Brief 13: DBA - Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this project and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Teamwork

There were five of us working in this project, me, Daisy, Sarah G, Sarah H and Mel H. This is definitely a skill I developed, mainly because we were constantly communicating, having crits and meetings, and discussing our ideas and work together. This was really important because we were very enthusiastic about the project and wanted to make it work, so this was a necessary part of the process. We had a Facebook group were we could keep updating each other and met up lots of times in person at uni. I think this contributed to the success of our project because we were always informed and could build on our ideas and decisions.

I think sometimes I can be nervous when working in groups as I'll worry about people's capabilities or reliability, but since we picked this group ourselves I trusted everyone to do the work when we set it and to a high standard. I was happy that everyone got to do design work and we shared the load which I think can be quite hard to do, but we managed to do that.

Animation

I became quicker at animating, since I did two in a day and I was confident that I could get it finished to the standard that we wanted. We also decided that our presentation should be a video, and I was able to do that as well which isn't something that I have done before. 

Presenting

I feel I have improved on my presentation skills, as I always get so nervous. I was particularly nervous for this presentation due to doing it in front of professionals and the fact I was in charge of playing and stopping the video. However, it went smoothly, and not I, nor anyone else, messed up at all throughout it.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Crits

We met up a lot to discuss concept and decision decisions, and this definitely helped to inform my development process. As I would usually do all of this myself, it was good to take a collaborative approach to it and work with other people's thoughts. For example, we decided that we liked Sarah G's illustrative style, and I knew I could adapt my style to work to that which was interesting. Then when it came to colour, I was able to pick some out that people liked, and then Daisy adapted those, and it was very much a collaborative approach that I enjoyed and was comfortable with. 

After Effects

I have only used After Effects a few times, and it is fun to keep learning and producing animations which I enjoyed during this project. I made three, and it didn't take up too much time which it would have done at the beginning of the year. Since I did the two animated posters first and did those quite quickly, it gave me the confidence to be able to do the presentation as a video too which I wouldn't have usually done.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Animation

This was definitely a strength as I was able to do the animations quickly and stick to our schedule for the workload.

Way of Working

I feel this was important to this project, because it really was a tough one. We spent a lot of time on the ideas stage, and started designing later than everybody else. By the time the first crit came with the people who were judging it, we had no designs and just ideas. They said we were going at it from a marketing/copy point of view, but really liked the idea. We were confident that working on the idea for a longer period of time was crucial, since we wanted to get that Big Idea and impress them. We knew we could design quicker, so wasn't worried about that. 

We also had a lot of communication with each other which I think was really important and helped us to create something we were proud of because everybody was involved in the decision making progress and kept up to date.

We also all shared the design load - this isn't something that every group did, but we wanted the workload to be equal. So we all did a poster idea and design each, and then spread the work accordingly. I think this was the best approach so we all felt like we had contributed to how the brand looked.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Stress

Something I am guilty of is getting stressed! I know there are points throughout the project when I would get stressed, like when it took us quite long to think of an idea at first, or when I was worried the animations might look pixelated on screen or the presentation would mess up since it was a video. But, it all worked out in the end, and I just need to remember that there are ways to get around every problem.

Brief 13: DBA - Presentation Feedback

The presentation went well, and I was in charge of playing/stopping the video which went smoothly so I was happy about that.
After we presented, we received good feedback and they seemed to really like what we had done. Me and the girls were really happy with how it went, and I think we were all really pleased with what we had done and achieved.

After the day had ended, Ian sent Daisy this email:

Hello Daisy.

I think your team might have been a close second - though as Ian said you don’t get anything for second in our industry.

Everyone put in a lot of effort and the standard was very high, so for work to stand out means something.

All the best.

Ian

So although we didn't win, it was sweet of him to send us this email and show that they appreciated what we had done. I was happy with the outcome of the day anyway, as I knew the group who won had worked really hard and their work was really good. All in all, a good end to a good project!

Brief 13: DBA - Presentation

Order of Slides
I had started to write the order of the slides to see what we would need to include on the presentation and the running order of it. After I wrote the order, I asked the rest of the group what they thought and we amended parts and delegated who would be saying what.

From this, Sarah H drew what would be written on each slide so that I could easily put it together.

Inserting Video into PowerPoint
I decided to start researching how we could put video into a presentation. Powerpoint seemed the easiest way to go, so I looked at a few tutorials.

The solution is really simple, just file > insert > movie from file. You have the option to start the video automatically or on click, which is useful.

Using After Effects
Me and Daisy started to input the animation and posters, and realised very quickly that it wouldn't work. It slowed down the programme a lot, and ended up crashing PowerPoint. We decided to think of alternatives, and thought of After Effects as the solution. Creating the whole presentation as a video would allow us to insert everything and remain at a high speed that we needed.

With Daisy and Mel to help me decide how fast everything should be and what order things should go, I started to create the presentation. It was fairly easy to create, although quite time consuming.
I imported all of the animations as movs into the composition, created text layers and imported illustrator files to create it. Using the brand colours and type, it is consistent with the rest of the identity, and the visuals are very clean and allow our illustrations to speak for themselves.
In terms of timing, we decided that the text slides and and images slides should be between 2 and 3 seconds, giving the person who plays and pauses the presentation enough time.
We tested it a few times, and were happy with it. I am a little worried about the timing as I have never used  video as a presentation before, but I am confident with everyone in the group that it will be fine.


Final Presentation
Here is the final presentation in video format.

Brief 13: DBA - Animation Music

I started to look for music that could be used on the animations, to bring them to life in the presentations.

I thought that an upbeat, instrumental audio would work well so started looking for some.

I found a couple of artists on websites which have royalty free audio.

Examples

Here are the songs that I think would work well

I realised that although it says royalty free, there is a charge you have to pay to get the license. I found this is $18 for the songs I think are good, which I worked out to be £11.62 in GBP. I then realised that this was £2.30 each divided, so that is a fair amount if we wanted to purchase the license. 

If we don't purchase it, 1. it's illegal, 2. it's not very supportive or artists and 3. it would have an audio watermark on.



I then went onto iTunes, and found the song I wanted for 79p. I played it for everyone and they liked it, so I bought it. I can buy this version if I'm using it for a non-monetized video which I am.

Brief 13: DBA - Animation

I was delegated to animating two of the posters, since I already know how to animate and I would be able to do them both in under a day.

They are for mine and Sarah H's, and I made sure that they both have same/similar timings and transitions so that they look the same.

Brief 13: DBA - Further Still Poster Development

As I had done the more living part of the animation like this on the left, I decided for the still poster to create a similar format. It would have part of both of the posters to keep them linked.

This is what the still poster would look like. With the commuting part in a lower opacity it shows how that one communicates 'less'.

Brief 13: DBA - Further Animation Design Development

Since we now have our statements and style that we want to work in, I started to develop my idea on Illustrator. My statement is 'less commuting, more living', so I needed to create something which represented travelling and living.

We agreed to create a poster that can be still as well as animated.

In terms of colour, we tried a few different schemes in the last meeting and I suggested this which we agreed on. We thought we would give it a go and see if it works with our idea, and if not we can change this again.

Daisy adapted these colours slightly, which work a lot better

Design Development

I started with the 'more living' section, and started drawing shopping bags for it. I added a couple more tones to the colour scheme so that it fit in with the 3D style.

I started to draw a train ticket for it the less commuting.

Another part of living would be going to the cinema, so I drew some popcorn and tickets to show this.

I started to think how this could be arranged in a poster format. We had agreed that we could do different formats to show how our branding could work across platforms.

I also drew some drinks for this section.

For the fact that needed to be included on the poster I looked at these figures about commuting via the HS2. I worked out that the average time saved by using this train is 45%. From this, I came up with my fact that 'The HS2 train will cut travelling times by 45%.'

I added the fact underneath the illustrations.

I also tried a portrait format, I think this could work better.

I got the logo of Sarah and added that to the poster too.

I made More Living on two lines. This is how the second part of the animation would look like

I began to draw a clock on a stand, as this would fit the format a lot better and is something that you could find in a train station so works well with the context

Here is what the first part of the animated poster would look like. The idea is that the clock would appear part by part, then the time on the clock would fast forward to show how quick the commuting time is. 

Now I need to animate this!

Brief 13: DBA - Developing Statement

Since we all have a statement each to develop, I started planning what I need to do:

• Think of a fact to go back up the statement
• Think about what illustrations would work well
• Storyboard for an animation
• Look and feel - style, colours, typography

Mindmap

I started with making a mindmap of what imagery could represent the statement.

Animation Ideas

I began to think of ideas for the poster animation. I thought of what they should be like first:

• short, as people will see them passing by
• simple and clear so people can understand it
• visual to keep peoples attention
• KISS

Fact

We decided to back up each slogan we should have a fact that can feature on the posters.

This BBC article discusses the commuting times the HS2 will have, showing how it is a lot quicker. This relates well to my statement as it is saying there is less commuting to do.

High Speed rail's long journey

I worked out that on average, the HS2 saves times of 45 minutes, which would be 45%.

I thought my fact could be something along the lines of 'The HS2 trains reduce travelling times by 45%', to keep it clear and to the point.

Brief 2: An Illustration a Day - Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this project and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Illustration

I was able to start developing my illustration skills during this project and producing quicker results from doing it daily. I had no restrictions so I could experiment with trying different styles, techniques and subjects. If I had stuck to doing this project, I would have been able to develop them further than I did, and could have made much more progress.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Photoshop

I mainly worked on Photoshop, using textures and brushes. I had only started using it over Summer at 26, and I loved it! So, this became a focus for me so I could continue to practice. I have a lot of brushes that I wanted to use so doing this gave me the opportunity to experiment with them and form more of a illustrative style that I like.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Textures

When I've posted illustrations on Dribbble or Instagram, the ones that seem most popular are when I have used textures. I think this is because I love using them and when I do I spend quite a while trying to get it right which shows, and also because people like this style of illustration. It is more fun than doing clean work, in my opinion.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Commitment

I wasn't commited to this project. I really wanted to be, and I was at first, but having to think of something to draw everyday was not my strong point and I kind of forgot about having to do this everyday! It's a bit of a shame, but instead of doing this every day, I made sure to go to the gym everyday and prep all of my meals so I still spent time wisely each day being productive, and probably just worked more towards creating a work/life balance for myself.

Decision Making

This is absolute worst trait, not just in design but in everything that I do. I am incapable of making decisions and this is what made me stop doing this project to be honest. I just couldn't decide what to illustrate each day and it made me lose interest in doing it. If I had set myself a theme, created time restrictions or wrote down each day before I started perhaps I would have continued to do it for longer.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

• Create a theme to stick to, so that it is easier to think of what to illustrate and I would have stuck to it

Brief 14: End of Year Show - Evaluation

Evaluation

Although me and Beth did not win the pitch for the end of year show, I really enjoyed taking part in it. 
I haven't worked with Beth before, but I've always liked the work that she has produced throughout the past three years, and so it was a good opportunity to work with her. I feel that we both have similar interests and views, for example in terms of the environment, so it was good to work with someone like-minded.

Having the opportunity this year to collaborate is something I have really enjoyed, because it has been the last chance to work with people I have wanted to over the course of the degree and has made it more enjoyable.

1.  What skills have you developed through this project and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughout this project I think I developed my mock up skills on Photoshop, as we wanted to show how the designs would look in context on the pitch boards. We also worked quite quickly as we didn't have long to do the project, but as we managed our time well we were still able to submit quite early.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I think we both developed our Photoshop and Illustrator skills, as we wanted to distort some text so had to learn new tools on them both. We began to learn the Perspective Grid tool and a similar one on Photoshop to achieve this. 

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think can be quite quick at working, and working well under a short deadline so I wasn't stressed or worried about getting it completed.
Being competent with software and presentation boards meant that although it took us a while to think of a concept, we could put the visuals together pretty quickly.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

At the time of doing this project I was feeling a bit burnt out and wasn't coming up with lots of ideas like I usually do. I felt like I was letting Beth down a little bit as usually I am more on it. I think I just needed a little break! 

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

• Start earlier - to have more time to develop concepts
• Decision making - I am always so unsure of decisions, whether its regarding colour, concepts or even whether to do a project which means I do things later than usual

Brief 14: End of Year Show - Boards

As we had the visuals, I started to create the boards.

Mockups

We wanted to mock up the visuals on a poster tower and the folly outside the college to show how it would stand out on these. Beth took the photos using a DSLR so that they were high quality, and I mocked them up on Photoshop.

Here is the photo of the poster tower

I put the poster on, using the distort tool to wrap it around the corner, added a drop shadow and used a paper texture to make it look more realistic. It could be better, but it shows the idea.

There was a photo of the folly face on

So I applied the long poster to that, but it seems too fake/easy

So I used one of the photos at an angle

And applied it to that instead

On the layers panel it shows how the layers have a drop shadow and texture on top to make it look more realistic

 Boards

I started to put together the boards that were needed for the submission.

A title page for the identity to be shown for impact and to put our names on it

The first board has the concept written on it. For the image we used one of the folly so it wasn't just text

On the second boards I put the poster on flat as well as mocked up so they can see both

I put the flyer on one board, with different colour variations Beth had made as well. We thought it would be good to show a range as colour can be applied easily throughout the identity as it is versatile and it could be an option to have a variety of combinations printed.

On the e-invite page I put on Beth's digital design as well as my phyiscal one.

I also mocked up the wayfinding I had created to look more in context and fit with the colours Beth had chosen for the rest of the identity.

Here is the PDF version

We were now ready for submission! We decided to submit the boards digitally, as well as hand in an A2 version of the poster and flyer.

Brief 14: End of Year Show - Collaboration Meetup

Since we had both done visuals for the campaign and knew the direction that we wanted to go in, we decided to make decisions on the poster and then apply this to the e-invite and flyer.
We decided to go with Beth's visuals for the poster, as they really suited the campaign and was the strongest out of them all. The type works well with the concept and would stand out to people passing by poster towers, corridors etc.

Beth had done a lot of variations of the poster

And we felt these were the best ones

From this we started to create e-invites

I made these, using the brand colours and type that Beth had created

Then I had an idea to create a physical invite. One that could be sent to VIP guests as a mailshot. It would be a physical block that had the information on all four sides, as well as the logo on the top and bottom. 

This would be more memorable than something print based and emphasise the concept further.

I mocked it up on Illustrator.

We went with the designs Beth made for the e-invite, and will also show the physical invite that I made on the boards

We now have the visuals done so can start putting together the boards

Brief 14: End of Year Show - Wayfinding Development

I also thought about how the identity could be translated through the wayfinding. I thought it would be a good idea to have blocks stacked upon each other throughout the exhibition to act as a signpost to where the course exhibitions would be. This would

• Extend the identity through to navigation and physical objects
• Brings identity to life
• Stand out in the corridors
• Different from usual wayfinding methods

I went onto Illustrator to start mocking up the blocks.

I started to introduce surroundings so it would look more in context on the boards.

I also added a sign on the side of the door, which would be applied with vinyl. This just clarifies to the viewer the room they are about to enter.

Since courses will have yearbooks, business cards, hand outs etc, I thought a smaller display block could be made as well.