PPP Studio Brief 1 - Reflective Practice

Studio Brief 1 - Reflective Practice

Module ID:	OUGD402	Module Brief:	Click Here
Module Leader:	Simon Harrison	Module Deadline:	23/10/2014 (09:30)
Brief Deadline:	23/10/2014 (09:30)	Outcomes Assessed:	4A3, 4B2, 4C2, 4D2

Studio Brief

Collect, categorise and reflect on a body of investigative research and creative references, which documents your ongoing development as a Graphic Designer and your engagement with contemporary creative culture via your PPP course blog. You should make regular posts to your blog that demonstrate an increasingly individual/independent exploration of Graphic Design, the broader creative industries and general visual culture. You should use this brief as a starting point for the development of an increasingly informed understanding of the nature of contemporary graphic design practice and its role in our local, national and international culture You will need to maintain an ongoing evaluation of your individual progress in Level 04 of the programme by regularly reflecting on what you have learned, how you have developed and how this relates to your own creative ambitions. As part of this process you should post copies of each End of Module Self-evaluation to your blog in order to maintain an ongoing recored of your reflective skills and analytical responses to your own development. Certain Tasks will be set and you will need to record your responses to them but you should use them as a starting point for your own independent research activities.

Background / Considerations

We are not asking you to simply produce a scrapbook of images or a day-to-day diary of what you have seen/where you have been. Keep your references broad by searching out new and interesting connections. Take the opportunity to attend lectures, events and exhibitions. Organise study visits to studios, galleries etc. and remember to record and reflect on all that you see. Set time aside on a regular basis to reflect on the work you have produced and its relation to your emerging creative interests and areas of individual focus.

Mandatory Requirements

All posts to your blog. should be labeled withe the module code and (where relevant) the appropriate Task number in line with the programme's naming conventions. All posts should be date stamped and supported by appropriate levels of self reflection, analysis and evaluation. Work should be referenced and sources should be acknowledged where appropriate.

Deliverables

Evidence of responses to set tasks independent research activities, personal reflection and ongoing evaluation demonstrated through regular postings to your PPP Course Blog. Inspirational Graphic Designers For this part of the brief I will discuss graphic designers of which inspire me but as this task is to start our thinking process about what sort of graphic designers we would lie to be and where we would like to work I have decided that I will only feature UK based graphic designers as I believe it would be more appropriate and realistic for my ambitions to get a placement at one of the studios. Catalogue Catalogue are a Leeds and London based graphic design studio of which was opened by Tom Pratt and Oliver Shaw in 2011. They produce work for both industry commissioned work but also for self-initiated work projects of their own. They have done work for a vast range of companies and organisations ranging from small independent companies such as the Belgrave music hall in leeds to multi million dollar/pound earning companies such as Pepsi and Urban Outfitters. Their works specialises in visual identity, art direction, wed design and development but personally the reason why I am so inspired by them is their work in printed matter that includes a lot of editorial design with photographic images and a wide use of typography. Their work has featured in many exhibitions across the world stretching from the UK, to Europe and to the USA. Hungry Sandwich Club Hungry Sandwich club are a graphic design practice that come from and are currently running based in Leeds, both of the graphic designers graduated with the BA Honours Graphic Design degree from this uni and that is why it make them so inspirational to me as when I was initially told about these designers I couldn't describe how much it filled me with confidence with the fact that someone so closely related to me myself at the moment is doing so well. When this is coupled with the fact that they produce work of which I am very inspired by,working with animation, graphic design and illustration as a whole, their characterisation of their illustrations coupled with the heavy strokes and bright colour pallet creating an overall lighthearted but professional feel to them fits in perfectly with the style of work I have concentrated in creating for a long time. Fieldwork Fieldwork are a graphic design studio based in manchester of which don't specialise in a certain style of graphic design but are actually a lot more open in the sense of word. They create work in a range of different media starching from design work in websites, to commercial brand identity work, to work with digital products by helping big corporation to design bespoke applications and to finally any other aspect of the work of visual communication stretching from illustration, to photography, to videography and even print and editorial design. As they are an up and coming studio they don't like to singularise themselves in to one area of work but prefer to refer to their work as these two things "Every project is deferent, but each one starts with a solid understanding of the context and finished with high attention to detail" and  "Learn - Together, we learn about your organisation and the project’s context, define goals, devise a high level strategy, and outline a scope of work. Make - We prototype ideas, test elements of the project, figure out how the things we’re making will work as a larger system, and refine the successful parts. Deliver - We write code, finalise designs, test and deploy. Then we add that extra special shine before working out how best to launch the project for the most positive impact." Magpie Studios Magpie Studios are a design studio based in London, UK. They base their whole ethos around their statement "Ours is a simple approach; listen to out clients, understand their audience and solve their problems". They are a studio of which are more than happy to battle any brief that you may have stretching from a photographic black and white brief to a colourful vectorised design and all levels of the spectrum in-between and it is their colourful vector side of which I take massive inspiration from as it is a style that I have always liked to create and look at through my graphic designer years and is something that I massively inspire to do. Sawdust Sawdust are a multi award-winning graphic design studio based in London, UK created by Rob Gonzalez and Jonathan Quainton. They have been recognised and praised by many graphic design based journals, publications and magazines stretching from Creative Review, Its Nice That, Computer Arts and even D&AD. Their ethos is "Creating work with intelligence, visual integrity and meticulous craft is what drive us forward. The reason why I take massive inspiration from them stretches from what area of graphic design they produce work primarily for of which is a new like of mine only very recently is editorial design using typography, image making and visual identity to all come together to create the fantastic editorial design that they make. Their client base includes massively corporations such as IBM, Coca Cola, Audi and many many more making them a very important character in the work of both UK and International graphic design. The Design Surgery Another design studio of which inspires me by with their work as a whole is The Design Surgery. They are a graphic design studio based in London, UK. The four areas of graphic design in which they specialise are editorial and web design of which includes design for web including specialist coding knowledge and e-marketing. Info-graphic design, brand identity and illustration of which they also apply to events management and design identity for events and canvas art and illustrations. Their ethos is " we pride ourselves on our in-depth knowledge of visual communication, brand awareness and targeted design. We examine the boundaries of our clients requirements, revealing a brand's purpose and personality. By identifying the role in which a brand should play, we are able to grasp an accurate understanding of the links between business, brand and consumer. Design can have a profound effect on how we feel both mentally and physically. By tapping into the psychological responses to visual communication, we are able to reach your clients at an unconscious level, creating a strong relationship between your brand and your client."  Raw Raw are a Manchester, UK based graphic design studio of which prefer to refer to themselves as a "Creative Agency". Their ethos is "We create effective pieces of design and creative communications, with a focus on craftsmanship and collaboration. Ours is a simple approach: we take the time to get to know our clients, we do all that we can to understand the people they’re trying to reach, then we take what we know and create memorable, relevant pieces of work. We look after the people we work with and we like to think that we make the creative process enjoyable for everyone involved." They have won a range of awards stretching from being included in the Creative Review Annual 2013 to the D&AD awards. The reason why I am so inspired by this studio comes from two things firstly the fact their work speaks volumes of everything Iike about graphic design a perfect balance between illustration design, web and app design to editorial design and even photography with all of their work displaying a sense of lightheartedness to willingness to try and a willingness to learn. Foke Foke are a Manchester, UK based graphic design studio and their whole ethos revolves around three P's; "Propensity: “A penchant for design with purpose.” Based in Manchester, Foke love to create well thought-out, balanced and cohesive graphic design, from brand identity and development to packaging and promotional work.   Process: “People will always tell you not to meddle in other peoples business”. Foke love to meddle!...Stick our oar in, tinker with, re-arrange...and revamp. We create shiny new things from this constant meddling Personality: “Personality goes a long way”. Foke was founded with a simple aim: to produce work with personality, make it memorable." Similarly to the last design studio raw, Foke share the same reasons to why they inspire me, not only the style of work that they create of which I am massively inspired from to the fact they are based so close to home and would be a perfect studio for me to gain some work experience with. After looking at all of these UK based graphic design studios of which I am inspired by I have come to the conclusion that I will start email around and see if through emailing I could secure a place for a short internship of which would help me massively improve and further my graphic design knowledge and experience and I have decide due to the fact that I am home over summer that I will email the three manchester based studios Fieldwork, Raw and Foke to see if they would possibly offer me a short internship. As to gain this priceless experience just before the start of Level 5 would be a massive and helpful experience for me to have. Drew Millward Recently I went to the opening night of the DUST exhibition that was being showed at Colours May Vary of which was displaying the work of famous graphic designer and illustrator Drew Millward. Drew concentrated on creating his very own style of design of which incorporates aspects of illustration and graphic design and then couples this with a very post-modern approach using masses of design leaving little white space and the fact he used a range of vibrant colours in his design, even in the backgrounds leaving the majority of his work with no white on them at all to create a very interesting, inspiring and unique style of design to me. My inspiration for him originally come from seeing work of his of which he created for the brudenell social club of which is right next to where I live now and in seeing his work for them I decided that I would definitely have to see some more! Leeds Print Festival I also visited another local design based even called Leeds Print Festival as suggested by one of the tutors. I went to this as print was not initially a thing of which I was very inspired by but a lot of people are, at first I didn't really understand it, U used to be stuck in the mentality of why do physical printing when I could just digitally print it but these even changed my whole outlook on the design style. I was amazed by the work displayed during the event at the festival and inspired by the talks during the event and the panel discussions on the Saturday, it really was a celebration of all things printed. This event really opened my eyes to the world of physical painting techniques and massively multiplied my enthusiasm to experience what It is like to do. Leading on from this new aspirations to try and become more developed in physical printing techniques I took a workshop in and experiences through the course screen printing, letterpress and mono print. End Of Module Evaluations Design Principles Overall I have found this module (Design Principles) very rewarding but also importantly very fun! This module made me take a big step in the advancement of many things, firstly Studio Brief 1 helped me by advancing my knowledge in a lot of graphic design area's of which I had not really thought a lot about such as colour theory and the use of negative space, these tasks enhanced my knowledge in these areas and then took me on two the second half of the module. In preparation for the second brief of the module Studio Brief 2 we completed a range of task that also made me become more experienced and advanced my knowledge but this was not in a theoretical sense but in more of a physical means such as an insight in to fold only booklet methods and an introduction to book binding methods of which we would take on into the final outcome of the module. Finally with some help and practice into typesetting styles through another study task I was ready for the final stage. The actual creating of my final book I thoroughly enjoyed, and it helped me to further my knowledge of a side of graphic design I am very interested in book/editorial design. OUGD405 This module of work has been overall very helpful in my belief as all of the units have taught me something different of which I wasn’t used to but none the less all equally as valuable to my learning process. I really enjoyed the first brief as it was left almost entirely open to us and therefore allowed for a lot of variation in the possibilities for ideas to take forward and therefore caused the creative side of me to start flowing. The second unit I found very helpful as it further developed a side to be of which I believe is quite a lot behind the designing and practical side of me of which is research based work it helped me to develop the process I go through when getting research to base my work on and to manage my own time when research as we were left free to do this and weren’t guided through it. The third unit I thoroughly enjoyed as this brief gave me an insight into a section of graphics design of which I am very much interested in but have never got to have a good go at in the past, and opened my eyes to new processes, this side to graphic design being an editorial side. Finally the last unit also gave me an insight into another side of graphics of which was a look into branding for companies this was helpful as it helped me get an insight into a world of graphic design I had never looked into of which was branding and got me started on this side as an upcoming unit we will do for PPP will be branding so this may have prepared me. Overall this whole module was helpful as I believe all of the brief helped me farther develop an area of graphic design of which I am not used to taking part in. OUGD403  I have thoroughly enjoyed this first module of which is now coming to an end and I think it had been a great start to the course because I have really enjoyed the variation of the module in having to use various different skills to be able to complete the task. It has furthered the knowledge in subjects that I am experienced In but had also brought to light new skills of which I need to learn and improve and has made me start to do that. The first brief was a brilliant start to the course as I have always wanted to delve further into the theory and application of typography as I don't believe we looked at it in enough details in my previous qualifications. This unit was also a big help as it helped improve my hand drawing skills. The second unit also helped me improve my illustrator skills as I am too used to photoshop and need to learn to bridge out into other softwares and this helped me do this. The third unit was one unit of which I thought I was going to hate but actually as it developed it helped be realise the importance or researching skills and improved the way I do this and finally the fourth and final unit was something of which I already love to do and therefore I thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall between the four units I think this first module has been very good help in the improvement of my skills. My favourite brief was definitely brief four as the creation of posters is one of my favourite parts or graphic design and I thought the lead on from the research in brief three was a really good way to attack the brief. Throughout this unit I struggled getting my head around the blogging aspect to the course but it all come together nicely towards the end of the course as I realised that the best way to keep on top of the blog to little parts at a time. To end on a positive note I also thought the study tasks between studio briefs to get us prepared for what is to come is a great way to structure out workload. For the modules after this I hope to keep on improving my skills within the subject and have learnt about a lot of processes I have used a bit and ant to use more or would like to use for the first time such as some of the more specialist equipment in the digital print resource. With this next module I will concentrate on keeping my attendance and punctuality at maximum and keep on top of my blog by writing little bits at a time so that I don't ever have to play catch up with it again. PPP Overall I have found this module very exciting and helpful, the reason like this is because firstly it helped me with looking in to the real world of contemporary graphic design allowing me to reflect of my likes and dislikes in the world of graphic design and this then lead on to the fact that secondly it in a way helped me start the journey to understanding who I am now as a designer and who I eventually want to become as a designer and most importantly It helped me to achieve a full branding for myself as a graphic designer of which is something I have been putting off and putting off because id dint think I was good enough, and now it is all finished and I am more than happy with it! Now that we are almost right at the end of the year and there is only two modules to go reflecting back on the modules of which we have already handed in has made me think about how I have changed due to the experiences off this year, and how beneficial to my understanding and knowledge of graphic design have come on in leaps and bounds. The range of different style of units in the modules have taught me so much as coming from an A Level graphic design background I had literally no knowledge and practice into the things I do now, we used to just create work and now I have learnt to think about the work a lot more and have found that when you do this the work creates itself in your head. The year has taught me a lot of skills of which I didn't perviously have coming to the course stretching from, researching the contextual side to the work before starting the designing stage, how to work collaboratively to achieve a brief, has given me an insight into getting my work printed into the outside world and creating work and competing in the graphic design industry against a lot of pre-existing and some famous designers. To sum the whole year up as a whole I would say that really I don't like to call myself a graphic designer, I prefer to refer to myself as a graphic designer in training and that helps me to understand what I would say I have take from this year as a whole as I believe this year has been a year off step by step learning of which has massively advanced my practice, this was the year of which I would learn the most in and this is the year of which would get me started on the path to my final career and aspirations to be a graphic designer.