OUGD603 Summative evaluation

Instead of completely sticking to the original schedule that I made for the module, I set myself a target of getting 1-2 briefs done in a month, allowing myself to have a few days of break in between briefs. I think the final schedule went well and I did not feel really stressed even when the deadline was a few days ahead. However, as I like to procrastinate, without having a very concrete plan makes it difficult to start a project. I forced myself to look at articles related to the specific topic in order to get myself into the mood of starting it. I then do the planning after starting the project, writing down to-do lists, listing titles of blogs to be completed, and setting deadlines for uploading blogs. 

Overall, I think I did quite good in completing all the 10 briefs. I did my best in all the 10 briefs and I am genuinely  satisfied with all the outcome. I think I have improved in putting together the final outcome and presenting them in a professional way, like the penguin and craft beer brief, I appreciate the final presentation of the outcome. 

I also think I improved a lot in stress management. In the past two years of uni, I used to say that I had bad stress tolerance and the way to alleviate that is to have good time management. For this  year, I would not say that I have a concrete time schedule, but I did force myself to work on 1-2 briefs in a month. Setting myself goals for each month worked very well for me in alleviating stress and gaining a sense of accomplishment. 

For things to improve, I used to only like looking at the final outcome of people’s work without looking at their process of thinking, I feel like I have to look at more other people’s work and their thinking process and the concepts behind their projects. Like in B10, covid times, I did a lot of research in people’s work during quarantine and I think that is a really good exercise for me to strengthen my brainstorming skills and creativity. 

Final schedule

old schedule 

NOV-DEC: 1 BRIEF 

DEC-JAN: 2 BRIEF 

JAN-FEB: 4 BRIEFS 

FEB-MAR: 1 BRIEF 

MAR-APR: 2 BRIEFS 

APR b1: (competition) penguin children's book cover (by 30/4/21) 

JAN b2: (live) BVP internship (by 31/1/21) 

JAN b3: (live) White.studio rebrand (by 31/1/21) 

MAR b4: (internal collaboration) D&AD (by 23/3/21) 

DEC b5: (external collaboration) cultural identity (by 31/12/2021) 

FEB b6: (external collaboration) LS branding (by 31/2/2021)

FEB b7: (external collaboration) tee1 + shooting (by 31/2/2021)

FEB b8: (external collaboration) tee2 + shooting (by 30/2/2021)

APR b9: (research-led) Japanese packaging (by 30/4/21) 

FEB b10: (research-led) craft beer packaging (by 30/2/2021)

final 

NOV-DEC: 2 BRIEFS

DEC-JAN: 2 BRIEFS

JAN-FEB: 2 BRIEFS

FEB-MAR: 1 BRIEF 

MAR-APR: 2 BRIEFS 

APR-MAY: 1 BRIEF

b1: (live) BVP internship (done on 12/12/2021) (by 31/1/21) 

b2: (live) White.studio rebrand (done on 7/2/2021) (by 31/1/21) 

b3: (external collaboration) LS branding (done on 11/11/2021) (by 31/2/2021)

b4: (live) Memories (done on 3/1/2021) NEW

b5: (external collaboration) tee designs (done on 14/1/2021) (by 31/2/2021)

b6: (external collaboration) LS photoshoots (done on 28/2/2021) (by 30/2/2021)

b7: (competition) penguin children's book cover (done on 1/5/2021) (by 30/4/21) 

b8: (research-led) craft beer packaging (by 7/4/2021) (by 30/2/2021)

b9: (external collaboration) Theo collab (done on 27/4/2021) (by 31/12/2021) 

b10: (research-led) covid times (done on 29/3/2021) NEW

I think the final schedule is actually more doable and makes more sense. The old one was too ambitious and I expected myself to finish everything before May. Turns out a lot of unexpected things happened, like Theodora being really busy during feb-march, internal collaboration cancelled due to we all being so busy, and some briefs combined. I am think having 1-2 briefs due on one month is more reasonable less stressful. I did not really plan out which brief to start first and which brief next, they just came when I felt like starting them, under the condition that minimum one brief for one month. 

[PENGUIN] Final outcome

 After turning the red into a more orange tinted one, I changed the layout of the back cover and made it look less boring and flat. I did not apply the brush texture for the text for the final design as it looked too much and less reliable.

I tried adding some creased paper texture onto the design not make ti look less digitalised and organic. I made two version, one with a desaturated paper texture, and another one with a yellow tinned texture. The desaturated one trend out look better without affecting the legibility of the text. The yellow one kind of covered up the text with a washed out effect which affected the legibility. 

Final design 

The creased paper texture is to less digitalised the design. As this is a non-fiction, the texture also makes the design look more realistic. It gives off a worn out and historical aesthetic which gives a reliable and trustworthy feeling among audience. 

Rationale 

- serif font to create sense of trust and reliability 

- the organic creased texture communicates the book being historical and statistical based

- dark orange is used to represent heat and emergency 

- the texturised design and the orange used is to make the book stand out from the shelf

- leg stepping on the circle represents human beings destroying the earth 

- the arrow pointing up portrays the rising of global temperature 

[PENGUIN] Design development

IDEA1

Process

After doing the illustration, I added text onto it and experimented with different typesetting to get the perfect looking one. The back cover is a bit disappointing as it looked a bit dull. Black and white is a challenging colour pick as the design can look boring easily.

Outcome  

IDEA2

Process

I used red dark orange as the main colour of the design apart from black and white. The red served as the focal point of audience and can create a better hierarchy compared to the idea1 design. I went for a simple and less is more approach for this design and make it as straight forward as possible. Red was chosen to portray the idea of urgency and heat. 

I tried out different typesettings and look for the least messy one. 

Outcome  

THOUGHTS 

• Typesetting and picking the case and weight of text is quite challenging for me. It tried out different combinations for quite a while to get the perfect combo is comfortable to look at. 
• I think I will go for the second idea and further refine it. the back cover definitely needs more hierarchy for the text. 
• I will also make the orange lighter as it look a bit like red now, while might cause confusion among audience thinking that it is a Japanese related book. 

[PENGUIN] Initial idea development

 negative space with white foreground 

• deteriorating typesetting with white earth 
• look unprofessional 

blue continent 

• blue continent to indicate flooded earth 
• however the blue became the main focus of the design which looks like water
• confusing 

deteriorating typesetting 

• Screenshotted an image from google earth, invert the colours and tuned the hue to get an orangey earth.
• with the tile looking like its breaking down and deteriorating 
• look surreal 
• type and image do not tie well with each other 
• plagiarism? image from google earth

human foot stepping on the earth  

• translating the idea of human beings destroying the earth 
• also portrays the idea of urban footprint 
• could be further developed with a stronger illustration style 

Rock age ancient drawings inspired 

• as climate change is an accumulating effect of human beings since they existed, accent drawings were taken as reference 
• could be further developed by adding title and text and see how it goes 

[PENGUIN] Initial ideas

Idea 1 

Making use of gradient to make the cover look contemporary as climate change is a serious issue happening right now, I would like house a contemporary approach to translate the message. Using an orange gradient to represent the heat and global temperature rise, and blue gradient to represent how many people are actually not taking action to alleviate the global crisis. 

Idea2 

Adding fire underneath a blue earth to translate the idea of human destroying the earth by burning it resulting in climate change and rise of global temperature. 

Idea3

Using a picture that I took of a tree, representing the Earth. The manipulation of the images were going for a scary approach that gives off a haunted feeling among audience. This is to translate the idea of climate  change being threatening. The typesetting is hard to read and letters are everywhere, creating a deteriorating effect, representing the climate change situation is a mess and is hard to alleviate. 

 

Idea4 

Developing the gradient idea, I placed it outside a window. This creates a sunset vibe, giving off a calm and still feeling. For the back cover, I am going to pull up the blinds and draw smoke to translate th idea of a burning earth. 

[EX COLLAB] Evaluation

People from the neighbourhood were curious about what is in a red plastic bucket, a banal object, that confers photographic value when we were conducting the photoshoot on site. This ironically and interestingly reflects the inherent neglect that we aim to unveil and communicate through this project.

We have decided to further develop the idea after the deadline. As the project will be featured on @hoiplane's instagram, we would like to refine our outcome into something more professional looking. We would like to print physical copies of the publication, alongside with a video representation. 

Also, this is the first time collaging with a friend who is not exactly from the creative fields. I felt quite interesting as we exchanged knowledge and facts from our own field and combined them into out final outcome. 

The process was really practical as well. We got to go out and did photoshoots, and made a lot of mini prototypes during the production process. This is actually something out of my comfort zone as I do not think I am as experimental as others in the class and I think this project kind of pushed me to being more experimental. The process of making the prototypes actually did provoked new ideas and was quite fun. We got to try out different execution methods and look for the best as the final outcome.