OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Critique and final design

I attended a final critique to help me choose which idea would work best. Within this I was able to ask a number of questions related to my design outcomes. I left the whole illustrator file up on my Macbook so all my ideas could be seen. As everyone involved with the critique walked around to give feedback on each persons work, I was able to get a better idea on which poster idea to develop. My results can be seen below:

After this feedback I have decided to use the design below for my final poster. This will be screen printed to work with the requirements set in the brief.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Development

After my previous critique I had decided to create a typographical response for my Unity Day poster. I brought my original sketches onto illustrator and pushed these further. This can be seen below.

After producing my original sketches on illustrator, I decided to experiment further with some new ideas but sticking to the same concept. 

I developed these further and picked the two designs I felt were most successful to bring to my next critique. After experimentation with typography that was loud and eye catching I decided Druk would work best. Its typefaces vary in width and height so worked well whilst experimenting. Using orange as I did 

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Initial Sketches

Taking my research on poster design, the event and my target audience into consideration I decided to start sketching some poster ideas. I experimented with different styles including, illustrative, typographical and imagery based concepts. These sketches are seen below.













I took these sketches to an initial critique where I could better focus my ideas for this brief. After talking through my event and noting which results I felt would work best, I asked my peers some questions for feedback. These were as follows. 

1. Which technique do you think would be most appropriate for this event? (type, image or illustration) As I had a number of photographs from last years unity day my peers felt it would be good to experiment with these within different poster layouts. They felt these image based responses would appeal to a wider audience however the type sketches worked well to express the origins of the event.

2. Do you think it is appropriate to include references to how the event originated? The group touched upon this within my last answer. They felt that talking about its origins would better suit the brief and would be informative for those wanting to learn more about the event.

3. Which of my first sketches to you like the most? Although my group thought a number of my sketches worked well and should be developed, they favoured the second typographical design as felt its eye catching design would attract most audiences.

4. What colour scheme do you think would be most appropriate? My research on Unity Day said to focus on orange as it is used on the website and previous promotion however I decided to experiment on illustrator to show this critique group the different colours I could use (seen above). Despite explaining each colour within my experimentation, my peers felt the orange colour scheme would work best on posters. Because of this feedback, I will use it when my digitally create my posters on illustrator.

This critique was useful for the progression of this project. I have been able to narrow down my responses and decided to focus on developing typographical designs for the next stage. As some of my peers within the critique had attended Unity Day the previous year, they felt my current sketches worked well to represent the event.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Target Audience & Tones of Voice

Unity day is an event made for locals which brings together everyone who lives in area. A large proportion of those who attend the day are students as Hyde Park is a hotspot for this target audience. This event also attracts a number of families from across Leeds so my design must be appropriate for all audiences. As there is no promotion of the event allowed until a couple of days prior, I feel like this poster would work well as a freebie given away on the day to commemorate its beginnings. This means it must be attractive to anyone who wishes to take something physical from the event. Because of this, I must also look at how the large audience effects the tone of voice. I cannot focus too much on the destructive origins of Unity Day but more on the celebration of what the event is today. These ideas will be taken into consideration as I design the poster.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Feedback, Initial Idea Generation and research

I spoke to some peers about which idea would be most appropriate for progression. My critique group for this liked that I had attended each of the events as it gave me a better insight into what happened and how they  should be appropriately portrayed. Although the group felt all three of the ideas would work well, they decided that the Unity Day poster would be best as I live in the area so can ask locals about the event and find out more about its impact on the community.

I decided to look into the things I could focus my Unity Day poster on. I did this using a mind map as it meant I could see all my ideas in one place.

From this I progressed by looking at more general poster research. As I wanted the poster to celebrate Unity Day rather than promote it, this was considered during this research. The first posters I looked at were minimal and contained only simple shapes This will be appropriate if I am to screen print my design as it can be produced with one layer of ink. Despite this, I don't feel the design would work as well for Unity Day's outgoing and community driven portrayal.

I looked at typography based posters as felt this may be an appropriate response for the event. I focussed particularly on eye catching and loud designs as this would work best for Unity Day.

Loud designs such as this commonly use san serif fonts to communicate their message. This works well to capture the audience effectively and sum up the nature of the event.

I also looked at more illustrative based typography posters. These varied in styles however I found the first three designs seen below that use more digital illustrations to work better.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Research

After my recent peer crit, I was told to focus on three previous events in Leeds. I decided to look into these further through research. This can be seen below

Unity Day
After extensive research on this subject I found it was created in 1996 after a number of riots in Hyde Park in 1995. These riots happened after a series of police raids in nearby houses where a number of drugs and weapons were found. This lead to locals rebelling by setting cars alight, conflicting with police and eventually burning down The Newlands Pub (owned by an ex police man).

Through the aftermath of these riots came Unity Day, an event set up for residents on Hyde Park to come together and celebrate the various cultures, music and fun activities in the area. Since 1996, this event has become and annual tradition and brings an ever growing crowd each year.

Black Lives Matter

Thousands of people came together and marched through Leeds city centre in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The demonstration met for speeches outside Leeds Art Gallery, before marching along Boar Lane and ending at BBC Yorkshire.

It's in response to the fatal shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling by police in the US.

Speakers included victims and the families of those subjected to racial abuse including police brutality. I was lucky enough to attend this even and took some photos to help document my experience.

This is a very current issue so my posters could be portrayed in a number of ways. I could create a poster for before the event, bringing people together and highlighting the issues or create a poster that makes people want to get involved to help tackle the issues on a larger scale.

Le Tour de France

In July 2014, the Tour de France came to Leeds for its Grand Depart. This has been described as one of the best starts to the tour ever with thousands of visitors flocking to Leeds City Centre. As I was a semi professional cyclist at this time, I was fortunate enough to take part in the event, riding before the professional peloton from Leeds-Harrogate. Because of this, I have a lot of knowledge about the event along with a number of photos to work alongside this which could help influence my poster.

OUGD503 - Up Yer Sleeve - Final design and evaluation

Overall I feel I have planned this short brief successfully as my outcome has been produced on time and to a high quality. Choosing to produce this brief within a week has tested my organisation and working under pressure. My final photographs are distinctive and have no obvious connotation to the song. This is something I outlined as important at the start of my brief and have considered throughout the design process.

My research into the lyrics of the song and evaluation of the video helped to develop my folded heard concept from small illustration to 100 photo final image. Throughout this however, my concept has remained key and is visible throughout the development.

The final outcome is portrayed through photography with is a response that wasn’t as popular within Secret 7’s finalists. Despite this, I’m hoping my ambiguous and conceptual response is liked by the judges of Up Yer Sleeve.