Evaluation — OUGD505

OUGD505 Evaluation

Having just completed a COP module, I felt that this module was going to be much similar focusing on a large amount of conceptual research as well as design. The result seems that way, informing the design decisions on subjects outside of design has opened me up to some new idea generation techniques and ways of thinking.

Studio brief 01 was a good warmup to the second brief of this module. Basing the banknotes heavily on conceptual idea’s meant that the design stage was to be informed by the journey rather than any visual influences. Having been stuck at an early stage to think of something that would be interesting for me was the only problems faced throughout this brief. Opting to create a currency for Mars was a great opportunity to inform myself of something I am interested in; astronomy. Figuring out what to base the notes on was the main aspect of the design, choosing the mountainous landscapes of the Martian terrain was due to the sheer scale of them in comparison to Earth’s. When this was brought up in a crit, people liked that the design had been more informed by the conceptual approach rather than design.

Using analogue methods allowed me to step away from the computer and get my hands dirty. This brief was a massive benefit for me in terms of gaining confidence in the screen print room, to which led me to textile printing in studio brief 02.

The first aspect of the second brief was to gather many different sources of conceptual research that relates to the chosen area of study. So, just like COP, this brief was a 50/50 conceptual/design approach. This was good news for me after receiving feedback for my Responsive module, I fail to explore research outside of the design field and this is reflected in the work. However, with this module I feel I have cracked the conceptual approach of research in terms of informing the design more effectively.

The early stages of this brief were a slight struggle in terms of establishing a solid idea to base the work on. This seems to be some sort of a creative block that I need to figure out how to surpass in a reasonable amount of time ready for Level 6, enabling me to spend more time on the aspects of the project that really matter. Initially opting to explore issues within 21st century copyright quickly shown itself to be a poor choice as idea generation for this subject was far too slow. It was clear that a change was needed, so I began looking to collaborate, this is because the content of the outcomes did not have to be generated by ourselves, so collaborating with someone who had the content addressed this issue. This idea also came about due to wanting to gain better communication skills in terms of interdisciplinary collaboration. Understanding what it takes to work with people outside of my own course seemed a vital aspect of my growth for the future and is knowledge that will no doubt be required in the working world.

Due to this brief being called ‘Product, Range & Distribution’, it was clear that many different outcomes needed to be produced, this is to supply a successful message and also allows for the identifying of issues that can arise when multiple media approaches are considered for a conceptually project such as this. Due to this, I wanted to avoid using a computer to ‘mock-up’ final outcomes unless it was completely necessary. This allowed me to better gauge what may be considered as restrictions if the products were to go into production, however, keeping the products fairly simple to reproduce using other means of production such as lithography for the zine and a more streamlined fabric screen printing set-up.

Overall, this module has really helped me get to grips with designing for with the conceptual aspect of the idea in mind rather than using solely, visual means of inspiration. Informing my design in the future will always follow a similar pattern to this module, it has helped the outcomes be produced with the target audience and recognise where restrictions may arise when producing outcomes.

Studio Brief 02 — Design Boards — OUGD505

Studio Brief 01 — Design Boards — OUGD505

Merchandise — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

Poster:

Leaflet:

Stickers:

Final Zine (Photographed) — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

Stock Choices — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

With this project being heavily based around distribution, it is vital that a cheap yet effective approach can be achieved whilst maintaining quality throughout the products.

Posters — 120GSM (Coated for longevity and protection from weathering)

Leaflets — 90GSM (Recycled to keep costs down, as leaflets tend to be commonly disposed of)

Zine:
Cover — 245GSM (Coated Matt, allows the colours to 'pop' and is thick enough to protect the contents of the zine)
Acetate — Allows the marbling aspect of the brand to be overplayed onto the colour scheme.
Content — 120GSM (Recycled, keeps costs down and is not too thick that the zine cannot be saddle stitched.)

The use of natural/white colours will further emphasise the dual spot colours compared to any other stocks.

Social Media (Mock-Up) — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

Social Media — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

Executing these Social media pages helps realise how the design would be incorporated into various platforms.

Twitter:

Facebook:

YouTube:

Layout (Visual Research) — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

The use of layout is always determined by what content is on the page. The theme, aesthetic and content needs to be equally weighted in order to communicate the message in the most effective way possible.

The above example uses a very neutral palette that takes advantage of white space. The use of overset text on the images provides a nice contrast between that of the off-white image and white background.

This could be utilised in the XY publication, overset text being quite a trendy design element, will reflect the forward thinking content.

This is probably the best way to incorporate stereotypically feminine colours, by combining them with more gender neutral colours. The use of overlaid Duotone within the images is also a great way of maintaining a colour theme throughout the zine/branding.

The outcome of this above zine is surprising, but in a good way. The merging of the two colours allows it to be more accessible by any gender, no matter what the stereotypes are. This goes hand in hand with a previous post on Pantone, using these two colours (Serenity & Rose Quartz) would be a great way to combine the stereotype and effectively eliminate any judgements that can be made at a first glance of the publication.

With the above statements in mind, the colours blue and pink compliment each other extremely well. The technique used above is a good example of this. By using inset pages inside the magazine of coloured stock is a subtle yet attractive way of incorporating colour without being too overpowering.

'Girls Mags' — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

Glossy magazines that are typically labelled as 'girly' are largely considered to be a thing of the past. However magazines such as ELLE still have demographics that are solely marketed towards women.

The bright 'hot pink' that is renowned for being slapped all over the walls of a young girls bedroom is plastered all over the covers of ELLE.

This shade of pink is a difficult colour to work with for all gender neutrality is concerned. People that are not as well informed may simply make the link that they have always made with the colour and assume that the zine is supposedly marketed towards 'females' only.

A quick google search of 'Girlie mags' and it is clear that the results come back with other words like vintage and old come in to play, which is indeed true in many ways. Even the advertisements in said magazines have become much more gender fluid than they were in the 60's/70's which will be explored in more depth in a later post as this also has a lot to do with the mainstreaming of feminism and gender equality.

When you compare the typical 'lads mags' to 'girls mags', why is it that the vast majority of magazines marketed towards solely males feature a woman on the front, the same goes for typically 'girlie' magazines, like the example used above, a google image search for ELLE will return covers that feature nothing but women.

Avoiding the use of any stereotypically and specific gender orientated magazine design is a must within the XY zine. Keeping it simple and not featuring anything that will point to either gender will be a vital part of the design process.

'Lads Mags' — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

In various campaigns over recent years, the fight to remove the controversial page 3 from newspapers has been successful. More specifically the 'No More Page 3' Campaign by Lucy-Anne Holmes.

Newspaper the Sun has stopped featuring topless models in the page 3 section of its newspapers in January of 2015 due to this protest — with many others supporting the permanent change.

This is also prominent in more worldwide magazines like Playboy. The release of the March issue of this year has sparked many debates and has proven that gender is becoming more and more fluid:

Just like the Sun, Playboy chose not to feature a topless model on the front of its magazine for the first time in a 'new-look' magazine.

PYLOT Mag — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

PYLOT mag is a bi-annual 'all analogue' zine based on fashion and photography.

The magazine is marketed in a very gender neutral, forward thinking manor. This would be a great way to market the XY zine in terms of keeping it neutral.


Cover Design (Use of gradient in neutral colour):

Full-bleed image editorial:

Typesetting and framed imagery:

Cover Design (Successful use of a stereotypically feminine colour):

The overall aesthetic of the zine just proves that colours that are stereotypical male or female can indeed be used to market a gender fluid publication.

The simplicity that has been implemented makes the imagery pop out of the page. Collaborating with a photographer means that the XY zine needs to mirror this effectively. 

With the sheer variation of scale within the content, typesetting will be a challenge, some people have said but a mere sentence in comparison to a full page of writing, maintaining consistency throughout the zine may be difficult, however PYLOT proves that it is indeed possible to make varying content of the same theme interesting and engaging.

Masculinity in 'Female' Fashion — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

    

In recent years, there has been a massive trend within fashion that is implying that whatever gender you may be, does not mean that you need to restrict your wardrobe to what those consider to be 'normal'.

For example, the above image — a campaign for DKNY in 2015 shows Cara Delevingne, a hugely influential character for all genders wearing what looks to be a very loose fitting pants suit. The merging of the males surrounding her seem to fit, there is no obvious division between the stereotypical male/females.

In fact, the males seem to be wearing tighter fitting suites in comparison to Delevingne, this also proving that the blurring of gender stereotypes is very much a here and now topic.

Femininity in 'Male' Fashion — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

In an interesting video by ATTN media looking at how men dress, looks at why society is not so accepting of males who wish to dress in a more stereotypically feminine manner:




The media recognises this as a trend and sees that society is not fully accepting of breaking the stereotypes imposed by the previous generations.

This is relevant in the zine in terms of imagery. The way that all of those who are photographed are all wearing the exact same shirt proves that fashion is most certainly not a binary concept.

Study Task 04 'Vote' — OUGD505

In a quick sit down session with the group, we looked at possible outcomes to the proposed issue the was laid out to us. After some quick fire brain storming and secondary research it was clear that the major issue with voting is that "young voters do not believe their vote will make a difference.".

A few days later we met up to refine the idea down to a possible outcome. We finally came up with a fully personalised app that would inform a certain target audience.

In this app you can:

• Choose your demographic, who are you? Homeowner? Student? Full-Time Civil Servant?
• Select parties you're most interested in finding out more about
• Choose specific issues you want to see addressed and what parties offer the best solutions based on your chosen areas of concern
• Essentially create a comparison of the most applicable party that would best be suited to your vote

Not only would this solution increase the amount of voters, it would encourage people to talk about these things to one another, and spark debates amongst their peers, but it would address the main issue that "young voters do not believe their vote will make a difference.".

Study Task 03 'Disobedient Objects North' — OUGD505

This study task was to help understand the restrictions that can be incurred by clients that supply content and impose certain things that cannot be changed. We as designers are obligated to work with these conditions and supply the best possible response to a brief.

After making myself aware of the brief, the final resolution is below:

The outcome of the leaflet was a 'read between the lines' sort of execution. Having the ability to manipulate the images for this aspect of the study task allowed me to manipulate the supplied images to convey the correct meaning.

With many of the images not being in the correct format, there were things that needed to be done before they could be used in a piece of design that would be used in the real world. Things like removing backgrounds from logo's and exporting the in a png format, ensuring type was laid out in the most effective way to be as legible as possible.

Primary Research (Survey) — Studio Brief 02 — OUGD505

Overall, these results tell us that all of those in the older generation bracket that were asked think that gender is a binary concept. This bodes well for the zine as this corresponds with the proposed target market.

And the fact that only 4 people out of 25 consider themselves 50-50 male/female also proves that many people are still in the mindset that one can be more 'masculine' or 'feminine'.

This survey proves that there is a place for this zine in terms of making a difference to the way society thinks about gender.