APP Words: Design Brief Analysis

[1] [3] [5] [7]

As the proposal is the main brief (with the APP brief as the background/overall brief) I shall have to analyse it to ensure that I hit all of the right spots so that I could produce a successful product. The learning outcomes for the APP has already been done, so click here to see it.  

To make things easier I shall copy and paste the whole brief again to analyse.

"Background Information

Tea and coffee seem to be rising in popularity; it isn’t unusual to see a person stumbling into work or class with a mug of coffee or tea in hand to wake them up. It is also an easy way to relax with friends after a hard day of work. We often look upon inspirational quotes to boost our motivation to get us through the week long of reports or essays we have in our workplace and yet they can even go to the lengths of providing us with the courage to pursue our life long dreams.

Twinings is a British-based company that specialises in tea, and due to their interest in the environment they would like to have a travel mug that would appeal to students. Their aim is to help students cut down from continuously buying paper cups and save money by using their own tea bags. The student could always have a part of home with them in their travel mug, even when they’re far away from it.

The Brief
You are to design the outer design of a travel mug using inspirational words integrating illustration where possible. To reach a wider audience you may design an appropriate unisex design, as the company (Twinings) that would be supplying this product could maximise the potential to sell. You should associate this project with the idea of “Words” theme that is outlined in the learning outcomes."

Background Information

As stated above, my "client" (I say "client" because this is a made-up university brief) is Twinings which is a British-based company specialising in tea. The fact that they're interested in environmental factors would mean I would probably have to create a design that's environmentally friendly but then again my design would be for a ceramic travel mug which will be used more than once. This would give me more freedom, nevertheless I would still like to look into environmental issues.

Recycling is still very expensive and actually uses a lot more energy and this might be the reason why it's ideal to use a ceramic travel mug because it won't use as much energy... I would need to do some more research to confirm this though.

Breaking Down the Brief

I will highlight the part of the brief that mentions 'inspirational quotes' as that seems to be one of the most important factors. I need to do something light and amusing to brighten up a student's day, so this might mean that I'll have to use bright and bold colours or intentional puns. To make it easier for me to break this down I shall list all of the main aspects as bullet points.

• The "client" - Twinings

Need to look at their company information - logo, design, environmental factors, existing mug designs or even travel mug designs.

• Inspirational quotes

Could be really long or even short quotes. The longer quotes could cover the whole of the mug and could be the main focal point. I would therefore need to look for inspirational quotes or find out what makes words inspiring, because I could simply do something like, "Good morning sweetie! You can do it!"

• Target marker - Students - Unisex

I am part of this target market so I would need to find designs that I would find appealing as well as asking my fellow colleagues and friends who are also students or around that age group. I need to produce something for men and women, so I should avoid fully 'feminine' and 'masculine' designs. 

• Travel Mug Design

I need to have a look at travel mug dimensions, possibly purchasing one of the ideal size so that I could measure it up. I would also need to look at existing designs to see what's in fashion and on trend because I want my design to appeal to the target market. This emphasises the thought of having them take pictures of their own mugs so that I know what designs they have already purchased. I shall also look at Twinings mug designs and see if they do travel mugs. 

• Illustration

It mentions that I could mix up the typography with illustration, and this is ideal for me because I love illustration. I've already listed some typographers and illustrators in my proposal so I will be having a look at their work to see how they do it. 

Conclusion:

By breaking up the brief into simple, short bullet points I'll be able to draw up a successful design more easily because I if I ever needed to refresh my mind on what needs to be done I could just flick back to this post and quickly read through everything.

I've noticed that I've got quite a short deadline to work with so I shall have to make sure that I only do relevant research so that I can dedicate my time to experimentation, unlike my last APP where I seemed to have run out of time for this. 

[n] Learning Outcome

APP: Proposal - Words

Liz Owen
Graphic Design BA (Hons)
Advanced Professional Project

Background Information
Tea and coffee seem to be rising in popularity; it isn’t unusual to see a person stumbling into work or class with a mug of coffee or tea in hand to wake them up. It is also an easy way to relax with friends after a hard day of work. We often look upon inspirational quotes to boost our motivation to get us through the week long of reports or essays we have in our workplace and yet they can even go to the lengths of providing us with the courage to pursue our life long dreams.

Twinings is a British-based company that specialises in tea, and due to their interest in the environment they would like to have a travel mug that would appeal to students. Their aim is to help students cut down from continuously buying paper cups and save money by using their own tea bags. The student could always have a part of home with them in their travel mug, even when they’re far away from it.

The Brief
You are to design the outer design of a travel mug using inspirational words integrating illustration where possible. To reach a wider audience you may design an appropriate unisex design, as the company (Twinings) that would be supplying this product could maximise the potential to sell. You should associate this project with the idea of “Words” theme that is outlined in the learning outcomes.

Research and Methodology
I’ll be looking into existing designs of both travel mugs and ‘normal’ mugs, and as the inspirational quote/illustration will be the main theme of the mug I’ll also be looking at hand lettering tutorials and books. Here are some websites and books I’ll be looking at:

“Hand Job: A Catalogue of Type” by Michael Perry
The Association of Illustrators - http://www.theaoi.com/
Behance – http://behance.net/
Hand Lettering by Sean Wes - https://seanwes.com/
Linzie Hunter - http://www.linziehunter.co.uk/

By researching into existing designs will give me a general idea on how much space is on the coffee mug – so the dimensions of that and the wrapping – and would also help me figure out what people are looking for in a mug. Do they want it to be incredibly decorative, or simple?

I haven’t yet dabbled in hand lettering and hand type so it would be good if I could practice and gain inspiration from people who are experienced in this field. By looking at books like “Hand Job” will help me out with this as well as being a source of inspiration.

I could also talk to my fellow classmates to see what they are looking for in coffee mug designs so that I could do some primary research on it. This is quite important because they will be my target market.

Reflection, Testing and Learning Outcomes
At the end of each research stage I would draw up conclusions to see if they contribute to my designing process. This would also ensure that the research is relevant because even if it doesn’t appear to be at the beginning I would still include it in my sketchpad just in case it helped me out in future. In my conclusions I could also mention how they are relevant to the project, for example: Does this help me understand hand lettering? About the current trends in illustration? Even during my sketching stage I could write annotations of where I got my inspiration.

As seen in a previous post, I have analysed each learning outcome to ensure that I fully understand it. For example, one of my learning outcomes is: “Develop skills of independent study, resource utilisation, problem solving and decision taking”. To cover this learning outcome I could make continuous analysis of everything I had done and draw up conclusions to show how I have solved each ‘problem’.

Experimentation
I would test my product by showing it to the majority of students that I know of and – as I have mentioned above – to my classmates as they are a part of my target market. I could also talk to those who aren’t necessarily students but in full-time work and around that age (so up to their mid-twenties). I know that A Level students would require the same inspiration, so I’ll be testing them as well.

Another sort of experimentation I would like to carry out is doing lots of hand lettering sketches and illustrations so that I could expand my knowledge in combining them. This project will be a bit challenging for me as I haven’t done it before which gives me more reason to do lots of experiments and research on it.

Professional Practice
After I have done all of my research, sketches, and final design I would like to actually make the coffee mug wrap by purchasing a plain travel mug and some paper to wrap around it, or find websites where I could customize travel mugs. This means that I have to plan ahead to ensure that I have all of the materials in time in a couple of weeks before the deadline date.

Production and Contingency Planning
Here I have drafted out a timetable to cover all of my APP projects as I aim to handle each one the same. I had already displayed this on a previous post but here it is on it’s own:

I shall stick to this schedule because if it might cause some complications for me in future if I keep putting a particular project, especially because I’ll be working alongside my dissertation. I can do this by writing up daily to-do lists to keep at a calm pace.

N.B Please note that this is a university project, meaning that this isn't a brief provided by Twinings. I am just using them as a potential client. 

Association of Illustrators - Serco Prize for Illustration 2014

The Brief

For one of my other APP projects – as I want to prepare three just in case I go with Option B for my dissertation – I wanted to enter the AOI competition that involves illustrating a London story. Here’s the brief listed on their website (http://www.theaoi.com/events/index.php):

“London Transport Museum, in partnership with the Association of Illustrators (AOI), is delighted to announce that submissions are now welcome for the Serco Prize for Illustration 2014. This year the theme is London Stories.

Across the ages, London has produced and inspired countless stories. Fictitious or real characters and events in this amazing city have always held fascination, from the anecdotal urban myth to grand tales of historic legend. The aim of the competition is to attract artwork for display that is colourful, inspiring and celebrates a vibrant, multi-layered London.

Visually capture a well-known or lesser known narrative in a single image; all stories, current or historical, real or fictional, which feature this amazing city are welcome - your imagination is the limit. Stories could be those seen in a film or play, heard in poetry or music, read in literature or an urban myth. Impress the jury with your illustrated interpretation of a London story and be in with a chance 
of having your work displayed at the famous London Transport Museum and winning the top prize.

Prizes will be awarded in three levels:
First prize: £2000 and display of image on a LTM poster 
Second prize: £1000
Third prize: £750

There is also the possibility that your shortlisted image will be featured on merchandise sold in the museum shop.

The competition is open to illustrators and students of illustration throughout the world. The top 50 entries selected by a panel of judges will be displayed in an exhibition at London Transport Museum that will open Friday 14 February and run until Sunday 6 April. The winners will be announced at a private award ceremony on the evening of Thursday 13 February.
The deadline for entries is Sunday 3 November 2013.”

Analysis

Background Information
The two hosts of this competition are the London Transport Museum ad AOI (Association of Illustrators). Even though this illustration will be able a London story, it would probably be a good idea if I manage to incorporate the hosts’ work in it. For example, I could include a model of a train to represent the London Transport Museum in a very subtle way.

After taking a look at the submission requirements I noticed that the London stories they would want included would have to have an influence in modern day life – current events, history or fiction. My original idea of doing something with Sherlock Holmes might be fitting for this competition but I’d like to look into other stories as well.  Looking at these requirements also confirmed my idea of incorporating some form of transport into it.

Breaking The Brief Down
This brief can cover a variety of London stories but the first one that popped into mind is the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. However I would like to read some of the other stories of London, as I want to experiment with different styles.

To break it down into smaller points:

• The “hosts” – Association of Illustrators and London Transport Museum

Some of the modes of transport that I could include in this illustration are the Red Bus, London Underground, DLR (Serco), London Overground, Taxi (black), Tramlink, and Barclays Cycle Hire. I could also include walking or going by river.

• Collection of London stories – well-known or lesser-known, could be unusual 
• Narrative in a single image

I’ve noticed that in their terms and conditions they wrote that I could do a collection of stories rather than a story, which would give me more of a leeway on portraying the whole of London. I could also have a look at communities within London as well as historical aspects, cultures and characters there. So I could quite possibly slip in Sherlock Holmes there!

• Dimensions - Portrait - Double Royal – 635 x 1016mm (25 x 40 inches) or Double Crown – 505 x 760mm (20 x 30 inches).

I underestimated the size of this poster, and it isn’t I went to see how big that was in A size did I realise that it’s huge. This might be a problem for me when it comes to designing, as I tend to work on A4 traditional media… I suppose I could dabble in digital, or see if I could work on a maximum of A3 and scan it at a high dpi.
To solve this problem I’d need to see how other illustrators who perhaps work in traditional media manage to get a really high resolution so that they could work on posters.

However for my portfolio and university submission I shall create a poster at A3 size, and produce a mock up of the larger sizes so that people could see what it would look like when hung.

• People – must show a multicultural society

If I were to portray any people within this illustration that I need to make sure that I’m showing London as a place of diversity, and that people of all cultures live or visit there.

• Needs to be colourful, inspirational, and shows a vibrant multi-layered London
• Deadline – Sunday 3rd November 2013 


Conclusion:
As this competition brief mainly focuses on illustration I need to make sure I do as many experiments with media as possible, in order to broaden my knowledge of painting and I should also try out digital painting and trying out vectors (which I know that I do need to practice with more). I have recently obtained a Wacom Inkling that I could experiment with.

Even though this brief doesn’t ‘belong’ to the university I would still need to follow the learning outcomes for the APP, as I am going to do that for one of my themes. I would need to make sure that I do thorough research of the London stories and make sure that they’re from reliable resources.

APP: The Overall Brief and Learning Outcomes Analysis

Project: Advanced Professional Practice
Level: Honours
Date Set: 30.09.2013
Date Due: Part 1: 16.12.13 and full submission 23.01.14

Preamble
This module is designed to encourage and enable students to use graphic design and the 'client' to expand and develop their professional style and to produce bodies of work for public scrutiny and evaluation. The module will enable students to synthesise theoretical, conceptual and technical skills gained during the programme to manage projects in a variety of areas of design practice and produce appropriate practical solutions.

The brief is designed in such a way as to allow open interpretation within the given theme and allow flexibility within chosen pathways. To ensure clear direction and intent from the outset of the course, you will need to determine and agree with the teach staff, your chosen pathway, i.e. typography, illustration, etc.

The Brief
The 'weight' of the dissertation that you have chosen will determine how many of the themes you will have to cover. The following indicates how many themes you are to choose:

Title
Pathway Option A -
Dissertation - 15 credits (3000-4000 words)
Advance Professional Practice - 60 credits (4 projects)
Major Project - 45 credits

Pathway Option B
Dissertation - 30 credits (5000-6000 words)
Advanced Professional Practice - 45 credits (3 themes)
Major Project - 45 credits

Pathway Option C
Dissertation - 45 credits (7000-8000 words)
Advanced Professional Practice - 30 credits (2 themes)
Major Project - 45 credits

Choose theme(s) from the following:

Arrival
Identity
Words
Conflict
Adventure
Home

Conclusion:
With all of this in mind, I will now need to decide which of the themes to choose which I shall do by creating mind maps of each one. Luckily the brief is allows for open interpretation so that I could create something that I'm interested in.


Learning Outcomes
Here are the learning outcomes for the APP, and I have analysed each one just beneath it.

[1] Gain an understanding of the needs and requirements of professional practice.

I am doing this by analysing the design brief and learning outcomes so that I aim to meet each point made. I know that it might be impossible to cover absolutely everything but I shall try my best! I would also like to look at existing products to see how other designers tackled similar briefs.

[2] Develop effective communication skills through the medium of [specialist] graphic design.

This is quite new to me as I haven't had this learning outcome before, so I'm assuming what they mean by "effective communication skills" is asking for feedback from both my classmates and the public and to write them down so that I can show how they have helped me through my designing process.

Portraits: Design Brief, Learning Outcomes & Analysis

Design Brief

University of Kent at West Kent College

HND Graphic Design

Year 2,  Term 1

Modules: Option Module Illustration

     OR    Option Module Photography

(please note that whichever module you pick you must also use for the second project in this portfolio for Options)

Preamble

At this stage of your HND you are offered the chance to undertake further work within a pathway – these are illustration or photography.

In answer to this brief you must produce outcomes that conform to ONE of the options. You should check the appropriate learning outcomes and work to achieve these.

The Brief

 New Scientist magazine is running an article about the psychology of faces. You are asked to design an editorial image made in any format that you like (providing it can be assessed against either the Illustration Module or the Photography Module).

Design the editorial image to fit one page of the magazine (using the proper format).

You should also include on the page in any way you feel is appropriate a small label that details the name of the sitter and no more than 20 words describing them.

Specific Learning Outcomes

Please see Moodle and your course handbook for the specific learning outcomes for each module. Please note that the pathways options (photo and illustration) have different learning outcomes.

Live Music Design Brief

University of Kent at West Kent College

HND  Graphic Design

Year 2, Term 1/2

Project:   Live Music Brief

Module: Graphic Design and Typography 2