PPP // Speaking from Experience

 To start this brief, we were involved in a workshop to try and get ourselves thinking and exploring various problems that we can focus on solving to help benefit next years first year GD students at LCA.

We will create a graphic product that can be given to the new first years that would hopefully help them avoid running into the same problems that we had in our first year.

Through this workshop, I tried to narrow down the the options to focus on specific areas that I had most trouble with in the first year.

I have to remember that the product I choose to design will have to benefit specifically first year GD students at LCA and not just any new first year uni student. Therefore the topic I choose must link with a problem that specifically LCA first years face.

I still want to keep my concept quite light hearted.

The first of my 3 main ideas is

•  How to organise yourself to allow you to have a longer lie in and still be prepared for 9:30 Start.

• When and where is best to buy your dinner when at LCA 

•  Shopping for food as a GD LCA student.

These concepts at the minute are still quite loose, I need to try and get some feedback from peers and tutors to help refine specific ideas.

After suggesting my concepts to a few people and Jo it was said that I do need to refine it to make it more specific for graphic design students, as at the minute, my concepts could just be used for general first year students all around leeds.

For my idea to take to the Crit I want to create a weekly essential food pack for busy first year LCA GD students, this will take the structure of some form of storage system such as a Lunch box or first aid kit.

There will be certain areas I will need to research in order that the product will benefit the students.

I took a trip up to the library to see if i could get some visual inspiration for different designs that could be sturdy, cheap as well as being able to work as a lunch box.

This first design I found from 'Outside the Box Cardboard Design Now' by Black Dog Publishing. There are quite a few examples of the way cardboard can be used to create complicated, sturdy products.

In this example, I could use a similar system as the package below, by using a similar concept but obviously adjusting the cut out shapes in the design. It could create a solid lunch box style design, cardboard is not usually the material you would expect a lunch box to be made out of but I think it would be useful cheap and strong material.

The only problem would be the fact that it can't really be easily cleaned and when dealing with food this will be a problem.

A simpler option, may be to use these sort of jigsaw style product, or at least incorporate a similar concept to the design, maybe use this style to create the different compartments of the Lunch Box.

I like the fact that each panel can be visually different, and can be manipulated by the owner to suit their needs.

PPP // Speaking From Experience

BRIEF

Produce a graphic response/ graphic product /body of work that makes a statement, comment, observation or gives advice about your experience on your first year of this course. You will need to identify appropriate content, and develop/identify appropriate media/formats that will effectively deliver your concept to next years new first years. Will it be entertaining, advisor, informative or instructional?

Background / Considerations

Think about the new experiences that you have had, the difficulties that you have overcome and the new people you have met and the life skills you have acquired this year. Remember what it was like starting your first week, how did you feel and what emotions did you experience? Excitement, trepidation, fear or did you feel overwhelmed. You might have benefited from some advice, opinions and insight from others that have experienced the same transition. What might you say, do or give to next years graphic design students to make the transition into the student experience, particularly this course more welcoming?

In the workshop, we were asked the series of questions below that we had to answer about our own personal experience as a first year student at LCA

For Friday we were asked to come up with 3 Messages that we want to deliver and for each message produce 5 Reasons why it should be delivered and 5 ways it could be delivered.

PPP Who am i? (luke Rossiter) // DPS type

For the text in the magazine, i wasn't really 100% sure what to focus on the most, I know Luke likes gaming and war however i also wanted to focus on his designing, so I have covered both areas, I am worried the first section may be a little random.

Luke Rossiter is 20 years old, born on the 19^th August 1991 in the town of St. Albans just north of London. He boasts not only is St. Albans home to the oldest pub in Britain ‘The Fighting Cocks’, it also contains the most pubs per mile than any other town. I think that we can all agree that this is NOT a negative thing. However, even considering this, Luke claims that if he could live anywhere in anytime he would either live, in 1990’s California, just so he could relax and enjoy casual design, OR live in 18^th century England, buy a ship and sail the seas, (a little like a Pirate),

Computer games are one of Luke’s number one passions, after asking him what his favorite game is, he responded, “That’s a really hard question, I don’t think I know what my favorite game is.”  I asked if he could narrow it down to a specific genre of game, “anything that has an immersing story line, I like the old Call Off Duty, but not the new ones”. I proceeded to ask for his current list of favorite games, his response was as follows, “ LA Noire / Grand Theft Auto 4 / Mass Effect 2 / Company of Heroes/ Total war series “.

I have noticed that many of Luke’s interests are revolved around artificial combat with use of tactically lead battle situations, not only with the computer games but also his other passion for the sport ‘ Airsoft’. I was not familiar with this sport before Luke told me about it but he described it as “a mixture between Paintball and battle re-enactments’, where ‘the use of common military tactics are used to achieve the objectives set in each game’

From the time I have known Luke, I have discovered that he is a clever young man, with an underlying interest in politics and world issues, such as Africa’s Blood Diamond trade. These interests often leak out into his designs as well as his continuous use of experimentation with pattern and colour.

Since he has been at Leeds College of art the products he has created have often heavily relied on type to create the visuals and the message, this has resulted in some really nice typographical work, which stands out and produces good reactions

PPP - Study task Who are you (Luke Rossiter)

Quotes and images from Luke's Blog

- 'Most of all I want to learn the professional side to graphic design. For example how to find and attract business, how to charge fees, how to set up companies and run them, etc.' 

 - 'I would like to think that one of my main strengths is to not be afraid to experiment with ideas while working.'

- 'I am also not afraid to speak my mind on a collaborative project.'

WHO ARE YOU QUESTIONNAIRE   

1. Where are you from?

- St.Albans, city with most pub's per mile and the oldest pub in Britain called 'The Fighting Cocks' 

2. What is your earliest memory?

- In first home tripped up and hurt his knee on porch 

3. Which Living person do you most admire, and why?

- His Parents

4. Cat, Dog or other? tell us why?

- Cat - He feels more like a cat owner because he is too lazy to look after a dog.

5. Where would you like to live? why? What would you do if you lived there?

- 90's California, just to chill out and enjoy enjoy casual design.

6. What would your super power be? What would you use it for?

- Be able to stop time - Any individual task can be done when time stops, no such thing as missing a deadline.

7. If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you chose?

- Dead Turtle that was tasty - would like to bring it back to taste it. 

8. What is your most unappealing habit?  

- Doesn't wash Plates until desperate, lot's of dirty plates.

9. What is your favorite word? Why?

- Umlaut - (little dots above letters), he likes it pronounced in German accent because it sounds good.    

10. What is your favorite book? 

-'World War Z' - Zombies, but serious, about political world plan to rid world of zombies.

11. Which 4 people would you invite to your dream dinner party?

- Chris, james, Steven Hawking, Stuart Lee (if Steven Hawking, for some reason could not make the party, Luke would like to invite Louis CK (2 of his best friends , a genius and a comedian)

12. if you could edit your past, what would you change and why? 

- Would hit a bully in High School 

13. If you could go back in time, where would you go? what would you do while you were there?

- 18th Century England, wear a top hat, buy a ship and sail the seas. ( a little like a Pirate)

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

- Having survived this far

15. Tell us a Joke?

- Person 1: "What's the difference between a toilet and a fridge?"

- Person 2: "I don't know what's the difference between a toilet and a fridge?"

- Person 1:' You dirty bastard'

16. Tell us a secret?

- When he was 7 he kicked a bucket of ice cream over an Orchestra. 



Luke Enjoys computer games, the yare his number 1 hobby a list of his favorite games

• Mass Effect 2

 

• La Noire

•   Grand Theft Auto 4

• Company of Heroes

• Total War 

Clearly, after seeing all the games, Luke is into all different genres of computer gaming, however it seems that most are somehow revolved around shooting, war, battles and tactics.

 

As well as gaming Luke has told me he used to play Airsoft for one of his hobbies, Before today i had never heard of this sport, so I will see in depth what the sport is. Luke described the game quickly, explaining it as a mix between paintball and battle reenactments.

 

Airsoft Wiki link

 

This seems to link further to Luke's love of artificial combat and tactical planning.

What I have learnt about myself .

Personally

1. Taking into consideration that I have had a few years off, graphic design in education, this past couple of months have been extremely interesting, it has contained all sorts of aspects, some that I have enjoyed, some that I haven’t but all have taught me about the world of graphic design, there are certain areas, that I am struggling with but I know slowly I will improve, as my knowledge on all areas covered so far, has improved incredibly , however I know there is still room for improvement.

2. as this is not the first time living away from home, I can’t say my life has changed that much when it comes to living individually, but as always, enjoying the freedom.

3. I still lack confidence when it comes to designing, i dn’t ever want to compare, my progress or work to other students in the class, but I know many students have taken to blogging easier than I have, it has been quite tricky to try and develop my work through the blog, I realise this is a personal area I need ot improve and I don’t feel I am taking advantage of the blog enough, there have been situations where the blog has really helped my development but there has also been other times, the amunt of work on my blog does not reflect the time and effort I have put into a brief.

4. I have learnt my time management is an area that needs improvement, again an area that I feel is improving but slower than I would like, I do work Wednesdays and weekends which definitely effects the amount of work I can get done, but this is necessary.

5. I need to try to explore more design ideas and maybe do more of my own personal work, I have recently been doing a lot more personal work, mostly involving logos/ branding for musicians / bands,  as well as some posters and venue promotions and I have found these are developing a broader range of techniques and visuals.

6. I have found that I really like living in Leeds, I have tried London and Australia, these are places that I will definitely return too at some point in the future, but I really do like Leeds as a city, and I’m enjoying the city life.

7. I have also met some fantastic new friends, since starting this course, it has never really been a problem before however there are some great people on our course both student and tutors and I lookforward to the next couple of years, improving relationships with everyone I can.

8. Even though i haven’t as of yet, I have realised i want to enter more competitions, some student on our course have created some fantastic designs for competitions, and this will always look good in the portfolio.

9. This isn’t a new thing I have learnt about myself, however I don’t like spending money, I am quite ‘tight’ in that sense, and I have found it difficult to find products to design with, as a professional designer would, this is an area I feel probably needs more research. but It would be interesting to find out how professional practices deal with this area.

10. My organisation is improving slowly, when it comes, to organising my work, and keeping track of all modules, deadlines etc. Again a lot of room for improvement but It is getting there.

 

Professionally

1. When it come to designing and what I have learnt about myself. i have found many areas of interest. I have found I thoroughly enjoy typography, whether that bee with my own original fonts, or existing typefaces, but I think it is a fantastic area of design, that has endless potential. I find laying out type can give so many different options for any product.
 
2. My overall software knowledge is improving daily, I have learnt a lot about Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and indesign, after the workshops, I was still struggling a little with the adobe suite but after doing personal development on these pieces of software, I am broadening my skills and techniques as well as my confidence.

3. I enjoy designing logos quite alot, I find it an interesting area, to take a company/ brand/ band/ artist and defining them in a simple visual. It is difficult but it is an area I have always enjoyed and have fun developing.

4. I am learning more about how to work collaboratively, at the beginning I just agreed with the rest of the group and the group brief,s really didn't have any direction, however as I grow in confidence with my abilities I find it much easier putting my ides and opinions across, this has really paid off in some situations.

5. Crit’s have been a new experience for me since coming on the course, and I am really enjoying them as well, I had no idea how valuable peer feed back is to the development of designs, I dont just enjoy asking questions, I find it brilliant to be able to see everyone's work and try to help them improve.

6. This has been constantly improving over the past 4/5 years, but public speaking is an area I feel I am strong in, if I compare myself to many closs members I grow in confidence when speaking to groups, where as a few years ago this was a problem for me, whereas it definitely no longer bothers me.

7.I have learnt more about the importance of research to a graphic designer, and as the briefs continue, so does the standard  of my research

8. My knowledge of other designers ins also improving, I learn new designers most days and obviously this helps broaden my knowledge of what is possible in the industry, as well as help inspire my designs.

9.learning more about self analysis as well, I am quite strict when analysing myself I have found, I often focus more on area’s that I feel need improvement, rather than areas I am happy with.

10. I am trying to improve my illustrative skills, I find illustrators work very inspiring, but have up until now, very rarely drawn myself, but I draw most days now. this will also help my design sheet, and initial design idea sheets.

Design Process - 100 things, Self Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

My research strategy has also been affected by this module, I am starting to realise the importance of researching your topic thoroughly and if done correctly it can benefit design and help you develop more interesting ideas. 

In the 100 things brief I learned a lot about the topic of exercise and fitness, specifically sports nutrition and diets, after the research and my personal experience with gym's allowed me to to produce 10 products that would be useful for most gym goers.

I have definitely improved on my software skills, it has forced me to use Photoshop and Illustrator more and I have really benefited from that, the Photoshop brief allowed me to end up with some postcards that I'm quite proud of, while designing the post cards I learnt many things about Photoshop editing, I learn more every time I use it. I have also learnt how to use all of Adobe creative suite as a whole. 

 2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? 

Crits have been majorly important in this module, I have began to understand the importance of peer feedback and the benefits it can bring to design development, There have been several occasions where asking for peer feedback has given me more Idea's on how to improve the product Ideas.

For the Logo development on the 100 things brief I found design sheets were very useful, even though I only used this approach for the logo and leaflet design, because the remaining products were all based on similar designs I felt confident of what was needed which I mostly developed through illustrator. I think design sheets are an area I need to improve on in future briefs, I need to neaten them up and great organised sketches, this will also force me to produce more options for designs.

Time management is a major issue, I may have not dealt with my time management as well as I could have in this module, but It has made me learn that I should organise my time better to allow more space for errors, In this case, because I left my print slot so late, when I wasn't happy with the printed leaflets, I didn't have time to re print the leaflets on a better stock, next brief I will schedule set deadlines and stick to them , which will free up time if mistakes are made.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? 

I am enjoying the process of creating logo's , in both the How to breif and the 100 things brief i created the logo, it seems that it's an area I enjoy to see develop, maybe this is because i used more design sheets to develop ideas. This may be an area that I can build on for the future, it has made me realise i am interested and excited by branding and identity.

In the 100 things brief I experimented with a broader range of different medias that a graphic designer use to design with, I experimented with bottles, bags, t-shirts, leaflets, posters and stickers this meant i had to look into ways I could portrait the design and not just rely on paper prints. this has also helped me make mistakes on these medias which has allowed me to learn and make note for next time. 

My original Idea was just to make 10 informational leaflets, but because of the information I wanted to provide as well as the target audience I was aiming for, It's improved my design concept and allowed me to create products that would be aimed only at the target audience.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? 

I would definitely say Time management and organisation,has still a lot of room for improvement, as I said before If i would have set personal deadlines throughout the brief this would have allowed room for mistakes so they could be addressed properly and corrected in time for the deadline, in this case i left too little time between my print slot and the deadline which left little room for error and unfortunately error did occur in some cases and I wasn't left with enough time to correct it, This is difficult as the print slots are very difficult to get without booking a few weeks in advance and in this case i didn't exactly know my final concept 2 weeks before, so thought i would need the extra time to finish the designs, therefore I booked a later print slot. 

To improve this problem I will set deadlines and timetable in certain tasks everyday to make sure I stay on top of the development, so I don't end up rushing at the end. I will also experiment with different types of print so I do not just limit myself to digital print.

Design sheets are another area where I need to improve, I think producing more design sheets will improve my development, this is also linked with bad time management, but I need to neaten up my design sheets and work through entire designs before taking them onto the computer, however in some cases I feel more comfortable experimenting with different designs on the computer than on paper, I find it easier and quicker to experiment with more ideas.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 

                  1. Set deadlines and timetable in tasks everyday -  By doing this my time management will improve  and give me more time for design development, research, printing and mistakes.

                  2. Develop designs through neater laid out , structured design sheets - I used design sheets to create the logo, which is probably one of the aspects that developed most throughout the brief and this was because I went through ideas on paper first, I need to apply this to the more areas, in this case I would have probably benefited from more development sheets for the leaflets , posters, bags, t shirts and bottles, i am happy with most of the results but I know there is a lot of room for improvement in all 10 of the products.

                  3. Experiment with different ways of print - I don't just want to rely on digital print anymore, considering the past coupe of briefs I have had trouble with double sided prints, I really want to learn more about screen print, I know many students have used screen print but I have never used it before and could use a lesson first, next time I will try and take advantage of the screen print facilities and just go and ask for help, I think this would help improve my confidence when it comes to print.

                 4. Do more contextual research -  In this case it is again linked to bad time management, and I spent most of my time doing research on the topic I left the design stage to late to do enough contextual research, next time i will ensure I thoroughly research every aspect I am designing, I feel this would also help design development.

                 5. Improve blogging consistency - In many cases in this brief I have been inconsistent with my blogging, I am starting to understand the importance of blogging and working out how I can use it to my benefit, I need to keep improving that to allow me to keep on top of blogging  design development and research, in a few cases I have waited a long time before blogging my method and reasoning which does not help keep my work load even. I also need to remember to record the my progress as and when I am doing it, so I don't have to go back and do it afterwards.

6.

100 things- Evaluation, Focus, Develop - Key Questions

Evaluation


What is the problem?
Lack of knowledge by gym goers about the importance of nutrition and diet, as well as how much having a good diet can improve their results in the gym.


What subject/area are you focusing on?
I will be focusing on the area of diet and nutrition, in relation to fitness and exercise, mostly focusing towards men/ women who are wanting to gain muscle mass.


To what depth are you investigating this area? is this sufficient?
It's is quite in depth in relation to the information that is given to new gym goers at present, i will go into depth about each nutritional value as well as meal plans, recipe examples, suggested foods for each nutritional form.


What is the form and amount of research to date?
My research up to date, has mainly focused on information from numerous nutritionists and personal trainers, as well as in depth knowledge onto what the individual nutritional values do to your body, why you need them, what foods they are in etc.


What visual material do you have to work with?
At the minute most of my visual material revolves around existing products in the similar area, such as water bottles, supplement, shakers, bags, existing sports leaflet and inspirational leaflet and brochure designs, as well as a range of images relating to exercise and fitness.


Is there an appropriate amount of work for the time you have had to develop it?
currently I would say i have collected enough research about progress of ideas but I don't think this represents the amount of work I have put into the research and understanding of my topic, I really need to start visually developing my ideas and to take them to the next level, while also doing more product research rather than just informational research about my topic.


How could you improve your work rate? 
I have a plan of what I need to further research to aid my design development, i will set deadlines for myself over these final 2 weeks, I have set a deadline for all the print aspects, which will be 03/02/12 when I have booked print slots, so anything that will need to be printed will have to be designed and  finished by then.


What is achievable in the time available?
Hopefully all 10 items, The water bottles I think will be the most difficult, as these will take more time to find and purchase as they will have to be plain as well as match the colour scheme of the rest of the products.


What methods are you using to evaluate the progress of your ideas?
Mostly getting feedback from peers, last weeks crit helped me develop an over all idea of what 10 products I will be involving in the package.


FOCUS


What are you identifying as areas worth developing further? 
Knowledge of existing leaflet design, ways of printing onto fabric and plastic bottles.


What audience have you identified?
Any gym goers aiming to improve muscle mass, tone and reduce fat. 


DEVELOPMENT


Have you moved on from your initial starting point? 
Yes, I originally wanted to just design 10 different flyers or leaflets that would be found in the gym and be accessible to anyone visiting the gym, but now I have decided to produce a package containing 10 products that will be given to new gym members, which will help aid them with their progress and knowledge of diet and nutrition as well as giving them some useful necessary equipment which will involve the gyms logo, therefore advertising the gym whenever the products are used.


What methods are you using to document the development?
Blog and design sheets


What processes will you need to use to develop your work?
More design sheet work for each of the 10 products.