#l5cp

[akashclairbcu-blog]

PROJECT EVALUATION

At the start of this brief, me and my group were a little stuck on finding an idea as we were not sure on which was most interesting and the best to take forward and engage the audience. We ended up with a variety of different ideas to choose from such as a virtual experience to a handheld zine/information booklet. We started with the best two and we started to brainstorm initial ideas for each and pick the best option. In the end we chose a video which we would take the audience through the event of Syria as a timeline, using a boy as the central point of attraction.

Now that we had our topic, the next step was to focus on how we would create a timeline video. We started researching other companies campaign videos and timeline videos. I was influenced by the Star Wars Sky promo which was shown in a lecture. After showing my group this video as inspiration we started to brainstorm different idea. We split up and came up with our own ideas and bought them all together at the end. However, after the christmas break there was lack of communication and we came back with no solid idea to take forward and had to go back to the drawing board.

I started research on practitioners and other companies who have done certain campaigns which are different from the norm and visually interesting. Then, Sakib told us of an idea to do a zine/booklet in the form of a survival guide. We voted on the idea and decided to take it further. We then started to design a backstory on what to include and how it would all link together, and after this, we started on different layouts.

But, as we didn't have an idea we decided to speak with David who gave us some very crucial feedback to focus on a journey instead of the war and to be different and not do something so cliche. Then, I stumbled upon a trailer from the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles franchise, and was immediately inspired to take a visually interesting approach to our campaign. I then showed this to Uwais, and together we research some more and came up with an idea to do an app/game. As the deadline drew closer, we decided that this was an idea we were going to stick with.  

Together we started more research and came across a games company who do video games which involve using multiple choice as a way to carry the story forward, and we decided to use this idea to use in the app. So, we started to think of a story for the app. We all came up with ideas and put them together and ended up with a great storyline which was engaging to the audience as well as an interesting experience which is fun and serious at the same time.

I then started to research practitioners to figure out a style of type we could use in the app. I researched into artists such as Luke Lucas, Craig Ward and Jonathan Barnbrook. This research really gave me inspiration to come up with a theme and a style to use in the app. After this, Uwais found a font called River Drive which looked great and really fitted in with the style we were going for. It also created a certain atmosphere and catches the audiences attention.

I developed my ideas by producing a lot of thumbnails and initial sketching. By choosing this method, I got all the ideas in my head on paper rather than designing straight in Illustrator and Photoshop. This helped me get more ideas and inspired more to come. The editing process for the game was almost all done in Photoshop, where we created each screen in the form of a gif. From using Photoshop quite a lot in this project, I learnt a lot of new techniques which I could use in the future in my other projects which is really helpful.

Our target audience for this project was people who owned a smartphone, as we wanted them to engage with the product fully on their own and experience the journey in its fullest form. However, we catered for people who didn't own a smartphone in creating a booklet which was visually interesting in showing the journey in the from of icons. This audience research helped me better understand how to design and layout my visuals to effectively reach, impact and engage the audience. In conclusion, I think everything turned out to be successful in the end and we all worked well as a team to create ideas and visuals which all kept to the same theme and colour scheme as each other. I also think that we worked excellently to create a product which met all of our initial targets to raise awareness and engage the audience to let them know and experience the hardships migrants face just trying to get to safety and away from the terror in Syria. However, I think we lacked greatly in communication and is the reason why we only had a short time to finish the product. If I were to do this project again, I would make sure there was communication within the team when we were not in uni to keep on track.

[olgashurakova-blog]

Evaluation

For this project we were asked to come up with a concept brand that would focus on the Syrian migrant crisis and ways of resolving it. However, before we could even start focusing on that we were requested to create a creative agency, which we would be working under. As a group we have decided to name our agency TBJ, which stands for our brand values i.e. Trust, Believe and Joy.

Creating a concept brand was not easy and before I could do any work I had to carry out an in-depth research. My research begun with reading information about the Syrian migrant crisis and why it has occurred. I also wanted to have a broad picture on the Syrian migrant issue, therefore, I have decided to read the information from a lot of different sources, which both supported and opposed the Syrian immigrants. From carrying out that research I have realised that there is a lot of information that is covered up by the European media. Therefore, I thought that one thing that our concept brand could focus on is to tell the immigrants about how they should behave in the host country. However, my group thought that this was not a great idea, therefore, it was scrapped. Instead they thought that it would be a good idea to focus on the word communication. This meant that our concept brand was to focus on welcoming the immigrants into the country and helping them to settle down. The idea was to create an information booklet and a sim card that would have a preinstalled app on it, providing all the necessary information for the immigrants.

Since branding is something that I am very much interested in I was really looking forward to doing it. For our concept brand I have designed a number of logo ideas. Personally I felt that there was two, which were especially successful. However, our group decided to go for something completely different. While I was sketching some logo designs, I have started thinking about what really comes under concept brand and identity design. Therefore, I have decided to read a book called The Art of Identity by Mark Rowden, which really taught me a lot of things. Probably, one of the most important things that I have learnt from it, was that you, as a person, must be confident with your idea, don’t go for anything obvious and be prepared to face be criticism for doing something different.  Another thing that I already knew but that was reinforced in that book was that identity is not just the logo.

Although being confident with your ideas, was something that the book was constantly referring to, I have really struggled with it. When almost none of your ideas are chosen (be it the idea on what your concept brand should be or logo designs or even choosing colour scheme that the brand should follow), you really start to lose the motivation to do the project and this is something that I have struggled with. Honestly, by the end of the project, I have really started to feel like I was not part of the group that have created a concept brand, since almost none of my ideas were included in that project.

When splitting up the roles as to who should do what, I was given a responsibility to design and produce an app. This is something that I have never done before and I do admit that I have struggled with it. However, I am quite happy with my end results. Designing and producing an app was a challenge, yet I am glad that I did it because I was able to learn the basics of designing a concept for an app. I was also required to use Adobe Illustrator to create an app (and all of the logos), which in return meant that my knowledge in using this programme was enriched. Finally, another positive thing that I was able to gain from taking on the challenge of designing an app, was the fact that it meant that something of mine was included in the project.

Having struggled with bringing some of my ideas across into our current project  have motivated me to start a new side project, which was also based around producing a concept brand that would focus on the Syrian migrant crisis. For this side project I have collaborated with one of the student who is also from a graphic design side. Together with her we were faced with a challenge of creating a brand new concept brand in just under a week. The amount of work which we were able to produce in that short period of time is quite impressive, and it showed to me that if I push myself to the limits, then there is really a lot of things that I would be able to achieve..  While doing this side project, we have looked back on our initial ideas, chose the best out of them and then started to develop them even further. This side project is something that I am very proud of and intend to develop it even further, since the time that we have spent on it was not enough to get it to the perfection (that’s not to say that even now I’m not proud of our work, because I do like the end result very much).

So overall, looking back on this whole project, I can say that this was a very interesting journey and it is the project that I have very much liked. This is also the project that I would definitely do again and which taught me a lot of new things regarding designing a brand and its identity. During this project I have also gained knowledge about typography, for example, different rules that needs to be followed when designing a typeface. Yes, there were ups and downs in this project, however, I am very happy that I have put time and effort into doing this project properly. 

[dannifredacroft]

L5 VIS5025 Collaborative Practice (Branding and Brand Experience)

Personal Reflection

The brief as I understand it was to create a concept brand which raised awareness of the Syrian migrant crisis and in turn cause an impact.

Our concept involved taking a percentage of sales of Fjallraven products and donating them to the Syrian refugees for shelter and security. This means that we were designing our work for people who enjoyed outdoor activities and were willing to spend a lot of money on its equipment and clothing requirements.

Therefore the best ideas we came up with, for me, were those that tapped into the target audiences emotions the most; I felt that challenging someone’s ignorance to a topic was the best way to make them feel guilty. I believe in doing this, we would be able to create a huge impact on the issue of the Syrian Migrant Crisis.

To develop our ideas before settling on one, we met regularly so that we could bounce off one another; thus producing something bigger and better that we all had an input in. However the many different ideas that we all bought to the table, meant that when it finally came to choosing one everyone was passionate about, it became very difficult. This leads me on to my reflection of our team work/collaboration as a group.

First of all, as an overall aspect, I feel we worked well as a team; we respected each others opinions and helped one another throughout the entire project by using our varying individual strengths. However, our inability to make a collective decision is one of the biggest reasons we were unsuccessful in some areas of our project. In my opinion, it was because no one really took the role of ‘leader’ in our group. Another reason I feel we weren’t as successful as we could have been, was the amount of time we wasted on coming to decisions, leaving us with limited time to further develop our ideas and outcomes.

On the other hand, one of our most successful outcomes to this project was how all of our work managed to keep a theme running throughout it. A member of the group, Ben, volunteered to take all the bits and pieces that we had individually created and tweak them so they would compliment one another. Working with Bens style when designing our promotional material worked particularly well. From doing so I felt that I learnt a lot about more than just a group collaboration but how to work with individual others as well.

My favourite successful outcome to our concept brand, is where we planned to use Fjallraven’s instagram feed to grab the attention of their followers. We did this by using juxtaposition to provide a message to the audience; including a shocking 3x3 image in the middle of the picturesque images on Fjallraven’s instagram, creates exactly that.

If I were to approach this kind of project in the future, I would definitely plan to have completed all our work a lot earlier than the given deadline, so that we would have time to tweak our work as a group before presenting.

[georginatidman]

Historic events that occurred in the year 1858... 

[georginatidman]

Nolwenn introduced me to this designer during our project as she believed I’d like her work and I really do! The intricate but cleverly thought out designs that she creates sometimes have an usual two sides/ versions to them with a visual puzzle inside them kind of like the blue and black vs white and gold dress... moving swiftly on probably best not to raise that debate again. Whereas other designs she creates include simple layouts or layered effects... definitely a fan!