Year: 2021

Coaching Reading Visual Identity

Background

Our client, Julie Williams, is part of a network called ‘Coaching Reading’, which is a community of people who are qualified and/or passionate about coaching. Together they offer executive and lifestyle coaching. They are a community of local coaching professionals who continue their professional development by learning new coaching techniques and offer free coaching to charities. The network needed a strong visual identity to help provide an online presence in order to build their profile in the Reading area. This project was taken on as a team of 2, Emma and Faith.

Restating and understanding the brief

We had an initial meeting with our client, who told us in detail what her network was and what their aims were for the future. Our client had a background in marketing with very large and corporate companies, which was a positive for us as we could trust her opinion was from professional experience. The initial signed off brief stated the client would like:

  • A logo, including an inverted version
  • Visual identity guidelines
  • Social media banners

The main objectives were to make the visual identity “warm and professional, not cold and corporate, to appeal to both charities and businesses”. An initial suggestion from the client was to perhaps design a logo inspired by well-known monuments in Reading, such as the Forbury lion. After these initial deliverables were completed and approved by our client, she asked us if we wanted to produce some Word and PowerPoint templates, which we were happy to produce.

We would meet up with our client regularly over Zoom, and on occasion we would meet with her network during their scheduled meetings.

Research

To start the project we first developed user personas to help us gauge an understanding of the type of people the network work with.

It helped us get into the ‘mind’ of a coach and what the logo we design needs to exude in terms of mood and design, so it is an accurate representation of Coaching Reading. As Coaching Reading work with charities, they need to come across as ‘professional’, yet ‘warm’ and ‘welcoming’.

 

Existing logos
Existing logos (continued)

We also looked at existing logos of coaching companies. This wasn’t as useful as we initially thought; a lot of coaching companies are run by sole individuals, and so some of the designs we felt were a little generic or predictable, likely as they may not have had the time or money to invest in the design process. We wanted to try and keep the logo very understandable yet unpredictable, for example we tried to avoid any logos involving ‘mind’ imagery.

 

Reading monuments

Here we looked at some ‘famous’ Reading monuments and symbols. Roman history is prominent within Reading so we were partially inspired by this.

After our first round of designs, members of the network in the Zoom meeting suggested we experience ‘coaching’ for ourselves, as it would help us understand their aims better, and what coaching is in general. We had these sessions and found them very valuable. Coaching is entirely confidential, and is mainly driven by the individual experiencing it. Coaching can help both personal issues as well as business/career related ones; the coach never gives ‘advice’, and instead asks questions about what we are saying, allowing us to talk through our thoughts and come to our own conclusions.

“By talking through my thoughts, I would subconsciously figure out a ‘story’ with my thoughts, connecting the dots and find options in resolving challenges.” – Faith

“The main focus was on me questioning my thought process and coming up with ways to solve the challenge through talking everything through, with the coach acting as guidance by asking questions to guide my thinking.” – Emma

Developing the logos

The development of the logo was by far the most time-consuming part of the project; it took us over two months to finalise a logo. However, we knew this was important to get right as the logo defined Coaching Reading, and would provide a huge stepping stone with the development of social media.

First logo concepts

We initially made designs surrounding the Forbury Lion and the Roman history that Reading had. The Forbury lion was something that initially came up in discussion in the very first meeting we had with the Coaching Reading team over zoom. We showed these designs in a zoom meeting with the team, and they provided written feedback which our client sent to us the next day. The main feedback we received was that they didn’t feel like ‘coaching’ logos, the lion in particular looked more suitable for a sports brand. The extra letter logos in particular, which were meant to resemble a ‘road’ travelling through it, seemed to be the closest in terms of what the network liked, but we knew the letter logo could be more developed and refined, so this is the next stage we took.

 

Second round of concepts

These letter logos were produced next and we showed these in the Real Jobs online meeting. Our idea with the first line of designs was ‘connecting the dots’ and doing this as a letter logo as the clients seemed to lean that way. The key idea was something we noticed in real examples, and we liked the symbolism of it. We didn’t show these designs to our client as feedback from the Real Jobs meeting suggested these ideas just weren’t strong enough yet. However, they did like the concept of letters with an object, so we kept this at the back of our minds continuing the design process.

 

Third concepts

Our client then suggested perhaps being inspired by buildings, so we looked at ‘The Blade’ (top half), The Christchurch bridge and the river Thames. We used blue colours as we felt they were calming and muted; we tried to avoid ‘bold’ colours as we felt it wasn’t suitable for their visual identity, especially after experiencing coaching ourselves. After showing these designs to our supervisor, she didn’t think they quite ‘clicked’, from her perspective it “didn’t make sense” to have a building to represent coaching, and we agreed with her opinion.

 

Fourth design concepts

At this point we felt a little worried as none of the designs we produced so far felt ‘right’, so our supervisor suggested coming up with some core words to describe the aims of Coaching Reading, we came up with two main ones, being ‘growth’ and ‘journey’. With ‘growth’ there naturally came an idea of a leaf, and we liked this idea as it was ‘calming’. We showed these to the client in a Zoom meeting with her network and they seemed to like all of the designs. This was a real breakthrough for us, something finally ‘clicked’ and they said that this was something they could really see working for their visual identity.

 

Fifth design concepts

They seemed to like the first design the most, so we tried to develop this through a ‘pick your own’ logo. We learned through our supervisor that this perhaps wasn’t the best approach as presenting a client with lots of options can confuse the client; we should make decisions on colour and line weight ourselves. We ultimately abandoned this idea as feedback from the client suggested we “strayed too far” from what her and her network initially liked.

Sixth design concepts

Here we went back to what Coaching Reading initially liked in the fourth round of concepts. We tried to refine the ideas, combining the imagery with the letters. We stripped back the options, and showed these to our Real Jobs group. They preferred 1A and 2B for its dynamic, and we added a third option by the request of our supervisor, but we wanted options 1 and 2 to shine as we really liked these. Before, the C and R in option 2 were hand-drawn, so we edited an existing typeface which we felt would fit in with the overall aesthetic of the ‘leaf’ design.

Seventh design concepts

Ultimately, the client chose option 1. We decided to stick to just two colours as this flowed well. The client stated she liked this logo the best as it represents what Coaching Reading is, and when presenting this option in a network meeting they stated how they had not seen a coaching logo such as this before, which they liked. They seemed very happy with what we had produced and this gave us a lot of confidence in ourselves as designers. Fortunately, the logo works well inverted too, the leaf shape really pops out.

Development of social media

Now our logo was signed off, our next job was to develop social media display pictures and banners for Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Initial test 1
Initial test 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took the leaves idea and decided to make it a pattern; we created a private ‘test’ account on Facebook just to see how it would look. For profile picture, we had the main logo option, but we also took the leaf from the logo and made it into a profile picture; this is something we noticed a lot of companies do if their logo may not be readable at a very small size. Initial feedback from our convenor was good, however he suggested using a grid in Illustrator to ensure the lines are an equal space apart, and with the icon the leaf stem can bleed outside the circle.

Banner option 1
Banner option 3
Banner option 2

We provided some banner options as well as colour variants of the leaf icon. Ultimately our client chose to have banner option 3, with a light green and dark green leaf profile picture. With all four social medias, we had to use trial and error with ensuring the banners align properly within the space and nothing is cut off, so on submission we provided multiple versions for each social media.

 

Linkedin mockup
Twitter mockup

As seen above, we tested on both mobile and desktop to make sure it worked on both.

Development of templates

As stated before, the idea of creating templates for Microsoft PowerPoint and Word came much later in the process. Our client urged to us that we were not obliged to do this and it was voluntary, as she knew the start of term in September was approaching. However, we were happy to do this as we already had the logo and social media designs we could use, and it would also give us great experience. Though it was something we had never designed before, a discussion with our module convenor concluded that this was something we would definitely need to know for the future. Initially, our client asked us to produce ‘Word and PowerPoint templates’, however our module convenor suggested it would be better to produce both a letter template and a ‘pitch’ template with typefaces chosen, which we then suggested to our client. She was a little hesitant at first, as she was worried about the ease of use (most people using the templates don’t have much marketing experience), however we insisted it would really help finesse their visual identity and it would be easy to understand, so she eventually trusted us with that task.

Powerpoint template variation 1
Powerpoint template variation 2

We first started to produce some powerpoint templates, as this was the ‘easiest’ to design. We took the pattern from the social media banners and extended it, we also put the leaf ‘icon’ to good use by sitting it next to the page number. We learned about master slides, and templates. By sending the client a .potx file, it will open as our blank template each time, and in the slides panel they can add our slide design to the next page.

 

Letter template 1
Letter template 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The letter templates were a little more complex. We had to make sure the text box with the recipient address was in the exact place it would show in the window of an envelope. We researched this and allowed plenty of room in case any text overspills. Again, we used a .dotx file template to ensure it opens up looking like this each time.

Cover page for pitch
Rest of pitch pages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is the ‘general document’ we produced, we provided a version with a cover, and one without, again as a .dotx file. With this and the letter, we provided a hierarchy guide. The typefaces we decided to choose were Euphemia for display text and Garamond for body text. We had to choose typefaces which were available with Microsoft Office so they were accessible to all. We felt a mixture of serif and sans serif would appear easier on the eye, as all serif typefaces may appear too corporate, which is what our client wanted to avoid (as stated in the brief). In this and the letter, we have space for Coaching Reading’s address at the bottom, however they can remove this when applicable.

Visual identity guidelines

Our final task was to create the visual identity guidelines. This was done as a pdf document, and we had to ensure it was very clear and understandable; our client emphasised to us several times throughout the project that many people in her network don’t have very much experience with marketing/designing, so we had to ensure to not use too much technical language.

Logo spacing page
Colour palette page
Document recommendations

We had various pages showing where to place the logo on a document, how to use it etc. We made diagrams for an easy visual reference, as we used all the typefaces and colours we recommended within the guidelines to demonstrate how it looks. An issue that emerged when showing this to our convenor was the fact that we never considered Pantone colours; with projects which are printed this is important as colours can vary a lot, even with the correct CMYK key. This is something we will definitely remember for next time.

Reflection

The feeling when our logo got signed off was great, we had come a very long way and it gave us a huge confidence boost to know that we can do this, we can produce something very professional and unique. For our first time ever using style sheets and master slides, I feel we did a good job; Microsoft Office is incredibly limited in comparison to the Adobe Suite we are used to. Despite working on this project for a while, we never felt ‘bored’ with our logo, the colours are still calming to look at to this day, which I feel is a testament to us sticking to the design brief.

A fairly obvious challenge with this Real Job was having to complete it during the Covid-19 lockdown. We were never able to meet our client in person, and instead on Zoom and Microsoft Teams calls. This required us to be organised with our files as we transferred them to each other over OneDrive. Internet connection was also a very big negative factor for one of us in particular as we had to work from home, meaning we had to communicate clearly as there was rarely a strong internet connection between the three of us.

In terms of improvement, using Pantones would ensure peace of mind when printing, so this is something we will definitely bear in mind for upcoming projects requiring consistent and accurate colour printing. We also noticed perhaps the PowerPoint borders could be in a higher PPI; it did take us a long time to align everything on PowerPoint and PNGs were sometimes very annoying to work with when imported from Illustrator. This is something we didn’t notice until after sending the files over, and is something that can easily be fixed if requested. However, it likely isn’t that noticeable in a Zoom call (where they are currently using our templates) or if it were to be projected onto a wall.

We both learned a lot of new skills on this project. I (Faith) in particular was worried as I never felt too confident with branding, and for Emma it was her first real job, so there was pressure on both of us. Though there are things in hindsight we could have perhaps done better, such as using Pantone colours and editing some of the PNGs for the PowerPoint template, we both feel proud of this project, knowing we have essentially shaped the image of Coaching Reading. We have developed a very good rapport with our client, Julie, and we know if there are any potential issues we can always redesign things or re-send anything which may need fixing (we have kept all the files from the project just in case).

“They were both willing to participate in a coaching session delivered by two of our members. This experience and the fact that they took feedback on board led to development of some brilliant logo options which were very well received by the group.”

“The final logo, visual identity guidelines and social media banners plus Word and PowerPoint templates exceeded everyone’s expectations and the Word template has already been used by myself for meeting minutes.”

– Julie Williams, Coaching Reading

History of letterforms

Background

James Mosely is an expert in the field of typography and the history of letterforms and printing types, he has lectured at the University of Reading since 1964 and teaches BA and MA students as well as being an advisor to PHD students. It is important to continue James Mosely’s legacy and present his ideas and knowledge to future students, even when he is no longer able to do this in person. By digitalising and professionally producing his lectures to be available online, not only can they be watched more than once, but they can also be viewed by anyone at any time, including future students.

 

Restated brief

The aim of this project was to produce a coherent set of 20 lectures, each around an hour long. These were to be created via PowerPoint but made slick and professional via smooth transitions, small animations, images, consistent design, branding and a voice-over by James himself.

The set deliverables for this project were:

  • 20 video lectures
  • 20 PowerPoint files
  • Branding slides
  • Trailer

To go with the main outputs of the project we agreed upon these components essential to the content of the project:

  • Type: the creator of the lectures is a type expert, the design needs to reflect this.
  • Look: these digital lessons will be used for BA and Ma students and need to look good with a professional feel that is also easy to learn from.
  • Tasteful animations: small, smooth transitions and movements that combine the slides together and reflect what Mosely is saying.

James’ PowerPoint slides already existed as they were the same ones he uses for his in-person lectures, so these did not need to be created from scratch. But rather made consistent and implement the agreed branding.

 

Research and ideation

There was several areas I researched for this project going into it:

  • Trailers
  • Title sequences/animations
  • Existing online lecture logos and branding
  • Existing opening slides for online lectures about typography
  • User personas
  • Conference branding

I was surprised to find many examples of existing online lectures about typography, however, the ones I found did not offer much inspiration as they were rather unsuccessful and not the style I had in mind. Nevertheless, it was great to look at them. I also looked for any branding for online lectures on typography and graphic communication, I came across logos but couldn’t find examples of slides that used consistent branding. Furthermore, I looked into conference branding as it retains similarities to the project. I analysed the composition, colours, and different type used in these logo devices to see if there was a common theme or any ideas I could take away to inspire my initial sketches. Although this was useful research, the findings were still different from the subject matter of the lectures and what I would later find out was the client’s personal preference.

Existing branding for online lectures about typography
Existing logo devices for online lectures

At the start of this project, one of the deliverables was to have a trailer advertising James Mosley’s series of lectures as well as an animation title sequence. To come up with ideas for this I looked at documentaries and mini-series on Netflix. Specifically, I looked at the title sequence of a series on design, this was great as it included animations that used type as well as shapes and colour that transitioned and morphed seamlessly. At the time we felt something like this could be implemented using material from the existing lectures, to give a flavour of what the series was about, however, this was never put into motion.

Title sequence stills from design documentary ‘Abstract’

Finally, I completed two user personas to show the kind of people that will be watching and using the final deliverables of the project. These included an undergraduate typography student and a masters typography student. It was important to think about the different audiences varying levels of knowledge on the subject. As a result, the content and layout of the lectures needed to be easy to understand and cater for everyone, a way of doing this was including definitions of words undergraduate students may not be familiar with.

User personas

 

Design development

At the design stage of this project I started by creating initial ideas for the branding on paper. I then looked at typefaces, a colour palette, and logo device. Initially, I worked with a muted palette of greens and cream alongside grey and experimented with different images and layouts for two types of slide, the top level branding and lecture name. Originally I struggled to come up with designs as I was not sure what direction to go in and had never designed branding for a PowerPoint before. However I feel these were a good start, with a few potential directions and a variety of ideas which included decorative borders, textures and images picked out from the existing slides, flourishes, and bold text. I worked with the supervisor to develop these to produce more polished visuals ready to show the client.

Initial branding sketches
Initial branding sketches
Top-level branding experimentation
Information slide experimentation
Lecture name branding experimentation

Showing the initial designs to the client was insightful as although the designs were not bad, it made the client realise what branding he wanted to go alongside his work and that he did in fact have a style in mind. James Mosley provided examples of images that represent his ‘house style’, these included a colour scheme of black, white and red, with the typefaces ‘Scotia’ and ‘Elephant’ and decorative elements. I got on board with these straight away and combined design elements I already had with his preferred typeface and colours.

Branding slides development

In the restated brief the typeface ‘Zenon’ was to be used for display type, however, after experimenting and discussing designs with the client we decided ‘Elephant’ worked better as it is a traditional English extra-bold serif style. In the original set of PowerPoint lectures, the typefaces ‘Calibri’ and ‘Georgia’ had been used for the main text, in a variety of sizes. However Georgia was implemented throughout in two sizes consistently, this was chosen over Calibri because it is a serif font, therefore corresponding with the display typeface better.

The lecture slides presented to me usually consisted of a picture and caption but each one varied. To find what presentation layouts would work best I took a sample of slides from the first lecture and laid them out in different ways with different compositions and animations. From there the client and supervisor presented feedback and we agreed on a set of compositions to be repeated throughout the presentations for consistency. To implement these, master slides and grids were created to make sure elements were in the same position throughout. This will also benefit anyone in the future who wants to make changes or produce more lectures.

At the start of this process, the idea was the lectures would be more like fluid videos than PowerPoints with complex animations and seamless transitions. However, the client preferred a more simplistic approach with the image and text static to allow for easier watching. This was easily implemented and made sense as the branding also had a traditional approach and if the lectures were to be given in real life they would be simple. We still kept some fading transitions at the start for the top-level branding as it gives a more professional feel and provides an introduction to the lectures.

Example of experimentation with one slide
Example of master slides used in the PowerPoint files

 

Final stages

The final deliverables are as follows:

  • 20 video lectures
  • 20 PowerPoint files
  • Branding slides
  • 20 Lecture thumbnails

The 20 lectures were uploaded to Microsoft Streams, 10 at the start of Autumn term and the other 10 at the start of the spring term, each lecture contains the relevant branding slides, including the top-level, name of the lecture and a further reading list. Although slightly later than originally planned, they were uploaded to give enough time for the students. The raw PowerPoint files, including older versions alongside the branding slides, are all available on the Typography department OneDrive. This means that they can be added to and developed by members of the department in the future. The master slides are helpful here to allow others to pick up the design. Lastly, each lecture has a thumbnail which is a picture taken from the corresponding lecture and cropped to 16:9.

Examples of final branding

 

Reflection

Overall this was a successful and insightful project that gave me the opportunity to produce a unique series of work. I had the chance to learn new skills, including how to work closely with a client that has experience within the design field and has a vision of what they want the final outcome to look like. The closing words from the supervisor of the project were “This has been a pretty epic project with all kinds of challenges that might seem unusual to you, but are in fact a part of life for most practising designers. You’re just getting to experience that early, and with some unique components.”

During this project, I was able to do my own experimentation but also circle back to ensure it wasn’t too off-brand for the client. It was also important to maintain the clarity of the lectures and the flow between slides, the same as if the lecture were to be given in person.

If I were to start this project again I would make an effort to have more of an in-depth conversation with the client at the start. Ideally, this would save time in working out a visual direction, as initially most of the communication was done through the supervisor, however, it was also useful for me to do my own research and ideation. It would also be beneficial to create a more bulletproof system to work through the lectures, receive feedback, make changes, track these changes, and tick things off. I used Trello to make lists of what needed to be done for each lecture, which I ticked off as the project went on to keep track of what needed to be done. However this was only introduced towards the end of the work, a tracking or list system from the start could have helped keep the process consistent, but it took a while to figure out the best way of working through the lectures while both the client and supervisor reviewed them.

I would also work to improve time management on this job. I found instead of working at a steady pace there would be periods of time where I was not working on the project, then I would rush to get lots done when the lectures needed to be made available for the students. It was also important to keep the files organised, well named, and up to date on the OneDrive, as myself, the client and the supervisor needed to access them, and they will be needed again in the future. Towards the end of the project, I feel I got on top of this and left them in a good place for them to be picked back up. Nevertheless, if I were to do the project again I would aim to keep on top of the file names more, earlier lectures ended up with many different versions, yet later ones only have a couple, largely due to the fact I was comfortable with the design and fewer changes needed to be made.

 

Caitlin Wilton

London AV Solutions Wall Graphics

Background

London AV Solutions is a family run business who provide smart home solutions using cutting-edge technology to simplify and enhance the lives of their clients. The services they provide include home cinema design and installation, smart home security system, hi-fi system installation and interior lighting control solutions.

The client has two offices, one based in London and the other in Surrey. For this project we worked with the Surrey branch to create visuals to display on their office walls. 

Our supervisor for this project, Rachel Warner, had worked with the client previously so was invaluable in the process.For more information about London AV Solutions visit their website https://www.londonavsolutions.co.uk/

The brief

The client approached the typography department looking for a pair of designers to create them some large scale wall graphics to display within their Surrey offices. This was a valuable opportunity for us to work with a professional client outside of the university and to gain more experience when working in large scale print. 

This project called for two different deliverables, firstly a collection of motivational posters to be displayed within the offices upstairs to inspire employees during the working day and secondly a set of four large scale boards to installed in the downstairs meeting room, these boards should showcase their previous work and their brand to new and existing clients they convene with here. 

In our initial meeting the client provided us with a printout of their initial ideas for each of the four boards as well as the copy they would like included on the morale posters upstairs. We used these as our guide when we later began sketching out design ideas. They initially asked us to use the same burgundy and teal colour scheme that they had in their downstairs meeting room but this changed to black and gold later in the project.


The process of getting the restated brief signed off was more troublesome, as a professional working client we found that they were incredibly busy and wanted to see results as soon as possible. Because of this they were reluctant to take the time to go through the brief, we discussed this in real jobs meetings where James stressed the importance of the brief being officially signed off before starting design work, we went back to the client with this and they did eventually sign off on it.

Research

Competitors

When google searching “london av solutions” our client is not the top result even though that is their company name, the results that appear before them would therefore be some of their highest competitors. These included TenAV, ITSL group, Mechdyne and AV Contacts, all of these companies provide very similar smart technology services. TenAV, who are also based in Surrey and have been running for 16 years, throughout their website they really emphasise the point of putting the clients’ goals and needs first so we should try and include this ourselves. However, TenAV caters more to businesses but others such as AV Contacts are much more direct competitors as they also work on personal homes.

Users

The users for the posters upstairs are the AV Solutions staff, their goal is to get work done, the posters are there to inspire them and make the room more colourful and pleasant to be in. The posters will also remind them of the company’s core beliefs and motivations which should in turn make them feel motivated to work there.

The users for the boards downstairs audience are the customers. One user could be a brand new customer who has never used London AV Solutions before. Their goal will be to learn more about the company to see if they are worth hiring. Some of our boards will be used to advertise the company, showcase their core values and the type of technologies they can provide.

A third user could be a different customer who has already used London AV solutions. Their motivation could be to add more technological solutions to their house. They would therefore have a need to find out more about the different types of technologies that London AV provides, our boards will feature these as well as photography of particularly successful projects that showcase the clients best work and act as inspiration for their customers.

Design Inspiration

The project was temporarily put on hold because the client found themselves overloaded with other work. During this time I looked for inspiration and ideas from existing office murals and other motivational posters.


Professional corporate design:

  •  use of diagonal, coloured panels
  • professional, clear, high quality photography
  • blue and white tones
  • clean design


Company values in office space:

  • large scale, oversized
  • not framed, filling as much space as possible
  • typographic
  • very bold, easily read from anywhere in office

Office space wall art:

  • framed options, smaller
  • main motivational word with extra description underneath 
  • no imagery in frames, purely typographic
  • illustrations used in yellow example, much more creative, probably less suitable for high end, corporate client

Designing

Morale Posters

Sketching

I began the design process by creating some basic sketches to explore different layouts and concepts that could be used for the morale posters in the office upstairs. I decided that the main message for each poster e.g. ‘work together’ should be large scale and in full caps so that it could be read by everyone, even the employee with the furthest desk from the wall. The posters could also feature some decorative elements such as a swirly border or a cityscape to make them more visually appealing as wall art. The cityscape concept was also inspired by the company’s logo.

Design progress

Moving on to the digital design process we felt that the posters may be more effective in colour, this way they would help create a more positive and cheerful atmosphere in the work room. I also created the cityscape concept but in monochrome to give the client more choice.


Both our supervisor and the client liked the artistic circles used in the second design concept so we developed these further, leaning more into the positive colourful approach.

Part way through this real job a new project manager at London AV Solutions was brought in and had changes they wanted to make to the brand, specifically their colour scheme. They wanted to change to a black and gold scheme for a more opulent, high-end feeling, so we adapted our designs to meet this. 

We had also been working on the designs for the boards, for the client meeting room downstairs, at the same time and so changed the circles for the symbols we created to coincide with the first board.

Final morale poster designs

Boards for client meeting room

Sketching

We began our design process by creating some sketches of different layouts we could use for each of the boards, this allowed us to quickly explore alternative ideas and concepts to see how they would work with all of the elements together before digitalising them and adding more detail.


Design progress

I then moved our designs into InDesign and created multiple concepts for each board for the clients to choose from. I created some concepts based on the artistic circle designs that I created for the morale posters which the clients liked. I also created some alternatives featuring a zig-zag pattern similar to the corporate styles of design I used for inspiration.

Optional design concepts for board 1 (showcasing company morales):


Board 2 was undecided at this point

Design concepts for board 3 (includes a smart screen showing the different AV features the company provides):

Board 4 (showing different remote control options):

As discussed previously, the project manager then changed and she requested that we change the colour scheme to black and gold. From the previous concepts we showed her favourites were the zig-zag designs, she also had some additional changes and finally brought us an idea for the second board. All of which can be seen in the next major design phase:
She also requested that a graphic of a house be used instead of a photograph on the third board. The house graphic would act as a diagram to show where their various different products could be installed in a house. Anthony worked on creating a graphic for this but the client ultimately decided to provide one themselves.

We developed the designs further, using feedback from Rachel, our client and the real jobs team. James advised that the boards should have a design that flows seamlessly between them. I adapted the designs to accommodate for this so the zig-zag line connects them as one set.

Final grid

The grid did change as the design developed but the final grid where the zig-zag acted as a connector between the boards can be seen below. The grid was very useful as it allowed us to keep consistency in our placement of elements throughout the different designs for each border. This helped them look like a professional, cohesive set.

Final designs

Production

We spoke to DPS at the start of the project about the different printing options but when it actually came to getting the designs printed we discussed the options with Geoff and he said that the clients should use an external printer instead as it was such a unique large scale project and the offices were not in Reading. Although the client found the printers I still needed to send the artwork over to them myself, this taught me valuable lessons about communicating with an external printer and how to correctly export the board designs to be printed. I followed the blackboard checklist to prepare the final artwork and enlisted the help of James and Geoff to export the boards at the highest possible quality since at such a large scale a professional display piece could not afford to be pixelated.

Final products in use

“Thank you so much Olivia and Anthony for your lovely designs, it was a pleasure working with you both”

“We love how our new meeting room looks”

Reflection

Working on this real job was a truly valuable experience as it allowed us to work with a high-end, professional client outside of the university which will be a fantastic work experience to include on our CVs and to talk about in future job interviews. It taught us lessons about managing such a busy client and emphasised the importance of key non-design elements such as having the restated brief signed off and how to export files for large scale print. It also further improved our InDesign skills and use of grids as well as bettering our professional communication skills.

Overall I am delighted with how this project turned out and look forward to showing it to future employers. If I could change anything about the outcome I would have loved to have been able to see the final boards and posters once that had been installed in the offices but unfortunately this was difficult due to coronavirus restrictions. 

Love, trust, hope: the Alana House cookbook

Background

Alana House women’s centre, a charity in Reading that provides a safe space for women to express themselves and strive towards their goals, approached the Real Jobs scheme with a recipe book project based on their community café. With contributions from the women, staff and volunteers, it would collate recipes, poems, creative writing, artwork and photography. Robin Smith and Cristèle Sarić worked with the Alana team to produce the book in its entirety. Aimed to be a symbol of a community coming together in solidarity and support of these women in need, the original deadline was to publish the book on International Women’s Day to align with this goal.

Understanding the brief

Once we had met with the clients from Alana House, our understanding of the job and its importance became clearer. We were able to pinpoint the specifics of what the clients envisioned and ensured we were on the same page. As the book was aimed at a wide audience as it would serve as a fundraiser, it was important to the clients that the book be designed with universal intentions. It should look and feel homely, but not be assuming of prior cooking experience. Because they were wanting a small book, the idea of a ‘scrapbook’ style was the main idea. It worked well with the wide array of content to be included, as well as being something that those that contributed could be proud of and feel belongs to them.

At this stage, we had to be mindful of design inspiration given the clients did not have an established budget as of yet. Given this would be a fundraiser, and the nature of the client business, we felt it would be more appropriate to keep costs as low as possible to maximise the gain to the service.

Initial research

User personas

To inform our decision making, we created user personas to help identify user needs and their goals. This was information because of the aforementioned universality, and thus we chose personas with a range of backgrounds and experience:

Our produced user personas

From then on, we were able to identify four key user needs:

  • The book would need to be be bound in such a way that it can lay flat on a countertop in order to follow recipes. This also means needing to be able to be read from a further distance
  • It needs to be enticing as a ‘coffee table book’ outside of cooking
  • Interactions should be accessible and easy for a range of age groups. This is particularly true when picking typeface, type size, space allowed to hold the book, etc.
  • Personify the community spirit of the contributors

Research into existing designs

To establish what is conventional, we looked at published books aimed at different age ranges to make a base set of ‘rules’ for us to follow. This helped us in understanding the average sizes, print specifications, layout methods, and understanding how navigation is used to aid in following instructions. This step proved to be essential as we started this project in the middle of a national lockdown, and thus we were very aware that we would not be able to test print any time soon. So, having a baseline to follow would lessen the risk of inappropriate design decisions when it came to that stage. Some of the books we looked at contained a wide range of designs within these specific rules which was helpful in generating conceptual ideas for the internal spreads and cover.

The overlap of the donut on the top example was the inspiration for the maintained continuity between the front and the back cover. The other examples aided in our final decision making in the size of the book and the layout of the internal spreads

With these in mind, we extended our research to looking at more umbrella styles. We had identified common practice already, and so wanted to develop these ideas further. So, we created multiple mood boards – each looking into different styles of eye catching book covers, user friendly inside spreads, and illustration styles that resembled the ‘scrapbook’ feel.

Examples from our mood boards. We felt these matched the more rustic feel of scrapbook design and achieved it through different methods of design
This illustration style that was chosen to create the scrapbook feel for the final product. These illustrations had a lot of layering which was something we were considering early in the project
The use of icons and a similar typeface in this example was an inspiration to our choices made for the internal spreads

We had also looked into different binding methods and compared the best options that would align with both the scrapbook style, as well as the user needs. Based on these, we looked into the pros and cons of wiro spiral binding first. This would allow for durability – responding to our the users who would need a book that could withstand splashes and general wear and tear. However, this would have split the design of the internal spreads and limit the ability to be stacked. We also offered perfect binding to cater to the tight budget, but advised that this would mean going against the user needs of it lying flat on a countertop. This was thankfully agreed as being too much of a disadvantage, and thus agreed on section sewn binding – a more expensive choice, but worth the cost to make a more pleasurable user experience.

Our design process

Equipped with our research, we then went on to designing. This part of the process spanned roughly from October until final adjustments and sending to print in March.

Designing the internal pages

Creating sample spreads and cover designs to establish the clients’ perceived preferences was the first plan of action – the insides being tackled first as this would form the bulk of the book. We created three designs each in an attempt to provide a wider gamut of styles. Compiling all six, we whittled down our options to the three most successful that we would later take forward to the clients:

Earlier samples of our inside spreads, creative writing pages and covers shown to the clients

This was a useful method of working as it meant we explored the options but would not overwhelm the clients with too many ideas. It also meant we could still operate as a partnership – though created separately, we each had input in the design decisions going in through preliminary feedback and discussion. However, some of our ideas did end up being quite similar in styling. We may have benefitted from deciding a base set of 6–8 entirely different styles beforehand, some pushing the original ‘scrapbook’ and ‘handmade’ umbrella more than others, in order to avoid this overlap.

After a few rounds of feedback from our supervisor and the Alana House team, we ended up taking forward style 1 for the rough look of the inside pages.

The base styling of the recipe pages allowed enough space for handwritten notes from users, fit within the scrapbook theme without being too gimmicky, and was the most ‘clean’ to allow the food photography to be the attraction. However, we and the clients discussed that the scrapbook theme had been taken too far in some cases – particularly on the poetry and creative writing pages. The team favoured a ‘less is more’ approach, thus citing that the tape and coffee stains were perhaps a bit on the nose. This favouring a more subtle approach was taken into account for the rest of the design process.

A notable difference from our original sample and the printed design is the lack of backing illustrations. We had originally intended to host a workshop and encourage service users to produce these illustrations based on a list of ideas curated by us, which we would later render digitally and colour-correct. This idea would mean there was an extra form of participation from the women outside of their providing of content, and meant the book could really feel like their own creation. However, the workshop was unable to go forward due to poor weather conditions rendering participants unable to come in, and the subsequent national lockdown preventing a postponement. Taking on this responsibility for ourselves under the circumstances felt like too ambitious of an undertaking given the timing – and in hindsight, probably would have been too much even in the most ideal of scenarios. It also would have removed the personal touch of being made by the women themselves, something we felt was key, and thus decided to abandon this feature. That being said, the white space allowed from the lack of illustrations better mimics the minimalist approach preferred by the clients and the later printed cover – thus ultimately a better design decision anyway.

Designing the cover

Using the same process as before, the cover samples were created after implementation of content had begun on the inside spreads. This was decided in order for the book to appear as a unified package – we had the grids, typefaces and styling of the internal design to dictate the feel of the cover.

Earlier cover samples we presented to the client. The concept (middle left) ended up being the winner as it represented most the idea of a cookbook with the use of fruit and vegetables on the cover, and the clients liked the attractive centralised typeface and layout

The clients were very keen about discussing the cover and offered a lot of feedback for the samples – indicating a real passion for being involved in the decision making for this part specifically. In order to maintain this close client relationship and focus on their creative involvement, dedicating one person to lead the production of the cover seemed to be the most effective approach. This method of working separately on the same overall product is oftentimes risky. To avoid detachment of the cover to the insides, outside of using the same grids and typefaces, we wanted to best simulate a collaborative environment within our remote work setting. We made sure at every stage to offer feedback to each other first and foremost to keep the design stage as more of a discussion. Cristèle focused also on the illustrations to be used inside as well as designing the cover to maintain consistency in the styling, but also to ensure we each had some part in both ‘pieces’ of the cookbook. While this separated methodology did have limitations and was not the approach we originally intended, this was good professional practice of upholding good communication with your team when working individually. We also had more exciting content to show in client meetings as each part was happening simultaneously, and editing the inside pages before sending to print later was much easier as we could ensure the ‘rules’ were applied consistently.

After close collaboration with the clients, and further feedback from our supervisor to achieve a print-quality finish, we decided upon the cover:

The clients wanted to enhance the branding aspect by using Alana House’s official colours instead of the red. The subheading has also changed its placement by being slightly raised and centred. The title placement needed to be positioned so as to better balance its relationship with the illustrations. We also included the full title on the spine to indicate that this was a cookbook instead of the illustration indication we tried previously

Of all of our base styles, the clients expressed again that they favoured the more ‘minimalist’ approach taken with this sample. They also appreciated that the illustration style and typeface fit within the base theme of hand-making and ‘DIY’. With the other samples, they were hesitant about the more busy layering – something we wanted to try as a direct contrast to the heavier use of white space on the inside pages. Both the clients and our supervisor were also unsure of the balance between the textual elements and the frequency of the illustrations. The overall clarity of the fridge magnet design was also questioned, debating whether this was visually indicated well enough as being what it was in reference to.

‘“Love Trust Hope”, somewhat overwhelms the covers. I think you’ll need to seek a more meaningful balance between the main title and the subtitle, since it’s the subtitle that actually says what the book is about.’ Eric Kindel, project supervisor

This choice had flexible space for trying the textual elements in different positions, and allowed for the ‘yummiest’ colour palette for the food illustrations – a key consideration for cookbooks.

For both insides and outsides, the rest of the design process until sending to press was simply inputting the recipe content as it came in, as well as keeping in touch with the clients and our supervisor for feedback, updates, and rigorous detail-checking on each part of the book.

Getting more involved

Both we and the clients were keen to get involved in the development of the actual content as well as the design, and thankfully there were opportunities to do so. The recipe curator of the client team, Deborah Puxley, noted that they were short of vegan recipes but were eager to include more. Knowing veganism is popular amongst our age group, we offered to post a plea to our personal social platforms for friends to get involved in the cause. Because we had opened ourselves up to being involved in this way, we also were able to have a say in the selection of the best recipes to include in the book. This, in hindsight, was crucial as it meant we were able to prevent over-promising the amount of recipes that could be included per spread. Especially given the tight budget and limited number of pages, this control and advising of available space definitely saved some future heartache.

We were also able to provide more of an art directing role when it came to food photography. This was an initial worry given the restrictions of lockdown meaning we had to perform this role remotely. It would have been better to be there with student photographer Tara Fergueson (University of Bath) to physically see and direct the shoot. However, to substitute this level of collaboration, we discussed in a meeting prior roughly what direction would be best, and the technical aspects such as the file formats. Robin was also on call with Tara on the day of the shoot to check in and answer ongoing questions. While this was the best solution under the circumstances, it did mean there were some unexpected surprises in the finished photos:

Examples of some of the strategic cropping. The salmon (top) ended up being one of the more unsuccessful examples, and the soup (bottom) being one of the more successful

A number of them were shot in landscape, rather than the portrait formats we showed in our sample. This is something we should have clarified earlier, but was too late to rectify – an unfortunate lesson to takeaway for future projects. To work around the issue, we operated via strategic cropping and selecting the most delicious-looking piece of the image to zoom in on and create portraits. Most were able to be finessed well enough, but some were awkward to work with as a result and would have been better if we had just been more specific in the first place.

Pre-press checks and sending to print

When it came to sending the book to press, this is the area where we sought the most guidance and learned the most technical skills. Neither of us had sent a job of this kind and scale to press before, so figuring out how to specify finishes, what information is needed to request an accurate print specification, and what makes good file practice expected of a professional editorial designer were all covered during this stage. However, our deadline for sending to press was unfortunately pushed back twice – actually being finished in mid March.

We were receiving feedback from all parties up to the wire. While this proved difficult to navigate at times, this was somewhat inevitable given the vast amount of people involved in the team needing their say. This did prove useful, though, as it meant more rounds of proofreading and thus flagging all of the minor errors that went uncaught prior. While embarrassing that the occasional double space and typo slipped under the radar, it brought the realisation of how meticulous one must be when performing pre-press checks. Thankfully, our clients were open to pushing the deadline in order to finesse the final product more, and it definitely benefited from this extra time. The original aim of printing in time for International Women’s Day was no longer a priority as the clients had a second event at which to fundraise. The release of the book could thus align with this new date instead, and brought the extra few weeks of editing with it.

Outside of these factors, the process by which the book was sent to print was thankfully straightforward and we had relatively few changes before doing so.

Pictures of the printed book. We opted for a lavender fly leaf to enhance the quality given there were no special finishes on the cover

Reflection

Overall, this was a big learning curve for both of us. While difficult and frustrating at times, having the experience of what goes into good editorial design, liaising with a large client team, and how to send work to a professional press is invaluable. We ended up producing a cookbook that not only we and the Alana House team are happy with, but something the service users themselves can be proud of. We are glad to have been involved in providing a vessel and an outlet to these hugely creative women, and hope it is something they cherish.

‘Thanks Robin and Cristèle for all your work on this!’ Eva Chapman, PACT staff

Frankie the Fish: The ReMINDS Project

Background

The clients for this project are from the Department of Pharmacy and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Reading, where they are developing a project to examine medication reuse. The ReMINDS brand is to focus on medicine, the environment, people taking their medicine, pharmacy and drug manufacturing. It is important for people to know that old or left-over medicines in the home can cause harm, and that these should be taken to a pharmacy for safe disposal. This is because otherwise they can harm children if taken accidentally, the land and environment if put straight in the bin, and rivers, water and their inhabitants if flushed down the sink or toilet.


Restated brief

Main points of focus and the deliverables

The main aim for this project was to create a set of deliverables all building to run medicine amnesties on the Whiteknights Campus, where people will bring their old and left-over medicines to the ‘Medicine Amnesties with Frankie the Fish’ where they will collect and safely dispose of all donations. ‘Frankie the Fish’ is a special shaped container with vinyl stickers to make it look like a fish character, designed to collect the donations and spread the message that if people flush their left-over medicines it can harm the environment and its inhabitants. This event is (or was to be) funded by the Vice Chancellor’s Endowment Trust Fund, 2019/20 and run by the University of Reading, Department of Pharmacy and Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The main deliverable for this project was the large container called Frankie in the shape of a fish that would be wheeled around the campus and elsewhere for medicine amnesties. This provides a safe disposal mechanism and raises awareness of the problem of medicine waste. To make the container look like a fish, it is spray painted bright yellow and was designed to have vinyl sticker fins, scales and eyes. For this, a Print Cut File with these shapes and aspects was to be created to be sent to DPS to be printed. In preparation and to plan how this would look, I created mock-ups using colour and the fin, scale and eye illustrations. Due to the client unfortunately pulling out, as I will explain below, there was not the funding to print the vinyl stickers so there is no physical container to show as there is currently no medical amesite happening because of Covid-19.

The client also wanted a logo for the ReMINDS Project to create a brand around the project and the medicine amnesties that could then also be used on the deliverables that were advertising the event. As part of the advertisement for the event, the client wanted a flag banner to catch people who were walking on campuses’ attention and draw them towards the container to increase involvement. A leaflet was the other deliverable that the client later decided they wanted to have to advertise the event prior, to build up awareness and educate people as to how to get involved and why.

Target audience

The target audience for this project is very wide, being focussed on any student, lecturer or even visitor to the Whiteknights Campus. It is for those who take an interest in increasing the safety in their home and those who are conscious of helping the environment. The wide target audience meant that there was no strong style that needed to be followed.

Schedule

Until Covid-19 took a massive hit into this Real Job, I had stuck to the schedule well on my behalf. I feel that I was very organised and did all I could to keep things running quickly and smoothly. The first restated brief had the goal of completion for the 14th of February, this however was unable to be met due to tasks such as creating the window in the container and, mainly, spray painting the bin with an external company slowing down the process. The client, however, wasn’t worried about the schedule too much, therefore I took it upon myself to set a new deadline of mid-March, which the client approved of. This was to give us a date to work by so to not let the job take a back seat. Until Covid, when students had to head home, we were on track to have the project deliverables ready by mid-late March, with a minimal, quick change to be made to some of the colours after the paint colour came out differently than expected. However, with Covid this meant there were no students on campus, as well as it still not like normal this new academic year, therefore there was no strict deadline to get it done over summer. It was also tricky and inefficient to work on it remotely as I needed to physically see the container to make the important decision on colours. I picked it up again when back at university in September, but unfortunately the client was unsure how to continue in the current climate, therefore I set myself the goal to continue it again over Christmas when my first term deadlines were complete. I think throughout the project I have worked steadily hard and in an organised manner so to hit my schedule where possible and create new deadlines when necessary before Covid. This was my first Real Job on my own and with the deliverables increasing through the project I was pleased with my organisation and prioritisation of tasks to stay on top of things.

Updated restated briefs

Throughout the project I created new restated briefs to make sure the client and I were on the same page, and to give myself an organised, approved list to work from. As the project went on the client introduced new deliverable part way through working on the original ones. In the original restated brief, made towards the end of January, the deliverables were simply a design for Frankie the Fish to go on the container and a logo for the ReMINDS Project. However, after many emails, calls and meetings discussing the project and its progress, by February the client had added a more deliverables to enhance the project. Therefore, it made sense to update the restated brief with the new deliverables to confirm these with the client. The client had been more specific as to how the design for Frankie the Fish was to be stuck onto the container to be the fish character, as opposed to just a 2D design that could be used for other deliverables. As well as this, they wanted a leaflet to let people know about the event and how to get involved, a banner to advertise it further, both with the ReMINDS logo, as previously discussed.

I also amended the restated brief a couple of times after Covid to update the schedule, more for myself by the end as the client was no longer replying to emails, as this helped me to organise my time alongside the expected deliverables.

 

Process

Initial contact with client

My first contact with the client was through email and closely followed by an online call. In this meeting the client outlined what the ReMINDS brand was. She talked about what she expected from the deliverables and I made note of this. Following this meeting we had consistent email communication where I exchanged initial designs and ideas, having another couple of meetings online a few weeks later to discuss how this was going and extra deliverables she wished for me to do. From then on, aside from frequent emails to the clients, I met with another one of the clients in person. This was mainly to discuss plans for the physical container and to confirm ideas and decisions from over emails about other deliverables.

Overall, I think that this project improved my communication skills and gave me more confidence in talking to clients, both in person and on email, making sure I kept myself organised so that I could answer all their questions and have the work done for when it was needed.

Covid-19 and client dropping out

Unfortunately, after Covid-19 left uncertain circumstances at university and on campus it meant that the client was unsure how we might progress at the moment with this project. This is because the medicine amnesty requires the campus to be busy in order to raise awareness and collect the medicine. I suggested a call to discuss future plans but didn’t receive a reply after a month or so, so was advised to continue without the client. I plan to get in touch again when the work has been signed off, to allow them to see what was made and to give them a chance to use it in the future when circumstances are simpler. I am disappointed to not get the final result of the bin and seeing all the deliverables at work advertising and showcasing the medicine amnesty but because of Covid it is expected.

Research

When I was initial assigned this project, I started by getting a clearer understanding of what medicine reuse was and why this project was so important. I felt this would give me a good base to start this project, and through learning facts around the subject area, like how much of our waterways is contaminated with pharmaceutical runoff, it inspired me to help make the positive change. While I was doing this, I also researched into competitors, or companies/campaigns that do or promote this kind of work already. This was useful in furthering my research, as well as looking at the branding style of this area.

When starting to design deliverables such as the logo, I initially created mood boards from researching medical and pharmaceutical logos online to generate some ideas and to see the different styles that I could play around with. From this research I could see there tended to be a simple, but professional-looking illustration of something related to the health, medicine or pharmaceutical industry, such as DNA, a medical cross, stethoscope, pills, etc. This illustration was often in a bright colour that was integrated with a plain, san-serif typeface for the company name. From my research I chose to use pills to represent the area and as I felt it suited the project best. I then did further research into different styles of arrows I could create for the logo after deciding to represent the idea of medicine reuse with the pill and arrows. I also created a mood board when coming to design the fish character from researching online to get a feel for the different styles I could play with for the client to decide between, as well get an idea of the age groups that different styles might apply to. When it came to creating the leaflet, I found it tricky to arrange everything on the page and to know what style to go for, therefore I found researching medical leaflets useful as examples.

As this is something that is new to the university, there weren’t people to directly ask about past experiences and problems with the medicine amnesties and the branding surrounding it. However, after explaining it to some peers, I got some feedback and tips about what they, students (the people who will interact with it on campus), thought. They commented on how the bin should be linked into the branding deliverables, like with the fish drawing and bin drawing on the leaflet. As well as that, they mentioned that there should be explanation of what the medical amnesties are on the leaflet to raise awareness. As well as this, I created user personas on my Trello page to highlight different possible users and to think about the different people that may interact with the medicine amnesty and the deliverables surrounding it, using this to help in my designs.

Trello board

Through this project I have taken what I learnt from my previous Real Jobs and used the Trello board in an efficient way by keeping it updated as I went. It helped to structure my work and make sure I hit all the necessary aspects for the project. I was successful at uploading the development of my work for different deliverables and explaining reasons why I made these decisions.

Design stage

Fish character

The first task I did after restating the brief was create a fish character. I did this by doing some simple research online at some different types of fish and styles of illustration. Below I show the different fish characters I drew based off of this research online. The client then chose a certain fish character, which I then tried in different colours and sent back to the client for them to pick one, of which they settled on Orange tones. I am happy with the fish character that was chosen as I felt the colours are vibrant and the client liked the idea of it looking similar to a Goldfish. This was to be included on the banner and leaflet to carry the brand and the ideas behind it. Later in the project, when the container was spray painted it looked more of a neon yellowy-green than planned, therefore the colours of the fish were to be slightly amended so the separate features would match the colour the bin turned out better.

Initial fish illustrations
Frankie the Fish drawing

Mock-up

In preparation for printing the vinyl stickers for the physical fish container, my next task was to use the features from this fish character and create a mock-up of the container and plan where the vinyl stickers of the fins, scales and eyes were to go. This allowed the client and me to imagine how it may look in person and to play with different layouts to find the one that looked best. Further into the project, when having to amend the colours after the spray-painted bin came back a different tone than planned, it was useful to use the mock-ups to play with different colours and the arrangement of these. With the yellow being brighter and less orange than planned, a more toned down, lighter orange suited being used more frequently for the fins as the brighter orange clashed otherwise.

Initial container colour variant experiments
Example of updated mock-up layouts
Final stages mock-up layout

Physical fish character container

The client organised and bought the container previous to me being assigned to the project, therefore after our initial call I was sent over a picture of the shape of the container we were to work with. The first job I did concerning the physical fish container after making the initial mock-ups was to measure-up the bin for the hole to be put in it and to plan for the size and layout of the vinyl stickers. I did this careful and in great detail so it would be as accurate as possible. Once I had measured this, it was organised for the hole to be made in the container, which would later be covered with clear plastic so to see the medicines inside. While the bin was off being cut, I worked out the size each feature would be to use on the print cut file.

The next task, and the one that took up the most time, was finding the best way to colour the bin. To work this out I spoke with DPS and asked what they best suggested. A wrap was suggested, however deemed more complicated and riskier than printing them separately. Therefore, to give the container colour, spray painting was suggested as the most durable for its outdoor use. When deciding the colour, I sent the client images of the different colours, as well as showing one of the clients the swatches in person for a clearer idea of the colour they’re picking. The colour didn’t come out as the clients expected, being brighter and more of a green-yellow. This was a shame as clients questioned re-doing this, however, as they realised, they had chosen it themselves, they kept it and we decided to simply change the tone and/or arrangement of the oranges for the fins and scales. Now with no client due to uncertainties with Covid, there is no physical fish character container that is finished as there is no funding behind it to have the vinyl stickers printed.

   


Print Cut File

Once I had measured up the container, I could then decide the size of the fins, scales and eyes of the vinyl stickers. The making of the Print Cut File was something I had never made before. It taught me further tools within Illustrator and the importance of using layers effectively, things that have benefitted me in my other studies.


Logo

I initially created mood boards from researching medical and pharmaceutical logos online, to generate some ideas and to see the different styles that I could play around with. I liked the idea of incorporating pills as this fit with the project and brand and as well as being understood by all. It also holds a more serious message than the fish cartoon, which is what the client asked for the logo. Once I had decided on this, I experimented with different ways to introduce the pill as a logo, trying to use the pill as the ‘I’ in ‘ReMINDS’, however this wasn’t clear enough and didn’t work as I’d hoped. I liked the idea behind my initial drawing of the pill packet, but when incorporated with the words I felt it didn’t look professional enough. Aside from the pill, to relate the logo back to the idea of medicine reuse and helping the environment, I felt that arrows represented this very well. To add further depth to the logo, I experimented adding water into the design to relate back to Frankie the Fish and the suffering environment in the contaminated water. After experimenting with colour and different arrow styles I decided to incorporate this into the arrows by giving them a water-like colour scheme and texture. I also tried a version of the logo hand drawn and then image traced to create some more interesting textures, but this did not look professional enough compared to ones from my research. I sent the client these logos throughout and built and changes based on their comments, in the end I sent them the final logo in a selection of colours, and they chose blue. The final adjustment suggested by my supervisor was a shadow so the pill would stand out even when on a white background. After creating the illustration part, I focussed on researching typefaces used in medical/pharmaceutical logos, of which I then tried a range of san-serif typefaces and decided upon Sukhumvit Set. To tie the words into the illustration I pulled two different blues from the arrows and used these on the words. As we wanted ‘ReMINDS’ to have more hierarchy over ‘project’ this was put in semi bold weight and the brighter blue, while ‘project’ was in the darker navy and a light weight.

Overall, I think that this logo is effective and hit what the client asked for because it represents the subject of medicine reuse well and in a professional manner, like the logos I found in my research. On reflection, and something I have learnt from this real job is to have more initial ideas and to go into detail for a number of these, not just go into detail with one or two before I send these to the client. Despite the client always being excited about what I showed them, it is more professional to give them a range of options to start with.

Initial logo ideas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrow experiments

 

Typeface experiments
Last series of logo experiments sent to client before they picked

Banner

The design for the flag banner was to be used at medicine amnesties to draw attention to and advertise to people on campus what was happening. The client wanted a simple design that was similar to the leaflet design, in terms of using the same colours, the logo and the fish character. The design I created I think is effective for its purpose because it tells people what the need and catches attention with the bright colour and fish drawing. This was the deliverable that, despite not having designed before I found the simplest to design as there wasn’t much text to fit with the logo and drawing. The background was chosen to be yellow like the physical fish container, so to match the other deliverables and create a cohesive balance between them, as well as it being a bright colour to catch people’s attention. Once the design had been decided, with a few amendments of the layout of text, it was recommended by DPS that the yellow should become opaquer so that the design didn’t show through on the other side. It was also initially going to have different drawings on either side of the banner; however, this was changed to create consistency on both sides.

The biggest query surrounding the banner came right at the end when I was planning to sign off the banner at the end. My supervisor raised the question of whether it was meant to be one-sided with a reverse show through side where the writing would be backwards, or double-sided where the writing would be printed on both sides from left to right. Over the last week I saw an example of a flag banner in the street that showed a one-sided flag banner, this initially made me think I should do the same. However, after exchanging emails with my supervisor for advice, as well as re-reading old emails from DPS, and doing some basic research online that taught me how a double-sided banner is made from two printed graphics that are stitched together with a lining in the middle to allow the message to be clearly displayed, I decided to have it double-sided.


Leaflet

Like the banner, the leaflet was a later addition to the deliverables. The client and I decided that a leaflet would build up knowledge of the project and awareness of the medicine amnesties. The client gave me the information they wanted to be on the A4 leaflet, and after creating some initial designs I felt it was too information heavy, however the client stressed that if possible, all the information should be included. While this was frustrating as I felt it was limiting the design as it looked overly busy and would catch attention less, I did also understand that most of the information was necessary for the reader to understand the ReMINDS project’s goals and details of the medicine amnesties. Therefore, since the client dropped out, I decided I would choose the amount of information myself based on the design, however, of course include the essential information. I played with a couple of designs with more and less information, but landed on the one I did because, although I preferred the design with less, it is important for motivation as it gives the reasons ‘why’ behind the project.

When doing this I did some research into medical leaflets, something on reflection I think I should’ve done sooner in more detail, however doing this gave me an idea of the general layout and design of them. From this I learnt that many of them have quite busy layouts, with a decent amount of information, as medical topics/projects tend to need explaining. These are separated into sections on the page using colour and shapes in the background. In terms of typography, they generally use san-serif typefaces, so to represent the serious nature of the topics.

One issue I had to tackle while designing the leaflet was how to show the fish container. This was because initially we would have had to wait till it was completely finished and taken a photo of it for the leaflet to then be complete and be able to be shared. This was not only inefficient in terms of timings, but also it was pointed out that a photo of a bin or container would never be overly aesthetic, therefore I suggested a drawing instead as this was more visually engaging. I based this drawing off the mock-up I had made previously. This improved the leaflet as it added something more visual and paired with the drawing of the fish well. I also added the waves underneath the blue box as I felt these were appealing colours that matched the theme and balanced the colours over the leaflet.

I decided to use the same typeface that was used in the logo to carry the brand over to the leaflet. It also followed similar tendencies to the medical leaflet examples I found in my research that also use a san-serif typeface.

     

     


Final designs

RJ00410 Leaflet

 

RJ00410 ReMINDS Project Logo

 

RJ00410 Container Mock-up

 

RJ00410 Banner Mock-up

 

RJ00410 Banner Template

 

RJ00410 Print Cut File

Feedback

Unfortunately, due to the client dropping out and the medicine amnesty not taking place I have not received any proper feedback for the work and deliverables. Before the client was unable to continue the job, they were very happy with the work that I had completed so far and trusted they would be effective in creating a brand and advertising the event.


Reflection

This project has developed into a very interesting and individual project, with the branding deliverables being not only a logo, leaflet and poster, but to design a fish character for a bin that will be used at the medical amnesties.

This was my first real job I took on my own, which at first was slightly daunting as it meant I didn’t have a peer to ask for a second opinion, but with this job I have learnt to ask lecturers and my supervisors more for advice when needed which I think is a valuable skill and one that will benefit me in my studies.

I think I have handled the workload well, especially considering the projects unique deliverables that seemed to have increased throughout the project, and managed to stick to deadlines as well as I could, with factors such as finding and getting the spray painting done being trickier to sort than initially planned. Having to juggle a Real Job on my own alongside modules helped me to cut out my previous habit of procrastinating, as it was important for me to prioritise as the job was time sensitive. This is an improvement that has helped me across many areas of my studies.

Up until Covid sent students home mid-March, I was on track to have things sorted by the new deadline, with only slight changes to make to the colours of the fins, etc on the fish container. I was disappointed when this all had to be put on pause when I was no longer to access the bin to make an accurate colour change, as well as there being no rush to have the deliverables sorted as campus wasn’t busy like normal, so the client couldn’t hold the medical amnesty anyway. I felt that I was very on top of this job while I could be and am pleased with my progress at working as an individual.

This job has allowed me to improve my communication skills through skype calls, email and numerous meetings where a range of different things had to be discussed, and I have learnt to make sure I take detailed notes so I can pass on information correctly. For example, being in contact and talking to DPS directly was confusing at first, however, it has been a great insight to see how these things work and how I should best handle my files.

A more specific skill I have learnt to do on this project is create a Print Cut File for the scale and fin stickers that will go on the bin which taught me about more in-depth tools on Illustrator and further taught me the importance of layers and print specifications.

On reflection, something I have realised from this project is that I need to come up with more initial ideas for things, for example when creating the Reminds Project logo I didn’t come up with enough styles and ideas to show the client, even though they were happy with what they picked for me to develop, next time I would like to give a client more choices.

 

References

XL Displays. Crest Flag Banner And Pole Double Sided. Available at: https://www.xldisplays.co.uk/products/crest-flag-banner-and-pole-double-sided.aspx#:~:text=The%20double%20sided%20printed%20flag,effectively%20display%20your%20marketing%20message.

 

 

Creative Images – Photoshop

This term, we have undertaken various tasks that have allowed me to improve my skills in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and AfterEffects. The task that I enjoyed the most during this term was the Photoshop Creative Images task. I created three images that I am happy with.

DESIGN IDEAS AND DESIGN PROCESS

DESIGN 1 – FLOATING THROUGH SPACE

For my first idea, I wanted to create an image that altered reality so I chose to manipulate an image of a man floating through space. To start to design process, I browsed for stock images on Pixabey and found one of a man that looked like he is ‘floating’, and one of the stars that I could use as the background. I removed the man from the background of the original image by using the pen tool to create an outline around the figure. By selecting a new layer via cut, I removed him from the background and deleted the layer that i didn’t need. I then brought the images of the stars into photoshop and placed this layer underneath the figure. I then adjusted the brightness, contrast, and saturation of the images to make them look more authentic, and work in harmony with each other.

 

 

DESIGN 2 – FLOWER MASK

The second image I chose was of a woman’s face submerged by water and flowers. The effect that I wanted to achieve was flowers covering one-half of her face. To achieve this effect, I used layer masks and the brush tool to make a ‘shadow’. Firstly, I created a new layer mask and selected the part of her face that I wanted to remove. I then imported a picture of flowers and placed it underneath the existing layer so that you could see the flowers through her face. I used the selection tool to scale and position the flowers to fit the image and adjusted the existing layer mask, using the black and white brushes. I wanted to manipulate the image to make it look like the flowers were on top of the water and her lips were overlapping the flowers. I found it difficult at first but managed to get the hang of it after some time (and some tutorials). When I got to a point where I was happy with the mask, I tried to make the flowers look more realistic by adding a shadow. To achieve this,  I used the black brush tool at a large size and 0% hardness to recreate a shadow around the flowers.

 

 

DESIGN 3

This design was my favourite that I created during the task. My idea for this image was to create a feeling of movement within an image. This was heavily influenced by Şakir Yildirim’s image called ‘crawler’. However, I did not follow the exact technique he uses to create his images. To make this image, I found a picture of a boy walking from a side-on perspective and imported it into photoshop. I then used the direct selection tool to copy his figure into a new layer and duplicate this layer many times and positioned them in such a way to look like the boy is walking from one position to the other. I kept one of these separate and placed it in the middle, and grouped the rest of them together. I merged these layers together and used the ‘motion blur’ filter to blur the figures, and did the same thing with the figure in the middle but made him less blurred to make it look like he was coming ‘back to life’, or transforming from one figure to another. the final figure on the far left and right I kept as normal but used the blur tool to blur the edges. This made the figure blend in more with the background ensuring that it didn’t look cut out of the image.

 

SOFTWARE TUTORIALS

I found the tutorials provided to us helpful to get started with this task. They refreshed my memory and I found it useful to focus on layer masks and using nondestructive techniques in my work.  Using these techniques made it so much easier to go back on my design choices, and saved me from having to start all over again if I changed my mind. I often find that watching tutorials before taking on a task actually helps with my idea generation itself, and inspires me to get started.

I found the following tutorials particularly useful when working in Photoshop for this task. When using the tutorials, I tried not to follow them exactly but used them to get a rough idea of how to achieve an effect, and tried to find my own way of working. Each of these tutorials provided me with a better understanding of how tools within Photoshop work and inspired me to use Photoshop in different ways.

CREATING SHADOWS IN PHOTOSHOP

This tutorial on creating shadows in Photoshop came in helpful for my second design with the flowers to replicate the effect of a shadow. I used this in an attempt to make my image look more ‘real’ so  I tried to follow the way light would naturally behave in real life. This tutorial inspired me to think about the perspective of light, and the depth of the image while I was editing. The tutorial covers how to create shadows on different surfaces. he uses the brush tool at 0 hardness, which is the technique is the technique I used in my own work. He also goes over how to create shadows for a curved surface, and more complex objects, which I didn’t need for this task in particular but will come in helpful in the future.

PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL – FLOWER FACE EFFECTS

This tutorial helped me to grasp a better understanding of layer masks in photoshop and how to work with two images, one on top of the other. During the tutorial, she used the pen tool to create a stroke to select the parts of the original image that she wanted to remove, and uses the bevel and emboss layer style to make the cut outs look more 3D. she uses a layer mask to remove parts of the existing image to make the flowers appear on top of the face, giving a realistic effect. This tutorial was helpful to figure out how to make the flowers in my own design overlap with the face of the image.

MOTION BLUR EFFECT IN PHOTOSHOP

 

 

This tutorial introduced me to the motion blur effect in photoshop, one that I wasn’t already familiar with. I found that it was a really simple and easy way to introduce a sense of speed/ movement in my own image which was precisely the effect that I wanted to achieve. It also helped me with using layer masks, cutting out objects with the quick selection tool.

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

The second image that I worked on for this task was inspired by the album art for Shawn Mendes’ album cover. I really love this album cover and wanted to create an image with the same sort of feeling. I wanted to edit an image that inspired by, but not a direct copy of the original. I used an image of a woman rather than a man, and only including half of her face instead of placing one half on top of the flowers.

There is a collage artist called Marcelo Monreal who also creates similar portraits, of people and flowers which also heavily influenced this design. I find that his work very appealing aesthetically but also in the way it makes me feel. His portrait creates this feeling of contentedness that implies the subject is at one with nature, which is how I would like to think my image would create too.  You can find some of Monreal’s work here https://www.instagram.com/marcelomonreal/

My third design was inspired by the work of Şakir Yildirim. In particular, the portraits created using the liquify tool in Photoshop. Looking at his work inspired me to introduce a sense of movement, or duplication into my design. Yildirim’s work, specifically in ‘crawler’, creates a sense of motion, or almost a sense of transformation depending on how you interpret it. I find it fascinating that you can capture, or manipulate this very real sensation within a 2D image, which is the idea behind my third and final design for this task. You can have a look at Yildirim’s work here https://uk.gestalten.com/blogs/journal/new-perspectives-with-sakir-yildirim and find out how he uses Photoshop to achieve his portraits here https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/how-to/liquify-filter-motion-effects.html

Overall, I really enjoyed this task. I have been able to improve both my skills and confidence with using Photoshop while creating some fun images that I am quite proud of.

 

 

 

 

Liquid Letters – AfterEffects

BRIEF

Design 3 different animations for the Typography & Graphic Communication course.

    • include the text Typography & Graphic Communication
    • include a background (colour/image)
    • explore different ways to animate the text

 

DESIGN IDEAS AND DESIGN PROCESS 

Classic

  •  For my Classic design I wanted to demonstrate the process I have learnt throughout this task of applying text effects to my text. My intention for this design was to display those skills as clearly as possible. Therefore, I have chosen just two typefaces on three different layers, with one text effect on layer two and one on layer three. I went for a muted, natural colour pallet to reflect the simplicity of this design and so as not to distract from the applied text effects I applied.
  • Each layer makes sense on their own and could be observed in isolation, and the style of the text effect reflects the connotation of the words themselves. The text effect on the word ‘Typography’ is a nod towards kerning, as the space between each letter gently increases. The effect on ‘Graphic Communication’ plays more with more with the graphic element of text effects, bringing one letter in at a time in a jumbled way to eventually reveal the words.
Classic, Adobe After Effects Text Effect

 

Glitch

  • This idea was inspired by my podcast work earlier on in this module. I really enjoyed exploring designs which had an urban, messy edged style which experimented with different ways of layering elements, playing with colour, and embracing imperfections.
  • In urban environments there is often a lot of movement and bustle played in and around stationary objects. I continued to explore the impact of adding effects to all layers, one layer, or some layers. In this design all of my layers are animated, but I found having the ‘&’ as my stationary object once it arrives brought a solidarity and grounding to this design, enabling the chaos around it.
  • I then wanted to explore how text interacts with the background. I experimented with colour, texture, and image.Here I applied an effect to an image for the background as well as applying effects to the text which sit on top of it using Adobe Bridge.
  • This design was really fun to develop the use of bold text and unpredictable movements and it really portrays the style I was aiming for.
Glitch, Adobe After Effects Text Effect

 

Water

  • Having made many explorations with the different text effects supplied by Adobe, I wanted to push myself to explore other ways to utilise the tools in After Effects, to bring movement and interest to my text through developing my understanding of the other tools available. This design really challenged me and grew my skills and understanding of After Effects and was the most technically difficult idea I produced. I am really pleased with the outcome and think the effect works well.
  • My favourite idea  explores the use of external movements of shapes, to simulate the movement of my text. I watched a few Youtube videos of water effects in AfterEffects and found one that explained the software really well and was easy to follow. This design creates the effect that the text is filling with water, and then it disappears in the same manner. I first followed along with the video using the text ‘liquid’ and then reproduced it again with the text ‘typography and graphic communication’ to meet the brief.
  • To create this design I first opened  a new project and created a new composition at 1200 x 695, 1080p, 25 frames rate.
  • I then went to ‘Layer’ and created a new solid layer and set the colour to dark blue and locked the layer by clicking the lock icon.
Creating a new document, Adobe After Effects
  • In the Layer menu again, I created a new text layer and entered my text. Using the select tool I moved it to the centre of the frame and pressed ‘y’ to adjust the anchor tool to the centre also. Adjusting the text to the font and size that I desired was rather simple as it echoed the same process as in other Adobe software.
  • Once I was confident the text was in the middle of the frame, I created a shape layer and using the pen tool I drew a rough rectangle shape around the text and filled it in with a lighter blue thank my background. It was important that this blue was markably lighter than my background so that it could be easily visible, but still dark enough that I had room for two further increases in tint for the desired effect.
Drawing a rough rectangle with the pen tool, Adobe After Effects
  • With the rough rectangle shape selected, I went to the effects panel at the right of the screen and searched for ‘wave warp’. To apply this to my shape I clicked and dragged it from the results bar onto the shape layer in the timeline. I then adjusted the default settings, such as wave height and wave width, until it had the effect I desired.
  • Through pressing ‘p’ on the keyboard, I could click the position stopwatch and create my first keyframe. To get the progression correct, I first set the keyframe for the wave at its highest, then moved to the start of the timeline and set the wave to being under the text, I then set another keyframe. I set a third keyframe in the middle of the timeline, at around the middle of the height of the text.
Adjusting the path of the animation of my shape, Adobe After Effects
  • To enhance the wave effect as we play along the timeline, I adjusted the ‘s path’ of the shape. This meant it could weave up the screen like a snake, adding to the effect of water filling the text. To do this I moved the handles on the path line that was created from moving the shape downward from the last position to the starting point of the water.
  • For a smooth transition from one keyframe to the next, I selected all the keyframes at once and hit F9. This activated ‘easy-ease’, creating seamless transition. I further added to the realism of the water effect by rotating the shape slightly with the rotate tool. With the shape selected, I clicked on the rotate tool and could click and drag anywhere on the shape to rotate it around the anchor point.
Applying ‘alpha matte’ to my design, Adobe After Effects
  • Once I was happy with the shape, I turned it to ‘Alpha Matte’, this made it a mask over the text layer meaning the waves only appeared within the shapes made by the text. I could then copy and paste the text and shape layers on top of the existing layers (using command+c followed by command+v).
  • With my two new layers, I selected the shape layer and adjusted the settings of the shape. I changed the colour to a lighter shade of blue, increased the wave height and increased the wave width. So that my first layer could still be visible, I then moved these two copied layers down along the timeline. I also adjusted the keyframe positions to see how this impacted the effect. It took a bit of experimentation to find the position that worked nicely in unity with the first layer but once I found a position I liked I could repeat this process again to create a third layer with a lighter colour.
  • It was important that I didn’t move the text layer each time I copied the layers, otherwise the shape of the letters would be distorted and lose form and clarity. For this project, it was not something I wanted to push the boundaries with.
Testing the positioning of my three water layers, Adobe After Effects
  • Having all three shape and text layers in a position I liked, I selected them all (excluding the background layer), right clicked and created a pre-compose layer and gave it the name ‘text’. This brought all the layers into one, though when I double clicked on it I could still access all the layers within it. I copy and pated the third shape layer back into the composition menu and move it to the top.
  • This layer is going to become a mask layer to the entire animation. Firstly I was to change the colour of the layer to something really obviously not part of the design. I chose bright green. This was so I was clear that it was a mask layer and not part of the design. Once the colour was changed I could see clearly where it was and I positioned it towards the end of the timeline, roughly where the shape of the text is just filled up.
‘pre-composing’ my layers, Adobe After Effects
  • This bright green shape layer doesn’t need any further detail adjustments, though if I wanted to do something different I could have done. Because it was in a different place along the timeline (and so out of sync to the previous shape) I didn’t see the need to make any adjustments.
  • Making sure the text layer was selected, I made it an ‘inverted alpha matte’, meaning that it will work out the previous animation as it rises up the screen.
  • I then selected both layers and pre-composed them again.
Repeating the process with the text ‘typography & graphic communication’, Adobe After Effects
  • A nice additional detail to the design was the effect of rising bubbles inside the letters. To achieve this I added a new adjustment layer, and in the effects menu I searches for bubbles and click and dragged ‘CC bubbles’ onto my adjustment layer. I was able to change the setting to produce the size and shading that I liked, through pressing ‘t’ for opacity, I reduced the opacity of the bubbles as well.
  • Using the ‘bubble amount clock’, I added keyframes along the timeline. Starting with an amount of bubbles, letting then increase in number, and then decrease to zero as the word disappears. This was the most challenging part for me, to get the right number of bubbles at each keyframe. The same as I did to the keyframes on the wave shape layer, I selected all the keyframes on the bubbles and pressed F9, for easy-ease, ensuring a smooth transition between bubble quantities.
  • Finally, I duplicated the final text composition layer above the adjustment layer and turned the adjustment layer to ‘alpha matte’. This kept the bubbles within the text shape, like a clipping mask in Illustrator,  and had a really nice overall effect.

 

 

To view this animation right click and open in a new window:

Final design, Liquid Letters, Adobe After Effects

 

  • Exporting my designs to a GIF was at first a much more fiddly process than I had thought and so I used a few websites to help me understand the process. First from Adobe Effects into Adobe Media Encoder, then export from Adobe Media Encoder as an mp4, import into photoshop, then export as a GIF at an appropriate size. This was a big learning curve for me as it was not something that I had done before but once I got the hang of it it became rather simple.
  • Other challenges in this task were getting to grips with a new set of keyboard shortcuts. I also found myself trying to use keyboard shortcuts familiar to me on other pieces of software, however quickly found that almost every key seems to have a different but useful function in AfterEffects, once you know what they are. Becoming familiar with these shortcuts will be both useful, and important if I am to learn to work at a professional standard, which includes working accurately at an efficient speed. Shortcuts also help you to have greater control over your project.
  • I also found adjusting keyframes and their default settings tricky to figure out at first as some of the ways of doing this changed with each effect, but I eventually enjoyed the process of combining multiple effects and learning how and where to position the keyframes.

 

 

SOFTWARE TUTORIALS 

This was my first time using After Effects and so all of the tutorials this week were extremely helpful in building my basic understanding of this software and developing some core skills to begin experimenting with different design ideas and the tools available. I found focusing on text and the available text effects a great place to start and it inspired me to try more advanced design ideas, such as the liquid effect I have presented here. I most appreciated the explanation of keyboard shortcuts as I didn’t find them as intuitive as other Adobe software and so it was really good to have my notes to refer back to to know the most efficient way of achieving each tool/command.

I found Juan Villanueva’s work really inspiring as an example of what is possible in After Effects and text animation. It is great to see real life examples of how the skills can be used and it encouraged me to consider how and where these ideas might be applied. Considering the application of my designs inspired me to think of potential audiences, and that inspired new ideas that pushed me to develop my skills further.

Something I very much want to strengthen is my control of keyframes and effects, this is something i’m sure will come as I spend more time on the software and understand how it works better. It will also take me a little while to figure out the shortcuts and discover all the tools and effects on offer but I was really encouraged by how quickly I picked up what I did this week and I look forward to using After Effects more in the upcoming weeks.

This was a really enjoyable week for me. Having started the week with no clue how to work this software, I am now really excited to continue projects that further develop and strengthen my skills and understanding of Adobe After Effects.

 

 

RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION 

My inspiration this week started with thinking about and looking at examples of text effects in movies and music videos, as well as GIFs. This, along with the work of Villanueva inspired me to consider the context and use of my designs. I also wanted to explore text effects that I have noticed recently and found appealing, this ultimately led me to my final design of liquid type. The two main videos I used to develop my final idea and learn how to export to GIF properly were https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua8o_hs6Xko and https://www.rocketstock.com/blog/making-animated-gifs-from-after-effects-comps/. As I was searching on YouTube for a liquid effect tutorial I was amazed at the number of diverse and interesting design tutorials that there were and this inspired me to challenge myself to develop my skills further in my own time. Some of these tutorials I watched but felt my skills needed improving before I attempted and I am looking forward to going through some of them in the future, as each showcased a variety of ways in which After Effects can be mastered and help to strengthen my skills. Much of my research this week, however, was about learning a new piece of software and trying to get to grips with its basic functions within the context of the application of text effects. Working my way through the supplied tutorials enabled me to have a rudimentary understanding of what the software could do, and watching a variety of design ideas on YouTube inspired me to push my creativity and skills further.

 

Developing a Brand Logo

Design ideas, process and inspiration

I saw this task as a fantastic opportunity to build my very own logo for my art Instagram page. I have experimented and learned how to the different tools on Illustrator; some which were completely new to me like the scissor tool.  The design you see above is actually a continuation from the first experiment I did in this task.

After I had completed the task, I went ahead and explored the composition further and came up with a logo for my own social media design page. I added a square to the continuous line/path which acted like a border/bearer shape for the letters to sit in. I then took the brush tool and experimented with different styles until I found the perfect one which completed the logo design. I finished the logo by stating my social media handle at the bottom using a clear capitalised san-serif.

…

DESIGN 1

Design 1

Firstly, I began with creating 2 separate text boxes and typing each letter in each of the text box. I chose to use Minion Pro as my typeface as a serif is the perfect example to do it on due to having well defined descenders and serifs at the end which can easily be cut off. To manipulate and distort the actual letters, we need to make a path around the letterforms. To do this, I expanded both the letters by going onto the object menu which gave me a path around the letterforms.

Now that both text boxes were essentially converted to a smart object (due to the paths around them), I was able to use the scissor and line segment tool to draw out the lines where I wanted to break the letter in order for the 2 letters to connect in the end. After I was happy of where I wanted to create these marks, I divided the object using the pathfinder tool – this sliced where I had originally made the marks and to make sure they had separated I edited the object by ungrouping all that was selected. Screenshot 1 shows the top end part of the ‘E’ been cut off. This is where I planned to join the ‘R’ to after extending the line so that there was a reasonable amount of space between both the letterforms. I then did the same thing to the ‘R’ making sure I cut the correct areas out.

I joined both of the objects by using the shape tool and drew a rectangle which connected the two letters together (screenshot 2) By using the cutting method I learned from the tutorial I watched and using the direct selection tool also, I cleaned up the edges where the lines overlapped. The before and after stages of this action is shown in. To finish the edit, I rasterised the 2 elements as a whole which converted it into one single object rather than 2 separate ones.

Screenshot 1: pathfinder, divide and then ungroup from the object
Screenshot 2: joining the letters together

…

Software tutorials and inspiration 

My inspiration for this design is the logo for Louis Vuitton. I like the way they have combined both of the letterforms as a whole. However, I wanted to put my own spin on this, therefore I removed parts which I thought were not essential, but kept the parts which were needed to ensure the letter did in fact look like it was meant to be. To do this, I used 2 video tutorials which helped me. I understood that I needed to outline the text and the video provided in the brief helped me to do so. In terms of cutting parts of the letter out, I found a tutorial on YouTube which helped me remove the parts I did not need. I learned how the scissor tool can be used together with the line segment tool to cut out parts of an object and how the direct selection tool can come in handy to line up the corners of the object and deleting points if necessary.
Helpful tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LMqhHkI76I&ab_channel=JanisDougherty (cutting shapes in Illustrator)
Helpful tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6P94HoZnc&ab_channel=StickerGiant (outlining shapes)

Inspiration for design 1: https://www.gallerymonkey.com/LV-Logo-Black-White-Wall-Art

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DESIGN 2

Design 2

I started off this design by choosing the typeface. I wanted to make my second design more abstract which is why I picked sans-serif typefaces like Baloo Bhaina and Chalkboard; I chose Chalkboard to be part of my final outcome. The thick strokes of the letter forms is perfect for the effect I was going for as it does not hold back. It stands out and it’s out there and fun. I then drew out the first shape I was going to experiment with – an ellipse. I then created an outline for the text box which essentially converted it into a smart object (with a path)

For the text to warp into the shape, with both elements chosen, I applied the ‘Envelope Distort’ option and I made it with the top option. This gave me the finish I was looking for (screenshot 3) I was not a massive fan of this though, so I went ahead and experimented with a different typeface and shape – this time a rectangle. After adding 2 more points onto the rectangle using the pen tool, I grabbed the direct selection arrow and distorted the rectangle to the shape. Like I previously did, I warped the text using the same technique, however this time remembering to group the rectangle before I did so as I added 2 additional points to the rectangle which had broken the single path. To stylise the warped text, I added a shape around the text as well changing up the colours using different layers to get the final outcome (screenshot 4)

Screenshot 3: using ellipse as the shape for the text to warp into
Screenshot 4: adding colour

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Software tutorials and inspiration 

Through this design, I have learned a new technique. I was always intrigued to know how people do this and now I finally got around to finding out as well as making my own thanks to this task. It’s quite simple too. Not only do the tools do amazing things but after exploring a couple of the options on the top menu bars allowed me to see that most of the interesting stuff lives up there. I used my previous knowledge on manipulating shapes to change and enhance the background to make the logo the best it can be.
Helpful tutorial and inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDWcrCzzwxw&ab_channel=DesignTuts (warp text into the custom shape)

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DESIGN 3

 

Design 3

To begin this design, I decided that I was going to use a sans-serif as I hadn’t played around with them as much (like I did in my first design) I realised that creating them as outlines was always the first step to do as it makes a path along the actual letter forms making it easier for us to manipulate the letters. So, after I had done this, I remembered to ungroup the whole letter and began to add lines using the pen tool to see where I would have the cut outs (screenshot 5) After I was happy where I wanted to place these, I used the pathfinder tool and divided the shape so that it make a cut in the letter where I had drawn (screenshot 6)

Now, it was time to wing the ends out – I did this by adding a couple more anchor points and using the direct selection tool to expand these where appropriate to create the desired effect (screenshot 7) I then manipulated the ends of the E to make sure the style was consistent throughout as it looked odd without doing so I then did the same to the R, as well as beginning to experiment with colour. I made the cut in the R even more distinctive compared to the E, to use the new technique I had learned. I felt as though by adding more drama to the R would bring the logo together. Lastly, I positioned them so that they created sort of a journey from one letter to the other (starting at the top and slowly changing direction as you move your eye down to the R) I experimented with the line width of the framing of the circle as well as switching up the colours to create an altered ending finish.

Screenshot 5: pen tool + “create outlines” function
Screenshot 6: pathfinder tool to divide the letter
Screenshot 7: using the anchor point and the direct selection tool/white arrow to extend the ends of the paths

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Software tutorials and inspiration

I found a very useful tutorial to help me with changing up the letter form differently. Although the video showed tools and elements I already was aware of, it showed me how to do things differently. I can now use the pen tool better to by knowing where to add different anchor points which I can then pull out or draw in to curve the edges or extend the corners out. I was inspired by the Nespresso logo, more specifically the ‘N’ in it. It follows the same idea I have dealt with through this design. I think by adding this to the starting letter like the brand has done adds an excellent degree of style, whilst also being legible to users.
Helpful tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NJojxyLM2c&ab_channel=RifkanCreation (letter logo in Illustrator)

Inspiration for design 3: https://en.logodownload.org/nespresso-logo/

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Reflection

Throughout this task, I gained a better understanding on how the pathfinder tool works – how I am able to use it to divide sections, overlay, combine as well as group together too. The ‘create outline’ function is extremely useful as it converts the text box into letters which have paths around themsleves. Working with this is easier, as you can take any point on the letter/shape and change it to whatever you feel suits the design and style. Doing this has improved my practice using the pen tool. I am now able to know where to put additional anchor points if I need them and where to remove them to get a softer curve.

An area to improve is to explore the materiality of the letterforms (e.g. adding texture within the letterforms for a greater impact) I think experimenting with different letters of the alphabet can also be useful as by pairing different letters together you can use the shapes of them differently and intertwine them with one another.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Images in Photoshop

Design ideas and design process:

All photoshop designs here included my own photography, the first 2 being of my dogs. In the first one, I isolated him from the background and used a series of brushes to create an ink splatter effect to show off his colours well. Using the eyedropper tool, I could select the same colour as his fur and would create brush strokes behind him. To get rid of any solid outlines I then applied a layer over the top of him, less intense so that all his details could still be seen, yet he is absorbed into all the ink. This made use of his natural colour tones and exaggerated them as much as I could. Alternately for my second design, and other dog, I went for a more cartoony feel, with a pop art aesthetic, steering away from the more complicated aesthetic from the former and favouring bright vibrancy. It feels blockier and more fun, yet I favoured the image resembling more of the original photo, the first design. Therefore, for the final design, I took what worked best in the former two and applied it to my photo of people this time. Using ink splatter to exaggerate the colours of hair, skin and clothes, with a pop art overlay. I feel the transition between realism worked more seamlessly here than in the second design as it blends with colour more effectively due to how intense the presence of the ink is. The focus on the people aids this greatly as the colour and ink flow around the image in a natural way for the audience to follow with their eyes.

 

 Designs 1-3

 

The first image shows the underlying layers of ink brushes and the second shows how awkward the image looked awkward when there was no overlaying ink , as to why i added this later on.

 

The first image shows the early design process when i realised that the pop art effect didn’t work so well on its ownand the second is where I attempted to add no detail to add to a comic tone but decided against it.

The first image shows all the underlying ink layers without the figures with the second showing the figures with just the smoke which  inspired me to consume them in it as it flowed well.

 

Software tutorials

The main assets I used here on Photoshop are the brush and eyedropper tool. This allowed me to colour pick the exact colours of elements of the photos so when painted on top of or behind there is a seamless transition. This also worked for colouring the brush the same colour as the background so there were no harsh lines or clear transitions, it all blends into one. This worked for both the first and final designs to great success. This was especially amplified by increasing the vibrancy of the images so that the colours really popped out and became the main features of the original photos; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FipliqS7GYU&list=PLEEgLOr8DxSPMjRanf-E4DaZYLVY9jWhQ&index=7

This is the tutorial I watched by Hass Hasib as the main tutorial in my design, showing how he used brushes in creative ways, something I then wanted to emulate in my own work with my own images.  In the second and third design I also made the images look cartoony by altering layer styles, filters and colour to my advantage as well as learning about colour halftone on Photoshop with Blue Lightning TV Photoshops tutorial; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS6k9ax4joI&list=PLEEgLOr8DxSPMjRanf-E4DaZYLVY9jWhQ&index=9&t=21s

These 2 major stylistic choices are not usually presented simultaneously, therefore, that Is more of a reason why I wanted to combine the two, taking what worked and abusing it to extreme effects with very harsh outlines and thick strokes as well as vibrant and loud colour brush effects that amplify and flood the image. These skills I had never dabbled in before and by revisiting both of them in the final design worked as a kind of test to me to see how to apply what I had learnt in the tutorials without external assistance the second time around, to, what I think, was a success.

 

Resources for research and inspiration

After seeing the first tutorial mentioned above by Hass Hasib, I searched for similar looking final designs using the splash dispersion ink effect such as this one; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxA-E9VtL0s

Although I did not watch the technical elements of this video, I liked how the final image uses colour so violently, in the audience’s face, bringing so much character and excitement. This is a photo where the figure Is moving so it inspired to see if I could bring so much diversity to a stationary image of my dog who has very neutral colours, brown, blacks and whites as opposed to the red and blues present here to see what works well and do the opposite despite the fact to see if I could achieve just as effective results. It became more inspiring when designing the 3rd creative image as here there was much more colour on show I could exploit, make sharper and channel this concept more thoroughly in a playful way as opposed to the more mature and reserved approach I took with the first dog design. For the second design, although not looking very similar, one of my main influences after watching the tutorial was the loading screens for the video game Grand Theft Auto V which present the main characters in a comic pop art version of themselves, still realistic but with more pronunciation on strokes. This Is an approach I took with my second dog, to keep the details but reduce the image to a comic from with bold pronunciation; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_YJnor4XH4

I decided to stray away from the more realistic GTA V aesthetic, applying colour halftone pixels with 6 pixel radius creating marks as if the image is printed on old printers like classic comics and 80s pop art.