OUGD402: PPP1 - What is a Graphic Design Practice?

• "Graphic Design is an ongoing examination/conversation between the dynamics of personal exploration and professional practice" - Matt Owens, Volumeone.
• What is it that makes you, you? You need to establish the thing which separates you from the masses.

Three ways to determine an effective design practice

• Appropriateness of response,
• Quality of Resolution, - reflecting your ambitions
• Meeting the deadline. - a good brief is one which comes in on time

Appropriateness of Response

• What is the Problem? 
• Who is the Audience? 
• What is the Context?
• What is the Method of Delivery?

What is a Problem?

• Are you being asked to do something? Professional Standpoint 
• Is it something that you want to do? Personal Standpoint

It comes down to your own personal preferences

• Persuade, inform, ask questions, make a statement, give an order, deliver and instruction, make some laugh/cry?
• What function is it going to perform?

What is your Rationale?

• What are you doing, and why are you doing it?
• You're doing it because you want to do it? Or are you doing it because you have to do it?

What's the way you work, under the Rationale? 

• Concept driven 
• Idea driven
• Research driven

However, it's not always one, or the other. One is not always more important than the other.

Define what your practice is about, under the Rationale

• Audience driven
• Context driven
• Media driven

Creating Briefs and choosing work, under the Rationale

• Creative driven, a chance to create something extremely creative, and work with creative people
• Ethical connection, being able to associate with their aims and ambitions
• Commercially driven, soullessness - for the money.

Where do you sit within this? - if you don't position yourself within these, someone else will.

What are your outputs, how does your practice reflect the Rationale? What are your methods

• Handmade
• Digital
• Lens Based

What are your dimensional abilities work with the Rationale? 

• 2-Dimensional - Digital, flat
• 3-Dimensional - Object,
• 4-Dimensional - Time, movement, sequential development. a set series.

Quality of Resolution

• Depth of appropriate research
• Breadth of initial ideas
• Selection of potential solutions
• Thorough visual development
• Attention to detail/crafting
• Clarity of presentation 

Within that, we're also looking at Type and Or Image

• Do you work with one more than the other?
• You begin to develop your signature, something which is distinguishable as your own, using type and image

Is The Media the Message?

Tone of Voice

• Do you like humouring your work? Is it funny?
• Are you someone who is very authoritative?
• Is it appropriate for the situation? 

It comes down to two key things which makes it better, what makes you, you

• Try it,
• Test it,
• Make it better.

Remember to play, that is what will keep you moving forward.

Collaboration

• The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
• With other designers, with other people of different professions.
• Collaboration is not the same as group work.
• Using other people's skill sets to help you produce the best work possible.

Meeting the Deadline

• Time management,
• Project management,
• the is the key skill to develop,
• being able to hand in the best thing you can, however, when you hand it in, you know you could do better.

Message, Communication Clarity and Context 

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Creativity concept ideas

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Skills, organisation, discipline, and commitment - These three things will help you create the perfect piece of work. 

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Boundaries, Limitations, Rules and Time - These thing will stop you getting there.

Are the boundaries, limitations rules and time set by the industry? or are they set by yourselves?

An Effective Design Practice.

OUGD406: Design Practice 1 - Design is About Doing (Final Crit)

Design Practice Post | Design Context Post

We had a group crit, following up a week of working on the 5 designs, based up the 30 design sheets. We presented all of this at the crit, explaining our process and thought path, which lead us to our final designs, from out initial 30 thumbnail sketches and how this related to our research.

We, the five participating in the crit, determined that the designs shown below was the best out of the possible 5, which I presented.

The feedback which I've obtained is listed below, I will apply this to the chosen design.

• Experiment with the patterns, use more from the website background, and text them with your work.
• Remove the 7" on the chosen design, and produce different ideas with the different patterns. 
• Colour variations of the designs, experimenting, to see which colours out of the colour set from the website work. 

People in my Group: Grace, Adam, Emily and Anna. (Joe - Absent)

OUGD402: STUDY TASK 5 - Where Am I Now?

10 things that you have learned about yourself as an individual and as learner. These should reflect your personal development and individual journey since the start of the programme.

• I have learnt that myself, as a learner, I am more leant towards the practice part of the process.
• I have learnt, since I began here, that as a designer, I'm into the clean style, the modernist-influence style, as aposed to the post-modernist cluttered style. 
• As learner, I have discovered that I use other mediums, such as film, rather than Graphic Design to influence and inform my design process.
• As a learner, I've begun to understand the importance of crits and feedback, and using this to inform your work, to make it better.
• As a learner I feel like I have improved my ability to collaborate with other members of the group, rather than undertaking the tasks myself. I think this is because the standard within the group is incredibly high, and I don't need to fear that the end product will look awful.
• However, in response to the statement above, as an individual, I do prefer working alone, approaching projects from my own unique angle, being able to experiment with my skill set to produce something different, rather than having to accommodate other's skill sets.
• As a learner, I think I need to start stepping outside of my comfort zone more, when it comes to creating the product, rather than dashing straight to Illustrator or InDesign upon finishing my design sheets.
• As an individual, I have learnt that I'm good at managing my time, to my surprise, I'm getting all the work done for it's deadline-date, and I'm able to have down time along side this. I'm pleased to say, I believe I've found the balance.
• As a learner, I believe that my weakness in terms of responding to a brief would be the research section, I tend not to narrow my searches into a specific point, I find I stay rather broad and get mediocre  uninteresting findings, this is something I hope to work at and improve in the current module, OUGD406: Design Practice 1.
• As a learner, I feel that I could also learn to develop me designs, from my thumbnail sketches further. By this i mean, that i could explore the concept more. I will develop this ability over the current module.

10 things that you have learned about yourself as a designer. These should reflect your growing awareness of your own interests within graphic design as a subject, discipline and profession.

• I have learnt, since I began here, that as a designer, I'm into the clean style, the modernist-influence style, as aposed to the post-modernist cluttered style. 

An example, above of my work, and how what I would consider to fit this style.

Above, is an example of some work which I think fits the clean style, which I attempt in my work, using shapes and vector images rather than drawings, paintings or physical artwork as the the image which I would work with.

• As a designer, I feel like I'm good at creating thumbnail sketches to generated and extend ideas, to create the best posible layout and plan for the solution.

• As a designer, I have developed in an intrest in the vector drawings, using abstract shapes and lines, rather than tracing for creating an image as you would imagine it, using traditional methods, with shading.
• As a designer, I think I developed an attachment to using a very small selection of colours within each piece of design. For example, in a past module, OUGD405 Design Process, I used few colours within my final product, using blue orange and stock colours. 
• As a designer, i have begun to use more simple designer, than rather artistic mediums, such as experimental water-colour pieces or paintings with custom brushes.
• As a designer, i have discovered a passion, that is working with body copy, in a magazine style, being able to use columns, margines, guides to wrap text around, and create a pleasing style, along side with images. 
• As a designer, I think that I have developed my ability to generate ideas, and create my own work in the style or in influence of another designer, using them to inform my work, and create a more visually dynamic outcome, in a style other than my own.
• As a designer, I have learnt that more does not mean better. Infact, I would almost go as far to say, less can mean better. Rather than cluttering the page, filling it with images, type and info-graphics, a much cleaner simple layout, with only the essential points, facts and ideas usually works better.
• As a designer, I have become reliant on the process leading up to the product, using the generation of ideas to the fullest, rather than designing things on the spot, based on one random idea I've summoned from no-where. Creating thumbnail sketches, development sketches, mock ups experimenting with concepts to create the best final product.

OUGD402: PPP1 - STUDY TASK 4 - WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR? - Part 1

Task

Using the areas of Graphic Design discussed  in the seminar, studio workshop as a starting point and with reference to the 'What is Graphic Design For - Part 1/2' presentation. Identify, record and evaluate a minimum of:

•  5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define information & way-finding design. 
•  5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define product & packaging design. 
•  5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define branding & identity design.
•  5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define editorial and publishing design.
•  5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define retail and & promotion.

You should aim to identify sources that represent the breadth of design practices, functions and audiences. Once you have identified your sources, you will need to:

• Write a brief statement defining your understanding of each of the design areas
• Identify 10 examples of each discipline and 'categories' them by genre, audience, content, sector, budget and/or any appropriate method as discussed in your groups.
• Comment on the effectiveness of the examples with regards to content, format, function and media.

5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define information & way-finding design

1. http://www.wolfstrome.com/ -  Wolfstrome is a website which specialises in way-finding, creating solutions for various situations, ranging from Environmental Design to Fabrication.
2. http://www.endpointsigndesign.com/service/wayfinding - End Point have designed way-finding services for various companies, such as the royal college of art, they have also worked in health care, having a broad range of way-finding experience.
3. http://www.designworkplan.com/wayfinding/introduction.htm - Design Work Plan defines way-finding and introduces us to the basics, such as how it works, and how it's effective.
4. http://wayfindinguk.wordpress.com/ - Way-finding UK is a blog which specialises in way-finding, they conduct investigations into the effectiveness of way-finding around the UK. 
5. http://environmentalgraphicdesign.blogspot.co.uk/ Environmental Graphic Design is a blog which talks about way-finding, with various examples of effective way-finding and explanations to why they're effective. 

5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define product & packaging design

1. http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/about-design/types-of-design/packaging-design/ - Design Council talk about various aspects of design; they have a section dedicated to Product & Package design, where they talk about they roles which the packaging must take to be effective.
2. http://www.packagingoftheworld.com/ - Packaging of the World is a website which showcases effective, creative methods of packaging, and have articles explaining their effectiveness.  
3. http://www.icanbecreative.com/175-creative-product-packaging-designs.html - I Can Be Creative is another design website, which showcases creative and effective examples of packaging, and containing articles which explains why they work extremely well.
4. http://www.cummingsdesign.com/PackagingIntro.htm - Cummings Design is a website, for company of the same name, who showcase packaging for companies which they've creatred, this includes packaging for companies such as Pepsi Cola.
5. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671492/designing-packaging-isnt-easy-heres-all-the-innovation-you-dont-see - Fast Co. Designs is a blog which contains articles on various subjects, many of which talk about product and packaging design, the specific post which I've found, which is linked to above talks about the process involved in creating creating and effective packaging, it's extremely interesting.

5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define branding & identity design

1. http://www.brandingidentitydesign.com/ - Branding Identity Design is a website which contains articles specifically on the subject of branding and identity, they also showcase creative and effective examples of branding.
2. http://www.davidairey.com/ - David Airey is a blog which features many examples of Branding, the owner, David, is widely regarded as the opinion leader on logo design by much of the online design community.
3. http://www.thedesigncubicle.com/ - The blog contains many wonderful articles on branding identity and logo design, whilst also covering many other topics in the world of Graphic Design.
4. http://www.helveticbrands.ch/ - Helvetica Brands is a blog from Swiss Designer David Pache, the site is primarily for David's portfolio, however it does contain many great articles on brand and Identity Design. 
5. http://logodesignerblog.com/ - Logo Designer Blog is a blog, run by Jacob Cass, containing many great articles on Branding and Identity Design.

5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define editorial and publishing design

1. http://magculture.com/blog/ - The Mag Culture blog, a subsection of the Mag Culture website features many articles about editorial and publishing design, showcasing creative examples.
2. http://www.shillingtondesignblog.com - Shillington Design's blog also provides a great reservoir of information on editorial and publishing design, articles talking about some great examples of publishing design.
3. http://www.basedesign.com/#/cat/edi - The subsection for editorial at Base Design is also another great resource for Editorial and Publishing Design, with hundreds of creative examples, articles which provide in-depth reading on the subject.
4. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ - Smashing Magazine is a Graphic Design blog, which has some indepth articles on publishing and editorial design, which also showcase some great examples of editorial design.
5. http://www.graphicthoughtfacility.com/ - Graphic Thought Facility is a blog which contains a subsection on publication. Where we find articles on types of publication, examples of design and analysis of creative publications.

5 examples of websites/blogs. that will help you to define retail and & promotion

OUGD405: Design Process - Study Task 2 - How To Evaluation

Open publication - Free publishing - More design process

OUGD401: Research Methods

OUGD405: Design Progress -Study Task 1 - Group Crit

Today we presented research in the form of a group crit, I presented the free boards, as you can see on my exam practice blog click here. First I began explaining my primary research my secondary research and my action plan. My primary research consisted of work which I collected, emailing charities, taking photographs, and doing a research section around Leeds, To verify what active charities are operating in Leeds. I also presented the responses from the charities, I asked them, if I were to donate 1 pound what percentage of that pound would go towards the cause, or emergencies, expenses, such as travel equipment wages, and what percentage will go towards future investments so advertising, to generate future income. My secondary research consisted of how the split is applied, so, I went on the internet and researched how it actually is used, for example I looked specifically some charities, and found out what they do for money, for example I found some posters are certain charity and I evaluate the effectiveness of the posters and whether or not it was worth the 7% of the budget. I also looked at merchandise, for example, I looked at fashionable wristbands made of rubber which you can purchase, And the effectiveness of creating awareness of the charity, and promoting the cause. I found that be over 9%, of the 1 pound which you can donate, will go towards paying for establishments, such as charity shops, and had offices. I also found that it pays wages for staff such as CEOs, executives CallCenter operatives and any other staff. Finally, I found out where the other 84% on the budget would go, and that was a cause, whether it be steeving starving children, or providing a dog in new home. Which is what you would expect from a charity!

Feedback I received was generally good however we did establish that from the charity's reluctaantsey to release the spending percentages, that they may be ashamed of their percentages, And they may not want the public to know is it may deter donations. So, but I next briefing it'll be interesting to look into how providing the percentages to general public, if it affects willingness to donate to a charity.

The question we were given the end of the Crit was; "How can I get more people to donate to charities?" This would lead on to the next brief on the week of 3 December 2012. Click here to see the progress on this weeks brief.