Grace Birch

BCU Graphic Communication

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Digital Painting Practice on Procreate on iPad Pro

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Research into Agency-  10.02.19

Kin Design- We are an interaction design practice. Our work is about using technology and research to make connections between people, information, spaces, and things. 

They describe their work as research-led, multi disciplinary and collaborative. 

Mat Heinl, CEO at Moving Brands described them as ‘Un-pigeonhole-able’

kin-design.com

Singapore Maths (from their website)

The Brief

Singapore Maths is a method of teaching mathematical skills by encouraging problem solving in a visual way. Using this new method Maths — No Problem! asked us to create maths books for UK schools that were engaging, fun, and clear.

The Solution

Working closely with Singapore Maths expert Dr Yeap Ban Har we created an illustration style, visual language, and layout system for the books.

In addition to careful implementation of information hierarchies and clarity of layout, our illustration style created an aesthetically sophisticated platform for teaching maths.

Across 24 books we hand crafted over 7000 illustrations, including a classroom of characters that grow up as the books progress. Our books are currently being used to deliver the national curriculum in schools across the UK

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Skills Audit

I found a list of graphic design skills from Venngage ( https://venngage.com/blog/graphic-design-skills/ ) And this is what I shall be using to assess my skills. I shall also add in a few others that are relevant to my fields of practice.

They are ranked on 1-5 based on where I think I am in terms of my skillset, there are no 5s as no one is fully competent in all aspects of a piece of software even after years of use

Adobe Photoshop - 3 (definitely the adobe programme I feel strongest in)

Adobe InDesign - 2 (I enjoy InDesign but I need to do more work in it 

Adobe Illustrator - 2 (I can do Illustrator Draw on iPad Pro but need to work on Mac Illustrator) 

Adobe XD - 3 (used it quite a lot on my foundation degree but it has changed a lot since I used it last so I would need to brush up on it, but it’s one of the simpler adobe programmes)

HTML - 1 (basic understanding from having to do basic coding for my website)

Typography - 1 (basic understanding from first year, but not very interested)

Print Design - 1 (I haven’t really experimented with printing)

Photography - 2 (I have photography as a hobby but don’t have any interest in taking it further than that)

Branding - 2 (I’ve done some projects on branding that I enjoyed but it is definitely not something that I enjoy a lot)

Editorial design - 3 (something that I am quite interested in exploring)

Microsoft office - 4 (been using for a long time, very used to it, but there’s always more to know)

Web Design - 1 (only done my own websites in the past, not tried properly at it)

Drawing/ illustration - 4 (I feel very comfortable with drawing but it is something I am always working to improve)

Digital Art - 3 (I have recently started digital painting and although I feel that I am producing high quality work, it is still early days)

Fine Art - 4 (from a fine art background, feel very comfortable with aspects of fine art like painting, collage and illustration)

Procreate -4 (been using Procreate for about 18 months, and use it most days for either line illustration or painting, feel very comfortable with the software and have started experimenting with creating brushes, as well as finding cool brushes online and downloading them in order to add to my paintings)

I feel that it is very clear that my skillset lies in the illustrative / fine art field as it is something that I have always been strong in.

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Goal-setting Exercise - 04.02.19

This is the goal setting exercise that we were asked to do in class on the first day of the Identifying Direction module, I have planned for multiple career options, my primary choice is to be an art teacher, my backups are editorial design or fine art/ illustrative options.

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`To what extent does art therapy have a positive effect on mental health?

This is my essay for the context module, exploring the use of art therapy in the treatment of mental health conditions.

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Context of Graphic Communication

The title of my context essay.

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ArtFund_ Brief

Concept for the Student Lates_

I wrote a document to explain the Student Lates_ and why I think an event like this is needed, what it is and how we will encourage students to attend.

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ArtFund_ Brief

Posters for Student Lates_

Here are some posters I did in the Art Can Be_ style, but for the Student Lates_ events, focusing on the key elements of the night to entice students. 

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ArtFund_ Brief

Art Can Be_ Student Lates

In addition to the poster campaign, I also had the idea for a series of events at museums and galleries up and down the country. They would be evenings purely for students to introduce them to art in a safe and comfortable way. 

The evenings would feature fun workshops that are easy to take part in but aren’t too patronising, as students don’t want to be treated like school children. They would be sociable events, allowing students that come alone, and even those who come with groups, to make new friends. 

The evenings would also feature tours of the museum or gallery which could be led by comedians, in the vein of ArtFund’s Meet Me at the Museum podcast. Having a funny tour could really draw students in who wouldn’t have normally come, who hopefully would then be engaged by the art once they were there. 

There would also be a bar area with food and drinks to allow students to socialise and turn their ideas of museums and galleries on their head. Many non art people feel uncomfortable in these settings because they think they have to be deathly quiet, however this event will be fun and loud, allowing students to be themselves.

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ArtFund_ Brief

Social Media

This is just a simple mockup to show how the poster designs I have created could be rolled out to social media, using instagram as an example because it is the social media most used by the target demographic. 

To add to this they could be turned into little videos or GIFs that move and text appears and disappears, to add a little interest

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ArtFund_ Brief

The Posters

Here is the final campaign idea for the YCN ArtFund brief, at its core it is a campaign that is trying to show students the wide diversity of subjects covered in art and showing them that art can be funny, interesting, even weird.

It features famous paintings and the funny or interesting behind them. Hopefully this will encourage people to go to art galleries and show them that it can be interesting, despite what they may think. 

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ArtFund_ Brief

Scamping

After completing a lengthy research period, the next phase was to start scamping layouts for posters, ArtFund_ had been quite specific about wanting low cost solutions and so a simple poster campaign combined with a social media rollout seemed logical. On their brand guidelines they specified the sizes they wanted their posters to be, so I stuck with that and produced traditional A dimensioned posters. 

I wanted to incorporate the underscore that they use in their branding but wanted to switch it up a little so I had the underscore bending round corners or under and over paintings to add a little interest. 

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ArtFund_ Brief

The Student Mental Health Crisis

I then began to look at student mental health, as mental health issues are at an all time high among this generation. I read both journal articles and news articles to gauge the level of the problem, and found it to be scarily large, ‘47% of students have difficulty completing some daily tasks due to mental health.’ 

During my research I found many studies that had concluded that exposure to the arts could reduce depression and anxiety, some even reported a reduction of up to 77%.

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ArtFund_ Brief

Research into Gallery Attendance

The next step in completing the brief was to try and understand who was and wasn’t going to museums and if they weren’t, why they weren’t. As this would be the information I needed to turn on its head to try and convince students of the benefits of museums and art galleries. 

I read the Taking Part Survey from the UK government and found that only 50% of the adult population had engaged with the arts in the last year, to me that was a shockingly low statistic! 

I then began to look at other museums and galleries around the world and what they were doing to encourage people to visit them, and the different programmes that they ran for students. 

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ArtFund_ Brief

Research into ArtFund_

My next step was to research ArtFund and their history, referring to both their website and other sources who’d written about them. This really helped me to get a feel of the charity as a whole and what they contribute to the UK art world. 

I then began to look at their brand guidelines as it’s important to design something that fits with a company’s image and their design specifications. They had incredibly in depth guidelines, 36 pages! including colour charts explaining which colours could and couldn't go together, and their RGB and Pantone numbers. 

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ArtFund_ Brief

The Brief

When trying to choose a competition brief, the ArtFund_ one just leapt out at me, as it encompassed two things I love, advertising and art galleries!

My first step was to break down the brief, I printed it and went through with a highlighter and created a really detailed mind map at the same time. I then spent a day or two digesting it and then began simplifying it down to the single statement that I have displayed above. This process really helped me to understand what they were asking of us and allowed me to think of ideas that were directly related to the brief.

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Live Brief: Lookbook

The Final Lookbook

Here is my final lookbook, as uploaded in my submission. I am incredibly  happy with the outcome and the feedback I have received, I have also been selected for the Friday Night Lights exhibition at my university, which is very exciting!