Friday 28 March 2014

OUGD503: STUDIO BRIEF 2 - Creative Partners // YCN Champneys - Pre-Submission Boards Crit

Before we submitted our boards to YCN, we've decided to critique our boards with Sean, Dan and Grace. Just so we know the imagery is appropriate and the text makes sense. I also want to know if our concept is pitched correctly.


Impact page was fine, large image, logo, impactful, draws the audience in. 


Some alterations to the text is needed, doesn't really pitch the concept, and it doesn't really make sense. Probably down to my poor english skills, and I was in a rush. However, Sean, Grace and Dan combed through it, and altered it so it made more sense. 


Another page is good imagery, however the text also needed a few adjustments to allow it to flow and read better. Just general grammar issues. 


The page for the website page was good, bold and impactful, showed the website, doesn't need text.


Plenty of grammar issues on the printed proposal page, the imagery was good, and strong. Just needed to sort the text out, again. 


Text alterations are needed. Tweaked the image's alignment to it fits better. 


The final board showing how Champneys work in the environment was fine. A few alterations in the text was needed, but it wasn't too much to do. 

The final boards will be included in the submission post, with all the amendments included. 

Wednesday 26 March 2014

OUGD503: STUDIO BRIEF 2 - Creative Practice // YCN Champneys Submission

Ewan and I submitted our work to YCN today. Prior to this we had a critique with Dan and Sean, to spot all the faults on our boards, the majority of which were just type errors, as I'm rather terrible at English, as I'm sure It's evident on this blog.



You can see the YCN Student Awards Entry Form above, with all the relevant information in the entry fields for the submission. 


As above, you can see the confirmation screen for this project, when we submitted it. 


The final boards we submitted to YCN Champneys

Tuesday 25 March 2014

OUGD505: STUDIO BRIEF 2 - An Exhibition of Aston Martin // Logo design (first phase)

I've begun to design the logo for the branding and identity, I really want to implement the design of a race track, where the event will be held, into the logo. To really tie the two together. Doing so will also signify the idea of racing. 


I decided to use Oulton park as a placeholder for the event, trying to find a way to make the race track outline fit with the using the logo of Aston Martin to attach the event to the brand. With the tag line underneath, perhaps in a smaller lighter font, to 


The three tracks I've chosen are dunsfold, oulton park and silverstons, all popular tracks in the UK. 









OUGD505: STUDIO BRIEF 2 - An Exhibition of Aston Martin // Proposal Presentations

As part of studio brief 2, we've been asked to present our publication for studio brief 1 and how it will lead us into studio brief 2. For this task, I've prepared the brief, which I've written, and some supporting research, which i've documented on my design context blog.


The brief is written for this project alone, and I'm using my own interests to lead the brief, determining into what areas I'll be producing content; for example, branding & identity, information & way-finding and promotion. 



Taking part in this presentation helped me develop my skills, upon speaking to roughly 35 people (ask some people didn't turn up, nerves I imagine), I don't often speak in front of a group more than 10, so the larger amount is something I need to get used to, and doing more presentations more frequently is something I'll definitely benefit from, as I learn by doing. As I've learnt from PPP and attending talks, and studios, presenting an idea or a concept, or even talking about your work is something every designer has to do. I would rather develop those skills now, where there's room for error, and I'm able to receive formative feedback. In order to develop and build upon these skills, so I'm able to apply them to a professional environment.

Monday 24 March 2014

OUGD505: STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Product, Range & Distribution // Final Publication Leaves

Following the final critique for the publication, I've created the final-final leaves for the publication. I've made alterations based on the feedback from the critique.
The alterations I've made go as follows.


On the le mans results page, I've separated the results up, doing this makes them easier to differentiate and read the results. Adding spacing between the results achieves this. I also moved the additional information down, lowered the point size and then adjusted the tint of the type, to make it less visible, as not to draw away from the main content, the results. 


Speaking with Phil following the crit, he recommend I break up the text with line breaks, rather than with indentations. I tried this throughout the publication, and I think it works better. It makes the text flow better; and it has an overall more appealing visual quality, as it breaks it up, making it look less daunting to read, rather than a huge block of text. 


This works especially well on the larger more content filled pages, such as the main history page. 


On this page I moved the images and type around slightly, as I was told that the grid system I've used has a few inconsistencies, so I rearranged the images to allow them to fit the grid. I also justified the type left and right for type which fits within the same column as an image - which should improve the definition of the grid. 

Sunday 23 March 2014

OUGD503: STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Individual Practice // D&AD npower Application Pages

All the pages of the application have been designed. Following the advanced grid system and the colour scheme, with use of the illustrations as iconography, i was able to grid the design of the app out. For all the pages which were listed in the initial mind maps. There are a total of eleven pages/page variants which have been designed. Enough to pitch the concept which I've proposed to npower. 


The partial range of the app pages mocked up onto the vector iPhone illustrations, to demonstrate to D&AD and npower how the application might look on an iPhone. The horizontal iPhones show how the application works dynamically. 


The electricity monitoring by room page allows the user to track the electricity expenditure in each individual room of the home which requires power. 


The page above work works with the page below. The dynamically horizontal version of the chart page shows a bar graph for a longer amount of time than the vertical version of the application page. 



The vertical version of the chart page shows the amount of gas expenditure per month.


The main electricity page, from here you can access the room monitoring page or even the chart page. 


The main gas page, which shows the temperature of your home currently, allowing you to control the gas usage remote from anywhere with the plus and minus button. 


The landing page, which you're greeted with when launching the application. 


The hamburger menu, which is launched when tapping the hamburger in the top right hand corner of every page throughout the application, it supplies links to the rest of the application, easily. 


The main page of the application, where you can decided which you would like to monitor. 


Metre reading page, where you can enter of monitor your metre readings on the application, which syncs with your account. 


Sign in screen, which loads following the landing page when you open the application. 


Saturday 22 March 2014

OUGD503: STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Individual Practice // D&AD npower Grid system development

As part of the application development I need to develop a grid system. Something which I can use to base the application design upon. I've always made grid systems a fundamental part of my design, with very close attention to detail, assuring every pixel aligns. 

The grids are important to the design of applications to assure the continuity of the design. So the app flows throughout the pages, as you navigate your way through the application.


The grid system follows a six column, throughout, size can the be be split into three columns or two when needed, to suit the needs of the design. Perhaps for large icons, or similar.

I can then apply this grid system to some of the design scamps I drew earlier. 


Above are some of the variants for the application landing page. I've decided to take the top left variant and apply the grid system to the design of it, to create the first page of the many, for the application. 


The first application page you'll be greeted with is the landing page, it features the gradient from the colour palette, with the npower logo in the 5% colour from the palette. The logo, type and illustrations are all aligned to the grid system, which will allow them to work consistently throughout the application. 



Friday 21 March 2014

OUGD503: STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Individual Practice // D&AD npower Illustrations

Looking at the vast majority of my scamps, I realised I would need to create some vector illustrations for my application. I began to look on the npower website for images I could illustrate. I looked on the npower website for the same reason I sampled colours from the logo - to add some brand consistency to the design. Using elements customers will already associate with npower. 


I chose the image of the flame, which represents the gas part of the brand and the energy savers bulb which represents the electricity part of the brand. Using these as the main iconography for the application would help tie the application to the brand, along side the colour scheme.




The illustrations for both the icons have been created, using pen tool in illustrator to go around the edges of the shapes, carefully, as not to deform them. They look pretty good. I think they will work well incorporated into elements of the application. 

OIGD503: STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Individual Practice // D&AD npower Colour Pallette


The application I'm designing needs a colour palette, as I want it to have a limited colour scheme throughout. The research I've carried out for the application, all the apps which look aesthetically pleasing in my eyes, all have a limited colour range. 


To add some brand consistency, as the application is for npower, I've decided to sample the majority of the main colours from the company logo. The logo is a gradient passing from red, through purple to a blue. Picking the most left, central and right parts of the logo, with the dropper tool in illustrator or photoshop, should give me three distinguishable and relatable colours, which represent the brand. 


The colour scheme has been selected the rich red blue and purple have been sampled from the company logo. The lighter blue is actually an increased white version of the rich blue, something to be used as the colour for the interface throughout the application, as it works with the other colours due to it's contrast of hue and saturation. The final two colours also also tones of the previous blue, at 10% and 5%. These two colours contrast with the overs due to their tone, hue and saturation, which makes them great colours for background or for type. 

Sunday 16 March 2014

OUGD503: STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Individual Practice // OAC Photography Business Cards

As part of the collateral of this brief, I've produced two variants of the business card, for the client to get their hands on, and see if they like them - or not. They're printed using the printer in studio two, so the quality isn't the best, however, apart from iffy black printing, it hasn't turned out too bad. 



The back and the front of the first variation, the only difference between the two is the logo on the front of the business card. I send the client both versions as a PDF, although, as I've found from a few years of doing this, to really make a decision, it's best to do a test print, to see how they look physically. 

Unfortunately, the printer slightly banjaxed the black logo illustration, which overlays the image. I'll be sure to use the digital print resource at college when printing the final cards, as there is a higher quality control, due to the expensive-fancy printers. 



For a change, I've doubled up the card, putting a sheet of black card in between two sheet of cartridge paper. Doing this allows for greater durability, a stronger card. Whilst also adding a level of contrast to the cards, a more unique and stylish approach to the design. If this didn't look good, I would have to use a thicker stock, print double sided, then used the edge painting method I learned, that I'm using in another brief. 



The reverse of the business cards, both are identical. I'm particularly happy with the iconography, which works with the links. I've used iconography as it works with the icons on the front of the business card.