OUGD503 - Collaborative - Evaluation and presentation slides

This year’s collaborative group within the responsive module was different to other collaborative projects undertaken whilst on this course. Our team consisted of four graphic designers, each with different skill sets to produce an outcome for the Monotype brief. This was a vague brief which gave us the opportunity to explore our ideas through a number of different outcomes. This also meant we enjoyed the brief more as had more control over the results. We found that we worked together well, bouncing suggestions off each other at team meetings and building a strong concept that worked well for the brief.

Our team’s interest in this sub-culture certainly helped us to develop final outcomes that were to the best of our ability, appropriate for the brief and well informed by conceptual research. It has inspired us to look further in the topic and get a good understanding of the culture behind tattoos and different people’s opinion on them.

I feel we were able to split our roles fairly so each of us had an equal amount of work. Although this included the main work load within the project, this came all the way down to who did what research and who helped complete the presentation slide for submitting to the competition. Each member was able to work to our strengths with Jen and I working on photography and art direction, I also was able to focus on the poster design, looking into type and image extensively.

In future collaborative projects I hope to work in a group similar to what I have done within this brief. Our time keeping, communication and positivity to work is something I hope to do again. Although I feel our group was successful, I would have like to experienced working with a student from another course at College. This could have pushed communication problems further and could have produced some interesting final results.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - Extra Touch point

The brief required one extra touch point which we had a number of ideas for. At first we decided that we wanted our audience to interact with our campaign so thought of ways we could do this. Solutions included a large scale 3D typographic sculpture and a large piece of paper where participants can draw their own tattoos and write down their experience and opinion of tattoos. After meeting together about this touch point, we decided to add merchandise to our design outcomes.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - developed posters

I had three main ideas for poster design. These were chosen with the members of my collaborative group. We focussed on choosing designs that were eye catching and distinctive and considered how the photos we had taken would work within the design. I brought my designs onto illustrator where I could experiment with type, layout, colour and image. This can be seen below.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - poster ideas

One part I played within the design process was to produce the accompanying posters for our campaign. My informative research on poster design influenced my work greatly. I started the process by sketching out a number of ideas that I felt would be appropriate for the brief. These first ideas came about first by talking to the members of my group to understand how we wanted our message go be portrayed. We wanted the campaign to be eye catching and suitable for a wide target audience. With this in mind I set about designing a number of different concepts.

OUGD503 - collaborative - putting tattoos on the skin

One other role I had within this brief was to design the tattoos for the creative persona portrayed by Tommi. These images would be based off monotype fonts to relate better to the brief and would be created for the photos featured within the photoshoot blog post. This was also inspired by the monotype tattoos featured within a video in my previous research. I looked at typographical tattoos first to help influence my own work. 

These were followed by sketches and typesetting experiments using quotes and meaningful phrases that I felt related to the brief.

I began to bring these typesetting sketches onto the photos I had taken of Tommi. Using my skills on photoshop I was able to produce images that represented a creative using typographic tattoos. My responses can be seen below:

I also helped a number of people within my group with editing photos and their own tattoo mockups so that all would work well together on the final posters and video. Working together in this way has helped to link all work within the project together well.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - Photoshoot

Booking the photoshoot in advance meant that we were able to work towards a deadline for our tattoo illustrations as we wanted to be able to start designing posters after this. We worked with a number of models that could fit the profiles of different professionals. The photos we produced from this shoot were highly influenced by the research done beforehand. As I will be producing the tattoos for the 'creative' these are the photos below I will use.

Tommi
b&w

colour

OUGD503 - Collaborative - poster research

As the design of the poster and graphics used within the campaign was another aspect of the project I would be part of, I decided to look into the different things incorporated in this part of the design process.

My research started progressively, with me first looking at poster design that I liked and may be appropriate for the brief.

Posters

Type and image

Printworks

Typography
I felt like the type would need to standout and attract my specific audience. Because of the importance of the slogan within our campaign, I felt it must be legible across various media. These were factors I considered whilst looking at type examples.

The Photographers Gallery

The use of type and image works well on The Photographers' Gallery's posters. The type is bold and easy to read meaning all information is likely to be picked up by the target audience.















First Things First Manifesto

The typography and layout used within this design is simple yet effective. The typeface used is bold and eye catching however this is partly down to the white space surrounding it.

Further Research

OUGD503 - Collaborative - photography research

As both Jen and I have experience in photography, we have been selected to photograph the models for this project. I have decided to look at how body parts could be portrayed within our campaign through research to help guide our own shoot. This is what I have found:

Ted Tahquechi
This American photographer was left blind after a car crash in 1999 where he found himself having to explore new was to portray his world on film. His project, 'Landscapes of the Body' gives an insight into what he sees. His series of images beautifully show how light wraps around the natural curves of the human body.

These images has shown me the importance of light within photographs of the body. The coherence of B&W images with models of different ages, ethnicities and body sizes works well with the idea that all people are the same beneath the skin, running throughout our brief. 

Witchora
This New York based photographer has previously created a series of images showing type impressions. These images were created by pushing type blocks onto the skin and photographing the results. 

The final photographs are cropped so only the skin can be seen within the image which draws the eye the type easier.

OUGD502 - Collaborative - Creative Contract

Now we have a basis to our idea, we must create a creative contract so we can split our roles within the project. We must consider the creative strengths of each member of our group so we can produce work that is competent and appropriate for the brief.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - Critique

We met before a critique with other responsive groups to discuss how we would present our work and what questions we would ask. These notes can be seen below:






















Feedback: Simon noted that it is important that we are specific with the target audience. Crit members first suggested older people however we came to the conclusion that there may be misconceptions as many older people appreciate tattoos.

We noted our thoughts on focussing on a specific sector within the workplace such as the financial district as they are more likely to care about tattoos. Another suggestion was to look at the services. Simon also said we should talk to people with extensive tattoos already such as tutor Simon Jones and talk about his experience with getting employed. One last thing that was said was that we should use 'Identity' as the focus as there was chance that we could move away from our original idea. 

This critique has helped us progress with some aspects of the project. We can start to look into the design of our tattoos, what they will say and how they will be shown during the photoshoot.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - Time Plan

As we only have two weeks to complete this project I felt it was important that my time was planned well so not to run out of time or have to rush.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - Group meeting

Our collaborative group met together to discuss the research we did individually. This has helped significantly as has shown the different ways we can progress with the brief. As we previously split researching roles we found we had extensive research into all areas within the tattoo culture.

Sam looked into different styles of tattoos from different cultures across the world as well as the origin of tattoos and what they can mean. This research is useful for the progression of our brief as has shown us which styles would be most appropriate for use within our final designs.

Anna looked more into the perception of tattoos and found that young people are often more open to tattoos, especially within the workplace. One source even noted how many young professionals believe that dressing badly at work has more negative connotations than having visible tattoos. As we wanted our campaign to focus on the fact that many people are looked down on for the artwork on their body, this research is important when establishing our idea.

This meeting has also enabled us to discuss our initial idea further and develop it into a more substantial project. We have decided to focus on the past present and future of tattoos with a campaign that encourages people to be themselves and express their personality. For example:

Past
Origins and history
-old American style
-Sailors
-prison and gangs

Present
-Tattoos in the workplace
-Negative space
-Monotype

Future
-expressing yourself with ink
-'use your voice'
-Don't hold back

Our idea is to photograph and video models without tattoos. We will then add tattoos to their skin in various styles researched previously by Sam. These will portray the message that you shouldn't be judged by what is on your skin and that people tattoos shouldn't be looked down on. We have a number of ideas on how to do this such as using a projector onto the models, using paint, stick on or letraset and digital manipulation however this will be experimented with during our photoshoot next week.

Our brief asks to create one poster, one digital element and one other touchpoint. This is how they will be produced:

Posters
The photographs we produce in the studio beneath recurring and eye-catching text 

Digital element
A video element to work alongside the photographs where we scope in on the tattoos we have created and animate them to work for our brief.

Other touchpoint
Physical interaction in a public space, people could draw tattoos onto themselves or others. Could also recreate the tattoos within a public space to show our message on a larger scale.

OUGD503 - Collaborative - further research

After selecting tattoos as a culture for this brief, we sat down as a group and discussed how we were to progress this idea. After looking through our initial research, we created a mind map of some of our ideas.

As a group, we decided to focus on how tattoos often have negative connotations within the media. This is especially true when associated with criminals and gangs despite also being seen as artwork by many other people. This is something we felt needed to be addressed within our project. To gain more knowledge on this subject we specified roles for further research.

I was to look into how tattoos and graphic design have linked together in the past. This included ad campaigns such as Kenco: coffee vs. gangs looked at within my initial research. This is an important aspect of our brief as will help give ideas towards our final poster design.

Typographic tattoos
Monotype's Dan Rhatigan shows off his typographic tattoos within a video I found on It's Nice That. These unique tattoos show how expressive this art form can be, differing so much from the tattoos seen within other cultures across the world.



Lou Reed poster
In 1996 Stefan Stagmeister created a poster for Lou Reed. Although this work doesn't have tattoos within the design, it uses a similar idea with hand written text over a photograph of Reed's face. This would be a simple way to portray type onto a person's skin for our own brief.

Stagmeister's scarification poster

Scarification leaves similar marks to tattoos however is done by cutting into the flesh. Stagmeister did this within a campaign in 1999 to promote a lecture in Detroit. This poster is one of Stagmeister's most famous works because of its unusual concept and remains influential to this day.

Unicef - End Violence
Blind Pig recently created an ad similar to their own Kenco ad from 2014. Close ups of David Beckham's existing tattoos are animated showing how many children around the world bear physical or psychological scars of violence. 



Mr X
After watching Needles and Pins I looked into some of the tattoo artists featured on the documentary. One such artist was Mr X and found another smaller documentary featuring him. Along with this documentary I found an illustration that depicted him with only his tattoos. This is a style that I feel could be used as reference within our collaborative project.

Sailor Jerry

This rum company use the tattoo style across their identity. This includes illustrations of pin up girls and ships, related to rum's original popularity among sailors.