GOOD IS : LOOKING UP - concept development

We have been doing some useful workshops into concept development, using word association and play to come up with clever concepts. I wanted to try use this for my Good is project, so thought it would be a good thing to do to come up with the identity of the exhibition.

Look UP :

Look up is the name of the exhibition, as it stands, as I want the purpose of the exhibition to be clear from the names, not over complicated. I want the clever side to come in how the name is represented.

I researched into as many words as I could think of that feature the word UP in them. I think this could be quite visually interesting if I chose the right words.

Above are two examples of how the concept would work. to the left represents screwup and would have screws thrown in the air, the the right would represent lace up and would have laces thrown in the air.

I think word choice is important for this concept, as I don't think the two examples above have enough connection to the ford up. You'd look at them and could think screw sky... screw air.....screw high.....and it could take ages, if not at all to get to SCREWUP. Same applies to the lace up example.

I need to pick words that actually have the word UP in them not just associate with them or can but put with it.

the words I have come up with are :

ketchUP

makeUP

stirrUP

I think the concept would work well with these 3 words and also work visually. people would see the poster or whatever it may be and think why is there ketchup in the sky... the poster would have the exhibition title LookUP on it so there would be that connection too... ketchup ahhh ketchUP  .. UP.... look UP . that is how I see it going

GOOD IS : LOOKING UP - concept crit

Concept crit 2 :

This was a successful crit, I feel like I had a strong concept for an idea now that I can back it up with research. I do need to find a perfect way to marry the concept together though, so I could do with developing it a little further.

Above are some of the suggestions that were made. In terms of audience I need to think about what kind of person would want to go to the exhibition no as in who they are, but what kind of a person they are, for example a fun person, adventurous, creative etc. 

The other interesting thing that was suggested was to make the exhibition more audience envolved. I really like this idea, I think it would be a good way to make the exhibiting more exciting and memorable. It was also mentioned about an event that happens in carddif where people are invited to rent out cameras and take photographs then return it and get developed i think this is a really fun concept and I might see if I can develop it further.

to do :

- refine audience

- cement concept

GOOD IS : concept workshop

Workshop : come up with concept for bar / pub around the name -

Analogue 

The name we chose out of our options was Analogue. We thought originally that this name was our best option but it proved more difficult then we first imagined. We had to go through the process that was outlined to us, starting with word association, and moving on through the process so that we had a body of words and possible concepts. We all struggled with the name analogue as there are such strong relations when you say analogue to time or to analog. We thought about a few concepts to do with analog where everything would be from analog era such as duke boxes, analog cameras, but we didnt think this concept was strong enough. We then moved on to thinking about a DIY bar where you do everything yourself but again couldnt make this idea stick. Next we thought about time, but instead of in the past we thought about a futuristic bar, in a parralell world, this was a little too far fetched but it got us thinking more creatively. We were very stuck as the name wasnt giving us much and everything we thought of didn't relate strong enough in our minds to 'analogue', we seemed advise, which was to have 5 minutes to ourself to write down everything we think of to do with the word analogue. By doing this it helped us clear our minds of what we were stuck on thinking about what analogue means. We were then able to be more creative with our concept and discovered the word analogous and developed a strong concept where by the bar is split into two or in two different locations, they would be analogous , similar but with subtle differences, causing a parrallel universe, spot the difference feel.

This crit was useful to highlight how difficult constraints can be. The awkward name really threw us and caused us to struggle. We overcame it and came up with a strong concept but it was not an enjoyable process as it was frustrating not being able to come up with a concept , but the fact that we had this struggle and overcame it has shown us ways of dealing with issues and contratints which we can apply to other projects if needs be.

GOOD IS : LOOKING UP - research summery

Bellow is a quick summary of the research I have been doing.  The combination of the three bellow makes a really strong argument as to why you should look up. I think this will be a really interesting direction to go with for a concept.

- Milton H. Erickson

1901 - 1980

Milton Erickson is considered to be the most important 

hypnotherapist. He was a psychiatrist / hynotherapist 

practising in Arizon, Phoenix, USA.

Milton Erickson, used to get his depressed patients to count chimney pots.  This cleverly gave the patients an excuse to look up and start broadening their horizons.

- Bilateral movement 

It is impossible to get upset or angry while you’re tossing a tennis ball from hand to hand. There is something very psychologically significant about bilateral movement.

‘Walking your blues away’

By stimulating both sides of your brain it is impossible to feel angry and upset. This bilateral movement can be achieved simply through walking or looking in directions.

- Dérive

One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive, a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences. Dérives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of 

psychogeographical effects.

A way of exploring a location where you don’t have control you follow instructions that make you go on a journey that you would not normally go on.

GOOD IS : LOOKING UP - concept crit

Crit feedback :

Above is the feedback from the concept crit. Some interesting points and suggestions were raised. We spoke about why people should look up and that I need to have a really strong reason to make people look up, otherwise they may just reply why? why should people look up? I have my own personal reasons why I think looking up is great, but they are no solid facts. I need to back up my argument with truth to justify the look up. we also spoke about when people look up and an interesting suggestion was made about how people today are constantly glued to technology, and due to this they have their head down, not taking in the world around them. I found this a really interesting concept, and it is so true, and everyones the same if theres nothing to do people grab there phones, take for example on a train journey, people sit and gawp at their phones, (myself included at times although I try and not) when if they were to look out the window they would see some beautiful views and experience the journey. 

After the concept of technology was raised, its made me think about possibly making this exhibition as man made as possible through process, possibly steering clear of too much digital production, we shall see I will develop my ideas and reasons WHY to look up further and see what I find

To do :

- find some evidence and facts as to why people should look up

- decide what kind of exhibition I want it to be , man made? digital? corporate? pop up?

RESPONSIVE : EVALUATION

This module has been the most enjoyable and also beneficial module. It has allowed us to develop who we are as graphic designers, as it was our decision what brief we picked. It is also a very satisfying feeling to see so much work come out of one module.

I feel that this module has helped me develop my time management skills as each competition brief was in at different times and I managed to keep on top and get every single brief in on time. It was also really beneficial to be able to set the time
for how long you want to spend on the brief.This meant briefs stayed fresh and it was also a way of getting your head into gear after it has jammed up from another brief. I am now more aware of the amount of work I can do in said time.
The aspect of submitting work has made me more aware of how important design boards are and how much they can vary depending on the brief. I know feel more confident about doing design boards, where as before this module I never knew what exactly to put on them, how much information etc. now I can feel more confident about my boards and submissions.
Another invaluable skill I have learnt is how to mock thinks up so that they are in the proper con- text, or so that it looks like its been photographed

lovely. I can now purpose things, which will make concept pitches and purposing obscure things that I cant actually make in other modules a lot more clearer.
Areas that I have noticed during this module that
I need to improve are writing skills. By doing the project report and other intensive blogging it has come to my attention how much I am struggling with writing which is effecting how I blog, how long a blog, evaluation etc and will there fore effect my grade, so I need to start working on my writing skills to see if it helps.
I have realised that I have not done any identity or branding competitions which is an area of graphic design that when it is done well I think it is stunning and is something I want to experiment with. So I will keep looking out for these opportunity’s and do it in my own time to develop skills.
A nice thing about this module is that you can actually get acknowledged for your design work by winning the competitions. I was chosen as one of the Secret 7” covers ( poster to the left ) and it is a huge complement to know that you got that brief right.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this module and developed skills that I can take forward into other modules. 

RESPONSIVE : TIME KEEPING / COMMUNICATION

Throughout this module it has been very important to have good time keeping due to the fact that most of the briefs had different deadlines to meet. There was also a lot of independence in this module, we decided what briefs we wanted to do and it was left to us to decided how many briefs we do, and the time scale we wanted to set for them.

To maintain on top of thing it was essential to use some mode of time keeping for organisation. I opted for 'list making' as my mode of organisation. By writing down things i needed to do each day, each week , each month and ticking things off as i go meant i was  able to organise myself and make sure I kept to all the deadlines for the competitions. I found this process for time keeping was really useful and effective

Another part of this module was a collaborative brief which again needed good organisation skills and also strong communication skills to make sure  it is a sucsefull working collaboration. our collaboration was a group of three so we decided the best way of communicating would be by email so that we can all be part of the conversation and know what is going on. It also felt like the most proffesional way of communicating and was a good way of keeping a record of the conversation.

examples of email

RESPONSIVE : FINAL BOARDS

Project report :

YCN CHURCHILL :

COLLAORATIVE - Personal boards

COLLABORATIVE - group boards

Puffin :

Village :

Secret 7' :

Dazed ans Confused :

Creative Networks :

to dry for :

LCA :

Wedding :

RESPONSIVE : Crit on Final boards

The crit on the final boards was really useful it flagged up things that i needed to address / re address, such as size of copy, which I only noticed was too large once briefs were printed. It was also mentioned that I needed to add a small explanation of my concept to each board. Another peice of feedback that I got from both crit-ers was that I should expand one of my projects, and push it further then what is required of the brief.

Plan :

- expand a brief

- reduce copy size

- add explanation to boards

RESPONSIVE : BRIEF collaborative - review

 Whilst we were generating research we got approached by David asking if he could join our group. We thought it would be best if David knew our concept and brief first before he decided he wanted to be with us, otherwise there would just be trouble.  

David liked our idea and so joined our group. We all had the same direction and tone in mind for this project and this was really beneficial. We as a group worked well together, we met up regularly, were in contact via email, forwarding back and forth work for evaluation, and we all brought something 

different to the table and concentrated on that area. We also had no falling our , or drama it was a really positive experience working with David and Lizze, and I feel we came out with a strong brief from working together.

The reason we originally chose Uk greetings is because we both agreed that we wanted to do a project with a light tone, as the briefs most of the time are serious, this was our chance to have a bit of fun with a concept. And I think we successfully achieved it to make the project that way.  Although we created a jokey, fun card I don’t think it hindered our professionalism, we e-mailed one and other when we wanted to discus work rather than using text of facebook, because email feels more 

professional and is used in more professional ways.  We also filtered to content so that it wouldn’t 

offend anyone who is marking it or views it at YCN, which is a sign of professionalism. 

This has been the most successful collaboration I have worked in, as it has actually been a collaboration we all had different talents and weakness’s which meant that we supported one and other and worked as a team, not how some collaborations go where one person does the lot and it’s awful.

 The  only problem we encountered was when the laser cutter didn’t work for creating our stamps, which was very frustrating as it was a main part of our visual look and concept have the card type made by the process of stamping, but it was just one of those unfortunate things and everyone was once again very Professional about it and just accepted and moved on quickly to come up with an idea of alternatives, and now we have learnt our lesson to be more aware of time scales when relaying on a machine as things can go wrong. 

From this group work I have witnessed my different and beneficially ways of working, This was an

enjoyable project and I’d happily work with my group again.

RESPONSIVE : BRIEF Collaboration -submition

Submition boards

RESPONSIVE : BRIEF Collaboration - Submition time

We have divided the jobs to do for submit ion, Lizzie will be doing the boards, layout and copy and me and david will be mocking up .

My mock up's :

Lizzie has mocked the cards up with a really lovely texture over the black which makes the  cards have very realistic look. 

RESPONSIVE : BRIEF Collaboration - laser cut

We were so close to finishing our project without a hic up that something had to happen really, and had to happen at the final stage of creating the stamps. For some reason the laser cutter or the wood or we did some thing wrong, but the laser cutter just wouldn't do as it was told and was working so slow that we were in there for hours causing a que. In that time we only managed to get the logo laser cut, but again this didn't work well, it didn't engrave deep enough and the wood kept flaking away. 

Although it looks like it wouldn't stamp, I did try it and it does work but just not to the finish or effect that we wanted it to. We were all pretty exciting about the stamp concept so it was a bit of a downer that it didn't work. Instead it means we are going to have to mock everything up on the computer instead, as this way we will be able to mimic the level of finish we were after.

RESPONSIVE : BRIEF Collaboration - Envelope / illustrations

Envelope :

Lizzie found a really good format for the envelope. It looks like a normal envelope but it unfolds into a heart shape, which works perfectly with our concept. We have also decided that this envelope will have a secondary purpose and be a heart shaped poster once unfolded. We decided on the concept that each card has its own illustrated poster that illustrates the phrase.

Illustrations :

 

Me and daivd did some sketches of ideas to illustrate the phrases, we then all picked which ones we thought worked the best and I drew them up so that they all were drawn in the same style and worked with the whole series 

Finished illustrations - 

RESPONSIVE : BRIEF Collaboration - development

Logo :

Lizzie managed to resolve the logo vs pie vs heart issues and has come up with are ally clean logo with a cleaver way of incorporating the hear in the top crust of the pie. She has used Gill sans as it is a northern type face, this decision shows how considered the logo is, which is really good and represents The North brilliantly

Type :

David has also finished the digitising of the typography and has put the phrases together which again look really good and capture the look we all wanted perfectly.

David has booked slot for us to laser cut the phrases and logo into stamps, and once that is done we're are so very nearly there.