OUGD301 Evaluation

'A print based investigation into popular culture with a focus on packaging & promotion'
Umbrella Statement, composed at the beginning of the year.

The briefs I have undertaken throughout this module have all proved useful in helping me understand specific things about myself, be it my work ethic, my dedication, my practical skillset or even my communicative abilities. In total I have undertaken five briefs I consider to be sufficient ones, and a few other minor ones along the way. I believe the most productive way of evaluating my efforts this term is by breaking down the briefs into positives, negatives and then bringing them all back together to note any other observations throughout the module.

Brief 01: Afrika collaboration with Meryem.
During this brief I discovered that working in a partnership isn't as bad as I had initially thought. All previous collaborations I have worked in usually resulted in less than impressive outcomes and an overall negative opinion on partnerships. However, due to the nature of our individual responsibilities and the fact that we hardly ever creatively clashed, or stepped on each others toes the brief flowed easily. I do think we could have wrapped up the brief a lot quicker than we did, and could have perhaps brainstormed more creative promotion possibilties. However no one individual is to blame for these downfalls, and it is just something to consider in the future.

Positives: I worked with a material I had never worked with before; wood. I used equipment I had previously been intimidated by; the laser cutter. I took designs I was provided with from another person and expanded them, something I don't usually like to do.
Negatives: The laser cutting was extremely time consuming and a lot more failures than successes were achieved. Due to this being the first of my briefs I started with great momentum, but let it drag for far too long. We should have wrapped it up a lot sooner.


Brief 02: Almodovar Collection
This brief proved that I need to experiment more in the early stages instead of settling on a visual approach quickly and letting it overwhelm me in the later stages. I should have experimented with typefaces a lot more, and even colour combinations. However I was extremely pleased with the outcome and can see a level of consumerism in the product. It also taught me that working with a subject matter that interests me helps hold my concentration levels, and that I can keep momentum going for long periods of time.

Positives: I think I really perfected my use of colour with this brief. I've always considered colour a big part of my work, but I think this one helped me realise it can lift a brief much higher. I also loved working with inDesign, and developing my layout skills with the booklet.
Negatives: Again because of how long I kept the brief going, I lost concentration and struggled with juggling this and others. Next time I will have to work on a much quicker turn around.

Brief 03: The Body Shop
I've always been someone who likes to physically make as many things as possible. That's where I felt out of place with this brief. The majority of my ideas were proposals, something I felt uncomfortable with, and probably will avoid in the future. However I do realise if I have ideas above my station, mocking things up is the way forward. Hopefully this will help me in thinking 'outside the box' in future briefs.

Positives: I worked with cosmetic packaging, an area I have never explored before and quite frankly thought wouldn't suit me. But I have discovered another field of package design that appeals to me, and this will hopefully open many doors in the future.
Negatives: No matter how hard I try I can not make things look 3D when they simply are not. I'm going to have to look into what measures I can take to develop this.

Brief 04: M&S Picnic
For a brief that I admittedly left until the last minute I was proud of my resolutions. After workshops with Fred I was reminded to take a step back from designing at the start of any brief, something which I needed reminding of. Hopefully this will forever be at the forefront of my mind. I took the time out to work with a pen and paper, I came up with a tagline I was really proud of. Proof that taking the time to think, rather than mindlessly design, is always worth it.

Positives: The written aspect. I actually liked my tagline, and think it worked incredibly well. The obvious inspiration from classic Hollywood titles really helped me visually.
Negatives: The ways in which I applied my designs to other formats. I was incredibly underwhelmed by my efforts to work across other mediums. I just couldn't get them right.

Brief 05: Cult Zine
For a brief that started as a bit of fun I was very proud of the final publication. It's something that I think has a lot of potential, and am a little apprehensive about evaluating as I consider it to be an ongoing brief. I hope to pick it up again for the FMP, and ideally would like a series of publications following the concept by the end of the year.

Positives: The amount of compliments I have received, and the money I made. And again with the laser cutter; it's opened many doors for me.
Negatives: I wish I had taken it further for this brief, however with the time constraints I just couldn't fit it in. Perhaps an earlier realisation that I would be so proud would spur me on more.

In conclusion OUGD301 has been an extremely trying time. I have discovered things about myself I was not aware of, both practically and mentally. I admit to losing momentum and falling out of love with the module at times, but I would have to say my revelatory moment was the 'capability' group crits. Having Fred basically put into words exactly what I have been thinking for the last two years was what I needed to hear. I know I can make things look nice, but I fail when it comes to range and executing to the highest level. It was eye opening and I appreciate the surplus effort made by the tutors. Hopefully I can prove my worth during the rest of my time on the course.

And I will never miss a visiting professional seminar again.

Final Double Sided Posters

Exterior Boxset Net

I've been wanting to develop the exterior box for my Almodovar DVD collection for a while, and saw this opportunity as the perfect time to do that. The colour scheme is derived from all the previous work I have done and the typefaces tie in as well. There were several aspects of the package that I was apprehensive about designing, due to not knowing which approach work best. However after trying out a range of different compositions I settled on one that I think works best.

Printing

Today I had a printing session with James. I had had it booked for a while and wanted to make sure all the appropriate material was completely finished, and I was confident enough to print it on good quality stock at full scale. I was slightly apprehensive about the ability of the printers, and if printing double sided with perfect alignment was possible. I had a brief discussion with James, and he suggested we would get the best results if we laid out the design on the page as seen below. I had to make sure the first layer, the most square one, was centrally aligned and the second layer was placed directly on top. After arranging all the different layers we went ahead and printed them and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Now I have to carefully cut out the nets and assemble them as neatly as possible.

Final Nets: DVD Packaging

Today I was focused on finishing the packaging for my Almodovar Brief. I had several sections of the net completed, but there where sections that I was purposefully avoiding. This was mainly because I didn't know what to place on them. However I stuck with it and, hopefully, came up with a clear and coherent design that communicates the intentions of this brief with vibrancy and attractiveness. Below are A2 sheets with each individual finished net. 

Update: I have now booked a session in the digital print resource which will allow me to print the nets to full scale, double sided and on the appropriate stock. Time: Friday 11th November, 2pm.

DVD Mock Ups

I wanted to see how the large scale imagery would look when in context. So what I did was place the flap of the packaging in the right position, so as to create the sleeve that will hold the booklet. I think it works pretty well for each one, with perhaps the only image needing to be changed being Antonio Banderas. From here I will look into finding a better quality photo.

Development: 5th Nov

Poster Development

Development: 2nd November

After playing around with colour and the way it can be most effectively utilised I settled on one of the ideas shown in the previous post, the 'Volver' idea. I then applied the formula to all the pages I already had, added quotes and the finished outcome can be seen in the following flip book. After publishing it I have come to the realisation that there are a few mistakes I have overlooked, and that will need to be changed before the final printing. Nevertheless I feel my ideas are being successfully communicated now.

Typography Composition

After calculating the number of pages I would be producing, and the format of the booklet, I decided to start working on the composition of the text. I want it to be simple, concise and easy to digest. I do not want to overface the reader, instead I want to give them a taste of the Almodovar world and hopefully excite their interest. The flip book above shows how the typography could possibly work, with each film description following exactly the same layout formula. It took a while to find a format that suited each one because of the varying amounts of information I have provided. However I managed to settle on a composition and think it works in terms of legibility.

The next step in the process is to start introducing colour into the booklet. However in order to make sure I am working as efficiently as possible I created the swatch to the left. Each actor has been assigned the colours within its original pallet, with the appropriate name clearly displayed. This will help speed up my process. Below are a few possible compositions using both the text layout and the swatch colours.

Booklet Pagination

The following post may seem a little confusing at first, perhaps even a little irrelevant. However it is key in helping my move this project along. I've known I wanted to produce a booklet to accompany the DVD boxsets for a while, but had no idea how to tackle it. I started by drawing a few illustrations on how I would seperate each of the actors and the two films they feature in. I came to the conclusion that because of the size of the booklet, which is quite small, each film needs a page dedicated to information which is purely textual and a page which is a little more fun, with either an illustration or a large scale quote. I then used inDesign to lay this out very basically.

Together with a front and back cover, the booklet itself would be 34 pages; alternatively 17 double page spreads. At first this seems quite a lot but I will attempt it. However if it becomes too overwhelming and takes over the main focus from the packaging then I will consider focusing on just one film from each actor. This would decrease the size of the booklet, meaning 13 double page spreads and 26 pages in total, which still seems like quite a lot.

Below is the inDesign document that helped me come to the conclusions above.

Development: 1st November

Development: 31st October

Colours

Typeface Experimentation

Crit Feedback: 20th Oct

More Almodovar

In order to fully comprehend the direction I was going with the brief I thought it important to have a thorough understanding of at least one actor and the two films that are included in their repertoire. I decided to go with Carmen Maura and her portrayals of 'Pepi' in 1980's 'Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap' and 'Gloria' in 1984's 'What Have I Done to Deserve This?'. In order to gain an in depth knowledge into the roles and the directorial style of Almodovar I watched both films whilst taking notes  on key plot lines, memorable objects and the prevalence of certain colours. From here I went on to think how I could combine the two films into one package. My thought process can be seen below.

Initial Documentation: Brief Two

I thought that before I could begin with design work for my second brief I would need to organise my thoughts and decide on what it was exactly that I would be doing. I needed to know what the 'problem' was, which could consist of many different aspects. Below are a few scans of my notebook that document initial theoretical thoughts, practical ones and some early research into the subject matter. It was usedul to get this stuff done early on, as it cleared my head and prepared myself for what task I was about to undertake.

After getting the initial idea generation out of my head and some early research I decided to just carry out some very rough visual experimentation. This was purely for my benefit; after writing and thinking for a period of time I thought it necessary to jump back into design work. I was playing around with type and colour, and I actually created some visuals that I was really pleased with. These are early designs that I may take forward, and expand on.

Almodovar Categorisation

After my tutorial with Lorenzo it became apparent I had to take a step back and think more carefully about the development process rather than begin designing. So that's exactly what I did. I thought for longer about how I could categorise the Almodovar back catalogue and if there was appropriate way of shortening the list of re-designs. Below are a few page scans showing my thought process.

At the end of the brainstorming session I came up with a form of categorization that I think could work really. Almodovar is a director who is well known for using the same actors and actresses, sometimes writing specific parts with them in mind. So I thought I could take a handful of his 'regulars' and use the collaboration approach to get the results I want. The five 'muses' I will be using are:

Carmen Maura
Pepi, Luci, Bom and other Girls on the Heap (1980)
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)

Cecilia Roth
Labyrinth of Passion (1982)
All About My Mother (1999)

Julieta Serrano
Dark Habits (1983)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

Penelope Cruz
Volver (2006)
Broken Embraces (2009)

Antonio Banderas
Matador (1986)
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)

An observation that I made whilst researching the characters played by the actors in the above films is the contrast. For each actor, one film seems to be serious and quite intense, while the other is comical and almost farcical. This is something I could really use to my advantage, and opens up a complete new avenue for design possibilities.

Colours

I wanted to have a physical piece of design that I could touch and gage success on. I decided to print off a quick design that I had created in a design session, mainly to see how bold the colours where when not on my screen. I have learnt from previous briefs that the colours don't always translate and have therefore been disappointed with my final resolutions as it always been too late to change. This time I decided to get on top of things early and make sure my 'tangible' objects are as successful off screen as they are on. Below are a few images I captured of the print outs.