OUGD406 module evaluation

In OUGD406 I felt I learnt a lot. The module contained 4 briefs, 3 of which were extensive and one of which was to a shorter timescale. 

Working to a live brief in Studio brief 1 was interesting as it gave me insight into the way briefs are conducted outside of education and the time constraint made the pressure of creating a cover increase. However in the end I think I created an original cover without any obvious imagery and it is one that works to encourage a younger audience to read a novel with rather adult themes. The cover was illustrative and represented childhood innocence as well as racial inequality. I liked my final cover as I felt it was successful, but if I were to redo I would create the cover out of physical fabric and stitching, I think this would have elevated the cover.

For Studio brief 2 I was able to create an outcome based on an event I had actually been to and on a topic I am really interested in. I think my final outcome works well to represent the protest and my research into politics and colour theory helped to create it. Creating a poster using traditional methods was more work intensive than I thought it would be but it was good to expand my knowledge of printing processes and produce a piece of work that wasn't just digital. The placement of the poster into context on a placard works really well and is a good idea for an extra touch. if I were to improve my print I would have printed straight onto the MDF of the placard and also made the print more celebratory. 

Studio Brief 3 was interesting to work with as it was a brief that would be implemented had we given a successful pitch. The group work alongside the format of the brief was like a brief you would work on in a design company. Delegating tasks and managing time alongside others was a good way to produce a large quantity of work for the final outcomes and working with others helped to inform my design decisions, as our separate outcomes had to fit the same theme and have a similar appearance. Constantly being in contact with the group and editing our work to fit others was a good way to keep the design consistent. I enjoyed working in the group and I feel our overall design was really successful and worked together. The pitch was an extra requirement to present to the second years and one element of a brief that we did not have the opportunity to do in another brief. This gave us the opportunity to practice presentation skills and gain valuable feedback from more experienced people we otherwise would not have had contact with.

My initial designs for the inside of the exhibition developed onwards with the help of the group into a feasible, cheap and effective system that categorised the prints well in our chosen theme of postcodes and also made use of the custom typeface created earlier in the project, this provided consistency across the entire brief.

If I was to revisit this project I think I would have spoken in the presentation/pitch in order to improve my public speaking and experience with pitching for future use. I was also ill for some of the lessons where ideas were formulated so I had to catch up on the sessions with the group, so I felt my understanding of the initial ideas was limited and could have been improved had I been present. Other than this, I felt our project went really well, everybody in the group contributed a lot, our designs were consistent and we worked together well as a group in terms of delegating tasks and managing the project.

Studio Brief 4 was a project which I enjoyed doing but did not like the final outcome.
Working in a pair was really fun and helped us to split the work equally, allowing us to delegate tasks and manage our time more effectively. Continuously using another input was great as the concept we came up with together was really interesting and by basing the game in more than one person's experiences, the freshers next year will have more of an idea of what to expect. When it came to producing the work, as we chose to screen print, having 2 people set up a production line, with us both doing tasks to produce our outcomes, it made the process quicker and much more efficient.
The project seemed rushed to me due to the small timescale on top of the other work to complete (for example contributing towards the exhibition). If the timescale for the project was extended I think we would have been able to produce a more successful, professional looking design. If we were to improve this project further I would have spent more time on the design of the board to make it look more professional. I also would have digitally printed the cards on top of screen printed card to make the cards look less messy, and I would have used the same process for the information leaflet as it is digitally printed due to it being a last minute addition from the crit feedback and is a different colour to the paint used in screen printing. This would have given a more consistent look across all outcomes.

Overall I was fairly happy with most of my outcomes from this module, with the exception Studio Brief 4. I felt the set timescale for this brief could've been longer and if this was the case I would've been able to create more of a successful outcome. 
I think during this module I noticed that I put more effort into my work than I had before, and I was able to create a large body of work that I was generally proud of. Using traditional printing processes in more than one brief helped to extend my knowledge beyond just digital printing and I will be using this process in the future as the outcomes were successful.

Final Design

My final design for Studio Brief 1 is an illustrated cover of the accused rapist in the book - Tom - wearing dungarees. The dungarees are the main feature, with the title of the book in stitch style type on the front pocket of the dungarees and the author in sans serif type at the bottom of the book.

The illustration was created in Illustrator out of blocks and a grain was applied to the illustration to make it more authentic and less vivid. Ideally I would've made the cover out of fabric and stitched the title into the fabric.

I altered the typeface from Baskerville to Futura to reflect the modern style of illustration as per the advice in the crit, and this alteration makes the cover come together more, as before the typeface didn't fit. 

Studio Brief 2: Rationale

The screen print created for The Public Spaces brief celebrates the Anti Trump/ anti May appeasement protest that took place in Leeds on the 30th January this year. The print replicates one of the chants used throughout the protest and uses bold type and research into colour in left and right wing politics to create a vivid poster, and when placed in context onto a placard, the print comes to life and can be used to celebrate the coming together of all types of people against the rise of facism and racism.

RAUM Exhibition Contribution

After our pitch was not chosen, another called ‘Raum’ was picked to brand the exhibition. The design for the branding uses screen print as their traditional printing method to reflect the content of the exhibition. The catalogs are made of screen printed covers, and pages printed containing re colourised thumbnails.

The handmade nature of the catalog required us to measure and cut down all the paper to be put into the catalog. The screen prints had been prepared before hand, and we had to measure the covers using a prototype. We then cut down over 175 covers, and moved onto cutting the inside sheets. We had an issue with this  as we had to change the paper stock from a1 bulky newsprint to just printer paper as the images were too pixellated but after the pages were printed we were able to put the booklet together.

Using a sewing machine and orange thread in a running stitch, we bound the covers to the catalogs. This made the covers look more professional due to the neat stitch and also saved a lot of time instead of hand stitching.

Studio Brief 3: Evaluation

Studio Brief 3 was interesting to work with as it was a brief that would be implemented had we given a successful pitch. The group work alongside the format of the brief was like a brief you would work on in a design company. Delegating tasks and managing time alongside others was a good way to produce a large quantity of work for the final outcomes and working with others helped to inform my design decisions, as our separate outcomes had to fit the same theme and have a similar appearance. Constantly being in contact with the group and editing our work to fit others was a good way to keep the design consistent. I enjoyed working in the group and I feel our overall design was really successful and worked together. The pitch was an extra requirement to present to the second years and one element of a brief that we did not have the opportunity to do in another brief. This gave us the opportunity to practice presentation skills and gain valuable feedback from more experienced people we otherwise would not have had contact with.

My own contribution towards the project was the way finding and signage for the exhibition. I think my overall design works well with the rest of the project however I would alter the outside signage if I was to revisit the project. The colour of the signage did not fit with the rest of the work we presented, however it did go with the original planned colour scheme for the exhibition. This could have been a miscommunication with the group and something that could have been rectified. 

My initial designs for the inside of the exhibition developed onwards with the help of the group into a feasible, cheap and effective system that categorised the prints well in our chosen theme of postcodes and also made use of the custom typeface created earlier in the project, this provided consistency across the entire brief.

If I was to revisit this project I think I would have spoken in the presentation/pitch in order to improve my public speaking and experience with pitching for future use. I was also ill for some of the lessons where ideas were formulated so I had to catch up on the sessions with the group, so I felt my understanding of the initial ideas was limited and could have been improved had I been present. Other than this, I felt our project went really well, everybody in the group contributed a lot, our designs were consistent and we worked together well as a group in terms of delegating tasks and managing the project.

Board Game design research

Alice in Wonderland Board game

Alice in Wonderland board game uses characters from the book/ film as counters. The game also includes cards that corresponds to sections on the board, and illustrations relating to the story.

The colour scheme is mainly the primary colours, however in this context the colours do not look childish, instead they suit the game well and look understated. The overall appearance of the game is professional and classy, and could be sold as a high end game.

North Pole party people game

We came across this board game and loved the limited colour scheme and illustrative additions. The Christmas themed illustrations add to the fun, festive game and the way some of them are placed over the board makes the game less flat. The stand up counters for players to move around the board with makes the interaction with the game more fun and personal.

The packaging for the game is also interesting as it is not in a box which would keep costs down and saves space. This game is printed in large scale and folded down into a cellophane envelope, which is stapled at the top along with the name of the game. We loved this way of packaging as it would be easier to replicate and would save a lot of time instead of designing a box for the game.

Final outcomes and crit

The final outcomes for our board game consisted of the board game, as well as an envelope for packaging, cards and an instruction leaflet.

Crit feedback

+ good idea for it to be folded and put in an envelope to send out, increases its potential for us

- include an instruction sheet

+ love the idea! excellent design

+ good colour scheme but maybe too feminine

- need to view cards in order to understand how it would work out

+ colour scheme very suited to graphics

+ colour scheme good, screen printing adds texture to make it more interesting

+ good consistent illustrations

What I took away from the crit

Our concept was original and one that was entertaining. It was a good insight into our personal experiences in first year of university and one that players would find entertaining and informative too, however the game needed cards and instruction leaflet for it to make sense (at the time of the crit there hadn’t been printed). The overall appearance resonated with our peers who loved the design, particularly the “consistent” illustrations that covered the background of the game. It definitely helped to screen print the boards as they looked more personal and interesting with the addition of texture instead of just flat colour.

Studio Brief 4: Rationale

Fresher Frenzy is a board game created around our personal experiences in freshers year of university. Using a dice and counters, the concept of the board game is to get from the start to the finish faster than your opponent overcoming the bumps that are in the way. The board game was initially inspired by The Game of Life and Snakes and Ladders. It is a very simplified version based on personal experiences of university, that involves giving the players rewards forfeits and tips on their journey around the board. 

There will be 3 different sets of cards which could be picked up by landing on the specific space on the board. A tip card gives helpful information about university and being in Leeds. A forfeit or reward card is based on a personal experience that has happened during our first year at uni.

Production Process

Instead of digitally printing our board game we decided to screen print. By screen printing the game has more dimension, the addition of texture and uniqueness across each board makes the game more visually interesting. 

The screen print gives the board game a hand made aesthetic which we liked as we wanted the outcome to feel more personal. 

As well as screen printing the actual board, we also screen printed envelopes and cards to go with the game.

The envelopes have on them the LCA logo shape in pink, onto which we hand wrote 'Good Luck Freshers, love Char and Soph.' These envelopes are more handy to give out to first years in lieu of a box for the game. The hand addressed envelopes give the personal touch to the project and echo the personal experiences in the actual concept of the board.

The cards are also screen printed pink and handwritten with the tips, rewards and forfeits. The idea behind this was to match the envelopes but after doing them we realised it would've looked more professional to print text over the screen printed cards.

Further development

We decided to change the layout of the path on the game. Changing the layout to '130', the number of the first year studio made the layout more relevant to the name as well as the concept of the entire game - especially the fact the game is specifically for first year students. We also rounded off the corners of the path instead of the sharp corners, there are now rounded corners to make the path appear less rigid.

I experimented with colours too as the LCA colour scheme was clashing and not working together well. I altered the colours to monochrome, with a pop of yellow as the colour is chaotic and fits with the frenzy in the name. However the game still did not look right, and it was too cluttered.

Instead of using the pattern with the objects repeated many times, I made the objects bigger and took some off the pattern so you could see more detail and there is also more negative space so the path is bolder. Altering the colour scheme to paler pink and navy blue was our next development as the colours complimented each other more and was less childish.

We settled on pink for the layout and navy for the background pattern. 

Illustrations

Taking inspiration from the games researched earlier, we decided to create illustrations for the board game instead of the patterns we had originally been using. 

I sketched some ideas, illustrations that reflected the situations we had been in throughout the year that were written on the cards. 

After this I vectorized the illustrations, creating more consistency across them. 

These illustrations will be used on the board game, as a background. Taking inspiration from the pattern making earlier on in the project I decided to combine the illustrations with pattern. Creating a pattern for the background would make the designs less flat and plain and also relate to the subjects on the cards.

Design Developments

Trying a slightly simpler style than previous designs for the board, the use of colour in the game is the main feature. The colours clash slightly so may need to be altered in order to fit better together, but the bright appearance of the board attracts people to the game.

The background still uses the LCA logo as the decoration, and here it is made simpler by just using the outline of the shape. I experimented with layers and having some shapes crossing over the path of the game to create some depth.

The layout seemed too rigid so instead of using squares we experimented using circles. However the game just began to look childish so I reverted it back to squares, but this time added a drop shadow underneath. This made the path pop off the page, especially when the back ground patterns were made a lighter shade of cyan so they wouldn't distract from the rest of the game.

Initial Designs

Name ideas
'The Game of Uni' - like the game of life
Price and Rose's Leeds Adventure
The Good the Bad and the Uni
Uni Unwrapped
Behind the Scenes
First year/ Fresher frenzy
A Breath of Fresher
Fresh meat

Outcomes:
Layout
Format
Colour scheme
Additional Illustrations/patterns
Packaging
Cards
Counters/dice


Colour scheme

Pattern experimentation

Using the colour scheme from the Leeds College of Art website as well as the logo shape, I created patterns to illustrate the background of the board game. I experimented with filled shapes, just outlines and a mix of the 2. 

Paring back the design slightly, and adding the colour to the game itself made the board seem less busy and also the boxes were far easier to see. The 'T', 'F' and 'R' stand for the tip reward and forfeits on the cards, and landing on one of these requires you to pick one up in the relevant section.

Studio Brief 4: Evaluation

Studio Brief 4 was a project which I enjoyed doing but did not like the final outcome.
Working in a pair was really fun and helped us to split the work equally, allowing us to delegate tasks and manage our time more effectively. Continuously using another input was great as the concept we came up with together was really interesting and by basing the game in more than one person's experiences, the freshers next year will have more of an idea of what to expect. considering both of us had different experiences and have struggled with money and mental health, we were able to give better advice and also provide more entertaining anecdotes about our first year, increasing the comedy in the game and entertaining the players. When it came to producing the work, as we chose to screen print, having 2 people set up a production line, with us both doing tasks to produce our outcomes, it made the process quicker and much more efficient.

The concept of the game was one of my favourite concepts from this year. Being able to put in my personal experiences really made it feel as if I was rounding off the year and looking back on everything that happened put a smile on my face. However, the actual design of the game was not my favourite design. The project seemed rushed to me due to the small timescale on top of the other work to complete (for example contributing towards the exhibition). If the timescale for the project was extended I think we would have been able to produce a more successful, professional looking design. Screen printing the outcomes rather than digitally printing them added the personal touch to the project and gave the appearance more texture and dimension. My personal favourite part of the outcome was the envelopes we used as packaging rather than the box. This made the game less bulky, enabling us to send out the games if needed and making them easy to distribute by hand too. The hand written note on the front also added to the personal feeling of the project. 

If we were to improve this project further I would have spent more time on the design of the board to make it look more professional. I also would have digitally printed the cards on top of screen printed card to make the cards look less messy, and I would have used the same process for the information leaflet as it is digitally printed due to it being a last minute addition from the crit feedback and is a different colour to the paint used in screen printing. This would have given a more consistent look across all outcomes.

Research: Banksy

Banksy is a very well known political artist - pushing boundaries and creating controversial works of art in public spaces. The anonymous artist creates his works of art in secret, with them springing up overnight. 

His works are often illustrative, and created graffiti style. The art is painted onto sides of buildings and the powerful pieces make comments on society, current affairs and politics.