Module Evaluation

Overall I have really enjoyed the module and the fast pace nature of it. I have found that working on short briefs has encouraged me to work quicker as I have had less time to deliberate on ideas, instead I have had to plunge straight into doing work. At first I found this difficult as I wasn't used to working in this way however I now much prefer it and think this module has enabled me to produce some of my best work so far on the course. 

The penguin brief was the first time I had ever done a live brief and I really enjoyed this experience as I started to feel like a real graphic designer. I found it really interesting researching into past award winners to derive inspiration as well as looking into the pasts of the competition judges and how they had made it onto the panel. On reflection the design I produced could've been developed better such as testing out different paper stocks to add a textured background as well as working more with the typography. However I am happy with the idea behind the imagery and found this really strong as I think it relates well to the ‘smile in the mind concept’ that penguin book covers usually have.

As for the poster brief I really enjoyed looking into the past events that have happened in Leeds and have helped shape it as a city. Despite being local to Leeds I found out about a lot of events I never knew happened. I chose to focus on the victory parades that took place after World War II as it was an era my grandma lived through and often told me stories about growing up. Due to this personal connection I found it a very enjoyable project to do. The screen printing process did get my down at first as everything seemed to go wrong. However I decided to re do my prints and I am really glad I did. The process ran smoothly the second time and made for an enjoyable experience. I am really proud of my final print and the way it has turned out, I will definitely be screen printing again. 

The branding brief really helped me gain some experience of working in a group of people I hadn't really spoke to before. Overall I didn't really enjoy it as I was with a lot of large charactered people who liked to dominate the group discussions therefore I found it hard to get my own ideas in. When I finally got the chance to suggested something it was over looked. I think that is the negative side to working in a large group, I ended up feeling like none of my ideas were used and that the final branding didn't contain any element of my work. Despite this I am pleased with the overall look of the branding and think it is fit for purpose, it looks very professional and consistent. 

The final brief was my favourite as it allowed us to have more freedom and create something we wanted to. Me and Bronte decided to create a booklet dedicated to a few of the homeless people in Leeds as it was something we both felt very passionate about. As we both did our foundation course at LCA last year we were familiar with the large amount of homeless people on the streets of Leeds, however we imagined it would be a shock to people who had only just moved here. We wanted to make a booklet which helped freshers approach some of the homeless people in Leeds and see them as the people they are rather than the stereotypes they hold. 

I have realised that working on things I have a personal connection with and I am passionate about has helped me produce better work. I will keep this in mind for future work and I will try manipulate work so that it has a personal meaning to me. 

SB4 Evaluation

Despite the fact that the brief was only two weeks long I have enjoyed the fast pace nature of it, I think the pressure has enabled me to work quickly as I was always conscious of the limited time we had. Over all I think the booklet fits the brief well as it provides information about five of the homeless people in Leeds. This isn't many but as this was only a quick project we decided to limit ourselves to a few people. It also makes the booklet more realistic as it is more likely that the freshers will be able to speak to all five of the people over their first year at uni than they would be if the booklet contained 20/30 people’s information.  

We managed to do a solid amount of research before we started the designing which benefited us a lot as we knew how to approach the situation of talking to homeless people and how to go about asking questions in a sensitive way.

 Looking Jan Banning also helped in terms of how to capture the people we spoke to as his photos captured homeless people in a very honest way. This helped me when doing my illustrations of the homeless people we spoke to, I didn't want the drawings to define them as homeless, I wanted them to just look like people as I thought this would make whoever was reading the booklet more likely to approach them. 

I really enjoyed doing the illustrations as I found it a much nicer way to add a visual of the person as apposed to taking a photo. It is much more sensitive and less intrusive as a lot of the homeless people we spoke to were a bit on edge when we spoke to them and didn’t want to have their photo taken. It was also nice to put my own stamp on things and mate it easier to allocate jobs in the group, I was in charge of the illustrations were as Bronte was in charge of designing the pages. This saw a collaboration of both of our styles merging together which was really nice. 

Overall me and Bronte both work quickly together therefore managed to get the booklet finished before we had schedule which freed us up to bring our blogs up to scratch and complete our design boards within good time before the deadline. I really enjoyed working with Bronte because of this and find her a very productive person to work with. 

SB4 Final Booklet

Here is our final booklet. We chose to hole punch the corners of the pages and use a treasury tag to attach them all together as this is a cheap and quick method. It also makes the booklet easy to flick through which is essential as people need to find the information the need quickly when they are out and about, the booklet can be fanned out making it even easier to look through. The holes were punched in the bottom left corners to make sure no elements of the designs were cut out.

The front cover displays the name 'LDS STRTS' we went for this name as it is very informal and makes the booklet seem more approachable than most leaflets on this subject therefore people are more likely to read it. The caption below this reads 'a guide to the people sleeping on our street' this makes it obvious that someone local has created it but also using the word 'our' makes the tone of voice more personal and collective. 

                         

This friendly tone of voice is continued throughout the booklet, the first page features a large Y? which is very straight to the point and again informal. Using words such as 'cuppa' in the introduction puts the reader at ease as they know its not something too serious which is more relatable to a younger audience such as the freshers we are targeting. The second page is about care packages which charities recommend people make rather than donating money. We have used quick illustrations along side this information so people don't even have to read it, they can look at the drawings and have an idea of what the text is about. 

                         

The third page again contains similar illustrations along side a list of things to put into the care package. The fourth page shows the first profile page on one of the homeless people we spoke to. Here we have provided information on their favourite hot/cold drink, food and where they usually hang out. We have provided the same information for all 5 people. We have also put their name in bold letters so that this is the thing that stands out the most and what people are more likely to remember. We have also done a simple line drawing of each of the people so that readers using the booklet can recognise them. It also makes them remember that the people in the booklet are just people, they're friendly and they are easy to approach. 

                      

                          

The next four pages show the profiles of the other 4 people we talked to, again they show the favourite hot/cold drink, favourite food and usual location of each of the people. It also features their name in bold so that it is the main feature. 

                           

We have also featured a couple of pages which give the reader information about the homeless charities locally and across the UK. For anyone wanting to donate or find out any information regarding homeless people they can contact these charities and find out any information we didnt provide. 

                      

The back page of the booklet gives a quick thank you message in the same style as the front cover. The sentence 'it only takes a second to change someones day' encourages the reader to take action and want to make a difference. We have also featured the hashtag #LDSSTRTS so that people can interact over social media and share tips and advice on what they've learnt about befriending a homeless person. 

Over all I am pleased with how the booklet has turned out. We have kept costs low which was one of our aims. The treasury tags were 2p each, the paper was 4p each and the printing was £1.50 per booklet. In total the booklets cost £1.60 to produce. We also wanted to create something appealing to the freshers so that they were more likely to keep it, I think we have managed to achieve this as the vibe of the booklet is very edgy and grungy. The treasury tag could easily be taken out so that the cards can be displayed individually in their flats therefore getting the information out to more people. 

SB4 Booklet Production

We experimented with different types of paper to see how the print would come out. We tried a light yellow thin paper and an off-white sugar paper. After some print trials we decided that the sugar paper displayed the colours best and best suited the aesthetic of our booklet. 

SB4 Drawings

To add some more visuals to the pages we decided to do some quick illustrations of the items which are found on the care package list. We feel this adds a more friendly tone to the over all look of the publication as well as making the information quick and easy to process. Rather than reading the list of what to buy, people can quickly look at the drawings and get some inspiration from them.

SB4 Developments

We have decided to change the title of the intro page to 'y?'. 



We felt using the word 'intro' was a bit too obvious and plain so we changed it to 'y'. We decided this fit the aesthetic of the booklet better and linked in well with the 'lds strts' name. 



We have also adapted the care package double spread into two separate sides to make it work in the format of the hole punched cards.

SB4- Treasury Tags/Hole Punched Cards

After further development of the booklet, we have decided that it might look  better in a small card format, hole punched in the corner and tied together with something like a treasury tag.

Not only would this allow for easier design digitally, but it would be less hassle to print. More importantly, it would suit our aesthetic and relate to the content well.

SB4 Layout

We have decided our booklet is going to be 12 pages, as it has to be a multiple of 4.

Page 1: Title Page

Page 2: Intro

Page 3:  Care Packages pt 1

Page 4: Care Packages pt 2

Page 5: Claire


Page 6: Deano

Page 7: Craig T

Page 8: Spider

Page 9: Craig C

Page 10: Homeless Charities pt 1

Page 11: Homeless Charities pt 2

Page 12: Back Cover

SB4 CRIT AND DEVELOPMENTS

Feedback we received from a group crit:

-Really like the name 'lds strtz' but with 's' instead of 'z' - 'lds strts'
-Nice turquoise colour, would look nice with pale rose pink
-Work with partner typeface

Following this feedback, we worked on some further developments;



We really liked this colour scheme we came up with - a greeny turquoise colour combined with a light pink. We felt this would work well as clashing colours and created a bright and engaging visual.





We started looking at drop shadows and how this would look with a large sans-serif type. We felt this had a strong visual impact and decided to take this forward.





We also came across the typeface 'Agency FB' which we felt would work well and look really effective in combination with the Giorgio Sans main typeface. Agency FB was created and released between 1990 & 1995 therefore it ties in nicely with the design as both the colours and the style are very 90's. 

SB4 NAME

After a bit of research we thought about using the name 'Leeds Streets' but without the vowels. This is a popular technique used within design and culture and adds an extra 'edge' to the name.

We also thought 'lds strts' suits the urban/grime sort of aesthetic linked with living on the streets etc.



After using Caslon, we came across the typeface Giorgio Sans. We were really quite drawn to this and felt it could link well with the modern and contemporary aesthetic.




We also experimented with using a capitalized version of this to add extra impact visually.

SB4 TYPEFACES

We started our initial designs by looking at the Caslon typeface as this is what was used in the online journal we liked. We felt this would suit our booklet style nicely as it has a nice gentle handwritten element to it and links with the traditional media we are planning to use etc.

We first used Adobe Caslon which we felt was too thin and spindly so we then experimented with ITC Caslon 224 medium, which was a thicker and more refined version. This definitely worked a lot better so we began to play around with this.




Top typeface: ITC Caslon 224 Medium
Bottom typeface: Adobe Caslon Roman




We started playing around with the layout of the front cover, using the name 'Streets of Leeds' as our starting point.





We experimented with the layout and placing of the type within the cover.



We also thought about using a semicolon, as they have a cult meaning in today's society as a sign of hope.

"A semicolon is used when an author could've chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life." 

Originally created as a day where people were encouraged to draw a semicolon on their bodies and photograph it, it quickly grew into something greater and more permanent. Today, people all over the world are tattooing the mark as a reminder of their struggle, victory, and survival. 

We liked the idea of using a semicolon as a representative of struggle and survival.

SB4 FACT FILE

We came across an online magazine called 'Flat File' and were really attracted to the design of the publication.

"Weekly publication featuring one piece of graphic design at a time. In order to admire them, but also to learn something useful in the process. The context and the story behind each piece can reveal lessons that are timeless and invaluable to every contemporary designer. Every design piece featured here comes from the vast collection of work in the Herb Lubalin Study Center."









We fell in love with the typeface which we later discovered was Caslon - we are thinking about using this typeface as a starter.

We also liked the worn, hand-printed effect on the big bits of text, this is something we are looking at emulating ourselves.

SB4 Booklet Design

For inspiration on how to design the booklet in a sensitive way we looked at booklets sent out by charities who help the homeless. We came across this one produced for the charity Shelter, it was designed by Johnson Banks (a design consultancy based in London). What we liked about it is it's simplicity and constancy throughout.

From this we designed a similar looking booklet for our own project. We are unsure on the name so far so simply went with 'Streets of Leeds' as using the term 'homeless' can be seen as quite offensive and insensitive. We looked at the online thesaurus for other alternatives but everything seemed too harsh so we decided not to try use this at all.



The name 'Streets of Leeds' refers to the place that these people are usually found, the place that they would call their 'home'.



Here is the front cover of our booklet, it is very similar to that published by Shelter therefore may be taken more seriously as it looks like it is from a charity. The cover for the booklet would be printed on card to make the covering protective but the paper stock inside the booklet would be thin and cheap to keep costs down.



The first page would provide an introduction to what the booklet is about and a few tips/ words of advice for the reader on how to approach homeless people. The layout followed is similar to that seen in the booklet created for Shelter (see image below). The text is easy to read and pretty straight to the point. The typeface used is helvetica which is in keeping with that used by Shelter.





The pages after this in the booklet will contain the information about the people we spoke to. The drawings of them will be changed into red to correspond with the front cover of the booklet.

SB4 - Creating an A3 Fold Down Leaflet

We want to create a cheaply made, thin leaflet that people can always have in their bag. It needs to be lightweight and not take up any room. We did some research into folding an A3 piece of paper into a leaflet form as this would be a very cheap option, it wouldn't need to be bound in any way and only one page would need to be printed double sided.



Here is a quick mock up of how our A3 leaflet would look, it would be printed on cheap thin paper such as newsprint which is why the background is an off white colour (when printed this would be the colour of the paper). The information is laid out in way that is easy to read so information can be read quickly and on the move. The leaflet would also provide information on other items to buy for the homeless people such as lip balm, moisturiser, socks and scarves.

Drawings of The People

The drawings done of the homeless people we spoke to are very simple line drawings highlighting their main physical features. This will help people using the booklet to recognise them in the place they usually hang out.



From this we created little fact files on each of the people we interviewed, they're very simple and easy to read so that people can look and quickly find out the information they want.

Studio Brief 4 - Risograph Studios

2 Press
"This West London-based Risograph printing and publishing studio is run by Two Times Elliott, a design consultancy whose projects include a diverse range of work across multiple disciplines. They have a great eye for creating visual impact and their striking print layout is undeniably stunning."



Bellevue Press
"Bellevue Press is an independent Risograph printing press with a passion for self-published zines and experimental prints. From posters to flyers and fanzines, Bellevue Press works closely with artists to make sure everything is produced with top quality. They also offer a range of binding and finishing services"



Risosaurus

"Risosaurus’s work evolves from a subtle alchemy of monochrome editorial, limited edition prints to colourful handmade zines. They are based in Sheffield and like to hear from independent artists, designers, illustrators"



Studio Operative
"Risograph printers of all things fun, creative and experimental. They have a particular focus on research based, communicative visual work and that’s why their shop is home to a wide selection of design must-haves"