Demographic - The Telegraph - Studio Brief 02 - OUGD503

The current target market according to The Telegraph's 2013 report:

It is clear that print will always appeal more to the generation in which it was the only way of obtaining the information.

However, digital has a much younger audience. But not as young as the more left leaning paper 'The Independent'. The Telegraph print format has an average reader age of 61, and the online counterpart has an average reader age of 41. On the contrary, The Independent print format averages out at an age of 43, and online the average age is 30, a large gap of 11 years when comparing to The Telegraph's online readers, so much so that the amount of online readers is forcing The Independent off the printed tabloids and into an online only news brand as told by this Guardian article.

It is clear that The Telegraph needs to engage more with a younger audience to gain a larger demographic to keep up with the today's modern technological advancements into the online world. This is because the amount of print based readers is reducing year on year in favour of the more convenient web-based news brand.

Identity Guidelines - The Telegraph - Studio Brief 02 - OUGD503

As the D&AD pack only includes The Telegraph's logo, it is vital we make ourselves aware of the current identity and how they conduct their current brand guidelines.

Current Logo:

Currently, there does not seem to be any strict guidelines on how the designs should be executed. As long as the logo is maintained, it is possible to add the appropriate colour palette for the tile idea.

This opens up many possibilities in terms of making the brand more approachable, whilst still maintaining the formal logotype. Referring back to the D&AD brief, the outcome(s) should appeal more to the younger audience whilst still maintaining the current target market. This will be discussed in more detail in the next post about Demographics

Early Idea Generation - The Telegraph - Studio Brief 02 - OUGD503

Initial thoughts point towards creating a more seamless experience between the readers devices.

For instance, the desktop site could feature a page that can be set to the users browser home page so when they open a new window it displays all of the news they want, featuring sections that adapt to the users reading habits by using cookies and preference settings that the user can change as they please. 

By using a 'tile' effect (Similar to the newer Windows 'Start Page') on each section, it would be possible to have the user be able to resize each aspect of their home page, each aspect meaning different segments such as 'headlines, politics, music, entertainment, weather, etc...'. This could use the Responsive form of a website to utilise the full size of the users screen whatever it may be. The user could then sign into their account on their iPad/Tablet/iPhone/Android Phone and so on, and be able to view exactly what they do on their Laptop/Desktop, thus creating a seamless user experience that can be adjusted for their tastes. This would create more of a buzz for The Telegraph through engagement and personalisation, also enabling more users to become accustomed to this newer way of viewing the news.

The Windows Start Page, just a quick example of how the tile sections can be utilised.

This technique is more possible due to the fact people no longer need to set their home page to 'Google' or something similar, as in all modern browsers such as Safari/Chrome/Firefox/Edge/Internet Explorer/Opera/Etc all use the address bar as a search function as shown below.

Other features could include an overlay that appears when the user has already read what is being displayed on a particular tile, all of this will be explored in more depth when the appropriate research has been conducted.

Background - The Telegraph - Studio Brief 02 - OUGD503

The Telegraph, a broadsheet newspaper which is produced and distributed around the U.K. and also intentionally has been running since 1855. It is known as one of the heavy-weights of media and news distribution and has a circulation of slightly less than 400,000.

The political stance of The Telegraph is generally considered as right-wing conservative and has been dubbed as The Torygraph By the Private Eye.


Their current online platform is shown below:

(Home Page, viewed full screen on 1080p display)

(Article linked from home page)

It has been made clear above that the Telegraph site is lacking in Adaptive view mode. Currently, the Responsive code is used to display the web pages, this is becoming more and more outdated by the day. It is obvious that with the rise of high res displays, the need for an adaptive website is more crucial than ever. Even on a 1920x1080 display which isn't necessarily large in today's standards, the website only takes up a small portion of the screen.

The mobile app is similar to the desktop site. It has lots of content presented in a very 'conservative'  way. It seems to take too much inspiration from its desktop counterpart, if it were to be more friendly to use in terms of aesthetic attractiveness that most mobile apps are able to utilise due to it being touch screen and more interactive.

The mobile app, whilst a huge improvement on the desktop variation still fails to engage the user the best it can. This is down to the fact the user has no way of connecting all of their devices to communicate with each other. 

Jack Garratt C4D Processes - Secret 7 - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

After much experimentation in the Cinema 4D software, and asking around for which variation people preferred the most, it became clear what direction I should take for my digital Secret 7 entry (This post will be updated with the final outcome once the winners are announced).

This being the first time I've used Cinema 4D for a design since college, meant many tutorials were watched in the process of creating this piece. It was considered to use Illustrator, however this would take much, much longer and the outcome would not be anywhere near as effective. This is due to the 3D feature in illustrator not being as comprehensive and not including real world physics like Cinema  4D does.

The process:

After using a plugin called 'Thrausi' it was possible to chop a cube into pieces with ease. This would then be processed through what is called a 'Phong Tag'. This 'Tag' adds physics to the objects which is then copied to a plane which acts like a floor. When the cube drops and hits the plane, all of the individual pieces will disperse and give the effect of crumbling. 

This is what the layers looked like when the scene was complete.

'OverHead Softbox.1' x2 - These supply a realistic studio lighting into the scene.

'Cube_Thrausi_164.1' - This is the grouped layer of the cube (Shown above).

'Plane' - This is the floor of the studio.

'Boole' - A Boole object enables you to "cut-out" another object. This was used to give the cut up cube to stay more uniform as it falls onto the plane.

This is a snapshot of the materials used for the cubes/plane/softboxes. Just above the materials is the timeline, this is where the animation happens. It is then possible to freeze the frame and then export that frame as an image, in this instance it was a tiff at 300dpi.

Fedrigoni Paper Cutting/Folding Techniques - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

As a form of exploration and experimentation, looking at ways of utilising paper without having to print anything onto it yet still having detail to communicate the given meaning will provide a good source of inspiration for an idea that could go further.

The above images represent a creative way of cutting type and it still being rendered legible. This could be adapted in my own practice, or to add more colour, the cuts could be kept and stuck onto colourful stock.

This is a way to use light to create type that stands out without any additional emphasis on the letters, by cutting the whole letter except the left side, it is possible to fold out the letter from the page and let the light do the rest of the work.

Another great way to emphasise letters without ink is by embossing/debossing. Pretty much all of these processes use light to create the letters in question. However, this does not involve any cutting so this could be a nice way to be playful with typesetting.

The above image would be a nice way to promote Fedrigoni's adhesive range. The letters would be cut out and stuck on almost like using post-it-notes that can be peeled off. This would be a great way to incorporate user interaction with the posters.

This is just like the previous cut-outs, however this uses a concertina fold to pull out the letters in the opposite direction. This would be much more time consuming to work out the correct letters to cut and wouldn't be realistic for extended production.

This is probably the best way to showcase paper (type) using light. However, this would have to be an image printed onto paper rather than actually being cut and used within the real world as it would be difficult to ensure the poster would be in the correct position to get the right light.

Jack Garratt Visual Research - Secret 7 - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

By analysing the lyrics of the song, it was possible to dissect what Garratt was trying to communicate in his song: "Picking up the pieces you left" to imply he is gathering items that his ex girlfriend has left around him.
This then sparked the idea of using a 3D rendering program called Cinema 4D to create a unique design that would resemble the 'pieces' Jack speaks of in the track.
Here are some quick images that I've found that would resemble the outcome that would be produced:

By using a plugin for Cinema 4D called Thrausi, it is possible to animate an exploding shape. This can represent the 'pieces' from the song.

Overall, there isn't much visual research needed for this brief as the software is down most of the work for me, as to attempt something like this in Illustrator would be near impossible.

The outcomes must look well polished and natural but not too cinematic which is difficult when using a software such as this. Processing the still render in Photoshop will help add depth and help reduce the synthetic effect the software gives.

The Telegraph [D&AD] - Collaborative Practice - Studio Brief 02 - OUGD503

As a response to the collaborative practice, James Feehan and myself are executing the online based brief for The Telegraph.

After meeting up today (17/02/16), we have devised a timetable on which to provide relevant research and set realistic deadlines on when to complete the work. As the deadline for D&AD New Blood is looming, the date for completion should be no later than a week before it is due for submission (9th March). This gives us plenty of time to either add anymore necessary features into our ideas without creating too much restrictions in relation to time.


Schedule:

1. Research - 24th February
2. Idea Generation - 27th February
3. Initial Idea Execution (Wireframes etc...) - 2nd March
4. Final Idea Execution - 9th March

To begin this brief, we will be splitting research equally to maintain efficiency which will be in the next posts to follow.

Fedrigoni Background - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

Established in 1888, Fedrigoni is a well established worldwide company that has a healthy background in paper distribution.

Their audience cover from schools to bank notes - packaging to stationary. There is a healthy choice when it comes to stock finishes and colours, this makes the YCN brief an interesting one, being able to utilise all different types of stock creatively opens doors to many techniques such as paper cutting, engineering or even 'pop-up' leaflets.

Fedrigoni have strong ethics towards sustainability, they yearly update their environmental report to show to the consumer and prove they have huge considerations when it comes to sustainability. They also produce paper that is 68% 'CoC-FSC' (Chain of Custody) which means the trees they use are always traceable and are heavily sustained, whilst the remainder is still 'CW-FSC' which means that it is of the 'controlled wood' type.

That have multiple departments including:

• Paper (57%)
• Security (11%)
• Converting (32%)

With paper taking up the largest chunk of their turnover, it is clear that this needs to be the best communicated when it comes to gaining new clients.

Fedrigoni [YCN] - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

As the largest brief of the individual practice aspect of this module, I have opted for Fedrigoni.

This will enable the utilisation of all of the things I have learnt up to now, it is very similar to past projects that involved creativity with stock which should give me a head start in terms of not needing to learn the major techniques needed to be creative with paper and produce a successful outcome in a reasonable amount of time.


Brief
Creatively use paper to promote their new retail space: The Imaginative Papers Shop.

Screen Printing Halftones (Max Richter) - Secret 7 - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

The last post stated that if split fountain screen printing turned out unsuccessful that the more complicated halftone bitmap technique would be used.

This meaning the gradient would be separated in photoshop through four different stages, one stage for each spot colour. This would be then printed onto acetate and exposed on a silk screen using four separate screens for each colour. This gives a much more accurate print and is less of a 'hope for the best' strategy. However, it would be best to simply grab a blank screen and a roll of paper, then create as many different variations of the gradient to come out with something that is successful.

An example of how halftone screen printing is used to create the effect of a gradient:

Snapchat Geofilter - Great News! - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

It's active!

The Geofilter that was created for the young student community in Hyde Park has been activated as of Monday 1st February 2016.

Hyde Park Geofilter - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

The above image is the completed filter. By using the type from the picture house, it was possible to recreate it in a vector format that will show up very sharp on high DPI phone screens.

Here is the completed filter in action:

Fingers crossed it gets activated by the Snapchat team!

Hyde Park Picture House - Snapchat Geofilter - Studio Brief 01 - OOUGD503

By taking a few pictures of Hyde Park Picture House, it was possible to get the best angle to create the vector illustration at.

After heavily editing the image, it was possible to create more of a picture that made it easier to define the lines of the building, the result of which was the following:

This image was then dragged into Illustrator and traced using the pen tool with a curved cap white stroke. Going around in a simple outline and then adding more detail made it possible assess how many lines were too many.

Hyde Park - Snapchat Geofilter - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

The first thing that would be considered as the most known landmark in Hyde Park would have to be The Picture House. To validate this point, it holds the top position in Leeds for signs and landmarks on trip advisor:

To create something that would resemble the building is the best starting point. Another great aspect to take inspiration from would be to utilise the art deco typography used within the front signage.


Keeping it simple was the key to create a successful geofilter as the focal point is not the filter, but the picture that is behind the filter. For example, a simple line based vector illustration would suffice:

This example shows many different landmarks throughout the world in this format.

Colour choice is also an important consideration as it should be visible in most lights, but, as is is winter and it is mostly dark when snapchat is being used within the hyde park area it would be ideal for it to be white, instead of black where the detail could be lost within the picture.

This example shows something a little more simplified compared to the above. Seeing these examples has really hit home that using a landmark such as a building is much more comprehensive than any other strategy.

Snapchat Geofilter - Studio Brief 01 - OUGD503

Snapchat have recently started calling for submissions of Geofilters from designers and artists around the world.

This is perfect for a small project in the individual practice for responsive.








Focusing on a certain area was simple to decide on, rather than focus on a large area that will likely to have many designers/artists competing, choosing something more local would make much more sense. Hyde Park was the first place that cropped up, it is and does not feature a very comprehensive geofilter. So to begin, looking at what landmark to focus on within Hyde Park is the best starting point.