Design Context: Nous Vous Visit

After talking to Jay at the christmas party he gave me a card and a piece of his work and said to get in touch about coming down and having a chat. I gave him an email the other day and although he is currently doing some work in london for a few days he was more than happy for me to come over and show me his studio space.

I went down on thursday and ended up having a really good chat for probably nearly 2 hours! The studio space where he is set up is near the WY Playhouse, its a really old and somewhat neglected warehouse/office space, but the amount of space that was available and just having a complete environment that was quiet where no-one would bother you was actually really nice. I asked him all sorts of questions about the things he was getting up to and looking at. As it turns out he has currently being back and forth from london working on an interesting education project, he is also working on the re-vamp of the Nous Vous Website and a couple of comissoins. ]

I asked about where he started and how from finishing his degree he found work and so oninturn this led to the discussion on my portfolio and Jay gave some great crituque, not just about the work but about the presentataion and delivery. Jay left uni and took a more relaxed approach to the development of his worka and didn;t setup the collective until over a year of leaving uni and spent his time working and simply earning a living. And for he first few years of the collective a steady job was used to pay for the expenses of his creative side.

On my portfolio jay commented he enjoyed more looking through the tactile piece of print that i had produced rather than the more mundane and somewhat cliche of having my work presented in photographs in plastic sleeves. Something to think about would be the packaging of my portfolio.

On the subject of originality for my dissertation it did in fact crop up. Jay's studio space didn't actually have internet access and that brought up questions about how he finds inspiration and how looking at other people's work can influence your own. Jay talked about how jay will create something and then as time moves on other people may look at his work and although he may have disliked it, someone will pick it up and to an extent copy the visual styling. Jay believes that orginality is something that in today's design world it does not exist, especially in something such as graphic design and it shouln't be seen as such a benchmark to set your work against.

Design Context: Experim Typography

For my design context i am looking at type-based designers and studios, i am looking at what people are producing, are they experimental, who is producing innvoative typefaces that push symbolism. Where are these typefaces being used and how well are they recieved, how do you push typography and who are the clients and do they have this appreciation for rich, diverse and experimental typographic forms. How are they being experimental, through shapes and forms, materials, processes, layouts?

My design context relates to my design practice very hand in hand. The influence of what I am looking at and where I can take it further greatly influences the origins of my orginality in the type that I produce.

Below I have attached a selection of work which has influenced the type that I have been producing.

Non-Format - Computer Arts Cover (I have one at home!)

Studio in Norway, design for the music industry, fashion and art direction.

Calango - Typogami Animated typography

Netherlands based typography

Design Project - Re-bag Shopping Bag

Leeds based graphic design studio covering a variety of disciplines.

NousVous - Kibbokift

Small collective based in Leeds and London, predominantly working in the creative sector, visuals are lit with experimental typography, illustration and installation.

Effektive Studio - Render Branding

'We were approached to name and design the identity and website for a startup architecture & CGI studio based in Aberdour, Fife. The chosen name Render, is relevant to the business as they specialise in the rendering of 3D architectural drawings and visualisations. The creative approach was derived for the name render and the way that un-renedered images and objects are displayed by the way of a wireframe box with strikethrough. Using these boxes we created a bespoke type based identity and graphic language which is modular in its design and like architectural building blocks can be moved, stacked and used to create a variety of shapes and designs.

The business cards below have been white foiled into 540gsm duplex colourplan as well as the design and implementation of a Cargo based CMS website.'

Made Poster Initial Ideas

After a meeting last thursday, it is clear my involvement in this event is going beyond design and I am somewhat co-ordinating the event. Exciting but I don't really have the time. For the event there has been some word of a private view, this to me seems that there will be a invitation only event for the opening of the pop-up shop. This I think would actually fail, students in particular might feel that there is something they have to sign up for or worse pay for entry. I believe we should market the shop as open using the flyers and further marketing the opening of the event using posters and other marketing tools on the first day.

Open publication - Free publishing - More event

Final Made Flyer to Print

Limited Edition Yearbook Packaging Sample

Based on the initial research into packaging I proposed an idea using the box as a limited edition way of encasing the yearbook and editioned print. I also showed how print processes could be used. The design is a simple cardboard box and uses an embossed band to hold it together.

I proposed this idea to the photography clients and they really grasped the idea behind using packaging instead of an internal gatefold. I proposed this concept only and suggested using my contextual research the range of different and innovative ways of presenting the book in limited edition.

Year Book Packaging Contextual Research

The photography students are looking for a limited edition of their book to be given to select individuals which should encase a limited edition print of on of their pieces of work. Initial ideas were to do with encasing the print within a gatefold at the beginning or end of the publication.

I propose having a edition of books encased in packaging with a print enclosed, this has far more advantages:

+ A gatefold does not properly encase the print and may slip out.

+ The gatefold is costly, and adds around £500 to our budget. This is due to it being hand folded, a large amount of stock required and a lot of paper waste.

+ The gatefold has to be used within all the yearbooks as it it too costly to limit to say 50.

+ Packaging in a number of 50 means they can be produced within college by hand by us and the photography students.

+ There are a wide range of packaging formats and they can protect what is enclosed unlike the gatefold.

+ Finishes can be added to add a limited 'special' feel to the editions.

There are many formats a few initial ideas I had included:

- Boxes (although these could be expensive)

- Thin Book Bags

- Bubble wrap bags

- Cellophane wrap

- Plastic bags

- Paper Wrapping + Stickers

BAGD Yearbook Images

1. Made Poster/flyers

2. All Aboard Records Promotional Material

3. All aboard records Stationary formally photographed

(need to photograph)

4. Foxx Typeface on t-shirt photographed

5. Types of Cities e-book cover or actual book covers photographed

End of Year Show Visual Development

The concept of in the spotlight I have suggested communicating through a vector based imagery approach which is appropriate to the practice of my work and the college's visual presentation. I wanted the concept to be abstract so it is simply communicated. Here I tested various ways of presenting the visuals with different words, layouts and ways of abstractly communicating the concept of a spotlight.

End of Year Show Initial Thoughts

As my degree is coming to an end it is important to go out with a bang. I have decided to submit to the end of year show, my concept for the design is about being 'in the spotlight'. The idea being that the show is the the point where we bear all and 'showcase' exactly what the product of our degree is. This kind of idea also links to the concept of a theatre show where by the curtains are lifted and the show commences. I summarised several different words to communicate the concept which could be transferred onto visual material.

- In the spotlight.
- In the Light.
- For your eyes

- proudly presents...

- Under the spotlight
- under the light
- curtains up
- spotlight
- curtain call
- up for criticism
- stage fright
- standing in the spotlight
- exposed
- lit up
- light up
- burn in the spotlight
- showtime
- its showtime
- C’mon, its showtime
- I guess its showtime
- okay everyone, its showtime
- lets hit it
- So its showtime
- ready or not
- its showtime baby.
- best in show

Solo Press Print: Made Flyers

I will be handling all printing to ensure that the design of the promotional material for the pop-up shop is both consistent and runs at a high quality. For this reason I have been scanning both local printers and nationwide printers for quotes on the specifications of the design. The printed flyers I have been designing are A6 landscape format, other specifications include:

+ 300 - 350gsm recycled uncoated stock.

+ 1 colour design, preferably litho for brighter red spot colour.

+ Currently 5000 in quantity.

Team impression gave me a quote of £270 for a litho job but on a gloss stock.

They also quote 5000 flyers on a Matt stock digitally printed for £175.

Solo press however are an online printers and give clear and easy pricing for the jobs and a variety of different stocks which are on the way in a sample pack.

They quote £115 for 5000 A6 flyers on a fantastic pulp flyer stock. Perfect. I ran these via Bridget and will be ordered by the end of the week.

Made E-Flyer

Email reminder for applications for the MADE pop-up shop. The visual concept for the design was to communicated the different merchandise that could be sold within the store, whilst keeping a contemporary feel within the design.

Made Visual Inspiration

Visual inspiration from Head of Crayons, in particular of layout design and visual quality. Although I have decided that the colours are a strong red and black I feel it is important to recognise other options.

Made Poster Layout Experiments

Here I sampled various ideas for the layout of the Made posters used to gather interest from the vendors of the new pop-up shop. Based upon the concept of making things, the posters will be screen printed to co-inside with the making of things for the event.

Photography Logo Refinement

After getting the designs back from the photography students, they approved one of the particular typefaces but there we issues:

+ The design looked too much like just a typeface of a written word.

+ The design could better express the concept of unseen though it's positioning and use of gradient.

+ A better balance should be created between the letterforms.

To recrify the design I altered the typeface by removing serif detail, making the weight more even, and altering the 's' completely to make the logo more evenly spaced and the 'e' was alter also to make them more rounded. The 'un' now also sits back using a 50% tint, communicating the 'seen' element much more.

Photography Layouts sent to photography students for approval