OUGD503 - Studio Brief - WWF Poster Development

To support the ecosystem club campaign I wanted to create some posters and advertisements to get the word out to people. I had some initial ideas but I felt like I wanted to take the design away from WWF's normal style which seems to be just photography and text. So I played around digitally with layouts to see what I could come up with.

My first idea was sort of like a more editorial look, like something that might be found in a high fashion magazine. The combination of overlaying text and image and then contrasting this with a bold and bright background draws the eye. However I feel like from a distance the text would not be readable because of its weight and colour over the imagery. One of the most important things about posters is that they should be able to be read as quick as possible so I don't think this would fit. It was enjoyable to experiment with a different sort of style to my usual approach though. 

Next I had this idea that I had seen done by Snask on a printed friends cover. They had these huge letters covered in fauna and foliage with creatures. I thought that this would perfectly represent WWF because I could show each different area of interest that they have through showing their ecosystems. Which directly then links to the ecosystem clubs. So I thought that I would pick 3 of WWF's main areas of interest and portray them in their name: WWF.

I am really pleased with the outcome that I created by simply collaging different tropical plants and animals together. The result is really eye catching and creates a little environment for people to relate to. I wanted to keep the taglines simple so I went with just "Save the...". But after a critique one of my peers suggested that it would be better if the tagline was "Save our..." to make it more personal to the audience and directly link them to the campaign. Hopefully it will the persuade viewer that it is their responsibility to save not someone else's.

I also applied this to the ocean setting, focusing on the coral reefs that are in real trouble from global warming. The combination of the colours really brings the poster to life and shows what beauty there can be found in nature. This will persuade people to take action so they don't lose this beauty for good.  

I wasn't quite sure what to do for the last letter F as there are lots of other important campaigns within WWF yet some are harder to visibly represent than others. For example I am not sure how I could portray global warming and climate change. Would I show the effects of it or what the world was like before it? I think I will wait until my next critique until I work on these posters anymore so I can ask other peoples opinions on how to tackle the F.

OUGD503 - Responsive - Study Task 2 - Brands and Narrative

Seven basic plots of narratives

1. Overcoming the monster - there is an evil force threatening our hero/their world/mankind. The hero must fight and play this monster which often isn’t easy but prevails and gets a great reward. (Think of this monster as a problem - it is a metaphorical monster)
2. Rags to riches - at the beginning our hero is insignificant and dismissed by others, but something happens to elevate them, revealing them to be exceptional. Think the ugly duckling/Aladdin/Superman
3. The Quest - in the quest our hero must set out on a long hazardous journey and will battle all obstacles until they are triumphant. E.g. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Wizard of Oz.
4. The Voyage and Return - while also based on a journey, the voyage and return is very different from the quest. Here the hero travels out of their normal world into the overwhelming and unknown, and then goes back to the comfort and safety of their own home. E.g. Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland
5. Comedy - A story made up of comedic events normally involving mistaken identity, misunderstanding or confusion, resulting in hilarious chaos. E.g. Bridget Jones, Some like it hot Comedy in advertising is often used to show the alternative situation that you would get using other brands. 
6. Tragedy - This is the story without a happy ending. While our other archetypes have seen triumphant heroes and slain monsters, this plot takes a different turn and ends in loss or death. Think Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet. Use with caution we tend to see tragedy most frequently used within charity adverts to apply shock tactics and emotional blackmail.
7. Rebirth - Sees our hero falling under a dark spell whether this is sleep, sickness or enchantment - before breaking free and being rescued. E.g. Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast. Think of the consumers time away from the brand and then finding it and being reborn.

WWF

Adjectives for the brand:

• Environmentally friendly
• Caring
• Protecting
• Strong
• Conserving

 Facts of WWF:

- 50 years old

- Works in 100 countries

- Supported by 1.2 million members in the US alone

- 5 million members globally

- Tagline "Because together, anything is possible"

What is the brand trying to communicate?

WWF tries to communicate a friendly, caring almost mothering nature. It wants to show us that it can protect and conserve the world and it's animals. The facts about this brand make it seem that it is achieving this - it has a lot of members globally and works in lots of countries. This shows that it is slowly trying to make the world a better place. 

Can you apply an emotion to the facts?

Supporting WWF can create a sense of pride for members knowing that they are helping/protecting the planet. Also in their advertising WWF can often use emotional campaigns to persuade people to donate in a sort of emotional blackmail to make people feel guilty for doing nothing. 
Can you communicate these facts in an engaging story, which highlights the values or benefits of the brand.

I think that a narrative with the theme of Rebirth would suit this brand. As we use the planet Earth as the protagonist needs the consumers help in order to be freed from its shackles almost. The dark spell it is under could be represented as global warming. This will show the brands values of protecting and preserving for the good of all. 

OUGD503 - Responsive - WWF Brief - Research

After thinking about how to make the members of WWF an active community I looked for inspiration in the form of other successful, active communities.

Rapha Cycle Club

Rapha is a cycling brand that sells equipment for cyclists. They have a global campaign that brings groups of cyclists together to socialise and do events together. This is my aim for WWF - to bring the community together to interact and meet each other rather than blindly giving £5 a month to causes they don't really know about. The design of this part of the website is very minimal and straight to the point. 

They also provide benefits to the members of the clubs like events, equipment hire, magazines and competitions. Each one of these elements is carefully planned and beautifully design - especially the magazine which is printed on coloured stock in one colour. I feel like this might be relevant for WWF but using recycled materials and minimal ink for their publication. 

I also like the fact that they have a map of all the clubs that they have around the world. It means that they could possibly collaborate with some events or have the chance to meet some new people from a different culture with the same interests as you. 

Macmillan

Macmillian cancer support has really activated it's members within the last few years. The coffee mornings have become a big hit because it successfully encourages people to get together for a common goal and a common cause. The whole vibe of the get involved page of the website promotes togetherness - it's all about us and we. Also the use of the twitter hashtag "#TeamMacmillan" supports this saying that everyone who supports the charity is a part of the team. 

OUGD503 - Responsive - WWF D&AD Brief

When looking through the YCN and D&AD briefs this brief stood out to me the most because I am very passionate about the cause. I love animals and I am quite passionate about stopping global warming both of which WWF promote strongly. The brief itself is about trying to bring together the community of subscribers to be more active and involved than just paying a certain amount of money each month. It is further highlighted in the "What's Essential" section:

Whats Essential:

- A product, service or campaign idea to turn young WWF members into an active conservation community. 

- Document and show your research and how you developed your ideas. 

So instead of reading this as a full brief it is easier to create a question that you can answer with your solution. From reading the brief it is clear that the question should be: 

What can current members to do to make an impact and how can the membership become more rewarding?

After having a tutorial with Simon to talk about some of my initial ideas it became a lot clearer to me that the brief wasn't just about making membership more rewarding for the members but it was about them forming an active community. These two words in particular are key in this brief and tell me a lot about what my solution should be.  

INITIAL IDEAS

I made a mind map of all the ideas I had in my head to answer this brief. I especially like the idea of calling the communities that would be created "ecosystems" as it is defined as a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. Which could be read as a community of people interacting to help their physical environment. From this terminology I could do a lot with biological terms, such as having food trees. This really interests me because I studied biology at A Level and I was especially interested in any biology that was animal or ecosystem related.

I also want to focus on a more down to earth campaign. I feel that today too many things are based purely online and I think this may be the reason why the current WWF community is lacking in an active membership.

Also the partnerships with other companies mentioned in the brief could open up lots of possibilities within the community and it is definitely something that I will think boost the communities activism.

OUGD503 - Penguin Cover Competition - Development

After sketching out some ideas of the traditional portraits I moved onto digitally developing them where I came up with a few more ideas along the way. 

I thought of also transforming her into one of her role models: Frida Kahlo as she mentions in the book that she is one of her idols so I thought that it would be a good play on it to make her into one of her 'heroes'. I found the iconic portrait of Kahlo and decided to simply add her face onto her. 

I found that this looked a little odd. I was trying to stick to a minimal colour palette to keep it more contemporary, playing with monotone and splashes of colour in her accessories, lips and eyes. But it seems too serious for the book, it just looks like she is posing for a portrait rather than being an equal to Frida Kahlo which was what I was going for. After mocking this up digitally I don't think that I will carry on with this idea. 

The Birth of Venus

My favourite idea was including her into "The Birth of Venus" painting. To add more comedic value to the piece I decided to add a 'shocked' face as well as her iconic hair to the figure. I thought that this would show both the traditional and comedic vibes that penguin were looking for on this cover. 

I also added some underwear in a cheesy leopard print to make it a bit more funny rather than just having the hair cover her. However after having a critique with my tutor he said that the underwear made it a little too wacky, and that based on my research where the type is factored into the design I should do the same rather than having it floating above her head. I had tried using ribbon like in the book covers I research however this still felt a bit lost in all of the detail. I needed something simple to contrast the flat yet detailed illustration.   

So I took off the underwear and added 'censorship' bands over her privates and put the text on these. I feel like these work really well because it is a bit tongue and cheek just like the book itself and it isn't being over feminine with the typeface choice. The red is definitely a stronger contrast than the black censorship bands as it draws the eye to it and makes the cover more poppy. 

Next I decided to take the design even less feminine by adjusting the background colour from the baby pink. I feel like aiming this book at women through the stereotypical colours goes against what Caitlin Moran believes and it shouldn't be a book marketed to just women as I imagine men would enjoy it too.  So I looked at the painting once more and decided to pick a colour similar to the colour of the sky and the see. The red and this blue combined really make the cover a lot more eye-catching. 

Once deciding on the main type placements and illustration I moved from just the front cover to the whole wrap around for the book. Initially I found it really difficult to place all of the text on there without taking away from my illustration. Especially with the review text, it felt placed on and not integral to the design. Also the blurb on the back cover feels a little static too but I will wait until my next crit to see how I can add some dynamism. 

OUGD503 - Responsive - Studio Brief 1 - Eurojust Logo Initial Ideas

Initially when I looked at the Eurojust brief I immediately pictured the Lady of justice. So I did some initial quite illustrative sketches of her while combining the star to show the emblem of the european union. Also I thought of shields to represent how the eurojust organisation protects people from crime. All of these feel very stereotypical and slightly cliche but I feel with some digital development they would look quite contemporary giving the logo the little lift that it needs.

I started out with the very simple portrait silhouette of the lady of justice, replacing the eye with a star to represent the eurozone. I feel like this doesn't really look like much to do with border control and prevention against organised crime, it is too conceptual in a way. 

Next I tried the half face idea for the lady of justice with a star in place of her eye. I thought that this could show that justice sees through all and prevails. However I don't feel like this needs the text underneath because it doesn't really line up very well and distracts from the concept.

Then I went on to the scales because they have these in their current logo design I feel like not changing the design too much will work in my favour. So I started out with a very simple set of scales set over the name of the company in a bold sans serif to show power and stability.

I then had an idea to make the 'U's of the name into the scales themselves and using the 'O' as a centre point. At first I just had them sort of hovering over the u's but then I realised I could connect them to the opposite ends if the u which I find makes it look a lot more balanced. The bold, straight lines show strength and rigidity in the company which is what people look for in judicial and border control companies. 

OUGD503 - Penguin Cover Competition - Book Cover Research

After coming up with some initial ideas and reading through the brief I knew that I wanted to create a cover with a more illustrative look and feel to it. One illustrator that I found particularly appealing was Perrin whose illustrations combine flat colour with intricate line work to create a gripping composition. The way the intricate branches wrap around the text draws your eye into the main subject which is the cheshire cat and Alice herself falling. 

http://madebyperrin.com/Book-Covers

I love the simplicity of the black silhouetted illustrations against a pastel coloured background. The hand written elements add a personal feel to the covers of the books. This might relate to ‘How to be a Woman’ because the subject is basically like a journal of Moran’s life. Also the minimal colours make the cover not too overpowering. 

With this design I love how it plays with the title, not having a simple linear title gives it that extra boost of interest to the cover making people want to pick it up. I also really like the subtle little illustrations surrounding the title in the frame as it gives hints to the story. Perhaps if I do end up reading the Caitlin Moran book I should include hints to the story that are prominent. 

OUGD503 - Penguin Cover Competition - Initial Ideas and Sketches

Looking at the original book cover I don't feel like it portrays the fact that this book is humorous at all. The dark colours contrasted with the silver embossed type makes the book feel sophisticated and quite traditional, which in reality from reading bits of it, it isn't really. Moran's tone of voice is friendly, easy going and has a cheekiness to it. She talks to the reader as if she is talking to an old friend. She leaves no details spared however cringe-y they may be about her awkward childhood years. So I knew immediately that I wanted to do something that was a bit of fun, with a tongue in cheek element to it. 

I had the crazy idea of drawing Caitlin Moran in famous portraits of women, like above I have drawn her as the "Girl with the Pearl Earring". This twists these classic portraits into something that is quite humorous as Moran has a way with pulling silly faces. So adding her face onto the traditional portraits creates something quite funny looking. Below are some of her silly faces that I found:

 

She never seems to pull a straight face in photo shoots which to me says a lot about her personality and therefore should be reflected on her book cover. 

Two other paintings I thought would suit well was the Mona Lisa and The Birth of Venus. However as soon as I drew the birth of venus I knew this was what I wanted to do. Because I could twist the painting in such a way that Moran is being exposed, like in her book how she exposes all of her embarrassing details, on the cover she exposes her body in a way. This paired with one of her cheeky faces doesn't fail to make me smile so I hope that it has the same effect on prospective readers. 

OUGD503 - Responsive - Studio Brief 1 - Eurojust Logo Competition Brief

Theme: 

Eurojust, the European Union’s body for judicial cooperation against serious and organised crime, is launching a contest for a tentative logo and graphic identity. The aim of the contest is to consider a possible update of the Eurojust logo, to make the body more distinguishable and recognisable to its stakeholders1 and the general public. 

The contest offers in particular students of art, graphic design, design, and architecture an opportunity to perfect their skills by participating in a creative project which should help them continue their studies or professional careers in the fields of visual arts, design and fine arts. 

Aim: 

The aim of the contest is the development of a tentative new distinct logo proposal for Eurojust. The logo proposal must incorporate one or a few key elements of Eurojust’s mission, i.e.; 

what we are: the European Union’s judicial cooperation body, 
the problem: cross-border crime what we do/the solution: coordination, cooperation, fighting serious organised crime, justice, centre of expertise. 
our values: the rule of law, justice, safety, security, serving Europe and the EU Member States, connecting judicial actors, 
the result: less crime, safer society 
List of key elements to be conveyed in a new logo: cross-border crime, coordination and cooperation between EU Member States with different cultures and legislation, serious organised crime and justice/judicial cooperation. (This is only to guide which are the key ones; not all necessary elements in a logo.) 

In addition, the European Union flag symbol, should be used, according to the guidelines for this. See Eurojust’s website www.eurojust.europa.eu for more inspiration. The design proposal must have the word ‘Eurojust’ clearly displayed in the logo, and should also include a pictorial symbol. Participants have to make combinations of some of the elements mentioned above to give a proposal to encapsulate Eurojust’s mission and role optimally.

Background:

The present logo was adopted in 2003. Since then, the organisation has evolved, and become bigger, and more mature; its establishing act (Council Decision 2002/187/JHA) has been revised several times, more Member States have joined the EU, and the demand for more judicial cooperation to fight organised crime has gradually increased. Moreover, the organisation expects to have a new forthcoming establishing regulation adopted in the near future, and will move to new premises in 2017. So, the organisation stands before a momentum of major changes. 

Therefore, the College of Eurojust, composed of the representatives of the 28 EU Member States, has granted a College Working Group the task to explore what a potential, new Eurojust logo could look like, to better reflect the organisation in 2016 and beyond. Thus, the first requirement is a clear logo proposal for better branding and positioning of Eurojust, notably as it expects to have its forthcoming new regulation soon, and will move to new premises in The Hague in 2017. One means to conduct its work against serious, organised cross-border crime is to articulate its mission and role, achievements, and/or results with a clear visual identity in its logo. A new, clearer and more modern logo would offer numerous possibilities for reaching out to our stakeholders, reflecting our expected new, forthcoming mandate. 

The tentative logo design proposal, subject to acceptance or refusal by the College of Eurojust, is to be developed through a Logo Design Contest. Wide publicity will be given to the contest through release of an EU-wide contest for a prize to ensure that the information reaches and encourages creative minds to participate in the competition. 

Award criteria: 
- The logo proposal represents Eurojust’s mission and ensures recognisability of the basic aims
- uniqueness of relevant design and originality
- its positive and clear visual impact, aesthetics
- its suitability as visual emblem of Eurojust, in terms of design, colours, font, and adaptability for use in different media, and all-round applicability

Deliverables:

- Each logo graphic must be provided in EPS format (vector), using the CMYK colour model

- In addition to the compulsory EPS file mentioned above, contestants should provide each logo in the following file formats, resolutions, and sizes: 
* JPEG, PNG 
* In high resolution (at least 300 dpi) for print 
* In low resolution (72 dpi) for web 
* 50 pixels in width or height; 100 pixels in width or height; 600 pixels in width or height

- Contestants must indicate any typeface/fonts used in their design, ensure that these are legally allowed to be used by Eurojust, and define any licensing rules that may apply or restrict their use. 

- Contestants should not imprint or watermark any of the contact details in the proposed logo design. 

- Contestants should submit a written description (of no more than 200 words) of their design(s), explaining its graphic identity along with other relevant information such as the programme they used to create it, the colours used (CMYK colour codes, and their equivalents in RGB and HTML), typefaces/fonts used , and any other important facts.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1 - Penguin Random House Publishing Caitlin Moran - How to be a Woman

The Brief:

We would like you to design a new, classic cover for Caitlin Moran's book, How to Be a Woman.

The design needs to feel timeless and classic, whilst at the same time making it clear to the reader that it is very entertaining and often very funny. The book should feel very accessible, immediately ‘pickupable’ and something that exists within the world of Popular Culture. You are welcome to use an image of the author, but do not feel that you need to take that approach.

The ideal design will make us smile, make us want to own a copy of the book, and keep it proudly on our shelves for a long time.

What the Judges are Looking For:

We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work on screen for digital retailers such as Amazon.

Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (B format, 198mm high x 126mm wide, spine width 20mm).

The winning design will need to:

• have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
• be competently executed with strong use of typography
• appeal to a contemporary readership
• show a good understanding of the marketplace
• have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against
• be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket or ebook store as easily as it sits on those of more traditional bookshops.

From looking at this brief and the book itself it is immediately clear that they want something that is humorous and eye catching. I think I will try to read at least half of the book to get the general idea of the humour and the books ethos so I can translate this into the design. I also want to try and explore my illustration practice within this brief, so I already know that I will try and explore more illustrative designs.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1 - Responsive - Study Task 1 - Yahoo!

As practice for our responsive individual practice we were asked to get in groups of 4-5 people and do an old YCN brief to remodel the Yahoo homepage to cater to 13-18 year olds. See below for the full brief. 

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2012-2013/briefs/yahoo

After having a read through of the brief we decided that it was best to look at the yahoo homepage in its current format. Though we thought it was effective at showing a lot of information in one space, it was almost too much. We knew that our target audience wouldn't want that much information in one small space as they (and us too) have quite a short attention span. We immediately wanted to make the homepage more image based rather than being text based. 

Before going on to outline our aims for the brief and what needed to be added, or in this case removed, we decided to take a look at different search engines. 

We had a look at bing, who had previously failed at taking position of most popular search engine after multiple tv advertisements and a strong presence in the media. We all liked the layout and the addition of a background image from which you can find lots of information. However It still felt a bit cluttered with text, both on the header and footer of the webpage. 

When you look at both bing and google together like this you can see how starkly different they are - Google has lots of white space and it's not scared of showing it. It suggests that google is a very confident company - confident in their design choices and their company strategies. Where as bing has to fill every inch of space on their homepage with imagery or text, it makes them seem slightly less sure and less confident than Google. I personally really like how all the information and sub-sites of google are tucked away into the top right hand corner under a grid like menu, it shows that confidence that I was talking about before. 

So, after looking at both popular search engines we made a mind map of things that we would aim for in our new design of the Yahoo homepage. Our initial thought was to make it less busy - to strip back the page to leave negative space and let the design elements breath like in Google's homepage. We also picked up that some elements of the homepage seemed a bit too mature for their new target market such as the "finance" section. This is when we decided that we could make the homepage fully customisable depending on the user. They could add the relevant subjects that they needed or wanted. It was also a unanimous decision that we wanted to change the colour scheme of the site and the logo. We felt that the dark purple connoted all the wrong messages for the target audience of 13-18 year olds - it connotes sophistication, intelligence, royalty and luxury. Not something that appeals to a younger audience. Also we found in the brief that they used words such as "fun" and "creative" and we thought that the current website shows none of this as it is very dry. 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/26785787/Google-Rebranding

We found this rebrand of google on behance when looking for different search engine designs. The use of the search bar included in the logotype makes it feel inclusive, showing that their whole ethos is designed around the user. Also the use of the navy blue is very similar to the blue used within Facebook suggesting that the designer was trying to make google seem more communicative and friendly, perhaps trying to appeal to the target audience of Facebook. Additionally the fact that the logo is in all lowercase shows that it is a friendly approachable company. The use of uppercase would be too bold and dominant and shows authority, where as all lowercase is welcoming and not scary to approach. 

After looking at the logo as a group we decided that the colour purple needed to go and be replaced with something more inviting. We chose a bright neon green to gradient into a sky blue. We wanted to use two colours because it shows the company is transitioning and that it is multidimensional and fun - not one flat colour but a mixture of two. 

Initial Website Ideas

We decided initially to all create a new website home page layout so that we could pool all of our ideas together afterwards. Everyone seemed to have very similar ideas but we preferred the last design because of its simplicity and ease of use.

Unfortunately due to the time scale of the brief we didn't get much time to develop the website any further. We just made some small changes with the sign in button and added a date to the site so that the user can keep up to date. 

We thought that the thing that was lacking most with the website as it was, was that it wasn't personal enough to the user - it was cluttered with everything under the sun so we wanted to narrow it down. So on the home feed you can choose "widgets" to place, here we have used the news, Facebook, the weather forecast and instagram. We thought that this would appeal to the target market of 13-18 year olds as social media is very popular and being able to see their favourite feeds in one place would definitely sell Yahoo! to them and to make it as their homepage. 

App Design

Once we had finalised the website all the other concepts that we came up with became a lot easier to design. With the app we wanted to focus on minimalism - a place to access mail, weather and search the web. We did think of doing the social media feeds again on the app but I thought that there would be no point because they could easily use the apps for the sites themselves instead of slowing down the Yahoo! app. Below we mocked up the icon and a simple search on the phone. 

Yahoo! Search Points & Cafes

We wanted to take the Yahoo! Experience outside of the internet and into the real world, so we came up with the idea of having a digital cafe and search points within town centres. We thought that a search point would be really helpful for people if they were lost or had no access to wifi on the go. If a point was in the middle of the street (like the example below) a user could find any shop they wanted, see directions or even compare shop prices. This would boost the publicity of Yahoo! and make people want to use it as their browser because they have seen it somewhere else than their own computer screen.

Also I had the idea of creating a digital cafe or cyber cafe for people to socialise in. These days all anyone does in cafes and coffee shops is use their phones. I thought that Yahoo! could embrace this fact and create a meet point for young people and adults a like to use the internet in a more social setting, taking them away from the isolation of being on a computer in their room. 

See our final Presentation here: