This module in many ways has been the most challenging of my time so far on the course, working for competition briefs is my first real taste of professional work. Being set briefs by large clients like Penguin Books, MUBI and The Royal Opera House means an extended level of professionalism and quality outcomes are required. I have really tried to be enthusiastic within every part of the module and overall I feel I have created some great work as a part of this.
The first brief I undertook was the Penguin Book Cover design, this right away was an excellent opportunity to try and show some editorial skills as this is an area of graphics I have always had an intrigue in. The briefs require the designs to be fresh and in someway unseen before, this meant the idea was really central to the project. Exploring the work of Bob Gill showed an 'less is more' kind of approach to idea generation that I tried to adopt, this proved a great success and the outcomes reflected this impacting and direct communication. The brief had pretty tight restraints in terms of the size, content and general communication, but instead of dictating the designs acted more as a guide. Michael C Place from Build explained that design needs constraints to function and that he welcomes them. This was one of the first projects where the content was given, this allowed much more freedom to really think about how it should be communicated. Overall this first brief outlined the level of further professionalism needed in competitions as well as underlining that ideas are key and without really strong ideas a response to a brief will not be successful.
The second brief undertaken and the first of two major brief's was the D&AD MUBI brief. The first thing that presented a real challenge within this project was the openness of the brief, it only asked for a scene stealing idea this again meant that the idea would be right at the heart of the project and needed to flow into each an every aspect of the project. This has been the first large brief from a client so it presented a real challenge, I really pushed my skills in commercial poster design, and video work. Building on the skills in After Effects from early on in the year. Another large consideration that I didn't really for see was the fact this was pretty much an advertising brief, this meant doing a some further research into what sets advertising apart from the rest. The book 'Advertising is dead, Long live advertising!' proved to be invaluable in the process. It lead to much more interesting approaches to the communication. One part of the process that dictated the solutions was the questionnaire I got my young brother to fill out, his love for film and knowledge of the way in which young people interact with film content was useful research and shows the importance of asking the right questions to the right people. A improvement that could definitely have been made was expanding on just a print and digital outcome, a interactive game would have been really appropriate and further engaging, this was difficult to achieve within the time straits, if I was working collaboratively this may have been possible and could have been a more rounded outcome. Overall if I knew the brief was so advertising heavy I may not have chosen it, but this has given me an opportunity to do work that I wouldn't normally and I really enjoyed trying something new.
The final brief I undertook for Studio Brief 01 was the Papyrus Colouring Book brief. This gave me a great opportunity to do something again different and put my illustration skills to the test. Within the research I was able to look at some artists and designer I really admire like Eboy and Mcbess and create work that is not typical of normal graphic design work. I believe my ideas and approach to this brief has been pretty different to what might be typically seen, and this is something I am really pleased with. It was my own unique spin on the brief I have realised from this how important this is to try and be unique not be afraid to take the brief beyond what is typically seen.
With Studio Brief 02 it was a completely different experience but I have found out so much about my practice and they way I enjoy working. Working on the YCN Royal Opera House brief. All in all the work created for the collaborative is probably the most well rounded project I have ever completed. An aspect of this process that I really enjoyed but didn't think I would was project management side, an example is when we were painting the frames, along with doing some painting for myself I was in charge of making sure the paint was mixed, the brushes clear and everything was running smoothly, this I discovered was just as important is anything else in the process and needed as much time and effort. Working collaboratively meant pushing my skills and learning loads of new things, as we wanted to create an animated piece it was so useful having Tom in our group as he had inside knowledge on everything to do with animation and could advise what we were all doing. It is important to also make the point of how useful being on the football team has been, meeting Tom from there and knowing that we get on and could work together without even seeing each others work. One thing that I would love to retain in any more collaborative work in the future is how we let the project flow and progress without any problems with trying to take charge, the outcomes are a testament to this natural progression and no stresses of how the outcomes will look. Another part of the collaborative process that is different to solo work is the outside motivation, the work got done much quicker as we had other people in the group to not let down.
Moving forward I have found the collaborative project to be challenging but really rewarding, working in creative direction is something I feel my skills would flourish and only from this project did I realise this.
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