You should aim to identify, analyse and use existing means of distributions in order to select an appropriate method of communication.
My group for this brief consisted of Issy, Abi, Jamie, Jorand and Leo. We were given the topic of 5-a-day. After receiving the brief we decided to individually generate some ideas. We all discussed that we didn't want to go down the generic route of 5 a day, which would be to incorporate a healthy lifestyle. It was arranged that on Wednesday we would regroup and discuss our strongest ideas to finalize a concept.
These are initial ideas sheets I presented to my group consisted of thumbnail designs of a potential book idea, research about 5 a day, a processed calendar that supported one of my ideas and methods of communication and distribution
When we met on Wednesday the group gathered round a table and each person individually presented their idea generation sheets.
We then as a collective chose idea's from each persons boards that we liked and considered the practicality and time it would take to produce. We also discussed how we could communicate, the target audience, the tone of voice, how we would distribute and how we would record this.
Discussing each idea in this way enabled us to select the strongest concepts, we chose five which are listed below.
After making some headway in the direction we wanted to go down, we discussed the concepts in more depth. We all agreed upon choosing '5 ways to stay creative a day' because it was a strong idea and was something we individually felt we could interact and benefit from.
The target audience was clear, since being in an art and design school and a city that has 3 university's that have similar courses in the area, including colleges, gallery's, artists and exhibitions We were all very enthusiastic about the idea and all came up with innovative idea's that we could include in our concept. The concept had enough breadth for all of our group to work on something individually and as a collective.
PROPOSAL
- 5 Ways to stay creative.
- Blog that's interactive.
- Monthly calendar/ edition.
- Sponsored by art organisation, Vernon street.
- Inspirational artist's, studios, maps, magazines, events, tips and tricks.
- Leeds based
Concluding our meeting we then agreed upon creating and collecting layout designs for magazine/zine's, blogs and content that was relevant and engaging to our target audience.
PRESENTATION
I missed the group presentation due to being ill, but I collated primary research and information for my group in the style of design boards.
I presented these options to my group for inspiration and possible content we could include.
INTERVIEW
One thing we really wanted to include was to interview professional practitioners. We wanted to get first hand advice on what enabled them to say creative in their practice, due to their experience in the industry.
Before sending our questions, I sent tweets and posted onto our group exchange to provide an opportunity for our classmates and other designers to ask these practitioners questions as a way to begin our communication.
Myself among all of the members began interviewing designers. We decided to email Leeds based designers as our publication was based for this city. I decided to interview 3 graduate Leeds College of Art students in the hope that one of them replied. I did research on their work before contacting them to know what they were about.
Website Links:
I received emails both from Steph Baxter and Oliver Dunn.
After them agreeing to reply to my questions, I then prepared myself by looking on online blogs such as weheart and magspreads to look at artist interviews that had been done so I would come across as professional. Due to both artist's having busy schedules, we agreed upon an online interview where I asked each of them these questions.
Steph Baxter
Sent
Received
Sent
Received
Oliver Dunn
Sent
Received
Sent
Before sending the questions, Oliver expressed that he was very busy with his project in London working for Urban Outfitters. I took this into consideration in case he didn't reply. Unfortunately he didn't meet the deadline for our publication.
Steph was the first artist to reply to my questions. I found her advice really helpful and her personality and dedication to art and design shon through her replies. The interview was informative and informal which gave it a nice balance for our audience.
FULL INTERVIEW
1. Is there anything you do daily to stay creative and if so what?
I completely immerse myself in art, which is not hard because I love it. I'm hooked on Pinterest at the moment. SO great for inspiration & finding new artists to love. Also I think it's important to say do what makes you feel comfortable as a creative - when I first graduated I felt like I needed to be "out there" at art shows, exhibitions etc but as I'm possibly the most socially awkward person you'll ever meet so hiding behind my computer works best for me. I make my best work at home, with a cup of tea, half watching Green Wing repeats on 4oD on my own in my PJ's. I'm not ashamed!
2. What made you want to become a designer?
I never did! That sounds bad I know. I just knew I always wanted to do something creative and I kind of found myself designing and illustrating and it felt right. As I went through my teens I went through a phase of wanting to do every creative job (photographer, fashion designer [that one was particularly ridiculous], gardener, copywriter, art director) I never wanted to be one of those people in a suit on the train on their way to an office job. They have cold dead eyes and that makes me sad.
3. What influenced you to create your distinctive illustrative style?
I'm not really sure, thats quite hard to answer.. I think a desire to make people happy and smile is a driving force. Life can be pretty shit sometimes so it's nice to have something brightly coloured and positive to cheer you up don't you think?
4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
What I'd like: Illustrating all day every day for kick ass clients in a house / studio in St. Ives, with enough cats to comfortably call myself a cat lady. Maybe own a wee shop selling design led gifts. Be totally rich enough to shop at Waitrose.
In reality probably: I'll be 10 years older and we'll still be in a recession.
5. What advice would you give to young creatives to become a better designer in their practice?
1. Don't fall into the trap of relying entirely on your computer. Always carry a pencil & paper with you.
2. Buy "The Illustrators Guide to Law & Business Practice" by Simon Stern & "How to be a Graphic Design Without Losing Your Soul" by Adrian Shaughnessy. Also go to the Good Fucking Design Advice shop, buy the poster & memorise.
3. Be yourself & BE AWESOME! You're selling yourself to clients, after all.
6. Describe yourself as an individual in 5 words
Happy, silly, creative, dozy, biscuits (Thats not me trying to be 'random' & 'quirky' by the way. About 80% of my person is probably made up of biscuits.. I'm eating one right now)
7. Describe yourself as a designer in 5 words
Fun, surprisingly professional, hard working, perfectionist, brightly coloured.
8. What is you least favorite type of design?
I think we've passed through the period of design that I really hated. I don't know even know if it had a name.. It was "cool" to use Courier typeface all the time and use loads of /// and massive oversized ampersands and big yellow circles. Just no.
9. What’s your biggest mistake you learnt through designing and how did you overcome it?
Early on I took on a massive project that was for no pay, only royalties (which have turned out to be literally pence) It seems totally obvious but DON'T fall for the "It'll be great promotion for you" chestnut. It took up so much of my time, so much so I ended up having to turn down a paid project. Some no pay work can be good (charities for example, or non-profit organisations) The question you have to ask yourself if someone approaches you asking to work for free is: Are they getting paid? If the answer is yes then why the hell aren't you?!
10. What has been your greatest achievement as a designer?
I want to say working with Pan Macmillan (totally name dropping there, soz) but if I'm honest it was learning how to make repeating patterns in Photoshop. This was last week, no lie.
11. Who was your favorite client to work for and why?
Pan Macmillan & Workman were both awesome. Honestly everything you want from clients. Easy to talk to, enough time to comfortably complete the brief, paid on time, enthusiastic & Pan Macmillan even sent me Christmas card, how cute is that?!
12. What are your hobbies in your spare time?
My hobbies are my work, which is handy! Drawing, looking at lolcats (definitely a hobby) going to the seaside, amusement arcades, sitting in cafes, making friends with any cat I meet.
13. How do you like your tea?
Milk, no sugar. With a biscuit.
THE GROUP PERSONAL BRIEF
Our next task from our tutors was to write up a personalised brief that we could use as guidelines. As a group we discussed all the deliverables and requirements needed to complete the brief successfully.
Although we had generated a great concept, content and idea's we needed to start making our idea's come to life. We then as a group starting generating names for our project.
We individually looked up names that were associated with creativity and 5 a day. We then chose our favourite 5.
- A5
- 5
- Dexterity
- Pictorial
- Kaizen
We then came to the conclusion of using the name 5 as it was simplistic and relevant to our objective. "5 ways to stay creative a day". Before selecting the name we also researched weather it had been taken. We found that Rio Ferdinand had a magazine called "5 magazine" and not just "5" so with that in mind we still went ahead with the name.
After choosing this name we then decided to individually create logo designs that we would present to each other on Thursday and choose our favourite. We also set each person in the group a task to make our work load easier.
These task's included.
- Me: Logo variations, Research into ways to stay creative, Get people to submit ways to stay creative on social networking sites.
- Issy: Logo variations, Research into ways to stay creative.
- Jordan: Logo variations, Research into ways to stay creative, Start organising events information.
- Abi: Logo variations, Research into ways to stay creative, Create interview questions.
- Jamie: Logo variations, Research into ways to stay creative, Create interview questions.
- Leo: Logo variations, Research into ways to stay creative, Analyse data collected from survey, Create interview questions.
I began to create logo designs, looking on blogs and the internet of ways to stay creative. I also created a Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr page so the information could be distributed worldwide.
LOGO DEVELOPMENT
I focused on type, image and type and just image variations for my logo designs. I focused on the number 5 as a design point and things that I felt linked with creativity such as art tools.
TWITTER
I also created a twitter account for our magazine. Myself and Abi began sending tweets, following creative design agencies, artists, universities and students on creative courses as these were our target market.
We generated a lot of followers and student's promoting our work.
We also had designers interacting with our tweets and designers such as Drew Millward talking about our twitter and discussing upcoming interviews we had planned.
Having these messages signified that our methods of communication were working.
FACEBOOK
I created a fan page for our magazine with links to our blog and twitter account. In the space of 5 hours we generated over 30 likes.
TUMBLR
On discussing the content of our magazine, I wanted to translate some of these features into the blog. I created some custom links to the navigation bar.
The navigation bar included:
- 5 Ways To Stay Creative
- Events
- Artist Interviews
- Inspiration of the day
I then created the navigation pages and linked them all together so that it worked.
After linking the site together I started considering the design. I decided to see set themes that were already available on Tumblr.
Theme: Minimalist
Theme: Quite Big
I then began looking on other Tumblr users blogs that created themes. I came across ville
noire
and liked the simplicity of the design and the open space it provided to possibly put images of the publication and other images.
Theme: Ville Noire
The theme of the blogs already included
- RSS feed
- Archieve
- Random
- Search
These were not relevant to our blog so I removed these by altering the codes. I couldn't really develop the look of the blog as we had not discussed or created anything to place on it.
LOGO PRESENTATION
We then as a collective met up and each presented our design's to one another, Jordan had already began digitally making some of his thumbnail designs and as a group we really liked his grid design. The logo represented art and design clearly and it's clean and minimal aesthetic would be easily adaptable to our publication, website and various networking sites.
PROGRESS CRIT
Due to us focusing on collecting content and still making design decisions for our publication we were not left with much to present at the crit. However Issy had brought her laptop to showcase the Tumblr and Twitter account I had made. This didn't affect our presentation as our peers and tutor really liked our concept.
We received some feedback to help guide us in the right direction.
FEEDBACK
- Divide up the work load so that each person has a job.
- Create time management sheets to help keep the project organised.
- Consider stock costs and printing options.
- Consider where and when you will distribute your publication.
Following our feedback, Jordan created a task management sheet for everyone in the group so we could focus on what we needed to achieve each day of the week. This was very beneficial to the group as we could see what we needed to do and how much time we had.
As a collective we started to whittle down the information we had collected for our 5 a day tasks to stay creative.
As a group we wrote a massive list including our favourite ways to stay creative. We considered on keeping some of the task's with using the number 5 to fit in the magazine and brief.
(Brain storm of Ways from my research)
As a group we wrote a massive list including our favourite ways to stay creative. We considered on keeping some of the task's with using the number 5 to fit in the magazine and brief.
FINAL TASK'S:
- Listen to 5 new songs
- Make 5 changes to your workspace.
- Look at 5 optical illusions.
- Write I am creative 5 times with your left hand.
- Look for 5 shapes in the clouds and draw them.
- Draw 5 people that you know.
- Find 5 new ways of making a mark.
- Free write for 50 seconds.
- Communicate 50 things about Leeds that you like. - Sketch or photograph
- Draw 5 Random words in the dictionary.
- Find 5 new blogs.
- Draw your breakfast for the next 5 days.
- Write down your dreams for the next 5 days.
- Draw 5 Buildings. - In leeds? Sketch or photograph.
- Find 5 images in the night sky. - Take 5 photos of the night sky?
- Make up 5 new words.
- Set 5 goals.
- Watch 5 new videos. - We'll blog these.
- Take 5 photographs.
- Draw 5 things with your eyes closed. - From memory?
- Go to 5 exhibitions over the next 5 days. - This might be difficult
- Turn TV programme on Mute and reword it for 5 mins
- Talk to 5 new people.
- Read 5 poems. - Or books/magazines?
After completing this, we then again with our previous discussions assigned everyone set tasks for the weekend.
PERSONAL TASK'S DUE FOR MONDAY:
- Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter design
- Type up Interview and check spelling errors
- Layout thumbnails for interview
HEADER
With all social networks and blog sites a header image is displayed. I wanted to incorporate the style of the logo using guide lines and grids to portray this. I also experiment with vector shapes that were relevant to arts and craft.
This design was chosen as it incorporated what our magazine was about and our official logo.
TWITTER
To begin the design of the twitter, we had agreed on a black and white colour scheme so I incorporated this. I also added the logo design and the header I created.
To begin the design of the twitter, we had agreed on a black and white colour scheme so I incorporated this. I also added the logo design and the header I created.
I also posted pictures of our progress on the magazine to show our follows what we was up to and to spread the message.
FACEBOOK
For the design of the Facebook page I just added the same logo and header so it would be cohesive with the twitter page.
To promote our magazine I began posting the link to our page on relevant other online communities in Leeds. I posted on pages that had between 100 - 1000+ likes so that the message would spread.
Pages Posted Include
- Leeds University Union
- Leeds College of Art Student Union
- Leeds College of Art
- MEETinLEEDS
- University of Leeds
- Leeds Met University
- Leeds Museum and Galleries
- Leeds Libraries
- Leeds City College
- Leeds Trinity
- Art and Design Community
I also posted status updates about our production of the magazine to generate hype.
From all the promotion posts I then received an message from on fan page, from a manager of a local restaurant and bar in Leeds called Serenity. He really liked the magazine and wanted to arrange a event/ launch party.
I also received messages from fashion designers who wanted to be featured in the next possible issue.
TUMBLR
Following on linking all the blog together, before starting the core design of the blog. I began to look at ways we could monitor the interaction with the blog.
I decided to create a hit's page, I found an online script that connected the counter to a graph for each day of the week that people had visited the page.
The blog generated 481 views in just under a week of being launched.
I then added our finished logo to the blog so it would look more professional and link with our other websites. I then started adding content to all the pages with what had been finished.
I also added an ask page were people could as us information about submitting their work to be displayed on the blog and comment about the magazine.
Home Page
Ask Box
Submit Page With link to 5 email.
Artist Interview Page
Inspiration Page
Events page designed by Issy.
It was challenging trying to get the blog to look professional due to not all of the designs and content being finished in time, however there was a keen interest in what we was doing, due to the amount of hits it received.
LAYOUT
I focused on creating design layouts for my interview with Steph Baxter, we as a collective agreed that our layouts should somewhat represent our designer's style but still all link together aesthetically.
I focused on using soft shapes like circles in my initial thumbnail ideas because steph's work was very illustrative and smooth.
I selected a few of my favourite thumbnails and began digitally rendering them to see how they would look, clearly and ready for possible production.
I chose the third digitally rendered design as I felt it could fit all the content and was practical.
Some members of our group were assigned to research font styles to use for the publication.
We all agreed upon using Quaver sans for our body copy and subheadings and Franchise for headings. These font's were sourced from lost font. These font's would help our designer layouts all link together and create cohesion.
Quaver Sans - Body Copy
Franchise - Header
With this agreed upon I started digitally designing my interview page.
I used a 5 by 3 row and collum system to layout my design so it would all fit correctly.
I then continued adding the content of my interview following these guidelines, making a few changes to sections I wasn't happy with.
I changed the image as I felt it flowed better with design and starting altering quotes from the interview making sure it would fit in.
guide on
guide off
guide on
guide off
MY FINAL
guide on
guide off
After designing my layout, ,the group then looked at the whole layout of the magazine. The content of my interview was to squashed due to the limitation and didn't really fit in with the rest of the publications aesthetics. I then allowed Jordan to make a few changes to make it more cohesive and it overall looked really good.
INTERVIEW FINAL
We also hadn't discussed upon what we wanted our front cover to look like. I used my initiative to come up with idea's to speed up the process of this by creating some digital variations using Jordan's logo.
In the end Jordan created a front cover that went really well with the rest of the publication and we all agreed upon using this.
STOCK + COLOUR
Our intention for the magazine was to be mass produced so we had to take a lot of consideration into the stock and prices. We wanted the production of the magazine to be cheap, as it will be given away for free and we didn't want to make a big loss. This effectively limited our options on what stock we could use.
After working out how many sheets we needed to produce the magazine and pricing, we ordered stock from papercuts which was delivered next day. We chose an off-white 80gsm paper, as it was cheap and looked organic which fit in with the creative theme. We also had to take into consideration printing onto the stock so we had to ask the technicians what the thickest GSM could be used which also effectively helped choose our options.
Due to the GSM of the paper we had to reconsider using another stock to make sure it was durable. We then picked a thicker stock from the college library which was a organic brown, this colour flowed well with the inside stock we ordered and was pretty cheap.
For the free calendar inside the magazine we also chose a white news print, to break up the coloured stock in the magazine.
Front - Back Cover Stock.
Content Stock
Another way for us to save money, while mass producing was too keep all the content of our magazine in black in white. One magazine approximately cost 40p to make. Making these conscious decisions as a group really affected the outcome of our magazine positively.
MAGAZINE PRODUCTION
After everyone had completed the sections of the magazine it was time to make sure it was organised in the right order for reading.
PRINT + PRODUCTION
The front cover was the first thing to be printed, 40 copies were made and we folded these all individually.
Before the magazine was sent for a mass print, we test printed the magazine. One problem we found was that we order A4 stock for the content pages instead of A3 for the double page spreads, which effectively changes the size of the magazine. We dealt with issue buy continuing with the printing and cutting the front cover down to the size of the content pages.
After all of the pages were printed myself, Abi and Issy created a production line for making the magazine. We cut the pages using the printing guides and folded each of the pages individually making booklets ready to be put together for binding.
BINDING
To save time and cost we agreed to bind the magazine together with staples. As a group we organised ourself into a line of production to speed up the process. Some of the pages of the magazine had to be trimmed further due to them not being aligned, which could of created readability issues.
To save time and cost we agreed to bind the magazine together with staples. As a group we organised ourself into a line of production to speed up the process. Some of the pages of the magazine had to be trimmed further due to them not being aligned, which could of created readability issues.
FINAL
After all 40 copies were made Jordan had a professional camera and using the light box he took some images for our final.
DIGITAL PUBLICATION
Considering our target market, we only made the copy of the magazine available to people who lived in Leeds. Some of our followers and supporters lived outside of the city so I decided to create an online PDF that would be uploaded to the blog for them to read.
To begin this I exported the digital magazine file to a PDF and then using Issu I uploaded the content and created this layout.
- ISSU: ONLINE PDF
DISTRIBUTION
To promote and distribute the magazine, Abi and Jamie created some posters.
The first set of posters were distributed around college, student shops, galleries, libraries and other universities in Leeds, to gain awareness about the magazine and the website links.
These posters worked as a set to save money costs and also to tie in with out colour scheme. They were put in front of toilets, entrances, water fountains, work spaces and notice boards as a way to attract attention.
The second set of posters went alongside the magazine as a advertisement. These were just distributed around Leeds College of art due to the amount we produced and time.
FINAL PRESENTATION
For our final presentation we had to present our project and the progress we had made as group over the past 3 weeks, in front of our peers and tutors. The presentation didn't go exactly to plan due to technical difficulties on the slide show.
However we received positive comments from people and overall I was really pleased with how we worked together as a collaborative. The connections we made and the reaction from our target market was quite successful. If there was enough time with our other brief I think continuing the project would be a good way of making connections.
EVALUATION
As a group what problem did you identify and why? (5 - A - Day)
As a group we identified not only how to unlock creative block through daily task, advice and information about the creative events in Leeds. We identified this problem through the primary research taken to see if it was an issue and then went forward with researching ways to overcome this that we thought would be effective. We embodied a range of idea's that could cater to any style of designer from web, print and advice from professional designers.
We also discovered a lot of design problems that were very challenging but we overcame them in time for the brief. These problems included the format of the publication, when printing it was somewhat smaller than expected but we overcame this by cutting down the front cover to it looked in sync.
What methods did you use to gather your evidence to prove this was a problem and what forms did it take? (Categorise your research using terms primary, secondary, quantitave and qualitive)
We took a primary research questionnaire to see if people did have issue's with finding new ways to stay creative and the majority of people did. We then used secondary sources such as online websites and physical book and events to see what combated this which was useful.
What methods of research did you find useful and why?
Attending the art schools and museums was a good source of research as it was specific to our subject. I also think it's more valuable speaking to people and collecting physical material opposed to going off what is written on the internet
What research could you have carried out that would have been more useful?
I think we would of got more primary research on how the product worked after the distribution of the magazine, it was created quite lately so we didn't receive as much feed back as we intended.
How did you manage the workload as part of a group?
As a group we worked all together for production of the book an distribution, we also used time management sheets to see how realistic our goals were and how much time we had to achieve them. We also divided the workload through people working on particular pages on the magazine or the websites.
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