app.

a potential iPhone app that could be created. Would enable the phone's GPS feature to direct users towards areas of potential exploration. Users could also pinpoint other cool places.

app

map layout.

our map guide design. matt had initially designed this, and created a suitable map, the colour scheme had to be altered in order to match the poster design we chose to be placed on the reverse of the guide. The poster allows the guide to be used for its initial purpose but also for aesthetic reasons afterwards, on a bedroom wall or something.



click to enlarge.

poster design.

a few poster designs (click to enlarge) to make people aware of a possible event to promote the guide we are creating. would help to gain a following as such.

logo design. png image...

I thought it would be nicer to see the original digitised versions on here, for obvious reasons.....

logo design....

Max and myself spent a while drawing up a few ideas for a logo design, or simply just a bit of type manipulation to achieve a certain effect.

the linking of the the two words somewhat gives the impression of a map, a subtle hint towards the urban theme of our project.

we decided on this:

keep it simple and stuff. depending on the final colour scheme of the guide it would be black or white.

What If design sheets.

ideas and potential resolutions drawn up for further exploration.

What If group project...

research and stuff.

a couple of questionnaires designed to help us gain some statistics....in hope that our project is a worthwhile cause. generally asking questions about existing tourist attractions and why these are or are not worth visiting. Marty and Sam then went on to make a few graphs....:

average amount of information estimated to be taken in at well-known tourist attractions. it is clear to see that as young students looking for something cheap and alternative to do, well-known attractions do not engage or excite.

reasons for low percentage of info taken in.

our primary research carried out clearly suggests the need for some kind of alternative activity for students to engage in. this validates our reasoning for producing an alternative sort of tourist guide.

What If Rationale

Group members:
Max, Sam, Marty, Matt, Michael

Problem:
How to direct students to interesting/creative/cool areas in Leeds, unseen by the majority.

Evidence:
Photographs of obscure locations clearly reveal that there is more to Leeds than your average tourist information guide.

We aim to:
Highlight these areas and explore the possible ways of directing students towards these.

Research Seminar - Fred

A session to help us understand the process of researching better.

PROCESS not PRODUCT.

extend knowledge by:
carrying out experiments
talking to people
STEPPING OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE.
finding facts.

Primary Research:
Generating research specifically for the problem in hand. Previously uncollected, unpublished information collected for the sole purpose of understanding the problem better.

Secondary Research:
Information previously generated by someone else. Was intended for a different purpose but can be re-addressed for the needs of the brief in question.

Quantitative Research:
Provable data. Statistics, facts and figures, surveys. Largely numerical research, cannot be disproved.

Qualitative Research:
Non-numerical data - opinions, beliefs, ideas, interviews, observations, etc. Valid but arguable and by no means provable.


5 Decisions made with this in mind for our own brief.

Problem - tourist attractions are too expensive for students
Evidence - around 70% of students believe that a lot of tourist attractions are overpriced
Solution - Highlight areas of Leeds students can explore for free
Why - Students need some kind of very cheap activity
How - By creating a map directing students to cool, explorable areas.

OUGD102 What If brief

Studio Brief 
OUGD102 DESIGN PROCESS

	Brief Title What if...
	The Brief What if a group of graphic design students get together, and decide to solve a problem? Based on your common interests, research and knowledge, you must establish a “problem” that affects some sector of the general public in Leeds. You must develop logical, original and adventurous research lines of enquiry in order to justify the relevance of the “problem “ which should inform a range of solutions. The solution(s) must be resolved, designed and presented in the public domain and recorded appropriately.	Considerations This is a collaborative process so you must ensure as part of this you discuss, agree and share all responsibilities. The research process should be gradual and provide the foundation for ideas and challenges, which eventually will inform the solution. It isn’t possible to conclude the brief and then fill in the research gaps afterwards. This is effectively a live brief so please be considerate, respectful and legal in your activities.
	Deliverables Compelling fact based evidence should be presented to prove that the problem you are address is a genuine problem. A photographic record of the solution to the problem as presented in the public domain.  Appropriate supporting work, worksheet, notebooks etc…
	Studio Brief Deadline Concept Presentation Friday 3rd December 1.30pm Final Crit Friday 10th December 10.00am

Vis.Lang photography session.

generally a session to mess around and get to grips with using SLR's, and also making use of artificial lighting to create some cool stuff. Matey who ran the session was a decent guy and all, explained stuff well which I was happy about becuase I've not really known all that much about photography before.

Our two chosen objects.

adding a green gel to the light. its pretty cool how easy it is to make such a bright object lose its intensity simply by only allowing a certain colour to hit the object.

adding a second light into the equation, from a different direction. the objects almost stop possessing their own colour and start taking on the colours of the lights. where the red light is absent the green becomes more intense and vice versa.

new objects, with yellow and blue light. in some ways this seems more effective than the first objects, as the presence of the lights is only apparent in the shadows. magic.

same again with purple and green. it's strange how the paper seems to stay white despite there being two colours shone upon it. or perhaps it is green and purple but it's difficult to spot as the shadows are more intense.

a couple of other cool bits and pieces just to finish it off. 

Illustrator Brief

My first illustrator work. Simple letter variations. I started with the letter Q, but moved onto G, I figured there'd be more options.

I started making various letterforms by taking the original, and manipulating in tiny amounts until the letter was something completely different. Takes a fair bit of time.

The final 26. Theyre not amazing of course but I learnt a lot doing it. Image manipulation programs have always seemed like a bit of a bitch but it was actually a lot easier than I first expected. 

mail shot: the final print.

yes, the final one. 

in total 100% honesty I'm not really that happy with it. this is probably for one of these reasons:

the lower half of type on the inside is too spaced out

it still slightly looks like I've been on illustrator to fix it up

I could have taken it a lot further in terms of envelope net/design

I could have done more with my own two hands before scanning it

it's depressing information, i'm not sure i enjoy making stuff like this

therefore, I chose not to empty my bank account in order to print it on some heavy, nice, durable paper. I like trees anyway, so there's another reason why I didn't. 

Instead I printed it off on the standard colour printers, costing 50p. I cut out the two sides, and backed them onto a single piece of card costing 15p. 

Of course we had to produce a set of ten, which I did so:

The other 9 (I did 10 actually by mistake) cost me 2 pence a piece, costing 20p for the lot.
Therefore the whole set (including the one for posting) cost 85 pence, meaning I've saved my money and  done my bit to save a tree somewhere.

mail shot: illustrator experimentation

boom! what a result. scanned in the designs I had made and hooked the up to Illustrator, which I'm still not a fan of really but I can kinda use it a bit now. Anyway after some messing around with some live tracing, a bit of colour here and there and a load more cutting and pasting (digitally this time) I came up with this for a near-enough final design. I added in the website at the bottom plus a sub-question to give the viewer some kind of direction. 

I think the combining of digital and hand-made elements work quite effectively for the message I am trying to convey. I feel pretty good aswell because I haven't let my design become defined and directed by digital mediums.......because to be honest, as far as I can tell, anything made from scratch in Illustrator is always going to look like it was made in Illustrator. Which tires me endlessly I'm just tired of seeing everything looking like it was designed for a school textbook

Mail shot progress.

I wanted to go for the whole cut-and-paste way of doing things, firstly because I like the rugged, hand-made look of some design, but also it meant I could take it home and mess about with it, cause my computer won't stay on for more than half hour sorta thing, nor does it have any decent programmes for creating/editing images.

I printed off templates and text, and used bits of coloured card from the library to come up with some designs.

home workspace. 

printed off some bits of text to play around with. i messed around with a few different sizes, but I kept the font consistent with the poster, I felt that changing this would cause the mail shot to be too detached from the poster. I wanted to put them together as a unit of work - poster + mail shot, clearly related as coming from the same source. 

First proper design. It looks like a child could have made it (with the right resources and some basic intelligence), which is sort of the idea. 

Further experimentation in college. Of course I went on spending money on colour photocopies completely oblivious to the fact that I'd used more than 2 colours (excluding stock), someone reminded me once it was already too late. I did like it though, it was a shame we had to be restricted to only 2 colours plus stock.

Back to two colours. Thinking about it, having pink, black and white keeps the mail shot more consistent with the posters. I'm quite happy with the layout and hand-made styling. 

No news is good news. mail shot. 1st ideas.

A couple of first ideas for my mail shot. After looking at various examples of direct mail designs in a book I have been looking at ( http://www.piebooks.com/english/search/detail.php?ID=925 ), along with items of direct mail I have encountered myself, I decided the most tactical way of arranging my mail shot would be to keep it simple and streamlined. 

It seems to me that in order to make mail shots effectively you either have to:

Make them incredibly fancy with twists and turns and user interactivity, so that the viewer can play/construct/break/discover etc etc etc. generally taking the viewer on a roller coaster ride of mail-ness, something that will make them go out and say to their colleagues/friends/neighbours/kids/doctor/ whoever you might come across, 'oh i got the wickedest thing through the mail today.'

OR

make them so incredibly simple, easy to read, streamlined etc etc etc that the viewer can pick it up, acknowledge the message within SECONDS, throw it away, and then think long and hard about what he/she has just read whilst queuing to buy a paper/fags/bus ticket/whatever you might do in the next hour after reading your mail. and then hopefully be good spirited enough to follow up what has been read. 

ANYWHERE in between I imagine just wouldn't work - either too elaborate and can't be read in seconds OR not interactive enough and generally a waste of time, doesn't have enough bells and whistles etc etc etc.

HOWEVER.     I feel like the two designs I have spent a few minutes drawing together may be so boring that not a single person would be able to hold out a few seconds to read it. So I'm going to take a different approach, a much more cut and paste affair. 

why? 

the mail shot is directed at people with children. 

the only 'design' that children know, in reality, is cutting stuff and sticking it somewhere else. 

mail shot: fact/opinion/question

Statement of fact:

More than 1 million children worldwide will become victims of child trafficking this year.

my opinion:

Too much of tax payers money is spent dealing with PETTY CRIMES (theft from large corporations, cannabis, enforcing the legal drinking age, graffiti, stuff like that.) and not enough is used to deal with REAL ISSUES.

however this is just my opinion, and the beauty of an opinion is that you can't tell me I'm wrong. haha.

Question:

How much is your child worth?

mail shot who why what how?

the mail shot requires a mailing list of ten recipients. to determine who I am aiming mine at, it is useful to answer these four questions.

Who?

Hospitals, doctor surgeries, clinics. Serious places. Areas that parents and children regularly pass through. Companies with an interest in such overlooked issues. why? companies with a a fair bit of spare income can pour money into attempting to prevent the trafficking of children, and raise awareness of this. What their real intention is of course to paint their own company's name with a 'look at us, we're helping the world' sort of brush, making people take notice and say 'oh, that company's helping the world, i'll probably buy more of their products'. It works for the company, and it works for a few children that would've been trafficked next year.

oh, schools maybe aswell. it's good to get young people involved, as they have a much fresher outlook on the world than older people.

Why?

It is a very overlooked issue.

What?

More than 1 million children will become victims of child trafficking this year.

How?

by INFORMING and EDUCATING.

no news is good news message and delivery brief

brief for the second part of No news is Good news.

Madrid Bullring - visual synecdoche



Madrid metro - visual metaphor



real madrid - visual metonym