STUDIO: END OF YEAR SHOW RESEARCH

I began researching certain branding projects that I'd like to follow in the footsteps of. I began by looking at the new Sundance film festival branding and a few other projects designed by Connor Campbell.

I began by looking at the Sundance film festival branding and how the designer has used an incredibly simple shape and colour palette but translated the brand excellently. Simple bold type is used to communicate the simple piece of communication that is needed and a complementary illustration of a sun is used throughout. It is mainly animated which is another reason I am so drawn to it. Having the entire branding animate gives it a lot of life which makes it more memorable. Stills were taken from this excellent animation composition and used in print.

Another branding project by the same designer followed a similar path was this one. It is fully animated and brings the company to life grabbing attention of the viewer instantly on digital devices. This design is easily transferable to print, websites and social media due to its simplicity. 

A small aspect of this branding project done by Newfor studio for John Cullen (a light and studio hiring company) was these door signs. They are designed to let people know weather or not the room or studio is in use, similar to a hotel. Having that small interactive aspect included within the brand I feel gives it more life once again, not just adding visuals to its name but action.

Finally looking at an actual exhibitions branding, I took note of the Yoko Ono exhibition and how it used bold typography to create a simple brand identity that travelled across all aspects of the branding. Using the simple overlapping type as a logotype helps viewers recognise straight away that this is the Yoko Ono exhibition. I particularly enjoy how the exhibition catalogue uses that same typeface as used in the logo as a header for each page and how it also keeps the type the same size as the logo, keeping brand identity on every page. 

STUDIO: END OF YEAR SHOW BRANDING BRIEF

I began the end of year showing branding competition brief which was simply to brand our universities entire end of year show. I had to consider all the other courses as well as my own when designing the branding due to having to be fully inclusive of the other courses and advertise the university as a whole. it had to be professional and eye catching and really represent our university visually. 

Deliverabels

• A0 Poster
• Postcard
• Private view email header
• Online/Social media graphics
• Publication adverts
• Exhibition guide
• External signage (Vernon street campus)

PPP: TERMS AND CONDITIONS

During today session, we were told to try and create a simple layout for an invoice that we might send a client. Below is my groups attempt. Some of the things we were missing here was the date the invoice was sent and the invoice number. Other then that we managed to include the main parts of the template such as our contact details and address, the clients details, a break-down of the costs and our own banking details.

After this we looked into generating our own terms and conditions for a theoretical client brief. Writing this contract would ensure that we wouldn't be taken advantage of and that we'd receive a full pay by the end of the project. Below are some of the things I'd include in my terms and conditions.

• Up to 2 alterations on the project, after that the client pays more
• A set deadline for project completion
• If the client backs out they have to pay the full amount
• They cannot back out and take the idea to someone else
• The work produces must be used correctly (perhaps include brand usage guidelines)
• Agreement on deliverables
• Terms on payment deadlines
• Rate of pay

STUDIO: D&AD EXPERIMENTS

I began by simply initiating one of my ideas which was to simply illustrating my theme of loneliness with my two selected typefaces from Google fonts and the lyric 'caught in the rye'. The typeface I used to translate the word 'rye' I felt illustrated itself perfectly as it seemed to share similar attributes to rye grass itself. Then placing this behind the term 'caught in the' clearly illustrated the type 'rye' behind literally caught behind it. I stretched and skewed the 'rye' type to test its legibility and see how far I could push it to make it as like rye grass as possible. At the bottom I included the song title and artist to complete the record sleeves necessities. I selected a vibrant red due to the original album covers red but I thought this might change later. 

I then experimented with using an image related to the bands aesthetic and combined it with my type composition. I used a stock image of a desert given the fact this was a country band, I felt this was an obvious connotation of the music. I experimented with blurring the image to make the type more relevant within the composition and also different layouts and scales of the image too. After experimenting with the possibility of using imagery I decided that I did not want to use it due to the fact it took away from the well considered type composition originally created.

After deciding to remove the image, I began experimenting with the position of the type. Given the fact the theme was based around loneliness I felt that perhaps the type would benefit from being scaled down and placed in the centre of the document, isolating it in white space. This clearly represents the theme of loneliness. 

When reviewing the type within the isolated white space, it felt like it looked a little bit unfinished due to the white space itself so i decided to experiment with colours that were loosely linked to themes of loneliness and being lost. These were purples and blues which I combined to created a clouded background behind the type.

STUDIO: D&AD INITIAL IDEAS

After reviewing my research and selecting a theme for my campaign, I listed a few initial ideas that I could execute.

My first idea was to solely animate type to clearly translate my message. This type could display either song lyrics or simply the message spelt out that I was trying to raise awareness for. Whatever this type animation would end up looking like would be used as the 12" record cover and my selected merchandise, be it a t-shirt or tote bag.

The second idea I had was to create an illustration of the singer Orville Peck, and animate this in such a way that would tell easily tell the story of loneliness and acceptance as the song plays in the background. This would be accompanied with type explaining the concept.

Another idea was to combine the previous ideas illustration and use it as a still image with some isolated type in the center to easily represent loneliness. The clearly illustrated central piece would tie itself and the type together, in total creating a really clear image with a strong message.

My fourth idea was to use some kind of VR interaction as my main campaign and other touchpoint. The idea to this is the 12" record sleeve would translate the message through type but to receive the rest of the design you'd need VR software on your phone which would reveal the rest of the message. First part resembling loneliness and the revealed message showing the acceptance side of it.

My final idea was to arrange the type in such away that visually translated the message whilst spelling out part of the songs lyrics that also resonated with. For instance, the line 'caught in the rye' resonates with the theme of loneliness and being stuck in limbo, deciding weather its ok or not to be in that situation.

STUDIO: TURN TO HATE FURTHER RESEARCH

After reviewing the research into the song, I began to pick apart the main themes to think of what cause I'd like to support and raise awareness for within this project. The main themes I picked from this were anxiety, outsider, loneliness, solitude, identity and self acceptance. These were all really good topic that could have a lot of literal visual identities within design work. I decided that I wanted to play with themes of loneliness and acceptance the most as I thought they were two very relevant topics that a lot of audiences could relate too.

I began researching how other artists and designers dealt with these topics as well to perhaps inspire me. I could possible mimic their techniques but with a typographic rendition.

This campaign/exhibition titled 'Hey Neighbour!' was created to encourage Londoners to reach out to their fellow neighbour to feel more comfortable talking to strangers. They did this to battle anxiety and loneliness within citizens of the city to make them feel more like neighbours instead of islands. They also raised money for a homeless charity in the making. They managed to do all this by hiring 22 artists from around the world to create a print that would convince people to be more open and conversational. The outcome to this was an exhibition of kindness and sharing.

Some artists responded to this brief quite literally with simple typographic compositions translating exactly what the print wanted to do and some others less literal and more abstract. A lot of bold and colourful shapes used with very clear connotations of positivity. One of my favourites was a screenshot of a wifi connection box from a laptop, taking an abstract approach to who are neighbours seeing who our neighbours really are as all that remains are wifi codes, cafes and a church.

STUDIO: ORVILLE PECK TURN TO HATE SONG RESEARCH

After listening to my chosen song, Turn to Hate by Orville Peck, I began unpicking the lyrics to try and figure out what the songs meaning was. Here are a few key lyrics within the song that I took out.

"Don't leave, don't cry
You're just another boy caught in the rye
Don't say goodbye
Head full of nothing and I'm wondering why"

After researching further into the song I found an interview with the singer and he explained the song in his own words.

“essentially a song about the anxiety that comes with being on the outside of things,” Peck says. “Treading the line between existing as a loner but not letting that solitude turn into resentment. All that wrapped in a good ole’ country stomping barn-raiser!”

• It’s a song about being an outsider and learning weather to like yourself despite it and not let yourself hate the loneliness
• It’s about the struggle of being alone/ an outsider but also not letting that bring you down and make you hate yourself
• That’s why it’s called turn to hate, it’s about excepting who you are (an outsider) without turning to hate

The deeper meaning of this song could relate to several things within the artist Orville Pecks life and also others who listen to it. Orville sings about being an outsider as it could be a good thing even though it could also be seen as a negative one at the same time. This idea can be applied to his sexuality growing up but also his romanticised idea of being a lonely cowboy travelling the desert. The idea of being confused whilst being a gay could be commonly relatable within our generation and showing that its ok to be different or alone is a great positive message. Other audiences could interpret this song in other ways however, relating it to their own lives specifically taking something else positive from it.

STUDIO: D&AD SONG CHOICE

I decided to choose a song from the indie country band Orville Peck. This is an artist that I have listened to for a while so the research aspect will be quite simple. Orville Peck usually celebrates being a homosexual cowboy, sings songs about heartbreak and plays country bangers. I've selected the song 'Turn to Hate' which will need some further research specifically so I can figure out exactly what the songs message is.

Its a very loud and fun song with a great performance by the band as a whole. Very energetic so this is also something I'd consider when initiating this project. 

STUDIO: D&AD GOOGLE TYPOGRAPHY BRIEF

The D&AD brief that I have selected is the Google typography brief. 

You must find a song, genre or musical movement that represents a cause and use typography to bring it to life. Typography can express culture, rhythm, local aesthetic, traditions, places and people in any language. Utilise these benefits to highlight a cause of the present using the music of an artist, genre or festival that you feel is empowering. (from any time period)

Create a typography first-campaign with both physical and digital elements to inspire your audience to discover more about the issue and, where relevant, spark a call of action.

For this I will be making a 12" x 12" record sleeve for my chosen song/genre/band. I will also be fully animating this cover as a part of a digital release. I will also be creating one other touchpoint which could be merch, cassette tape, tote bag, event poster etc. 

STUDIO: NEW FASHION PHOTOGRAPHERS

Unfortunately during our process of collating all the garments from the fashion designers, two of the photographers dropped out of the project due to them having to many things going on outside of university. This was not too much trouble as we quickly managed to get a hold of two others that we were eager to work with.

Jordan Lambert meeting notes:

• Free all of February for shooting
• Has models in mind that he'd like to cast
• Not apposed to using our chosen models
• Taken the sub-genre 'Hear no evil'
• Very eager to work on the project
• Already has some ideas 
• Will share over email

The second photographer was Hope, who was at the time working in London but said she'd definitely be able to do the shoot on Feb. 

STUDIO: CIRCUS LEEDS DECK

This is the DECK that I would be submitting to the Circus Leeds brief along with the animated version of the logo.

Text included in DECK:

'The Circus Leeds logo has been designed to answer the brief perfectly, taking into consideration all of the unique brief requirements.

The top typeface titling ‘Circus’ has used the font Antonio which has been fully designed inspired by letterpress fonts and only being exclusively available digitally. It was also awarded best typeface 2012. The lower typeface stacked underneath this is Gotham, a typeface regularly used with the letterpress industry. 

Above the letter ‘I’ is a subtly illustrated tent flag, giving the logotype a slight edge of character and depth.

The faded red colour selected has been inspired solely by classic circus tent stripes, not an obvious connotation of the circus grounds but a gentle nod. 

The logo is finally rounded of with a pair of hatch lines on either side, commonly used in letterpress to fill a posters empty space. It gives the logo a more complete finish.

The result of this is a formal yet playful logo design which will give the brand a clearer identity that can be respected by all audiences. 

Here is an example of how the logo can be used on social media and also how it can be compressed to just the flag illustration, creating a strong visual identity that is easily recognisable from any digital platform. 

Here is a few examples of how the logo can be used in print and on fabric.

Using the specific colour palette selected and carefully applying the logo, the visual identity for Circus Leeds is incredibly clear no matter where its being seen. 

The font I have selected to pair with the brand is Gotham Narrow (FREE TO DOWNLOAD), the one used in the lower section of the logo. This is due to its history in letterpress and its versatile behaviour being able to be applied as body text or as a bold title.

Here is a final example of the logo in use within print being paired with a variation of sizes of the Gotham Narrow, the typeface I selected. It pairs with the logo perfectly due to its similar nature of design with each selected font.'

STUDIO: CIRCUS LEEDS FINAL DEV

I had a final crit with some of my peers before I created the DECK for the Circus Leeds brief. I just wanted to make sure the logo looked ok from a fresh set of eyes before I sent it away. I was advised to add two hatch lines on either side of the word 'Leeds' on the logo. Hatch lines are commonly used on letterpress posters to round of the typesetting and give it a more complete aesthetic. I applied this to the logo and it made it look way better and a lot more finished. I rounded the edges of these lines off as well to match the top typefaces corners. I also made the type that displayed 'Leeds' slightly bolder and smaller giving it more body to pair better with the top type. I was told it looked a bit to light previously.