End of Module Self evaluation.

What skills have you developed throughout this module and how effectively have you applied them?


The main skills I have developed and started to apply is definitely type and layout from Graeme's type module, this gave me the understanding and the foundations of typedesign to start exploring it for myself, this project gave me a good opportunity to capitalise on what I have learn so far. Another skill is my photography skills, I have always been good with a camera and I saw this project as an opportunity to explore that, which allowed me to not only work with type and image but to have a lot of freedom on what image I am using and what kind of design would fit with it. My web design skills have also developed as I had to do my first real attempt at doing a mock up this gave me an idea of what dimensions web has and how to work with it. Photoshop and Indesign skills are the two which benefited the most, I now comfortably know my way round photoshop and I now automatically go to layout all my work in indesign. Communication with other designer, getting into contact with other designers to use their work not only helped me in my own practice but helped build connections within the industry. Designing with the idea to apply across a range is definitely a skill which I have developed as throughout this project everything I did I tried to keep in mind that it needs to be functional across various platforms and formats.


For YCN I developed my packaging skills, something I have not been that interested in but yet I have learnt how to apply design across a three dimensional format much better. It has also opened my eyes to ridiculously strick rules when it comes to clients proposing briefs, this in future will inform me much better if I am willing to attempt a brief or not depending on the restrictions. It has also developed my collaborative skills, I have learnt that I now much prefer designing on my own but the concept development with 2 heads is definitely better than 1. 


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


I have developed my planning stage a lot more as this project before starting I planned out my content well which lead me to start my project far better as I was incredibly clear to what Image and type I needed which delegated what software I had to use. I also developed my Stock and colour schemes knowledge and planning as these were key to keeping everything within a range.


Drawing, got much better at drawing up packaging models when working on a packaging brief I find drawing is by far the only and the best start for a project It helps rationalise shapes in my head and allow me to design better to apply design on a 3 dimensional scale.


What strengths can you identify in your work and how will you capitalize on these?


Photography, I forgot that I am pretty much a self taught photographer over year and years of curiosity and practice, not sure why I haven't  capitalised on this until now but this is something I am going to keep working on in future projects as I feel this comfortably sets me apart from my peer group. Using my own photographs also means endless options when it comes to compositions and post production. Typography, my type and layout has significantly improved this project and I feel that my style of layout's clarity is something I want to keep working on to see where it will take me. Indesign and photoshop skills have been a strength in this project as well, it has given me much more confidence and I will keep capitalising on these skills.


I have become much more confident in my idea and drawing process' of my design, I use to believe I am purely a process driven designer which is still true to an extent but I now love concept development, If I get a good idea I work twice as hard to make it a reality.


Being able to dumb down my over complicated idea's, this has been a major problem for me in the past making things which are far too complicated, but taking a step back rethinking things has started to sink in well.   


Working with interesting materials like high density foam, this gave my project a somewhat different and unique feeling which allows it to stand out against the market. Interesting materials are also much more fun to work with then your standard formats and choices. 


What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you adress these in the future?


Colour schemes, it might not necessarily be a weakness but I feel as my colour scheme was a little bit all over the shop, when looking at my design I can clearly see that I am incredibly structural in my work but in reality my notes and initial designs are a organised mess, it's been hard for me to go from these two extremes and colour schemes have obviously been slightly neglected especially as I constantly want to do something new instead of sticking to a range. This feeling of always wanting to move on to the next project can probably be seen within my project a little bit, I touch on various area's of ranges (stationary, promotion, web) instead of just really capitalising in one area. 


Not being able to fold packaging very well, I have realised this in the first module of the year and now I have confirmed it. I cant fold a complicated packaging model... Its a 1 in 3 if its going to be accurate or not even if I have measured every dimension down to the millimeter, my hands and brain just do not work together on packaging. 


Identify 5 things you would do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from them?

1. Buy another A4 sketchbook, this has been the first project where I haven't worked side by side with a personal sketchbook. I have had notebooks and layout pads but just does not feel as personal without a sketchbook. 
2. Start blogging earlier, this project has not been bad for blogging at all. But can still be improved.
3. Blog more systematically and clear, I am incredibly disorganised in my notes ever since I can remember and I need to try and make it more clear on my blog.
4. Ask tutors for feedback, found that this project as much as I like student crits getting feedback from a professional is more beneficial. Getting direct feedback would be far more beneficial...
5. Be more open to web, I have been avoiding web a lot which is unlike me mainly due to my interest in type/layout and print but this is a gap I need to close this summer. 

Attendance: 5

Punctuality: 3.5

Motivation: 5

Commitment: 5

Quality of work produced: 4 

Quantity of work produced: 4

Contribution to group: N/A

PDF ISSUU YCN

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PDF ISSUU final major project

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Cable online Tshirt shop

Some potential t-shirts for a Cable online shop, If you love your Cable experience enough you can buy a Tshirt. Makes sense.

Web Pages

The Website.

For a start you will probably notice that the colour is slightly different to that of the posters colour scheme this is because using RGB cyan popped much better on the black then the other dull colours, especially for screen as clarity is incredibly important for web. 

The layout matches that of my poster, a bit modernist with my own twist on it. Clarity is everything. One problem I did find is that because my website definitely does not look like a traditional website it brings down the user friendliness of it but this is something I am willing to experiment with while at university. Another problem I could not seem to get round is the fact that It looks very flat, I put it into photoshop and added drop shadows and so on but this just kind of ruined the design style I was going for so I abandoned it. The colour scheme I had chosen definitely limited me a lot as using tones on a black background did not come out well or clear. One other problem I had was balancing the navigation bar with the logo, they just did not fit very well at all no matter how hard I tried...

Overall feelings towards the website is that I like it, it stands out from its competitors, its different, clear and readable.

Final Business Card / Letterhead / Lanyard

Stationary Items for Club

Well the stationary items for the club are mainly based on the White and Blue poster, same colour schemes. 

Letterhead

The letterhead is incredibly simple and fits into the range rather well, I just slapped big left margin on it to put any information about the club, page number and so on, any secondary information. I then put the text box to about 8 -10 words a line to bring the readability up, justified it to fit the structural layout of the page and pushed it to the right of the page to give the eye some rest against the page. 

Overall, I experimented with a few stocks but I had to resort to white stock so it would fit my range better. Personally I preferred putting it on slightly grey/brown stock which conotes the clubs atmosphere a bit better and gives it a feeling of grunge. White paper works better for readability to be fair...

Lanyards

These lanyards can be made for ALL the staff (bar staff/DJ/Security/Photographer...) The design is focused on usability, often in a busy club you don't know who's who, the lanyard helps distinguis but being able to either scan the Code and clearly stating your job role. Stock is nice thick matt so the lanyard does not tear. 

Ticket

Design was based on usability over the ascetics, on the back there is a bar code and on the rip off side of the ticket there is a QR code for when you get to the venue and you need to validate your ticket, event times, acts, dates ect. Any information you might need to know. There is also club contact details on the back incase you have a query and want to contact cable.

Business Cards

For these I decided against just using a plain design and put one of Sarah's photos on the top to make it stand out, i feel as the image also conotes the grunge factor of the club while the gradient and the colour scheme makes it stand out in a crowd of business cards... Same colour scheme as the website. On the back I put details down for one of the managing directors of cable with all the relevant information laid out in a clear, clean, slightly commercial way to fit the industry.   

Final Flyer

Flyers

The flyers I decided not to keep the same as my posters, as a lot of a clubs promotional material is incredibly variable. I used some photo's from a freelance london photographer who has a unique prospective on clubs, she is incredibly good at capturing the atmosphere of a club, these images conote the atmosphere of the rebrand I was doing. 

If i had more time and money, I would produce a range of these flyers sticking to the colour scheme of my posters, different images for the front and relevant information on the back.

The overall design, The front is clear and I really like the use of photography, its also pretty big within the market and industry I am designing for so its all relevant. On the back I did not put big cable logo's shouting the name as the front already said that so I put in a hierarchy system which focuses on the dates and line ups of that specific weekend, then at the bottom it gives any additional information you might need about the club. This design is clear and straight to the point, its small it can fit in your pocket and be used as a reference for events for that weekend. 

The audience who are coming to this club turn up because of the music and the DJ's they don't pay £15 for a ticket to just "go on the pull" therefore I based my design around that. Examples for designing commercial posters based on sex would probably be clubs in leeds like Halo, Evo and Oceania.

Photography by Sarah Ginn.

Flyer Development

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Business Card, letterhead, Lanyard development

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Website Development

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Final Posters

1.

2.

3.

Poster 

Satin Stock on a A3 scale or trimmed A3.

1 & 2 

These two posters were sort of my starting point when it came to formats and layout, I wanted to test out a landscape design as well as a portrait which would be used more widely due to the nature of where these posters get displayed. I also wanted to get a contrast in colour. 

1

This was actually my second poster, I find it much easier designing to a landscape format but I can easily translate my design to a portrait formart. The Smoke was photographed against a black background which made editing very very easy. By inverting the image it gave me a white stock and a vibrant smoke to edit with colour. 

The image in the poster conotes a fluid/free design which to an extent discribes visually the type of music put on at Cable, its also bloody eye catching. Within the industry a lot of the imagery used is irrelevant but eye catching to draw the audience in to the clock the text and headings. 

Yet again I have put a hierarchy system in place which will let you look at the image first, Club name and date (month/year) second then if your still interested specific dates and line ups then lastly the admissions information. 

Reason behind trimming this A3 down was that I could fit it on narrow walls/lamp post type place/inside the club where its pushed for space. It also fit really well after trimming the poster.

2

I did a landscape to keep in my web and screen application, because its always handy to have a format which compliments a computer screen or billboard type format. One thing I really like about this design is that after editing the image so it wouldn't hit the boarders of my poster I was able to balance it on the Grid to give an idea of spacial and dimensional awareness (it doesn't look like its just sitting flat on the page), this is one plus point of using modular grids. 

3

This was my 3rd and final poster like I've stated previously on my blog, all the rules for my layout were pretty clear at this point and it was a case of apply it and balancing up the negative space around my content. This kind of shows my system works for the design I set out.

Style

The current market dictates the design and style of posters within this industry, but after looking at competitors like ministry of sound and fabric, big names who have simular clubs just more successful I took from their designs a bit of inspiration that you dont have to collage a overwhelming commercial poster to get people interested because your audience already are they just need to be informed better.

I kind of designed in a modernist style with a strong sans serif but at the same time I added my own style of photography, colour and layout to it a bit making it very not modernist, but the inspiration from that was clarity, modern, sans serif and conveying a message Clearly. Design which gets me excited basically. I tried to put as little in as possible which was completely irrelevant and focused on eye catching imagery, type and structure, graphic elements to help readability.  

Flyer

Here I extended the bleeds as this was a tiny A6 flyer, giving it a little bit more space on its margins allowed the content to sit better and not feel too crowded to the borders of the page. Basic 4 column structure. The layout for this flyer is incredibly simple, its just basically a Hierarchy ladder. Most relevant information at the top going down to the least important at the bottom which would really only be read if you've decided you want to go to the event. 

Type & Grid on June Poster

This poster has the same amount of columns as the last, working on a 8 column grid. I did not put in rows on this grid because they design was dictated by the image far more then the last one, I had less negative space to work with so in some way it made my job easier. In my opinion this poster is one of my better balanced posters, the content seemed to just slot in really nicely here. I already had all my standard measurements from my previous poster (point size, leading, gutter width, margins and so on) so really it was just a case of balancing the white space against my content in an engaging clear way. 

Type & Grids for May A3 Landscape poster

This is my standard Grid system for A3 scale, 8 Collumns and 8 rows to produce a modular Grid. I usually use multiples of 4 for my rows depending on the A size but, this seems to break up the page in about the size I like working to. Bleeds are about 12.7 aat the top still but on the sides I gave it a little bit more space to help balance my content. 

Designing to this Grid is incredibly helpful, as long as I keep my work lined up with my modules or even by half modules it guarantees that my work gets translated into a clean and clear layout. The rows really help to balance the content and it actually gives me a form of spacial awareness when designing against a plain background. 

Crit Feedback

Typefaces

Univers is my body and display text, its clear, modern, sans serif, looks like helvetica (but much less used...), it also reads well in body text as well as headings. This typeface sits really really well on a grid, everything lines up and balances out the white space like it should really so working with a lot of body text on a modular grid, this is a good typeface to use. More importantly most typefaces used within the market im designing for are kind of helvetica based sans serif's so this fits in well.  

New alphabet, along with having something incredibly legible I found it fit to have something incredibly ineligible. This typeface is purely being used for display purposes for the logo, I had to edit it a fair bit to get it to be more legible but overall as far as aesthetics go I love this typeface. This typeface is a Wim Crouwel typeface produced for new technologies (the cathoraytube if im correct mind my spelling). Crouwel stated that it should never be used in a legible way which makes a lot of sense so another reason why I reworked it. Another reason for using this is that this typeface emerged due to changing and advancing technologies and I tried to apply this theory to my project as Cable had some of biggest up coming names performing at their club and some ground breaking electronica music in the london underground scene. 

Final Crit Boards

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Stock Photography

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Sarah Ginn's photographs give a much more direct feeling towards the club and its atmosphere, they relate much more to the club.

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Reasoning behind my photography


The photographs I took all seem a bit different and abstract but within the industry and market of club flying and poster, the photography used is incredibly abstract, the whole idea behind it is to draw attention to the design, something to catch the eye. Something different.

The Idea behind the smoke and liquids was that they all produce an incredibly fluid feeling and their colours are very editable. The imagery do not directly conote the club but they do the music in most cases, it being fluid, different and vivid. 

Image Development 2 & posters

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Photography Set up

Little studio i set up. It does not look like much but it works. 

Equipment list:

Flash, Reflector, Matt black Card, Flash Radio transmitter, 2 Tripods.
A lot of incense/milk/water.

Lungs of steel.....

Image Development

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A reason I decided to not go with this gradient direction main because applying it to posters proved incredibly hard as the corners were really harsh against any colour scheme i put it on, it made it incredibly hard to let my design flow especially due to the nature of my structural type layout. A more free flowing edited image would allow my regimented grid system to compliment it more. This image style also did not really fit the industry that well, far more relevant for something like the cultural sector (refer to one of my context posts on the Origami posters).

I did however like the "Saturday" inside the liquid images, problem was this was what I would call good one off designs as the shape of the milk and the typeface really did not apply well to most words or phrases. 

Logo Development

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The final 3 logo's I picked from is on the bottom row of the last page. This development shows my digital design for my logo development. I decided to go with a flat simple logo as this allowed me to apply it to most formats, the logo is pretty much like a rectangle as well and fits really well across two - four columns on most grids.

2nd Crit Feedback

Boards

Existing Cable content.

Existing logo and website for cable london.

Project management and Ideas

Clarifying brief

Setting up for photography session

Initial drawings and ideas for direction

More setting up for photography

Some website drawings

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Sketchbook