FMP (BA): Proposal

Liz Owen
BA (Hons) Graphic Design - Top-Up Degree
Final Major Project

Background Information
"The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is an annual literary festival where visitors can meet and listen to authors and experts from a wide range of fields discussing a variety of topics from literature, politics, history, philosophy, economics, science, culinary, travel, environment and religion, to mention only a few." - Taken from the  Sunday Times Literary Festival  website.

Despite the name change - as they are now the Oxford Literary Festival - the event still continues today, attracting a wide variety of talent every year as people gather to listen to lectures on literature as well as meet well-known authors. Both children and adults attend this festival so there's something for everyone!

The Brief
You are to design a book of quotes which integrates both illustration and typography wherever possible. It will be pocket-sized paperback so that it's easy to carry, nothing more than 200mm x 200mm. How you bind it is up to you, as long as there are around 4 quotes within.

This book will be displayed at the Oxford Literary Festival and made available to those who attend this event. If possible, at least one of the designs within will be carried across to poster designs in order to promote this festival which takes place in March (details are on their  website). This festival is quite well-known and so the target audience will be quite large but those who pick up the book will be both literature and typography enthusiasts.

Research and Methodology
I shall be looking at any existing poster designs that promote this festival as well as looking for typographic posters and books. As it's for a literary festival I shall be displaying relatively well-known quotes within my book so that it's possible for them to be recognisable by all ages.

Here are some of the websites and books I'll be looking at for inspiration:

The Oxford Literary Festival -  http://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/
Behance -  http://behance.net
Waterstones (I could look in store and online)
"Typography Sketchbooks" by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico
Youtube -  http://www.youtube.com/

By looking at existing poster designs for this event would give me an idea on how they have displayed their information before so that I can maintain consistency in my design. I shall try and make it slightly different but it'll be ideal to do a little bit of background research to base my design on.

I have covered hand-lettering in my previous APP project (Words) but I hope to go a bit further by experimenting a lot more and trying out more styles. This means that I would have to extend what I already new and maybe start from scratch so that I could figure out the basics of each type style. Looking at how other people have illustrated quotes would help me out as well by giving me a general idea on how to layout my words properly.

Speaking of quotes, I shall be looking at multiple websites as well as the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and Proverbs. I want my quotes to be as accurate as possible because it would just look silly if I displayed an incorrect quote at a literary festival. It would bring an unprofessional appearance and might not attract as many people to go to the event.

Reflection, Testing and Learning Outcomes
Making sure that my quotations are as accurate as possible is one of the things that I will be testing continuously  throughout my project as I don't want to get to the final stage only to realise I had worded it  incorrectly. This means I'd have to ask someone who has an extensive knowledge on literature or look up at more than one website source to make sure it's legitimate.  Another way to confirm my quotations is to flick through the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and Proverbs.

I've mentioned above that I've only dabbled in hand-lettering since my previous project, so another form of testing would be to post up what I'm working on to gain feedback so that I could correct any mistakes made in the type. Obviously the “mistakes” would make the design more organic but I want to be able to do the best I can to make it look more professional. At the same time I will jot down some notes on the feedback I received so that I can show I have considered all options to ensure a better design.
I could also gain feedback on the design as a whole to see if my target audience – literature and typography enthusiasts – like my design. If they could recognise my chosen quotations then that'll be brilliant.

Most of the learning outcomes for the FMP (Final Major Project) are quite similar to those for my APPs, although one really caught my eye: “Developed a high level of intellectual and conceptual involvement with their chosen subject area, including skills of project proposal, documentation of project development and the  presentation of outcomes.” This further emphasises the importance of me knowing what I'm working with and only makes me want to try harder in creating a near-perfect set of typographic piece. Obviously I won't be able to be completely perfect but it doesn't stop me from trying my best. I shall analyse other learning outcomes in a separate post.

Experimentation
I have partially covered what I shall be experimenting on, and this includes different type styles as well as trying out different methods on how to display my book. The brief states that I have a bit of freedom when it comes to binding and I would love to try some hand-made methods. If these methods don't work out then at least I have shown that I've tried.
I shall keep of record of each experiment with reasons of how it did/didn't work for future reference when I want to go back and improve on it.

I will experiment my final piece by showing it to my target market and assess on how they are using it as well as seeing if my quotations are recognisable.

Professional Practice
To ensure that I have covered this section I shall produce “the real thing” and actually create the book so that I could present it at an interview or a show. This means that I will have to consider different binding methods, paper, and printing companies in advance (perhaps a couple of months before my deadline) so that I don't miss the deadline because of having to wait for it to be printed. I know that our university has a connection with GFSmith so I might contact them for some paper samples.
I shall also buy a sketchbook specifically for this project so that I could show my thought process as well as a link to this blog.

Production and Contingency Planning
I shall be drafting out a time table for this project and label all of the different areas that need to be covered: research, inspiration, sketching, experimentation, and designing. I shall aim to make my schedule as spread out as possible to avoid cramming everything at once and to take it at a steady pace. It is important that I stick to this schedule to avoid panic and not producing a sufficient design. After I have completed each section I shall tick it to give me a bit of a positive-boost as I can see that I'm slowly on my way to finishing the project.


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

Learning Outcome:
[2] Developed a high level of intellectual and conceptual involvement with their chosen subject area, including skills of project proposal, documentation of project development and the presentation of outcomes.

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. 

FMP: Proposal

Liz Owen
University of Kent
 HND Graphic Design
Final Major Project 

Background Information 
Having got recently engaged, Sophie and Mark are now thinking about their big day, and over the next couple of weeks they had drafted a list of whom they’ll invite, booked the wedding venue, and now they’re ready to take the next step.
They have decided to have a fairytale themed wedding and need to have some invitations designed for them so reflect this theme. Each of the counterparts of the invitation has to have that consistent theme, and they are willing to spend as much as possible to have their perfect wedding.

The Brief 
I intend to design a wedding invitation, possibly including the R.S.V.P, dinner choices or directions card, which shall all be reflecting the fairytale theme.

Research and Methodology 
For this I am going to look at already existing designs to see how the information is displayed on the stationary set, including designs from Behance.net and major wedding companies. This could also include looking at wedding magazines to see what kind of packages they have to offer.

Here are some of the books, websites and magazines I intend to have a look at:
Wedding Magazine - http://www.weddingandweddingflowers.co.uk/
Brides Magazine - http://www.bridesmagazine.co.uk/
You and Your Wedding - http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/
B&G - http://www.brideandgroomdirect.co.uk/
Paperchain Wedding Stationary http://www.paperchainweddingstationery.co.uk/
“Stationary Design Now!” by Ed. Julius Wiedemann
“Making and Breaking The Grid” by Timothy Samara

By researching into wedding companies and magazines would help me figure out what information needs to be displayed on the invites so that I could avoid missing out important information. Wedding invitations might have a set of guidelines and if they do I would need to find out what order to put everything in.
I could also look further into the wording of the information because I know that some are done quite formally and so I don’t want mine to be too informal. I had already have a quick look at some designs and I realised that the name of the host often changes between the parents and the couple themselves, and I need to figure out why this is the case. Little details like this are important to the design.

I have also listed how-to design books, and this is to help me look further into the layout of the invitation so that the type displayed would be set out in a way that they could be easily understood by people of all ages.

I could also talk to couples that had already been married to see how they had presented their invites and how they were packaged, and what their expectations would be for an invite design. At the same time I could look at existing designs from stationary companies and design blogs to gather inspiration.