OUGD505 - Design Production 2: Studio Brief 2 - Colours

To think of colours for the brand, I started collecting images from the destinations so I could find a theme.
Initially I wanted to do blue and yellow, as it reflects the sea, sun and is bright and fun like a holiday should be. However, P&O, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean use these colours, so I wanted to do something different.

Here are the colour palettes I created based on Mediterranean countries.

Orange, purple and blue seem to be the most popular colours that were in the images.

I think my favourite combinations are Mykonos, Corfu, Rome, Venice, Valencia, Florence, Monte Carlo, Santorini, Ajaccio and Villafranche.

I need to work out which is best suited to my audience, and how I can incorporate more than two colours into the brand, as I haven't really done that before.

OUGD505 - Design Production 2: Studio Brief 2 - Cruise Story

Cruise Story
I thought of a story for my cruise liner so I could narrow it down more.

• It is a small company
• Fleet of three ships
• Only departs from Southampton Port
• Only calls to Mediterranean Ports
• Yearly Cruises
• Primarily English passengers, but could be more affluent Americans and people from other countries who will fly over
• Families, maturer couples and groups of friends. 30+
• For people who are new to cruising, want a relaxing holiday or experience a smaller ship

Name
I then started thinking of a name for the cruise liner, thinking of keywords and the tone of voice of the company.

• Trustworthy
• Fun/Exciting
• New to cruising
• From UK
• France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Turkey, Corsica, Cyprus, Portugal, Canary Islands, Greece
• British company
• Mediterranean
• Beach, city, landscape
• Sun
• Travel
• Discover
• Explore
• Nautical
• Entertaining
• Holiday
• Wake up somewhere new everyday
• Special
• Voyage - travel by sea
• Discover the med
• From comfort of UK
• Once in a lifetime

From this, I thought of existing names for cruises - Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Carribbean, Cunard Cruises, P&O, Norwegian Cruise Line. They all exude luxury holidays or focus on geographical locations.

So I thought of three possible names:

• Mediterranean Cruises
• Mediterranean Voyages
• Mediterranean Explorer

I decided that Mediterranean Voyages was the best name, because it is straight to the point and does what it says on the tin. Voyage means to travel by sea, so is appropriate, and it only travels to the Med, so people know exactly where it goes.

Name:

Mediterranean Voyages

Collateral
I thought of a list of things that I wanted to create for this:

• Website
• Card/Pass
• Loyalty drinks card
• Loyalty ice cream card
• Business card
• Printed stationary
• Bag
• Sick bag
• Mini brochure
• Whats going on
• Web banner
• Ship
• Card holder or lanyard
• Stamp

Now I am going to think of colours for the brand.

OUGD505 - Design Production 2: Studio Brief 2 - Choosing Which Brief

I had rewritten two briefs - one for shore excursion trips and one for cruise line branding.

Shore Excursion Trip

Initially I decided to go for shore excursion trips because I thought this would be a more manageable task, and I wouldn't be able to bite off more than I can chew.

However, when I started doing mindmaps trying to think of a name I wasn't really getting excited about it.

I also looked at some words on thesauraus.com to try and think of a name.

Cruise Ship Branding

So I had a word with Lorraine about it, and she reminded me that I didn't have to make the cruise ship branding a mammoth task and can just focus on the boat. 

I made a list of things I could do without going overboard and thinking about more branded things on the ship:

• Website
• App
• Boarding Pass
• Ice Cream/Drinks Loyalty Card
• Membership Card
• Card
• Merchandise
• Mini Brochures
• 'What's On' Flyer

I felt more comfortable about it now, and Lorraine suggested writing a boat story so I know more about who my audience is and what my brand is.

OUGD505 - Design Production 2: Studio Brief 2 Crit

Today we had a crit showing what we had done so far for Studio Brief 3.

Here are the mindmaps I had:

Here is the list of collateral:

• Website
• App
• Stationary
• Social Media
• Email Footer
• Brochure
• Lanyard
• Advert Banner
• Tickets
• Guide

I made an InDesign document stating my brief and visual examples of excursions:

I wrote a list of 3 questions:

1. Should I limit the trips to just Barcelona, or do it for European Cities? Rome, Paris etc..
2. If you were booking a trip in a foreign country what would you want to know?
3. Can you think of any more collateral to add?

To show, I had a mindmap of my idea, excursion trips and the collateral I am going to create.

Feedback 1

1. Barcelona - means you can get a more in depth knowledge/opinion that will show in your work and also narrow subject so its not too broad/vague. +1
2. Weather, what the area is like (if its full of crime, I would not want to go), things to do - more interesting, unique stuff that differentiates the place from anywhere in the world.
3. Nope.

Feedback 2

1. I believe focusing on one place will allow to go a lot further with it.
2. Price, what I can do, why I'd want to go, places of interest
3. Uniform, I can't think of anything else.. - wayfinding, travel modes - mockup cars, bus etc

Feedback 3

1. Focusing on a more specific area can help you hone in on the aesthetics and themes of the culture
2. Attractions, maybe less touristy areas to get a real feel of the place and its culture. Food and activities to try, weather, cost of things.
3. No

Feedback 4

1. Focusing on one location will allow you to carry out a precise research responsive and create depth for your work.
2. How am I going to get from the airport etc to my accommodation. Public transport and costs. Places to eat and arrive. How far places are from where I am staying. What the weather is usually like?
3.  

Feedback 5

1. Only 1 target audience/place. Would be more specific and engaging. Would also give more focus to the website and app.
2. Weather, places to see, museums, exhibitions, wildlife, shopping, bars and eateries. Transport, cost, surrounding areas.
3. No, seems like everything - perhaps mockup ticket office/advertising.

Feedback 6

1. Just focus on Barcelona, you will be able to develop outcomes with a strong visual reference to the featured place.
2. Weather, prices, areas of natural beauty, local secrets, places to visit, recommended places to eat, accommodation information. 
3. Nope.

Summary

Everyone said to just stick with Barcelona, as I can do it more thorough so I am going to stick with that.

It was interesting to see what people wanted to see, although some did mention about airports/accommodation which wouldn't be necessary because these people would be on cruises.

OUGD503 - Responisve: Project Report Document

Here is the project report.

OUGD503 - Responsive: Module Evaluation

I have really enjoyed this module, as I was felt I was ready to start doing live projects for clients. The process of completing projects for clients and interacting them was definitely a needed experience, and a valuable one which as prepared me for more work. It was also interesting to see what was expected of me from clients.

I enjoyed being able to choose my own briefs, so that I can do more web design projects and complete projects that people have previously asked me to do, but I didn't have the time.
As I am most interested in web design, I had the opportunity to design three websites, and build one of them myself. This is beneficial to me because I can include them in my portfolio to not only attract more clients who want web designs, but to show that I am a web designer.
I found it easy having briefs lined up, because I have been asked to do work prior to this, such as Air Up. But I couldn't do it at the time due to having too much work, so being able to incorporate it into this module was beneficial.
I also heard people would need some design work, such as Matthew Savage Photography and Companions Pet Shop, and I was able to offer my services because I knew that I could use it as work, and so doing me and the client a favour.
When it came to competition briefs, although it was fun choosing what I wanted, I think I made the wrong decision when it came to the individual brief and I didn't enjoy it at all. It didn't benefit me in any way because I don't like packaging, but the only silver lining with this project is that I won the competition.

I was surprised how quickly I was able to complete projects, and it gave me a confidence boost as I thought that they would take me a lot longer. The briefs in this module are definitely the quickest I have worked. I think than when you're doing work for a client you want to impress them and show how efficient you are by completing something quickly rather than wasting time on the project, so you are more motivated to get on with it. I have found that this also benefits me, because if they want changes doing then I feel like I have enough time to go back to it, and when I don't charge clients I'm not bothered because it hasn't taken up a lot of my time. With saying that, since doing these projects for this module, I will never do work for a client for free again.
It also made me feel good when clients were surprised at how quickly I worked, notably for Matthew Savage Photography, P.A. Kelsall and Keith Baldock Artist. These were all the website briefs that I did, and I think this could be for two reasons. People expect websites to take a lot longer to design because they are quite big and I finished each design in a day, but also because I really enjoyed them I was really motivated to start and complete the project to show the client what I could do.
I worked a lot better on the fast-paced briefs, but when it came to the individual competition brief I felt like I dragged it out a while. I think this is because I started it in the November, and the deadline wasn't until March. This made me think that I had a long time to do it, and I kept putting it off because I wasn't enjoying it.

I've definitely learnt and improved on skills throughout this module and been able to try skills that I wanted to learn. I've never really been great at presenting or proposing work once it has been finished, so I have improved on my mockup, boards and photography skills. This has been really important throughout the module because I want to look professional when presenting work to clients.
For the competition briefs I had to produce boards, and I wanted to include photographs so I had to make time to do that. I was apprehensive about using the photography studio because I had limited experience in there and I wanted to get them perfect as this is the only thing the judges would see of our products. As I took most of the photos for the collaborative by myself, I felt a bit of pressure at first. But I soon got into the swing of it and was comfortable putting the equipment away. The outcome was good, and I would be confident in doing it again.
For several of the briefs I produced mockups to show the client so they can see their work. I did this for Matthew Savage Photography and Air Up so they could see how their work would look as opposed just an image of the design. I definitely think it is a good idea producing mockups because not only does it look more professional, but it makes me feel more confident about the work. Although I can picture what it will look like when printed or used, that doesn't necessarily mean the client does.
Through using Illustrator throughout the whole module on every project, I have improved using that. I have picked up little shortcuts and learnt about new tools that I hadn't used before. These included how to use grain textures, the merge tool on the pathfinder and using brushes.
When I built the website for Keith Baldock Artist I also improved my coding skills. This was the first time that I used Lightbox, which helped me create an image gallery for his portfolio. This was also the first time I took a website live, so that was a new process that I had wanted to learn for a while, and was valuable to me.

I loved the collaborative brief, it is one of the favourite projects that I have done this year. I also loved working with Sarah again, which we did last year. We have improved a lot since then, and knew that we wanted to collaborate this year as we now live together and already work together all the time. We had already been helping each other improve skills since the beginning of the year, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to further that.
However, when Fred warned that people who are best friends and live together shouldn't work together we did attempt to find another partner. Alas, this was unsuccessful and we decided to pair up. We didn't think we would fall out because we are really honest and straight with each other anyway.
We chose the YCN brief, BEAR. We thought of a few ideas for it when we first read it, so we knew we would be able to get started on it straight away. Sarah loves illustration and wanted to do some more for her portfolio while I wanted to improve on my illustration skills, so it was a good choice.
Although most people split their work down the middle we very much worked together on everything. We shared files so we could work on and alter which each other had done. This may have slowed us down more and wasn't as efficient, but we got a result we were both really happy with, and the design kept improving throughout the process. We got the work done in the end, and although stressful, I wouldn't change the way we worked. I think it was actually beneficial that we lived together, because we could always work on it and ask for feedback. I particularly asked for feedback a lot because I wasn't very confident with my illustration skills, and I wanted to work to Sarah's standard and style, so she knew what to suggest.
I did feel like we didn't have a lot of time to produce it, and we did want to do more initially. I think I would have enjoyed the process of it more if I wasn't as stressed to get it finished, but it was rewarding when everything was finished and we had the photographs.
I do like working in a group, but I always have done so it was good to do another collaborative brief. I look forward to seeing the results of YCN in June!

I definitely have learnt how to interact with clients more, and this has been one of the most enjoyable parts of the module. It's so exciting to produce work for someone and send it to them knowing that they could use it and it will be seen by lots of other people. Although, I do get quite nervous when I send it incase they don't like it. I have been fortunate throughout this module that my clients have all like the work that I've produced. Some have asked me to make changes but I have been happy to do that because its ultimately their work, and I want to make them happy. No one has asked me to do changes that I thought were unjustified. It has also been satisfying to work with real life clients as this is something that I hadn't done before. I never felt under pressure, and I think this is partly because I worked quickly on each project so that I never became too attached to a design and I knew that I could just change it if they didn't like it. The only project that I would have felt rejected for if the client didn't like it was the Matthew Savage Photography website. This was because I thoroughly enjoyed the project and had been really excited about starting it. I made sure the design was absolutely appropriate to the client and had thought about everything from optimising the photos to user navigation and I was really confident that I had done the best that I could. I was really nervous when I showed it to him, but his reaction was really positive so that was a big relief. He had a couple minor changes he wanted to make regarding the type, but that was fine. That gave me a big confidence boost.
The only client that I had who was a bit frustrating was for Companions Pet Shop. This was because the client asked me several times if I had started working on the logo yet, even though I had said I was busy with other work first, so I made time for it that week. I produced the logo with all the clients requirements and a custom font that I created. I then sent two boards to the client with three logos on for them to choose, and the concept underneath them. I kept asking the client to look at them, and they did - four days later. This was inconvenient for me because I had allocated time for any changes before that due to a tight schedule I was working to. The client said that they were happy with the design - but they had been thinking about moving their business to gain more upmarket customers and sell higher quality products. This has changed the audience and would have influenced my design decisions had they communicated this to me. So for now, a logo isn't needed until they sort out what they are doing with their business.

Regarding the individual competition brief that we had to pick, this was the only project throughout the whole module that I haven't liked. I don't like packaging, yet I chose a packaging brief. I did this because I felt like I should give it another chance to see whether I like it, and improve my crafting skills as you had to produce the packaging for submission. Throughout the project I realised that I had little knowledge on what materials were suitable for food packaging, and I didn't have the resources to make the packaging. This frustrated me throughout as I couldn't think of an innovative solution to reinvent bacon packaging and I didn't think I could produce a good mockup. I wished I had chosen a different brief at the beginning which would have been more beneficial to me, but I stuck with it. I did a lot of research and thought of a lot of ideas, but I still wasn't happy with my final resolution. I felt like I spent more time on it than I should have because I was trying to think of the perfect answer. I had spent so much time researching the most suitable materials and thinking of a solution, but in the end I produced an idea the best I could, which was a reasonable solution, just nothing amazing. It answered the brief, but I just wasn't happy with the outcome.
When I sent it off for submission, I actually won the competition. However, I don't feel any better about the project because I didn't enjoy it, and I don't think that it benefitted me in any way. I think this shows that I am a bit of a perfectionist and spend too long on a brief trying to get it right, and setting myself high standards. I don't think this is usually a problem, but I need to learn to know when to just move on and design with the ideas I have so that I don't run out of time and cause myself stress with it.

Overall, I have enjoyed this module and I feel a lot more prepared to have clients in the future. I wish I had time to have completed more projects because there was a few more websites that I could have designed. But I knew that if I took anymore on I would have less time for my other modules and my work/life balance would suffer. I am happy that I have managed to do some logo designs as I hadn't really done any before, and expand on my web design portfolio. It has been a really beneficial module to me and it has definitely prepared me for working at my web design placement at twentysix digital and interacting with new clients.

OUGD503 - Responsive: BEAR Boards

Here are the YCN submission boards for BEAR:

OUGD505 - Design Production 2: Studio Brief 3 - Final Poster

Here is the final poster design.

OUGD505 - Design Production 2: Studio Brief 3 - Designing

I went onto Illustrator with the sketches that I had and started designing.

Cactus
I began with the cactus, and started drawing the shape that I had done.

Then I started to add some lines to it as cactus's have a lined pattern going down them. I used the width tool to make them thick and thin to add a bit more interest.

I then fit it into the two square space it needed to fill. I had to stretch it out a bit. I also chose a second colour, but I might change this.

Here I changed the colour and made it longer.

Signage

For the next image I created a signpost stating directions for Mexico and the USA as this is the border in the film.

Gun

Guns and violence are a big part of the film so I wanted to incorporate this. I made a basic shape of a gun.

Then I added a trigger.

I tried adding a couple more points of interest that I saw on photographs of guns, but it didn't look very clean.

I added some pattern on the gun because on photos I noticed that real guns have a plastic lined pattern in this area.

I added a little rectangle at the top of the gun which I liked.

I took the lines away as I didn't feel they helped contribute to the design.

Typography

There are two rows left in the grid after the images have been filled up where typography would go. I thought about having the tagline here.

I thought about having it on two lines so there is a bit more white space around it.

Baby

A baby is a big part of the plot throughout the movie because one gets stolen from one of the immigrants and sold on the black market. 

This is the only illustration so far that I don't really like.

Here is how it is looking so far with the grid.

Glasses

I then started doing the aviator glasses. These are an iconic part of the film and Jack Nicholson is always wearing them.

I made a circle shape.

And I pulled the right anchor point out to create the aviator shape.

I then added to more elements to the glasses.

I wanted to make the bridge and bar wonky to match the stylised style I was working to.

I added the hinge and earpiece of the glasses to them.

This is how it looked with the other illustrations.

These were okay, but I still wasn't happy with them.

I didn't feel that these were stylised enough though, so I went back to change some things.

I moved the earpiece which I think looks better, less cluttered.

I tried it with new earpieces but I didn't like them.

Here is is with the other illustrations, which I think looks better.

Wire Border

These are a big part of the film regarding the border and the area where immigrants are kept at the patrol office.

I made a zig zag line but changed the points to smooth to get the same shape.

I created this pattern and I used the width tool to make them all a bit different.

I altered this on some areas so that every overlapping wire had a gap.

Badge

Border patrol officers were a badge as part of their uniform, so I decided to use that symbol. I wanted it to be stylised with more abstract features to suit the rest of the style.

I tried a few different shapes at first.

Too top heavy.

Too straiht in the middle, not enough contrast between thick and thin.

Too angular in the middle.

Not enough prominence were the curve and bottom half meet.

Too thin.

Juuust right.

I tilted it on its side, and this is the final square.

It's starting to take shape more now, and I've placed yellow boxes were the BBQ and lorry will go, and left white spaces for the car, money and title square. I want each square not to touch another colour that is the same, apart from the middle title.

Lorry

I then started doing the lorry. There are two different lorries it could be, the one near the end of the film where all the immigrants are taken in to the USA, and the smaller truck that carries the immigrants to the patrol office.

As it is over three squares, I wanted the front of the lorry to be in one, and the back in two.

I did the basic shape of the lorry using mis-shaped rectangles.

I had a look to see how it fit down the side.

I wanted to add some more detail to it.

I added a door handle, and a window with bars on it, which features in the film.

I also added a light for the front of the vehicle.

I made this more prominent.

As it is also on chases to get the immigrants I decided to add some rectangles to portray motion next to the wheels.

I then decided to add a mirror, as this is quite a prominent feature on the cars.

Money

Money is a big theme in the movie, with his wife buying expensive things, and Charlie becomes corrupt in order to earn more money.

I started by drawing a note, and as it is American I made a dollar sign. Rather than use an existing font I decided to just draw my own so it is more of an image.

I changed the colour of the slash to make it more prominent.

I'll have two notes in the window - it is the right amount for how big it will be.

I started playing around with the widths.

This is how it will look in comparison to the rest of the poster. I want the dollar signs to stand out more.

I drew a couple more dollars.

I made the slash again, but to weave in and out of the dollar.

I prefer this one, as it is a a lot wider so stands out more.

Here is the final box.

Car

Charlie and his wife have a car, one of the materialistic things they own. This relates to affluent lifestyle they have, but with an 80s feel.

I just copied one of my drawings and was happy with the shape.

I looked at it within the poster, and I think it goes well at an angle.

I made the back window lower so it was a bit more mismatched.

I didn't like the wheels outside of the car, so I created two white wheels to act as the arch. I changed the shape a bit so it wasn't completely circular.

I did this for both wheels and I think it looks better now.

I also added an exhaust pipe at the back.

BBQ

I started making a shape for the BBQ based on my sketches.

I added a drop shadow in the blue to get a feeling of more 3D.

I made this bigger, and then began drawing the metal bars that go across.

I drew some more, and I thought it needed something else to look more like a BBQ.

I had a look at in the whole poster and I thought it was working.

I decided to add two skewers of BBQ food so you can easily tell what it is.

I made the skewers bigger because it is only going to be small once printed.

I had a look at this revised design in the full poster and I think that works better.

I kept playing with the skewers.

This is the final design.

 

The Border

I wanted to make the title in the style of 80s American signage and I just looked at what I had drawn.

I added a little rectangle at the top for 'The' and some stands for the sign. I actually quite like them in front.

But I put them behind the sign. I had used the Width tool to alter them.

This is what it looks like in the whole poster, but I think there is too much white.

I changed it to the blue background and I think this looks a lot more balanced, and stands out more.

 I love this font, Horsehoes and Lemonade, but I don't actually have the license so I need to find/make one similar.

All the illustrations are finished, and I just need to add/alter type now. I am very happy with the outcome so far.

Here are my layers, I have been making sure that I am organised with them so I can easily find everything.

I started adding the text underneath. I wanted to include the tagline, and I tried what it looked like on two lines first, quite small.

I felt like it needed to be bigger than that, so I put it on one line and within three columns.

I like this a lot better.

I then tried adding the cast in the last row, but it looks a bit chaotic at the minute.

I made the bottom row blue to create a bit of contrast and make it appear fuller. There was too much white space before.

I made the tagline bigger which I think works better as the blue rectangle at the bottom was drowning it out a bit.

I added some more of the cast to fill up more space, and made them smaller as they were less significant.

I then made the tagline yellow, so that all of the colours in the poster have been featured in the bottom bit.

I also centralised the text at the bottom more. I definitely think the poster is getting there now. Now I need to add the textures!

I changed the font to Cartoonsix which has a free license.

And for the title I decided to just make my own as I couldn't find one to fit my style. I just used the pen tool and width tool to create this really quickly.

Here are the font changes in the poster.

I made a couple of changes to the illustration, changing the babies eyes and adding a wheel to the cockpit of the lorry.

I then went into Photoshop and started to add textures using brushes, which is the first time I've done this.

I downloaded a pack of brushes for more choice.

I tried it subtly. 

And boldly.

I then thought about adding another element to the title saying the director.

Here is the full poster with no texture.

Here is the final poster with textures. I found some middle ground with the amount of texture to add.