Brief

The purpose of this Real Job was to create a visual brand for the degree show for the Undergraduate students of the Art Department at the University of Reading. The School of Art hosts a private degree show at the end of each year to display the work of the graduating art students. Our job was to work closely with the art students to produce a visual identity that they were happy with and believe reflected the vision they had.

Aims

• To create a visual brand for the degree show which reflects the chosen theme
• To create promotional material for the degree show for both people within the university and visitors
• To showcase a selection of works by the final year students to attendees through a publication
• To provide a directory of final art pieces for each graduating student to be shown online to the public

Our Team

Our team comprised of three members: Beth, Angie and Ali, and within the team we allocated roles. Beth was project manager, which involved being the main communication with the client, organising the jobs within the design team as well as being in charge of designing the publication. Angie took charge of designing the brand identity and the printed materials, as well as being in charge of sending the deliverables off to print. Ali took charge of coding the website and other online aspects.

Deliverables & Schedule

Our first meeting with the clients was really informative and we were given clear direction to what they wanted from our design team. They set out a clear set of deliverables:

• Printed publication: showcasing a selection of students’ works that attendees of the event will receive upon arrival. The publication size was A5 consisting of 64 pages, printing 500 copies in black and white.
• Website: showcasing every graduating student’s final art piece that can be easily shared around the web on social media, as well as serving as a public showcase of the degree show for those who could not attend in-person.
• Other promotional materials: including printed posters, invitations and digital media advertising.

The degree show dates were as follows: 7 June 2019 (Private View), 10–16 June 2019 (Public View). Setting key deadlines was key throughout the project, as it meant that we were able to produce the designs for them quickly. An initial deadline was set on the 1st March 2019, for the BA and MA Art students to finalise the content they wanted to be included in the website and publication. The team also encouraged the Art students to finalise a clear theme and title for their degree show. However, deciding a name took time and not everyone provided the content for the team, forwarding the deadline to three weeks later. Nevertheless, this minor setback did not affect our schedule majorly, as we had clear understanding as to what was expected of us at the beginning of the Real Job, which proved incredibly useful and aided the design process for specified deliverables. The final deadline for the completion of the publication and website was set on the 28 April 2019, in order for the website to be live and publication to be set to print a month before the day of the degree show.

Visual Identity

The Art Degree Show Committee had come up with a title ‘Error 404‘. We encouraged them to create Pinterest boards and collages for the next meeting so we could understand the visual identity they were expecting from us. During our second meeting, we looked over their inspiration and highlighted images, consistent colours and themes that stood out to us. From there, we began to ideate and design posters to what we believe reflected what they wanted.

Initial poster variations we produced for the clients.

The committee found that the pink and blue poster stood out to them the most and best suited the ‘Error 404’ theme. Using the colour scheme and typeface as a basis, we further developed and built the visual identity and applied it to the publication and the website. 

Challenges

One of the main challenges that we faced in this project was coming up with a title for the degree show. With having strong ideas from a range of different students that where all passionate about their vision, it was became difficult to settle on a single idea as the final title of the show. We also had to make sure this idea was strong enough to create a visual identity to for the show, that would entice people to visit. In addition to this, the degree show included a variety of student work, which created difficulty with getting all of the students to comply with the deadline of sending in work for the website and publication. Also due to the large number of students, when meeting with the committee board, who relayed the ideas of all the students, we found there was conflicting feedback which become difficult to come to coherent conclusions, bested suited for the future of the project, due to the feedback being sub bar.

Reflection

This project has a lot of different aspects to the progress which came with own set of challenges. The main challenge we ran into several times throughout the project was the communication from the whole group of students through the committee to us. We felt like the ideas from the students often just canceled each other out and got over ruled by the ideas for the individual students that were on the committee. This did however bread creativity allowing all aspects of the project to be looked at in different ways that allowed the final solution to be the most applicable one for this project. Another problem that we ran into was the students changing their minds on what they wanted in the publication and on the website. With them being students at the University they were still creating work throughout this process, meaning they kept wanting their most recent work to be the displayed on publication and site. This meant that even though deadlines where set to have work in on certain days, this didn’t play out in the same way as they kept trying to add new work and update their section, after the deadline for the submitted. After finishing the job, all of the deliverables were approved by the clients, the deliverables met all of the original aspects of the design that we were trying to achieve all of the original aspects of the design that we intended. We also created a unique brand for the show that is coherent throughout all of the deliverables that was made for the clients.

Background
The department of of Graphic Communication and Typography required two students to help with the organisation and delivery of the summer exhibition in the department with the theme of ‘celebrating five decades of Real Jobs’. Real Jobs are a client facing scheme which students can choose to take on in completion of their BA degree. The aim of the scheme is to engage new clients and give the students a real experience working in the ‘real world’ to see how a design job is processed and criticised, which successfully prepares them for working with real clients after University. We decided to take on this particular Real Job as we believe our understanding of student behaviours and interests in and out of class will enable us to draw in as many students as possible. We know that students are curious about interactive events occurring on campus, and given the event is celebrating student work it is imperative they are a part of the outcome.

The Brief
The client for this Real Job was James Lloyd, also the organiser of the scheme which meant communication was key in order to ensure the exhibition would be successful. We were also lucky to be supervised by the head of department – Eric Kindel who guided us throughout the long process or producing an exhibition. 

The purpose of the brief was to create and engage both students and clients in an exhibition celebrating five decades of real jobs. Other than the exhibition, deliverables needed to be designed and distributed in the lead up to the event. These deliverables were equally as important as the final exhibition as their goal were to raise awareness of the event and gain new clients interested in the scheme. ‘Clients’ can mean anyone from local businesses, large organisations, charities, etc. Fundamentally though, their common thread will be their future need for design tasks to be completed, and their desire to give such opportunities to students – a desire that we are being tasked in awakening. 

Given that the scheme has been running for a long duration of time, the final display needed to be carefully categorised to present each theme. These themes were established later in the design process and organisation of the exhibition. Overall the final exhibition and deliverables needed to successfully engage both student and client relations with the department as this will allow the scheme to keep running in future years to come. The exhibition opening night should also represent a celebration as the scheme has been successfully running for over five decades.

Research
In order to understand the Real Job scheme in more detail we immediately arranged a meeting with head of department and supervisor – Eric Kindle. This enabled us understand the topic to then take a more emotional approach. 

It is important to note that the initial approach we took to organise the exhibition did not produce the results we had intended and forced us to reconsider our approach. We had the idea to create an opening night in a location other than the department however it soon became clear that this idea was not feasible and fitting to the genre of work we would have been displaying.  We produced initial concepts for poster art that would be used to promote this event. We mostly looked at styles of work that inspired us and attempted to link them to the subject of design.  

 During this time we also applied for funding from the Arts Committee, however shortly following from this the funding was rejected. Disappointed but not disheartened we continued with the planning and took a new approach with organising the exhibition. The exhibition was to be hosted and displayed in the department of Graphic Communication and Typography. We felt this would also be nostalgic for clients or previous students from the department who visited.

The main bulk of research came from finding and looking through archives within the department containing series of Real Jobs which dated back as far as 5 decades ago. We found it extremely enlightening to see the variety and content of work that has taken place in the department over this period of time. We are also incredibly grateful for the help of several lecturers here in the department who assisted us in looking through the large volume of work. This part of the research was incredibly time consuming however worth it when we had a concise pile of artefacts we felt could be suitable for the final exhibition.

Concept
The final concept and themes for the exhibition came to us once we had thoroughly looked through the archives and current student work. After sketching several plans, we agreed that the overarching theme of the exhibition would be “time” or things evolving. This can then be broken down into different focusses, allowing us to explore a broad range of work. These categories are collaboration, client relationships, community impact and changing technology, all of which fit into the main theme, as well as interconnect with one another. 

Design Process
The first deliverable that we produced was the exhibition invitation. We were informed of the Degree Show invitations being sent through the post, and decided to collaborate with the degree show team to insert our invitation into their own to be sent together. We had a tight deadline and so wanted to make a design that had its own identity but that could be flexible according to changes in the style or theme of the exhibition. Initially we agreed on a colour scheme and set of typefaces that would be positive and celebratory, without being crude. The concept we started with was 50 years of real jobs and the title had a subtle 50 behind it, as pictured.    

We were later told that this would be misleading, as the scheme has not been running for exactly 50 years. With the tight deadline looming, we consulted our supervisor and client and decided to use another concept that tapped into the nostalgia; this was the green star used in older real jobs meetings. 

Another aspect of the design process – and arguably the largest – was arranging and preparing exhibition material for display. After grouping the work for display, we wrote out appropriate captions that would summarise the key information of a project, as well as indicate how it relates to the theme. We unified the textual hierarchy and the paper stock for a professional finish. Additionally, we had a new experience of mounting and displaying for an exhibition space. Because we were dealing with a range of work such as books, posters and more 3-dimensional pieces, we had to explore a range of ways to raise, stick and hang certain things. This came with many challenges, as there were some resources we had not previously come into contact with such as the clear tape used to hold down open books. As well as this, a lot of time was spent discussing how to arrange certain items so that the grouping, the pace, and the viewing direction were all clear, and so that items were viewed in their optimal position for the appropriate level of detail.

The Final Deliverables
The below images are completed cases and walls for the first category of the exhibition – changing relationships.   

Communication with the Clients
As our client and supervisor for this job are both important roles within the department it was imperative to keep communication with them at all times. Being constantly in the department during working hours, as well as available through email and phone, both our supervisor and client were easy to reach most of the time, if available. 

Overall
It was agreed that we both found the Real Job extremely challenging but overall rewarding. We took on the job with the thought we would have more independence with organising and hosting a final exhibition opening however it soon became clear the style of work and the clients we were dealing with insisted on a consistent and professional style. Displaying and hosting the final opening within the department of Graphic Communication and Typography enabled us to do this with ease. It was incredibly eye opening to have access to all of the work from the scheme over the past five decades and we like to feel like delivered the final exhibition and deliverables at a high standard with pride in the community and degree we are grateful to be a part of.

As the exhibition opening is set from 13 June 2019, displaying exhibition work is still in progress. This will be completed by this deadline and all print materials will be completed by this time. This also means that we are unable to measure success until after the exhibition is taken down. However we have agreed we are more than happy to assist the department in final display of any work left and also to bring down any material in preparation for the following exhibition later in the summer. 

Finally we would like to state how incredibly grateful we are to have been given the chance to contribute and help organise in the run up to the event. We have from this learnt many new skills including event planning and organising an exhibition which will be useful later in life with our chosen career paths following graduating from the department.

The next steps
This real job is a work in progress and has been partially completed to represent that range of deliverables and captions that will be displayed. The current display has been arranged based on a complete plan of the exhibition space that we have been following, based on the themes mentioned earlier in this report. 

Abi Hammond and Racheal Paris

Background

Kaffee Haus advertise themselves as ‘proprietors of amazing Artisan Coffees expertly roasted in Nottingham’. The company is owned by Daniel Wright and Alexei Lambley-Steel and as was established as a limited company in 2016. They produce coffee bean blends and are sold in different weights with respect to different brewing methods. The blends are comprised of various coffee beans from around the world including Peru, Columbia and Honduras. Our first meeting established their core audience as millennial-aged (21–35) coffee drinkers.

Restated Brief

Initially, Alexei and Daniel gave us a brief to create a ‘rebrand/new logo for our online Artisan coffee business.’ with the potential for this to extend into a new coffee packaging labelling design. The logo would be the new face of the company featuring in not only the website and packaging but with the potential to move into a coffee shop logo. The client requested that the design was both modern and catchy, this is with the desire to appeal to the generation ‘Y’ customers.

Research and ideation

To gain knowledge of the project at hand, Phoebe and I spent some time researching the brand. After this took place we join a call with Alexei and Daniel who explained to us their expectations of the project and their hopes for what we can deliver. Their subtle Germanic theme was an area that needed further research. We also took into consideration the needs of the audience, which in this case is millennials. Most millennials subconsciously sway towards contemporary designs and the highest looking quality for the lowest price. After this, we compiled our research into a mood board (figure 1), which was then sent to the client to obtain feedback as to whether the style was of their expectations and taste. After understanding the brand, their hopes for the rebrand and the current market we had an understanding of the direction this project would take.

Figure 1 – Mood board of research compiled and sent to the client.

Design Development

Logo

The client’s first request was for the company to see a rebrand, we advised that this was a wise choice, as the decisions made in regards to branding will inform all other deliverables. The direction Alexei and Dan wanted to take the rebrand did see some changes throughout the process. Initially, they hoped to have an ‘edgy’ logo that alluded slightly to their Germanic sounding name (as seen in the sketches in Figure 2 and the mood board set out in Figure 1).  

Figure 2 – Initial logo sketches that were drawn and sent to the client.

However, in a move to add a more classy atmosphere to the company, the client asked us to take a new direction with the brief. Their new marketing strategy hoped to have branding that demonstrated a premium brand. After this move, we spent a lot of time sketching and developing the idea (Figure 3).

Figure 3 – Initial logo sketches that were drawn and sent to the client.

We are still in discussion with the client to decide on a final logo. The client informed us of their favoured logo (figure 4), yet our supervisor raised some flexibility issues in regards to their chosen logo. Therefore, we presented a simplified logo (figure 5), which removes many complications but does not quite meet the vision of our clients. Ergo, we hope a compromise will resolve these issues.

Figure 4 (left) – Clients favoured logo.
Figure 5 (right) – Simplified logo.

Packaging Labelling

After progress was made on the logo design, work began on the packaging label. As the favoured logo concept was produced by Charles, his main focus was on the logo design while Phoebe’s main focus was on the packaging design. Having said this, it is important to know that work was not done mutually exclusively and design decision were regularly made together. The ability to allude to the ‘edgy’ style came into play when designing coffee bean labels (figure 6). 

Figure 6 – Initial coffee bean labels.

The client favoured the first design, with a few minor alterations. To be certain the label is effective, every alternation made was printed onto a coffee bean bag, this helped to ensure, spacing, size and colours were correct. Hence the small alternations to the spacing of each of the elements. The most recent editions of the label (figure 7) features the minimalised logo and will change when a finalised logo is established. Besides the logo, the label design has been signed off by the client.

Figure 7 – Favoured coffee bean label.

Reflection

Regular communication with our client allowed us to overcome any challenges we faced and we hope this continues. Due to the busy schedules of both the client and ourselves, our timeline outlined on our restated brief was not closely followed. However, this was not an issue as our client emphasised their requests to have a high-quality logo over a restrictive deadline. One instance that caused a delay in communication with the client was due to Charles being involved in an accident. Although this caused a delay, the client was very understanding. Thankfully, during this time Phoebe was still able to work on the packaging label designs which allowed the progression of the project to continue.

Furthermore, the process has pushed both Phoebe and me to consider the durability and flexibility of each of the designs we create, in order to not only meet the requirements of the client but to allow the design to be versatile and not limited in placement, size and colour.

We are both proud of the work we have produced so far. The opportunity to learn more about the design process has been invaluable. The positive relationship built with the client is a testament to their contentment with the process, communication and outcomes.

Background

Gareth Mills from the English Department at the University of Reading and Tabitha Stanmore from the University of Bristol set out to create an academic journal entitled ‘Question’. The main purpose of this journal was to present work created by PhD candidates, in collaboration with the South, West & Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWWDTP). The journal will include scholarly articles from humanities courses, as well as some poetry, photography, and paintings. Gareth came up with this idea after noticing that there are currently not any magazines or journals that showcase this type of work that are accessible for the general public. This is why they plan on making the first copy free and available in universities and in bookshops such as Waterstones. The content of the journal will be from PhD candidates from 8 UK universities, including the University of Reading, University of Bristol, University of Bath, University of Southampton, and University of Cardiff.

Restated brief

The brief was to design the first edition of Question. This included creating a logo and visual identity, which will be implemented in both print and digital forms of the journal (including on a website and social media), as well as designing the physical product and sending this to print in time for their launch on November 6th 2017 (a date decided on towards the end of the project). Our clients plan to bring out two editions of Question per year, therefore we needed to create template files with layouts that could accommodate a wide range of content, including academic articles, poems, and images, for future editions as well as issue one.

During our initial meeting with the client, we established several preferred features of the printed product. These features included:

• matte paper is preferred over glossy paper;
• a question mark should not be used on the cover but rather perhaps as an occasional detail within the journal;
• dark blue and cream colour scheme (for the first issue);
• the journal should have a tone that is somewhere between formal and informal – it should be accessible for everyone but still needs to maintain a certain level of formality due to the content;
• the format at this point was not finalised, but we had agreed on a page size of slightly smaller than A4.

We also agreed on a series of outcomes for Question. These were:

• A logo and visual identity
• An abbreviated version of the logo for social media
• Design and templates for the magazine cover
• Design and templates for the printed magazine

Research and ideation

We began this project by looking for inspiration through existing magazines and journals. As Question was such a new and unique idea, it was challenging to find similar publications. However, we looked to stores such as MagCulture and Magma and found many great examples to inspire us, including Cereal, Delayed Gratification, Fare, Makeshift, Migrant, Woven, and The Outpost. These publications all held strong brand identities, and their covers were engaging and effortlessly clear about what the magazine’s purpose was.

From here we needed to make some decisions about Question’s visual identity and the physical product; its format, stock, and any printing finishes. From very early on, despite the client saying they originally wanted an A4 page size, we thought it would be much more suitable to the type of publication if it were smaller than A4, even if only slightly. This smaller size would make the journal easier to handle physically and make the pages seem less daunting as they would contain complex essays. The purpose of Question is to make these pieces of work available to the wider public, therefore we needed to consider this in every aspect of designing it. With this there came an opportunity to create a nicely designed product in a market where, typically, little attention is paid to the design. The client was happy to agree to this new format after hearing our thoughts, and we settled on a page size of 200mm × 280mm.

Design development

Branding

The client had informed us in our initial briefing that they would like a mortar board included in the logo. We tried out a couple of designs using this idea, but immediately felt as though it was too predictable (perhaps even corny). We wanted to create something mature, sophisticated, and instantly recognisable. The most successful mastheads from the publications we looked to for inspiration were the ones that followed a ‘less is more approach’, giving quite a simple but bold typographic logo.

The most important thing for us during the branding phase was finding “the right ‘Q”; it was essential that the typeface that we ended up choosing would have a unique ‘Q’ that we could then adapt to use as an abbreviated logo for the journal, for purposes such as social media icons. We sent a selection of typefaces to our client, to which they said they liked the Baskerville and Goudy Old Style fonts best. We decided to go with Baskerville, because of its capital Q, and also its wide availability making it easier for the client to use consistent branding for things such as Question’s online platform.

From here, we knew that the masthead needed a little something more. We thought of combining the Q and a question mark, so took the dot from Baskerville’s question mark and it just happened to fit so perfectly beneath the curve of the Q tail. The Q was now strong and distinct enough to stand alone as well as part of the whole masthead.

We chose the typefaces Charter and Proxima Nova to accompany Baskerville. Charter was chosen for its large x-height, therefore making the content easier to read and more accessible. Headings and running heads are set in Proxima Nova Condensed, and introductory paragraphs and captions are set in Proxima Nova.

Front cover

After settling on the logo and journal format, we started to come up with ideas for the front cover template. This was probably the most lengthy process of the whole project. We started off with some wireframe ideas before receiving images from our client, and then worked with different images to find the most flexible solutions, so that the template could work just as well for future editions. There were a few occasions where it was agreed that we had reached a final cover design, only for that to be changed – either by us knowing that it wasn’t the best design we could come up with, or by the client saying that others were not fully satisfied with it. There were a lot of people to impress and we wanted to always be thinking logically about how the journal could work as a series in the long term.

Eventually, our client decided on this cover design and we stuck with a deep blue for this issue’s colour – something we had agreed on from the first meeting. While at the time this was not the design we hoped they would choose out of the ones we created, we believe it suits the tone of the journal well, as it shows both text and images that give a taste of the variety of works that Question includes. It is easily customisable and provides a solid template for future editions.

Final stages

During the development stage, we had not yet been given a submission date for the final deliverables, nor had we received all of the final content to be put in the journal. This set us back in terms of making progress as we could only work with the limited content we had initially received from our client, and did not yet have a wide enough variety of work to see how they would fit in the templates we had created. We explored various layouts for typesetting the articles, focusing on an accessible and sophisticated design. We designed pages with wide margins to achieve this, and our client was happy with this design.

We were then suddenly given everything on a Tuesday (17^th October) and told that we had to have the finished files sent to the printers by that same Friday (20^th October). This is likely due to an earlier miscommunication where we promised an initial draft of the journal by this date. This was a deadline that we knew straight away wouldn’t be physically possible to achieve, given that it concerned formatting a 100 page journal almost entirely from scratch (minus creating the templates and designing the cover), print-testing it, and presenting it to the client for a final check before sending it to print. We knew that we just had to be honest with our client about the impracticality of this deadline, so we spoke to them and agreed to reschedule the deadline to the following Wednesday (25^th October). Through communication with the printer, we were able to push this deadline back as far as possible for the delivery of 1000 copies on November 1st.

We worked on the journal for that week by delegating articles to typeset and finishing other elements in the journal – including contents page, title pages, and endnotes – and made the Wednesday deadline to send it to print, which was received with much praise from our clients.

“You are amazing! The overall look is fantastic – it looks really clean, professional and frankly beautiful. Thank you both so much for all of your hard work, I know it’s been frustrating at times and that you’ve been working flat out over the last few days. It has definitely paid off, though – you’ve created something marvellous.”

– Tabitha Stanmore, Question

Reflection

We regularly communicated with our clients as best as we could, through a mixture of face-to-face meetings, emails, and phone calls. However, we often found ourselves waiting around for replies and had to try to use that waiting time as efficiently as possible, although admittedly we didn’t always know how to productively achieve that without essential client feedback. These periods of waiting would have been better put to use sourcing content from elsewhere – as we had an idea of what the client wanted, even if we didn’t have the exact files – so that we could have tested the templates we created and saved ourselves time at the end. This potentially costed us more opportunities for trial and error in the design phase, as we had to design quickly and instinctively in order to meet the deadline. Though in the last week we found ourselves with a pile of work on our hands, we were able to work efficiently whilst maintaining quality and attention to detail.

The allocated budget for the project was not made clear to us at any point, as SWWDTP was ultimately paying for the production. We suggested print finishes like an embossed cover and a spot colour to be printed throughout, but were deemed too expensive. The quote from the printer was higher than expected, and our client was able to negotiate this with SWWDTP. We would have hoped to have these conversations earlier in the project, as some of our decisions were not the most cost effective, such as our decision to have large margins and thereby increasing the page size. In future projects similar issues could be avoided by insisting on establishing a budget earlier in the process.

We received a lot of positive feedback after the journal was printed and sent to various universities around the UK. To see the journal that we helped to create be spread so far and admired by so many people was an incredibly fulfilling experience. We are both immensely proud of what we have created, and feel as though we created a really positive working relationship with our clients during the process, who were full of praise, encouragement, and trust from start to finish.

“The overall setup is leagues ahead of other journals in overlapping areas of interest. It is the best looking academic journal I’ve ever seen. You’ve really done an incredible job and I can’t credit you highly enough for it. Even the endnotes (notoriously ugly) look great.”

– Gareth Mills, Question

Emmeline Hewstone & Sigrid Dalland

Background

Anna has been creating and selling handmade items in Sydney, Australia for the past few years. Recently, she has officially registered her business, Anna Fran Designs, and now needs a brand to reflect who she is and what she is selling. Her main items include hand-dyed fabrics and clothing, cosmetics bags, dog bandanas, and felt figures, which she often sells at weekend markets.

Restated brief

We aimed to create a cohesive brand identity that could portray Anna Fran Designs in an accurate, professional, and fun manner as Anna continues to broaden her customer base beyond friends and family. This visual identity can then be used across her social media bases, particularly Facebook and Instagram, where she regularly advertises her products. She also planned to create her own website where customers can directly buy her handmade items (she previously only had a blog).

Anna asked that her brand reflect the two main sides of her business – hand-dyed fabric, and superhero themed items. We then looked to create something that both resonated with this, but also with the fact that Anna runs a local, independent business producing handmade goodies. She also said that she would prefer the colours purple, pink, and blue to be incorporated in the design in some way.

We agreed to create these deliverables for our client:

• Logo
• Logo stickers
• Business card designs
• Banner image for Facebook

Research and ideation

There are many businesses similar to Anna Fran Designs that are thriving through platforms such as Instagram and Etsy. Notable people that Anna has sourced inspiration from include:

• Ellison Lane
• Carla Peicheff
• Kirst Sachs
• Lillyella
• Sariditty

After looking through all of these online presences among countless others on Etsy, we have noticed certain features that we believe make the businesses appear stronger and more appealing. These include:

• Consistent photography – most people have a specific ‘style’ of photography, which enhances the overall appearance of their profile.
• White or lighter backgrounds immediately make the product the main attraction.
• Natural scenery enriches a photo and profile, even if not every photo contains a product, it provides a variety of positive things to look at and enjoy.
• A personal touch: a lot of posts are not just solely about the products, but also getting to know the person behind the work. The majority of people behind these creative businesses are working alone, so it reinforces the fact that they are their own brand and sole driving force.
• Logos put onto products helps to keep a brand identity alive so that they become identifiable among other similar products. This is seen in Ellison Lane’s Instagram posts, and more famously with Cath Kidston’s range.

The target audience for Anna Fran Designs is pretty wide – anyone who enjoys handmade items, or people who buy them as gifts for others. Most customers are likely to be between 20 and 60 years old. These people are likely to hold values such as supporting local businesses and appreciating handmade, locally sourced items, therefore this gave us some ground for how to appeal to them. For instance, a stamped logo, or one that is in Anna’s handwriting, can give a sense of an authentic ‘organic’ business, as opposed to a more polished, ‘corporate’ looking logo. A stamped logo also means there is flexibility of colour, so Anna has the freedom of choosing and changing the colour as she pleases. This will help to emphasise the ‘uniqueness’ of each of her products, because each label can look slightly different.

Design development

The logo

After beginning with numerous sketches and ideas being thrown around, we started exploring different typographic styles, mostly using existing typefaces, but also creating handwritten style logos. Of the ideas shown below, the first felt much too ‘corporate’, and too refined in the shapes of the letters and the clean-cut image it conveyed. The next concepts became more reflective of the crafty nature of Anna’s business. However, they still lacked the strong presence of a logo.

We decided that the best reflection of a local crafty business would be to go down the handwritten route. We also chose to focus on the logo stamp idea, as this was something our client was really keen on pursuing. After researching logo stamps and seeing that they were often circular – and this would indeed suit Anna’s desires for stickers to put on her products – we developed digitally handwritten logo designs that could fit on a circular stamp. Whilst this wasn’t technically using the client’s handwriting, it still created a sense that it very well could be, and immediately turns thoughts away from any kind of corporate business due to the rounded bubble-type letters. We refined this idea until we reached a logo that was both practically suitable for a stamp, and also as a logo to stand alone when featured in profile pictures online.

Anna then ordered two sizes of this stamp and used them to print her logo on bunting (to be displayed on her market stall), stickers, and bags. She also expressed that she was pleased with the flexibility they brought, as she could use any colour inks, and mix colours together to create interesting patterns within the stamp.

Business cards

For Anna’s business cards, we came up with the idea of making a selection of different ones – all following the same format but containing different leading images. This was to reflect both the nature of Anna’s range of unique handmade goods, and the range of customers that her goods appeal to. This solution meant that her customers, whilst enjoying the freedom of picking their favourite handmade item, could also enjoy the choice of which business card appealed to them most. It emphasises the idea of custom goods tailored to individual preferences, even if that only stretches to the question ‘which colour do you prefer the most?’ We discussed with our client the likelihood of an extra cost that would come with printing four separate business card designs, and she agreed that despite the cost it was a good idea to continue with.

We asked Anna to send over a selection of high quality images of fabric that she has hand-dyed, from which we then picked the four best and most different designs to feature on the fronts of her business cards, along with the logo. These images showed the hand-dyed fabric, but also each held their own colour scheme. This aspect subtly hints at the colour schemes associated with superheroes – each have their own undeniable identifying brand, almost always consisting of bright explosions of colour. Around this point there was then a fairly long period of slow communication, due to all parties having other commitments causing work on this project to take a back seat in our lives.

We created a quick design just so that Anna could have something, but it was by no means anything substantial, and the only real interesting part of it was the front. However, due to poor communication and time limits, Anna had to send this design to print as she had several big market events coming up. This wasn’t a design that we were overly proud of, just because it lacked the fun and charm that was so essential to the Anna Fran Designs brand. However, we understand that it was the only choice she had at that time, so she had to make a decision on her own terms in order to get her business cards printed in time.

Once we had a little extra time, we designed backs of the business cards, inspired by other craft businesses’ cards that we had seen online. This new design, using the typeface ‘Terfens’, was now more interesting, but also a fun way of effectively communicating everything a customer needs to know about Anna Fran Designs – the website, social media, and email, all in one easy-to-follow diagram. Our client was pleased with this new design and said she would print it for her next run of business cards.

The new design also allows for a variety of printed options – the coloured prints are accompanied by text that matches the stand-out colours of each design. It also allows for black and white printing; we thought one way to really appeal to Anna’s customers would be to use recycled card for the business cards. These could then simply be printed one-sided with black ink for the information, and then her logo can be stamped on the other (shown below). This gives both Anna and her customers several of options to choose from, sparking interest and excitement when visiting her market stall.

Social media

Anna used the logo we designed as the profile picture on Anna Fran Designs on both Instagram and Facebook, as well as on her own website (annafrandesigns.com). In addition, she has posted updates of her use of the stamp, which have been received with a lot of positive praise from fellow Instagram users. We also created a simple Facebook banner design using a photo of one of Anna’s dyed fabrics. However, we figured it would be best to show a photograph of some products on display at her market, so it would be better to get professional photography of this set up in order to capture the essence of Anna’s stall to feature on her Facebook cover photo.

Reflection

Anna has received largely positive feedback in response to her new brand identity. We believe that we have created a logo that is extremely flexible and therefore suitable to be featured amongst her colourful creations – one that can stand alongside them and not get lost amongst the noise, but rather simply reinforce the brand and the creator behind these products.

The job as a whole took much longer to complete than we anticipated it would, and this shouldn’t have happened as the deliverables were very straightforward, but we can only really accept fault in the delays and learn to improve our time management skills from this. Additionally, this would have meant ideally coming up with many more ideas in the later stages – particularly for the Facebook cover photo, as by the end we simply ran out of time and had to just create something, even if it wasn’t the perfect solution. Not all of our earlier design ideas for the logo and business cards were included in this report, as they were scrapped for various reasons.

One thing we have learnt from this project was to not be afraid to look to other people’s work for inspiration. It may sound a little silly, as this is what all designers tend to do, but through fear of directly copying others’ ideas we were hindering our progress. In fact, the right solutions for Anna’s branding were already scattered around through various people’s work – we just had to find the right elements and fuse them together to create something that perfectly portrayed Anna Fran Designs.

Emmeline Hewstone & Ziana Azariah

The brief

The department of Typography & Graphic Communication asked for two banners that will identify key areas of the department. The topics for the banners are Inclusive Design, and the Real Jobs scheme.

Each banner needs a striking headline along with a short piece of informative and engaging text. The objective was to appeal to prospective Graphic Communication students, but also their parents. They need to be memorable, inspiring, and interesting enough to spark conversations, inviting our visitors to learn more about what we can achieve. These banners would then be displayed in the Department for visitors to view during Open Days and portfolio review days.

Research and ideation

I started by sketching ideas then transferred them into digital mockups. These designs were intended to be fun, simple portrayals of the Real Jobs and Inclusive Design schemes. My client, after reviewing these designs, suggested that we use photography for the banners. Her ideas for the Real Jobs banner were fairly flexible; mainly just asking that I include real examples of students’ work from the scheme in the photographs. For the Inclusive Design banner, my client asked that I included photographs of students wearing simulation glasses and gloves – accessories used to imitate what it’s like to live with visual impairments or arthritis. She initially sent me some pictures that she had taken of students interacting with these items, however they seemed a little out of focus and not quite right to be blown up to such a huge scale. We would therefore need photoshoots for both Real Jobs and Inclusive Design shots.

We set up a photoshoot trying to get images of students acting out meetings that could be used for the Real Jobs banner. At that time, we didn’t have the simulation gloves or glasses, so just took pictures for Real Jobs. I mocked up a few designs using the photographs we took. The client said that the photos didn’t really portray the scheme enough, and there wasn’t enough emphasis on the work, so we had to do another photo shoot. She also mentioned that, while the University brand guidelines should be adhered to, we could use them more flexibly than I was currently using them in order to fit the needs of advertising a Graphic Communication course (stressing that the banners should look creative). At first this feedback was slightly confusing to me, as I wasn’t sure where the line was on how creative to be whilst still sticking to the strict guidelines of the University’s banners templates, but I gained clarity after asking for more specific guidance.

In this initial stage I also contacted DPS, who would be printing the banners, and got quotes for how much these would cost to print. This needed to be factored in as the Head of Department would have to consider the costing when approving the job for print.

Design development

Photography

We did another set of photoshoots – now including the simulation glasses and gloves. The results were much better than before, as I used a zoom lens this time which created a greater depth of field, helping the photographs to look more dynamic and pull the viewer in. In this photoshoot I took more control, having a clearer vision and therefore knowing the types of photographs we could get and how to achieve this. I had a lot of fun conducting these photoshoots and this is something I have realised I would like to continue with more somehow in the future. My client was very satisfied with these new photographs.

Illustrations

After brainstorming on how to make the banners look more representative of a creative course, I proposed to my client that we include three icon-style illustrations in circles at the base of the photograph, which she responded enthusiastically to. This was in-keeping with the University’s design rule of ‘threes’ (separating banners into three columns and three rows), and worked nicely with the first bit of copy given to me for the Real Jobs banner (‘Real clients, real challenges, real achievements’).

Creating the illustrations was by far the hardest part of this job. I am by no means a strong illustrator, and found it difficult to create a consistent style which managed to both get the message of each illustration across clearly, and use the same or similar colour palettes as much as possible. In addition, my client and I struggled to come up with ideas for the Inclusive Design banner as easily as we did for the Real Jobs banner. These were concepts that were more difficult to portray to people unfamiliar with the subject.

For Real Jobs, I proposed that I illustrate a handshake for ‘Real clients’, a mountain to illustrate ‘real challenges’, and a trophy for ‘real achievements’; all fairly straightforward concepts. My client, after seeing them, felt that the mountain was too metaphorical, and not quite representative enough from a design perspective. We agreed that perhaps a graph would be a better solution. However, after creating this illustration, I felt that the mountain was the better option; it shouldn’t matter much that it doesn’t directly represent ‘design’, because it is still a designed icon that represents challenges, and does so more universally than a graph might.

For the Inclusive Design banner, there was a lot of back-and-forth about what the illustrations should involve. We knew from early on that we wanted to include the gloves and glasses, but struggled on what the third icon could be, and what it could represent. We suggested a representation of hearing impairments, like illustrating braille or a hearing aid, or a guide dog to represent visually impaired people, or a mobile phone showing large text. Eventually we decided to include a non-latin character, as this would reflect the Department’s focus on typography and specialist research into non-latin typefaces.

Final designs

Reflection

This was probably the most challenging Real Job for me. There came a lot of moments during it where I felt like I wasn’t the right person for the job (particularly with the illustrations), and that it would have been better executed by someone else. I think this also was largely to do with the fact that the banners were intended to represent the Department, and that brought with it a lot of pressure to do it ‘right’ – even more so than most other design jobs I have completed. I felt throughout that the job would have been more efficiently fulfilled if it was a collaborative effort – I felt strong and capable with the photography, format, and typography, but believed the illustrations should have been created by someone more comfortable with creating groups of icons. I mentioned this to my client, but in hindsight I should have tried harder to communicate what I thought, and then made more of an effort to find a suitable illustrator to help out.

That being said, I have learnt a lot from this job, including how to conduct and take charge of a photoshoot, to be assertive in the decisions that I feel passionate about, and that communication and honesty with the client really is key to producing the best possible outcome.