OUGD406// Branding an Exhibition 01

This brief has us breaking down what goes into the creation of an exhibition. We need to consider logo's/branding, Wayfinding, social media/public relations, advertisements and any other USP to enhance the concept. 

My interpretation of the brief is to contribute and communicate as effectively as possible, making sure everyone has an aspect to focus on and I am proud of what I personally produce. My aims are to be in the design process, alongside developing a concept as part of a coherent group. I am aware there are technically stronger designers in my group (Group 4), so if taking a back seat on some of the most important material, such as logo design or promotion is the best thing for the group, then I am happy to do so.

Groups Initial Ideas //

Trying to work out a possible concept, ascetic and essentially figure out the brief.

Experimenting with Clever Names. We decided that if the name was clever then we may be able to structure a concept around it, using the name as a starting point.

Playing with the idea of a 'Cheap' concept, inspired by research sourced by Matt Fraser. The idea of cheaply produced colourful walls was intriguing to all group members, yet we need to remember not to limit our idea's. By introducing cheap material we felt a juxtaposition could be acheived in contrast to the artwork and space, yet this would need to be communicated effectively to be successful. The costing can be worked out later and idea's can be scaled back if need be. By having 6 people in our group, it feels a shame not to be ambitious. 

Exploring corporate styles reflecting of the Bank House space, playing on the concept of bankers and money. 

First possible name and concept, keep it cheap, playful and paper based. Everything could be made up of textured paper or 'money'.

Initial Research //

As the brief took place over the Easter holidays, I was fortunate enough to visit the Picasso museum whilst spending some time in Spain. As none had yet expressed an interest in conducting the Way-finding, I found these interesting options at the Picasso museum as research.

Fluid and coherent use of type and colour combinations. A vivid orange is visible throughout, on the above promotional material and merchandise. On the inside a two colour system is implemented, ranging between Exhibitions and Titles conveyed in Orange, and simplistic way finding conducted in a pale grey. The simple San-Serif typeface is clear and modern, creating a juxtaposition with the abstract qualities seen through the artwork. A simple pictogram complements the Way finding, allowing universal readability despite being in Spanish.

Exploring the use of numbers as part of a concept. These numeric designs reminded me of stock exchanges and postmodern communication, whilst the monetary quality fully links to the exhibition purpose. I felt this could be an avenue to progress with regards to the theme 'Cash Only', showing imagery made up from numbers and even showcasing projections on the blank walls at the exhibition. It was raised in the group that this could be communicated better if we didn't restrict ourselves to pure numbers, allowing an illustrative side to evolve.

Resolving idea's //

• After assessing our research as a group, wanted to pursue a fun and energetic route yet feel the title 'Cash Only' is limiting what we could do. We have concluded that by introducing a playful and humorous element, this may distract the fact that an exhibition on money has the potential to be really boring and unengaging. Some members of the group felt the paper aspect would also cheapen the tone of the event, rather than creating a juxtaposition- something we want to avoid.

• From this we concluded that we wanted to decipher a target audience, allowing us to cater specifically for them. It was raised by a member of the group that we communicate best what we already know, so concluded that by targeting Young Professionals and Young Creatives may be the best avenue to pursue. We felt just addressing students was fairly limiting, especially as we want to integrate with the Leeds creative scene and hopefully allow the exhibition to be featured in blogs and publications. 

Observing the space prior to any design decisions //

As Bank House is situated in the Financial District of Leeds, stated as a listed building, we wanted to observe the space prior to committing to changing anything drastically. In the initial briefing we were told the room would be large, yet only by visiting did we get a scale of the space. It was clear the space would need more than just the artwork to fill it, giving us the idea of supporting charities or introducing a print sale/food vendor in one section of the room.

 

Final names to explore //

The Wolves Of King Street... Bank House is situated on King Street, playing on the Wolf Of Wall St humour. Cash Only/ Numerical Bish Bash Dosh/ Cheap As Chips Dosh n Squash/ Bangers & Cash

As we couldn't decide as a group on one avenue to pursue at this stage, we broke off into smaller groups for further research. Nanami and I chose the 'numerical' avenue, yet chose to keep the name as 'a license to print money' as a placeholder title. At the time we felt 'Numerical' was far too short, and perhaps would be misconstrued as a Fine Art event/Perfume brand. We opted for a green to highlight the corporate avenue, alongside a subtle coding element relating to the numerical theme.

I wanted to explore a abstract, brutalist style of promotion, incorporating a ticket idea emphasising the numeric theme. I opted for Din Alternative Bold as a typeface due to the rigid structure and modernist connotations. My intentions for this were to create a coded appearance, allowing the viewer to interact with the poster from all angles, either walking too or walking away. This is just a very first draft and will be refined later, purely to showcase the Numeric idea. This can be complemented by coding projected/vinyl stuck to the walls, with a 'stock broker' humour running throughout.

Other idea's within this concept were to explore glitch art and decoding as a whole. However, when discussing this with the group it was raised that the ascetic created may detract from the artwork, prompting it to go no further.  

I wanted to explore how the work could be displayed, keeping in mind the simplistic style of the Picasso Museum.
After speaking to many peers and exhibition contributors, they have expressed an interest to have a small piece of information next to their piece, showing their name and a small sentence about their concept/design decisions. As this was still in the theme of Numerical, I wanted to implement the same visual ascetic and typeface as above. The 01 references the first piece of artwork, naturally the digits would change as the journey around the exhibition progressed.