Taken from a workshop held at college the other day. Little bits taken from each brief to come up with a number of problems and facts which may help with re-writing the brief.
5 problems identified:
- Appealing to an international audience
- Challenging Category Conventions
- Design something arresting, dynamic and mind-bending
- Challenge typographic traditions in relation to new media
- Create something simple, iconic and unique
5 things to say:
- Typography is rapidly changing
- New Media requires a new type of designer
- "Chicago Fringe Festival will be better than the 2012 Presidential Election"
- Radiate Cartoon-like waves of energy
- What is 'authenticity' in 2012?
5 reasons why I should work on these problems:
- To further develop type/layout skills
- To begin focussing on incorporating images into my design work
- To work on a project that is unusual to achieve some interesting results
- To create work that would be effective if used in context
- To research into a subject that appeals greatly to me
5 facts about the subject
- Chicago is a city in America
- Fringe festivals involve entertainment in the forms of theatre and music....mainly.
- They cater for a wide range of visitors (I think)
- They tend to display alternative, less popular acts. Locals and that.
- They bring communities and societies closer together in city environments.
5 facts about the audience
- It would be mainly those interested in alternative, less publicised entertainment.
- A huge number of people in and around Chicago would be getting involved
- Chicago has a rich and vibrant culture
- It is an important city in America
- It would appeal to those looking for a cheap and cheerful time.
5 potential products
- Guide books/maps
- Ticket Designs
- Ad campaigns...for both print and screen
- Smartphone Apps
- Moving image promotional material
5 elements of an Ad campaign (potentially)
- Locations - public transport
- Online - banners...website materials
- TV commercials
- Radio commercials
- Billboards/Adshells
Monday, 30 April 2012
Initial Thoughts
I am in quite a confusing place with regards to potential briefs to work with for the Product/Range/Distribution....tied between two potential starting points.
On the one hand there is the Chicago Fringe Festival brief.....which is less of a brief and more of a art competition kind of thing. This allows massive scope for expanding the brief and developing a whole range of solutions for something that could be a little more interesting than your average design brief...There is potential to incorporate a many aspects of design into it for example publication/wayfinding/promotion/branding etc....as a brief it could encompass so many things to keep me busy....
The only downside being that I have never been to Chicago and know very little about it, which would make life a bit difficult for me...this could be overcome by in depth research or finding a similar festival closer to home which I could more easily access information to i.e. Edinburgh Fringe Festival....which I have been to once before, allowing significant advantages.
On the other hand there is the Little White Lies brief, which would involve initially designing magazine covers but could also be greatly expanded in order to produce a range of products. I suppose this would enable me to get more involved with other aspects of design that I am currently less experienced in, such as photography and illustrative type for example. This would also provide me with a lot to keep me busy but could potentially wind up being 'just another' brief/range of products as such, which is not what I want to achieve.
So in effect, it would make more sense for me to select the Chicago Fringe Festival task and manipulate it/expand it to provide me with an exciting and challenging brief.
I will have to investigate the festival alongside other festivals to determine how I will continue from here; whether to apply it to Chicago's Fringe Festival or select another, more accessible and researchable one.
On the one hand there is the Chicago Fringe Festival brief.....which is less of a brief and more of a art competition kind of thing. This allows massive scope for expanding the brief and developing a whole range of solutions for something that could be a little more interesting than your average design brief...There is potential to incorporate a many aspects of design into it for example publication/wayfinding/promotion/branding etc....as a brief it could encompass so many things to keep me busy....
The only downside being that I have never been to Chicago and know very little about it, which would make life a bit difficult for me...this could be overcome by in depth research or finding a similar festival closer to home which I could more easily access information to i.e. Edinburgh Fringe Festival....which I have been to once before, allowing significant advantages.
On the other hand there is the Little White Lies brief, which would involve initially designing magazine covers but could also be greatly expanded in order to produce a range of products. I suppose this would enable me to get more involved with other aspects of design that I am currently less experienced in, such as photography and illustrative type for example. This would also provide me with a lot to keep me busy but could potentially wind up being 'just another' brief/range of products as such, which is not what I want to achieve.
So in effect, it would make more sense for me to select the Chicago Fringe Festival task and manipulate it/expand it to provide me with an exciting and challenging brief.
I will have to investigate the festival alongside other festivals to determine how I will continue from here; whether to apply it to Chicago's Fringe Festival or select another, more accessible and researchable one.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Potential Brief - Chicago Fringe Festival
What Chicago Fringe Festival is: an artistic extravaganza taking place in the Pilsen neighborhood August 30-September 9. 50 shows will be performed by theatricalizers of every stripe, from actors and dancers to performance artists, female impersonators, puppeteers and scientist-comedians.
What Chicago Fringe Festival needs from you: a single design that will be emblematic of Chicago Fringe 2012. We need a design that is so arresting, dynamic, searing, whimsical, mind-bending or otherwise amazing that it will radiate cartoon-like waves of energy. Some further crucial information to help you create the graphic gold we’re panning for:
• The design should reflect, suggest, embody, convey or otherwise relate, directly or obliquely, to an election year theme. An election is about choice, and so is Fringe: Audience members have 50 shows to choose from. But the 2012 Fringe will be better than the 2012 presidential election! At Fringe, there’s not a limited choice between two major tickets – the Fringe Festival is the You-Pick-It Ticket. It presents patrons with many shows, which are radically diverse. Festival goers can pick what to see according to their whims, mood and interests, and so create their own Festival experience.
• The design should capture (or at least not contradict) some of the other key characteristics of Chicago Fringe theatre.
• Last year's winning design and runners up can also be seen on the Chicago Fringe website, and for further inspiration, you might look at designs from other Fringe Festivals around the world, such as Adelaide Fringe.
• You can (but are not required to) include the words "Chicago Fringe Festival 2012" as part of your design, but no other text, please. Be bold: the design will appear in whole or in part on CTA ads, print ads and web ads, so it needs to grab people’s attention and hold their interest. In other words, the masks of comedy and tragedy could be part of the winning design – but probably won’t be.
The design size of the file must not exceed 11”x17”. The design can be saved at a resolution that will enable us to zoom in to see details during judging, but the file size must not exceed 2MB. Designs may be in any medium. Multiple submissions are acceptable.
There is no entry fee.
What Chicago Fringe Festival needs from you: a single design that will be emblematic of Chicago Fringe 2012. We need a design that is so arresting, dynamic, searing, whimsical, mind-bending or otherwise amazing that it will radiate cartoon-like waves of energy. Some further crucial information to help you create the graphic gold we’re panning for:
• The design should reflect, suggest, embody, convey or otherwise relate, directly or obliquely, to an election year theme. An election is about choice, and so is Fringe: Audience members have 50 shows to choose from. But the 2012 Fringe will be better than the 2012 presidential election! At Fringe, there’s not a limited choice between two major tickets – the Fringe Festival is the You-Pick-It Ticket. It presents patrons with many shows, which are radically diverse. Festival goers can pick what to see according to their whims, mood and interests, and so create their own Festival experience.
• The design should capture (or at least not contradict) some of the other key characteristics of Chicago Fringe theatre.
• Last year's winning design and runners up can also be seen on the Chicago Fringe website, and for further inspiration, you might look at designs from other Fringe Festivals around the world, such as Adelaide Fringe.
• You can (but are not required to) include the words "Chicago Fringe Festival 2012" as part of your design, but no other text, please. Be bold: the design will appear in whole or in part on CTA ads, print ads and web ads, so it needs to grab people’s attention and hold their interest. In other words, the masks of comedy and tragedy could be part of the winning design – but probably won’t be.
The design size of the file must not exceed 11”x17”. The design can be saved at a resolution that will enable us to zoom in to see details during judging, but the file size must not exceed 2MB. Designs may be in any medium. Multiple submissions are acceptable.
There is no entry fee.
Monday, 23 April 2012
Potential Brief - Tales to change the word.
A brief from the ISTD website. I'm still quite confused by the ins and outs of it all but it sounds like an exciting challenge nonetheless, and sits on a polar opposite to the LWL magazine brief. Seems interesting to challenge the typographical norms of book/magazine design in relation to the recent developments of screen-based literature.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Potential Brief - LWL magazine.
After the last brief (i Newspaper collaborative brief), I wanted to choose a brief that was way out there in terms of what I am already comfortable with doing in terms of designing...sort of drop myself in the deep end as such to keep things interesting I suppose. I came across this one on the D&AD website, obviously the submission deadline has been and gone but it might be quite a cool brief to do, a lot of image-making, sketching and stuff, things that I haven't really done much of in a while.
I might just run it alongside a more type/layout based brief and not take it too seriously as such.
I might just run it alongside a more type/layout based brief and not take it too seriously as such.
Brief - Product/Range/Distribution
PRODUCT / RANGE / DISTRIBUTION
|
| BRIEF |
Produce a body of work that demonstrates your growing understanding of your own practical and conceptual concerns in relation to appropriate areas of contemporary Graphic Design practices. Your response to the brief should focus on one of the following design disciplines as a starting point for your research and development:
Publishing & Editorial
Information & Way-finding
Branding & Identity
Product & Packaging
Retail & Promotion
You will need to be able to demonstrate an ability to deliver work that has the potential to communicate across a range of products, contexts and media. In light of this you should aim to deliver a range of solutions that explore the creative use of Type and/or Image in the development of appropriate design solutions for print and screen based delivery. Your work should demonstrate
|
| Background / Considerations |
In a professional context your individuality and effectiveness as a designer will be measured by the skills you have and more importantly how you apply them. You are viewed through your work, its personality, its tone of voice and creative concerns.
Your work should demonstrate an investigation of your own personal, practical and conceptual concerns within the design area and combine this with a self-reflective approach to your own creative and professional ambitions. In selecting briefs you should consider how each one will help you explore and exploit your own particular design ambitions i.e. typography, illustration, branding, packaging, digital, print etc. The briefs that you choose should help you clarify, define, establish, strengthen and /or challenge your individual understanding of where you are positioning yourself as a specialist practitioner.
|
| Mandatory Requirements | Deliverables |
Your response to the brief should be supported by a short rationale (250 words) and evaluation of their effectiveness in relation to the initial brief.
|
Resolutions & Products appropriate to your selected brief(s).
Presentation boards articulating the selected research development, resolution and contextualisation of your work.
Posts to your Design Practice & Design Context blog demonstrating your ability to effectively record, document and critically evaluate the progress of your work in relation to your own intentions and
appropriate areas of contemporary creative practice.
|
| Studio Deadline | Module Deadline |
Final Crit - Tuesday 22nd 2012. - 9.30am |
FRIDAY 25th MAY 2012
(Assessment Briefing - 17th May 2012 - 9.30)
|
Monday, 9 April 2012
you're welcome
oi oi! a snapshot taken from the submission page of the website. Much to our delight, we were ready with a significant amount of time left over, which made the whole process a relaxed and un-stressful one.
Final presentation boards TO SEND
Finally, after quite a few hours of fine-tuning, we came up with four boards that we were happy to send off to YCN; complete with a few of the corrections/improvements suggested to us earlier.
Pull-out Photographs
Thumbnail shots of our pull-out section. Some of these we will use for the final boards to send off to YCN, of course after some editing.
Presentation boards - amendments
After the final crit, there were a few minor changes suggested to us in order to make the presentation boards spot on:
- page numbers
- consistent layout/type
- Potentially more visuals on board 2
- maybe swap boards 3 and 4 around, which does actually make more sense
- try different weights of type so it is a bit more engaging to look at as such
- alter a couple of sentences to make the boards more finalised in terms of language.
- page numbers
- consistent layout/type
- Potentially more visuals on board 2
- maybe swap boards 3 and 4 around, which does actually make more sense
- try different weights of type so it is a bit more engaging to look at as such
- alter a couple of sentences to make the boards more finalised in terms of language.
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