Final DBA Meeting

Today we met up to see what everyone had been working on & to find out what other things we needed to create to show our branding across the cities & the station.

We all sat together but worked on different thinks to make sure we could have enough imagery to strengthen our concept, we noticed that we was low on some imagery for certain cities so therefore this is something we had to pull back also.

I worked on creating some escalators for the station as we came up with the concept of putting arrows going up the escalator.

I felt that I worked slower than the rest of the team doing mock-ups but I was going to try and achieve quality rather than create something that I wasn't proud of. As my photoshop skills where not cracking I got help form Caitlin & Adam.

Adam had been working on the posters as we had all been struggling to get an effective layout up to now.

I was very happy with them I feel that they have had a very strong outcome as they are very striking and work well individually but are even better all together, reinforcing the shape of the chevron.

Adam also created..

I felt this was a very strong idea of Adams and therefore we decided to apply it to more transport so that this could be included into the concept of capital north. And giving the opportunity of using new modes of transport to carry on viewing the rest of the city.

Caitlin had created the uniforms for the workers on the train & within the station...

We all agreed that these looked really strong and therefore was very pleased with them! I felt she gave them a smart & approachable look. You wouldn't be embrassed about wearing this uniform and therefore you would be proud you worked within the capital north team.

Caitlin Also created..

These where for Liverpool and applying the branding to the city so it is always present.

Grace had worked on the taxi for Hull:

We are was very pleased with the outcome of the taxi after a bit of development of including the chevrons so that it was consistant with the rest of the brand.

I had worked on some wayfinding for the statin as this seemed to be something we was lacking on...

I was very pleased with this... I feel I have really improved my photoshop skills while completing this project.

And Charlie did the interior of the train..

We think that this very relevant as we didnt want a bright interior we wanted it to be calming and tranquil so therefore the colour for each city will be toned down inside the train.

Making Decisions for Logo

Today we met up to see where we had got over the weekend and where we could go next. 

Adam had been working on a logo & we finally decided this would be the one. Although, we did decided to get rid of the rounded edges as we found this was too child-like and we needed to be more assertive.

Adam then took the shapes that caitlin had made and tried overlaying the different colours to apply for each city. We liked the colours been bright as it looks positive & forward thinking. This also worked well with the logo because the edges where in line, I don't think this would have been the case if it still had the rounded edges.

We then made a list of all the things the North is... to help guide our campaign even more focussed. This will reinforce that the North has a lot to offer.

Enterprise
Culture
Entertainment
Media
Creativity
Retail Therapy
Discovery
Adventure

We decided to make this a part of our concept. But still following unity, we want to show the idea capital north is  bringing all these together.

DBA Development Meet

Grace created a Facebook group so that we could keep in contact & post up thing we have done. Caitlin worked on some new things and posted these upon facebook for us all to see.

This is based upon Grace's idea of the distance between the cities. It is a shape using all the four points on the map, then connecting them back up to make it whole. 

She then created this by putting it at the top of the page highlighting been up north. And the four points of the shape are all shown clearly. This reminded us of a landscape and therefore people thought it would be nice to include some of the buildings from each key city within the design.


Adam started to create a kind of collage look for the landscape....

Adam had the idea that maybe we could create a kind of collage with the shapes and representations of iconic buildings from each city, so I tried to create that above.

Grace brought this in to show us as Adam was on placement but as a group we felt that is didn't work that well and keeping it simple will be the best option.

We also decided on other areas we should focus on....

This is because the logo & the posters were mandatory but we also had an option of two other categories. We decided that we would have more freedom with the Environment & the Train option. But thought we could bring in other aspects that are similar such as uniform as this is a small area.

We then decided to work out a way we could combine all our different concepts we've had into one as this is would then make the concept even stronger. We thought of unity & how this is good because capital north will be bringing the four cities into one.

Picking A Competition Brief.

The competition briefs I have been looking at, are the D&AD and YCN. 

I did want to submit into the Starpack awards but I didn't think that with my work load around the deadline I wouldn't create it a high enough standard.




So I have windled it down to the Pantone & John Lewis from D&AD.

Pantone - I like the free roam of any city you want and the ability to brand something that doesn't have a refined concept.

John lewis - This seams a very interesting but technical brief. I like the restrictions and the idea of using packaging that can be used for another use after. 




Then within the YCN I have windled it down to the Interflora, Propercorn & Whistles.

Inteflora - Due to me writing one of my briefs at the start of the year to brand a florist as one of my projects. There this would fit in perfectly with this brief as it will also give it focus and allow me to work with an existing brand.

Propercorn - I like the style used within the design of the Propercorn packaging currently used so therefore this would fit within my working style perfectly. 

Whistles - This is very different to my current style, and it would allow me to add something into my portfolio that is working with an existing brand. This brief is also asking for something different to be added to the scent range and therefore this is when I can bring in my current skills subliminally. 




From this evaluation, it has been a very close call between the John Lewis, Interflora & Whistles.

Although, I have decided to go with the Whistles brief as this will allow my packaging to be more focal within my portfolio, while ina  different medium to what is currently within my portfolio showing more versatility. While also bringing in a project thats working with an existing brand.

Final Meeting

The presentation was tomorrow and therefore today was the actual day we had to get everything finalised for. We put the finishing touches to the presentation & talking about who was going to say what in the presentation so we wasn't left in the dark tonight and coming in tomorrow unprepared.

We created some layout as we didn't have many visuals for people to see about our ideas for the book. And we decided to put the typeface to use by creating the year of our graduation. This would be applied on the front cover on the yearbook with a diecut & also on the wall for the entrance of our show.

I created a quick mock-up for the end of year show with the 2015 on the wall.

We then decided on who would be talking about each part of the presentation:

Melissa H - Concept
Daisy - Maze Typography
Amy - Colour and Layout
Melissa G - End of Year Show/Way Finding - connection to the concept.


My notes for the presentation are:

We have chose to keep an in keeping colour scheme that is already present within the studio space.

The wayfinding will be the journey line on the alphabet. This will be vinyl in the same colour as the blue in the colour scheme.

Everyone will have their own individual letter with their journey on their wall space. 

The 2015 maze will be on the front cover of the yearbook shown with a diecut through to the first page of the publication. 

The use of a maze as a concept works well due to the maze representing our course & we have found our way through it. Having the wayfinding of the maze in the end of year show is helping others to be directed around our course space.

Each points of the maze will bring you to a different students work. Demonstrating how everyone has taken a different journey on the course.

Peter & Paul Feedback

Today we received feedback from Peter & Paul to say who won the pitch.

They called us in one by one to tell us if we had won or not. When I walked in they told me that my pitch was not the winning one and it was due to the unrealistic expectations due to the health & safety issues of things sticking out away from the walls.

I think my visuals didn't help either because these where quite poor but I didn't want to spend too much time developing my concept if I wasn't to be chosen. I did try to apply other images to give them the aesthetic that I was going to aim for with notes to the materials etc....

Second Meeting

The meeting today was just a quick chat about how we all worked on our letters. Due to other collaborations happening at the same time it has been quite difficult to work together and get together. Although I found today was to the point and we got what we needed to get done..

Due to Melissa & Daisy been in the same group for a different collab they was free this morning and therefore they decided to go ahead with the rest of the alphabet and even got on to doing the numbers to complete the typeface.

We agreed to next meet up Tuesday as then we could help bring our ideas together to make the presentation clean & understandable...

This is the alphabet that was created... The style is slightly different to mine, which is understandable but I feel that as long as it is consistent then I understand that they couldn't use my letter I produced.


 




When I seen all the typeface working together I felt quite confident about the brief as it felt that the concept & idea where finally working out. We then decided that we would all go away and think about the key points we need to put in the powerpoint. Then come in early in the morning to confer about the presentation. Amy said she would go home and start the powerpoint and then complete it all together as a group tomorrow.

Maze Letter

So we all decided that we would create the letter by outlining Arial Black at 200pt size. Therefore everyones resolution would be the same size thickness when expanded. The stroke like would be 1pt and this was even extended to only having two tunnels within the width of the letter with only one entrance and 3/4 exits.

We thought that making a strict guideline to create these was necessary due to everyone going away and creating one each... 

This was my outcome..

Initial Logo Ideas

I liked this ideas it delivers the concept of bringing the four cities together. I think the four ends are evidently representing the four cities and then bringing them all to one point. I am not too sure on the colour scheme but I think this can be worked if chosen.

From research I found the idea of overlapping fonts in a CN would be a clever idea as its bring the four cities together but not taring them all with the same brush so they all will have there own colour.

Again these are the same concept... I believe that the black is not as effective as the colours as this doesn't show any bond between the four cities. And you can differentiate totally.

This is another idea... I thought that maybe creating something that could have something to represent each city and then when they all come together they create a picture. Although a cube is pretty impersonal to this subject so therefore finding an image this could work effectively for would be difficult.

Yearbook First Meeting

For the first group meeting we met up and we each came equipped with our different concept and design ideas. We decided to start by going round and taking it turns to talk about our ideas that we had and see if we could find one that we really liked or some common ground that we all thought would be a good idea.

One idea that we all seemed to like the idea of was being on a journey and then it was suggested that we could include the ideas of planes to include a second theme of 'passing with FLYING colours' and the idea would be that we could then have lots of different paper aeroplanes made from different colours. This would bring in the idea of being on a journey but also flying through it and also provided the opportunity to introduce a colourful scheme to the Year Book and End of Year Show.

We then came up with the idea that the journey through this course could be compared to a maze. Wit the main focus being that a maze has lot of different routes and paths through it, which could represent the different journey that each of has taken through the course i.e. 'The Maze'.

Everyone seemed enthusiastic about this idea and so we began to push the concept further and think about how we could make this theme consistent through the book and also applicable to the End of Year Show.

Another aspect of the maze was the idea that the different journeys are encouraged by dead ends and the walls of the maze which could represent the obstacles and challenges that we have had to overcome in order to be in the position that we are in today.

In today's meeting we all came with different ideas & concepts that we had all researched into, we all seemed to have something relating to journeys and the paths that people could take. We then thought about how this could be represented & then we came up with the idea of a maze. We thought that we could ask each individual to make a path in the maze of the letter of their initial. This could then appear on their spread within the yearbook & on the wall within the end of year show.

The only problem would be that it would be hard getting everyone to create a different path from the maze they was given. So we decided that creating a typeface would be made and they would be given their initial so there is a less of a risk people doing the same path. There will be more exits than entrances so that people have the choice of journey incase there is two people with the same initial on the course which inevitably they will be.

We also decided to work out how we could employ this concept within the end of year show too. We thought about it contributing to the wayfinding of the show by applying vinyls to the floor & like said earlier their initial on the wall.

we decided that we would all go away and create a letter for our own initial.

After deciding on the letter we chose a colour scheme that would be fitting...

This was a colour scheme that Daisy already had and she was itching to use it! We all found that it was very relatable after a few tweeks as this would be fitting with the already present colour scheme. We thought this was also gender neutral for the yearbook and 

Logo Research

These logos are all showing the idea of showing individual city but applying it within one logo, which can not work individually.

Yearbook Meeting