Background

For our academic cohort, the last project of second year revolved around The Global Goals, a collection of 17 interlinked targets that tackle a range of environmental and cultural issues. In the project, each student was assigned one of the seventeen goals, with the task to design a cohesive campaign across an A2 poster, DL leaflet and D48 billboard animation. Although the goals might seem daunting to complete by the provisional target of 2030, outcomes needed to remind audiences that there is still hope, especially with meaningful action.

Our job, as the Real Job team, was to bring together both digital and physical outcomes to form an in-house exhibition – celebrating the work involved and shining a light of hope on global issues.

Restated brief

It was important for us to expand beyond the typical restated brief by including measurements (and visuals) of the panels within the exhibition space. Luckily, this was something we could obtain from Geoff, so we didn’t need to measure each panel ourselves, which would’ve proved a challenge over the summer vacation period.

Our greatest struggle was finalising deadlines, especially since we were collaborating virtually over the summer. Luckily our production dates were solidified from the get-go, but other dates including caption collection and file gathering depended on the cooperation from students and staff. We overcame this through frequent communication via email and text message, and this was often actioned months in advance.

Throughout the project, the brief didn’t change drastically, and our deliverables remained the same:

Introductory panel ( 280 x 118 mm )
Summary panel ( 224 x 118 mm )
Prosperity, People and Planet categorisation panels ( 50 x 118 mm )
Leaflet (14.8 x 19.9 cm )
Digital exhibition with animation showreel
Social media post

Research

Initially, we looked at what the previous year did with their Global Goals exhibition. This was a necessary precaution since it prevented us from copying their concept and helped us identify their successful, and perhaps less successful components. Additionally, we looked at similar student showcases, identifying presentation methods of both artwork and corresponding copy within captions.

Design process

We began the design process by thinking of concepts and ideas for creating a brand image using the global goals branding. Our aim was to incorporate elements of their brand but it not to be a complete replica or a copy of last year’s exhibition. We had meetings with our clients, Rob and Greg, over the summer to which we presented our initial ideas across deliverables.

Some of our initial ideas presented to our client.

The strongest concept was one that used the global goals colours within a tetris-based design of different blocks. Greg suggested we create a narrative for our concept that fits with the work that is showcased in the exhibition. This is when we came up with HOPE: Designing for the future. The tetris blocks shows everyone’s individual efforts, the students’ responses to the global goals, and when put together we can tackle all issues as part of a bigger community.

Developed ideas for the summary panel that utilise the initial tetris designs.

This design was then improved in Illustrator to get a clearer, more unified visual result. We continued to receive feedback from our client, suggesting improvements along the way. One big change we made was the designing of the tetris blocks, originally they were all very similar and rotated in different ways so it was hard to distinguish between different goals. Instead, we created a unique shape for each of the 17 Global Goals so it could be distinguished on its own – linking back to our narrative of individuals coming together. We also experimented with hand-drawn textures as it could be said that the shapes felt a bit too neat and could do with a bit of humanity and warmth. After exploring this idea, we found that the concept was strongest with its perfect shapes and lines.

Once we had established our concept of the tetris blocks, we then explored this through the different deliverables. We experimented with the different ways that the tetris could be positioned and created. The introduction panel shows it building upwards, suggesting growth towards the 17 Global Goals and bettering the planet through design. Further connotation is seen through 29 present shapes – each representing a student and response to the brief. The summary panel shows the lock up of all 17 Global Goals together to show the unity among them, together they represent everything that the Global Goals strive for.

Exploring different arrangements of the tetris.

Exploring creating imperfect versions of the shapes.

We decided to group our responses into three categories – Prosperity, People and Planet. The first category, Prosperity, highlights the goals that strive for innovation and new global opportunities. The second category, People, looks at the human population and how their lives are impacted by worldwide issues. The third and final category, Planet, shines a light on the goals that express a concern for maintaining natural resources and Earth’s environments. To introduce these sub-categories, large panels were created to highlight the further aims of each goal. We experimented with no tetris, tetris on the bottom, and finally came to a unanimous decision of presenting a tetris pattern on the top that utilises the colours of the goals involved.

Initial Prosperity, People and Planet panels

Developed Prosperity, People and Planet panels

The tetris design was then explored and continued on through the leaflet. The three different categories allowed for a 3-panel leaflet, each panel showcasing a category of students work. We looked at a few different ways to present the tetris concept on the front side of the leaflet but finalised on one that links back to the idea from the introduction panel, it bleeds across the back of the leaflet suggesting that we continue on having hope for the future through design.

Experimenting with arrangements of the tetris for the leaflet deliverable.

Installation

Final installation took place on Friday 19 September. A useful tool that we used was an InDesign document with the exact measurements of each panel. This helped us in planning the flow of the exhibition as well as keeping equal distances between the posters (and captions) on each wall.

We applied the large introductory and summary panels first since these needed a group effort. Then we applied the smaller categorisation panels alongside the posters and captions. We heavily relied on using the laser level to ensure all wall assets were stuck on straight. All deliverables were printed on UTACK, a sticky-backed vinyl which meant all we needed to do was remove the backing and stick them to the walls. The adhesive backing was strong and durable, so if anything was applied at the wrong angle, we could easily readjust and restick.

Using the laser level on the final Planet panel to make sure all wall assets were stuck on straight.

Throughout the summer, we had expressed a disinterest in displaying the DL leaflets since they differed across the academic cohort, with some students producing exciting tri-folds with die cuts and other special finishes. However, once the posters and animations were up in T-Spur, we felt that the centre of the corridor was too empty. It was then at this point, we decided to bring in three glass vitrines to display the student submissions. Having the leaflets further establishes the cohesiveness of the campaigns on display, and adds more interactivity for the visitor.

Final products

Physical exhibition space

Introduction panel, situated in front of the main entrance to the Department.

Summary panel with half of the responses to the Prosperity category.

Leaflet

Promotion and awareness

In its initial weeks of opening, we gave in-house tours of the exhibition to Part 1 and Part 2 students. In these tours, we talked about the visuals on display and the benefits of completing an exhibition-orientated Real Job. These tours were a great way for us to distribute our leaflets and allow students to digest the campaigns, deliverable by deliverable.

In addition to the in-house talks, we were also given the opportunity to speak to design students from Cox Green sixth form. This allowed us to expand on our in-house talks, giving us the platform to talk about the course and Real Job experiences to an audience who are unfamiliar with the scheme.

We also created social media posts to promote the exhibition on the department’s LinkedIn and Instagram accounts. This also linked users to the digital exhibition, to which we followed the frame of last years for. This showcased all the posters along with the animation showreel. Our digital exhibition can be viewed at: https://typography.network/globalgoals/

Social media post seen on the Department’s LinkedIn.

Self-reflection

Upon reflection, our exhibition could’ve strayed away from the typographic branding of The Global Goals, especially since the colours do most of the heavy lifting. This change would’ve differentiated our exhibition from the previous year, and perhaps would’ve elevated a sense of uniqueness with our work.

Additionally, we think that the project could’ve benefitted more from in-department contact hours. It was difficult to organise this due to the summer holidays, but with us all living close to Reading, it was perhaps something we could’ve done more often. This would’ve helped to finalise print decisions more efficiently.

Emma

As someone who was well-engaged with the project at the end of second year, it was a great honour to be a part of the team to put it all together in the department. Planning, designing and installing this exhibition greatly improved my problem-solving and communication skills – especially when we had the opportunity to talk to students about the work involved. This exhibition is not only a memorable outcome for the Real Job team and I, but also something the whole year can reflect upon and feel proud of.

Hannah

My favourite module of the year was unquestionably the Global Goals module, which motivated me to join the real job team. I developed in a lot of ways while working on the exhibition, from being more comfortable sharing my ideas to communicating and working with others. The whole experience was genuinely enjoyable when watching everything come together and seeing people’s excitement when they saw their work.

Josephine

This was such a great project to be a part of, not only learning how to design and set up an exhibition but also having the opportunity for this to showcase our own work. It pushed my boundaries, overcoming challenges and building my communication skills. This project has definitely sparked a personal interest in exhibition design and I am so happy with the final outcome, along with its impact.

Design Ideas and Design Process

Since the Formatting Text task only briefed me to create one final outcome, it was a challenge for me to narrow down my expansive design thinking into a single concept! Pictured above is my finalised flyer, and I truly believe in creating this, I have learnt valuable skills for the future when using InDesign.

In starting this task, I applied colour to the parent page to formulate the background. I decided to make this a fair shade of pink since I felt like it reflected the name of the Radio 4 show – Rethink Fairness. Swiftly moving forward, I copied the assigned body into my text frame and started to apply paragraph and character styles. This stage was very important for me since it helped to create a textual hierarchy within the flyer, highlighting important elements by using different sizes and weights. One of my character styles was for a hyperlink, so it was crucial for me to link the Radio 4 show correctly to my ‘click here’ text. When applying my stylesheets, large amounts of white space were generated, and I struggled to tackle these initially. However, I quickly overcame this challenge and thought to experiment with the ellipse tool to create a decorative pattern using circles. To add contrast within the pattern, I altered the opacities, and this proved to be effective. I finished the flyer by changing the titular ‘Rethink Fairness’ text. Originally, I had made this sit on a straight line, (as seen in some of my screenshots below) but I felt that this wasn’t as exciting as it could be. Instead, I opted to use the ‘type on a path tool’ to curve the text, and I feel like this makes it work well in conjunction with the roundness from the circle pattern above.

Figure 1: Applying a solid, pink rectangle to my parent page

Figure 2: Applying paragraph styles to my body text

Figure 3: Applying character styles to make certain pieces of text bolder

Figure 4: Using the ellipse tool to create circles

Figure 5: Using the pen tool and type on a path tool to create my curved text

Figure 6: Changing the opacity of my circles

Software Tutorials

For most aspects of this flyer, I felt confident in exploring InDesign at my own accord. This is because I have recently become very familiar with using paragraph and character styles in particular due to work from another module. However, I struggled with setting my ‘Rethink Fairness’ text in a way that was interesting, so I followed this helpful tutorial on how use the ‘type on a path tool’ effectively. In the video tutorial, I was initially prompted to use the pen tool to create a curved line. This took me several attempts since I wasn’t pleased with how some of the strokes appeared, but eventually I drew out two lines which were ready to be used. At the left edge of each line, I clicked using the ‘type on a path tool’ and entered the titular text. (‘Rethink’ on top, ‘Fairness’ on bottom) At this stage, I could play about with modifying new paragraph and character styles until I was satisfied with my final outcome. The tutorial I watched was simple, easy to use and helped me in learning a tool I hadn’t yet used in InDesign.

Design Resources and Articles

In my previous experience with using InDesign, I hadn’t needed to hyperlink any content before, so I was initially unsure of how to tackle this when needing to link the Radio 4 content for this Rethink Fairness flyer. However, I found this article which guided me through the steps on how to achieve this successfully, and how to stylise it properly. Firstly, I was prompted to select the text I wanted to hyperlink, and in my flyer, this was simply a ‘click here’ feature. I then navigated to Type > Hyperlinks & Cross-References > New Hyperlink, with a dialogue box appearing shortly after. Here is where I inputted the link for the ‘Rethink Fairness’ website. Submitting the changed settings in the dialogue box created a new character style for the hyperlink, so I altered this in order to make the text bolder, allowing it stand out from the rest of the body.

Figure 7: Adding a hyperlink to my flyer

Not only has this article aided me in this task, but the knowledge I’ve learnt from it will come in very handy for the future, especially when formatting bibliographies that include online resources!

Learning Throughout the Module

Throughout the Spring term tasks, I feel like I have hugely increased my confidence when working with Adobe programs. Although my quiz results from Autumn and Spring have remained the same, it shows that the volume of information I know hasn’t decreased by any measure. I believe these results aren’t a pure reflection of my learning within TY1SK because they highlight my general knowledge, rather than the valuable in-program skills that I have developed and prioritised in this module.

Nevertheless, my skills have improved vastly, particularly when working with InDesign and Photoshop since these were the two programs I knew the least about prior to the tasks set. From mastering stylesheets in InDesign to perfecting image editing in Photoshop – I am in a very comfortable position to use these effectively in the future! On the other hand, I have also grown my After Effects and Illustrator knowledge throughout doing these tasks. I already knew quite a bit about these programs, so I thought it may be a challenge to expand my pre-existing skills. However, I was able to learn new shortcuts and utilise effects I hadn’t before in the past within both programs, and it was super helpful!

HOPE: Designing for the future | Global Goals Exhibition