DITTO PRESS

After realising that my previous efforts were unsuccessful, I created a new flow diagram to show how my methods are put into practice.

Accurate though the flow diagram may have been, it was more of a description of current methods and variations as opposed to an individual methodology. As a task, we were asked to produce further ideas that could be turned into a broader methodology.

I came up with the following:

After having presented the further ideas above to Ben and the group, we were critiqued and asked to visualise the ideas more. As my theory of liking and not liking something was deemed to be the strongest of my ideas, I chose to develop it further. 

The idea of a revolving set of arrows appealed to me as it allowed both sides of each view to be represented.

My likes and dislikes.

Client likes and dislikes.

Audience likes and dislikes.

Having considered this, it becomes clear that the next step is to find a way of presenting this information in a coherent way, whereby the relation between each viewpoint (and view holder) is clearly understandable.

BRIEF : Leeds Green Exchange

After having completed our presentations on extended practice, it became apparent from the similar creative focus of other designers in the class that it would be a good idea to set up some form of sustainable designers guild.

After having agreed to meet and discuss further, Bobby showed me a flyer for the Leeds Green Exchange. This project is funded by the NUS Students' Green Fund and provides money grants from £250 - £1000 to students doing projects on the environment and sustainability. Previous entrants have often been from Leeds University, but the project is open to students from any institution in Leeds. We felt this would be a good opportunity for the "guild" to work together on a project as a team.

Green Exchange Website:

http://www.thegreenexchange.co.uk/



Initial brainstorm made with group:

Questions for visit to office at Leeds University Union + other points/plans:

Brainstorm attempting to get to grips with specific issues:

Having reviewed and considered the information gathered it is clear we must specify what issues exactly we are trying to solve.

IDEA : SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS!

A clear point within the consideration of this brief is to decide whether our efforts will be concentrated on Leeds College of Art exclusively, or whether we seek to address the wider student population of Leeds (which naturally would include Leeds College of Art).

As a starting point, we decided on writing some questions each which we could ask LCA faculty who are involved in the sustainable management of the college.

My questions for consideration are:


What does LCA currently do to improve its sustainability?

What results have such sustainable initiatives had?

What more could LCA be doing to improve its sustainability?

Where does LCA want to be in terms of sustainability (within reason)?

Would it be possible for sustainability to be factored into the curriculum?

Would this be a course-specific task or could it be done to a small extent across the whole uni?

What can students do to manage their impact on the environment?

How can students be made more aware of what is being done to improve sustainability?

Is there someone in charge of researching new materials/processes to improve sustainability?

Is there any collaboration with other educational institutions (Beckett etc.) on sustainable matters?

Does LCA make any attempt to make students more sustainable outside of university?

What is LCA doing to educate students about sustainability?

Which courses (if any) factor sustainability?

How willing is LCA to engage with external sustainability schemes?

Why has LCA chosen to adopt sustainability policies (aside from moral reasons)?

Are there any staff involved in the sustainability program who are specifically hired for that job (as opposed to being a tutor and doing that in spare time).

How does the LCA sustainability program manage its staff hours/labour?

Is the sustainability aspect of the college promoted in the prospectus? (don't think so)

Is there a budget for sustainability or is it a factor in deciding general budgets?

Has LCA ever held any event/exhibition regarding sustainability?

What are the main challenges preventing LCA from being sustainable?







What inks are used in the mac suites/studios?

What paper is used in the mac suites/studios?

What inks are used in the digital suite?

What types of paper do the library stock?

Where does the college get energy from?

What VOC content is in the inks and solvents in printmaking/fine art etc?

How do printmaking/fine art etc. courses dispose of waste products?




Best General Ones :


What does LCA currently do to improve its sustainability?

What results have such sustainable initiatives had?

What are the main challenges preventing LCA from being sustainable?

Where does LCA want to be in terms of sustainability?

Is there a budget for sustainability or is it a factor in deciding general budgets?

How does the LCA sustainability program manage its staff hours/labour?

What is LCA doing to educate students about sustainability (both in and out of curriculum)?

How willing is LCA to engage with external sustainability schemes (universities and other)?



Best Specific Ones :


What inks are used in the mac suites/studios?

What paper is used in mac suites/studios?

Where does the college source its energy?

What VOC content is in the inks and solvents in printmaking/fine art etc?

How are solvents/inks disposed of?















 

BRIEF - DR . ME

Brief as given:

Rewritten brief:

Brief: 1. Create a vinyl cover for evian christ's album Duga-3. Listen to the song and communicate the atmosphere created by the music, combined with the associations of a Soviet Union radio installation. 2. Create a poster for Odonis Odonis' performance on 18th of April. Have a look at their other poster and promotional imagery to get a feel for the kind of thing they do. 3. Do something that communicates what you are about.

Background: 1. Duga -3 is a massive Soviet radio installation. The distorting qualities of this feature in combination with evian christ's sounds, and were an inspiration for the mix. 2. Odonis Odonis have a history of psychedlic inspired and visually strong artwork. 3. Me!

Considerations: 1. Evian Christ produces very abstract music, so don't get too bogged down on the details. 2. The gig poster has to appeal to the Odoni Odonis' core fanbase, but also attempt to draw outside listeners in to the gig. 3. Do what you want.

Mandatory Requirements: 1. One vinyl cover ready for application. 2. One poster ready for use.  3. A 2-d  23cmx16cm outcome.

Target Audience: 1. People who might buy the record, evian christ fans, vinyl junkies etc. 2. Fans of the band, fans of saint coltrane, potential giggers.   3. Anyone and everyone.

Tone of Voice: 1. Weird like the music. 2. Psychedelic and somewhat wild, indicative of a stellar performance. 3. Personal and simple.

Deliverables: 1. One vinyl cover ready for application. 2. One poster ready for use.  3. A 2-d  23cmx16cm outcome.

Initial brainstorms for each brief:

For the Duga-3 brief, we had the initial idea of using imagery of the Sputnik satellite, as this was an iconic example of Russian science and the space-age. We planned to incorporate the fluctuations found in radio wave charts into the photography of the Sputnik. Some of my initial sketches and ideas are here:

Unfortunately despite the visual qualities of the Sputnik photography, it was somewhat irrelevant, and the idea was scrapped in favour of the type-led idea. My partner (Kirsty) initially carried out those ideas, however I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of breaking up type in a similar way that radio waves are displayed, so I created one as well.

Sourcing a graph as a background was one of the more difficult parts, as despite there being a variety of grid images available on the internet, there were few that had multiple increments included (eg mm and cm) without specifying what they actually were.

Below is an example of the exact grid style I wanted, however the one shown was .svg format (used by wiki) which photoshop does not support for some reason.

here is another image that was perfect, but it was too small:

I ended up creating a grid in photoshop using the pencil tool and a lot of copy and pasting.

Vertical distortion:

With original text:

Horizontal distortion:

With original text:

Everything:

Final outcome without colour:

After reading through the brief, an initial concept of my partner (Kirsty) for the second brief (poster) was to use the duplication of the word Odonis as a reflection. We agreed that I would consider this avenue and try to create some outcomes. This would then form the central part of the poster, with the other information falling below this central feature. This would also allow synthesis between background imagery and the type used in the poster. Finding an image to be used was difficult due to quality issues and finding an appropriate image of a flat horizon with water.

Initial idea:

I found an image from when I was on holiday in Morocco this summer, and we used that. 

Original Image: 

Manipulation attempts:

The issue with these trials was mainly that the use of a CMYK palette meant that the image was somewhat unordered. I then attempted to use a duotone palette to achieve ideal colour:

After having settled on a duotone setting for the background image, I began to add the text.

A key issue with the text was that the visual qualities of the background image made it harder to read the text. Adding transparent bounding boxes between the text and image allowed for greater legibility.

Screenshot of final outcome for poster:

During the design process, I printed a few trials out of the poster at A4 scale to test colours and transparencies (which affected legibility):

In the final half-hour of the workshop session, I addressed the issue of my self-directed art piece:

Having heard DR.ME talk so fondly of using hand-rendered method for design production, I decided to create something without involving digital processes. The finished piece was meant to mimic no-smoking signs in terms of it's presentation. The small format made this particularly easy, as many no-smoking signs are about this size.

Scan of drawing:

If there was a caption for this image, it would read : "Don't let your thoughts ruin someone else's day."

Evaluation

Overall, I am happy with the outcome of this brief. More so with Duga 3 and the personal art brief, as these really communicated the message at heart. The odonis odonis brief was more of an aesthetically lead one, however it was still clear to the point and suited the previous promotion of the brand.

It was interesting and fun to work with kirsty on this brief, particularly as we both have a different style of working. Despite this, the method we chose to work, by which we each each set about creating one piece individually, while conferring with each other as well, proved not to be very collaborative, and this shows in the difference of the work we produced.

I found this brief very enjoyable and Dr. Me very friendly and helpful. In future I would maybe try to extend it across a range of items to make a fuller set of work from it.