Redesigning Odeon

Brief

Joby Carter is a signwriter and fairground artist who owns Carter’s steam fair and he set up a competition whereby as the contestants we had to each present a brand that we had reimagined in a fairground font using signwriting techniques and show the idea as a square PNG file, 2000 x2000px. The format / medium could be whatever we chose. The aim of the project was to move away from typographic uniformity and create our own letterforms in eccentric fairground styles.

Schedule

The deadline for this project was 6^th December, when Joby would work with our tutors to decide on winners, so this gave me only a few weeks to complete the project from the beginning. I decided to use the first week to research and then to come up with a more developed design each week until the deadline, before which I would create my final design by hand.

My idea

I researched into lots of different logos that I thought were uninteresting and boring, and eventually came across the Odeon cinema logo. Cinemas are supposed to be exciting places to go with friends and family for entertainment purposes, much like fairgrounds and circuses, the main purpose is entertainment and fun. Cinema logos should persuade someone to go and watch a film and evoke the kind of fun that fairground typography gives off, however the Odeon logo doesn’t really do this. It uses a sans serif typeface with rigid angles, creating quite a serious look for the brand that doesn’t scream fun for anyone.

I wanted to rebrand Odeon using fairground inspired typography due to its purpose for advertising a sector of the entertainment industry which should theoretically be the most fun and expressive with its logo typography. With this project, my aim was to bring back the fun and excitement into Odeon’s logo.

Research

After deciding on Odeon, I did a bit of background research into the logo. Odeon was founded in 1930 by Oscar Deutsch. The first logo they used was designed by Deutsch himself around this time. Cinemas during this time period were given a commonplace art deco red and gold design on the inside, which was designed by architect Harry Weedon.

1930–1997

Wolff Olins created a new look for Odeon in August 1997. Camden Parkway was the first cinema to receive the new look. Instead of a red and gold livery, the cinemas were repainted blue, black and silver. By 2002, all cinemas had been given the new look.

 1997–present

I felt that this new logo didn’t give Odeon the exciting connotations that it deserves as a cinema, and the blue certainly didn’t feel appropriate, I felt like I could make it much more exciting.

I also looked at a lot of examples of fairground art and signwriting so that I could adopt the correct style for my own rebrand. Here are some of the examples I found for inspiration. Some things I noticed were the common colours of red and yellow, the extra swirls and flourishes on letter forms, 3D effects, often heavy weighted letters, and that they used all capital letters.

Visit to Joby Carter’s workshop

As part of the contest, we got the opportunity to go and visit Joby’s workshop and he showed us round while we were able to look at lots of pieces of his work which I found really inspiring.

Joby even did some demonstrations of sketching out letterforms for us, and he also picked out one name to do a quick painted sign for, and he picked mine! He painted my name is swift, smooth motions onto dibond material which I had never seen been used before. I liked how he painted my name on a slight curve and the scroll beneath the letters gave it a lot more personality.

Design process

My design process consisted of weekly sketches and paintings which eventually developed into my final sign lettering.

Week 1:

I sketched out three ways to present Odeon in fairground inspired fonts using different angles and curves to create different effects. I liked having a 3D shadow on the letterforms as it really made the word pop out more.

Week 2:

I did another two sketches and turned one of them into a painting. The first sketch I based off the Tuscan alphabet as I liked the fishtail flourishes. The second sketch I chose to draw on a perspective line with a vanishing point so that the letters appear to be getting further away. I liked the yellow on red as it really contrasted and made the letters stand out quite well. For this one I used the Playbill alphabet as inspiration which I thought was very appropriate due to its historic use in the 19^th century for advertising theatrical shows on printed posters. This links very well to the concept of a cinema, so I chose to use this style going forward. I also tested a small painted sketch of an O using blue for the background and a Tuscan O, but this didn’t feel the right vibe for a cinema.

Week 3:

This week I painted a developed version of the previous style, trying to refine the letterforms more, and I tried adding a scroll which was inspired by the scroll that Joby added to his painting of my name, however I concluded that this style of scroll didn’t fit the same energy of the letters. I also painted an E with fancy flourishes and tails, but didn’t feel like the colours and style gave as much impact as my previous style, although I wanted shadows on the letters to be thicker so they overlapped more.

Week 4:

For my developments this week I bought some gold paint to replace the yellow that I had been using, because I noticed that gold featured a lot in fairground art and I thought this could be quite impactful, I loved the shine that it gave to the letters under the light. After having feedback last week, I changed the shadows around so that the letters were sitting flat, and you could see the top and the sides instead of the bottom of the letters. I also added some small circles to each letter after seeing this in lots of sign writing. I tested a different style of scroll that I thought contrasted but fit much better with the letterforms, and a dark purple red that I used for the darkest shadows of the letters. Finally, I tested a black outline on the O but didn’t like this as much.

Final submission

My final submission for the competition was based off my last practice but with more accuracy and refinery. I used more accurate vanishing points to make the letters more coherent in their 3D states, and created my own scroll, which was based off one of Joby’s examples, but with some extra flourishes. I used some dibond which James helped me source from the department because when painting on paper, it often created ripples in the painting. This was a material I had never painted on before, and as I was using acrylic paint I had to do many layers of paint each time but it created a shiny finish and I was really pleased with the finished sign.

Evaluation

Overall, I think I did a good job of rebranding the Odeon logo using fairground typography to make a more impactful and exciting logo that actually represents the company a lot better. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to go back to physical drawing and painting instead of working digitally and found the art of signwriting challenging yet enjoyable. It has made me really appreciate fairground art much more, having previously been unaware that it was all done by hand. I wanted to stay away from doing anything digitally throughout this project so as to stay true to the art of hand-lettering, as I felt like doing anything on my laptop would feel like cheating when people like Joby Carter do absolutely everything by hand themselves. Due to doing everything on physical paper, I realise my design may not be the most crisp and have a perfect finish, but when I visited Joby’s workshop I admired the small mistakes and discrepancies that you could sometimes notice when looking closely because they reveal the work of the artists hand and show just how difficult it really is and I felt like these inconsistencies had a certain beauty to them. I learnt that hand-lettering is not about trying to make every letter the same, what makes it special  is that every letter is different and you don’t have to stick to any rules of typography, it creates a unique opportunity to be experimental and expressive with letters.

Real Job: Bethan Williams designed a journal highlighting Reading's focus on racial justice.

Read more

Real Job: Emily Collard entered a design contest to brand a new research centre at the University.

Read more

Background

This Real Job required us to design a publication for the PLACEing objects exhibition that ran in March 2020. The exhibition was part of Julie Brixey-Williams PhD requirements and showcased a selection of multidisciplinary artists. The client wanted a publication to showcase the both the work displayed at the exhibition and the workshops that occurred on the “Day of Dialogue”.

The brief

There was a selection of deliverables for this Real Job that adjusted slightly throughout the timeline. The main deliverable was a 48 page printed publication. The key unique aspect the client was interested in was that all pages in the publication must have equal importance. This meant we had to come up with a way to ensure the binding didn’t force a linear format, and that the users could rearrange each page.

The secondary deliverable was a logo that client would send off to be cast into a concrete block. The block was a structural part of the publication, giving the printed publication a stand.

Alongside these primary deliverables, we also designed an invitation, an acetate ingot – replicating the glass one used in the exhibition –  and a pocket page to hold both of these.

Research

User personas and interviews

The initial stage of research was looking through the early content and images of the exhibition shown to us by Julie. We wanted to get a thorough understanding of what the meaning of the exhibition was and what it was showcasing before starting any design work.

The next stage was considering the types of users within the audience that would be consuming the publication. We created a set of interview questions to get an insight into what potential audiences may expect to see in an exhibition publication. We set up 3 key user personas and conducted interviews on real life people that fit those categories.

Mood boards

Initial research required both me and Amina going away and looking at examples of existing  publications. We made 4 mood boards,. We then explore different approaches to this, including an abstract approach to the publication design, a clean cut approach and an approach where text or images commonly overlapped. Finally, we looked into existing editorial design for artists and exhibitions, examples of publications that could be considered a direct competitor. We sent these mood boards to the client to get an overview of the style she liked and allow us to begin some sketching.

Design

Deciding on formats

The client had used an iPad mini as part of the exhibition and wanted the publication designed with these dimensions, even down to the rounded edges.

The client also wanted a way to hold the publication together without it being physically bound. While this was initially intended on being a belly band we eventually designed for a screw to be drilled into the top. A screw was used in the exhibition and the client felt this was another way to integrate the physicality of the exhibition into the publication.

Testing layouts

Designing the pages for the publication was the main part of this project. We trialed different layouts and sent them to the client so she had options to choose from and discuss what she liked and what she felt didn’t work. Once we knew what the client wanted we created a grid and paragraph styles that all pages would utilise. This required a lot of testing as the content for each page was vastly different, yet it was important to keep a clear consistency throughout.

Concrete block and integrating a logo

The client came up with the concept of a sculptural way to hold the publication rather than a band to hold it together. Julie wanted to have the publication sit in between 2 concrete blocks working as bookends that she would get cast by a professional at a later date. We were tasked with the responsibility of finding a way to anchor the title and branding within the design of said concrete block.

At this stage of the project a logo was one of the deliverables. The client did not have a specific use for the logo at this time and therefore we discussed using this on the concrete block make the entire project more cohesive. The logo used on the block would showcase the name of the exhibition while also adding an element of design to the block. We tested various versions to see how different layouts could work but eventually settled on a logo where the title would be split in 2, ensuring the audience would know the block was one of two.

While we initially considered applying a vinyl sticker with the logo design on it to the concrete block, we eventually decided that getting the actual logo cast into the block would be a more subtle way to showcase the logo and create the sense of it being ingrained within the whole publication concept.

This was a unique request and required some specific conditions such the files would have to be sent in. However, after close conversations with Jon, the caster, we were able to get the logo cast into the block exactly how the client wished.

Finalising

Iterations

Meeting regularly with the client was key to the success of this publication. We would ensure that we were sending updated iterations of the project and having meetings in order to confer and review decisions about each page. We made a lot of alternations but this lead to a strong design that conveyed each artist honourably, in the way the client wanted.

Paper decisions

A large part of this project was the physical feel of the publication. We had a lot of conversations with the client about the shade and thickness of the paper. We printed out pages on a variety of different paper stocks to allow her to choose the one she felt represented her exhibition best. This was especially important as the main publication was printed on different stock to the invitation and the ingot. It was key to get the stock right so that they all worked together.

Production

The publication was a short run, but due to the variety of complex printing elements such as the acetate insert and pocket page we decided the Design Print Studio in the department was the most appropriate printer. It made the communication regarding all printing easier as we could talk directly to DPS and had Geoff to advise about complex parts of the publication.

Reflection

This Real Job was the first one I picked up. This meant it was a lot of new experiences for me, from working with my first client to sending my first job to print.

This project was incredibly large and intensive with lots of contributors. It took a lot longer than initially intended as we had to wait for different pieces of content alongside working to create a highly physical piece of work over multiple lockdowns. Additionally, much of the content can in different formats so it took a lot of time to work to standardise all copy and images.

Working in a group also had a lot of added complications. We couldn’t meet in person so everything had to be done over zoom which occasionally meant their was communication issues. Additionally, we could not work on a file at the same time and would have to ensure the latest file was uploaded to OneDrive at all times. Reflecting on this project, I think there could have been more appropriate ways to divide up workload to be more efficient, however this experience has helped guide future Real Jobs and other group projects.

Overall this has been an incredibly educational experience, providing me with invaluable opportunities and a printed publication that I am very proud to have collaborated on.

   . 

Background

The client for this project is Willemijn Doedens, a PhD student in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading. With a background in speech and language therapy, the client’s PhD research focuses on aphasia. Aphasia is a language and speech impairment occurring as a result of brain damage. Her research conclusions explore how real-world communications can be defined, how they can be clinically tested and the findings of her research experiments.

Restated Brief

The client requested two infographics to summarise the conclusions she has drawn from her research project. The main infographic would be included within the research thesis, acting as a visual break from the written content. The second infographic would be used on social media to summarise the full infographic and promote the publication of her research paper. The crucial aim of the project was to make the infographics “aphasia-friendly”, so the client could share the research results with the participants of her experiments, who have aphasia.  Although the main infographic was due to be submitted as a physical copy, COVID-19 meant that the client’s final thesis submission was digital. As a result, both deliverables for this project became digital files, with the view to being included within a printed thesis at a further date.

Design Process

Research

At the core of this project was gaining an understanding of how to design for those with aphasia. With little knowledge of aphasia, myself, collaborating with the client to gain an insight into the subject area became a vital tool for my research. Alongside discussions with the client, turning to the Stroke UK website, I came across resources directed at designing for those with aphasia. From this research, I gained far more perspective on the direction I would need to take the designs to make the infographics “aphasia-friendly”. For example, those with aphasia understand documents best when each part of the text is supported by a diagram.

Although designing for those with aphasia was key to this project, it was important to assess all the different users of the infographics. Creating user personas, it became clear that the design was directed towards those with both scientific knowledge of aphasia and the general public. As a result, the written content for the infographic became key to creating a successful design.

Content Transformation

Due to the scientific nature of this project, the client provided the copy to be used for the infographic. However, the copy was around 1500 words and needed to be reduced significantly whilst maintaining its academic integrity. Working in collaboration with the client, I worked to break down the content into digestible sentences. This was particularly challenging because in order to break down the content, I had to read it through many times and discuss it with the client to gain a basic understanding of it myself. Once I had gaining some basic understanding, I was able to work on reducing the content down into a more condensed format. However, as I had spent time discussing the content before condensing it, it was hard to gauge whether the content would make sense to someone who hadn’t read the original copy. Therefore, testing became vital at this stage of the process and I carried out many informal reviews of the content with family and friends. Through this testing, it became clear which parts of copy made sense and which didn’t. I also found it very beneficial to ask others to explain what they thought each part of the copy meant so I could compare their understanding to the original copy and see which parts were being misunderstood.

Illustrations

Alongside working on the written content, I worked on designing the illustrations to go with the copy. This was key to this project as much of the original copy could be translated into diagrams, saving many words and making the design far more aphasia-friendly. Working on the copy and illustrations simultaneously allowed me to adapt the content efficiently and reach a set of illustrations and copy which reflected the original 1500 words effectivity.

The client expressed an interest in having the experiment setup translated into a diagram but had no other specific requirements for the illustrations or styling. As a result, I researched into different styles of illustrations used for scientific content and examined different approaches that could be taken. With the key focus of the infographic being to make it easily understandable  for those with and without aphasia, I decide that the most appropriate style for the illustrations was flat 2D vectors. However, for the experiment setup I trialled and tested both a 2D and 3D setup which led to the 3D diagram being used for the final design. This was due to the 3D version being more easily understood as users could see that the middle bar was a barrier without the need for a label.

Initial Layout Ideas

Having worked on the copy and illustrations to be included within the infographic, I worked to mockup three different layouts for the infographic. The client did suggest she wanted to avoid a design which looks like a scientific poster, so layout 3 was originally not the favourite. However once I had explained the benefits of layout 3 for those with aphasia, this was the design taken forward.

Data Interpretation

One of the hardest parts of the design process was creating illustrations for the experiment results. This was because the client didn’t want to use physical data on the infographic as it would be too complex for those with aphasia to understand. She did however really like the idea of using graphs to display the results. As a result, we had some long discussions about the use of graphs, as generally people assume graphs to accurately represent data. For this infographic though, these graphs would simply be a visual representation of a difference in results between the two groups of the experiment. Consequently, I provided the client with some different options for making the graphs as appropriate as possible and also an alternative Venn diagram. With these options the client did decide to use the bar and line graphs, in the knowledge that they are a visual representation not accurate bar graph. As a result, the graphs were changed and refined many times.

Use of colour

The client expressed the importance of having a reasonably simple colour scheme for the design to meet the needs of those with aphasia and suggested a plain white background would be most appropriate. I explore a few varying colour schemes, before coming to a scheme which took inspiration from scientific poster whilst also providing enough variation to make it stand out. I also explored the use of colour to benefit those with aphasia, for example, repeating the set of three red icons throughout the infographic to reinforce the main three parts of real-world communication.

Social Media Infographic

Having finished the infographic to be included within the thesis, I worked to design a summary version for use on social media. This was more challenging than I had anticipated, as I had to consider the context in which this social media version would be read. After making many edits to the copy for the summary, I arrived at a concise design which featured enough information to explain the research subject area to someone who would not have read the thesis itself.

Final Deliverables

The final deliverables were produced as digital files, with the main infographic being placed into the client’s research thesis and the social media version ready to be published on twitter (once the thesis is published next year). Below are the final outcomes of the project.

Reflection

When this project began, I felt quite daunted by the idea of working by myself having not completed one of these projects before. As a result, the working relationship I developed with the client, from the offset, was very important to me. From our first meeting, I felt very comfortable working with Willemijn on this project. As an academic herself, she recognised that my strength laid with the design of the infographic and avoided biasing my ideas with her own. At first this left me feeling very lost with endless ideas and options for the infographics, but by the end of the project I realised that as a result of her open views on the designing process, I felt far more confident in my own ability to design a successful outcome. Additionally, having to work through my ideas without the help of a team, I found that I became more confident in explaining my ideas to others and working through constructive feedback from both the client and my supervisor.

Having always struggled with time management, completing this real client project motivated me to stick to a schedule. Planning became vital for this project, particularly during the content transformation stage. I underestimated the amount of time that I would need to transform the content for the infographic. However, by working in collaboration with the client, I was able to transform the long content into a digestive amount of information which was appropriate for the general public and those with aphasia. Following this slight set back, I was a little rushed at the end of the project. But, thanks to the strong communication I developed with both the client and my supervisor, I was able to successfully finish the project on time.

Overall, I found this project extremely rewarding as it has given me more confidence in my ability to communicate with clients, execute my own ideas and work to a deadline. It was also lovely to know that my views on how the project went were replicated by my client, who provided me with some lovely feedback on submission of the final outcomes:

“You really understood the research from the start, and you were able to capture the key elements of the project right away.  I thought the whole design process and collaboration with you went really well – above and beyond what I could have expected”

Background

The Cowrie Scholarship Foundation was set up to allow economically disadvantaged black students to attend UK universities and with the foundation being very new our client needed a brand that looked youthful and energetic but professional and as a continuation from the branding project the website for the foundation needed to be upgraded to match the brand. The website needed to appeal to students and stakeholders alike therefore we needed to create a striking balance between the two to attract scholars and investors which is our client’s main goal.

Brief

The brief was to develop a website on an easily workable and adaptable platform. The client would be adding more universities and business they would need a website that they can easily add on to whilst still maintaining a good user experience. The secondary deliverable was to design social media posts for his Instagram and LinkedIn. The brief stated that the success of this project would be measured by the ease of use by the client to add on to and edit. This was essential to make sure there was consistency within the quality of the design and making a website that the client can use and work with without affecting the design quality. So far since the launch of the website the client has had no problems with adding unto and editing the website.

Communication

Throughout the design process, we had regular meetings with our client. This allowed us to keep our client up to date making progress by having weekly feedback session to creating a website the client was happy with. On the other hand, our contact with our supervisor was not as frequent as we would have wanted it to be although, in the sessions, we had our supervisor was happy with the progress we were making.

Schedule

The deadline for the website completion was met following the guide of the restated brief. During the second week, there were fears that the website would not be completed on time before the submission deadline due to complications of which programme we would be using to develop the website. During the real jobs meeting, we spoke to Geoff about the possible programmes we could use to develop the website and our choices were narrowed down to Squarespace and WordPress and we, therefore, needed to propose both options to our client. This process delayed the schedule by a week however once the client responded with Squarespace, we were then able to begin the design process and get back on track. After this, we had weekly feedback where we were able to progress weekly to provide the website that the client would be happy with which enabled us to hand over the website on the deadline.

Design process

The problem

• 5% of British students from black Caribbean families gained places in “high tariff” universities, compared with more than 10% of all students. While many issues are at play in why more Black British students do not enter university – the Cowrie Scholarship Foundation seeks to address one part of the jigsaw – the financial cost of university education.
• Richard set up the Cowrie Foundation because of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Richard was inspired to create this foundation after being influenced to create change following the death of George Floyd. Cowrie is a very fresh organisation therefore there is an opportunity to bring something exciting and distinguishable as a brand. Cowrie Scholarship Foundation was set up to allow economically disadvantaged black students to get a university education at a Russell Group university.

The users

We identified three user groups: The student, the parent, and the shareholder. Each user group would have specific goals within the website. The student’s main aim is to apply to the scholarship through the website. The website needed to make this process as easy to understand as possible as one of the client’s aims is to get scholars into the scholarship. Secondly, the parent main aim is to provide opportunities for their children therefore the parent would be looking to the foundation values but also on past scholars to see if the foundation would be the right fit for their child. Lastly, the shareholder’s main purpose on the website would be to donate to the foundation however the process before that would be important. The shareholders would need to understand what the foundation is and how their money could help change lives.

Wireframes

Initial sketches

Developing the website based on the specific needs of the user was important and the layout for each specific sector was the most important. The hardest part was making the website more concise with a lot of relative information it would be easier to have multiple pages however, this makes the website look unappealing therefore we decided having drop-down menus would make the website look less cramped together and more spacious. We decided on having a scholarship programme, about us, contact us and news.

Lo-fi wireframes

Now that we had a plan with the initial sketches, we decided to create lo-fi wireframes via XD to test the user experience of our proposed design layout. Following the user testing we able to identify what needs improvement and what was good to create a workable website that the users can use easily. With this information, we decided to start designing the high-fidelity website on Squarespace. The process of testing the prototype was a little bit tedious because we struggled to find a user that was similar to the target audience, but we eventually found someone.

The brand

During the branding project, we produced new logos for the client however the client decided to keep their current logos that we had to use.

The typeface that the client wanted us to use was Arial for the website. We selected a few weigh and size variants to differentiate headings, body and captions. Arial is a very legible sans-serif typeface and allows the users to easily gain and digest the information provided by the website.

The client requested us to make heavy use of the black and yellow colour scheme used for the initial website. After we utilised some of our colour schemes to help differentiate web-page’ sections or to help the overall design being more engaging. As previously mentioned black and yellow were the defining colour of the branding. Other colours such “Blue Magenta” or “Harvest Gold” were used respectively for clickable links or illustrations and elements throughout the website. Squarespace offers the possibility to choose a colour palette as one of its tools made of 5 colours and allowed us to create different colour themes to chose depending on what page or section we were working on.

The process of image selection started with us using license-free pictures mainly depicting black students revising, working or at university. All the images were then shown to the client for feedback and approval. This happened a few times as the images had to be appropriate for the website, not too corporate but the pictures also had to be relevant in the context of education, achieving and hardworking which are some of the core values of the foundation. The illustrations present on the website are the tiles and one illustration designed from the previous version of the website we developed for TY3BP that the client liked and wanted us to keep it. The tiles were made on Illustrator and they are part of a larger group of traditional Ghanian symbols called Adinkra symbols that represent concepts and aphorisms. The tiles are used to divide the first elements of each page from the rest of the content underneath.

Final design

The design of the final website was clear and accessible for the client and the user. The overall design was successful as the client was happy with it. We had an initial plan an idea that we felt could have enhanced the outcome however we were limited by the software and our ability to recreate the XD prototype. The design decisions were moderately made by us however the client had the final say in the majority of the final design decisions. This led to elements of the website that we did not particular felt met the quality that we felt was needed however we found ourselves having to put the client’s needs first which we felt we could have been more critical and outspoken for our own design decisions however, overall, we were mostly happy with the outcome.

Feedback

The feedback we received was mostly positive with the client writing; “It has been a pleasure to work with you both. The level of work, attention to detail and willingness to incorporate requested changes was greatly appreciated.” We have not yet received official feedback from our supervisor yet although from the last feedback session she advised us to take more control of the project as the designers which I believe we did towards the final week of the project.

Conclusion

The feedback shows that the website is effective and easy to use. This implies that we have been able to achieve the aims listed in our brief and seeing the website go live was a proud moment for both of us. We believe our client is happy with the outcome and we have seen that he has comfortably been able to make changes to the website which was his main aim for the brief. Overall creating the website has taught us important skills within UX design and development that we can both use in the future.

The website link: https://www.cowriescholarshipfoundation.org/

– Peter Rosanwo,  Edoardo Sarli

Background

Every year, the art department hosts two art shows for finalist art students: the Winter Cabaret and the Summer Art Degree Show. Both shows always have a designated individual theme and branding. It is a moment for the students to showcase their work and make important connections. We will work together with a committee of art students to create a branding that clearly showcases what their year was about. At the time this report was submitted, the job was not yet completed, but in stages of near completion. 

Brief/restated brief 

This real job included two large projects: branding, a website, and social media assets for an event in December and branding, a website, social media assets, and a publication for the 2021 undergraduate art degree show. Initially, the job seemed to be smaller with a website that would be updated between the December event and the degree show and an overarching branding. However, after a meeting with the client and later with the art students, this job included two separate events. Our job was to work closely with the art students to produce visual identities that they were happy with and believe reflected the visions they had.

The Art Degree Show committee had an estimated budget, dependent on grants and fundraising (generated from the December event for the degree show), which aimed to cover the cost of all deliverables:

• To create two sets of branding. One that represents a chosen theme by art students for their annual December event, and one that successfully encapsulates the fine art’s graduating class of 2020/2021.
• To design and create a website to showcase students’ work and the live stream for the December event, as well as create a separate website showcasing finalists’ work and their live stream for the degree show. These websites needed to successfully use the branding in the point above. 
• To create social media templates that will promote the events by showcasing students’ work and communicating important information, such as the link, date and time. This includes Instagram posts, icons, and live stream backgrounds. 
• To design and create a catalogue of student work for the degree show. As with the website, this also needed to successfully implement the branding. Despite the coronavirus, the intention was to print the catalogue, however, it also needs to be suitable as a PDF. 

COVID–19

While this job already started during the pandemic, COVID-19 still posed several challenges. Our usual approaches to working with clients and in a group had to change. Instead of meeting face-to-face every week with the client and art students to go over work and discuss ideas, we held these meetings in Teams. Although this meant that we still had consistent meetings, our feedback was still compromised. It was more difficult to get responses from people behind screens than it would have been in an in-person setting. However, we worked through this, by following up with the students in a more informal setting when more feedback was needed. 

Further, the nature of the exhibitions changed. The winter cabaret and degree show moved from being in the art department to being fully online. Usually, these events would require physical invites, posters, business cards, and other promotional materials. This year, the deliverables were narrowed down to social media assets, websites, and other digital media. However, the major publication would still be printed, but this also had to be available in PDF format for people who could not physically be at the degree show. While this might sound like less work, there was more emphasis on the importance of the website, what it looked like, and what it was capable of.

Allocating roles

As a team of four students, we knew it would be beneficial to split up the roles based on our strengths and what we wanted to learn. Charlotte was the only one in our team who had experience with making websites, specifically using Elementor on WordPress. However, Liselot wanted to learn these skills. So, for the Winter Cabaret, the roles were allocated to be that everybody would work on creating branding, and then the website would be made by Liselot and Charlotte, while Hiba and Shanzeh worked on the social media assets. For the degree show, the roles changed a little. Branding was still shared (at the end only one person made edits to assure there would be no file mixups), social media was allocated to Hiba, the brainstorming and planning for the publication was a team effort, but making edits and designing each individual page was left to Shanzeh, and the website was mainly Liselot’s job. Charlotte helped both with designing individual pages for the publication and with designing the website. However, the team is planning to get back together again to input all the content for each individual artists’ website pages. This way Shanzeh and Hiba get to learn about website building as well and the work will be done quicker. 

The design process

Although this job was a two-in-one job, the design process for both was similar. However, by having two projects following each other so closely in time, we could apply what we had learned quickly. Our first approach assumed we would not need as much time to work on the branding. The schedule we had created and the client had signed off on reflected this. In the end, our branding took more weeks than we had planned, leaving us to create an entire website in less than two weeks. Although the winter cabaret had more of a time crunch than the degree show, we knew to expect to spend more time on the branding. Hence, we planned an entire term solely for perfecting the branding and how this would translate to the publication. 

For the website, we figured out that less time was needed than we initially expected. Even though we worked overtime to get the Winter Cabaret website finished, we knew not to worry as much about the degree show. The first time around, three of us also had not used WordPress before other than to post these reports, meaning much time was spent on learning as well. For the degree show’s website, these skills only needed refreshing. 

Themes

The themes for the events were solely chosen by the art students to best represent their year and work. To make both the December event and the degree show connect, the names were decided at the same time: Connectivité for the December event and Pièce de Distance for the degree show. They related both to how everything was online and at a distance the past year. Since Pièce de Distance is a play on pièce de résistance, the art students stayed within French-sounding names. For the design, we first focused on Connectivité, which was a mix of digital and renaissance. For the degree show, we made it its own event by having a complete opposite visual theme that focused heavily on technology and darker colours, meaning there was a contrast despite the unity. How we came to these visual themes is discussed below. 

Research

In order to fully understand the subject of Connectivite, we underwent some initial research into both the themes of connecting and the French Renaissance. This enabled a deeper understanding of each theme and some potential ways in which we could link these all together in a way that was fresh yet kept some of the historical Renaissance-style work which the clients wished to have. To keep our research organised and collated in one place, we created a shared Pinterest board that the art students could also add to, where we saved inspiration for several of our deliverables; the website, catalogue and the branding. 

We applied this process to brainstorm ideas for the degree show. By which we researched the theme “Pièce de résistance” in terms of context and the ways we can modernise it. According to the Merriam–Webster dictionary, the phrase translates to “An outstanding item or event, the showpiece.”Which is an immediate reflection of what the degree show is about, presenting the students best work forward. Similar to the winter cabaret, this theme still had French connections but leaned more on the theme of distancing, which was fitting because of the current pandemic and social distancing rules. Shown below are our Pinterest pages we used to collaborate with the students to brainstorm our initial ideas, allowing the students to add their own photos in order to better understand their vision. We did this both for the winter and summer shows, focusing on each one individually. This meant that we could work efficiently and bounce ideas between the members in a way that was quick and easy to do.

Branding

The branding for the events was based on the collaborative Pinterest boards with the art students. This way we could suggest visual themes and they could build on them as well as the other way around. It was clear that at the beginning of the design process of both the events, that there were many ideas. While the overarching theme of Connectivité was being connected digitally and in person, it still could be visually represented in different ways. The same was for Pièce de Distance, which was more about the distance. The design process for both of the events was very similar. We had a close collaboration with the art students due to our weekly meetings. Because of this, we were able to show multiple different directions we could take, narrow it down, and keep editing and narrowing it down further every week, which is shown in Figures 1–4 (for the winter cabaret) and Figures 5–9 (for the degree show) . Since the branding for the Winter Cabaret went smoothly, we knew that sticking to the process would also make branding the degree show go smoothly. One lesson for us after both these events, however, is to make sure to not show designs you are unsure of yourself (whether that is the logistics or the actual design), or else the client might fall in love with it. 

Winter cabaret (connectivite)

Art Degree show (Piece de Distance)

Social media

Because of the pandemic, the art students and ourselves were forced to adapt and switch to online communication. This shift applied to the promotional material of the events, social media presence became crucial than ever, in this case, the artists wanted Instagram to be their main social media outlet. For the social media pages for both the events, we combined both the students work with our branding to create a sense of cohesion among all platforms. The layout and size of elements within the logo were tested with the mockups to ensure that they were legible at any size required. The purpose of the Instagram page is to create a complete individual identity for the events. The profile picture for the winter cabaret was straightforward, unlike the degree show by which we struggled to scale down the logo whilst maintaining legibility because of the angle of type and 3D output. We simplified the logo for the social media posts, by choosing the key sports that needed to stand out along with the appropriate background colour. For the winter cabaret, we designed a specific set of posts to lie a complete image when viewing the profile (shown in the image below), this made the show’s feed visually appealing, however, it was not functional. Taking that into consideration, for the degree show the designers and students had separate posts that can be shuffled and published anytime, hence the Instagram posts were designed to be more flexible; creating separate filler posts and backgrounds for the images which can be posted in random order, shown in Figures 10.

Catalogue

Since the Winter Cabaret was promoted digitally, we only designed a catalogue for the art degree show. This was unfamiliar territory, which required extensive research and experimentation. Luckily, we had enough time to understand the standard catalogue format and the rules that needed to be implemented, whilst exploring graphic treatments (on text, images and stock). Within the initial stages of design, we started with a traditional grid and page layout that held the contents; images and text. Which was developed into different formats and layouts that were later refined and the final layout was chosen by the art students, shown in Figures 11–12. In the next stage, we applied our branding on both the text and images, to see which works the best. This experimentation continued with the cover design, which required several iterations as the first few designs were not cohesive with the inside pages, shown in Figures 13–21. 

Process

The overall feedback that we received was to simplify the imagery in order to focus on the students’ work and display the information clearly. It was challenging to find a balance between the students’ requests to focus solely on the images whilst also including the design elements of the branding. We eventually found a middle ground for stylising the title text while leaving the rest of the page clean and legible. Because of the simple design of the inside contents we created more visually engaging pages for the prelims. Using solid blocks of colour for the background and changing the alignment of text and shapes elevated the catalogue, overall creating a dynamic visual output.

Final catalogue

Website

The website was created using WordPress. In our team, only Charlotte had experience with this. We were very lucky because this meant that she already knew about Elementor and how to use the basics. Before going to WordPress, we designed the website in Illustrator so we knew what we were working towards. However, it would have been useful to have a better look at what was capable with Elementor before we did that. We convinced the art students about our ideas and had clear visions of what we wanted just to later figure out that we could not make it a reality. These ideas were not far-fetched, so it was quite a surprise when we couldn’t figure it out. For example, we wanted images to open in a light box with a caption and extra information. However, the plugins would not allow us to add the extra information, meaning we had to work around it and create separate pages for each artwork. It was extremely stressful to have to figure out alternative solutions when we only had two weeks to make the website, but we did it in the end.

Because of what happened with the Connectivité website, we knew to better prepare ourselves for the constraints we would have. Although the art students had some great visions with 3D websites and moving elements, we knew this would not be possible with our capabilities. Luckily, they ended up liking our proposed design as well. While the website’s general structure was not as dynamic as everybody (both us and the art students) would have loved, we made up for it by applying the branding as much as possible and making it look as much as the catalogue we had designed and they loved. Further, we also made a GIF for the logo to give the illusion of a 3D aspect. It was all about compromise. Unfortunately, at the time this report was written, the website was still being made, so there might be more obstacles that came our way. 

Winter cabaret (connectivite)

Art Degree show (Piece de Distance)

Reflection

Despite its challenges, this project was useful and eye-opening, as we were introduced to different media, particularly WordPress. It was also interesting to gain a true understanding of client budgeting, as many design choices depending on their funding, particularly print finishes. This emphasised the importance of a design that was realistic and achievable, with the resources available. This was also challenging because of the number of students involved, which naturally led to fresh ideas and feedback. This forced us to promote different ideas we favoured or compromise our designs to be more suitable to the range of students. By designing for two separate types of projects, the winter cabaret and the art degree show, this helped identify previous strengths and weaknesses in the project. This reduced any issues or mistakes in the winter cabaret to occur in the art degree show. By establishing a strong client relationship, ideas and feedback were shared more openly, leading to a more suitable and attractive project that the students favoured.