OUGD402 - Studio Brief 1 Vicky's Donuts

I'm a big fan of Kate Moross's work. I saw a design of hers for a company called Vicky's Donuts and I thought they were very clever. She designed the branding for the company, and created a loyalty card, when stamped adds sprinkles to the donuts:

This branding is very simple, yet effective and I really enjoy this style of design, and I feel that this is the route that I would be most successful in within my own practice.

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 1 Hungry Sandwich Club

Last week the Hungry Sandwich Club came to our studio and talked to us about their experiences from leaving university. I found this talk really interesting and inspiring, and it was really cool to see people not much older than me succeeding with their own business. 

One of my personal favorites of their work was the cover for computer arts. I own a copy of this magazine and I wasn't aware that they created the cover for it until this presentation. It just really made me think how far we can actually go from this degree, and what is possible. 

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 2 Self Branding Improvements

After the final crit, I decided to take some time to mull over my feedback and come up with any potential improvements I could make for my self branding. I decided to change the brush strokes to purely vector and add some more colours to the colour scheme. I think this looks more professional and represents me better as a designer. 

I decided to add some smaller lines onto the back of the business card to fill the space. I also changed one colour of the squiggles on each side of the business card to make use of my full colour scheme. I think this works better than my previous design.

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 2 Final Crit

Today we had the final crit for our self branding presentations. This final crit took place in front of the entire class for the whole day. We were only told about this the night before, so I created a presentation to show my work. 

I showed the class my work and explained my logo and design treatment. I received some good feedback and I was pleased with how my presentation went, although I was quite nervous to begin with.

It was interesting to see everyone elses work in the class too. I think I need to create some more things to meet the requirements of the brief, e.g. a presentation grid. I am also going to print out my business cards and include them in my submission.

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 2

I decided that the designs that I have done so far don't suit me, and every time I've tried to create something it's been rushed and poorly executed. I decided to take some time to research and plan out exactly what I wanted to do. I looked on websites like pinterest and designspiration, and I created a pinterest board with all the branding I liked:

https://www.pinterest.com/charliedoubleyo/self-branding/

I found that all of the designs I liked were minimal, with one colour that links everything together.

From previous designs, I've found it hard to incorporate my initials together because C and W don't really fit well. I decided to scrap this idea all together and come up with a design that just used my first name. Since my name is 9 letters, I created a 4x4 grid, and placed my name inside it, leaving spaces to make it look more appealing and look quite spontaneous - to reflect my work:

This logo is versatile and simple. It works in all colours and can be used on anything. I used the pink and black because this, along with white will be my colour scheme. I began to create the back of my business card with logo and a pattern I made using vector brushes:

I think this design is suitable for me, as I hardly use any hand rendered techniques, and illustrator is my go-to design tool. As I was happy with this, I decided to move on to the back of the card: 

I decided not to brand myself as anything, and instead when the client receives my business card, if their need is graphic design, they will talk to me. 
I decided to keep the design on the back more minimal than the front to break it up, and I am undecided as to keep the logo on the back to make it even more clear and concise. 

I also designed myself some flyers, to see how versatile my design was:

Finally, I put my designs onto various collateral to see how they looked:

I'm happy with this design as a representation of myself, and my current design treatment. I feel like it's the most relevant to my work and my process, and I think it will look great when printed. 

OUGD402 - Stuido Brief 1 Book De-bossing

A really nice example of de-bossing is on the front cover of this book:

Only at certain angles you can see the text, which gives a really cool effect and makes the cover stick in your mind. I would like to experiment with this technique in the future as it is really eye-catching.

OUGD402 - Studio brief 2 Self branding

After some time to think about my self branding issue, I created a board on Pinterest gathering all of the examples that I liked into one place, so it was easier to see and think of ideas:

https://www.pinterest.com/charliedoubleyo/self-branding/

I want something bold and geometric for my brand. I think that would reflect my work best, as I use vectors a lot and play around with shapes and repeating patterns. I decided to start creating something using my original logo and adding shapes to it:

I think this works better than what I have previously designed, though I think the logo is limiting me. I decided to completely change my idea for my logo, and instead of it being my initials, it can be shapes instead. I liked the hexagon shape, it is very representative of the geometric style and can be used in many ways due to the large amount of edges it has. I also decided to use my first name as the main part of the design on the front of the business card as it will be memorable. 

I tried this but it looked quite bland. I decided to try two hexagons overlapping, with an outline instead:

I think this looks better, though the lines need to be thicker and I need to work on a colour scheme. I decided to use pale blue and red, as I use these colours quite a lot within my work anyway, so it represents my preferred colour choices. 

I am happy with this design, as it is versatile and can work with any colour scheme. The hexagons will be my logo and they can work together or separately. I created the back of the business card too:

I feel this design works well for me. It represents my minimalist vector style and gives all of the essential details needed. I think printing this design out on off white matte paper would work really well, and would make the colours pop. 

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 2 thoughts and development

After looking at my self branding again, I decided I wasn't really happy with them. I feel like every time I try and create something, a few weeks later I don't really like it. I decided to take to Illustrator and Photoshop again to see what I could create. I thought about using brushes and bold colours. I created these two designs quite quickly in Photoshop:

I'm unsure whether I would chose one of these designs or keep them as a set. I'm not totally in-love with these designs either, I don't think they show off my style. I decided to try using pink, red and blue, colours I have been using a lot within my work recently.

I tried these designs before deciding that I wasn't in the right frame of mind to create something I was fully happy with. I will try again tomorrow and hopefully come up with a style that I like and will be proud to display as a reflection of myself.

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 1 Phone Case

Once me and Polly had decided on a colour scheme, she laid out the design on a template and sent it to print. When she received the sample cover back, she wasn't very happy with the way the colours had printed:



The greens were too dark and too similar, so she tweaked them and sent off for another sample. Finally we had something we were happy with! 



Polly waited until the end of February to announce the case on her website, and posted this picture to her Instagram and twitter:



The case got lots of positive comments from social media, including these:

Overall I'm really pleased with the outcome of this project! Polly has put the case on her website and included me in the description, and is also giving me a percentage of the profits for each case which I'm really happy with. You can view the phone case on her website here: 

http://sighh.bigcartel.com/product/lil-cacti-case

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 1 People of Print magazine

The 3rd issue of People of Print magazine gives you a chance to customise its front cover. I think this is a really innovative idea that makes the product more engaging and promotes the idea of print still being successful.

https://www.grafik.net/category/news/express-yourself