Final Poster Designs — Creative Networks — OUGD603

Final Mike Mignola Poster:

Final LIFF Poster:

Overall, Tom and myself are happy with the outcomes, with the main selling point being versatility for future events. These along with the animation were ready to be compiled into a PDF as per brief instruction and sent via email.

Bound Publication — Logo-a-Day — OUGD603

To present the Logo-a-Day project, it was agreed that multiple outcomes would be appropriate within a feedback session to allow for techniques and processes over the years can amount to well polished, professionally finished products to be added to the portfolio.

One of these outcomes is a book, something of which have been produced many times over the last two years. However one technique that has never been executed by myself is the perfectly bound paperback method. It is similar to a hard case that was mocked-up in the previous year, however, it uses glue along the spine and uses heavy stock as the casing.

Starting by looking at a perfect bound paper back book and analysing the key characteristics will ensure the best outcome will be achieved:

Visual Research — Go Higher — OUGD603

Ex LCA Only Studio have recently created an identity for the University of Suffolk which has been profusely blogged and has gained much attention from designers. It uses a bold stripped back approach to communicate how the university is new, however maintaining its heritage. The use of a logotype alongside a logo mark further strengthens the communication of the name as well as the consistent use of yellow throughout. 

Using similar techniques within the Go Higher identity will ensure that all audiences are able to understand, which is extremely important when the brief is considered.

The posters allow one to communicate facts and figures without seeming too overwhelming, this could also be a part of the additional Go Higher collateral.

This is a somewhat less complex example to refer back to, the heavy use of primary colours delivers a somewhat youthful message in comparison to the Uni of Suffolk branding above.

This is a good contrast however, as the audience for Go Higher is very much in the middle of these two, so string a balance could essentially be the best way to go.

The use of green is an obvious way of saying 'Go', this could be utilised within the Go Higher designs to mean just that. However, the particular shade of green comes across slightly clinical and wouldn't be the most appropriate colour for use, possibly combining with another colour would rectify this however.

The above is something a little too corporate for the Go Higher identity, just as in the original logo idea's how the shield was deemed too much like a bank or something financial in various forms of feedback. This particular brand should be used as an example in terms of cleanliness, the clever use of white space works in favour of the brand and makes it easily communicated.

Logotype — Go Higher — OUGD603

Following Monday's feedback, it is clear that a logotype is the way to go, after a few days of thinking about what direction to take, a customer logotype will be produced to avoid any unnecessary costs in terms of font licensing. This will be a friendly, geometric/rounded logotype based off circles and will have as little harsh corners as possible, as stated in the feedback this doesn't communicate the right message.

The logotype will follow the trend outlined in the initial idea's stage, to ensure that the brief is being answered as purely as possible, without any external influences:



Digital outcomes:



These designs received a much better reception when those around me were asked. Especially the third from right on the bottom row, so this outcome will be expanded and also a logomark that can be used at smaller sizes to combat the detail presented in the logotype.

Digital Development — Go Higher — OUGD603

After sketching basic idea's, it was then time to hop onto the computer to try and refine these idea's down slightly to present in a crit session:



This went as follows:

• Nice use of letters in monogram form
• Arrows are slightly obvious and don't communicate enough
• Shield logo's look as if they belong to a bank or something that requires trustworthiness/solidarity
• Rounded monogram (bottom row) looks too much like a designer fashion brand

This meaning it was back to the drawing board to think of something more appropriate. Perhaps using a logotype as that is what received the most positive comments in the feedback session.

HEART Research — Go Higher — OUGD603

"HEART is a partnership of 12 higher education providers and is the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) formally recognised Single Point of Contact in West Yorkshire. We offer this single point of contact for all 11-18 schools but also for primary schools and businesses."

Target Audience:

• Directly 11-18
• Parents 30-60
• All genders
• Universal
• Formal with hints of informality
• Must appeal to those who would like to go to university but assume they can't, for example; living in or amongst deprivation, having no direct links to higher education, e.g. family/friends, those with disabilities, or as HEART puts it those who are 'underrepresented'.

Initial Idea's — Go Higher — OUGD603

Before being influenced by any visual research, it is best to scribble some idea's that come to mind when the context of the brief is read, this also helps to eliminate the obvious and ensure that the final outcome is well-thought out and unique in comparison to other entries.



The obvious being:

• Graduation hats (Mortarboard)
• Arrows suggesting progression
• Elongation
• Books

Avoiding these visual elements will ensure something different will be produced that will stand my own designs out from others. Due to not being able to pitch the designs in person, the visual aspect of the pieces must do all of the work for you, as well as the 400 words (max) they have requested that explains your concept and reasoning — although, a pitch is not massively essential as the logo should be easily communicated.

Animation Development — Creative Networks — OUGD603

Already knowing the direction we needed to be heading in was a great head start for us. Naturally coming to this conclusion through means of research and feedback meant that the contextual value of the outcome was solid.

We begun by experimenting with different ways in which this signature can be used:

By tracing his signature from one of his works using the pen tool in illustrator allowed us to think of ways in which this could be applied to the final outcomes, as this can be blown up as big as needed. It then occurred to us that this would look great in the form of an animation, as if the signature was being written by Mike himself.

This involved creating mask layers within After Effects, essentially covering up the existing continuous stroke with one that can be revealed and hidden on command:

Each of these masks correspond with its continuous line, if the pen were to be taken off the paper, then a new mask must be created in order to ensure the animation has a consistent speed.

This (very) rough storyboard represents the different scenes with the animation:

Here it is in action, with the exception to music, which would be being played in the background, rather than sending myself and those that watch the video more than once insane, I held off on that aspect for now:

(Poor quality is thanks to bloggers excellent video compression)

Poster Development — Creative Networks — OUGD603

To fully explore our options we decided to go all out on the designs for the posters to truly get a better idea of what would work for not just Mignola but other speakers. After directing the brief, it became clear that the result of having two different outcomes was to see how the designs could be adapted for future use.

Starting out with something a little more along the lines of a comic book strip:

However, we decided against this as it seemed too obvious and would simply end up being a slight pastiche of Mignola's work, so to draw ourselves away from this, we tried something slightly more stripped back and less in your face by using the sketches we found:

After gathering feedback it became clear that the text was lost in front of the image, with the type being the most important aspect of informing the person(s) about the event it was obvious that this needed to be reworked:

Creating a much bolder and 'Hellboy style' type allowed us to drown the image into the background of the paper rather than loose the text, however, the poster was still very unbalanced. To combat this, a new grid needed to be created to ensure the content could stay consistent and even on the page, this also meant that a default layout could be used for future talks eliminating the need for multiple outcomes that may end up being completely different, throwing people who are already familiar with the events off:

This basic structure allows for a clutter free poster. The main selling point being the versatility of being able to simple replace text and image in place of past speakers, also allowing for it to be personal enough to any given speaker without becoming a pastiche of their work:

It is clear that this sketch is the best way to go about creating a poster for Mignola, still maintaining its personality and using our technique of using the same grid for every event but changing the content, this means that the second Leeds Indie Film Fest poster will come once the Mignola piece has been completed.

Calendar Book — Logo-a-Day — OUGD603

To give the brief more context, presenting it in the form of a calendar is a nice way to link the daily aspect of the project.

This will be printed on G.F. Smith Colourplan Citrene to comply with my own personal branding.

Mike Mignola — Creative Networks — OUGD603

To give Tom and myself a better idea of what kind of work Mignola does, by looking at various sources from his comic books to the movies to the animated films, it became clear that Mike had ditched the comic books for watercolour painting instead. (Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/30/mike-mignola-final-hellboy-comic-paint-watercolors)

This prompted us to look at more of his experimental work, whether it be the recent watercolours:

Or even earlier rough sketches from the comics:

One thing that kept cropping up in these pieces of his work was his signature. So it became clear that it would be very personal and effective to use incorporate signature within the end products, whether it be the animation or the posters. This will be discussed in a later, development based post.

To sum up, Mike Mignola is a renowned comic book artist and writer, he is the originator of Hell Boy Comics, first published in 1994 and now enjoys drawing and watercolours over his career driven comic book art.

West Yorkshire — Go Higher — OUGD603

An email about a logo design competition brief sought my eye today, giving me 2 weeks to complete it, which is very much doable as they are only after a logo design with a few other supporting materials like how to use the logo/brand guidelines.

This is a great opportunity to focus on something other that COP and essentially get another brief completed before the winter holidays approach.

Poster — Logo-a-Day — OUGD603

As well as publishing digital versions of my logo's, also displaying them in the form of poster is another key aspect of logo design, that they not only work as digital versions but also in print.