OUGD503 - Responsive: Air Up Boards

Here are my final boards for Air Up.

OUGD503 - Responsive: Uber Crit

This week we had an Uber crit on all the responsive brief's we have done so far.
I created boards for the occasion:

I only included a final image for each project, with a small explanation of the brief and my solution so people got the gist of it. I didn't include any developmental work as I just wanted impact boards, but I could have done better mock ups.

Here is my individual feedback:

Presentation

Strengths

• Works as a set
• Final products are impactful on every page
• Overall consistency and aesthetic style
• Really like how the images and type are balanced on the design boards

Suggestions

• Improve quality of photographs - bacon packaging
• The brief could be placed on boards to add clarity
• Companions - what was brief?
• Shorten the headers
• Make the text on the boards smaller
• Could use some more exciting structures on the boards

Project Management

Strengths

• Well managed with a wide variety of print and web based briefs. Ideas and concepts showcased well on all design boards.
• 'Coming Soon' shows project management and time keeping skills
• Final outcomes visible on your boards. Typeface created for some briefs which shows design skill and development

Suggestions

• More than one board for each brief showing products, range and distribution, as well as giving more in depth and information on each briefs board
• Unable to see progression on blog

Has Brief Been Answered?

Strengths

• All briefs feature a different concept, resolution and design styles
• What and Why have been answered continuously
• Companion - simple iconic symbols/images which represent animals
• You've answered your briefs constructively, effectively and professionally
• Danepak - very professional, I would purchase. Colours remind me of bacon. The pigs make a nice touch too

Suggestions

• Companions - show how the logo will look on the shops along with branded merch

Additional Comments

• Good variety of final outcomes, print, digital, web - shows strong and varied skill set
• Really love the concept for the Dialogue brief
• Crafting of packaging is well finished
• Digital execution is really good
• Mock up of pet shop logo could be added for further depth 

Feedback

I was really happy with the feedback - all the suggestions made were valid, and after looking at other peoples boards along with feedback I know I definitely need to start making mock ups when I produce designs. It looks more professional, and gives people context. I think it would be better to show product, range and distribution too. I think this session was really constructive for my individual feedback, and I know what to improve next time. But I also appreciated the positive feedback on consistency of boards, variety of briefs and my concept for Dialogue.

When I was making the boards for this session, the one I didn't change was Companions - this was an existing one that I gave to the client, and this is the only board which people have mentioned doesn't mention the brief. I'm happy that they picked this up, and it is the only one they felt didn't explain everything.

Collaborative Feedback

I was a bit apprehensive about this, because we only had one board, and hadn't included all the design, and the mock ups we had were of poor quality. I didn't really think to go further with these beforehand - and the next day they were all completely finished so would have been nice to get feedback on all of them. 

Anyway, this was the feedback we got which was all positive:

• Illustrations are really appropriate and well executed
• Illustrations are strong
• Concept is great - really interactive for kids + informative too
• A few print issues are clear
• The illustrations are fantastic!
• Really aesthetically appropriate and well executed
• I really like the Treetops Box, very warm, strong colours
• Illustrations suit target audience
• Seems that you've got all the elements you need to cut out
• Very thoughtout
• Lots of facts for children
• Incredibly child appropriate, I hope this goes down a storm with you
• Interactive and wonderfully engaging
• Gimme
• Check typesetting
• The illustrations are fantastic!
• Really strong powerful images, very fun, very playful

The only suggestions made we already realised before the crit - about type.
So overall we were obviously very happy about the feedback - I am just kicking myself in the teeth for not having more physical things to show really. I'm really glad people think it is appropriate for the brief, and we have worked very hard to make sure it answers the brief as much as we can, so it has paid off to get this feedback. 

OUGD503 - Responsive: Air Up - Clients Reaction

I presented three mockups to client to see which one he preferred. I have been updating him on my progress throughout the designs to see his opinions on colours etc and let him know I was working on it.

His favourite was the second album artwork, although he also liked the white one. He was really happy with the outcome and excited to finish his album so he can use it.

Because he is so happy with the outcome, he has asked me to produce some more artwork for his next ep which he has started working on so I said that I would.

I really enjoyed this project because I got full creative control and the client was so positive and grateful throughout the whole thing. It is satisfying that he thinks so highly of it, because I'm not 100% happy with it myself. 

OUGD503 - Responsive: Air Up & Withers Designing

I started sketching some ideas for the logo, which could be used both on the website banner and the EP cover:


Logo
Then I went onto Illustrator and started designing. I chose to do this style of typeface, because 'Air' reminds me of thin and uplifting, so I thought the thin aspect of the type works really well with this, and the thicker aspect suits the more serious tone of the music. 

This A is the first letter I did, and I added a curved shape onto it when connecting the thin stroke to the thicker stroke to make it more friendly.

I had a bit of trouble designing the ampersand in the same style as the letters

I made sure the two circles appear like that meet up and are the same height as each other to look more natural. I tried different serifs at the end to see what looks more natural. I think the third one looks the best as the curve seems more natural.

I also tried this style of letter on the R which I really like, but doesn't suit this typeface.

Here is the typeface so far:

I tried two different versions of the T, and I prefer the first one because the second seems too top heavy.

I also tried different versions of the H, and I think the third one seems too thick, the second one seems too lopsided and the first one matches the A. 

I also tried different types of S's which is also a hard letter to do.

I started working on the second part of the logo, and the W looked too big at first with the full letter, so I decided to take off the last stroke, so again it matches the A and the H. I think the only letter that looks out of place now is the S. 

I then made the final logos in all their positions and made sure the kerning was right.

Album Cover

For the album cover, the client said I had full creative control as he had no vision for it and liked what I had done with the logo.

The first cover I did was one that the client had said he would like - the logo in the middle of a white background.

I made the logo smaller, central and higher up than the previous attempt to make it look more attractive visually. I also added a line above the album name and made it left aligned. This is what the client wanted, but now I am going to try some different examples to see if he prefers any of them.

I then tried repeating the logo and was going to have each one in a different colour but I think the logo is too harsh and it's quite hard to look at.

I then tried another idea, with overlapping letters but I discarded it because it's not very readable.

I then started another idea I had sketched where I wanted trees to have a reflection, and have sky above them to represent the Air, and for the top of the trees to be pointing Up. I also looked at the definition of level, and one of them was a horizontal line, so I wanted the trees next to each other horizontally to represent this.

I started by creating a tree shape, and made it quite geometric to fit in with the contemporary and digital aspect of the album. I also adde a film grain to it which I quite liked as it added a bit of texture. I started drawing branches on the tree using the Pen Tool and then adjusting the shape of it by using the Width tool.

I only added the branches on a few of the trees because I think it would be too overpowering with them on all of them.

I added the logo and title in the top left corner, and used Helvetica Light as the font.

I then copied and reflected the trees underneath to make a reflection but I think it looks too busy with all the trees starting at different heights.

I added a background to imitate the sky, but I added a gradient so that it looked softer but I think it looks to plain going to white.

I levelled up all the trees so that they  looked neater, and changed the colour of the reflected trees to shades of blue for a bit of contrast which I think looks better.

I got rid of the gradient which I think looks better now as it's cleaner.

I also tried it without the reflection to see what that looked like, and I like that as well.

I changed the shade of the blues to make them more subdued which I think works better.

I then started trying a different idea which is completely typography based. I created the word Reflections with an elongated base and changed the opacity so that they overlap with each other. This means I can put white text over the top and it will stand out. I put the rest of the title in Helvetica Bold underneath, but I think it looks quite plain so I'm going to make it similar to Reflections. I added the logo in the bottom right corner which I think looks a bit out of place.

I changed the rest of the title to be similar to Reflections and I think this looks a lot better. I also made the logo central which I think works well. I also started changing the colours to see what looked best. I do like blue and green together, and think it lets the white letters stand out.

I also tried a bright red which looked pink and I think it stood out a lot but perhaps too much?

I also tried a burnt orange which I think works but reminds me of rust and builders, not quite the tone of voice I'm going for.

I also tried a red and I really like this combination as it lets the white stand out, but isn't too overpowering and the colours work well together.

After some feedback, a peer said that the N needs to be more obvious, so I changed it to have the gap in it again.

I tried changing the position of the letters to make them more readable.

I moved the I in front of the blue O so that it stood out more and made it more readable.

I moved 'On A Local Level' higher up so that it fit in more with the title and left a bigger gap between the title and the logo.

I made the letters more spread out to make it easier to read.

I tried changing the position of them so that it was easier to read.

I then added a background colour to the cover, and also changed the colour scheme to blue and red.

 I then reversed the colours but I think I prefer the previous one.

I then started trying some different colours. 

I think these are quite vibrant together and stand out a lot which I like.

I quite like these complimentary colours together because they are quite light due to the opacity change. I think they look quite old which is the kind of music the client likes.

I think this looks too christmassy and washed out.

I quite like the mint green here, but I think the colours are too similar and merge into each other.

I then tried some more colour combinations: