My design direction has changed slightly from this initial statement based around the development of the FMP briefs undertaken. However, I am pleased with how my briefs are coming along and have stronger concepts and innovative processes to communicate each message accordingly, which was lacking from previous briefs.
Briefs were selected on a basis of primary deliverables which would be suitable to reflect my Statement of Intent, and also on a secondary level for expansion, allowing me to create websites and other deliverables favoured by professionals to display a large range of skills. It has been important for me to tackle live briefs and some which are 'serious' in order to demonstrate a commercial application of my skills.
Initially, I believed these briefs to be the most challenging, and least rewarding, due to inevitable compromise. However, the opposite is apparent. The challenge for these briefs, such as Brief #1 Yearbook, Brief #3 Mædate and Brief #5 Aviva, has been to communicate an existing product and to gather the relevant infomration. I have taken a 'safer' route on the design compared to my other FMP briefs, but this is more suitable for these client led briefs. The design direction of Brief #5 Aviva, is still a concept I am unsure of and question. Everyone has a different opinion of pensions, Si Scott was completely against them when I asked and my peers haven't thought about it. My primary research has guided the message, from making 18-25 sign up for a pension, to simply giving them access to digestable information, and letting them decide. By using a contemporary yet classic approach to the design teamed with old black and white photographs, the aesthetics of the project should communicate 'grandpa and grandma' rather than 'smelly oap' and catch the attention of my target audience.
Experimenting with processes has been vital for Brief #3 Mædate. Using a process new to me, both me and the client worked together to achieve a laser cut effect we were both happy with and would work across deliverables. It has been helpful to work closely with the client as we have similar ideas of where the brief could go and we spot issues before they happen. It is been good to work with a live client with their own deadlines and time manage to a professional hourly level. iCal has become a useful tool where I input every task undertaken. A clear and realistic picture can be maintained of how much there is to do and how much time there is available. For scheduling meetings it has been brilliant and shows me the progress I am making.
This time management is a positive and a negative as I know how little time I have left to complete briefs, resulting in Brief #9 Lookilike being a tight schedule and I have had to inform the client of this. This does look unprofessional as the client does not want the magazine to be rushed, however I have informed him that so long as all deadlines are met for content and meetings then adequate time is available. This is one brief where it is not as innovative a design as I would hope to demonstrate in my portfolio, but it does fit the brief and I won the pitch based on these designs.
Brief #1 is the least investigated brief and not many avenues have been explored. This is the toughest brief to interpret as the clients do not seem to know what they want. It has been tough on the yearbook team to accurately design something suitable which fulfils the brief. We have focused on delivering the client with a yearbook they are happy with, not necessarily one which we are happy with in terms of innovate design direction.
One brief which I believe is the most innovative and reflects my Statement of Intent fullest is Brief #2 Aura, based on my dissertation. This brief has had the most changes from initial ideas to production and could still change. At the start of this brief, the deliverables were to be books of theorists most influencial in my practice and a edited version of my dissertation. This became a letterpressed design, which more recently became a issue in terms of time and also printing ability. The deliverables have since progressed further to 7x copies of the same book, to be sent out to contributors of my dissertation as a thank you. These books will be very complicated. Overprinted red and green digital and screen printed text and imagery. They will also be intricately hand bound using japanese bind and printed on hand made japanese paper. Every aspect of the production of these deliverables suits the content and I am so pleased with where my research and experimenting has got me.
As another thank you to those who have contributed to my design growth, PDF and photographs of Brief #6 Design Context, will also be sent out to those included and to studios I have managed to get interviews with. This brief is still yet to be pushed further but I am aiming to demonstrate my interest in publications and format in this brief.
Overall, my blog includes everything that I do from time management and meeting, to initial ideas and final mockups. I have blogged a huge deal this year and it has helped me see where I have come from on each brief.
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