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‘Concepts are key and clarity is essential.’ D&AD Collaboration . Abbas Mushtaq . Eve Warren D&AD It’s Nice That . Individual Competition Submission

‘Concepts are key and clarity is essential.’ D&AD Collaboration . Abbas Mushtaq . Eve Warren D&AD It’s Nice That . Individual Competition Submission

D&AD Collaboration . Abbas Mushtaq . Eve Warren

D&D Brief : BBC Be alive

The BBC is a world wide leading public service broadcaster. Its mission is to enrich people’s lives with programs that inform, educate and entertain. The BBC delivers content across ten products and four screens ranging from BBC news to Cbeebies and desktop to mobile.

What does it mean to be ‘alive’ online? The brief was to update the BBC’s online experience from static websites into pages

that feel updated, dynamic and relevant. We were asked, how could live updates sit alongside the current BBC archive and connect to the rest of the BBC’s content? The London 2012 Summer Olympics, the UK riots in 2011, Glastonbury Festival and the recent US election are all great examples of specific events that have been enriched by a multi-faceted live element – coming alive across all platforms, for all audiences.

Collaboration

BBC Be alive was the second major competition brief project I undertook in my second year. Despite doing variant collaborations in the past, it was my first serious partnership where I felt I had to really push the project. I partnered up with Abbas, a fellow peer in my year whose work I have admired since the beginning of first year. We worked great as a pair and broke the mold of the gender pairings in the class, The pairing worked well as we felt that we had similar design sensibilities although we both had different strengths.

What did I learn?

I learnt a great deal from my other competition brief, as I struggled due to being very indecisive. I was concentrating too much on the daunting fact that D&AD and YCN were competitions that I had always dreamt on entering, I also became fixated and pressured to think that I had to be clever and original. The briefs were challenging and I initially over complicated them until I learnt it was always very much about a strong concept and that the visuals should follow naturally.

This is where Abbas and myself came up with a clear yet innovative set of solutions such as BBC You, where news is tailored and filtered for you and a personalised landing page. The LiveFeed is a dynamic and constantly updating stream of headlines, articles and videos. The design boards we sent off were to a very high standard as we worked hard on and produced a substantial amount of work in a short period of time. Abbas was great to work with on this brief because we set ourselves the challenge of doing something out of our comfort zone. He taught me some valuable Photoshop techniques that pushed our work to a higher quality and we as a pair worked logically as we had a large amount of content to process for the deadline submission.

Overall I am very pleased with the brief, as it is a brief that I would have never imagined myself taking on, especially as it being a web brief. I think it is important to push yourself out of your comfort zone because often you come up with your best work. If I were to push the work we did for BBC further I would have loved to make time to make a moving image ad campaign in Aftereffects that would have promoted BBC Be Alive.

Creative Challange

D&AD It’s Nice That . Individual Competition Submission

Creative challenge

It’s Nice That’s audience has developed dramatically over the past few years – reaching everyone from freshers to creative directors. However, students have always been an integral part of the organisation’s DNA, and It’s Nice That wanted a new and exciting ways to keep engaged with their original audience, which are students. The main task was how could It’s Nice That they spread their commitment to showcasing great work in an information overloaded university world?

Individual Submission

My main concept for this brief was to engage the student audience (which It’s Nice That highlighted as their ‘organisations DNA’) with a contempory poster campaign that interlinked with social media. Social media today has become a huge part of everyone’s lives, especially students who now own a range of screen devices from tablets to smart phones. The concept of the visuals for the poster was based on science and ‘the biology of our creative DNA.’ The purpose of the poster campaign was to tell It’s Nice That, what students were looking at and what they were interested in. They can do this by scanning in the QR code displayed on the poster which links them straight to It’s Nice That app that allows students to Tailor their creative news feeds according to their interests.

What did I learn?

My main struggle during this project, as well as the initial stages of this module was choosing a competition brief that I was happy to spend a substantial amount of time on. I went through stages of changing what brief I was doing and I had a few phases of really bad tunnel vision. I kept getting lost within the briefs because a lot of them were written in a way that I was not used to, therefore Fred’s sessions of breaking down the brief were extremely helpful. I also felt that many of the briefs were heavily based around adverting, a subject area I am not particularly interested in.

When it comes down to evaluating my progress on this project, I wouldn’t say I am overly proud of it. I think the false starts at the beginning lost me time and I could have pushed the brief a lot further. I did however in the end come up with a simple but effective concept that I stuck by and submitted. I do not expect to go far in the competition as I feel my entry isn’t innovative enough to stick out from the crowd.

Overall I am disappointed in the amount of YCN and D&AD entries I submitted to, in my third I feel that I would be confident enough to tackle the briefs with the mindset and the know how of tackling them either in a day or over a few weeks. Concepts are key and clarity is essential.

D&D Brief : It’s Nice

Hellfire Beer CompetitionHellfire Beer Competition

Creative Challenge

The creative challenge was to design a CN beer label to appear on the Leeds Brewery supplied beer for our upcoming 2013 events. Leeds Brewery agreed to print front beer labels for our events and the branding and appearance of these labels will complement the CN events. The beer would be available to all the guests at the events in 2013.

Hellfire Beer Competition

Leeds College of Art runs an event programme - Creative Networks (CN) for those working in the arts, cultural and creative fields, and of course you, our students. They are the biggest network of this type in the region. In the past the events have featured a wide range of artists, academics and designers including designer Jimmy Choo, Patrick Burgoyne – Editor of Creative Review, street artist James Jessop etc. Although the event itself is based in the lecture theatre there is also an emphasis on the cafe area for all guests. Alongside the proposed stalls, exhibitions we are hoping to create a unique and innovative environment for the evening and as part of this we would like to have our own branded beer for the bar.

What did I learn?

This was a great brief to complete in an afternoon; I drew out some quick sketches and digitalised them on Illustrator. The most challenging part of the brief was to stick to the list of requirements that ranged from the use of the logo, the colour scheme, information on the label and sizing. They expressed that they wanted something innovative and eye catching that was different to other beer labels however it needed to be memorable and contemporary for it to stand out from the crowd.

The brief made it clear that we needed to diverse some sort of concept to win the competition. The concept I came up with is

based on Greek mythology, like the phoenix, creativity is an everlasting process that is cyclically generated or reborn. The design is quite different to my usual style of design however that probably was the most fun part of the design process, as a designer it is important to try new things and step out of your remit.

My design was a success, I was shortlisted in the final selection and my design came second in the competition overall. This just proves that sitting down for an afternoon with the mind-set of producing something quick and straight to the point can win competitions and pitches with clients.

Branding BUKA Nomad Games Rebrand Branding Being Visual

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Branding BUKA Nomad Games Rebrand Branding Being Visual

Branding BUKA Nomad Games Rebrand Branding Being Visual

’Branding BUKA Nomad Games Rebrand Branding Being Visual

Branding BUKA, Nottingham’s freshest bass music night.

Brief : Branding BUKA

Creative Challange

Due to popular demand, a fresh new bass music night is back in Nottingham to light up nights at the new and exclusive Lacehouse. Until now the two floor venue has remained something of a secret to all but a few ‘in the know’ people; and features a large ground floor cocktail bar with basement club room and private VIP area. BUKA, a talented team of DJ’s and electronic artists has come together to put on a night full of the freshest new tracks from an array of talent from the likes of Sizlak, Hot Tropic, WATKO, Jack Kerr and Jonathan Anderson.

The challenge was set by WATKO, a talented new electronic artist who is establishing himself in Nottingham. The brief was to brand and promote BUKA, an event that brings together fresh talent in bass music scene. The event team at BUKA made it clear from the start that they wanted a logo that incorporated an owl. I also had to construct a contemporary promotional poster to help build awarenessof the event.

What did I learn?

When it came to designing the logo, I used my experience from my work placement at Nomad Games to design a set of design sheets that explored different variants of owl logos. Communication and organization skills were key in this project, as the deadline was a quick turn around. In this case I put aside a few days where I could be reliable and in remit to my inbox. I presented the team with a selection of ideas to chose from, however the final selection was based around the concept of an owl guiding the way ‘to the party,’ where the owl is pointing it’s wing in a direction. This may sound cheesy put it went down a treat when I pitched the idea to the client. This made me realise that sometimes some of the simplest or even silliest ideas are always the strongest.

When it came to the poster, the disintegrating wheatpaste posters you see around cities on billboards and promotional stands heavily influenced me. I thought it gave some of the posters a really interesting effect; therefore I pitched the idea of displaying the posters on distressed layers on of wheatpaste posters. The team at

BUKA really liked this idea, as it was a different way of displaying and promoting a music night in Nottingham.

Overall I am happy with my work I did for BUKA. It was a freelance job I did as a favor for a friend and unfortunately was unpaid for the work I produced. The work has led on to other things though, as I have been offered a paid job to help build their new website. I enjoyed the fast speed of the brief too, as it gave me a real taste of what a small branding job in industry would be like. I don’t think there is a lot I could improve on when it comes to pushing the brief further, apart from expanding products in their promotional materials. However there wasn’t the budget to do this, plus it was unpaid work.

Nomad Games Rebrand

‘Productivity is key when developing effective responses for quick turn around projects’

Creative Challange

This was a live brief set by Nomad Games whilst I was on placement with them last year. They are an established gaming company in Warrington that have worked on number 1 selling console games and 3D simulators intended for military purposes. The concept of the brief was focussed on the team at Nomad, who collectively are a group of well-travelled game developers with over 18 years of experience on a wide variety of platforms. The symbol used for the logo is found in nomadic mythology and references the elements of earth, wind and fire.

What did I learn?

I learnt a lot from my placement at Nomad, as it was an unfamiliar environment to work in and it really pushed me out of my comfort zone. It was highlighted that design sheets and initial sketches were essential, especially when it comes to designing a logo. The team at Nomad was really pleased with the rebrand and they have used it across their products, games and publications. They even paid me a good sum of money and have said that they would happily have me back anytime.

If I were to improve and develop the branding further I would have investigated different printing methods for their range of stationary, however at the time I was still designing my Print Manual and didn’t have

the knowledge of variant print processes. I would also have to consider the companies’ budget and encourage them to invest more into their promotional material. This could be a good future project where I could pitch some ideas to the client.

Overall the placement at Nomad was a success; it was a completely different working environment to the studio at university and I really benefited from the encouragement from the other designers. The final logo design is verstile and can be used on a range of products, the icon of the symbol also sits strong by itself. What I learnt was that productivity is key when developing effective responses for quick turn around projects.

Brief : Nomad Games Rebrand

Branding Being Visual

Brief : Branding Being Visual

Being Visual is a start up production and post-production company based in London and Leeds. The company was created after the two directors; Ben Carrigan and Tom Stephens collaborated on various projects. They started off with extreme sports, private parties then moved their way onto clubs and festivals. They provide high quality visuals in film, animation, motion graphics and their love for quality film and media is the driving force behind the company.

Creative Challange

Tom, a second year student on the Film, Games and Animation course, set the brief. The challenge was to design a contemporary and versatile logo that could be easily be applied to a range of print and screen based promotional products. I think it is important to support and collaborate with fellow peers in the college, it opens your eyes up to other disciplines outside your remit.

What did I learn?

The brief was another quick turn around project that I completed over Christmas holidays where I had time to sit down and focus on a small project. Initially I took it upon myself to set the client the task of putting together a set of inspiration boards for me to see what sort of visuals they are interested in. The mood boards they sent me included photography and a selection of logo’s that displayed the type of ‘look’ that they were going for. I thought this was an important step in the whole design process, as the information they gave me originally wasn’t very in depth and I didn’t want to waste time designing something that was not in the direction of what they wanted.

I used my experience at Nomad Games to draw up a selection of design sheets for the logo design. I think it is important to have a variety of different ideas for the client

to choose from. The work I produced was soon reduced down to a selection of different variations and the boys at Being Visual were really pleased with the work I produced.

Unfortunately the only area the chosen logo has been applied to was based on mostly screen based products like they’re company website and social media pages like Twitter and Facebook. To push they’re identity further I would like to design some business cards and other business stationary for them to use and give to their clients. However this was a paid job and it wasn’t in their budget to pay me to do this.

Manuals E.P Artwork Secret 7” Jessie Ware

Record sleeves‘It was a valuable lesson that from the start you should lay down a brief in writing’

Manuals E.P Artwork Secret 7” Jessie Ware

Record sleeves‘It was a valuable lesson that from the start you should lay down a brief in writing’

Manuals E.P Artwork Secret 7” Jessie Ware

Manuals E.P Artwork

What did I learn?

Initially the task of designing the artwork was very open, as they encouraged me to do what ever I wanted. In hindsight this probably wasn’t the best way to start off a design job, especially when I was doing it for free as a favor to gain exposure in local music venues and online. The reasoning behind the hindsight was the fact that the design only went down well with one of the two band members. I should have made them write down a list of things they wanted as well as a set of lyrics to construct a concept out of. I did however get them to send over artwork of other album covers they were inspired by however this strategy fell through and I had to scrap the first design.

In the future I will make it clear that you cannot say to a design ‘do what ever you want’ because it wastes time on both parts. It is important to get a brief in writing from a client before you start designing.

The second design I did for them was a lot more structured when it came to them telling me what they wanted out of the design. I was unable to hear any of their songs, due to being busy on the days they were practicing. Instead I asked for lyrics and the concept (if there was one) behind the E.P. This proved to be a successful route to lead down because I found out the songs was mainly about dreams the band members had. One dream in particular was about dinosaurs and robots, this gave me a rich source of imagery and ideas to play around with because I now knew what they were after.

Brief : Manual E.P Artwork Creative Challenge

Manuals are a local band in Leeds. They have been recording their first ever E.P over past couple of months since forming last year. They only have done a short selection of gigs however have been stirring up an online presence through they’re Facebook and Tumblr page. The band personally approached me through my design blog on Tumblr, as they were looking for a local designer to create the artwork for they’re first E.P. The artwork would be screen - printed therefore the designs must be easy to produce and cost effective. They were inspired by my work and asked me to create something off the back of that.

I came up with a concept that tied in the name of the band ‘Manuals,’ as I thought it would be interesting to look into old paleontology manuals and textbooks that had diagrams of dinosaurs. I would do the same with robots and look into instruction manuals. I searched online for out of copyright books and images to experiment with and came up with some interesting outcomes.

The design went down a treat with the band, and for a week they were really keen on the new idea. However a good few days past and they emailed me asking for yet another idea, which was more ‘cartoony’. I was quite

disheartened by this, as they were previously excited about using the new design. They also said that they no longer intended to screen print the E.P covers, which went against my design work because I had prepared all the imagery to be screen-printed.

I took some advice from a fellow designer, who told me that sometimes the client isn’t always right. Therefore I should email them explaining the idea again with the benefits of the screen- printing that could give them an edgy effect when it came to promoting their E.P. In the email I also highlighted and reminded them that I was doing this for free and a ‘cartoony’ style was not my type of thing, especially

when they seaked me out through other work they liked. Unfortunately I have not heard back from the band since and in the end I did not want to be taken advantage of, especially when I am working for free. However it was a valuable lesson that from the start you should lay down a brief in writing so both you and the client are on the same page when it comes to the project.

Sectret 7” Jessie Ware

What did I learn?

I chose to design for the Jessie Ware song Still Love Me. I had a very simple concept inspired by the talk given by John Gilmore earlier this year where he presented his book on Glitches. Therefore I decided to play around with this way of manipulating sound files and converting them into an image. I took the mp3 file of the song Still Love Me and I converted it to a RAW file and placed it into Photoshop. This resulted in an array of brightly coloured pixelated squares that illustrated the song in its RAW digital form. I wanted to try and show how the emotions of the song look digitally and they end up just as warped at the feelings themselves.

Unfortunately despite the competition not being entirely based on votes, my design was not chosen for the final selection. This was very disheartening because there were a good number of designs that I felt were not to the same standard as my work. I put a lot of effort into the concept of the artwork however this reinforces the idea that you shouldn’t always design for yourself or to your personal tastes. The completion has also made me aware of Talent House and how the vote system is solely on the public vote that is gathered through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This soon turns it into a popularity contest with no regard for design at all. Despite the disappointment I am happy with my outcome, as it was a quick brief to do and complete in an evening.

Creative Challenge

Secret 7’’ combines music and art for a good cause. They take seven tracks from seven of the best-known bands and artists around. They press each of those tracks 100 times to vinyl then get creatives from around the world to interpret artwork in their own style for of one of the 7 tracks; resulting in a one-of-a-kind sleeve for every single one. They exhibit these for a week, then on Record Store Day (April 20) where you can get your hands on one, or more, for £40 apiece. You won’t know who created the sleeve, or even which song it’s for until you have parted with your cash – the secret lies within.

‘I was able to choose a selection of different projects according to my own interests and abilities.’

Module evualation

Overall I really enjoyed this module, especially working as collaboration with Abbas on the D&AD

BBC Be Alive Brief. I was personally able to choose a selection of different projects according

to my own interests and abilities which gave me freedom to explore some interesting briefs that

varied from competitions to clients that approached me with an idea. Most of all the work I

have created reflects my emerging creative interests and professional ambitions within Graphic

design. The module has also opened up my eyes to different ways of working, including quick

turnaround briefs that have most certainly developed my productivity and abilities to develop

effective responses to professionally realistic deadlines.

The most challenging part of the module was right at the start of the year. I was not used to the

creative freedom and the new ways of approaching a live brief that wasn’t set in the comfort of

uni as a studio task. I became very tunnel visioned and indecisive when it came to picking briefs

from the selection YCN and D&AD released. I wasn’t inspired by many of them and at the time

it was daunting to think that I was entering these big established competitions that I had always

heard about.

I also found it hard to mold myself into the mindset of rewriting a competition brief. Fred’s

sessions were very useful because they helped expand some of the very wishy washy briefs you

found in the selection that were released. However it took me a long time to realise that

concepts were the key to these briefs, and thinking up a strong concept became difficult for me

as I often over complicated it in my head. I soon learnt that simple and straight to the point

concepts often are stronger and work better as a whole. You don’t always have to be clever.

Due to my tunnel vision I put a lot of the responsive work at the bottom of my priority lists as I

felt that I was not enjoying the way I should have been. My peers were producing some fantastic

work and I often felt like I was not developing my ideas the same.

This is where external briefs started flooding in where clients were asking me to produce some

design work for them. With my creative freedom I produced some of my best work, this could

include my branding for the bass music night in Nottingham BUKA. My time management skills

were spot on and my productivity was to a pace that I felt could work well in industry.

I am also extremely proud of, my collaboration project I did with Abbas. Our concept was key

and straight to the point and we produced some fantastic visuals for our design boards. This

brief really pushed me out of my comfort zone as it was web based and was all about pitching a

concept, both of these things I have never really done before so it was interesting to see myself

develop in that area of this module. The collaboration itself worked really well, as we assigned

each other tasks to break up the workload. There was never a point in the collaboration that I

felt someone was doing more work than the other, it was always evenly spread.

Overall I am happy with the work I have produced in this module. I feel like I now know how to

answer competition briefs and would feel confident to tackle them in my third year. The

benefits of working in industry as well as have clients approach you for work is also encouraging.

I do feel like I should stop putting projects off because bad time management can ruin your work

ethic and you can quickly fall behind on deadlines and work schedules. The work I did for the

band Manuals sadly fell through however it was a valuable lesson that from the start you should

lay down a brief in writing so both you and the client are on the same page when it comes

to the project.