OUGD406 Feedback/Evaluation

OUGD406 Feedback/Evaluation

After a final crit, all of my physical work has been reviewed by my peers and judged. I have received a lot of useful feedback, most of it quite positive. One reoccurring comment was how clear my contextual research translated visually in all of my work. This was good to know as I originally thought my rhino idea was a bit too ambitious, but it turns out it works perfectly. This gives me confidence in the visual language . I have used and now I know its not too confusing at all. Another thing mentioned a lot was that my origami rhino was a really nice little touch. In comparison to others objects which were really big and expensive things, this was a nice simple little thing. One thing mentioned was that it could possibly be included as a bonus inside the cassette packaging. This would basically be giving away free money which could somehow relate to the general punk attitude. My peers also really appreciated the rough design and messy aesthetic of the flag which was great. Finally, the patterns used and type sourced on my J-card was said to look really great and relate to my research perfectly.

Some of the cons in my design were that the colours in my flag didn't completely match up with my J-card. I could have also included some more red in the flag as it is not as obvious. It was also suggested to narrow my rationale down a little bit to get to the key points instead of having a long full description of all my ideas. A final negative was that it was not too clear what the design was on the . back side of the J-card in comparison to the front. These are all valid points that I will keep in mind next time.

Some transferable skills I have collected during this brief are time management skills. This played a big part in this project as there was such a large amount of deliverables I had to produce, I had to carefully divide my time to complete each one before the deadline. I also leant a lot more about screen printing compared to before. Now I have the confidence to go and print whenever I wish without any fault. I also learnt about mixing colours to get the correct hues required. I even learnt a bit of origami which is always useful.

Successful Screen Prints

Successful Screen Prints

After my previous attempt of screen printing, I overcame the issues I was originally having and printed a collection of identical J-cards. This time I managed to mix the blue correctly and get the correct deep blue navy. Now the colours on my J-card match the Sao Paulo flags colours pretty accurately. This ties in perfectly with my research and gives full purpose to colour relating to the fact the genre was created in this city. I managed to carefully align the type and image up with the back pattern once again. This did not prove an issue. I also sourced some off white paper that was also a little thinner. I previously used a solid white 300gsm paper stock. The problem with this was that it made the design look unfinished and also it was so thick, the cassette did not fit properly. Now, using an off white 270gsm paper stock I have fixed all of previous mistakes. When printing on the back of the J-card I made sure that this time it would definitely line up with the front, leaving no unwanted white space. I made the design slightly larger then the J-card dimensions to make sure of this. I also only used one colour on the back instead of two so that when the card was flipped you wouldn't really get distracted by something that wasn't important. The J-card fits perfectly inside the case and even when the cassette itself site inside of it. The spine and back panel are clearly separated from the other panels with no overprints or confusion between which panel is which. I managed to fold each panel with cleanliness by scoring each registration mark with a scalpel and carefully bending it. 

Flag Development

Flag Development

This first development has been created using the original bank note design. This time, I sourced my own note for the contextual relevance and scanned it in at a high dpi to gain as much detail as possible. I have used the same colours as the Sao Paulo flag as this was where the genre was stapled. Having just a Brazilian note would represent the whole of Brazil so this is why these colours were selected.

After having this design reviewed, it was aware to me that this was an incredibly simple design with very little effort. There could also be some legal issues with the simple fact it was scanning in money and printing it almost exactly the same. To take this further I was recommended to collage the notes together to create a mashup of different patterns and shapes. I also experimented with a few new colours which were also sourced from the flag. These colours were a lot darker and had more attitude compared to before. Having them collaged also relates back to a simple D.I.Y punk physical design aspects of old flyers and album covers. 

After collaging the notes together, I decided to try and incorporate some form into the design instead of having it completely random. I selected just a specific part of the collage which had a little cut of my hand in the corner. This was not meant to be included originally but it actually works really well with this rough aesthetic. This shows a random assortment of shapes and patterns getting a new perspective on the note. The idea behind this was that it almost looks like rubbish that has been thrown away almost mocking the currency, following through with the whole anti government message that most of these bands in the genre sing about. 

During a crit it was mentioned that this previous collaged design almost looks like a rhinos head. The relevance of this was that one of my main research aspects was about rhinos. I made the decision to recreate a rhinos head with the money using origami. This would also end up being my main object to represent the micro genre. I scanned the origami in and cropped the body off just using the head as a central aspect with a simple pattern taken from the bank note to fill the backspace. This clearly represents my research into the rhino and also using the banknote all in one. I was finally told to revert the colours back to my original navy, red and white as these current colours were way to stereotypical for this genre of music. Using these colours gave it more of a modern twist. 

After this design was shown to others, it was stated that this perhaps carried less detail in comparison to the other design. This is because it is an expanded version of the original note whereas, the previous design includes the whole note with every pattern at a larger scale. I was recommend to go back to the previous design, change the colours and edit it a bit to complete the rhino head shape. This was simply done and it includes all of my contextual research whilst keeping its full aesthetic.

Initial J-card Screen prints

Initial J-card Screen prints

Today I began my first phase of printing my J-card via silk screen printing. I had exposed all four design for the front and back to be carefully aligned on an A3 screen. I also chose a thick 300gsm paper stock to print on as I wanted the card to fit really tightly in the packaging but not so thick that it couldn't close or bend without damage. I began my process with mixing my colours to the required standard which was a dark navy blue and a red. I ended up printing about sixteen cards which were carefully aligned on the front. However I has some issues with alignment on the back side of the design. When I cut my cards out the back would be half cut off and missing major pieces of the design. This is a major design flaw and I need to figure out a way of fixing this immediately. The front alignment on the other hand was really great and most of the J-cards lines up with the text perfectly. 

I managed to get the front alignment within the crop marks work quite well and the J-card size was correct also as it fit perfectly inside the cassette case. The design did not spill over the panels at all and the spine and rear panel remained independent from the others. One more issue I had however was that my 300gsm paper stock was actually a little bit too thick as it was quite tricky to actually slip the cassette into the case and would get stuck on the way out. I'd have to size down slightly to achieve the best production. 

A few other key points of feedback I received was that my red was perfectly fine but my blue was way too bright and had be darkened a lot more. I needed to have a really deep navy for this design to look great.  I also had some issues with the screen and amount of tape I applied due to how dense all of my positives were together. This led to bleeding onto the page which gave some designs an unprofessional look. Now I know that I need to space my designs out a lot wider over several screens or one really big one. I also need to alter my blue and figure out a way to align the back and front perfectly. I was finally told to source some off white paper as the straight up vibrant white paper was way too intense and made the design look unfinished. 

Object Creation

Object Creation

As previously mentioned before, it was suggested my object should be an origami rhino made from the Brazilian bank notes I sourced. This is a great idea as every single aspect of it relates to the research.  Main aspects being the rhino and secondary it just so happens to be made out of money. I created this using a simple tutorial online which was very convenient. The patterns that have emerged from this are great as all the random patterns clash together to make all of these random assortments of patterns and new shapes. It even has it's own little eye which seems intentional but it totally isn't. I think this is a perfect object to represent my micro-genre and it will also work great when scanned in and possibly used as a positive. If I increase the scale it could cover the back of my J-card design quite well with no information just a solid pattern to fill the blank space. 

J-card Mockup

J-card Mockup

Today I printed a mockup of my final J-card in black and white to make sure I had the correct dimensions so when I screen printed the designs, they would fit inside the packet. The design looked great when put into context like this, especially the spine and back. They have completely different design aspects to the front and the area with the track lists that give this so much more character. I didn't notice this when it was all combined together but when inside the case it made the design look so much better. 

Now all I had to do was create some sort of simple design using my collected patterns for the back side of the J-card. I would use just another pattern from the banknote and also incorporate my object which was the origami rhino by scanning that in and including its jumbled up patterns. This would have no information on it at all so the divide between he front and back cover would become very obvious to whoever was viewing it. This design seen here will be placed easily on the back dividing the two sides.

After my previous crit it was advised that I have two colours separations in my printing. Overlaying the colours would not reflect the flags colours at all so I was advised to separate them instead. I would use a navy blue, red and white paper stock to perform my prints instead as this would represent the Sao Paulo flag a lot clearer. I made some digital mockups of what the colours may look like when printed bother ways, either text red and patterns blue or the other way around. I think having the pattern blue helps the rest of the content blend in quite well with the whole design but I have to be careful when mixing my colours in the actual print that one of the colours ins't too bright or neon. I need them both to be quite dark and moody to pull the rest of the aesthetic off. 

Brief 1 Crit and Development

Brief 1 Crit and Development

After a final crit on my J-card, poster and object I have been given a clear idea of how I want my final products to look. My J-card received mainly a lot of positive feedback. The only thing I had to change was the type and the amount of patterns used. I was to include more patterns from the bank note to travel across the majority of the card. To reveal the image and type I would mimic some of the type already on the note by creating a bald clear outline around them. The track list would now sit on the empty panels with this empty space effect around it. This relates back to a simple punk aesthetic where they would use scanners in most of their work and show to cut and paste marks around image and type. For the colour I would then have the patterns in either red or blue when printing and the image and type the opposite to that. This includes a decent amount of design on all panels and stops me from reserving myself which was mentioned in a crit. 

For the flag I was to use the object that I soon create as a base for its design. The object would be an origami rhino made from one of my Brazilian bank notes. For the flag, I'd scan the head in revealing a mixed and matched variety of patterns colliding. I'd also use the colours from the Sao Paulo flag again as this would be the base of all my design. I'd expand the head to a large scale so show every detail and this could almost me the symbol or logo that represents my genre. This was inspired by my previous bank note collage but this has way more form, body and structure. All I have to do now is decide  on the type of material I should print all my products onto. 

Studio Brief 2 Presentation/Evaluation

Studio Brief 2 Presentation/Evaluation

Today we pitched our idea for the end of year exhibition and also reviewed others presenting their ideas too. Our ideas were conveyed very easily and everyone seemed to pick up on our theme of subjectivity quite well. After the presentation we received some critical feedback about the pitch. A lot of the comments related to our idea being a bit too ambitious. Some said that the physical aspect of this pitch may be quite difficult as the job of setting up the exhibition would take require a lot of labour. It also seemed like out pitch seemed to be the most pricey compared to the others. One other thing mentioned was that our main aesthetic of the colour halftone could be simplified down to just the simple line drawn grid mocked up to replicate the scatter diagram in every noise at once. This was all really useful feedback and could possibly help me succeeded in other projects. If we end up winning the competition, this feedback can be applied to the exhibition to make it better.

When reviewing other peoples presentations, I took into consideration all the things they did that impressed me so if I were to do this again or something like it I could have a better pitch. My favourite pitch would have to be the one named 'Origin' as it had such a great consistent aesthetic throughout and the way it was presented just made me want to go straight away. Their exhibition plan was really simple but not too bland at all as it was still engaging to the audience but not so much that it would distract you from the work being presented. One of the other pitches named 'Tape Trumps' was very amusing and seemed like a great idea. It was presented incredibly well and had a really unique aesthetic. It took the role of old 80's top trump cards used these as the main base for the whole exhibition. I thought though this was great, it was way too distracting and the aesthetic was so bold and unique it didn't really reflect the items the exhibition would be showing.

In my group I thought we all worked really well together with no faults at all. Everyone contributed %100 to the project and we all had something to bring to the table by the end. One thing I found lacking slightly was perhaps the communication between each other at times as by the end I didn't have an incredibly clear idea of what the exhibition was. Also, our aesthetic was rather consistent throughout but there were just a few tiny things that didn't match which may have lost us a few brownie points. Apart from these minor things I think it was really useful and I have gained a bunch of transferable skills to use in future projects. 

J-card development

J-card development

After using my previously sourced patterns, I began placing them into the J-card layout. I thought the the back two panels could be fully covered in these patterns, then have the front cover clearly labelled with the title and rhino illustration. I had the front cover all align carefully so that when the J-card was opened, you could clearly distinguish the cover from the rest. Then on the spine I used one of the patterns that ran from top to bottom on the note which I found quite fitting. This means when the cassette is stacked on a shelf you'd see this extravagant pattern run from top to bottom with no explanation. This would attract attention to it in comparison to other cassette tapes where the title would be written across the spine very simply. This gives it more of a unique aesthetic. 

To further develop this, I had to change the type to English and also add some form of structure to it as I said before, it seems a bit cliche at the moment. I straightened the type so it was a bit more formal but still a bit messy and translating it into English gives a bit more context. Another thing I did to enhance it once to select some different patterns at a larger scale. I did this because I thought that in the previous design the quality of the patterns wasn't as good as it could be. Taking a larger scale of the pattern made the lines in it more dense and included more aesthetic value. I felt like this gave it more style and showed a larger amount of the pattern available. It also makes it slightly more obvious of what it is. I added the track list to the last panel which was an essential in this design. I placed the text back to back so that side A and B were easily distinguishable. Finally, I made the line weight of the rhinos head a bit lighter so that it paired well with the type. Before it clashed when I made the type more uniform. I also experimented with different colour layouts to see what it might look like when screen printed. I sourced the colours black, white and red from the Sao Paulo flag given the fact that is where the genre was formed. I tried separating the colours but in the digital mock up they kind of clash giving the fact the red and black are so different. I much prefer the two colours overlaid onto the white background. This way it includes all the correct colours and also keeps a consistent style throughout with the clashing colours. 

To add some final touches I took a few aspects from the banknote like this little strap line on the cover that translated to "house of Brazils currency". I thought this was a nice little feature to include and also another barcode like symbol on the back to give full effect on the design. Once final thing I did was tilted the type on the front and back to finalise the D.I.Y punk aesthetic of the J-card. This gave it a bit of character in my opinion and suits the rest of the imagery perfectly.

Typeface Development

Typeface Development

After reviewing my typeface sourced from the bank note, I thought it would be wise to keep my options open. I thought about creating a whole typeface from scratch using a grid of some kind as a base to make something unique for the J-card design. I reviewed the patterns I had sourced from the banknotes and noticed there was a specific pattern that mainly ran throughout the whole design. It seems like it was the first layer of the note. I used this pattern as a simple grid to create my type with. The type turned out very sharp and pointy. It also did not lie on a straight line like normal type, it curved up and down a bit like a wave. This looks quite good for the context it fits within and I reckon the fact the whole thing is based upon punk, it could work perfectly. 

Another idea I had was to mimic some of the text from the note. I saw some of the text was be a certain size and gradually get smaller and smaller as it travelled across the note. I tried using a similar type to the one on the banknote and replicating this effect. Perhaps the text on the whole J-card could be getting smaller and smaller across the whole design. This replication is very simple but could be really great when put into context.

I finally decided to go back to my first idea which was sourcing the text directly from the note. I tried making the text a bit similar by using the same height for each letter and also making sure they were all straight. I found that having them all a bit wonky kind of reminded my of a really cliche punk design like the sex pistoles album artwork. One final thing I thought was to have the title in English instead of Portuguese. I made this decision because having the title in a different language might cause even more confusion over what the genre might be. It doesn't baldly state that it is Brazilian punk, only hinted at. Having this in English for an English audience seems like the most sensible idea.

Studio Brief 2 Printing Poster

Studio Brief 2 Printing Poster

Today I printed the poster and had to decide what paper stock and size to use in the process. The visual language had to translate throughout all of our work so I analysed some of the other work that had been complete and decided from that what stock to use. The invitations for the exhibition had been printed onto thick water colour paper. This gave it a very polished and professional aesthetic that made the print really crisp and clean. I thought it would be relevant to use the same paper in the printing of the poster. 

After this decision I also decided to use A3 sized paper. I thought that this would be the best size to convey the halftones colours. From a distance you can hardly tell there is colour there, but when printed large and up close it's obvious. The paper stock also allows sustainability as it is so tough, it would be difficult to tear. Hopefully this large and heavy weight print can attract the attention of others.

Studio Brief 2 Poster Development

Studio Brief 2 Poster Development

Over the past few days I have done some development into the poster for this exhibition. During a crit I found out I couldn't use the screenshot from every noise at once as it was not my own work. I decided to create my own version of this scatter diagram using only the micro-genres selected by the students that would be used in the actual exhibition. Then I tried to recreate that same effect I had before and also different variation to keep my options open.  

Here are my attempts of recreating the patterns I made before however some were quite unsuccessful compared to others. The first and third halftone effect kind of look like they belong in a children's book. The first design wasn't dense enough either as there were a lot less genres compared to the websites diagram. I managed to get past this barrier with editing the density and increasing the amount of genres in my diagram. After that I played more with the halftone effect and increasing the colours. In the second design I made a really clear gradient showing a transition between RGB but I thought it looked way too obvious and should all melt together. The final design is my most successful one as it is the most sophisticated of the four. From this distance it also looks like a big scatter diagram of some kind of list but up close you realise it is a colour halftone using only RGB. I will use this in the production of my poster.

This is a brief idea of what I'd like the poster to look like. I have used the layout from the exhibitions blueprint to set the type around the edges. This is the same grid used in the every noise at once website. The logo and halftone have carefully been matched together showing them overlap and reveal the black within. This has been done for final clarity so it wouldn't be all distort so you couldn't read it.

Here are a few different layouts I have done using this design. The logo has changed to this final version shown at the top of the design. It has been created by using bodoni as a base. I have played mainly with the typesetting in this. I found it quite hard to decide where everything should go. Originally I was going to use the same grid as the rooms layout in the exhibition, but I wanted all the branding to have the same aesthetic. To succeed with this I copied the layout used in the catalogue so they would match each other visually. Also, bodoni was the chosen typeface given the fact the logo in the top left was created using this. The logo and catchline were placed at the top and also in a bolder and thicker type so that the customer would read from top to bottom without hesitation. The clear halftone scatter diagram represents our exhibition perfectly in display of the centre of the poster too, linking everything nicely. 

Studio Brief 2 Poster Initial Ideas

Studio Brief 2 Poster Initial Ideas

Today I began my initial flag ideas for the exhibition. I wanted to use a certain grid system that we were using for the room in the actual exhibition. The same grid that organised the micro genres into their categories in the website every noise at once. This grid would act as a base for my type. When discussing visual language we all decided to mainly use the colours RGB and perhaps use colour halftones for our visual identity. These colours were sourced from the website as when you zoomed out on a larger scale, you can see that there is a colour gradient on the genres defining their category even more.

The colour gradient here was clearly of an RGB format so I decided to enhance these colours and turn the information into a colour halftone. This would represent the our visual language perfectly and also show all of the possible micro genres. We also managed to source our name from this as there were 1686 genres, our exhibition would be called 1686. 

These are the scatter diagrams from the website turned into colour half tone. The left side is my preferred one as it shows the colour perfectly. This would be a perfect place to start when creating a poster for this exhibition. Also, conveying this as visual language for the hole event would be very simple as the colours are easily source able. 

This idea is a development of the first design used but put into context. As stated before our branding consists of using RGB and also white and black. I turned the background into the basic colours needed and placed the design on the front with a really simple title on top. This obviously needs further development by adding the exhibition information onto and such which will be done in development. 

This idea plays of the simple theme that the whole exhibition is mainly about cassette tapes and definitely music. It also expresses the halftone aspect of the visual language I was trying to ensue. After that I managed to include all RBG colours in the design quite smoothly and even some information at the bottom to get a rough idea of what the final product would look like.

Finally I have created two posters in my standard medium. This is the kind of generic design that I would usually create. I do enjoy these vibrating boundaries and this aesthetic so I thought I could try and add a personal touch to this project with my own design. I managed to loosely base the design of the exhibition due to the imagery being of cassette tapes and film. I finally used the grid system mentioned before with the type setting. The information is placed upon this grid carefully to fit the grid system and match the context and rules given at the start.