OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Evaluation

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Evaluation

This brief also stood out for me as what the brief was asking was quite different to the others, essentially it is more pattern/surface designing rather than your typical graphic design, but this appeals to me. I feel this will further my practice as there are a range of skills involved. This also is a good opportunity to undertake a campaign and a set a good challenge for myself as there is plenty of scope to create different responses.

Once reading the brief, it was quite confusing what was being asked in terms of specifications. It is a very specific brief but I find this as a good thing as I enjoy problem solving. This brief was asking for pattern/surface design for the bottle and not a rebrand and to not change the Fever Tree label. I feel my concept was successful and my research really helped to inform this. I do feel however that there was more that could of been done. My time management was good up until the last minute where I found I had my concept and patterns, yet I left it quite late to actually produce these. I would of liked to of made the final designs more sophisticated and my advertisements to a higher standard. This has really taught me to keep on top of things and not let my time management effect the impact of my practical work again.

However, I really have learnt a lot from this brief. I have come away with so much more knowledge than when I began. When starting, I knew nothing about pattern design despite it being something I'm interesting in - now I feel confident in the processes in creating pattern/surface design and have learnt a lot of new skills. This brief was a challenge. Although I did interpret the brief in a way that other responses could be made, I feel I can apply this mindset to other briefs. From now on I shall always think how I can go further with briefs, and in particular I am reminded of just how important it is to really plan my time.

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Evaluation

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Evaluation

My group and I all mutually agreed that there was a lot of potential to have fun with this brief. This brief stood out to me from the beginning as reading the brief, you could tell that the whole brand ethos is fun, mischievous and bold. The phrase 'Notorious P.I.G' certainly conveyed this, and brand identity is something I find a weak spot of mine, therefore I felt that working collaboratively on this brief could really benefit me. 

I was able to interpret the brief once reading it, seeing that they were asking for a campaign and not a rebrand. As this was a large brief, it was a good challenge for us collectively and individually. There was enough breadth to the brief that we could develop a range of different responses. We all mutually decided upon the concept and idea and we then split the tasks for us to complete individually, which allowed us all to focus on our own practices as well as this brief. 

I believe our campaign was successful as we achieved our aims and correctly interpreted the brief. We created a campaign using festival culture as our concept, using quirky and playful elements. This represents the brand well and accomplishes what was asked of the brief. I completed my individual task but wanted to go further and create another element for the brief, unfortunately I had a lot of trouble with Photoshop and couldn't achieve this. While asking for help on this however, I was able to learn a lot of new elements on photoshop from the technician which will be really helpful in the future. I was also unable to help create the animation as the only time we could really do it was while I was away on a trip with my course. I was able to put my input into the animation, but as I have no knowledge on making stop motion animations. It would of been interesting to learn, and if we were to redo the brief, this is something I would of liked to be a part of.

I found this brief challenging but not unachievable, more mentally stimulating. I was surprise at how much work you can really produce working collaboratively. After having a previous bad experience working in a group, it was refreshing and reassuring to have such a positive experience this time round. Our communication within the group was superb and our time management was fair as we stuck to our timescale. 

In the future I hope to do more work collaboratively, especially across other courses again. I have learnt a lot from this brief,  as previously said, I feel that brand identity is a weakness of mine and believe that this brief has benefitted me. I have learnt how to really deconstruct  a brief and work efficiently in a team - both can really impact my future practise positively. 

OUGD505 Studio Brief 1 - Research - Greek Banknotes

OUGD505 Studio Brief 1 - Research - Greek Banknotes

 Greek banknotes are relevant to research as they also used elements of mythology within its imagery. Notes were issued by the National Bank of Greece from 1841 until 2001 when Greece joined the Euro. Early denominations ranged from 10 to 500 drachmae. The aesthetic can influence my own designs as using Greek imagery along with Greek mythology is clearly relevant. The Drachmae uses very similar imagery to other circulating banknotes, yet the use of Greek language and Greek kings is what makes the bank notes distinguishable. The use of Greek and their  alphabet is something I had not previously thought about until now. Using this will back up my concept of Greek mythology and the references will be clear and the imagery and text will therefore go hand in hand for the overall aesthetic. 

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Presentation Boards & Submission

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Presentation Boards & Submission

Presentation Boards -

Submission -

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Production

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Production

The campaign supports Malaria as the main focus to emphasis Malaria No More. These final outcomes portray different patterns from four different countries in Africa - each are from textiles which originated in that country.  Each have colourful patterns with designs which clearly indicate influence of African culture and textile/pattern making. 

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Production & Submission

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Production & Submission

The final submission consisted of presentation boards and our final animation. I believe it was successful as we achieved our aims for this brief. We created a campaign using festival culture as our concept using quirky and playful elements. This represents the brand well and accomplishes what was asked of the brief. It would of been good if we had been able to get a pig and pull off our original ambitious aims of producing a short advert for the campaign, we believe that would have really set us apart from other submissions. However I feel that our concept and theme is strong within this brief, and we have successfully interpreted the brief as I knew straight away that they were not asking for a rebrand - but for a campaign. 

Submission Boards -

YCN - Orchard Pig - Final Animation from Emma Nicholls on Vimeo.

Submission -

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Development

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Development

Creating a Repeat Pattern

I started of with a basic four diamond shape pattern. I thought the best outcome for this deign would be to create a repeat pattern. As I have never created a repeat pattern before, I learnt a lot of new skills from the technician and a lot of problem solving was involved -this then resulted in a change for some of my designs. I kept the patterns straight forward with a minimum of two colours to keep the designs simple. I also used traditional colours of each corresponding textiles to the design to keep the authenticity. 

Creating Patterns

While learning how to create a repeat pattern, I also learnt about creating patterns in swatches. This was a far simpler way and also had a more desired effect to it. As a result I used this method to create the patterns for the designs. This then allowed me to experiment with different shapes and different parts of the pattern for the bottle wrap. There was a lot of experimenting involved in this entire process and I have gain a lot of new skills and knowledge.

Final Patterns

Final Designs

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Final Animation

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Final Animation

We learnt that we could use the resources in the AV room to create the stop motion. Unfortunately we found that the best time to do the animation was while I was in Berlin, therefore Sophie and Naomi created the animation while I was away. I was really happy with the outcome and was able to put my input in when we all decided what music and sounds should be included in the animation. 

Final Animation -

YCN - Orchard Pig - Final Animation from Emma Nicholls on Vimeo.

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Experiments

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 - YCN Fever Tree - Experiments

As part of my development, I created mono prints for ideas for my patterns to use. I used my research to inform the pattern ideas for each selected textile pattern. I felt that using mono prints would be an interesting technique to get texture into the patterns and create more depth and potentially use for the final pattern designs. However, I found that there was to much texture and roughness to the outcomes and felt that these would not be sophisticated enough for the designs. Therefore I drew up new designs and decided that creating vector patterns would be best, as they would produce a sleek, crisp appearance, which will ultimately would be more sophisticated.

Pattern Design

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Development

OUGD503 Studio Brief 2 Collaborative - Development

Typography Experimentation

 It was my assigned role to create advertisements and also the typography that we would all use. From my research and knowledge of the brand, it was best to keep the type quite bold but also relaxed to keep the advertisement fun but to also really grab audiences attention. It was tried and tested to try more hand rendered typefaces to go along with the crafty style to compliment the animation. These however were not bold enough and didn't stand out in the posters. As a result I chose two typefaces which are both quite different but both successful, as they achieve my aim of being bold but still could be fun typefaces. These will both be successful in capturing audiences attention.

Final Typefaces

• Lexi Advertising Bold
• Courier New Bold

Cider Box/Festival Pack

Experimenting

At first tried out posters using stills from the animation which proved to be very difficult. In addition the typeface Lexi Advertising Bold was hard to work with as both the type and the imagery is very bold therefore there was no harmony within the poster. I then decided it best to keep that type for the beermats and I would stick to using Courier New Bold. It also became apparent that other imagery was needed for the posters and the stills would have to be manipulated to create a successful poster.

Final Advertisements

After experimentation, three variations were made each with different purposes. The first with the simple wood texture background is a simpler, easy to manipulate advertisement, which therefore can be used across a range of different outputs and collateral. The second uses a still from the animation, it was important to use one poster which relates back to the animation, to keep the whole advertisement consistent. Finally there is one advertisement which is more of a stand alone poster, but still keeps to the concept by using festival culture by the use of imagery which has connotations of festivals, farms and fun.