Client meeting
The aim of this job was to create 6 motifs which could be used across various sports fashion clothing items. Through our initial meeting with our client, we discovered the target market for the clothing was 16–28 year olds, with students being a large segment of this audience. Our initial aims were to experiment with different shapes, explore different ways that the brand name could be presented e.g. ‘young’, ‘y1’, and to experiment with different typefaces.

When reviewing the information with our supervisor it was questioned how these designs would be transferred onto the clothing. As we had never worked with physical fabric items before, this was something we had not thought about. However, it taught us that when designing motifs for garments, the fabrics and manufacturing can play a huge role on our designs and educated us to always ask questions about these aspects in future projects. After speaking to our client further, we were made aware that the designs could be applied through embroidery, stitching or printing. They explained that they would choose the method of application after we had sent the final designs.

Communication
In our initial meeting with our client we arranged that all contact would be made through WhatsApp and that designs would be sent over as jpegs so they were easy for them to access. However, throughout the development of our project, communication slowed down on our clients behalf which made it increasingly hard for us to develop design ideas. This was because the feedback from our client took time to receive and was often undetailed.

We were made aware by a third party that our client was out of the country for six weeks, which meant that we had a considerable time difference which was slowing down communication. We persisted to engage in conversation as much as we could, however communication stopped completely. After speaking to our supervisor, we were advised to call our client to try converse over the phone, which would allow for quicker responses. However, after leaving messages, communication still did not re-emerge. This led us to email the client with a notice that if we did not hear any response by a particular date, the job would dissolve. Finally, we received a response that they were happy to continue.

Due to having a long period with no contact, we decided it would be beneficial to meet with our client face-to-face and therefore arranged a second meeting. During this time the client apologised for the lack of communication and we agreed that the job would continue but a updated restated brief was needed as the requirements had varied dramatically from the beginning of the project.

We learnt that we needed to be clear in our brief about the terms of communication and therefore added a section about this where we detailed how further communication would happen and explained that the more feedback we were given, the quicker the process would be in developing the designs. The schedule was also updated and contained times that we would send designs over and when it was expected for them to respond. We learnt that in this situation we needed to be the leader of communication and ensure that we both parties stick to the schedule for the job to run smoothly.

After this, we found that the job ran smoother however the amount of feedback that our client gave was still minimal. To ensure that we explored many ideas we relied on feedback from our peers and supervisor.

Design process
To begin the design stage we were under the impression that our client wanted clean, modern, typography based designs therefore we experimented with this. We originally attempted to create a concept for a set of design which could be used together to create a range of clothing items. However it was made clear that the designs may not be used at the same time and they did not need to work as a series. This was similar to the issue we encountered with the meaning behind the designs. We experimented with many different ways our designs could convey a concept for example; music and the original branding. However our client expressed that he did not necessarily want that from the design. This was something that we found challenging as our experience in design so far has always encouraged us to convey meaning or have a purpose.

The problems continues as, after sending many design ideas our client asked us to use the same typeface as a well-known sports fashion brand. We saw this as a concern as it we believed it could look like the designs were ‘fake’ versions of the particular brand. We understood that saying that to our client wouldn’t have a great deal of affect. Instead we interviewed many 16­–28 years olds to ask their opinion. This information confirmed out initial thoughts and therefore we presented this to our client. This taught us that user testing is imperative in ensuring that the design meet the needs of the user. It also emphasised that it can sometimes be beneficial to challenge a client and the designs may progress and meet the requirements of the brief more.

To continue with the project our client asked us to design motifs with graphic aspects rather than typography based ones and stated that the words such as ‘young’ and ‘y1’ no longer needed to be incorporated. Therefore we experimented with further designs that featured animals, landscapes and shapes (all which they stated inspired them). After sending the updated designs to the client they then stated that they would like this information to be incorporated again. It taught us that clients can sometime become confused about what they in vision and it is important that all details discussed are featured in the restated brief to save time towards the later stages in the project.

Final designs
Overall, although the job was a challenging period, we believe that we have created designs that meet the needs of the updated restated brief. The six motifs are modern and clean and would be attractive for a 16–28 year old audience. We have ensured that each motif can be easily transferable on different clothing garments and none would be manipulated by folds or creasing that may be caused when they are worn.

After our second meeting with the client, all deadlines on the schedule were met however, we were unable to send over the final designs to the client in time for the deadline that we had agreed, as our supervisor had not signed them off. This taught us, that in future when designs need to be approved before they can be sent, we should always allow more time for them to be reviewed than what we initially anticipated. This would then give us more leeway and still ensure that we meet the deadlines.

Conclusion
This job has taught us that when clients have multiple other responsibilities they may need to be reminded to continue communication with us as designers in order for the job to be completed in a reasonable time frame. While the job took longer than expected to complete it provided us an insight into how important it is to provide a schedule and ensure it is stuck to. Largely it provided us with project management and client management skills that we would not have gained working from a hypothetical brief.

Restated brief

Two groups of students in Geography required logos and a simple brand system for their project. Each team was acting as a consultancy of their own and would pitch their reports in presentations to their year group at the end of term. The outputs required for both teams were a logo and Microsoft Powerpoint template. They were to reflect the professionalism of the group and represent their research areas accurately staying away from clichéd imagery.

The first team, Permadrain, wanted a logo that was simple and modern that would reflect the urban aspect of their research as well as promote the idea of sustainability. The second team, Barkham Brook Water Quality, wanted a brand system that was simple and modern relating to downstream water quality.

 

Permadrain

The design process for Permadrain saw the experimentation with the concept of the urban environment and the flow of water through the neighbourhood. I also considered different typefaces and arrangements for the logomark and type in consideration of their uses. The final logo is a leaf-water droplet with the veins of the leaf representing the pipeline of water going through the area of research.

 

 

Barkham Brook Water Quality

For Barkham Brook Water Quality, the logo is a reflection of the changing water quality as it is filtered through the purification system – the core aspect of the research focus. This is also reflected in the colour gradient that gradually lightens as it reaches the bottom. The group changed their name in the last minute, but the concept remained the same.

 

The slides for Barkham Brook Water Quality were much simpler than the Permadrain ones due to its “footer” quality. The graphic does not get in the way of text boxes, allowing it to remain in the same position no matter what type of slide is used.

Key takeaways

At the time of the brief, neither of the teams had names and this made it particularly difficult to create a concept or factor in the length of the name in the design. Although this was an opportunity to suggest names paired with concepts to them, the students felt that they better understood their research context and chose their own names instead.

Towards the end of the Real Job, it came to light that several groups had misunderstood the brief and the names of some groups changed last minute. This affected one of my groups, but because the logo was built on a concept based on their research (rather than relying on imagery from the original name), I was able to continue with the design process.

I also learned the difficulty of using and designing for Microsoft programmes on a Mac system. The features offered in the Windows systems were also different from the ones offered on an Apple machine. This limited my choice of typefaces and I had to consider using fonts that are readily available. Due to the rushed timeline towards the end, the Powerpoint slides I created for the groups were very basic and I did not have time to play around with the visual impact much. I also did not manage to control transitions, which might have affected the quality and coherence of the presentation (although that in itself is unknown).

As my first Real Job, and the only one I did alone, it was a good stepping-stone for future expectations working with non-designers – particularly having to keep in mind the “anything that can break will break” scenario.

 The Ethos of the Conservation Project

The department was approached by Maggie Shelton, the Community Catchment Officer of the new heritage lottery funded project named Watercress & Winterbournes. The Test and Itchen rivers from the chalk of the Hamshire downs form a unique landscape, the environments that are home to Winterbournes and chalk streams. The client defined these as rivers which rise form the chalk lands and flow within the landscape of rural fields.  These rare habitats are home to a wide diversity of wildlife and plants,however these landscapes are at risk from pollution, drought and flooding. The pressures of modern change and development threaten these habitats and therefore the Watercress & Winterbournes Conservation Project is beginning to establish. The ethos of the organisation is to restore the built heritage and addresses these environmental issues by bridging communities together for the environments to thrive, preparing them for future generations. The purpose is to fund projects for members of the community to take part in which will maintain the health of the terrain. The client wanted to brand the project, briefing the design of 3 logos per student as a 2 part project. These designs would then be presented to their board to choose from. This Real Job is a fantastic opportunity to design for a project promoting environmental awareness, such a pressing ecological issue we have provided with chance to visualise. It was really important for me to consider that the standard of design, in addition to the values it promotes will grant the conservation project further attention and advertising. The more the design was considered correctly, visualised to promote the ethos of the conservation project, the awareness of this environmental aid will be further established and convincing to its viewer.

The Clients Specifications

The meeting with the client allowed her to explain the values of the project in which she wanted the logo to encompass, as previously understood these are extremely important in logo design/branding as they formulate the correct message directly. Prior to beginning initial ideas, I ensured I defined with Maggie Shelton the complex subject of the study and directly what she wanted to reflect in the design that would be communicated to the potential audience members. She informed me about the conservation, defining the environmental terms in detail and according to my questions, which I ensured had to be grasped before creating an accurate logo concept. From my discussion, I ensured I asked what she expected from the logo and if there were any visualisations she specified. Shelton identified that the logos weren’t to be literal indications of the conservation name, as the project is defined by addressing a variety of issued based on the heritage and the landscape of the habitats. Shelton specifically identified the logos were to capture elements of water movement, as the streams and rivers are the main components of the conservation. She additionally specified that elements of the landscape such as plant species associated with the streams would also be a design expectation. These designs were to work in black and white, with additional detail in colour. Shelton identified the design was to identify with a character of style and this was worth introducing into the development in researching illustrative methods. Each logo is to be comfortably legible at a large and small scale for inclusion in reading documents, presentations signs and banners.

 

Visual Concepts & Initial Ideas

As I begin every project, I created inspiration boards soon after the client meeting to have a fresh idea of what they specified. I ensured I understood the conservation project and the subject matter, followed with corresponding visuals and concepts. I began with sketches of several designs which porgressed to more refined developments, working on the alliterated ‘W’ which I identified as a characteristic unique to the conservation when compared to other associates/partners of heritage funded projects, such as Portsmouth Water and  Salmon and Trout Conservation UK, the project would, therefore, be distinctly identified amongst the collection. Focusing on Shelton,s specification for the logo to capture an illustrative character, I researched illustrators and illustrative styles which practiced these characteristics, associated with visualising natural landscapes. Dawn Cooper inspired my approach, an illustrator whom I was familiar with from my Dissertation study with illustrators from Puffin Book cover designs. Coopers work is characterised by the use of texture to give the impression of rural and organic tactility almost, which I felt immediately is relevant when designing for nature conservations.

 

Design Development

I began working on the typographic elements, which established my modern and clean approach to the logo, which could have been done to appear as traditional with the use of a serifed typeface. I chose to work with Freight Sans using the ‘W’ to edit combining my scanned illustrations with further editing to a more established and professional logo. Developed from my drawing, I digitally manipulated the ‘W’ to have water ripples as if to be sitting half in water. The water is not visualised with wave movements but replicates the slow flowing movements of streams, this attention to detail was informed by my study of the subject matter which, as I stressed from the beginning, was important to get right as an inaccurate idea may be communicated. I then added colour which was chosen to the clients specifications of blues and greens to relate its subject of nature, therefore artificial/unnatural colours were to be avoided. I then added reflection to the ‘W’ which would be the additional detail Shelton had specified for the colour edition. Inspired by Dawn Cooper to move away from a still and static corporate logo characterised by flat colour, I added texture and which from user testing people associated with organic nature, which was the appropriate reaction intended.

Following the client’s additional specifications for the logo to encompass iconography relating to the landscape, I added illustrations of Cat Tail Reeds which I researched grow in the chalk streams of the Hampshire downs which identity as a characteristic associated with their landscape. With additional user testing at this stage, individuals were asked what they associate the illustrations within which the response specified ‘reeds that grow in streams or rivers’ which again was the exact result intended. I then added my illustrations to a single arm of the ‘W’ and then to both sides for variation, these were then sent to the client for feedback. The problem arose when composing the geometric ‘W’ with the illustrative reeds, they were separated by the use of a stroke, this was decided as when converted to black and white the shape became undefined be the grouping of both visuals.

Conclusive Proposal

My designs will continue to develop with 2 additional logo concepts for submission to the client in the following weeks. My current variations of logo work with and without the addition of the reeds and will depend upon what the client admires, however both editions can be sent to her. In my opinon the ‘W’ logo alone works and received positive feedback from viewers more so than the edition with reeds, however I feel it implies a corporate message rather than the ideals of a nature trust which is expressed through the organic design of the progressed logos with the reed illustrations. They additional conform to Shelton’s requirements of illustrative character and iconographic elements of the landscape. I plan to improve the current logo varying contrasts of colour to avoid the use of an unnecessary stroke which prevents the unification of elements crucial for logo design. My approach with logo design is to explore every concept I have in mind to the full, exhausting every option to achieve the best result. As the client required three different logos for me to design in order for them to propose, I am currently in the process of designing a ‘W’ made out of reeds, hands holding a stream sitting alongside the text and also experimenting with the use of a reflection – every logo includes and considers the clients specifications of water flow and landscape, meeting the brief in addition to Shelton’s vision.

 

 

Introduction

The brief was to create a logo and brand identity for the newly funded Natural Flood Management Reasearch Programme headed by three major universities here in the UK. The task was to create a programme logo as well as three subset project logos as well as branded deliverables such as newsletters, letterheads, powerpoint templates and blog sites in four sets corresponding to each logo. This project began during the second semester of this year and was chosen for the opportunity to continue honing my branding skills. The branding project took place the previous semester and proved to be an area of design I felt that I particularly enjoyed and excelled at. I wanted to continue improving these branding and marketing skills I had gained from the module. This job initially was for a single person but after the first client meeting, my supervisor and I agreed the job was more suited for a pair. Camara, my colleague from second year agreed to take this real job alongside myself, a deliberate decision to encourage collaboration across years and work with others inside the department.

 

Research 

Joanna Clark, our Reading based client here at the university wanted a brand identity and subsequent print and digital deliverables for a government funded environmental programme focused on natural flood management. Joanna was the head of the Landwise project, one of the three projects that comes under the overall programme with colleagues in other parts of the UK who headed the other two projects. With so many stakeholders in the project, from the advice of James Lloyd, we chose Joanna as our main point of contact as she was Reading based – organising contact and feedback with the other directors through Joanna.

From the first client briefing meeting, Joanna detailed the nature of the programme and projects to us. The clients field of study is based in the environmental sciences so a lot of topics and subject details were quite complex and foreign to both Camara and I which led to an extensive research phase. Joanna and the other two project leaders, Emma Shuttleworth and Nick Chappelle did give us a lot of information via resources such as project proposals, manifestos, text books and academic studies. Upon request, they also put together mood boards of their visual elements they felt represented their projects or appreciated for it’s design, giving us a better sense of what directions their visions were going in and finding a way to match and improve upon that.  We knew that to accurately capture the essence of such a large programme in our new brand identity design, a deep understanding of the topic of natural flood management would be essential.

We began the research phase looking at two areas that would influence the new brand – the technical, academic side of the programme as well as the design and branding side based on the visual styles used by partner projects, organisations and competitors. Reading into the topic of flood management, we became more aware of the geographical areas these issues take place, the ecosystems surrounding these areas, the people and places they effect and the studies taking place to help prevent such issues. We also assessed other government funded programmes, non profit organisations and environmental associations to see how they interpreted their fields of study into their branding, giving us a better idea of what visual styles were common in this sector and how we could improve on those to create something that was unique but still consistent and synonymous with the environmental sciences.

 

Client Meetings and Feedback 

Compared to other real job and freelance projects I have undertaken; this was the first time I have worked with a client who was a scientist by profession on a project based in the sciences. This was important to bring up as this influenced the ways in which we interacted and presented work to our clients. During our client meetings with all three project heads, we found that giving feedback and design opinions were more minimal due to this misconception that science and art or design are on two polar ends of a spectrum, that being a scientist negated their design opinions. We also realised in this project, that detailed design aspects like typeface differences and colour swatches which are noticeably different to designers or typographers were not as noticeable to clients who have never had to consider or assess such concepts before.

We decided to combat this by encouraging an atmosphere of complete comfort and honesty when expressing feedback and ideas – that no idea was too unreasonable and that the more feedback we could get, the better we could improve on our designs. Because of the variety of stakeholders based across the UK resulting in minimal face to face contact, we decided to present all work for feedback in simple pitch like slides with annotations and blurbs to explain design decisions (use of a font, colour changes, placement etc.), putting into context why we chose to do what we did for better understanding, comparison and feedback. This approach was well favoured by our clients, who felt it was easier to make design decisions on well annotated work that gave insight into a process they were not as familiar with, stating it was a very professional way to have work presented to them.

 

Branding 

This project posed quite a challenge as the branding task not only required one logo and brand identity, but four – requiring careful choice in form, colour and typeface to create an effective, consistent and cohesive set of visual identities and sub-brands. All brand logos and identities would not only have to meet the client requirements of being vibrant, exciting, visual and professional but would also have to work alone as separate brands and alongside each other on programme deliverables when needed. We took a look at famous brands and their sub-brands, assessing the various ways in which they create visual singularity while staying consistent with its “parent” brand.

 

Colour Pallette

Colour was naturally the first tool we thought could help differentiate the different project identities. A carefully selected colour palette would allow us to create a set of multi functioning swatches that work well on their own as separate sub-brand swatches and that match well with each other to create a larger multi coloured palette that was symbolic of important project aspects. This was my own interpretation of the brief, incorporating the research into a meaningful colour palette that could allow for easy sub branding.

Logo work

We wanted to stray away from the text heavy logos common in this field of science and create a visual and iconographic logo. The next course of action taken was applying the colours to its appropriate symbolic imagery. The client’s description of the “constant movement of flowing water” when describing the topic of water management inspired the use of line work and colour blocks to symbolise not only water, but crop rows on farms that are affected by flood and the waving lines of rolling hills in the moorlands (which are also the ecosystems and geographic locations where these three projects target). The clients were very receptive of this symbolic patterned line work and colour blocking, noting how impressed they were with the attention to symbolism and imagery as well as the high quality of of work. This concept of colourful line work continued to be developed, playing with shape, symmetry and form to create several sets of logos that were eventually narrowed down to a final programme logo and its corresponding sub logos. This logo was ultimately chosen for it’s ease of recognition on both print material and online sources like social media profile pictures due to its bold lines and bounding shape.

 

We knew the client specifically requested the use of a sans serif font so a small selection of a variety of sans serif fonts that were geometric, condensed and rounded were selected for the logos. The typefaces had to be both clean and professional looking but work well with the varying widths of wavy lines in the logo imagery. The clients collectively agreed that their preference for the classic, bold and clean Futura PT outweighed the others, taking the more corporate approach to logo’s typeface.

 

Templates and Stationery

Camara’s role in the project thus far was being in charge of applying the logos, brand identity and brand guidelines to the deliverables specified by the client. The newsletter, letterhead and powerpoint templates applied the colour palette and simple flowing wave design to create a clean and consistent set of templates. The logo was kept the focal point of each design with simple colourful accents to complement the clean and minimal visual approach.

 

Project Management 

Project manager has been a role I have been volunteered for by my partners during group projects and real jobs throughout my degree even though I struggle with maintaining a consistent time management schedule. Over the course of this degree that became more apparent in both my real jobs this year, as I was placed in a role of leadership and was expected to not only keep my group on task and in high morale while simultaneously producing quality work and being the main liason with the client. I have always enjoyed leadership roles but have always struggled with time management. Thus this role was a challenging job, but was a skill I was determined to improve on by acknowledging my struggles and trying to combat them.

 

Moving Forward

During the course of this job, I realised that dealing with multiple stakeholders and larger clients can be challenging as feedback can sometime take longer to receive, or video conferencing can be difficult to schedule with multiple clients. We tried to keep everything as organised and as professional as we could with scheduled feedback meetings, development presentations and minute taking to ensure we did not miss any key information or instruction. Unfortunately, branding can be a long process of trial with feedback from various levels of your client’s organisation, with many “back to the drawing board” moments. This project has been one of those moments but has given us invaluable experience for the next time around. The set of finalised logos I have shown here will be reworked in the next few weeks as part of the ongoing process of design and feedback. I hope to pursue branding in the future as my discipline, so this experience of reworking and trial and error will be something I am prepared for now and can even take steps to lessen or avoid.  However, Camara and I are continuing and determined to get this brand right for our clients as we believe so deeply in their program and have been grateful to have had this opportunity to produce work for such clients. We are already in the midst of developing the idea into new territories and are excited for how much further we can take this project. Luckily, our clients have been extraordinarily flexible with the schedule and have given us a lot of creative freedom to experiment. A revised set of logos, branding and deliverables should be completed well within the next month.

During the summer term of 2017, TypeTogether organised a poster competition for the Part 2 students of our department in order to showcase their new typeface. Lisbeth was designed by Louisa Fröhlich, a Typeface Design MA graduate from University of Reading, who started working on the typeface as part of the MA. When describing her typeface in a conversation with TypeTogether, she recalls:

“I always liked the idea of a stroke which has a subtle three-dimensional feel to it and which has the ability to somehow move more freely. Not to create a swashy diva, but rather to put this vividness and energy inside practical and efficient letter proportions.”

After seeing the typeface myself when the competition was first announced, it’s this subtle three dimensional feel of the typeface that inspired me and motivated me to take part in the competition and try experimenting with the letterforms to create a typographical poster using Lisbeth. The brief was simple: To create a 70cm x 44cm portrait poster as a digital output in order to showcase and promote the release of Lisbeth, while only using 3 spot colours. The primary audience of the poster would be graphic designers and the secondary would be other type users.

I was excited at the idea of the competition right away, since the brief gives us a lot of freedom on what we can produce and allows for a lot of experimenting with the typeface. As a first step, I looked into the TypeTogether foundry to research other similar posters that were created to promote and showcase other typefaces, eg. the Bree Typeface poster. The common features of all the posters I had found were their simplicity and focus on the letterforms, making sure that the typeface itself is the main element of the poster, with no other competing graphics on the posters.

Next, I looked into reading about the typeface, through the profile page of Lisbeth on TypeTogether, and the interview between the foundry and the designer when the typeface was being released. The unique features of Lisbeth come from its subtle three-dimensionality, its twisted letterforms, and the fact that it was an italic-only typeface.

When I first started working on the concepts of the poster, I focused on the geometry that can be created when rotating the typeface and creating a pattern out of it. While it was fitting of the brief and did a nice work in promoting the unique selling points of the typeface, I found the results to be bland and unimaginative when compared to other typeface promotional posters, in the sense that it didn’t characterise all those features that Lisbeth was described earlier. So I decided to focus on the three-dimensional feature of the typeface and try to create a graphic out of blown up characters using the display font of the type family.

I could not, nor did I wanted to, change any of the shapes of the letters in order to create a 3D graphic, so I had to find another way of really showcasing its three dimensionality. I started to experiment by using the letterforms as clipping masks in Illustrator, and fill them up with different shapes and lines, without corrupting its design, but due to the complicated and twisted characters, it was very hard to add any other elements within the type. On a second try, I started working with the idea to create a blend of a character from the typeface, in order to truly highlight its twisted shapes.

On the technical side, I had to edit the lines and anchor points of a letter, (in this case ‘M’), find all the parallel sides in the character, and try to create a blend for each part, without changing any of its shape. In order to do so, I connected 8 different parallel lines using the blend feature of Illustrator each time, and then manually had to connect each anchor point of each line, in each blend (there were about 16 inner lines for each blend), since not all the anchor points lined up exactly with each other. There are also no parallel lines on the sharp caps of the typeface, so the blend had to be made from a single anchor point, which ended up requiring a lot of editing after the blend, in order to keep the shape of the cap the same with the original letterform.

It took quite a lot of time till I had managed to create the effect out of 2 letters, “L” & “M”, chosen for no other particular reason, other than “L” was one of the easiest characters to create the effect from when trying it out, and “M” being one of the characters with the most parallel features, which really helped highlight the twisted lines of Lisbeth when blown up using this effect.

After creating the blend of “M”, I started experimenting with the positioning of the character, taking up most of the poster. It was really easy to create an aesthetically good result due to the changing twisting lines that when viewed on a screen, can seem like they are moving when viewed in smaller sizes and higher quality. After deciding on the position of the character, I added a secondary copy of it in a parallel line below it, while also making it bigger, with thinner strokes. This allowed me to create a more subtly shown blend, on top of the main one, that helped bring out the three dimensionality of the typeface.

In order to bring out the lighter lines of pink and white against the blue background, I created a grain effect behind the lines, to increase the contrast between the colours. The pink colour created a feminine character for the typeface, but was also overpowering the dark blue background and being very clear and stout, even though the lines of the blend were only at 2pts. After deciding on the rough position of the blended characters and the colours of the poster, I started adding the main text of the poster. I created a tagline using a quote from the book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as I found the characteristics of Lisbeth very similar to the protagonist of the book.

“Lisbeth. Oh, can I call you Lisbeth? I want you to help me catch a killer of women.”

The main tagline was left aligned and was positioned between the interacting arches between the two “M”, in order to make sure that the text was legible and was not hidden away behind the blended characters. Based on the grid that I created for the poster structure, I aligned the TypeTogether logo along with the various weights and styles of the typeface at the bottom of the poster.

Overall, I am quite happy with the end result, even though when I look at it now, I can see a lot of improvements that could have been made. What I really enjoyed during the competition, was not the end result, but rather the process of creating the poster and experimenting with techniques that I wouldn’t usually get to use. The Lisbeth brief for me personally, was one of the most fun and enjoyable projects I took on during my second year and left me wanting to do more similar work in the future. Although, I do understand that such briefs come rarely, I’m hoping to take more similar work in the future. Not promoting typefaces particularly, but rather design work that allows me to use my own personal style and gives me space to try new things.

While winning the competition was a reward in itself, I was more excited about seeing my work first on the TypeTogether blog, and then days later, shared by Louisa Fröhlich herself on her personal social media account. As I haven’t produced much work outside of university so far, it was rewarding seeing my design living outside of the bubble of the university and in the real world. Only thing I can hope for is more Lisbeth poster competitions in the years after graduating.

Brief

The degree show is an annual display of work by the undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. Traditionally the MA and BA programmes would send out separate invites. However, this year the brief was to combine the shows. A print invite would be mailed and an email will also be sent out later to remind invitees of the event. Additionally, the degree show required online presence to generate buzz as well as a point of reference for students’ work – this included a website and social media campaign.

Deliverables

1. A print invite that is in a format suitable for post and that would give incentive (in terms of content and quality of design) to come to the show
2. An email invite created and sent via MailChimp based on the print invite
3. A simple visual identity for the degree show, including a name
4. A website with information on the event as well as students’ work
5. Social media campaign/event

Schedule & Team

The degree show dates were: 7th June 2018 (Private view), 11th – 16th June 2018 (Public view).

A team was formed in early October 2017 comprising of four members: Sigrid, Callum, Emmeline and Caroline. An initial deadline for the print invite was set for end of spring term (23rd March). However, this eventually shifted a month later, to 23rd April 2018. Two weeks later the email invite would follow. The website also needed to be completed before the invites were sent out (around mid-May) and the social media campaign would start around April to build a following and awareness.

Designing

In the beginning of the project, everyone put out potential concepts and ideas for the degree show. Because the degree shows combined the MA and BA programmes (with the exception of MA Type Design), we needed a solution that would allow our work to mingle but simultaneously distinguish the MAs from the BAs. Several approaches were considered for example, typographic, abstract graphic and symbolic (using icons). During this time we also looked into past solutions from the department as well as what students from other colleges/universities had done that we enjoyed. Eventually we decided on an information design approach which would allow the flexibility of distinction between programmes, while presenting the graduating class as greater than the sum of its parts. We also wanted to include a personal quality to the invite, somehow reflecting each person’s experience of the degree, and for it to have a dual-quality of formally inviting people yet being an informal piece of information design.

Print

A3 was the format chosen for the degree show invite as we wanted it to be a poster of reasonable size that we could still mail out. Going into C5 envelopes, the degree show invite would be folded twice into A5. This influenced the design as we had to take into account the fold lines (not putting text along the folds and not using a reversed out design due to cracking ink). The print invite went through several iterations and refinement.

The degree show invite is a representation of the graduating class from the MA Information Design, MA Creative Enterprise, MA Book Design and BA Graphic Communication programmes. We created a survey to gather responses on people’s experience and thoughts on the degree, which would then feed into the design of the invite. We did extensive research on data visualisation techniques as well as approached our tutors and lecturers in the department for feedback and advice.

We also considered using a typeface designed by alumni from the MA Type Design programme in order to further encompass the department’s specialties. However, the incompleteness of the typeface we had access to affected our decisions and we used Googlefont’s Noto Sans for the final design.

The front of the invite was an opportunity for us to explore interesting reveals with the (un)folding. It was also an opportunity for us to put down the names of the graduating class as information in this space was less crucial than the inside page. We included a map to the department indicating parking availability and instructions for getting permits. This was also redrawn to match the style of the invite overall.

Our colour scheme altered as the project progressed as we moved towards the possibility of spot colour printing. This simplified our colour scheme, stripping it down to three colours – lime green, jean blue and black. Suprisingly this helped the design look more cohesive and worked for the better in the long run.

MailChimp

The MailChimp invite had a dual function – to get invitees to opt into being emailed again next year due to a recent change in EU laws regarding information and privacy. This was the primary call to action. The secondary call to action was to RSVP to the show. We combined these call to actions as a single button.

Website

The website uses the Bootstrap framework and is responsive. In keeping with the concept of the print invites, we created a randomised display of people’s works so that no one persons’ work is prioritised.

To collect people’s work, we created a submission point using php that formed a database of people’s work that gets called and displayed according to their names. This eased the process of getting students to upload their work and ensured that communication was as clear as possible between the team and students.

 

 

Social Media Campaign

Our Instagram account was created to feature students’ work and process images of the degree show. We wanted the social media to reveal more detail about the work behind the degrees that every student completed and is suitable because of the informal nature of the platform. We also used hashtags to increase our visibility and reach.

Lessons

Through this Real Job, we learned the advantages of working together with team members of different strengths. Having someone on the team dedicated to the website and another person leading the print design allowed the team to focus on each deliverable. Frequent feedback sessions with different members of staff each time also allowed us to push the design further as we would get fresh eyes on the material.

However, a lengthy project that has a similar deadline to our dissertations meant that we lost stamina over the course of the project. If we did this project again, we would have avoided delaying the print job by a month and more fully exploited the possibility of printing in spot colours. This would have contributed to a more vibrant print design that people would be more likely to keep.

On the website, we also learnt that no matter how simple you try to make things, people will still upload things wrong and there needs to be leeway for extra time to fix and edit their mistakes.

Overall, this was an enjoyable project with deliverables that many of the graduating class are eager to keep for themselves. Working in a team also taught us to learn to trust each other and give each other feedback. The reception to the invites have generally been positive from both the graduating class as well as members of staff; we look forward to seeing the fruits of our labour at the final degree show.