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Picking a Criticality Theme

So firstly before I can carry on with this project, I firstly need to pick a theme to base this project on and to create said outcomes for it. Theo suggested to write out a quick list with the topics that myself is interested in and then go from there and do further research into the topic and from there start creating some initial ideas to present to Carol and Theo in the tutorials.

What I am Interested in:

  1. Make up (Beauty)
  2. Rugby
  3. Cricket
  4. Sports
  5. Fitness
  6. Gym
  7. World War 2
  8. Native American History/Culture
  9. South Africa
  10. Blood Diamond

The main subjects I am interested in the list above is Native American History/Culture and Blood Diamonds or also known as “Conflict Diamonds”.

To understand more about Blood Diamond, I decided to do more research into this specific subject, I put all the information into a mind map as you can see above. Even though Blood Diamonds were more present in the 1990’s, it is still happening in this present day but at a lower percentage which is still quite alarming as peoples human rights are still being affected in today’s era which is quite concerning. I want to highlight this issue as not many people know about this topic and customers will buy diamonds thinking they are sourced in a safe environment when in reality some of them aren’t.

Doing research into what themes you would like to take further into a project is vital as it gives you more incentive and more understanding of any specific theme you do choose and when I was researching I found that I was drawn more towards Blood Diamond than any of the other ideas I put down and as a graphic designer doing research is very helpful into deciding what route you would want to take on further to the project as you get more information and from this create mind maps to get the ideas out quickly onto paper etc and from this starting collecting a range of initial ideas, this is why carrying out research is vital to a graphic designers practice.

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Afterlife – Michael Place – Studio.Build

Michael Place runs his own business called Studio.Build which is based in Leeds, United Kingdom. He discusses how he has a love hate relationship with Graphic Design, as he goes through stages of disliking some aspects and liking others.

He originally got into Graphic Design due to his love of music and specifically the albums to where he was drawn and very interested to the typography. Later on he went to college, when he finished college, he then applied for a 2 year OND course where his love for typography became increasingly more sophisticated, he preferred typefaces that were more expressive rather than pretty.

He later applied for another Graphic Design course based in Newcastle studying Commercial Graphic Design which he did not particularly enjoy.

His first job was with Trevor Jackson in 1991 who was a Graphic Designer/Musician, Michael loved to deisgn album covers but really disliked working in London, so he moved back up North.

A year later, he got another job where he worked there for 8/9 years where the majority of his outcomes were album/editorial type based.

STUDIO.BUILDS

In this studio, the team is built up of 5 people, Michael states having smaller team is preferred as he feels there is enough support and care for their team and getting the very best for clients also. He likes to challenge the studio by working with a wide range of brands such as Nike as an example but also likes to help smaller business. Motto “Do good work for good people”.

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Afterlife – James Greenfield – Studio Koto

James Greenfield is the creative director and co founder of Studio Koto which is based in many different places such as Berlin, London and LA where there are 50 members that make up the team ranging from designers, writers etc. His goal is to male impacting presents to change the future.

“Working at the intersection of brands and digital, we build businesses for the era of attention” —-> works with brands and helps build up these brands and their businesses.

There many brands Stuido Koto have worked with such as Netflix, Venom, Coca Cola, Nike, Air Bnb and many other small companies.

His designers get stuck in to follow the design aesthetics which suit themselves and not the end result which will benefit consumers and users of the brand. This highlights the designer, we should think about the end goal and how it will be beneficial for others.

James Greenfield doesn’t like to be known as a Graphic Designer but rather a brand director that helps brands maintain their success and further improve upon their brands and products.

He graduated Bath Spa Univeristy in 2001 and then moved to London, then in 2002, he got his first job but this is where he strugged to express his ideas onto paper. He said first drafts arent meant to be perfect, it is to further test you.

In 2003, he started his second job in the Shoe Company, where he started to brand shoes, this was where he started to realise the impact he was having. In 2005, he worked in a studio job where they believed in “everybody deserves a good designs” BB/Saunders.

James actually revealed that he is dyslexic, which most certainly does not stop him from achieving his goals in life.

MAIN POINTS TAKEN FROM THE TALK

  1. No designer will be perfect in all aspects of design.
  2. Timescales should not exist.
  3. Do not work with dicks.
  4. Take on a challenge.
  5. Do not focus too much on aesthetic.
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New Project – Criticality

Today we started off a new project called Criticality that was introduced by Theo. As he was explaining the new term Criticality and how people have conveyed this into various design outcomes, it has made made very confused about it as it can be used in any aspect.

Our brief is to provoke consideration of the power of graphic communication design. This project is quite different from a typical commercially orientated design brief. It is about identifying problems, rather than solving them. It is about challenging presumptions rather than stating them. This project will provide me with space to think critically about your practice and the practices of others.

This projects presents an opportunity for myself to reflect on my Level 6 portfolio – if my portfolio only contains ‘static’ work then I will need to consider other outcome methods such as motion graphics, hand made etc.

DELIVERABLES

For this project, it is up to us what the deliverables are for it. It all depends on the nature of the critical design research and the topic that I have identified. Can create – image to print, something screen based or a diegetic prototype. Criticality is the common theme for these projects.

In the brief it states to be ambitious and to create whatever graphic communication that I think best addresses the brief.

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Afterlife – Jack Renwick Studios

This is the first afterlife session we all had with Jack Renwick and Susie McGowan from Jack Renwick Studios based in London.

She is a board member for D&AD, writer, judge, speaker etc. She is originally from Glasgow, Scotland. When she was in high school she didn’t really have a clue with what she wanted to do for her career and someone suggested Graphic Design and at that time there weren’t any jobs at the time for Graphic Design, so she decided to enter a D&AD competition where she actually came out winning and this is when her Graphic Design career started out.

15 years later she left her studio job and decided to open up her own studio and business called Jack Renwick Studios which is based in London.

Susie McGowan who is the head/senior designer in the studio. Susie went to University in Northern Ireland and in her final year she entered the D&AD competition where she won.

The studio culture in Jack Renwick Studios is seen as a tight nit group where they like to do bonding activities. It is also seen as a very respectful atmosphere to work in.

Tips Given

  1. Keep projects simple
  2. Research into topics thoroughly
  3. Try and stand out
  4. Take things on the chin
  5. Put yourself in the situation
  6. See opportunity in everything

This afterlife session with Jack Renwick and Susie McGowan was really interesting and insightful to there careers and how they gotten to where they are now. Jack Renwick shows you that anything can be accomplished if you set yourself to it by pushing yourself and taking chances to get to what you want to achieve, as she has her own business which is very successful which is quite hard to do currently with the pandemic we are in.

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Final Outcome + Feedback

I decided to go with this outcome for the Penguin project as I felt it was the strongest outcome of them all.

Feedback from tutorial

We all had a group tutorial where we would receive feedback from our tutors.

My feedback:

  1. The typeface I created is very strong and works well.
  2. Colours are good, will catch the readers attention.
  3. I need to be more ambitious with my ideas.
  4. The silhouette is overused and common
  5. Can not tell that the book is about Talking Turkeys
  6. Because I’ve gone with the Caribbean heritage, I could combine this with the clothing like a shirt and implement a pattern within this,
  7. Stick with the typeface as it is strong and be more experimental

When I develop this further, I will most certainly take the feedback forward to create a stronger piece.

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Initial Ideas

After doing some initial research on the author and the book “Talking Turkeys”, I have created some quick sketches of some initial ideas.

I decided to focus on the author/poets heritage as he grew up in the Caribbean as it is an apparent aspect of his life and his artistry of Rasta vibes. I wanted to experiment more with typography and see what kind of organic and earthy typeface I could create, so I experimented with a few different designs and then used colour and placements to see which typefaces were the strongest. Also experimenting with the reggae style of the free flowing and relaxed vibes.

I used my Ipad Pro to create these typefaces. I will experiment and develop my outcomes even further.

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Penguin Project + Research into Talking Turkeys + Mood boards

We received a new project at the start of the term to redesign a penguin book cover given to us by Penguin – These 3 book covers are Adult Fiction “Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee” by Meera Syal, Adult Non Fiction “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace-Wells and lastly Childrens cover “Talking Turkeys” by Benjamin Zephaniah. I read into each of these titles and decided to go with “Talking Turkeys” by Benjamin Zephaniah as I was drawn more to this book than any of the other two titles.

Research into Talking Turkeys

Benjamin Zephaniah – born in Birmingham but spent most of his early life in Jamaica.

Appears regualry on radio and TV – Desert Island and Discs

Taken part in films and plays

Most well known for his performance poetry with a political edge for both children and adults and gritty teen ficton.

Talking Turkeys, Wicked World and Funky Chickens.

Collection of rap style poems – environment, social issues, heroes, racism, animal rights and other less serious topics.

The Melting Pot – In “We Refugees” descries British culture as being a “melting pot” of different cultures – racial issues present in British culture.

Race and gender are a key motif, e.g. “Who’s Who” addresses his past close-mindness when it comes to genders and professions.

Original cover – gangster theme, turkey dressed up as a rapper, turkey relates to the book title, playful typography, strong colour profile and simplistic design aesthetic.

Both book covers use turkeys in there covers so keeping this in mind, I want to avoid using cliches like using turkeys as it has been done. I wanted to focus on culture but more specifically the authors Jamaican upbringing and implementing this into my design process.

I created some mood boards based on Rasta art and Jamaican culture as this is a key aspect I want to focus on taking forward to the ideation process. I want to use a bright colour palette as this is aimed towards children, so this book cover needs to catch the attention of the children.

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