Brief 2 - Brand Guidelines

To begin the designs to this brief, we created some brand guidelines. This is especially important given there are two of us working on the project, each with our own individual working practice, so creating guidelines for consistency is important to do initially.

We split the guidelines down and did half each, deciding on a format and layout together, before bringing these together to create the publication.

Brand Guidelines

We kept the guidelines as simple and concise as possible, speaking at length about the overall design that we wanted to achieve and create. I think that some elements will develop more as we start on the design process, but the foundation in these guidelines will help immensely.

Brief 7 - Final Evaluation/Reflection

After completing YCN Domino’s Pizza last year and finding it a very enjoyable experience I was looking forward to starting work on this brief as it was quite similar in terms of the deliverables in it being quite an open brief. This brief was essentially allowing me to do whatever I wanted as long as it promoted the Syfy brand.

I quickly decided on a concept of creating a sci-fi convention. One of the main reasons for doing this is because it meant I could brand something. This is something I didn’t do at all last year in the competition brief, and found myself a little annoyed at the fact that other people had with their briefs. With this being an open brief, it meant I had the allowance to create a convention and brand it, while keeping inside the guides of what the brief was asking.

Choosing to create a convention and do this branding was definitely the right thing to do as it meant that instead of focussing on keeping everything in line with Syfy, I could create a whole new identity and experience, while keeping within the brief and what was being asked for, which was to promote Syfy’s love and passion for the sci-fi genre in general.

I really enjoyed developing the concept and brand for the convention, and think that it is quite fun and really does answer the brief. I think the development of the branding really happened at the end of the brief when I started putting everything together and adjusting colours and layouts to fit all and be consistent.

I also think the use of stock played a big part in the end stages of development as the inclusion of the red stock added another layer to the identity and gave the collateral a bit more life. Before this was included, everything was very similar. The inclusion meant I had to edit everything I had done previously, however I definitely think this was for the better as it made the branding more versatile and showed how it would work realistically.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this project and am glad I chose to do this over the other competition briefs that I could have done. I think the final deliverables are strong and answer the brief, and are definitely something I am proud of.

Brief 7 - Design Boards

Brief 7 - Submission To YCN

 

Brief 7 - YCN Submission Boards

Brief 7 - Interactive App

For the final element to this project I decided on creating an App. I had wanted to include this in my original planning, however with time restraints I didn't think I'd get onto it, but I am happy that I have as I think it will really tie everything together and finish the whole project off to make it well rounded  and show consideration into all sides to the convention.

The idea is that the App will work as a guide around the convention, showing all the events available, and allowing the user to create their own plan, read about the events and set reminders.

Realistically I won't be able to show the full App in the submission boards, so I only need to do the important pages which show the majority of the Apps functions.

Main Pages

Events page - A list of all the events

Planner page - the users individual planner for both of the days

Single event page - A brief description of the event & all timings for this event

With the App I wanted to follow the same design that I had been for the Event Programme in having black with white text. I also wanted to integrate the red colour into the navigation bar as I think this contrasts well against the black.

Following the Event Guide, I want the Event imagery to be in the purple tint. The exhibition imagery would be full colour.

The main idea is that the App will be easy to use, so there will be a top navigation bar with the page heading, a back button and a menu button. The bottom navigation bar will be split into the two main sections - Events & Planner - allowing the user to flick between the two as they please.

Each individual even will have a plus button so the user can easily add it to their planner. In contrast to this, on the planner, each event will have a cross button so the user is able to remove it.

Initial idea:

Following what was stated above, I created three pages to show off the basic layout that I wanted to move forward with. I created two variations of the Event page, one where the user can click between Saturday and Sunday, and the second where they just scroll down to see Saturday events first, and Sunday events below.

At this point the overall layout is something I am feeling quite positive about, however I am a bit unsure on the execution that I have got right now. I wanted the two tabs at the bottom to differentiate from the tabs on the page, but have found it quite hard to do so. I also dislike the use of the red line on the Events page, however without it, there wouldn't rally be any clear indication to the section below. With this, I have decided to move forward with the scrolling idea instead as I think it works better in this style of design.

I then mocked these up to include the imagery and onto an iPhone view.

While I think it does look better mocked up, I am still unsure of the design and feel that it is very dark and doesn't look as good as it could. I feel that the black on white looks a bit amateurish and doesn't look as professional as it could even though it follows the previous designs created for print. This is mainly down to the colour usage.

I then decided to scrap this use of white on black and move forward with using white as a background colour instead as it is lighter and will be a bit easier for me to work with in terms of the way the colours work together. I also want to simplify the icon buttons as well.

Moving forward with the white instead of black, I also decided on incorporating two grey colours, one dark and one lighter. The darker colour will be used instead of black so won't be as harsh against the white. The lighter grey would be used for the tabs as the unselected tab.

I started by redesigning the Events & Planner pages. The selected bottom tab is red, with the unselected in the light grey as said previously. For the days on the Planner, the selected will be in the dark grey, with the unselected being in the light grey. This differentiates it from the bottom tabs which are fixed, and differentiates it from the top navigation bar as well. I also simplified down the icon buttons, removing all unnecessary detail.

I find that this lighter design seems so much simpler and professional, especially as it looks a lot more fluid and softer than the harshness of the white on black. The use of the light grey lines between options works really well in creating a subtle divider.

Following this design, I created an individual Events page - deciding to continue to use the two day tabs instead of scrolling through them all. I also created a variation to show what would happen when the plus is clicked.

I think the much lighter design works much better for this page as well, and the sections of the page are very clear to the user.

I then created a page to show what the exhibition/gaming pages would look like. These will be different as there aren't set times for these and they run for the entirety of the convention. The layout of these are slightly different, with the option to add this at the top of the page and all the information below it. For exhibition pages, there would also be a small selection of imagery for the user to flick through to decide if it is something they want to see. The user will select the plus sign and be able to choose the time in which they want to go to it.

Following this, I created the tab that would appear when the menu button is selected. The content for this is something I considered carefully and for a long time, figuring out what the user would actually want and need at the event.

I decided on three main features and a couple of smaller features for the user.

The first main feature is the ability to set reminders. This is so that the user can create an alarm for certain events on their planner to tell them when it is time to go.

The second feature is a digitised floor plan map. The idea is that the user is able to flick through the floor plan and be able to see where they need to go.

The third feature is a live feed for the user. Some of the events will have limited access, so the live feed allows the user to still experience as much of the convention as they can if they have a period of time without an event.

The smaller features is the clock so they can see the time. Along with this there is the current and next events so the user knows where they need to be at the current time or for the next event.

Another small feature is the ability for the user to have their own profile image. This adds a bit of personalisation to the App.

To differentiate from the red navigation bar, I decided on the dark grey as the top bar for the menu tab. As well as this, a dark filter has been placed over the page below to fully show the tab being opened.

Following this I created the log in page for the App. I decided on the background being the imagery used on the posters, with the logos at the top and two simple boxes to fill in at the bottom.

On the completion of this page, I mocked all of the pages up onto iPhones to include the imagery.

Overall I am really pleased with the outcome of the App and think that it is definitely a stronger element to the brief and really ties everything off nicely. While I was initially a little concerned that the change from black to white would differentiate the designs from the others, I do think that the approach worked well in creating a professional looking App which is easy to navigate and looks decent too. I think with the imagery in, it does link more to the rest of the designs so I think it still works with all of the other work and does show the versatility with the direction of designs for the brief as a whole.

Brief 5 - Final Evaluation/ Reflection

I think that this brief never really reached the full potential of what it could have, mainly due to the lack of client response in the expansion. I did enjoy creating the logo and icons for this, but I do feel that they only go so far, and much more could have been developed and created.

Initially I had been quite excited by this brief because it was something that I found enjoyable in branding a restaurant. The brief was also something very up my street in terms of the deliverables asked for in the logo design - a typographically based design with an integrated icon. Creating a bespoke icon for this is something that interested me as I had not done much work on icon to the point of the start of this brief.

The lack of client response following the logo design made the brief lack direction and enthusiasm. With it being a client brief, I did not want to finish the brief the way I would have seen it because this may not have been what the client wanted, and would have ultimately meant I would be doing things twice over. Looking back at it now, and still with a lack of client response, I realise that I could have completed the brief to my vision and still got something out of it in creating work that I was proud of.

I did enjoy doing the initial parts to this brief and creating the logo, however afterwards it was not enjoyable and was a lost brief as there was no direction to move in. I think that this brief has shown me that in a client brief, they may want you to complete a brief quickly, but it is their response time that is important too in creating a project as it is a two way system.

Brief 5 - Design Boards

Brief 5 - Extension

While I have just decided to cancel this brief due to lack of client contact, I have decided to complete the brief on my own time and finish it in the way I would see fit. This is down to a number of reasons, the first being that I have included it in my portfolio and have had good feedback for it, so it would be great for me if I could actually talk about it a bit more and expand on it.

Right now I had the logo and three icons. The client had asked for a number of other icons, however, I don't think including these will make any difference to the end products. Keeping the three that are there are more linked to the brand as they are of the three specialties. Adding more might dull down the importance of these three icons.

As this was initially meant to be quite a short brief, I will not be spending a huge amount of time on it as I already have the majority of the work for it. It's just a case of applying this branding to the necessary products. I also created mockups to show how the interior of the restaurant could look.


Product Mock ups

Brief 7 - Website Development

As I had all the printed collateral completed, my attention on this brief has turned to the digital side, starting with the website. While I have some initial designs for this, I did comment previously that they needed some refinement and changes made to improve them.

Now the branding has been defined completely and overall appearance of the collateral and convention is very clear to me, I felt able to make the changes to the website to reflect this.

I started by deciding to change the navigation bar placement. Initially I had it along the left hand side, however I do now feel that a bar along the top would be better suited to the content of the website. I also decided that I didn't need the venue and date in the header at all times and that this would only appear on the pages necessary.

With these changes, I started on refining the events page of the website. With the navigation bar now along the top, the content boxes can now full the entire width of the page. I continued with the idea of some boxes being larger than others, adapting these to fit in with the new grid and only expanding width ways instead of height as well. I also decided on changing all the text to white to contrast against the purple imagery, which all boxes would be after the use of block colours didn't work well.

New grid:

I think this design works much better, especially the navigation bar. Following this I moved onto creating the initial page to the website.

Since I created the first poster I had a very clear idea of how this page would be, with the same image spanning the width of the page and all the content around it. With this in mind, I created a simple design which would fit with this. I also included a large button for users to be able to click to purchase tickets immediately.

I also created one the general pages - About - in case I wanted to show this in the presentation boards. While it isn't such a large page, it really helped me in being able to write down the concept and reasoning for the convention in the first place and really come up with a defined concept.

I then mocked the three of these pages up to include the imagery.

Overall I am really pleased with the pages and think they work really well together and individually. I think that they definitely fit in with the printed collateral and reflect the convention well as well as being easy to use and navigate. While there are obviously other pages of the website, at this point, the  creation of these pages aren't important as the reason for the website is put across in these three pages, and it is unlikely that I will use any other page apart from these three in the submission boards for the brief.

Brief 12 - Final Evaluation/Reflection

Initially I was quite apprehensive about this brief as it was group work and a live brief. The previous live brief I did, I didn’t enjoy much at all due to the subject I was given, however I decided to keep an open mind about this as it was quite an open brief in terms of what the deliverables are and seemed like an interesting subject to work wih.

I wanted to work with people I hadn’t before, and I went through with this in the group I worked in. I found that this was a really good experience as it was good to see other people’s ideas and concept approaches. I think that we worked well together as a group as we had a variety of skills and each could put in our own individual contribution.

The final outcomes we produced were very different to how the brief started and to how I usually work, but I was very happy with this as this brief gave me a chance to really push my skills in vector illustrations and mocking up designs from scratch instead of using a downloadable file from the internet. This brief pushed my technical skills to a more professional level in this aspect.

The biggest surprise for me in this brief was my ability to create some strong and consistent illustrations. I had initially said I didn’t want to do the illustrations as I had not ever really worked in this style before and wouldn’t want to pull the standard of the project down, however when time became an issue and I helped in this, I found that it was much easier than I thought and I was much better at it than I thought, creating some illustrations that I was proud of and matched up to the standard of the others created.

Something I think we found hard as a group was creating a solid concept. Every time we thought we had one, we found the holes in it and ended up back where we started. However, when we finally did reach a certain and solid concept, it was strong and was definitely worth all of the hard work for. Once this was sorted I think we found it quite easy to create designs for it and expand this over the collateral that was asked for.

In terms of our outcomes, I think what we did was good and was very different to all the other groups, something that I think we were happy and proud to do. While we necessarily didn’t have enough time to fully explore what we could have done and push this far, I do think we did a good job and can be proud of what we did.

In reflection, I can say that I did enjoy the brief in terms of the design work. I think we can all agree that we found it hard up until that point, but keeping in constant communication and making time for meetings really aided in the development of this brief, which did result in a strong concept and strong visuals.

Brief 7 - Collateral Photography

Today I brought all my printed collateral together and photographed it to be included in my submission boards for the brief. I decided on photographing against the chipboard in the studio as it has a contrast against both the black and red.

Photos

Overall I am very pleased with the photographs taken. Generally there is a bit of editing needing doing in the lighting of some of the images, however I think the general layout and photography of the collateral is strong and hopefully this will be improved when the editing is done. Some elements have photographed much better than initially thought, like the last image for example. That was a surprise, which has worked out really well and could be a leading image for the project.