OUGD504 - Design Production: Design For Print and Web Crit (With Industry Professional)

Today I ended up having a discussion with my boyfriend who currently works for Sony as a Character Artist, and therefore the feedback I received from him was extremely valid as he works in a creative environment working alongside graphic designers with experience in what I am currently doing. 

Firstly, I explained my concept for print. I brought the following ideas up in the discussion:

• Using leaves to create ink
• Making the pack reusable
• The possibility of using leaves as a way of illustrating some processes (laser cut)
• The concept of 'take a leaf out of my book' or 'turn over a new leaf'
• My initial idea of having an information pack for students, which has progressed in to the idea of the audience being children and their parents (families) since the crit with Phil
• The purpose of the pack to create something which would encourage designers to be more eco-friendly, which then changed in to a pack which would engage youngsters and their families in the different print processes (after the crit with Phil)
• The idea of including seeds to plant in the pack so that the recipient could grow their own ink essentially 

Once I had explained all of these ideas out loud it became apparent to me that I wasn't completely satisfied myself with how the idea has progressed since my crit. I hadn't found the previous crit as useful as it could have been which is perhaps what has led me to this confusion.

The questions I was asked as a result:

Why it is necessary to use leaves for your brief? Why not use vegetables as well? 

This is something I had considered, but at the same time I hadn't really put it in to practice because I am still at the stage where I am trying to thicken my ink using binder. This also made me consider whether people would actually want to make their own ink themselves and whether they would actually bother with it or not. Perhaps it is all getting a bit too fiddly.

The feedback if this was aimed at designers:

Designers may not necessarily be interested in actually making their own ink, they would perhaps just rather be made aware of the print possibilities which printing places have to offer.

The feedback if this was aimed at families:

The children wouldn't understand the concept of being more eco-friendly necessarily at their age, and as a result it would remove the quality of the concept 'turn over a new leaf'. Another issue would be that vegetable ink is only one small area within printing and by providing them with the seeds would perhaps limit the content I could include. I also feel as though a lot of the emphasis and energy has been going in to the concept a bit too much, when I should really be considering the content a bit more, as this will inform my decisions more successfully.

Why would you use laser cut leaves in your pack? Isn't this unnecessary and hard to reproduce? Consider this brief as if it was a live brief.

The reasoning I had to answer this question wasn't really as strong as it should have been. This is something I simply wanted to experiment with initially, and something I may not actually use for my final resolution to this brief.

When I was told to consider this brief as a live brief, it seemed much more professional instantly. This would mean that I couldn't use things such as leaves to laser cut, unless I was going to photograph them, because the info pack itself is becoming too crafty, especially when the underlying concept it to simply make people aware and open their eyes to environmentally friendly processes where print is concerned.

Why not create something which is compact to encourage small businesses to use the greener option when contacting printing places to produce their work for them?

This was a suggestion which really gave me a positive feeling. I think this could definitely work and is very applicable to my idea. Rather than it being so hand crafted and perhaps a bit hand made looking, it would be better for it to have more of a corporate feel with a serious underlying message.

I feel as though receiving this feedback has given me an incentive to really nail down my idea and make sure that I know exactly what I need to produce and include. I am really pleased with the outcome of this crit though because I know that it is much more suited to the real world and producing it in a different format, perhaps by creating a mailshot, it is instantly much easier to reproduce and distribute this way, as opposed to it being a box with books inside. To save the environment as well, I would reuse the envelope in some way and I would also present the information inside on a concertina format.

OUGD504 - Design Production: Design For Print and Web Crit

This morning we had a crit with either Phil or Lorraine in small groups. I was in a group with Phil as well as Adam, Lizzy, Abi, Amy and Anna. We were at the start of the day and had one hour to get through everyone and give everyone some constructive feedback. I went first and discussed both my ideas for web as well as print.

I started off explaining my concept for web and how I am going to base it around the concept of sugar cane. Using my three scamps I explained which had stood out to be the most successful in Simon's web design session. I would have liked some feedback on the content of my website at this point but nobody really responded to what I had to say. Phil said I should decide on my content myself and narrow it down so that I didn't have too much to work with, I felt as though this was a fair point and I am going to strongly consider my content now that I have had this crit. 

The feedback I was given for my web ideas are as follows:

•  Phil liked the idea of creating a sustainable future and involved the audience by asking them to create something out of recycled material and sharing it with the world essentially.
• Phil also mentioned that when he was listening to my idea he instantly thought that it could be an educational resource and said that I should consider whether it could maybe be for schools, businesses or commercial use.
• The idea of looking at current brands who have used sugar cane within their packaging also seemed to appear to be a strong idea, this is something I need to consider.
• Overall I was therefore told to really look at my audience and focus it down, when doing this it will help me to decide on my content as well.

I have therefore decided to carry out some primary research and get some feedback from people in my year group to see which they think would be the most beneficial website to produce. I think this will help me immensely and it is important that I gather this primary research to know that I am creating something worthwhile that would be used.

I then spoke about my print brief. I had spent quite a lot of time explaining it yesterday to the group I was in and so I didn't want to take up too much time today concentrating on it. I therefore tried to summarise all of my ideas, however this was hard as I have currently got so many. My main concern at the moment is my target audience, as I really need to nail this down before continuing any further with design ideas as such. 

The feedback I was given for my print ideas are as follows:

• As soon as I had explained how I would be creating this pack based on the idea of 'turning over a new leaf' or even 'take a leaf out of my book', as well as mentioning about how I would have seeds at the end of the book and things to push out and create bookmarks, Phil came back to me and responded by saying that he instantly thought it would be perfect for the use of families. This is something I hadn't previously considered because obviously my underlying concept it all about being eco friendly with design. Beth then asked Phil about the content of my print information pack and suggested that children wouldn't be able to necessarily fulfill the process. Phil then said it would therefore be more of a challenge for me, something I would greatly benefit from, because I would have to consider how to approach it in terms of tone of voice. I could write it so that the adults could understand it and teach their children, and at the same time would be encouraged to consider what materials to use when playing with their children or even teaching them. I also think this gives me more scope to include a wider variety of things in my pack. I had already considered including the wooden stamps that I use to create the pack, so that the children could then use the ink they make with their seeds, and then use the wood blocks to print. This could easily be extended by creating more 'props' for them to use for a variety of processes.
• Due to not having to include everything within my pack (as long as it is shown on my blog that I have researched it) it allows me to be more selective about the information. Phil suggested that I could perhaps provide the parents/adults with a separate glossary with all of the other processes if I felt it was necessary.
• Last night I carried out some further research after my crit, and I found some resusable white boards as well as clear sticky boards. This would most certainly appeal more to children. I do however think that I need to aim it at children who have already been in education for a good amount of time, because they will need to be able to read and respect the pack in terms of keeping it in good quality.

I felt as though this crit was beneficial in terms of the feedback that I received, however I also felt as though I was slightly rushed and was unable to get across all of the points that I was hoping to make. This is because I was aware that we only had one hour to get through everyone. I do think however, that next week's crit with Lorraine and Phil will help me a lot more and put me in the right direction, and at the moment I can concentrate on responding to the feedback I have been given over the past two days.

OUGD504 - Design Production: Design For Print and Web Crit

This morning we had a briefing with Phil when he told us all about what we will be doing this morning. We then went in to the studio to discuss our work. 

We got in to our own groups, ours had seven people in it. I felt as though this was a good amount to start with, however at the end we ran out of time which could perhaps imply that we were either spending too much time on one person's ideas, or that we could have done with having smaller groups to work in. This is something I can suggest next time.

Whilst we were talking through our ideas, Lorraine came over and started talking to us about audience. She had heard us talking about audience and how a lot of us were designing for 'graphic designers' or 'first year graphic designers' and she suggested that this was perhaps a bit too broad and that we needed to consider WHO exactly we were talking to and aiming it at. She then asked us who:

• Boys and girls
• Background can differ
• Have an education whether they come from A level, foundation or work etc
• Lorraine suggested that we should take away the label and ask WHO?
• May have to look at statistics
• Who else could it benefit?
• Why would they be interested?

When Jamie was discussing his idea he mentioned the book he had used 'Print and Finish' by Ambrose/Harris. This is something I am going to look at and perhaps buy to help me as it looked like a strongly designed book.

The feedback I received was:

• Make paper out of leaves - paper can be created by using leaves
• When embossing, reverse the letters so that it is the opposite that sticks out
• Create a tree which can be used to hang the leaves from - this would have two purposes and could be used afterwards for a plant to grow around and planed in a pot of soil
• Melissa mentioned that on the website, not on the high street there are plant seeds with words on so this is something I am going to look in to

Whilst we were discussing my idea I also thought about the possibility of me being able to package my books which could then be torn off and the inside of the packaging could then have a template of something which you could make - perhaps a bag which the pack could be stored inside.

I have decided that I am going to create some prototypes of some of my ideas for tomorrow's crit as I think this would be beneficial to me when explaining my concept.

I found this crit quite useful as I had some constructive feedback which I will be able to apply to my work. However, I think more feedback tomorrow will allow me to be sure about some of the things I am currently unsure about when relating to the actual design.

OUGD504 - Design Production: Concept Presentation

Today we presented our concepts to the rest of the year group. I felt as though ours went quite well, however we could have probably spoken for longer quite easily as we didn't manage to get across all of the points we had for our hotel concept. I thought that everyone worked really well in groups as their presentations were successful and engaging. I could definitely see a huge difference from first year to now, we all seem to have grown in confidence a lot. I think we will be able to learn a lot from this task and will be able to apply our knowledge to our work in the future.