OUGD603 - 10 Briefs

BA (hons) GRAPHIC DESIGN

OUGD603  -  THE PLAN

Name:    Connell Makepeace

Manifesto: Over the first two years of the course, I’ve always had the mentality that I wanted to either learn something or do something new for each brief. I want this to carry over into my briefs for OUGD603 this year, even more so now that these briefs are self-led. For the duration of the course I have a small chek list of what I want to do/happen for my work: - to work more with my illustrations within most of the briefs - wanting to work more collaboratively both within and outside graphics - Try and get more commission work through this year

Brief one (title): Prop Design within film One of my favourite areas of Graphic Design is the design of Prop and sets within film and tv. From the gorgeous designs from the likes of the Grand Budapest hotel and harry potter, all the way to the out of this world sci-fi designs of blade runner and alien. For this Brief, I’ll be working collaboratively with an illustrator in creating a series of prop designs from a book yet to be adapted for the big screen.

Time frame: 4 months

Brief two (title): Ban the Toll (Save the green belt) Back home in Rainhill, there are protests going on for Two major isuues 1)    A new bridge has been constructed that connects widnes with Runcorn. With this, the old bridge is to be shut down. This crossing sees 1000’s of commuters driving to get to work each day. The problem is that this new bridge is now implementing a toll for people to cross over it. While its only £2 each way, for people going to work every day will cost them £20 each week to commute which is crazy since the old bridge was free. On top of this, the council are closing off the other, non toll bridge in order to ensure people will use the new one. 2)    Rainhill has a fair amount of fields in and around the village, most of which is green belt land. A new contract has been issued that has now allowed investors to build houses on these green areas when there is many unused sites around the village that could be used instead. All this has been done without taking in to consideration of the people living there. If this plan is to go ahead, then 500+ new houses will be built on the green belt land and seeing what has already been built, these houses will be very cheap and small for people moving in    For this brief, I will be creating posters and other relevant materials in order to help the movement against these issues

Time frame: end of November

Brief three (title): Megabots vs Suidobashi This year marks the first ever international giant robot fight between America and Japan. Each robot has been in the making for the last few years (which I’ve been following) and has been planning this fight for the last two. In support of this event, I plan to create a poster showcasing the robots from each country.

Time frame: 18/10/17

Brief four (title): Doodles Since the start of me using sketchbooks all the way back since highschool, ive always been doodling weather its been to come up with ideas or to help me remember parts of talks or lessons. Over the time ive had here at uni, Ive always had people looking at what ive been drawing and i keep getting told to do something with them. I feel like this is the perfect module for me to explore what I can do with these squiggles

Time frame:  Jan 2018

Brief five (title): End of year show - Branding With the college of art gaining its university title this year, the end of year show for graphics will be the first year of the course to showcase with the uni status. While the last end of year show had some good work, it was unfortunately the weakest show of the courses (in my opinion). I was pretty upset with this as our course has so much to offer and show in terms of the quality that comes from everybody who’s part of it. With that said, I want to work on throwing my hat in the ring and designing a brand identity for the show to put forward to my peers. For this, I would like to work with one or two peers from our year group as I want this show to be the best part of the end of year show 2018!

Time frame:  April 2018 (at the latest)

Brief six (title): App design Been asked in helping with creating an app design for a family member (More details on this in November once they have their idea set in stone)

Time frame: TBA

Brief seven (title):  YCN (Yet to be announced)

Time frame:

Brief eight (title): Preacher Competition (https://posterspy.com/creative-brief/preacher/) AMC and PosterSpy are inviting you to create an alternative poster for the first season of Preacher, which makes its UK TV debut 23rd October. Based on the comic of the same name by Garth Ennis, Steven Dillon and Glenn Fabry, the series tells the bizarre tale of a Texan Preacher, his unapologetic ex-girlfriend and an Irish vampire The story The first series sees protagonist Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper), a reformed criminal turned preacher, struggling to escape is complicated past. Whilst lacking motivation and belief in his current profession, Jesse comes in contact with an unknown entity, which in turn unleashes a divine (and supernatural) power within him. After crossing paths with foul-mouthed vampire, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) in a bar, he decides they team up with Jesse’s no-nonsense ex-girlfriend, Tulip (Ruth Negga) on a mission to find God. But what they don’t anticipate is what else they’ll come into contact with on that journey. Design notes Please focus on emulating the look and feel of the shows’ first season, in addition to using red, orange, yellow, blue, brown and monochrome. The winning entries will be judged by AMC and BT Television. Feel free to create work in your own styles, but we encourage you to experiment with new and innovative ideas outside your usual range. Guidelines AMC are looking for Illustrated posters, photos provided are to be used for reference only. Please reference the trailer. The poster must be A3 600dpi minimum, you are welcome to work at a larger scale if you prefer. Please upload an RGB file in either JPEG or PNG format. Please use the hashtag #PosterSpyPreacher when sharing/posting your artwork on social media. You may enter more than once. Please avoid using photo comps and re-creating the original key art. AMC is looking for illustrated posters.

Time frame: November 7th (deadline the 9th)

Brief nine (title): daily challenge   I started to do a project involving recreating a character form the transformers franchise into pixel art. The premise is that they have so many characters that I could design one almost every other day and the plan for the end was to have all of them apart of a poster. The response I got from these was great and I would like to carry this on and finish it. Along side this I would like to do icons from film in the same way (side brief – weekly poster design for the film society)

Time frame: continous

Studio Brief 2 Evaluation

out of all the projects ive done this year, this has to be one of the more challenging for me. Not only in terms of  creating the work and making sure it works right within the medium ive went for. The main reason that ive found this project harder than the rest was the Importance of Project management as we had 3 submissions during the briefs span which deifinatly took a toll on me. that being said, ive managed to keep my head above water and work around them, even if it wasn't the greatest time engagement ive done. To rectify this for 3rd year ive planed to make proper time sheets of what needs doing, when it needs doing and workshops that a company each brief.

That being said, Ive loved the challenge this brief has given me and the fact ive been able to attempt a skill set ive never had experience with. working within the confides of Augmented Reality posses its own hurdles you need to cross but its totally rewarding to see your work working as it should through the likes of a phone screen (problem is weather or not the people marking my work have the ability to scan the final posters). I am pleased with the outcomes of this project and for me is a campaign that could work if it where to grow.

studio brief 1 evaluation

form last year, i had two main aims for what i wanted to do within level 5 one being to use the traditional print resource more to further my skill set in the area and two was to pick up illustration more as i used it a lot in A-level but haven't really touched it within the first year. Well this year I’ve seen myself achieve these goals set out for me and especially within this project. It’s been a great opportunity for me to gain an insight of the city that i live in and to develop my knowledge using the screen print method. This has already had a huge effect on me as I’ve planned to create more screen print work for the likes of the end of the year show and to print throughout summer. So much so, I’ve been considering buying a screen of my own if i do continue with this for next year, which also helps me avoid my screens being stolen.

I am very pleased with how the print came out and i feel like you can really see how much I’ve grown as a designer since last year’s screen print project, Money is. This is a skill set that i wish to follow on with through next year of study. Outside of practical skills i have developed my project management skills as juggling this and 3 other projects at the same time has really required me to be switched on and plan my time well which i feel like ive accomplished.

studio brief 2 Final designs

I am very happy with how these have come out. There has been some problems such as; removing the background colour to white made it difficult to track so a thin boarder was added to it to make it easier, converting the gifs to MP4 through Photoshop and media encoder was putting a black box around everything which looked awful in Augmented Reality and making sure each 'zap' code was working right was a pain. But it was all worth it to get these final outcomes. The posters themselves are planed to be printed on matt A3 paper and be be displayed within university's as students are the most likely to have the app or get it to use it. the ones set to be displayed in the outside will have a thin coating of hydrophobic spray on it to reused the issues of weathering. Plus, ive had someone approach me already offering to buy a print from me as he was really interested with the design. If it happened already then if it were to be mass produced the it might warrant being distributed to students

Each scene showcase the partnership between man and machine in a joyful way. To make sure people don’t get confused, the name of the robot being shown is included where the zap code used to be

Feedback

studio brief 2 Mock up

For the final crit i aimed to create a moc up of how the posters could work. After looking through the possible automation area that could be the most useful for this brief which where:

- just eat / deliveroo robo delivery

- big dog

- kuratas

- driverless uber 

- assembly arms

from these i started with Kuratas and how its going to kick start (hopefully) the first ever mecha robot fight between japan and america. The fight is said to be boxing replacement but at heart its just another sport for people to get behind. so for the moc up i created the pixel art within Photoshop and went about animating it for what it could be within the Zap Works app. the idea of robbed and robot being flipped is just a concept at this point but i thought i could work with this and would love to see what people think of it.

Feedback

The crit went really well, people where overall happy and interested with the concept i had but an issue that did arise was that people found it a bit confusing with the whole robot=future as both versions look negative. people really liked the whole style of the design and said the pixel art kept to the theme i was going for and fit the issue very well

So to fix the text i went for more of a slogan to incorporate the positivity of the brief and changed the colour as the original design is far to busy.

With these changes in place i began creating a proper mock up to showcase the apps potential and i have to say I love the results . the fact it replace the poster is great in my eyes. the only problem is that the text gets blurred due to the graidiant of green as the background so that has to go for the final versions

studio brief 2 keeping it light hearted

keeping with the light hearted theme i want from this project, i started to develop some simplistic pixel art to resemble machines and the people who work along side them. going with the pixel design allows for less colours to be used and in turn allows for less ink to be used on each poster allowing a large print run to be cheaper than that of a more detailed design

these are rough designs that ive created from sketches but i want to make a proper moc up for what this augmented reality could hold for the brief.

feedback

studio brief 2 distrubution

after talking with my peers in a crit, it got brought to my attention that i could play off the negative messages within my poster campaign with the likes of a motion graphic piece to follow it. better yet, ive came across a online platform know as Zap Works that Kyle Prior introduced me to which works with augmented reality. With this i can work around the negativity and get people to look through whats been said and come up with a decision for them self's.

Cons of using a software like this:
- not everyone will have the app that is used to make it work
- Pokemon go used the same software but that died out

link:
https://zap.works/

Outside of this, the posters will have to be made available to students and will have to be cheap to produce so its design will have to be simple.places like student unions/notice boards would be the initial aim for distribution but has the possibility to branch out to the likes of bars and clubs

studio brief 2 set idea

after talking with my peers i settled on creating a poster campaign to showcase the positive connotations around the subject. with the sensitivity of the subject i want to take a light hearted approach as there is enough negativity surrounding it already. for me, i want to aim the brief at the likes of university students as this is a subject that will effect them once they finish their degrees and they need to know both sides of what the future can entail. 

Studio brief 2 idea generation

with research under my belt i wanted to start coming up with potential ideas to follow suit.

- PSA on Automation can mean for us
- Working together to create a future together
- Posters showcasing the facts without making the subject too serious
- a motion graphic that shows the difference to what the media says to what is actually happening
- a campaign to teach people what is actualy happening without the fog of fear clouding people judgment
- Robbed future / Robot future!

feeback

studio brief 2 research

The next generation of robots may not rob us of our jobs after all. In fact, they may actually help us become better at our work.

Or at least that’s how Jim Lawton, the chief product and marketing officer at Rethink Robotics, pitches the machines his company is making. Historically, traditional robots have taken humans out of the loop in the workplace replacing employees as a cheaper alternative. But collaborative robots — which are the next wave of machines — are all about enabling humans to do a better job.

Rethink Robotics builds these next-gen robots which are created to work alongside humans. They are safe, social, easy to program and eager to learn from humans

this mentality to the future of working together is what i would like to promote as its not all doom and gloom.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-robots-can-start-working-with-people-2015-8?r=US&IR=T

studio brief 2 automation

one of the big factors that has come up with is job polarisation which the economists write about which entails that with automation increasing we will see decline in middle skilled jobs available while the likes of low and high skilled jobs will be on the up and up.while there is alot of fear mongering, it is almost always blown out of proportion. Automation is happening to almost every sector, even the creative industry with the likes of go animate and google draw.

Studio brief 2 post presentation

From the presentation, it was clear that i needed to focus on one issue. at the end of the presentation, the feedback was very similar to each other. the overall jist was that i had to simplify what i wanted to follow. I was quite ambitious but the concept of automation is a problem now that can be a better rout to follow instead of what i talking about within the presentation

I feel the same way now, i had the realisation mid way through the presentation which had a huge effect on the rest of it. personally i prefer the automation issue and will follow through with this idea.

studio brief 2 concepts posible presentation issues

1.Automation

Automation has been happening for decades but its getting a much bigger subject of debate now more than ever. theres is alot of fear mongering around the subject with the media throwing large scary numbers at the public with the likes of daily mail saying 38% of US jobs will be lost by 2030 by automation then the guardian saying 6% of jobs will be lost. whilst it is true that machines are being built to do jobs, what the media dont showcase is that most of these are jobs to work alongside humans to make the jobs easier and safer.

2. who is to blame

With machines becoming more and more common place within our everyday routines helping us and making our lives easier. it begs the question, if some one was hurt or even killed by a machine, who would be to blame? the programmer? the manufacturer? or would the machine be held responsible?

studio brief 2 preparing for the presentation topics

for studio brief 2 we were tasked with coming up with an issue within the world that we can create a graphic design outcome at the end of the project. for me i wanted to focus on the technology side of the wold. A list of potential concepts:

- Who is to blame with robot related injury's?
- Automation and what it means for the work force
- Nasa not being funded for the future
- The effects the internet has on the mentality of its users
- augmentation and the ethics behind it
- the world of science under threat due to politics (trump at the moment)

studio brief 2 presentation

In the lead up to my presentation I looked at a range of different research
paths that where focusing on technology. one of the ones that stood out to me was the automation of the work force and the concept of who is to blame if injury's are caused by the machines as there are multiple issues around this subject.

first death due to the driver-less car

Studio brief 1 final print

Following suit from my feedback, ive decided on using the pink design on the final outcome of the poster and i am very happy with out it turned out. The contrast of the paper and the pink makes it really bold and has the effect of which the closer you get to the design the more detail there is to be seen. Talking to Mike in the print room about the outcome and how i wanted to make it look like tapestry, he suggested deckeling the edges to give it that proper aged effect. This really added to the piece and made it seem more like the source material than ever.

Studio brief 1 screen printing

transferring the design to the screen was a success, went better than i hoped (except the fact that someone stole my coated screen which was a nightmare). With the design on now, i wanted to start experimenting and there where three colours that i wanted to use:

- Black as the half tone would give the closest colour outcome to that to what it looks like on screen
- Pink as its a strong colour that speaks to both genders. plus it has gotten a nostalgic rep over the years
- Orange, similar to that of pink but its a colour that works well with half tone

the outcomes where all great and came out so clear as well:

Issues I tackled:

- had to make sure there was a thin layer of paint that filed the screen otherwise it bleeds and loses the half tone

- top left corner wasn't printing for most of the prints which caused issues as i would have to go over this again which goes back to the first issue

before printing onto the final stock, i wanted to get the feedback on the prints ive already done (me personally, i feel the pink has prints grab the consumers attention and draws them into the poster. Orange is too light on the stock to stand out. Black captures the half tone really well but its too dark for what i want from this brief )

feedback

after talking to peers about the prints, the majority of them agreed with me in terms of pink being a better outcome than the rest to follow with and would stand out much clearer on the rag & Fibre bagasse paper i aim to use. 

Studio brief 1 paper

i originally wanted to screen print onto tapestry to keep to the way medieval art was created but due to how long ive been doing the poly art, it would have a huge impact on me to go looking for some now. plus im super poor at the moment. so i went with the next best thing, rag & Fibre bagasse 56X76 paper. it has the look and feel similar to that of a piece of tapestry which is a great alternative. plus this keeps the cost of the poster down in case it did end up becoming mass produced for the festival in the future. having the print a 2 colour run helps this issue aswell

Studio brief 1 final design ready to be screen printed

took a week to do bu ive finally finished adding colour to the design and im happy with how it looks on screen. with the main body of the design done, i went about adding a Medieval styled boarder around the knight that has him poking out of it giving the poster a sense of depth. Its nothing fancy and its keeping to a similar theme to the poly art. The text on the other hand was added last minute for a crit session as i wanted to see what peoples thoughts where on the poster.

the overall Feedback had the same sort of response as each other along the lines of:

- the design looks great, the text is was to small though, i feel like it needs to be much bolder and needs to bee within the border instead of out of it

I agree what was said so I've decided to go with a much larger text along the left hand side of the boarder.ill come back to this later but for now i ave to get the half tone just right for the image to work well once printed.

frequency: 50 

angle:45 

shape: round

the dots are too small and close together, it'll be hard to transfer onto the screen

frequency: 28

angle:45 

shape: round

After talking with mike about the best way around the halftone, it was settled on having the frequency lowered to 28 so that the dots are large enough to be transferred onto the screen and hold enough detail to see the poly art within the design. The print itself will be a 2 colour print comprising of the design then the text on top which allows me to experiment with the colours better once i start printing properly

studio brief 1 vector done with

Finally done with the poly art outline, time to fill in those triangles!! with this piece being screen printed the first worry is that if i colour this design in then wont it be hard to get the colour across to the print? it would but while finishing off the design for the poly art i discussed this issue with my peers and came up with the solution of creating a half tone print as the night is mainly all different shades of grey so it would work well for a single colour print (in theory). 

also, i didnt like the pole the original image had as it didn't translate well into a poly art so ive mocked up a sword for him in the same sort of style

Studio brief 1 vector taking the p***

urrrrggghhhhh. i was wrong, this one in more tedious than it is an anti stress method. due to the metal nature of the armour i needed to get the curves and the '3D' right as it would be hard to tell whats what when in the poly form. Plus, i cant have the triangles too small as they wont translate over to screen print very well and be a pain to deal with. thankfully this has paid off, while it took longer to do the helmet than expected, the out come of it looks great and you can tell what it is straight away....now for the rest of him.

Studio brief 1 Vector art

Beginning the long process of low poly art. while its something that most people hate due to how long it takes, it is something that i love to do as it sort of acts as a stress relief mechanism (which i need with all these deadlines.). to start this off i scoured through the photos of the royal armouries in search of a knight armour that would work well and look goon in poster form. In the end i found this one as it had enough of the body in it whilst also having a good ratio of plate armour to showcase within the poly art

studio brief 1 final concept

After talking to peers and reviewing my concepts, I knew i wanted to take a more illustrative approach to the brief. With that said, The two concepts that i wanted to work with was incorporating the detail of a set of knight armour and the style of poly art as it has the ability to showcase the detail. with this sorted, i would have to start it as soon as due to how long and fiddly it is to create these low/mid polly art 

Studio brief 1 practical concepts

after looking into the artwork form medieval Britain and studying the armour used from that era, i began to create concepts that abides to certain aims i wanted to put in place:

- remove the specific gender aim out of the poster theme as the event is made for every one

- make in interesting to look at (easier said than done) 

- remove it from the original graphic design used for the congress

with these in place i began brainstorming potential ideas:

- use knight armour as a base for the design
- incorporate runes within the poster to relay a hidden message about the congress
- get a range of peoples drawings of knights from memory to make a collage
- incorporate the vector art for the first time in a project similar to what ive dabbled with in the past 
- focus on what brings all these people together
- showcase the mentality of the guests of the event
- 

Studio brief 1 royal armouries visit

visiting the royal armouries was amazing and a huge inspiration to this project. seeing the detail within each set of armour and weaponry was truly awe inspiring and is something that has peaked my interest in what i could do incorporate for this project. Knights are the staple of the medieval era and is the go to thought that people think of when asked about the era. while it is something that is very common to see in terms of designs focusing around a medieval theme, Its something that holds enough detail and something that i find really fascinating to incorporate it within this print project. (probably will make printing a pain)