Contextual Portfolio - Collide branding

I joined the collide exhibition branding team and although I couldn't commit much time to the project as I had my own projects I needed to really push, I still wanted to give my input and opinion on the direction of the branding since my work will hopefully be exhibited. 

The original colour scheme presented to the course wasn't taken well; I wasn't too keen on the colour scheme either so I decided to look for alternatives to present to the team. This is when I looked at Adobe Kuller, it allows you to search for colour schemes and then download them to your library. The exhibition was about showcasing young talent/ new designers, so when searching for colours I typed 'youth' and words of similar meaning. 

Thoughts
Below is some of the results, and although these colour schemes weren't chosen I'm excited to use them for my own projects. They have given me inspiration for my ongoing briefs; Adobe Kuller is definitely a tool I would and will be using in the future as it's nice to work with a colour palette, I also see them as mood boards which helps the design process. 

Contextual Portfolio - Rob Lycett - Seminar

For this weeks seminar we were set a task before we attended which was to produce a short presentation on existing exhibitions that could inspire us for our end of year exhibition. The task is shown below:

*In preparation for the 'Collide' exhibition, you will engage in visual research into innovative and exciting exhibition formats and make micro presentations in the seminar sessions on the 18th March. Think about the way that physical objects and digital media are presented.

The format will be a shortened version of the 'PechaKucha' style of presentation that is very popular in the arts and creative industries. Essentially, you talk for 20 seconds about each visual slide in your presentation. We will do a micro PechaKucha - i.e. 5 slides

An Adobe InDesign template has been supplied, which you must use. Do not alter the layout or typeface (size or font). The first slide is a title - so please enter your own name. Each slide should comprise an image, a caption and two written points/statements. These textual prompts will enable you to talk confidently about each slide without a script. The slide should contain a single image - see image below and the sample pdf.*

I chose exhibitions which were interactive as I'm not a regular attendee of exhibitions I thought of what would attract me to go or interest me whilst I was there. Some of the exhibitions looked at how you could utilise the space more. 

Process and Production (year 2) - Year 2 Showreel

This was the last After Effects workshop of year 2 and since we have learnt quite a few new skills this year and some of us are looking to get placements, it was a good idea to create a showreel to show off our work. The showreel would show our strengths, diversity and as I have no intention of showing it to potential employers I would say it will show my progression in this Adobe program. Personality is injected into the piece through style and choice of music to accompany the visuals. In terms of the order of content, we were advised to put a strong piece at the start to give a good initial impression, in the middle is your weakest pieces and then to end it on another strong piece to end on a high. A showreel can show your style, expertise and what potentially you can create for a future client. 

As always we were shown an existing clip to show what a showreel is and give us inspiration for our own. Sara chose to play showreels from Adam Gault; it was good to watch his as gets the timing spot on when matching up the visuals to the beats in the music. 

First we began in illustrator to create our title and end screen; these would introduce the showreel and who I am then conclude at the end with the chance for the audience to look further at my design through the provide links. Each element had to be placed on a different layer so that when it was transferred in to After Effects you would be able to animate/edit each element separately. I also decided to create a page changer slide which was used to transition from the opening slide; it gives the piece a bit more movement and flow. The overall style is quite simple and the colour scheme reflects the identity of my personal brand. 

These files were imported in to After Effects; I edited the opening slide, changer and end slide at separate compositions so I could use them in the final showreel/comp. By editing them in a different comp it made it easier for me to continue to edit them later rather than having complications in the final comp. I started by creating a new comp titled 'Final' which is where the renders and audio would imported and dragged into the timeline. I worked with the audio in the timeline first before working with any videos; I had to listen to the music and add markers ('*') to highlight the main beats/changes in the audio. The markers were there to pinpoint the beats in the audio enabling us to cut the footage at the right time in order for us to achieve a smoother outcome. In terms of the videos to be added to the showreel I decided to add my Cinema 4d pieces in addition to the After Effects pieces I have done as I felt these pieces were stronger. At this stage the videos were placed in the timeline and lined up with the markers, this ensured that the videos cut with the beats of the audio. The next stage involved playing around with the order of the videos and cutting them down to the best sections. Once I was happy with the outcome I rendered out the showreel using the usual settings but when I opened it up in quicktime I rendered it out again at 1080 dpi. 

Short Cuts

Sara decided to give us the shortcuts in this session, these help to speed up the process of editing which will come in handy in the future also. 

[ to cut to the beginning
] to cut to the end 

use the * button to add markers to the beat on our audio 

j - is for jumping back to markers 

k - is for jumping forward to markers.

layer selected - use cmd up and down curser which change the layer selected.

i - in point and o - out point of layer selected on the keyboard 

shift + cmd + d - cuts it and repeats it

My thoughts:

As this is the last session I will evaluate the year in After Effects workshops and the progress I have made throughout the year. Overall I'm pleased with the outcomes I have produced this year and you can see the progress I have made when I have become more confident working the program. This showreel shows how much I have developed throughout the year and if you were to look at my work from year 1 you would see a bigger improvement. This gives me encouragement to continue to use this program and improve further with more time put in. 

In terms of this session, I would say that it was pretty simple in the sense that we already had produced the content to work with; it mainly focused on the editing and timing. Although I would say that I learnt the importance of timing when creating a showreel and if the timing is out it can make the outcome look unprofessional and lower quality. I would say that I'm fairly confident with using this program at my current skill level but I would like to improve my skill set so that there is more option with what I can do with the outcome. All these skills I have learnt will only continue to improve me as a designer and prepare me for a future in the industry. 

Showreel 2016 from Jade Irving on Vimeo.

Collide - final prints

Outcome

Life Lessons

I have refined each life lessons and I’m happy with the outcome. Although originally I was going to have a book I would consider printing some as postcards along with posters. 

Contextual Portfolio - Oreo Again!

These adverts are still this time, I came across them when scrolling through social media and like with the previous post I was initially attracted by the colours used in the posters/banners.

The designs are quite clever as they use the product in the illustrative design; the biscuit is used/placed instead of something e.g it replaces an item of clothing or the world. This puts the product as the main focus without directly advertising the product; I find this to be a better way of advertising as you aren't forcing the audience buy Oreo's too obviously and allows the user to appreciate the design and style. 

The idea of the biscuit being placed at the centre of all activities is a good idea; as no matter what or where you are, Oreo will be there for the customer.

Again I'll mention the colour scheme, it's vibrant and playful which is well suited to the product and brand; I think that they have got this spot on.


Thoughts
I like this style and tone they have used and although I would like to try this out in my own practice, the time has to be right and tone has to fit the brief. I would to try have a go at illustration but I don't think that it is my strongest skill to date. 

Collide - Development

Development

Life Lessons

I started to draw out some of the activities with the potential to use them in app but after consideration I felt that they didn’t fit with the style and layout of the app. 

Although I could try use them in the life lessons book; but I would only use them if they are suitable rather than just use them because I have them.

I was able to use the bike for this print/lesson as it fit with the phrase ‘ride’ it out.

Collide - Development

Development

Life Lessons

I have picked a few of the life lessons to develop in more detail; this could then be printed as posters or kept as small prints.

Process and Production (year 2) - Physical Studio - I am... with Nick Deakin (part 5)

This session in the physical studio is an extension/ development of the previous sessions. In the previous session I worked with sugar and cotton wool and created words that linked directly with the materials used. Therefore this session I wanted to carrying on this theme and I decided to work with the idea of 'party', so I brought party poppers with me to work out this idea. 

Before popping the party poppers I decided I would spell out 'party' using the un popped casings. Nick felt that they didn't represent 'party' enough as the tops of the poppers were black/grey. However I feel that they worked; depending on the camera angle you could see the colours on the side for a more subtle and classy look. I think that this amount of colour was enough.

I tried the word out on the worktable which I thought worked with the splashes of colour paint on the table. 

I also tried the word out on white paper so that the contrast between the type and the background was bigger, thus making the type standout. 

Keeping the white background, I began to experiment with the style of the type to reflect and represent the word better. This looks more playful and relevant to 'party'. 

The next step was to actually pop them and create the word using the strings of colour. I made it look as if it had come out of the popper across the page. I used the same style type what I had used previously. 

To add to the page I used the other parts of the popper to make it look like an explosion. However, I feel that it over complicated the design; the first approach was more bold and thought provoking. 

Next I tried it on another background and played with the styling of the type. I still weren't happy with the background, in fact the white looked better than the blue. 

Then I tried it on this purple background, which I thought worked well and had the sense of 'party' with its vibrant background. 

I was happy with the way the 'party' turned out and I was thinking about what I could do with the used shells/casings which is when I started to think of what remains after a party. I came up with the word 'over' a way to express that the party is over. In this test I used white which didn't really work with the strings being off white. 

As the white didn't work I tried it out on the purple background again and I think the outcome is successful, but could benefit from some development. 

My thoughts:

During this process and production session I enjoyed being free and experimenting with a new medium; overall I enjoyed the process and the outcomes I produced. Although I feel this could be developed further and be made into an animated GIF. I will take these thoughts with me and think of ways I could develop this for the final session of year 2; I would like to challenge myself further and experiment more. In terms of these sessions I think they are helping me to become more expression and playful which helps idea generation. 

YCN - social

Contextual Portfolio - workshop week - BBC

Amongst the workshops in the week I noticed that there was one with the BBC; I was initially interested in going after doing the 24hr challenge and learning so much last year involving the BBC. This workshop was all about learning how to go through the design process and what methods/approaches they use on a daily basis to tackle a design brief. I usually struggle with the briefs that are set for projects so I thought it may be good for me to see how the BBC work and see if I could learn from their ways. 


The first part of the workshop involved the three designers explaining who they are and how they've got to this stage in their career. They were as followed;


Tina Connelly - Senior designer for CBBC/CBeebies
(originally worked with Hilton Hotels and theme park design before moving to work for the BBC)

Rob Farnell - Senior designer for Iplayer and IPTV
(worked for Mama's & Papa's, now works as a UX designer for the BBC)

Danny Lambert-Maddocks - Junior designer for CBeebies/ CBBC
(graduate from the University of Huddersfield; went on to work for Urban Outfitters. Now works at the BBC)

Throughout the workshop we were taught how to generate and process ideas; in order to help us think outside of the box in the way we design. The workshop focused heavily on how we would approach a brief and how not to limit ourselves and not box ourselves in to an idea.

During the presentation the guys from the BBC gave us tips what they had learnt along the way or what they use now themselves. Tina made a point that 'no idea is a bad idea'; this stuck with me as I'm often reluctant to put down an idea if I think it's bad but she made a point that you need to get the bad ideas out so you can stop thinking about them and then you can move on to the good ideas. 

Next we looked at the different stages when creating; here is the process:

Explorer - seek out new 'stuff'
Artist - turn the 'stuff' you find into new ideas
Judge - critically evaluate your ideas
Warrior - press ahead undaunted with your chosen ideas

Another useful tip provided by Tina Connelly - Your work is your baby, accept the fact that you baby is ugly to others. Let go of your baby and take criticism. 

Next we had a paper plane contest which had a meaning/lesson behind it; the aim was to get the paper to fly the furthest. After we realised it wasn't about the look of the plane, it was the distance that was important which encouraged people to think outside the box. 

Finally we were given a brief which was:

'To create an inspiring, inventive, conceptually relevant and eye catching display for the John lewis flagship store for the spring season, that reshapes expectations of what a store window can do and can be, but keeps products firmly as it's heart.' 

For this task we worked in groups and used the BBC's methods of idea generation which involved 30 second idea generations etc. These methods made you work under pressure and ideas flowed as you knew you were under a time constraint. As a team we delivered a high impact but low effort idea back to the members of the BBC and peers. 

Thoughts
I enjoyed this workshop as it allowed me to look at the way I generate ideas and how I could be more efficient/ produce more ideas. I'm glad I signed up to the workshop although I knew some of the methods before the workshop after doing the 24hr challenge with the BBC last year. 

Here are some photos of the day:

 

Collide - App final outcome

YCN - Finals

These are mock ups of all the products to go in the tote bag; by doing these mock ups it helps to advertise them in a more professional way. 

I have put them all on the same page to show what is in the give away. This could be put on social media to advertise the give away and what someone could potential win if they enter for one.