OUGD603 - MIMI - Research

 Eric Ronald Photographer by Studio SP–GD

Melbourne based SP–GD were commissioned by award winning photographer Eric Ronald to design his visual identity, including his printed materials and website.

Eric is always on the move, and the identity reflects that with the use of a flexible line system. The placement of these lines creates a separation on pages, that is defined by the content.

Florencia Owen by Robertus Alexander

Florencia Owen is a Paris and Jakarta based photographer, whose work ranges from fashion campaigns to editorial for magazines. Taking cues from her surreal, obscure imageries, the identity delivers a bold message through its outputs.

Stylish Gambino by Adam Ridgeway

Stylish Gambino is an online portfolio showcasing personal style, photography, and collaborations. Founded by Brooklyn-based stylist & art director, Jessi Frederick. The work showcased on Stylish Gambino pivots from core principles around texture, materiality, emotion and expression. Jessi uses her vast experience in the fashion industry to curate, direct and orchestrate shoots, experiences and posts that tell an intimate narrative around the subject. The identity for Stylish Gambino sought to echo the clean and curated character behind its content.

Raf Michiels by ssnn

Raf Michiels is a freelance photographer who has exhibited his work in cities around Europe such as Paris and Antwerp.

His identity is designed by Belgian graphic agency, ssnn. Their goal with the brand was to emphasise the versatility of Raf’s photography through a range of different backgrounds. These were created by blurring and abstracting some of his images, which creates a look and feel that fits with his personality.

OUGD603 - Year Book - My development & chosen idea

As we would each be developing our own idea for progression, I started producing an idea based off the name 49 degrees. I decided to keep Matter SQ as the heading typeface but experiment with a second typeface for body copy. I also looked at how I could focus the idea on angles. My workings are seen below.

I started to think about how my ideas can be translated onto a front cover. I used the previous year book work we did as inspiration but tried to explore the idea further by experimenting with negative space and type size.

I then started to experiment with the inner layout, looking at how the images could be prioritised over text, therefor becoming more suitable for photography. I wanted each page to work in a similar format so there is consistency throughout the book however, there is still the option to have pages differ in layout. I first did this experimentation in sketch form and produced two separate ideas. 

I then transferred the top idea onto illustrator to better visualise concept. I chose the top idea as thought back to one of the previous graphic design year books which had a similar concept. Unfortunately this often means the book is thinner at one end due to there being more sheets at one end. 

Below shows my chosen idea. This will include a translucent piece of paper in the middle of each spread which includes the information about the student and his/ her information. The 1st spread shows the page without the info paper. The 2nd shows the spread with the translucent paper laid on top. The 3rd shows the translucent paper on its own

I will bring my layout and front cover experiments to our next group meeting where we will choose an idea to bring to the photography students.

OUGD603 - Year Book - photography and graphics team meetup

After looking into research which could help influence our development and design ideas for photography, we sat down with the students helping us again to discuss our progression with the brief.

The feedback we received from this came from their tutor and the rest of the students on the course. Together they decided the name of the Year Book and exhibition would be 49 degrees relating to how many of them are on the course. This gives us the opportunity to experiment with degrees and temperature.

The also noted that the tear out post cards may not be suitable for photography however they liked the idea of including them within the exhibition for professionals and visitors to pick up. Overall the design received positive feedback, this meant we could continue using the typefaces and overall concept throughout the design process.

After speaking with the photography group Ben, Jen and I decided to speak together about how we should progress. As the previous way we had picked an idea had worked so well, we decided we would do this again. This involves each of us producing an idea and developing it ourself. We will then present it to each other, deciding on an outcome to progress with.

OUGD603 - Year Book - Photography Research

Previous photography year books were used as research initial research. Layouts and use of type were analysed and considered for our own brief. It was decided that this years publication would be unique and would vary from previous designs.

Photography yearbooks and exhibitions from other universities were useful in the initial stages of design as helped to decide on an over arching concept that would be kept consistent through the publication. After seeing these, it was noted that the most successful books were clean and minimal, focussing on the photography rather than an text. These were ideas that would then be translated into the final book.

OUGD603 - Year Book - Results & Feedback from tutor

After the result had been counted we found out that we had unfortunately not been successful and would not be producing the year book for graphic design. We wanted some clarification and feedback from Amber for why she thought it had happened and what we can do now. To do this, we met with her to discuss our options.

After speaking to our tutor we found that she personally liked the idea however noted that the contempary style may not have appealed to some people in the class. However, she suggested talking to photography about producing their yearbook.

Amber put our names forward to produce the year book for photography. After speaking with our tutor, we felt this could actually benefit the concept we have produced and that the overall idea and design work could be easily adapted to suit photography.

After speaking to Amber we arranged to meet with the photography students who will help us to collect and decide on the information needed for their yearbook. We went through the presentation we used for graphic design and showed the ideas we had for the progression into photography.

The girls liked many of the ideas we had and felt it could be an easy transition into the book we would be producing for them. Although they hadn't yet come up with a name as a class, they told us the ideas they were working with and we arranged to meet later in the week when we could hear feedback from the tutor and the rest of their class so more decisions could be made.

OUGD603 - Year Book - Presentation

As explained at the beginning of this brief, we will present the 'Moving Up' idea to the class who will then choose between us and the other groups, picking their favourite book to use as the yearbook. We wanted our presentation to be informative and primarily visual so that the class don't become uninterested. This presentation is seen below:

Introduction
Explaining our concept
Focussing on our progression
Creating a Year Book suitable for both us and professionals

Research

Showed the previous year books

How we want to differ from these and be more personal and interesting

Front and Back covers

Contempary and clean so suits with everyone's work.

Front Cover

Explain how postcards of student's work can be placed on the front cover.

Inside Layout

example of contents page

explaining our idea further and showing how the perforated pages work

Poster

explain how it will come with the book and can be used in correlation to the postcards meaning the readers favourite work can be posted on the wall.

Year Book

This personalised part of the book will give our class something more worthwhile keeping to remember their time at uni.

Different categories can be won by students such as class clown, most likely to succeed etc.

Quote to help remember time at uni

Photos of students on the course

Front cover

Showing how the class photos can be placed on the cover for students to remember their time at uni.

Promotional poster ideas

We also produced a number of posters which could be placed around uni to help promote the exhibition and year book.

Social Media

Shows how our idea would work across social media. 

Explained we wanted to work with the students on our course coercively to produce a year book everybody is happy with.

After completing the presentation we received only positive feedback. We were reassured by this and felt we may have a chance to use our idea. As we presented as a three it made sure we didn't miss anything vital which may have been missed if we had presented on our own. The way we presented was also improved by how prepared we were, having looked into every part of the brief, including printing costs and the look of the exhibition. We must now wait for the results to find out if we have been chosen to progress with the year book.