OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - LCA Film Society Poster Competition

Within Leeds College of Art the Film Society runs a monthly competition to design a range of posters for the films that are playing.

The briefs for Feb/March were released on 14th February. One possible film within the brief was Birdman (2015), which had a deadline of 10th March.

Birdman details the story of Riggan Thomson, a faded Hollywood actor known for playing the fictional superhero 'Birdman', as he struggles to embarks on writing and starring in his own Broadway play. The film is noted for it's cinematography and the use of scenery and colour throughout. Because of this one of the most appropriate response to the brief would be to focus on particular colours. Below are the examples of stills that formed the basis of the research and idea generation for this brief.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Project Style

Once visual research had been shared it was discussed in what style our project would be done. As three out of four members of the group were on the illustration course it was decided that an illustrative project would utilise the strengths of the group and allow the majority of the work load to be spread more evenly. Because of this, my role within the group would be almost entirely editorial design and photoshop work, which also plays to my personal strengths as a graphic designer.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Project Concept

After sharing visual research in a group meeting, the group solidified the concept for the advertising campaign. In order for the Royal Opera House to become more accessible to their desired target audience we want to create a location-based campaign that will advertise a trip to the Royal Opera House as a package deal. Through the use of physical advertising posters and social media we will create a series of designs that the entire cost of a trip to the Royal Opera House, including ticket price, travel and accommodation. One of the many current perceptions of ballet is the high prices of tickets. Through research we have proven this to be incorrect, and our campaign will reveal the true accessibility of the arts.

Advertising posters will be created around the key concept of location and the distance from different cities around the UK to London. We will utilise a heavily illustrative campaign to create fresh designs and appeal to a younger, socially conscious audience, while the inclusion of social media will allow the brand to reach further and connect with the desired market.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Group Meeting #4 Minutes

Meeting: 21/02/2107

Present: Shelly, Sophia, Meg, Erin



Meg presented a selection of primary research from her visit to the royal opera house

Meg found that the ROH caters to students, selling student tickets and providing a student service with cheaper food and drinks

Shelly gave brief feedback from her interview with her ballet contact but will formally write up the content to share with the group in the next fews days

Shelly and Sophia both presented ‘roughs’ - sketches showing potential ideas for illustrated posters and animated videos

Initially our ideas from the last meeting included demonstrating the location of theatres in several cities around the country, however on reflection as the brief specifically focuses on the Royal Opera House our ideas should all revolve around the city of London

We talked about aspects of the ROH’s existing structure that could be used within our own campaign - looking at attracting the specified target audience we concluded that using the terms ‘Royal Opera House Student’ and ‘Young Friend Membership’ would allow young professionals aged 20-30 to find the ROH more economically accessible.

We all finalised the concept for our campaign: the campaign will focus on the geographic location and the economic factors of the Royal Opera House

We continued to generate ideas for the poster designs - posters specific to each city advertising a bus or train journey from Leeds/Manchester/Liverpool to the ROH with the cost of travel an ticket included.

Erin shared some found visual ideas, including the featured image below, which the group singled out as a good example of how we might include different elements to create a flow chart/map







Actions:

All create more finalised visual ideas and digital mock ups

Next meeting we will all present our own interpretations of the idea and then combine the successful elements in order to refine the idea and finalise the campaign



Date of next meeting: 24/02/2107

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Visual Research

As a starting point for this brief, each member of the group collective a selection of visual research that would allow us to consider and inform our ideas while also combining the unique perspectives of each individual:

Combining typography and the movement of ballet dancers

Another example or incorporating movement and

typography, although in a less fluid way

Comparing ballet to other everyday activities or extreme sports

Looking specifically at the movements of the dancers

Focusing on the audience of a ballet show and their reactions

Looking at combining multiple elements of going to a ballet

through a flow chart style poster

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Questionnaire Answers

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Papyrus Second Design

The second draft of the design, with the additional detail of the planet and shooting star removed to create an 'empty' sky. In a group peer critique the design was received with positive feedback. The majority of the group favoured preference for this design over the first. It was stated that although it was much a simpler design, the concept was a lot stronger and allowed a greater sense of freedom for the user. It was felt that the concept created a unique alternative to the standard responses to this brief and would create a positive space where users could express themselves.

This design was submitted to the competition but is still awaiting a response.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Group Meeting #3 Minutes

Meeting: 16/02/17

Present: Shelly, Sophie, Erin



All looked at the results from the questionnaire:

Most people who answered the questions were aged between 15-25

Nearly 90% of people who answered were female

Majority of people who answered were students

58% people had never been to the ballet but 42% had - not too far from half and half

People who go: 80% went to the ballet rarely, 20% went occasionally - visits to the ballet are never frequent

People who don’t go: most people said they don’t have the opportunity, both economically and in terms of proximity to a theatre

Most common perceptions of the ballet were that is was formal, traditional and expensive

The most interesting aspect of ballet for people who answered was the choreography, followed by costumes then atmosphere and music - narrative had the least appeal

When asked about ticket prices most answered with an average of £50

When asked which social media people used the most 100% of people said facebook, 95% said instagram and 87% said snapchat

Analysing these results we all concluded that cost, accessibility and opportunity were the most important aspects that our campaign should focus on, as well as making ballet feel more contemporary.




We all generated a range of ideas from these results:

Creating a map campaign that would show people their proximity to landmarks in their cities, including the closest theatre/ballet studio
Creating a campaign based around the cost of tickets, showing equivalent items that could be purchased for the same price as a cheap ballet ticket (£3 - sandwich, coffee, pin badge, ballet ticket) (£15 - dinner, train ticket, t-shirt, make up, ballet ticket)




We all defined what mediums and aesthetics we wanted to use within the campaign:

A campaign that utilises illustration and text as apposed to photography
‘On trend’ design - more minimal, fresh, brightly coloured
Possibly including traditional print methods/textures to represent the traditional elements of ballet




We all made a list of end products that would need to be considered:

• Posters 
• Moving posters (for screens) 
• Snapchat filters 
• GIF’s (for use on social media) 
• Merchandise (tote bags, pins?) 
• Mock-up of website 
• Banners and icons for social media 
• Mock-up of printed collateral (leaflets, publications etc) 

We all brainstormed a selection of questions to ask Shelly’s ballet contact



Actions:

Shelly contact ballet girl about posing for some photographs and possible interview

All create some roughs and wireframes from the generated ideas

All find examples of illustration and design that would be attractive to the target audience

All make lists that could be included in the map and price ideas

All bring some form of visual cue to the next meeting



Date of next meeting: 21/02/2017

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Papyrus First Design

The initial design for the Papyrus colouring book pages:

This first design features a stylised version of the milky way and takes a minimalist approach, featuring large expanses on white space and cartoon style stars depicted as simple circles in various sizes. The design places an emphasis on placing the colour within the negative space rather than within the enclosed spaces. The negative space also provides large areas of the page where the positive message(s) may be written without limiting the length of any text that a user might wish to write.

This design was presented in a peer critique and feedback was given on both the concept and the design. There was a positive response for the theme of space as it was felt that this was not commonly related to the theme of relaxation, and would provide an interesting and engaging colouring experience. Some felt that the theme might not be considered conventionally relaxing within the guidelines of the competition and therefore might not prove to be the most successful, however when considering that users would colour outside of the lines as apposed to inside the, it was agreed that this would provide a unique contrast from other submissions and would encourage users to think more creatively and in broader terms.

In terms of the design however it was felt that the additional detail of the planet and shooting star made the design feel more naive and less like a page that would be included in an adult colouring book. It was suggested that either more complex detail could be added to make the design more accessible and appropriate to the target audience, or that additional detail could be excluded completely to create a most expansive colouring space.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Questionnaire

A questionnaire would be the fastest way for the group to gather information and feedback on the Royal Opera House and ballet as an art form. The questions themselves were designed to discover the current perceptions of ballet from the target audience but also from a wider audience. It was important to find out which elements of ballet attracted an audience or dissuaded them from going in order for our project to utilise important concepts that could be more accessible to the target audience.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Papyrus Idea Generation

Upon receiving this brief I generated a range of ideas of themes that could be considered relaxing and/or stress relieving. Standard themes include nature, forests, mountains and the ocean, however these would likely to be fairly common among submissions to this competition and should therefore be avoided in order to produce a more successful submission.

Other ideas included a library scene, an art studio, an art gallery or the general theme of space. During a small peer critique the theme of space received the most positive feedback, with the majority of people stating that it was not the most conventional theme and would therefore be an interesting interpretation for this brief. Further ideas were then generated around the theme of space and the universe, and potential designs could include stars, planets, the solar system and the milky way. From this feedback I began to create a range of physical line drawings.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Papyrus Research

In order to effectively answer the brief, research was undertaken into existing designs for adult colouring books in order to gain visual cues as to the most effective solution that could be produced. All existing designs appear to be detail orientated, consisting of complex patterns that are made up of many small shapes so as to provide a large but intricate surface area to be coloured by the user:

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Group Meeting #2 Minutes

Meeting: 13/09/17

Present: Sophia, Shelly, Erin


Previous Actions:

Can’t book photography studio until week before





All went through the brief and highlighted a list of key words to be written in a manifesto to which all design decision within the group would comply to.

All shared research from past few days - Shelly presented examples of previous visual campaigns from the Royal Opera House, which we briefly analysed; Erin presented facts about the economic aspects of ballet (pdf’s of ticket prices over 2016)

All agreed that a questionnaire would be needed to gather primary research about the perceptions of ballet - all devised a series of questions to be sent out to people both inside and outside of the college

Signed up to Survey Monkey (username: responsive17, password: responsive17, email: eb260219@students.leeds-art.ac.uk)

Made the questionnaire and posted link to our group chat

Actions:

All continue with research

Generate ideas and create some sketches in order to have some solid concepts to present at the next meeting


Date of next meeting: 16/02/17

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 01 - Papyrus Brief

A brief from the Papyrus organisation to create pages for an adult colouring book:

Papyrus is an organisation that specialises in the prevention of young suicide, provides services to inform and educate the general public and support young people at risk and families who have experienced a loss.

'We believe that unless we open up the conversation about suicide, we won’t make progress towards preventing it. So we aren’t afraid to talk about it and have been doing lots of work encouraging people to #talkthroughthetaboo. Stress, for a lot of us, is an everyday occurrence. Something we just deal with, a fact of life. But it’s is also a leading cause of mental health problems. What if we could help to relieve stress, and prevent it from becoming a bigger issue, in the most simple way - colouring. Colouring has been proven to relieve stress and anxiety, calming the mind and allowing people to unwind and relax. The aim of this project is to publish a colouring book titled ‘The Art of a Peaceful Mind’. One of the areas we focus on is the importance of keeping our minds healthy, and this colouring book should be used as a preventative tool for keeping a healthy mind.'


The Brief

In an adult colouring book style line drawing, create a visual representation of something that helps you feel calm and relaxed, with a couple of lines explaining what it is you’ve drawn and why.

You can be as literal or abstract as you like. The specifications are that it needs to be A3 landscape with space for your paragraph, and please use a Staedtler 0.3mm fine liner pen. If you prefer to work digitally, please use a 3px brush size.

With your help, The Art of a Peaceful Mind can be more than a stress release. It will be a guide to helping young people.

Deadline: 27th February 2017

Submission:

Your work - For hand drawn work this should be scanned at 600dpi and sent as a PDF, digital work should be sent as an illustrator file. If the file size is too big to attach in an email, please use wetransfer and include a link to your work in the email. 

A couple of sentences about your piece

Your contact details - Your name, age, university/college (if applicable), and a link to your website/online portfolio for us to include in the book.

If possible, please also include a time lapse video of you creating your illustration.

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Research

As a collaborative group we undertook research, each focusing on specific areas. I was tasked with researching the economic aspect of ballet.

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London, and is the home of both The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet. Ballet as an art form has a reputation of being one of the most expensive arts, with equipment, costumes and education all costing many thousands of pounds. However, the price of the art form does not necessarily reflect the price of viewing a show. Research into the venue and ticket prices revealed that the cost of a ticket can vary hugely, although some tickets were surprisingly cheap, with seats going from as little as £4. 

It was discovered that the pricing in the most popular months (spring/summer) could reach as high as £270 per ticket, however, cheaper alternatives were always available. An average ticket price of the cheaper range of tickets at around £30-£40, which is more than accessible for many young adults and new-comers to ballet.

The Royal Opera House also offers multiple Friend memberships, including the Young Friend Membership. At £58 a year the Young Friend Membership offers exclusive deals including priority information through their quarterly magazine, priority booking and invitations to three events across the Season, including the opportunity to go on a backstage tour. For young professionals with a larger disposable income, a Friend membership is still highly accessible and could provide a focus for our group campaign.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Brief

Encourage culturally engaged young people to experience ballet for the first time


The Brief

The Royal Opera House and AKA, the international entertainment marketing agency, are challenging you to create a campaign that will encourage culturally engaged young people aged 20-30 to experience ballet for the first time.


Why Ballet, what can it bring to young peoples’ lives?

Ballet exists in many forms from the lyric narrative beauty of a Swan Lake to the abstract modernism of Wayne McGregor’s Chroma. Like opera it deals with the big human themes – life, love, death, loss, passion, joy, anger and humour – all things that we deal with in everyday life.

We believe in sharing this beautiful art form as widely available as possible, which is why we bring world-class composers, conductors, dancers, writers, artists, technicians, craftsmen, and administrators together in our iconic theatre to make it happen, and publicise what we do as broadly and inclusively as we can. The problem

While some young people might attend the ballet once a year as a special occasion, we find that in some areas our audience is not as diverse as the population as a whole, and, in particular, young people are under-represented. We want to change this and engage and inspire more young people to be part of our audience if we are to ensure the long-term survival of ballet as an art form. To quote The Royal Ballet’s founder, ‘Somebody must always be doing something new, or life would get very dull.’ We are always doing something new on stage and we want you to help us do something new off-stage to communicate it to young people.

The people we’re talking about for the purpose of this brief are those aged between 20 and 30 who already attend plays, gigs, and exhibitions, but who don’t consider ballet. Why? Because they simply think it isn’t for them. We want to challenge this perception, and to invite these young people to give ballet a try – which is where you come in.



The Creative Challenge

We – that’s the Royal Opera House and our advertising agency AKA – would like you to come up with a creative concept or idea that dispels the preconceptions and celebrates the beauty and emotion that ballet brings to the stage, something that challenges our target audience to look at ballet as an art form that could be a new love in their lives. Break down those preconceptions that have become a barrier to attendance. We’d like to you show them that ballet as an art form isn’t what they think is it – and moreover that it is for them.


Our target audience currently think that

• Ballet is old fashioned, filled with tutus, musically dry, stuffy, formal and traditional and not relevant to contemporary life
• Ballet is for the wealthy middle England and old people, not ‘people like me’
• You have to understand the language of choreography to understand or enjoy it • There are certain accepted opinions about ballet, and open interpretation or appreciation of it is not welcome
• Ballet is just men in tights and ladies en pointe pretending they are in a fairy-tale • Ballet is mainly for girls

We would like to communicate to them instead

• Ballet can be exciting and alive and a thrill to watch - it’s everything from graceful and beautiful to violent and passionate
• Ballets may have been created for the Royal Courts of Europe many, many years ago, but new ones are being created all the time – it’s a modern and energetic artform
• Because it deals with the big human themes – life, love, death, loss, passion, joy, anger, humour – it’s relevant to everyone, and everyone can understand it
• Ballets can draw from a wide range of influences from fashion to literature and rock/pop music to full orchestral work. There are no rules.


Creative Considerations

You need to show how your idea will work as an advertising campaign – across digital, print, out of home and social media advertising.
Creative needs to feature the Royal Opera House logo.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Issue - Orientated Design

Examples of politically motivated graphic design:

Shepard Fairey, Obama Hope poster (2008)

Jim Fitzpatrick, Che Guevara poster (1968) - original photograph

image was outside of international copyright laws (due to the

communist state of Cuba), and so belonged to the Cuban people

Shepard Fairey, Russell Brand 'Messiah Complex' tour poster

Gerald Holtom, CND logo, 1958 - uses the semaphore symbols for the letters

Paris May 1968 posters, unknown - student revolution and occupation of the

school of fine arts, rejecting the Conservative government and mass unemployment

Emory Douglas, Black Panthers posters (1970)

There is an ongoing stylistic continuity between all of these works. Typically they all use quick and efficient processes such as screenprinting and wood cut, and handwritten or stencil typography and a red and black colour scheme feature heavily (red and black being symbolic of Socialism). There is a recognised political aesthetic that has become synonymous with brash messages and the challenge of social change. This aesthetic has risen out of the understanding that part of graphic communication come from cohesion, and the understanding of a particular language or messages within a particular context. There has been an obvious evolution of this style, with a common re-use of these distinct design factors.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Key Elements of Collaboration

In preparation for the group collaborative responsive brief 6 key elements of collaborative work were highlighted:


Motivation
Everyone involved needs to feel that they’re gaining something from the collaboration or feel that they’re doing a meaningful thing and working towards a valuable end result.


Communication
Giving information and regular updates about the project allows everyone involved to remain aware of progress and approaching deadlines


Diversity
A diverse group of participants is often the best way to ensure success and utilising a range of skill sets from a range of individuals will produce more varied outcomes with greater consideration for the brief as a whole.


Sharing
Be flexible with the ownership of ideas. This does not mean that a team should give credit to individuals where credit is due, but any issues of ownership of ideas and concepts need to be agreed at the offset.


Support
Support other members of the team at times of crisis or unforeseen difficulties. Even when no hardships are expected, the collaborative group needs to work on a basis of trust that if someone were to need the support of others in the group, that support would be available.


Problem Solving
The group must be able to solve problems together. High tolerance for uncertainty is needed when the project changes direction or something does not go as planned.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Collaborative Creative Contract

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Royal Opera House Group Meeting #1 Minutes

Meeting: 09/02/2017

Present: Megan, Sophia, Shelly, Erin



First official meeting of the group!

All showed examples of our work to the group to demonstrate the fields that we work and are interested in

All made a skills audit and discussed our individual strengths that could benefit the group

All filled out the creative collaboration contract

Megan made a rough timetable for the project so we are aware of the project deadline and when each individual will not be present

Agreed that we should take minutes of each meeting in order to keep an effective history of topics discussed at each meeting, create actions for individuals within the group and allow individuals who are not present to know our progression

Agreed that we should have a shared google drive space to share ideas and work

Sophia Volunteered to manage any potential budget for the project - all agreed that we should keep a spreadsheet on the shared google that individuals would update when necessary

All agreed that research should be the first activity, all agreed that sending out a survey to a target audience aged between 20-30 would provide a good starting point

All worked out a more thorough timetable for research, idea generations, physical work, photographing the final product and creating the submission pack



Actions:

All book a photography studio for Friday 10th March

All print brief and highlight key words and point

All undertake research into ballet as an art form, the typical audience of ballet and theatre (age, class, social background)

All undertake research into The Royal Opera House (look at how they present themselves through print and digital campaigns, tone of voice, audience)

All undertake research into current and relevant design (poster, print, digital)



Date of Next Meeting: 13/02/2017

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - The Key Elements of Collaboration

Motivation
Everyone involved needs to feel that they’re gaining something from the collaboration or feel that they’re doing a meaningful thing and working towards a valuable end result


Communication
Giving information about the project allows everyone involved to be aware of the actions that need to be taken. Decisions are made faster and more efficiently.


Diversity
A diverse group of participants is often the best way to ensure that multiple skillets can be utilised in order to produce a varied range of responses that may not otherwise have been produced.


Sharing
Be flexible with the ownership of ideas. This does not mean that a team should give credit to individuals where credit is due, but any issues of ownership of ideas and concepts need to be agreed at the offset.


Support
Support other members of the team at times of crisis or unforeseen difficulties. Even when no hardships are expected, the collaborative group needs to work on a basis of trust that if someone were to need the support of others in the group, that support would be available.


Problem Solving
The group must be able to solve problems together. High tolerance for uncertainty is needed when the project changes direction or something does not go as planned.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Ethics and Sustainability in Graphic Design

Ethics:

Question the motives of your clients

Understand why someone has asked you to create something

Sustainability:

Environmental stewardship + social equity = bearable

Social equity + economic prosperity = equitable

Environmental stewardship + economic prosperity = viable

Environmental stewardship + social equity + economic prosperity = sustainable

Sustainable Issue Mapping:

Rupert Bassett and Lynne Elvins (in Roberts, 2003) developed an approach to sustainable practice 

A diagonal cross axis is used to represent 4 tenants of sustainability: financial, social, personal, environmental

Financial:

Creating financially viable work focuses on the design issues that affect the costs of distribution and production [...] but if designers focus too much on cost cutting or profit making, the danger is the results will be too uninspiring.

Social:

The overall question posed by this agenda is whether the finished design benefits society as a whole.

Personal:

Creating personally desirable design work is about fulfilling the dreams and desires of individual consumers.

Environmental:

Environmentally responsible design is about considering the natural resources depleted in the production process.

Putting this into practise by applying the framework to the D&AD brief Grown Up Chocolate Company:

Financial: cost of plastic for packaging, cos of printing for packaging, cost of advertising vs profit

Social: health benefits/concerns of the sale of the product, advertising, social media

Personal: in-line with the designers personal ethics, in line with the designers skilss

Environmental: impact of creating the packaging, impact of the distribution, impact of the disposal of waster packaging

Sustainable Companies:

Creative Concern, Manchester

Footprint, Leeds

Cast Iron Design, Boulder, USA

Re-Nourish