End of Year Show - first concept

Our concept for the end of year show branding revolves around the new building and its addition to the university. The building uses gold as one of its main colours. We wanted to use this same element in the branding. From previous years we could see that the branding had been mainly type based, including last year which was all type based. We wanted to avoid focusing our branding on type to distinguish from last year. Therefore we wanted the branding to be mainly image based, with type a secondary feature. However, we realised that gold looks cheap and tacky if it is portrayed in a digital way - i.e in digital designs as opposed to actual gold. This meant we could only incorporate gold through photographs.

We came up with the idea of using gold objects. However the gold would not be consistent across all objects, so we thought we could use gold spray paint instead to make the gold consistent. This would also make sourcing objects easier. Additional ideas for our concept was to spray paint an easel gold and use it for wayfinding, and combine the objects in a sculpture for something more abstract.

We also wanted to represent all third year courses in the end of year show, to show the diversity and range of courses the university offers. To do this we thought we could use objects that would represent the courses. To get an insight into all the courses, as all of us are in graphic design, we decided to source object ideas from people residing on different courses. We visited each class and asked different groups of students which object they felt represented their course most, whether it be an obvious object, or something metaphorical.

Responses were mixed with some expected, and some surprising objects that allowed us to learn about the courses. We struggled with some courses, such as vis com and creative advertising as the courses are so varied and we couldn't pinpoint an exact object to represent. The most surprising objects were a bouncing ball for animation (which apparently applies to the 12 rules of animation), and a globe for viscom, due to the exploratory nature of the course. 

Our finalised list:

Gold paint

Easel

Illustration - Pencil case/bundle 

Animation - Bouncy Ball

Printed textiles and surface pattern - Plant/fake leaf

Fashion - Mannequin/Scissors

Viscom - globe

Fine art - Frame

Fashion Photography - hanger + film

Photography - Lamp

Graphic Design - Laptop (case)

Foundation - building blocks

My delegated task was researching and sourcing cheap objects and materials. Most objects were easy to source, such as scissors or a globe, however mannequins are very expensive. I have found some cheap alternatives. We also can source materials such as MDF boards for our easel as well as "building blocks" from woodwork.