OUGD504 // Studio Brief 01: Crit

I presented:

Feedback I got:
- print it from illustrator inverted, so the black background is printed on white paper, for maximum neatness.
- interlink each stage with one another, as I say that I go very 'back and forth' with the stages of my process.
- white ink on black paper is always difficult in terms of clearness etc

I am going to take these points into consideration, however I think I'm going to stick with the white on black.

Studio Brief 5: Presentation of Final Crit

For the final crit I had to stand up in front of the year group and give a brief presentation of my three posters. I talked about how everybody is aware of the discriminations muslims can face on a day-to-day basis, but does anyone care enough or know enough about it?

My article was about a female British muslim convert who is apparently a terrorist threat, and sent a 'love letter' to the late Bin Laden. From this I turned my attention to terrorism and islam in the media, and how it has brainwashed so many people across the globe about what terrorism really is, and what islam promotes as a religion.

With these three posters, I am trying to convey a very simple message: Islam is not a hateful, terroristic religion. You may think that that is a very unpopular view in our country but it is so sneakily subtle that it doesn't seem like a huge problem anymore. But subtle racism and islamophobia is deeply problematic towards minorities in this country. Simple posters like this may open people's eyes a little bit more, whether it is a sub-conscious switch that is turned on in their heads, or if it sparks up discussions.

I chose the simple colours to give the idea of urgency and politics, this colour scheme screams IMPORTANCE. The white stock makes the text and images pop off the paper. 

Type: I used a simple, shocking statistic. I added "are you surprised?" to add a guilt effect. If someone looks at this poster and feels surprised by the statistic, then they should rethink everything they have learnt about terrorism in the past... nobody should be surprised.

Image: I used a very simple layout and design which I think is eye-catching as a final outcome. It is clear what it is conveying; if anything else was added I think it would take away from my original point.

Image and type: I included an illustration of an islamic headscarf and the phrase "Respect others." because everybody should respect people that are different from them.

Feedback:

• The contrast of the illustration with the bold text and harsh, clean boxes works wonderfully
• don't need "are you surprised?" because I AM very surprised.
• maybe just "surprised?"

I disagree with the feedback about my type poster, so I am not going to change it, as I think it works well as a guilt trip.

If I had more time to work on this brief, I would possibly mono print these posters. I have recently done an induction in it and I think it can create really great, bold effects.

Studio Brief 5: INTERIM CRIT

I was given plenty of feedback on my poster ideas at the interim crit. I decided to give no explanation or leave any research on the table so that the posters could speak for themselves, and nobody said that they were unclear which is good.

• I was told that for the image posters it looks sometimes like I'm try to advertise islam, or sell it. Maybe because of the gimmicky illustration of the hand.
• I was also told that the statistic is 'just a fact' so nobody will listen. I strongly disagree with this statement as it is straight to the point and by being a fact it is hard-hitting. I think it will shock a lot of people.
• 'pie charts are boring' - reading this feedback made me realise that they are boring. I won't be using that idea.
• Somebody suggested that the headscarf could spell out 'Respect others' - but I think that idea would be too time consuming for me considering I only have a day or two left to create these digitally. Maybe if I had more time I could experiment with that idea, as I do think it is interesting.
• I was told I need to work on my layouts, which I haven't properly thought through yet. Layout is very important on posters like this.

I left everyone else feedback, such as which kind of colours to go for and I let many people know that their messages weren't as clear as they should be. I think that looking and criticising other people's work helps my work progress as it opens my mind to new ideas and viewpoints. It was also interesting to see the range of viewpoints and ideas everybody has taken forward.

Studio Brief 3: Final crit

We did a crit in a group of around 25 people, where we all took turns to present our work. I talked about why I've manipulated Cooper Black in the ways that I chose, and how Matthew's personality is reflected by the letterforms.

Some feedback I got:

• Cooper Black is a fun and informal font, so that was a good choosing
• The comfort zone is definitely reflected by the boxes
• the manipulations aren't very clear from far away
• the letters work better when large and close up, they aren't as successful on a name tag.

I think I agree with these points. If I had more time to complete this brief, I would have maybe developed my ideas more and come up with better solutions. I definitely think that if I did the brief again, I would complete the final letters on illustrator and print them for the final crit. This way the boxes would look a lot neater and sharp, they were harder than I expected to draw by hand. I thought that drawing each letter by hand would be more straightforward than on illustrator, however it was very time-consuming in the end.

Studio Brief 4: Interim crit

In this crit I was told that:

• going down the route of sensationalism of subject matters like terrorism or women in newspapers may make a good body of research
• looking at women in terrorism further may not provide enough substantial research
• possibly look at what is reported in the news and what isn't: the media chooses which is more entertaining.

this feedback helped and I will not go down the route of women in terrorism any further as I agree that it won't be fulfilling as other paths I can choose.

Studio Brief 3: Interim Crit

For today's crit we displayed our work on the desks and walked around looking at eachother's work. From this we wrote down our feedback on an A3 piece of paper next to the work.
Below is my A2 sheet which I put together especially for the crit.

Some feedback that is especially useful to me:

• 2 people said they prefer cooper black, however 4 people said they prefer gill sans. This is interesting because I prefer cooper black as a starting point, which is the unpopular opinion.
• Look at Arial Rounded or Helvetica Rounded, as Matthew seems to like comfort and soft shapes.
• Don't focus too much on what he prefers, ('smooth edges') as this is my representation of him.
• Comfort zone > sans serif > the font doesn't get out of its comfort zone, should look tight like its very boxed in.
• Gills sans works better at communicating his personality. Seems a very black and white personality, what you see is what you get, the sharp tones support this.
• Matt is funny, so pick a playful looking font, however make sure it is not childish.
• Could play on 'Pub landlord' and his surname 'Brewer', he also drinks a lot of alcohol.
• He has childlike tendencies yet doesn't like children, look into this more so as these are opposing ideas.
• Cooper Black seems like quite a loud/bold font to me - which doesn't link in with not being a 'loud, in your face person'.
• Cooper Black seems like a warm typeface and says he likes winter. Maybe think about using a more angular typeface?

I don't necessarily agree with all of this feedback but I think they are important points that I can look into and work from when I further my development and experimentation.

 General points we picked up on as a group:

• Hard to give some people feedback because of poor layout or unclear presentation. This is fair as we aren't used to crits just yet; we're still learning how to present our work in the right way.
• I've learnt that the best way to present my work in a crit is on an A2 piece of paper, where I can stick down sketches and research all together on one page. This makes it much more straightforward when someone comes to leaving feedback. Some people put out their sketchbooks  and random piece of paper which is quite confusing, as I didn't know which page the project started on and where it ended, and which work was the most important to look at in more detail.
• Some of us had too little work or too much, which can both make a crit difficult. Having too much work shows the exploration has been very broad so it gives less to focus on when giving feedback in such a short space of time, and having too little work doesn't show enough development.
• It was good to see that people are researching further afield, for example looking at their partner's favourite designers or design movements. Other areas are colour theory and analysing handwriting. I haven't thought about looking at these things yet in my own work, but I definitely want to.

Studio Brief 1: ALPHABET - Final Crit

We had a final crit where we had to talk about our work and receive feedback. Here is mine:

• Most people agreed that the 'A' would be the easiest to develop a whole alphabet from as you can always cut a letter into three parts. I'm not sure how whether to choose this letter as I feel it's a bit too straightforward and simple, and without colour there is a chance that it doesn't have the same effect.
• I said that 'J' would be my ideal letter to develop on illustrator, but the blue drop of blood would apparently not work the same in black and white.
• The 'Q' is my favourite, and the feedback I got on it was that it is creative but wouldn't work when making an alphabet.
• the 'O' looks like a C because of the curling banner at the bottom.
• However, it is very clear as to what it is representing.
• If the letter 'O' was to be developed into an alphabet, then the crest feature would have to be more subtly used.

Studio Brief 1: ALPHABET SOUP - Interim Crit

Interim Crit

Today we had a crit in groups of 12. We each took our turns to present what we had come up with so far and what our word/font was. I found this session very helpful as its always a good idea to have an outsider examine your work so that you have a brand new perspective. Below are some suggestions I got given.

• Use the letter 'A' for hierarchy instead of 'W', as it goes from small to big like the triangle of the hierarchy as demonstrated below. I was also told that the triangle of hierarchy is normally split into three parts, however I found with some research into different hierarchies that they can differ greatly. The triangle I found shows the different classes and their positions in society because of their privilege.
• Some other feedback I got was that the noble people of high class would use unordinary processes, and lower classes would use very average processes. This applies to everyday life with different levels of privilege.
• So if I was to reflect this in my lettering, I could use mediums that are not ordinary and average. For example, gold foil or embossing. If not, then I could use gold or silver colouring in my designs very easily.
• I could use different processes in my work, to reflect different classes so that nobility is made clearer.
• Crests are a big part of royalty, which I could do some research into.

Taking care of your valuables: HOW TO LOSE YOUR SHIT - Group crit

We joined with another group to have a group crit. We talked about how our brief is developing and explained our reasons for using certain features.

• We were told that the use of 'shit' is really effective for a student market, but it is overused in the booklet. Reading it too often is an overkill and I think it normalises it so it loses some of its taboo. 
• We talked about why we have picked a traditionally brown envelope and the context they are usually used in: formal letters in schools and places of work.

Envelope idea

• Some other feedback was that we could use the little keyhole symbol as the "i" in shit, or the full stop in an exclamation mark at the end of "shit". However, we have already tried the "i" and it doesn't work.

Envelope idea

• The other group preferred the above envelope as it is more clear, bold and more eye-catching. It's also very large text.
• We noted the pointers and criticism down and will try to improve our work from it.