Portfolio Surgery

Fresh out of my portfolio surgery with Ben Haworth, Senior Designer at The Beautiful Meme.

The feedback I received was extremely useful and positive. I gained some vital feedback which will allow me to develop my portfolio to a higher standard which I am more happy with.

BRIEF 1:: FutureClaw

FutureClaw is a fashion, art and music magazine. The use of the serif type on the cover design indicates that the magazine is a higher end magazine. The type throughout the publication is used in a very considered manor, it is concise and restricted in order to utilize the white space available on the page.

BRIEF 1:: Finch Magazine

Finch magazine again utilizes the white space available and uses strong monochrome imagery to focus the reader in. A simple one colour and monochrome is used throughout the publication, this simplicity ensures the reader clearly focuses on one aspect of the design at a time.

An online version is also available to view. As the yearbook will be presented online, we should also consider how the yearbook would appear online.

BRIEF 1:: The Fashion Almanac

The Fashion Almanac's design style focuses more on the way in which fashion designers tend to design and use trend forecasting to influence their design. The way in which this is captivated whilst also remaining a graphic design element to the publication seems to work really well in combining the two disciplines. This is definitely an aspect of design we should try to utilize.

BRIEF 1:: DOMINO Fashion Magazine

This fashion magazine uses a simple monochrome colour scheme with the addition of one or two spot colours. The simple use of enables the focus to be on the content: the imagery and the type. The use of white space directs the reader to different areas of the page and focuses them in on different aspects of the page. This design style works well, although I feel it could be stripped back even to utilize more white space.

To Do

Print:: Small details

It is the smallest attention to details which often makes a publication come together and work. The simple use of the black vectored lines adds more dimension to the printed material. These details are something I need to consider when designing publications for print. 

Brief 1:: Meeting

Today we had a meeting to discuss what we needed to do in order to push this brief forward and by when. We also bought along contextual references we had each been looking at to ensure we were coherent in our thinking behind the design style we are going to propose for the fashion yearbook.

To Do:

Scan in books & collect online images in folder

Research Colour schemes

Research Bodoni / Didot based Type

Examples of extras for book (Folds / tear outs / perforations)

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Next meeting Friday to compile context boards

 

 

Brief 4:: How to target students

This article on eMarketer has provided an essential insight into how society interacts with different types of advertising and which is most significant. This will support my decision to develop and University tour which then stems into online activities.

BRIEF 1:: Cover Design

The clean white, grey scale and spot colour all work exceedingly well with one another in creating  publication that looks high end but still has an element of playfulness about it. I think getting the balance right between the fun and the bespoke design is going to be key to us producing a professional yearbook design for Fashion.

BRIEF 1:: Spine/Bind

I do not think that we will have enough money in the budget to produce an exposed bind like this, however, the use of a single colour down the spine and extending onto the cover of the publication sits really well. If we chose to work with a simple b&w colour scheme and one spot colour, this could look particularly effective.

BRIEF 1:: V&A

The use of a colour on the inner page to contrast with the grayscale imagery works incredibly well in subtly adding colour into the design. The half fold of the page also creates interaction for the user, if we were to use both sides of this page to it's advantage.

BRIEF 1::Tush Fashion Magazine

I have obtained a copy of the 2012 'Tush' magazine from my friend studying Fashion. Throughout the magazines uses a variety of stocks which directly contrast with one another in order to create a sense of touch. Also the type is written horizontally down the spine, which goes against the traditional vertical type down the spine. The publication also uses a simple colour scheme with one or two spot colours throughout. This spot colour creates an interesting and dynamic approach to the publication.

The publication also has a web presence, although it is not all that easy to navigate, it does portray the essence of the magazine through this channel.

28/1 To Do

This week is going to be a busy one, but if I stick to my timeplan I should be able to utilise my time wisely and get everything done in time.

Monday Briefing Notes

FSB:: Meeting with Amber

The graduate fashion design team met with Amber today to discuss our progress so far and how we should continue to approach this brief. It was bought to our attention that having four people all designing will not be productive.

As a result, as a group we have decided that Fanki and Liv are going to take charge of the design side of the brief, whereas James and I are going to run the production side of the brief. This allow me to communicate with professionals and gain valuable experience with printers.

FSB:: Meeting

Today we had a meeting with both the fashion show committee.

In our meeting with the fashion show committee, we discussed how we are going to take this project forward. Firstly we are going to design a few logos which we can take back to them when we meet next Monday for us to discuss and conclude a design. This will allow them to begin to apply this to their web presence and social media.

We have asked them to provide us with key dates in which they want us to have produced different deliverables by and a list of the exact deliverables the want us to produce. We have also asked for the budget we are going to have to work with by the meeting next Monday.

In doing this, it should allows us to approach this brief in an organized manor and ensure that the project is well time managed.

V Mag

The blind embossed detailing on the cover allows the design to remain minimal but retain an element of quality. 

The simple layout allows the attention to remain on the visual aesthetics of the design. This is something we are going to need to consider as the fashion yearbook is going to be heavily image driven.

Futu Magazine

This magazine design has a strong typographic theme throughout which makes it a little too busy, however I think this pushes the layout of the pages to be more imaginative.

I think the cardboard mailout works well with the simplistic colour scheme of the cover design.

Colors Magazine.

This publication is an example of the range we should be attempting to achieve within this brief. We need to consider not only the physical book itselft but how the designs can then be translated to a pull our poster design and even web.

The layout of this design is simple but different through the use of applying vertical type to a book which opens out horizontally.

The simple colour scheme with one spot colour is an aspect of design which we have proposed with the Fashion Show branding, so to use this within the fashion yearbook too would bring the together nicely.

White Blackout Magazine

White Blackout Magazine – Cover & Editorial Design by Kasper Pyndt Studio

The simple but visually engaging design of this magazine enables a message to be clearly communicated, whilst at the same time enabling a fun element to be present within the publication. This is something we need to achieve within our design for the Fashion yearbook.

Yearbook

We have today been told that my group has been allocated the fashion yearbook. As I am going to also be designing the Fashion Show branding I am very excited to work on this.

Progress tutorial

My progress tutorial with Fred was very useful and made me focus in on what I want to get out of my final major projects. I have a few tasks that I need to go away and do in order to ensure I get the most out of the rest of my time on the course.

Result

Today we have found out that we have been selected to design the Graduate Fashion Show branding.

Excellent.

I have scheduled a meeting with the Fashion Show committee for Monday at 2.30pm for us to discuss what deliverables they want us to do produce and the deadlines we need to work to.

FSB:: Presentation

As we had been selected as one of the two finalists to work on the design of the fashion show branding, we today met with the fashion show committee to present our ideas and pitch for the design job. We continued the concept of old&new with the stitching on print to capitalize on the fact that they are fashion designers showcasing their work in an old textile mill. We showed the team examples of poster designs, flyers, online presence, gifts for the guests and wayfinding for the event. Overall, they seemed pleased with our ideas and gave us positive feedback. They will get back to us tomorrow to let us know who has been selected for the design job.

FSB:: Sans Serif Typeface

We had discussed the possibility of James designing a typeface to be used in the designs. However, he had designed a typeface previously and presented it to the fashion show committee and they weren't overly keen on it as they thought it was too feminine to represent the course as there are boys on the course too. After discussions with James we decided that we would use an existing typeface as we could then use it for both headlines and body copy, to ensure consistency, and use it straight away. Whereas a typeface James could make would only be used as a header.

We want to use a sans serif typeface, so James and myself took a trip to the library to see what sans serif typefaces we could potentially use. We came across a typeface called 'NOA' which we thought would be apt.

FSB:: Flyer/Poster Proposal

I have these designs which can be scaled up or down to be either an informative poster or flyer. I have purposely made the design 220 x 250 mm to fit in with the old/new concept I am not using A format paper sizes. I have also kept the design minimal in regards to colour so that the colour can be applied through the stitching which will be applied after printing.

FSB:: Draft Invite Designs

We have decided to keep the design minimal with just monchrome imagery and coloured stitching. I have mocked up these designs for a ticket in order for us to establish a coherent design style within the group that we can then work to and apply to all our designs.

FSB:: Pantone matching threads

Today, I used the pantone colour books to colour match the threads I bought.

green: pantone solid coated 352C
purple: pantone solid coated 2597C
yellow: pantone solid coated 1205C

James ans  then put these onto the computer:

We printed these out to see the colour difference between the threads and the print quality:

Weekly Timeplan

BRIEF 5:: Design Direction

This infusion of colour into the images is very dramatic. The vibrancy of the exploding colour against the more dull background works well and makes the focus on the colour. I want the focus to be on the colour within my work to show and elaborate on the fun element involved in paintballing.