrounds have been changed to the paper textured scanned in for the posters and the volume has been adjusted to make the sound clearer. The video now has been tied together with the other products and has been created in such a way that it will be easier to edit and add in new content for the future.


Learn to talk from Joshua Storey on Vimeo.

Refining the Idea - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

After gaining some feedback on the designs it was suggested that the designs be physically paper cut rather than digitally mimicked. This was attempted but thinking about production methods and distribution it wouldn't make sense to do this. Instead paper was scanned in and then the designs were cut out digitally. The designs now have a texture and given this more hand rendered feel to them. It was meant that the designs would be photographed or scanned in after being paper cut so not each poster would be cut like this, the only issue is what is the messaged needed to be changed or updated it would be easier to do this digitally based on cost, time management and production. 

The designs now have the charities linked to the campaign in the bottom corner, the new logo displayed at the bottom and ways to get in contact or find out more information displayed below the logo. The website may be put onto all the designs at the bottom so that it is easier to access. 

Production Process - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

As stated in the development process and in the brief the designs are set to have a soft tone of voice and be friendly and approachable. This will mean that people will never feel like they are being targeted for their use of social media and instead will just learn to take more breaks. The way in which the designs will be produced will reflect this using a paper cut style, traditional print or craft methods are often related to more time and care than a digital means, it will even reflect the fact that a digital process is not always the best option but is still useful to get that healthy balance.

The posters:

The posters have been made using scanned paper to give a texture and then in Photoshop have been cut out and a drop shadow has been applied. This may not use a completely traditional method but it will reflect one and will save time on production as if any wording needed to be changed or updated it could be with ease meaning the campaign can evolve. As stated above this is not to trick viewers into thinking it is a traditional method but instead gives that effect and shows a healthy balance between traditional and digital means.


The video:

The video uses a similar technique to the posters for the first part but in the middle uses filmed paper cut techniques. This is a quicker process as no lettering has been used only simple to cut icons that can be cut out of the video and replaced for future videos with ease. The end does feature digital logos as this cannot be helped due to brand guidelines of the organisations.

The booklet:

The logo on the front will be cut out because like the video only uses the icon and will not require any lettering to be updated like on the posters. It will be hand stitched to give the traditional feel and so that it won't feel like every piece of junk mail received through the door. Instead it will look like someone has put their care and attention into it meaning the audience will feel more compelled to read through it. There will be calming colours throughout and key information about staying safe online as well as helplines in the back.


All the products have been made with the idea that this will be for public viewing meaning that there will need to be a high number of each produced. This means it will have to be easy and cheap to make. Not to mention that the products are being made for a charity organisation so there cannot be any unnecessary costs.

Booklet - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

This is the initial design for the booklet. It features the same design style as the posters and the video. This means all the products tie together and feature the same soft tone of voice. The colouring choice links back to both the Learn to talk logo and the Mind logo making sense to tie the two organisations together and keep the calm feeling that the colour brings. The pages seem to be lacking a bit and the booklet seems very text based so something needs to occur to change that. As this publication will be available online as well as through direct mail and in public spaces like waiting rooms the publication should probably look the same online as it does off. This will mean looking back into the digital design and considering how this can be achieved. The information inside is a mixture between primary research conducted and from some information sent over from Mind themselves. There is a brief explanation about what the book is about in the front to engage the viewers from the start and and at the back a few contacts and ways to gain further information. This booklet is to inform of information but does not give all information as this would be too hard to do in such a small book. Onto the size, the booklet has been designed to be pocket size at A6 so that anyone can take this away and they will not be overwhelmed by too much information at once but can find out more online if they wish continuing this balance of online and offline that the campaign is about.

Further Feedback - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

After showing the poster designs to peers and to tutors it was suggested that the designs be cut out physically and then scanned back in. This is something to try for development and does make sense to the designs it is just whether or not a quicker method would make more sense to production and costs. It was also suggested that the video use this same paper cut style rather than being solely digital text to tie it together and get away from this text heavy design that just looks off putting. More ties to the charities involved are needed, this goes for all the product being made. Information should be taken from these charities and other sources but should mainly focus on the charities backing the project.

Logo Design - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

The logo took the old design of using a speech bubble and instead of layering them had them laid as if it were a conversation. The blue is backed up by the fact it is a calming colour making the organisation approachable and the type only uses one uppercase letter for the same reasoning, this also made the text feel friendly. 

Design Inspiration - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

A board was created on Pinterest to gather inspiration for the design of the posters. When looking at mindfulness and destressing minimal design was something that always popped up, a few paper cut designs appeared and screen printing methods. It seems most appropriate to create something using a traditional style is the best way to go about creating designs for this project. A minimal tone will have to come through so that there isn't too much to take in in the design and you won't feel stressed to view it. The reasons traditional methods are used is often to give a friendly and warmer feeling making the design more approachable and giving it a softer tone of voice.

Video - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

The video will be displayed on YouTube, it talks about the side effects that sleep deficiency can cause telling people to take a break from the online world. The idea is that the video will appear at a certain time of night or if the user has been watching videos on the site for a certain amount of time. Initially this design is very text heavy with a voice over but the idea would be to change this. As all the information will be collected online it makes more sense to keep it all in one place and not have too much in small amounts like on this video. Instead the video should be encouraging people to take a break, in feedback it was said to give an instructional video to do this.

Initial Posters - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

The designs feature key icons from different social media sites making the idea behind them clear. The logo is displayed just below the designs so that if people want to look further they can. As stated in another post the best way to design for this project would be to use traditional methods or ones that look traditional to give this soft look that is why a paper cut style has be chosen to make these posters. Taking this design further will mean creating a real logo for Learn to Talk and ways to get in contact with both this organisation and the charity the campaign will be linked to. 

Colour and Type Considerations - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

The colouring for the posters and such are backed up by the colours of the social media sites taking the exact colours from logos or site layouts to make sure that the design was clearly aimed for them. The logo should be a soft tone to fit the brief but to also make the organisation an approachable one. Blues or greens have been linked to being the most relaxing and calming colours which would fit right into the design decisions.

As for typeface the one chosen fits this soft tone again. A san-serif typeface gives a friendlier tone rather than the serious one a serif one would give. The lettering being perfectly aligned fits modern stylings and therefore the younger audience and finally it has a slightly playful feel to it meaning again it is friendly and approachable.

Final Feedback and Evaluation - OUGD505, Studio Brief 01

After reprinting the design everyone I showed agreed that the second prints were more successful. It gave the design not only a better look aesthetically but also that the design looked purposeful and had the traditional print feel with a slightly misaligned print on top of the white layer. This project was fun to look into different print methods, it allowed me to look at methods I may not have considered in the past like; monoprinting, lino print or etching the only issue is that theses methods were more time consuming and costly than the method I used going against my research and development. In the end it was good to go back and reprint the design to get a cleaner better looking design. The design showed off the event and showed clearly relevant information. Sometimes it is better to go back once one method may not have produced the desired product even if it is time consuming because in the future you will know what works and save time rather than messing up each time. This may seem like an obvious point but it is something I sometimes don't account for and instead hand in mediocre work rather than something produced to the best of my ability. Overall this project has left me wanting to continue with screen printing more than I have ever wanted to in the past. I just feel like this method has so much to lend itself to and always gives a more unique design making work a bit more desirable. I also plan to create a series based on events from Leeds university that if finished in time I will come back and post alongside this project.

Feedback - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

Feedback seemed positive on the campaign ideas. People were concerned for how the product would be distributed and worried that the information may be too much to add to designs, "how would it be engaging?". The points made were very helpful, giving more to research and to develop the project further. Points were given about the video saying that instead of just information it could be an instructional video to tell people to take a break this was very interesting. It was a worry that information would have to be displayed everywhere on each product but instead it could be that all the information or further information is online, the campaign can get people to look at this information. 

These are some of the points to look into from feedback:

oversleeping

nutrition and health

need for gratification

nomophobia

endorphins from likes on social media 

look into addiction

expectation from other experiences - instant gratification 

see Luke for info

offering alternatives

pressureandperspectives.com

anxy magazine - it is acceptable to talk about these things

• take break ads
• instructional video “stop, look out the window etc”

no notifications

limit your phone use.

can affect relationships

make people aware 

don’t demonise

Reprinting - OUGD505, Studio Brief 01

After showing my first prints, I explained to my tutors that the idea behind it was to create the posters the cheapest and quickest way possible using methods available at the time of the event. They understood this but suggested it would actually be cheaper to print with a white layer of in and then add colour to the top, saving on ink costs and spending no more on paper. I had considered this method earlier but thought it would be more pricey and time consuming which is why it is great to experiment and gain feedback. Above is the new design, the poster now looks more professional and even though you still gain some mistakes they don't look like bad prints, instead look like traditionally printed posters with happy accidents.

Development - OUGD505, Studio Brief 02

Moving on from the initial ideas the designs were taken to a solely text basis. This meant that the slogans could be thought out and placed on the colours that correlate with the correct sites. The slogans are based on how people use the sites; the first is to do with the text limitations on twitter, the second for likes on instagram, the third that people stay up moving into the 'weird' side of YouTube too late and lastly the fact that we use digital means to talk to one another instead of meeting face to face through Facebook. 

The idea is to create poster designs to be displayed both on social media sites and around cities this would hit both the online community and people in the real world. The other ideas is to create a booklet both in pdf form for online use and physical form for the same reasoning as the posters, the video will be displayed online but for now is only planned to be put onto YouTube.