OUGD603: Research Brief Secondary Idea - Sustainable Jewellery Packaging

After working in a jewellers for over a year, I have witnessed the sheer amount of plastic waste which occurs daily (in just one store!). Each piece of jewellery is individually bagged in a plastic press top bag, with 1 pair of earrings = 3 bags (earrings are bagged up individually and then placed in another larger plastic bag to avoid scratching).

Considering this issue on a larger scale, if our store is throwing away 250+ plastic bags a day, the total impact just the one industry has on the environment is staggering, especially as most people do not see the waste which occurs.

I have found an alternative to the standard plastic bags Azendi use, which are biodegradable, compostable yet retain quality and reusability.

1 standard bag = 1 biodegradable bag = 0.004p

Made out of biodegradable materials, the grip seal bag has the same properties of plastic, without the polythene or PP/PVC - the polymers are lighter and denser, reducing the total plastic use than less than 1% per bag, whereas the alternatives are 100% plastic.

The issue is that there IS an alternative solution out there, yet it seems people do not know about it

OUGD603: Unentitled - LIVE - Logo Devel - Final Logo & Colour Ways

Client Selected Treatment Board

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Final Logo

Simplistic and able to stand the test of time, breaking down the word 'Unentitled' into 3 groups, the italic's give a separation to the way Unentitled is spoken, just as you would take a breath when speaking phonetically. To represent the linguistic form the exhibition is taking. using symbols and turning the 'i' to a colon adds a contemporary simplicity whilst injecting it with english language.

Colour Ways

When receiving feedback on the treatment boards, Lucy mentioned that she loved the pastel tones and that they were planning on doing their anthology website in pastel tones (decided by class vote). To link the exhibition identity to the anthology, I thought it would be appropriate to experiment with the pastel tones, which can add a contemporary factor to the deliverables as pastels are 'on trend' right now. 

Due to the simplicity of the logo, the colour pallet is interchangeable and still works. This will be carried across posters, social media and fundraising event promotion. 

The black is more impactful from a distance, yet does not properly link to the muted tones. By using a white the legibility is still maintained, yet with a softer overall aesthetic relating to the chilled contemporary atmosphere of the event.

Email Footer

In order for the logo to work across all platforms, a consistency needs to be kept for 'formal' and 'informal' medias - formal communication such as letterheads, email footers, invoices, even invites etc need to integrate the same consistency. As email is the main form the Unentitled committee will be using, I experimented with Email Footers, which are an easy way to increase professionally when communicating with professionals. This will help give the directors further credibility, as well as a a visual identity to Unentitled.

Final Footer created on Exclaimer!

OUGD603: Unentitled - LIVE - Logo Devel

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Starting this brief I was unsure on how to go about creating a logo - After speaking to peers I decided a logotype was the most appropriate solution, giving immediate uncoded communication. Despite the exhibition being about poetry, novels and other forms of creative writing, the students who have created the work are discussing contemporary issues and bringing the subject forward for the 21st century, with this in mind, I wanted the logotype to encompass both traditional and contemporary connotations whilst maintaining legibility across scales.

This is the first year of the event, with future years potentially keeping the name and logo for future exhibitions- with this in mind I started to play around with numbers and interchangeable qualities which can be simply adjusted year on year. When saving files on the computer, Untitled 01, 02 etc becomes the norm due to the pre-set nature, so one can end up with hundreds of files 'Unentitled..' on their computer, with this in mind I wanted to tap into this commonality all ages share, playing on the similarities between 'Untitled' and 'Unentitled', giving an overarching light tone of voice with the numbers correlating to the year of the exhibition- e.g.: fist year, Unentitled_01. 

Experimenting with black letter gothic type. After my first meeting with Lucy, she explained how some of the work which will be in the exhibition is quite dark, so by using a gothic typeface the logo may foreshadow and hint to the work. However, when considering the longevity of this, black letter type can seem quite dated, so something simpler and more contemporary may stand a better test of time (especially when considering the primary target audience).

Experimenting with lesser used symbols in the English language, reflecting the full variations of typography and linguistics. I assigned a symbol to reflect a letterform, e.g - @| = d and * = I to create different abstract compositions spelling out the word Unentitled. After a few attempts this is not screaming 'logo' to me, and I feel that without a linguistic message the audience may struggle relating the symbols to Unentitled. 

<crit/printed + annotated logos with feedback>

TREATMENT BOARDS

Due to the tight turn around needed for the logo (3 days en-counting), I decided to speed up the process and create three treatment boards. When visiting agencies in NYC, the general advice was to always give the client 3 different options - so they do not feel backed into a corner by only having 1 or 2 to pick from. I created treatment boards with possible logo starting points, as well as a visual guide to my influence around that style and the direction which the rest of the deliverables could head in. 

San-Serif

Clean, modernist, formal and consistent grid systems. Clean colour pallets with possible aspects of pastels/metallics/spot glosses/perspex linking to the light and airy feel of the slender letterforms. Typefaces to explore in this style are Univers, DP Rooberts, Helvetica, Futura and more contemporary typefaces (licenses depending) from sites such as VTF Typefoundry. This can also be a way to introduce contemporary graphic design into the verbal landscape.

Serif

Slightly more traditional and suggestive of book copy type, to link to the exhibition's content and history of the English language and early typographic presses. I initially experimented with Bodoni, Caslon and other historic British typefaces associated with literary works. Despite having a more traditional aesthetic than the san-serif, the direction of deliverables can be just as contemporary by exploring fluid compositions and even hand-pressed type, using the letterpress or even mono printing. 

Hand Rendered

The hand rendered type-style was what initially jumped into my mind when starting this brief. When one thinks of 'great writers', an image of pages and pages of handwritten manuscripts come to mind- nothing gets creativity out like pouring all ideas onto a page - often messy and unlined, but true and honest.  This style could have slightly more feminine connotations, therefore if this style was picked by Lucy I would need to consider the colour palette very carefully to make sure it was gender-neutral and therefore more appealing to the target audience.

FEEDBACK FROM LUCY

After learning that Lucy can be slow at replying to emails, I decided to streamline conversation and use iMessage instead. This has proven to be a good idea as replying is no longer an issue. When sending over the treatment boards via email, I also rang her to verbally explain the concept and direction of each board in simpler ways, as this has proven to be successful for getting an immediate response in the past.

OUGD603: Unentitled - LIVE - The Audience

The audience for Unentitled is a mixture of age groups - realistically, the main demographic to attend end-of-year events are students and local practitioners in the field, tutors etc. In addition to this, publishers will be invited to help propel the students into the professional world, so the age demographic could range from 18-25, 25-45, even 50+ as many professionals in the writing field do tend to be of older age.

Distribution of marketing material will be mainly within the university, including print based artefacts and on the digital screens. The team running the event are looking into getting a licence to distribute A2 posters on the hexagons around Leeds City Centre, which will be a better way of getting the exhibition out there and attract more people than those specifically invited.

Other ways to do this are to flyer/advertise in spots popular for the target audiences - e.g.: Village Leeds, Waterstones, nearby Cafe's to Publishers in Leeds (or other desirable employers), social media, English and creative departments in other universities.

Main Publishers in Leeds

OUGD603: Unentitled - LIVE - Exhibition Research

In order to best execute the branding for Unentitled, it is important to see what other exhibition identities are like and investigate the conventions. As Unentitled is a literary event, I cannot rely on my personal primary knowledge to guide me in the right direction, as I have never been to an exhibition of this style before. Naturally, being an exhibition of words a typographic solution is seeming the most appropriate.

'Comedy Feast' was a 3 day event in central London, the simple logo lends itself nicely to the overall holistic identity, giving a contemporary and playful formulae across all media. The typography is both in your face and soft, with the curved edges highlighting the fluidity of the design, suggesting a non-intimidating environment and playfulness all round - similar to fonts such as Comic Sans. The colour palette is simple and uniform, yellow being the 'happiest colour' to provoke and encourage laughter, as well as allowing interchangeability throughout posters/billboards etc within the palette. The 't' in the logo is also curved to look like half a smiley face, bringing elements of interactivity into the logo design itself - wear it on your hand, your face, even t-shirts or totes; the 't' is almost it's own logo and identity factor for Comedy Feast, linking with the light and playful tone of voice immediately. 

JW Anderson's 'Disobedient Bodies' was one of my personal favourite exhibitions of all time. An ultra simplistic identity depicts a basic white and black colour palette and consistent 9x9 / 10x10 grid system across all print and digital media. The mixture of image and type works well in this style with the vast amount negative space suggesting a higher luxury of event, which is appropriate seeing J.W Anderson practices luxury fashion. 

Despite not having a logo, the typographic structure acts as the identity for the exhibition and a frame of reference for the audience. 

Falmouth University also run a Creative Writing exhibition every year, and this is the promotion for the 2017 event. Introducing abstracts and image into the literary landscape adds another dimension to the pieces, never the less the design remains quite ambiguous, with no immediate communication that it is an exhibition or when it is. It does not look like Falmouth have a running logo for the event, which if used year on year, could act as a signifier to the event and negate the need for additional information due to pre-existing recognisability by students, visitors and faculty staff.

Pleasure Principles is a smaller event, hosted at Village in Leeds by two photography-graduates, exploring sexuality and the body. Again, no set logo was used but rather a consistent type style and vivid colour palette, both accross social media and in the exhibition setting itself. The vividity of the image brings to life the concept they are exploring, whilst giving a visual draw into the exhibition, where the audience will see more of the same.

William Eggleston at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, February 2018 - naturally, Eggleston and The Met are both big names, therefore didn't need much additional design (or even have a logo) to encourage foot falls. However, it is interesting to consider that Eggleston did not keep consistent branding across the exhibition and the Los Alamos publications,  but instead opted for the Chromes branding. This could be to create a holistic brand within the Eggleston name, yet I feel that it is giving too much of a cross over between bodies of work which are not to dissimilar in aesthetic and photographic context. Doing this may only work for such a big name, therefore I will try to maintain consistency rather than mix and match.

It is evident that most exhibitions don't necessarily have a set logo - the organisation running it may, as may the charity or location, but in the most successful cases of exhibition branding, the actual event is vocalised through the whole visual style and identity encompassing it. Despite this, a simple logo is required in the brief and it is always good to have to showcase consistency across all platforms - with this in mind, the logo scale/style needs to be adjustable so to make it fit in across any/all media.

OUGD603: Unentitled Creative Writing - LIVE BRIEF

 Branding & Identity is naturally a core part of graphic design, yet isn't really something I have developed skills in as a practitioner. I plan to change this, so have found a live brief to do for a Leeds Beckett event, allowing me to work on a real world project. Unentitled is a final year creative writing exhibition, which will be running for 1 week at the end of May. The exhibition will be used as showcase of the end of year work, as well as a way to invite publishers and industry professionals to see what's on offer. 

I have realised that I put less effort/energy into fictitious briefs as I would do real world events, as often fictitious briefs are never really implemented out of a class room environment, which I find quite pointless. The benefit of 'doing' in a real world environment is also to the necessity to meet deadlines and work as part of a larger team, something I found to be a driving force for me learning from LRFS & other work.

Initial Contact

Communication was proving to be an issue with Lucy as she does not regularly check her emails, to streamline this I thought it would be best to send over my mobile number so we can talk on the move away from emails quicker and easier. This proved successful, and within 10 minuets of me sending my number, she gave me a call and we had a long chat discussing the event, the work, the participants, the committee running it and what she essentially needed- and it was much more than just a 'logo design'.

As Lucy has not provided any set brief, I decided to write my own and give myself the deliverables based on the events needs - some of which have definitely been over looked by the committee. 

The name 'unentitled' stems from that the committee is quite divided in how they want the exhibition to run, and even what to call it. Furthermore, with millennials being now known for their 'sense of entitlement', they wanted to use this as an opportunity to say that we're not entitled, nor do we all share this mentality.