External Collab - initial design direction

As we all need to work cohesively and keep the design of the magazine consistent across all elements, we have done research into themes, styles, colour palettes etc.

One idea Pippa had that really inspired the direction of the magazine was this image (fig 1) from the TV show Killing Eve. The big pink dress is extremely girly, soft and feminine, and we thought this was the kind of style we should convey in the design of the publication, in particular, the photography, showing readers that they can still be feminine while suffering from IBS.

fig 1

Photography

Following along this feminine theme, Pippa and Angie did more research into photographic styles and content, also generating ideas for location and content. We decided we would try to represent the symptoms of IBS and problems that IBS sufferers experience on a day to day basis. This can include bowel movements, migraines, stomach cramps, tiredness, changes in mood, social anxiety etc. 

Figure 2 shows the initial inspiration for the photographic shoots that Angie researched. The photos are very soft and representational as opposed to obvious. Some relate to the symptoms of IBS for example, tiredness and also the tendency to avoid social situations. The top right photo in the mood board was one of our favourites as it uses pastel makeup to represent the symptom of migraines. 

fig 2

One of Angie's favourite ideas and one that I loved during the initial discussion was the idea of the model sitting on the toilet in a public place such as a park in a fluffy dress similar to the dress in figure 1. This brings the privacy of IBS into a public setting, therefore opening a discussion and normalizing the subject too.

Illustrations

Pippa's illustrations for her unit on a related topic focus on bowel conditions, encompassing a few, not just IBS but also IBD (Chrone's etc.). The illustrations that feature on her Instagram both show the physical side and the resulting mental effects of IBD.

In other illustrations, Pippa used an abstract style and colour picked from pictures of inflamed bowels, this resulted in a colour palette of pinks, browns and yellows. She also used lots of abstract shapes to represent parts of the digestive system eg. the stomach and parts of the intestines and rectum.

External Collab - Meeting + Planning

Angie, Pippa and I met up on the 29th December to discuss the project. We knew we wanted to make a publication on the theme of IBS, a condition we all suffer from.

Our first discussion was around the aim of the publication, whether we wanted it to educate/inform, be purely photographic, to use as a guide for sufferers etc. We eventually decided that we would create the magazine for existing sufferers to read, in order to normalize the condition and tailor it towards women, as IBS is more of a taboo subject with women. 

Our second discussion was the format of the magazine. I knew that I didn't want it in zine format, I wanted it to replicate a normal magazine, with elements of stylized photography featuring in it. We decided that we would introduce the subject, include photography and also include a section on help and recommendations from us as sufferers. 

In order to make this a successful collaboration, we each need to delegate the tasks involved. I will be in charge of the layout, content, overarching design and production of the publication, Angie will be in charge of the photographic content, organising the shoot in terms of models, stylists, makeup, location and costs involved in this. Pippa will be creating illustrations for the magazine, tailoring the illustrations to the content that I will be including. She also has existing illustrations from her unit that we can use in the magazine. 

Angie and Pippa will be in charge of creating moodboards for illustrations and photography - the underlying theme of the publication is that you can still be feminine while suffering from IBS, so the content will need to reflect this. Ideas that we talked about were lots of pink and pastel colours, as well as swatching colours from pictures of inflamed bowels, which is the method Pip used in her original illustrations - this left her with pinks, browns, reds and yellows, a colour palette which I think would represent the project perfectly. As Pippa already has a style of illustration that fits with the project, we did some initial research into photographic references to assist Angie with creative direction.

In order to make the design process easier for me, we planned out what we could include in the magazine, organising the page layouts so we could create content around this. We assigned pages for photography - these needed to stay in a succession of double-page spreads to emulate a fashion editorial in a fashion magazine. For the illustrations, I am envisioning some which take up a full page, and then a few dotted around the magazine in appropriate places. Some of the illustrations will be reflective of the content. 

External Collab - finding collaborators + a project

For my external collaboration, I wanted to work with people I hadn't worked with before. After getting back in contact with someone that I knew from college, I thought she would be perfect to work with. Angela is a fashion photographer, but recently dropped out of university and wants to keep her creativity flowing. I reached out to her about collaborating.

During this exchange, I also reached out to Pippa, another girl I went to college with who was doing a project about IBD on her illustration course. She needed people to contact her who suffered from a stomach/bowel condition, who could input into her project. I helped her out as I suffer from IBS, and I answered some questions for her. This gave me an idea for a project - to create something on the subject of IBS as both Angie and I suffer with it. This link between us all was something we were very excited about as we have personal ties into the project and could create something great as we all can input something different. Luckily, Pippa was open to collaborating on the project too, so we got the ball rolling.

We created a WhatsApp group chat to discuss the project and plan meetings and keep in contact. We felt this was the easiest method of communication. We planned to meet up on the 29th December to discuss the project and what we wanted to achieve with it.

Max Walsh rebranding - existing branding

At the moment Max doesn't have any existing consistent branding. He has business cards (see fig 1), but these were put together quickly, out of necessity. They do not reflect the style Max wants to portray.  Similarly, his website (fig 2) has been thrown together, with no branding. The pages are all over the place and there is no style to them - just basic information. Also, a lot of the pages are heavy text and it is very hard to read. I think in order to improve the website I need to apply branding and separate sections in order to make it easily navigatable and easy to read.

fig 1

fig 2

Max mainly communicated through his Facebook (see fig 3) and Instagram pages, where his clients can read updates about the sessions he runs. As Max runs his business himself, he is the forefront of the brand and considers his clients his friends. He is therefore very good at keeping open communication and responding very quickly to enquiries. I want to keep this personal touch in his branding - through the use of photography of Max so he doesn't alienate his existing customers. His website also features feedback about him and his business which I think adds to the personal element of his brand.

fig 3

Max Walsh rebranding - meeting

Deadline: to be determined (project may take longer than anticipated)
Client: Max Walsh
Project: rebrand Max Walsh 
Purpose: to improve his professionalism as well as incorporate his new venture into shamanic practices

Max Walsh is a yoga and meditation teacher who requires rebranding.
He has been a yoga teacher for a few years and has recently extended into shamanism, an element of his practice that he now wants to incorporate into his branding.

Outcomes
Logo and Identity
Business Cards
Website
Flyers
A-Frame
Bumper Sticker
Class Tickets/Vouchers
T-Shirt 
Invoices

Max prides himself on the traditionalism of his teaching, as opposed to the modernisation of yoga practised today. He wants to stay away from modern design and wants to represent the traditional roots of his teaching and practice.
Max was taught about shamanism in Mallorca, as well as in the mountains of Mocoa, Colombia. Mountains would, therefore, be good imagery to work with as opposed to the standard yoga logo of a person in a position, or a hamsa or related imagery. He also mentioned that most yoga teachers he knows use Sanskrit in their branding - he wants to avoid this as he does not base his practice on ethnicity but rather the traditionalism of yoga and shamanism.

Max wants to use earthy colours to reflect traditionalism, stay away from the white and bright colours of modern yoga.

Illustration could reflect the environments he learnt in - plants, patterns and elements from the mountains/jungle of Mocoa, Colombia. The group who taught him were called Ayahuasca Plantas Sagradas and his teachings were based on Ayahuasca, which is a hallucinogenic drug, but he wants to avoid advertising this for obvious reasons. The drug comes from a vine and links to sacred geometry.

Research Lead Brief - ideas

For my research lead brief, I want to undertake a project that addresses a current issue, one that could impact people and assist in making a change.

Ideas

Vegetarianism
Climate Change
Plastic pollution
Politics
Food and Nutrition 

I am always interested in the topic of food and nutrition as a lot can be done with it, however, I am already doing at least 2 other briefs around the subject. This could limit my portfolio by focusing on the subject too much.

I think that one of the biggest issues/ topics of discussion in the world at the moment is the environment. I have seen so many articles and news segments recently about plastic pollution and how it has reached an all-time high. This could be an interesting topic to cover and would provide me with a wealth of research. However, I also think the topic could be chosen by a few other people as it is such a relevant issue.

Time Planning

As studio practice is an intensive module taking place over just 4 months beginning January, I have had to plan my time and the briefs I am doing within this. Taking inspiration from PPP workshops on time planning as well as videos on Youtube from creatives around the subject, I have begun to time block using my laptop's calendar.

24th December
To begin with, I organised all my briefs into separate calendars - also including calendars for general uni events, as well as life, and deadlines too. To ensure I am as organised as possible, I gave these an order, listing them by projected deadlines, as well as designating them a colour. 

Following this, I looked at the time available to me within these few months. As I will normally be looking at my calendar by month view to see the month ahead, I have blocked out periods of time under the project name, this allows me to see by glance which project I am working on at any one time, and also allows me to see if I have given myself a proportional amount of time to be working on each project. 

Then, under these sections, I have divided up each project into research, initial designs, development, final designs, blogging & design boards. This helps me to gain clarity and a better understanding of what tasks I should be doing each day.

In terms of deadlines, most final deadlines (aside from competitions) are set as the 7/05/19 as this is the final hand in date. As for the most part I will need to complete projects one at a time as opposed to simultaneously, I have set myself interim deadlines. This is also handy as I am planning my working hours around a busy month in February, so will need to have briefs completed before this. 

2 briefs that I am completing are competition briefs through uni, one with the deadline of the 14th Jan, and one 28th Jan. As these are small briefs, I am awarding them an average of a week each to be completed over Christmas holidays and the first week or 2 in January. Within the Christmas holidays, I am also meeting a client for his branding project, and my collaborators for our publication project, so I am getting the ball rolling for those projects at the same time. I can set deadlines during these meetings so I will know the timescale for these projects, and continue to fill in the rest of the projects in my calendar regarding these. 

Brief Planning - revised

10 briefs

I am still short one brief. I plan on researching and discovering new briefs in the first few weeks of January - maybe filling the gap with another competition that arises in this time. I would like to make a brief focusing on UI/UX design as I love this area of design and want to expand my skills and portfolio in this area.

		Brief	Final Deadline	Set   Deadline	Area
Competition	1	Starpack	29/03/19		Packaging
	2	Secret 7	7/05/19		Illustration/ Graphic Design
	3	Display Wizard	1/05/19		Graphic Design
	4	The Real Junk Food Project logo	28/01/19	28/01/19	Branding / Identity
	5	Tote Bag Design project	14/01/19	14/01/19	Graphic Design
Collaboration Internal	6	D&AD - Durex or For Her	20/03/19		Advertising / Graphic Design
Collaboration External	7	Angela Farrell + Pippa Kane (?) IBS publication	7/05/19		Graphic Design / Editorial
Client/Live	8	Max Walsh	7/05/19		Branding / Identity
	9	???
Research lead	10	Environmental - Ecotopia	7/05/19		Branding/ Advertising/Social Media

Starpack - Create a ready meal pack with reduced environmental impact.

Display wizard - Design two display stands for your University or College that focus on the career benefits of your course

Secret 7 - released 2019

The Real Junk Food Project - design a logo for The Real Junk Food Project

Tote Bag design - design a tote bag for LAU for promotional purposes 

Max Walsh - create branding and identity for Max Walsh, yoga teacher and shaman

D&AD Durex - Help Durex champion a world of real sex for everyone /  D&AD For Her - Change the way the world thinks about menstruation issues and undo the social stigmas surrounding them

Publication on IBS - with Angela Farrell and Pippa Kane 

Ecotopia - new waste free store open in Leeds. Create something to help gain donations/ grow the store.

Initial Brief Planning

10 briefs
1 Competition

1 Live/ Client

Collaboration

1 Internal 

1 External

1 Research Lead

Competition

Starpack - Create a ready meal pack with reduced environmental impact.

This brief fits well with my COP project, as I am creating a range of "almost ready meals" packaged proportionally to encourage people to eat healthier. I can incorporate some of the research I do for COP into this brief but adjust the rest of the project to reflect an environmental approach to the brief. I also wanted to do this brief as part of my extended practice as I enjoy packaging as a specialism.

Secret 7 - (Yet to be announced)

I really enjoyed creating an illustrated cover for this competition last year and it fit perfectly into my briefs as a short project so I would like to repeat the brief again.

Display wizard - Create 2 displays to promote your course for open days etc https://www.displaywizard.co.uk/graphic-design-student-competition

https://newnow.ycn.org/live-briefs

RSA Brief 06 Harvesting Health - Design a product, system or service which uses sustainable food and farming to help improve people's health or wellbeing.

Penguin Design Student awards - illustrating a book cover

Live

Branding Max Walsh, Yogi and Shaman

Max is a friend and former colleague of mine who has recently set up his own business teaching yoga. He has decided to expand into Shamanism, and is currently undertaking a course in Majorca. He needs a new identity created to show this change in business as well as lifestyle.

Distrikt Advertising Campaign 

Caroline Carr reached out to me for help to create an advertising campaign for Distrikt bar in Leeds. 

Collaboration

Internal 

Collaborating with Emma Blackman on a D&AD competition brief

External 

Collaboration with Angela Farrell, fashion photographer

(?) possible collaboration with Caroline Carr, creative advertising

Research Lead

What am I interested in?

Feminism

Individuality 
Environment