Sam Horbury
Level 06
BA (Hons) Graphic Design
Leeds College of Art

Monday, 3 November 2014

09: Dr. Me

Brief 001_ Vinyl Cover Design.
Create a vinyl cover from the email below;
"We're gonna be releasing a limited edition 12 of a mix Evian Christ made last year called Duga-3... 

We were discussing artwork concepts and Josh wondered if there was any way you could graphically represent the 10hz tapping sound that makes up the Duga-3 transmission?

Important to mention right now is that we don't have a lot of time to do this, as this release is intended for the Record Store Day and they have super tight deadlines, so we need this by the end of today?
Dimensions 12" x 12"


Dr. Me want us to approach this project in a completely different way to how I normally would, which would involve much more research and development. I feel that the aim of this workshop is to improve our decision making and idea development, producing work at a much quicker rate. I did some very quick preliminary research to see the kind of work Dr. Me produce.












My initial idea is based around mind-control, which instantly makes me think of the film 'A Clockwork Orange' and the spiral image, and so I tried to combine the two.





+


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My final outcome looks something like this, although I made a physical version which didn't really work.





Although I enjoyed the process, I felt that I could re-do the brief in a similar way but still approach it in my own way. My final design above was my attempt at creating work that I felt Dr. Me would appreciate as it is similar to their own design. I repeated a similar process at a later date in order to create another vinyl cover within the same kind of time frame that was more honest to my own practice. This time however, I did some quick research and thought more about the concept. These are the kinds of things I was looking at, based around how Duga-3 was known to block signals.









Lost signals:









Final Idea:









Brief 002_ Poster Design.
Create a poster from the email below;

Hey new poster please
ODONIS ODONIS
+ Guests
Wednesday 18th April
Kraak Gallery
www.ticketline.co.uk
www.seetickets.com
www.wegottickets.com
Piccadilly Records

Oh! Please have Saint Coltrane as support...
Dimensions A3 (297mm x 420mm)





The name 'Odonis Odonis' instantly makes me think of Roman statues and stone-carved type, and with the short time scale on this brief I decided to create my poster based around this idea. I did some very quick research into existing designs using these elements.








What I noticed about the name was that, with it being repeated, I could flip one and place it underneath without really effecting the readability. I decided to use this concept of mirroring within the application of text and image to the poster.











Final:






Overall, I am very happy with how both my vinyl cover and poster turned out especially considering how quickly I managed to produce them. It just goes to show that when you really focus, you can still create visually strong design that also has an interesting concept behind it.

15: Two Heads Are Better Than One

Today Harrison and I met up to discuss the major factors of creating our own studio, having previous experience of creating a mock studio last year for personal professional practice we already had a basic understanding of what is needed. 

Focussing on the identity and visuals of the studio we quickly listed down what we would need to produce as promotional material:


Printed

Business cards 
Postcards
Stickers/Stamps
Stationary
Embossing stamp
Poster/Print
Newspaper
Promotional advert (Need a designer)

Promotional pack

Send out to potential clients.
Leave in areas where our target market are.
Something different and memorable.
A warning (Snask)
'Coming soon'

We found we struggled coming up with an identity without fully understanding what we're about and what service we are going to provide to our clients. With this is mind we feel the next step to take would be to write down a list of questions about who we are, what we do, why we do it etc... that will ultimately form our design manifesto.


Manifesto:




Ideas for names:

Ham

Working for the word 'Lab':
Testing
Trials
Science
Scientific
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Laboratory
Breakthrough
Discovery
Revelation
Clinical
Experiment
Anatomy
Human
Cloning
Medication
Solution
Medicine
Mixture
Prescription
Required
Recommended
Doses
Dosage
Drugs
Pharmaceuticals
Pharmacy
Chemist
White Coat
Antibiotics
Course
Structure


Getting nowhere fast, started to just talk and see what words came up:

Collaborate
Joined
Simultaneous
Synergy
Synthesis
Combination
Duo
Pair
Double
Couple

Together, which led to:

Glue
Tape
Fixed
Fixative
Stuck
Compound
Fuse
Link

Process
Method
Technique
Routine
Stages
Pattern
Framework

Arrival
Delivery
Expected
Expectations


We then began looking on websites and reading books that we liked and picking out words we found interesting, or just thinking of random words:

Hybrid
Compromise
Agreement
Network
Frank
Harvest
Purpose
Guide
Sticks & Stones
Horizon
Occupy
Eventual
Furniture
Raw
Goodness
On-Track
Immerse
North
Wayward
Foolproof
Almost
Timber
Wood
Tried & Tested
Caravan
Loading Bay
Cabin
Fetch
Coming Soon
To Be Confirmed
Hold Tight
Antidote
Shotgun
The Design Studio
Lost In Transit
Toast
The Yard
Makeshift
Method


We then made a list of our favourites each to see which we both liked, which were:

Furniture
Occupy
Antidote


Went away, came back and re-assessed the names. Didn't really like any of them any more. Had another think and came up with a few more ideas:

Lightbox
Visual
Bureau
Vacant
Attraction
Some Things I Have Made
Project
Good Vibes
Beyond
Praxis
Workshop


From these we both really liked 'Workshop' and it received good feedback from our peers. It could work in many ways:

Workshop
Work Shop
Work/Shop
Work_Shop
Work-Shop
Work.Shop
Work:Shop
Work•Shop
Work~Shop



Once we had an idea of the name we wanted to use, we started to look at various other business cards to get an idea of what we both liked.



















I then quickly experimented with different layouts using our name 'Made by Workshop'.























We plan on having our cards printed onto a coloured stock, and would keep the back of the cards very simple and clean. The finals would look something like this: