Overall I really enjoyed this brief, I learned to look at type in a different way, it is usually designed for ease and speed of interpretation and understanding. However a logotype should intrigue the audience, should be meaningful and considered. The composition, spaces, spacing and weight are significant. A well designed arrangement of letterforms within a logotype can and should evoke personality and emotions. These were all the elements that I now needed to consider and look at in more depth and I found this really interesting.
I believe that the logotype I designed is bold and unique to the brand. It reflects a fragrance shop how it is contextually informed and people immediately engage, recognising exactly what that brand does. I think that it is a really cohesive aspect of the design that people when just seeing the logo as well as the name, that it is clear what it is. Although there may be a problem with scale, when applied at a smaller scale the perfume bottle might not be recognisable. I took inspiration from The Body Shop's re-brand and I think this is reflected within my final design. I found this a challenging task as I always struggle to come up with ideas for logos, I find it hard to try and represent a whole brand within one small piece of design. I have also realised through doing this brief that I do not experiment with my ideas enough and this proves to be very limiting. I really need to work on this, but hopefully I will try and focus on that for the next brief, really developing my ideas thoroughly.
In reference to the brief I believe that I did focus on the manipulation of original letter-forms and considered who the company are within my final design. However I should have considered looking to 'refresh' the brand as it already has a reasonably recognisable logo. And one of the major things within the brief that I did not do very successfully is experiment. Overall I think the design turned out well and does meet the brief but I would not say it was 100% successful as I need to make sure I do meet all the brief requirements.
OUGD403 - Typeface Design:
I found this a really challenging task based on the fact that I was unsure where to begin, but once I had got passed that it did become easier. I had a really hard adjective to work with and this is initially where my problems came from. Once I had spoken to others it gave me a lot more ideas to work with and helped me pinpoint which direction I wanted to go in.
The ideas seemed to come a lot easier then, I wanted to reflect wealth and and a large richness. I thought the best way to do this was to embellish the characters.
I could potentially try and make the swirls bigger and more over the top but within the time scale I did not see it being done and because my skills on illustrator are very basic I didn't want to try something that I wouldn't be able to complete.
From the feedback I have received I think I have achieved my aim of how I see abundant reflected as. People have interpreted my adjective in different ways which is probably the reason why my feedback is reasonably mixed. However, I think that people generally understood my design decisions which is a good thing.
Next time however I might try to consider how I can incorporate both trying to find more of an even ground of large quantities which more people seemed to associate the word with. With regards to my aims I have produced a design which is clear and easy to read, legibility is something I wanted to focus on. I think because I didn't over complicate my design and kept it reasonably simple it improved clarity and I think it would easily be reproduced.
Regarding its functionality and whether I made the right design decisions for the context I wanted to use the typeface in, I think it has worked and proved to be successful. However, next time I hope to be quicker with my idea generation and work and improve my skills on illustrator so I produce a more seamless piece of design.
OUGD405 - Wayfinding
Within this project I haven't ever done something like this before so It was a bit of a challenge to get started with, once I had done lots of research however this gave my designs more focus.
I believe that my way-finding system has improved upon the original, greatly aiding the user experience. My way-finding was primarily designed with new students in mind but can be used by anyone needing to find a place within IQ. People are immediately able to engage with the large new signage as it improves both readability and legibility. Because I have kept the colours of the design the same as the companies branding, it allows the way-finding system to be bought in smoothly and works in cohesion with any other materials such as posters.
The illumination of the signs will help make the signs visible outside at night and in poor weather conditions. The signs are easy to clean and are low-cost to run which is a huge benefit. However I do think I could have done a lot more for the system such as applied the pictograms to a map, although I wasn’t able to acquire a map of the building. I also should have created a sign labelling what floors different flats were on, I had intended to do this but I ran out of time for this project. I found this brief challenging as it was something I had never done before, I think I have been reasonably successful but maybe could have been more adventurous with my designs. I also struggled to manipulate the images effectively within photoshop so this is something I definitely want to improve.
In reference to the brief I believe that I had clarity, consistency, and coherence in order to guide the user through an environment in a consistent, convenient and safe manner. I also made sure to try and make my designs as legible as possible. I again struggled with the idea generation but I did try to consider lot’s of different things as to have more informed design decisions.
OUGD405 - Information Design
This happens to be one of my favourite briefs, I enjoyed the whole process from research to production, it was something that I could really engage with. I prefer designing for a purpose and this brief did just that.
I really enjoyed this project as designing for kids is quite fun! It allowed me to be childish in my designs and not worry about it looking perfect. I think I have developed an appropriate tone of voice for my target audience, something children will easily engage with. I think I should have done a bit more research into children’s leaflets and books so that I have everything covered when designing for children.
I think in the feedback it was right to say that the typeface for the body of text should have been clearer to improve readability and legibility, although it does fit in with the rest of the design. I think the accordion fold is easy for a young child to follow although there is no particular order to reading the leaflet. The design just makes it a bit more engaging to follow rather than opening one page and reading a ton of info, it allows the necessary breaks for children to process the information.
When doing my colour research I feel I chose the appropriate colours although I wish I could have tried to incorporate yellow into the design as that is linked to a child’s memory, which would increase the chance of them remembering the information. Overall I am happy with the design although I was worried it looked too childish like I hadn’t put much effort into it but I was just trying to get a style children could associate with.
OUGD406 - Secret 7
I have found this brief really exciting, but a lot more nerve racking as it is a live competition brief. I found that within the class people became a lot more competitive and seemed more motivated to produce a really good design, than with some of the other tasks. I found with this task that I had a more thought out design process which allowed me to get a range of ideas and this is something im going to take forward to improve my design practice within other tasks.
Within the feedback process I found that it wasn't as useful as it could be, whether that was due to the questions I asked or not, next time I will make sure I ask the most appropriate. However I would have preferred an approach were we sat down in groups as I feel I gain the most beneficial feedback from those types of crits.
If I had more time within this task I probably would have set the ice in the photography studio with the proper background and lighting, as that has hindered me entering some of my work due to odd colourings. Overall I have really enjoyed this task as it allowed me to come up with interesting and creative ideas without any limits.
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