rhett i suppose

this is a small collection of work, documenting my experiences and processes (/struggles if we're being honest) during my third year of my BAA program. thanks for looking! (Hello Ian and class, what up dowgz)

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Main Takeaways

Give Yourself Time.

So much of this is just being in studio and just doing the work. I have a tendency to blow things out of proportion but found myself being able to control it without fully limiting myself.

Lean into it.

Whatever the weird thing is, just kind of do it. It's in there for a reason and even if it doesn't work out at least you tried, at least you can say you know it doesn't work.

Be. In. Studio.

Quite simple.

Speaking of simple...

Simplicity is best.

also Canada is nowhere near supportive enough for the current opioid epidemic, easily distinguishable from the fact that we're in a "CURRENT" opioid epidemic. bruh

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With this project done, I have a lot of work to do this summer. Work, planning, painting, etc. We out here

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Favourite part?

My favourite part of this process was making my creative brief and pamphlet. I think I absolutely nailed the loose refinement I was after and I love being able to finally both have found a use for my cut up bubble mailer and to be rid of it.

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if you're asking me...

I think this assignment could've turned out better, both in execution and ideation. While I achieved all the goals I set out to achieve, I have to be honest and say I did kind of lose faith in this project for a bit. Something about the end of the semester absolutely drains my motivation and gives me this sort of paralysis.

Having pushed through it, all I have to say is just push through it. Just do the work even if it kind of sucks (this was a self-led project mind you) so it worked.

I am happy to be done with it. If I am being totally honest, I don't necessarily think this is the best thing I've made this year, but alas, we are done.

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the pamphlet template

I really hate how trifold pamphlets look unfolded. you can have all the confidence in the world about your work and then you see the fresh printout/raw file and it all comes crashing down. "no! the reality of my work" bruh anyways here's my pamphlets, they turned out cool.

again, I wanted a loose refinement. The typography, while following a grid structure, breaks from it in the way that it follows the burnt paper text boxes (making the burnt paper textboxes made my kitchen smell god awful) so there's some "misalignment" which was intentional.

whether or not this reads as intentional, I don't know. looking back I don't think it does however it works for it. I know it's intentional but that may come off as unrefined or as a mistake, which isn't great but it happens some times.

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more process

a big part of this process (not just this assignment, all of these projects, this year in general I think) has been learning more about myself. I will say these past two semesters I think I've learned how to work with the mess that is my brain. I know myself in the way that while I can't necessarily do anything to correct it, I have found workarounds to fit within a certain form of organization that is presentable.

with that said, a lot of it has also been honouring that side of my work and myself, and approaching it with grace. it's a part of it and as much as I or anyone may want to get rid of it, for better or worse it is there. i think that part of my artistic process deserves just as much space as any other part of it.

I am nothing if not messy and that's pretty cool in my opinion.

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BEHOLD

for this poster design, a wanted a very simple, clear message with a little bit of messaging and very little branding.

the five inline needles are intended to represent how 1 in 5 Canadians are at one point in their lives affected by substance use and addiction.

i wanted this poster to be playful and removed from the seriousness of the topic to provide a sense of approachability for this campaign.

while it is important to approach this topic with tact, this can be done with stylization and play in mind. I wanted to keep this as simple as I possible could with the typographical elements doing most of the work while being readable from a distance. The hierarchy is obviously typography forwards, and due to the scale of the main typographical elements it naturally draws your attention, leading you down the poster.

another way this poster can be read is by noticing the blue circle first, then working up. this obviously works less and isn't really intended however it also pulls you directly into the poster with a big blue splotch.

unsurprisingly the physical creation process of both this and the pamphlets were my favourite part of this project. this just in, artist likes making art. go figure.

i feel like that is a very important point to note as well. i don't think i am a designer. i try and approach these projects with a sort of fine art sensibility (while still sticking to my messiness and grittiness) and while i don't necessarily recommend this approach, it works for me. i know the way in which my brain is messy and so i am able to work with it

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and finally... the finished products (some)

here is my Brief, my Research panel, and my typography statement. (screenshots are bad quality)

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cutout/printed assets used

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the "role" cont.

I largely wanted to offer a contemporary, inclusive form of political media that didn't feel clinical or like it was made from a template in Microsoft Powerpoint. not that there's necessarily anything wrong with either of those, this is almost the exact opposite direction i wanted for this.

this community doesn't (in my opinion) benefit from all forms of media being clinical and so I wanted to design a campaign that I would personally want to see, rather than what is currently being offered.

I think stylization can be utilized to approach sensitive topics (with tact) and this is an attempt at doing so.

While I will say I don't think this is my best work (which will be explained in another post) I would say I am content with it. I wholeheartedly believe I've made better projects before however that's actually fine. I learned a lot, some of it on what not to do (cough cough trust inDesign with images even though that is totally user error ahem) however I think that's just part of this. a lot of this process was more physical than anything but I am glad to have worked at least slightly in both worlds more. I do get quite frustrated with inDesign but I realized while using it and simultaneously complaining about it that it's pretty much the only thing/program that can do what it can do and that to get rid of it I would then have to relearn how to do everything it does in another application and I'm not particularly interested in that so, c'est la vie.

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the "role" of this project/end

what is this project? why is this project? among other questions

if you ask me, this project could've probably been more. from the start i knew i wanted to keep it at least a little more lowkey and work with something more familiar, while still being able to push myself creatively.

while i feel i achieved this, it could definitely be pushed further. digital media could be a future approach however for the purposes of this assignment, i think it's okay

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NMDF (and co.)

so for the name, I wanted to allude to the prevalence of overdose deaths and to create a personal connection (not just to myself, but to the viewer.)

NMDF is an abbreviation for No More Dead Friends. We have reached a point culturally where it is getting harder and harder for anyone to live without having at least one "dead" friend, whether they are passed away or otherwise missing (psychologically, etc.) due to the consequences of substance abuse.

there is a large distinction to be made between functional substance use and dysfunctional, the latter of which often leads to what is widely considered to be an addiction.

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I don't know why I have a tendency to make things larger and in some cases consequently worse than they need to be. when it comes to design I like to think I believe in simplicity but then I blow it out of proportion and make it a worse experience for myself, then having to simplify.

This process is tiring however it's one of the only ways I know how to work with my own brain. A lot of the time I am quite scatter brained (on a good day) and so I have to sort of develop this ongoing "working relationship" with myself. it can be tiring however it's worth it.

I originally wanted more typography however for "Optional" I put more typography and it just took away from the design. I shall push forward with what makes me happy, which I guess comes with its own sort of "intuition" (maybe)

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I T E R A T I O N S (dun dun dun)

I will be doing this section for each work included in the campaign. right now is "Optional" of which there's been... changes.

this was 8.5x11"

why I originally decided to work on 8.5x11? unsure but here we are now

(grid in place to show that I did indeed work with a grid. I wanted this to be more complicated and I don't know why.

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more assets!

so these are heavily stylized hypodermic needles. for the colour scheme of this I wanted simple colours, which i feel could've been approached from various angles.

1 in 5 Canadians have reported using substances (https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/8193-illegal-drugs-and-trafficking-canada) in their lives and so these are intended to represent that statistic. I am still debating on including text alongside them for context, or if they can be a stylistic note. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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this aesthetic both lends itself to my own creative process and the topic at hand. for the topic, it's messy, it's disorganized and it is actively breaking the rules of typography (while following a loose grid structure). it has a certain presence to it that I can only describe as both naive and ominous.

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OKAY

finally.

so for this project, I have changed quite a bit. I have decided to lean very heavily into the handmade side of things and so most if not all digital assets have been made by hand and then brought in digitally. from various people I have been recommended to lean into the mess and work with what I have.

in the post before this is the lettering for poster #1, "Optional" and (here)

are a few more cutouts made from scrap flyers, namely a liquor store flyer