Responsive: Module Evaluation

Though I have found the majority of the modules throughout my degree a challenge, Responsive has been one of my bigger ones which has pushed me to apply all my creative knowledge and experience into briefs that are from the real world, and from real clients. This was extremely new to me, and prior to this module, I had never entered a live competition before, nor produced work in response to such strict, precise briefs, so I got a taste of how my future may be like, and how it will feel to work towards a specific goal outside of education.

More importantly, Responsive taught me a lot about time management. With each brief there were particular deadlines that could not be missed, and therefore I had to make sure that I was always on track, constantly planning ahead, and intertwining this work with all my other modules. However because I was the one choosing the content of the briefs, time was not as stressful as I had thought! I was enjoying producing every aspect of the outcomes because I was truly interested in either the brand, the cause or the adventure of something new.

Something new also meant I tried to really pick briefs that made me uncomfortable in some way. I chose briefs that were not easy routes for me to go down, because I really wanted to feel accomplished and like I was making the most out of these opportunities. I feel like I explored so many areas of the creative world, from book covers, paper cutting, pattern making, looping an animation and a window display, I was never bored with the diversity in these briefs, I was always wanting to keep working on them. This did not mean that I didn’t struggle this module, because there were times where I felt like I was balancing too much work and I had put a lot of pressure on myself, due to my competitive nature. Because I was trying new techniques and mediums, I was always taking a risk with what I was submitting, and therefore doubting myself.

Aside from being able to choose our own briefs which was my favourite part, I also really enjoyed working with students from other courses. This was the highlight of my module, because I got to explore new skills such as making mockups, using new softwares and exchanging ideas with other creative individuals that specialise with different talents. I didn’t feel like I had much to offer in the beginning of our Collaborative practice, but after combining ideas, and bouncing feedback from each other, I found that I was able to bring elements that the other members did not think of, such as light projection mapping and 3D modelling. I felt much more confident about myself in general, because I was really part of a team where my ideas were listened to and taken seriously.

This module has also given me slight inclination of the path that I want to go down in the future. I know I want to go into advertising, but I truly enjoyed briefs that had meaning and/or had a story behind them. I felt more compelled to produce impressive work when I knew that the brief had a good message or a narrative driven goal. I don’t think I would have realised this, until I explored briefs that had less of a meaning and more of a ‘prize’. I didn’t feel as much of a satisfaction after completing these briefs, as I did those that had much more depth to them, enabling me to hold a connection to my work, thus encouraging me to want to continue entering competitions for good causes or ones narratively driven! 

Overall this module has been one of my favourites! Being able to enter live briefs where the brands were instantly recognisable, was such an achievement for me. It has also opened my eyes to all the other competitions out there that I would like to regularly enter, especially over the summer! I even found putting presentation boards and a project report together enjoyable, though also stressful, as I got to see my work as a collective, and how my work has developed and started to form a 'style', which is mostly very vivid and digitally designed. I am proud of the work I produced for this module, I perhaps would have liked to have started them earlier, as I found balancing them with other modules was very overwhelming for me at times, but I feel like I did push myself many times, and was able to take a lot of experience from this module as a whole! 

Responsive: Project Report

This is my project report which I really enjoyed putting together and seeing all of my work as a collective!

Responsive: Collaborative Boards

These are my own boards for the collaborative practice. I followed the format of my previous boards for the individual practice because I found them to be simplistic and informative but still professional looking. I did however, find these harder to put together because there was such a variety of elements to our display and because it was impossible for us to make a whole mockup of the dollhouse, to illustrate every aspect meant we had to use and explore different mediums, which was great, but harder to put into a presentation board!

Overall I am happy with them, and happy with what our group achieved!

Responsive: Individual Practice Boards (Substantial)

Emil & the Detectives

How to be a Woman

A Clockwork Orange

After feeling a bit disheartened about the boards I presented, I didn't want to submit these at the deadline, so I went back and revisited them. I made them in Photoshop this time, and kept a consistent format throughout all of them so that they looked clean and professional. These took me ages to make, but I think it was worth it because they look so much less chaotic than my previous ones, and I really like them. 

I tried to not overwhelm people with the amount of stuff I put on them, but I couldn't not have text, so I still included some with my own explanations of what and how I tackled the briefs. I also only put my most important development and research on them because I felt like it would have been too much to handle, and the rest is for my blog!

Overall I am happy with how these turned out. I didn't even know what a presentation board was prior to this module, so in hindsight I was bound to get it wrong the first few times. Though these took a lot of time to make, I would be much happier presenting them, and I am actually embarrassed of the ones I showed last week! 

Responsive: Other individual Briefs

Feathr

UN

Loopdeloop

Secret7

Responsive Final Crit Feedback & Boards

The final big crit we had, I actually found was very useful. I didn't really get any feedback on my work, which I thought was fine because I had already submitted all of my briefs, however I did get feedback on the way I presented my boards. Last crit session with the Illustration students, I thought I didn't have enough text on them because I was not very experienced with presenting my work professionally, however this time I had too much! I will admit that I was a little upset and taken a back at these comments because I had taken the time to hand write all of my annotations which took me a really long time. I wanted my boards to look detailed and like I had put a lot of thought into them but people thought that they were too busy and complicated, which I do see now as well.

These are the boards that I presented, which I uploaded to ISSU so that you can see them better. I learnt about ISSU through the Illustration students, and now that I know how to use it, I have become obsessed with it, as it has allowed me to show a series of images in one go without being too complex on my blog! 

Like I said before, I was a bit disheartened with the feedback, but that only made me want to try harder and create boards that are slick and professional looking. During the crit I was able to walk around and see everyone else's boards for some tips and inspiration. I noticed there wasn't much writing on them, but they had a lot of visuals and were very exciting to look at. I want mine to be the same so I am going to revisit my boards and redesign them so that they match up to the quality of my peers! I think I will keep the writing part for my project report which we were also briefed on, but I am really excited to make it, because I saw some of the level 6 Illustration students' reports and they were really inspiring! I am going to treat it like a book and make sure it look consistent and clean throughout, so I can do my work some justice!

Responsive: Feathr Submitting

Submission evidence x3

Wallpapers live on the website!! 

Responsive: Feathr Wallpaper - Production & Mock Ups

I was extremely worried about making a 'seamless' pattern because I have never made one before and I struggled to understand the concept, initially. I also don't have Illustrator but the video accompanied with the brief pack suggested either Illustrator or Photoshop to make your patterns. 

I didn't fully grasp the concept from those videos, so I had to have a look around myself! After seeing various ways on how you make a seamless pattern, I found one that really worked for me. I created a square for my wallpaper 'tile', and then started placing the illustrations that I created in and around the tile. I wanted to play with depth, colour and perspective for my pop modern theme, and I really think I embodied this, especially from my research and Feathr's inspiration boards. Once I had the shapes places, those that went over the edge, I cut those bits off, but placed them at the exact opposite side of the tile so that once the design is multiplied, on a wall for example, then it will be 'seamless'. I was dubious about this concept, but once I tried it and tested it out, it worked! 

These are the tiles that I am going to submit. I really love them because they are very graphic-esuqe and so bright and upbeat which is what I aimed for. I also feel like I could make books and wrapping paper out of these designs as well! 

I then made some mockups of my wallpaper, some on real life walls, and others on rolls of wallpaper. I am pleased with how these came out, they were a really quick turn around and something I did for fun and to push myself to see if I could create a seamless pattern. I heard about this brief quite late in the module, which is why I didn't take too long on the designs, but I found the brief appealing, so I couldn't not give it a go! 

Responsive: Feathr Pop Modern Visual References

Like in my project proposal, I said that I was going to research further into 'pop modern' and what this is. My first initial impression after searching this term into Google, was that the theme conveys a lot of colour. But colours that are wild and bold! Not afraid to stand out! This is prefect because I said that I was going to try and avoid typical wallpaper patterns, and you don't see the average home with these colours, so already I am meeting one of my proposal aims!

         

I then searched for a long time on Tumblr for some visual references that I could take influence from. The collage on the right involves 'pop modern' patterns which I found embodied the theme really well and had impressive composition. I noticed that for 'pop modern' to be pop modern, there has to be gradients involved, as well as distinct shapes, and shadows. I think I could work with this and play around with perspective also in Photoshop.

The image on the right is just a collection of images that I found would inspire me for my own wallpaper patterns. I really loved the pink to purple gradients, as well as the contrasting colour pairs, for example green and pink. These images and loud and obviously wouldn't influence me to create a wallpaper that would look good in a front room, but that is why I want to take on this brief, to be eccentric and experimental! 

Particular images I want to take influence from due to colour, composition and texture:

         

Responsive: Feathr Wallpaper - Research

'Feathr' is a wallpaper company which sells wallpaper that is not made for decoration, but as a form of art to make the inside of your home stylish and contemporary. I heard about this brief during our final responsive crit, and as I have always wanted to make a pattern before, I thought I would have a go as I knew this was not a large brief and would have a short turn around time! 

Looking at their online shop, no two of the wallpapers they sell are the same. Some are patterns from Photographs, others very geometric and then some more are abstract. I noticed on some of the designs you can blatantly see where the design stopped and started again (third image above), I am not sure if this is on purpose? Either way I was really interested in this company because they are very open minded and seem to look at their designers with admiration as opposed to any other large company that sells wallpaper.

These are the four mood boards that are given in the brief pack. I initially thought I liked the 'natural world' one the most as everything I have done in this module so far is very digitally refined. But then I realised that most of my work is digital for a reason, because I enjoy it and feel most confident in it. Instead of going for 'natural world', I then took a look at 'pop modern'. This was the most obscure to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it intrigued me and I wanted to have a go at it. Pop modern is still quite abstract, but it is bright and bold, something which I want to explore within a wallpaper concept.

             

The brief offers a video for you to watch to help you with making a seamless pattern. I have watched this twice already, but I know I am going to need it because I have never made a pattern before, so it will be a must. I also opted to do this brief because at the start I knew I wanted to be adventurous, and go for things that interest me, but I wouldn't have had the confidence to enter. This is a prime example of how I felt, so of course I had to enter it!

Follow Ciara's board Feathr Responsive on Pinterest.

I immediately started to have a look into all the nature-like patterns that I wanted to make and take influence from and felt so inspired! As you can see from this board, my inspiration developed further into 'pop modern' patterns and I decided more concretely to go for this concept that the nature one. I loved the bold shapes, sharp shapes and sometimes 3D shapes! I thought I could have a go at depth and perspective within my patterns, as well as go wild with colour! I am really excited for this brief! 

Responsive Feathr Product Proposal

What are the problems you aim to solve?...

1) Making a repeat pattern that is considered 'pop modern'. What is pop modern? How can I visualise this and bring it to the judges attentions? This is my biggest problem to solve.

2) Creating a pattern that is not common for your 'typical' wallpaper. I want to create something which is very far from what you would put in your living room, something which will stand out. Feathr targets customers who want art, not beige/simplicity/boring strips of paper.

3) I need to try not to be too typical. Stay away from flowers, leaves, objects. Be more abstract, take risks.

How I aim to solve this...

1) Research into pop modern art work. I see this as a movement that is very new, contemporary, very vivid in colour and with minimalistic shapes, but I need to look further into this!! 

2) Look into popular wallpapers so I know what to avoid. Maybe visit some websites which sell wallpaper (John Lewis, Dunelm, The Range, etc) to see what the average person has available to them. See if I can find a common ground.

3) Avoid the first ideas that come into my head. If I think of them first, the chances are many other people have thought about these concepts too! 

I want to communicate ideas/themes/moods of...

1) POP MODERN. This is my key theme, so I need to convey this effectively. 

2) Creativity/originality. My design has to be one that people would be intrigued by, and wouldn't see on a daily basis.

3) Fun and upbeat! I feel like pop modern is a very cheery and friendly theme so I want to illustrate this through my colours and patterns.

To an audience of...

1) People who appreciate individuality. The judges want a wallpaper that is different, so my audience has to be open to this.

2) People looking for a change. Hopefully my wallpaper will make people stop and wonder why their wallpaper is so average and want to change theirs!

3) People who love colour and patterns. 

Responsive Collaborative: Presentation Boards

These are the final presentation boards that our group submitted for the D&AD John Lewis brief. We spent all of today putting them together, making sure that we had enough material that supported and illustrated our concept well enough. We tried to keep it simple and to the point, as the judges wanted minimal writing and more imagery. I feel like the workload illustrated is well balanced in terms of what our group has done individually, as well as what we have covered in terms of meeting the content of the brief. We really wanted to be innovative, use digital elements but also be unique and retro so that our display stood out form any other store. We were heavily influenced on trends forecasted, which is where our concept was created, and also from John Lewis' very own ethos and aesthetic. The boards were created on In Design, which is a new software to me, but allowed us to align everything on each slide perfectly, so that they looked clean and professional.

These are the boards that I had made for our group to take influence from, but we all agreed that I had too much writing on them because the judges want to look at our submission on a laptop screen and therefore wanted more development and concept work (visuals). However we took parts of them and put them into the final boards, but it shows that we experimented with how we were going to display our concept, especially as it is big and dramatic. We found it hard to make our boards concise so that we were straight to the point, as we had so many plans and sketches, but after looking at the example presentation slides within the brief pack, we realised that we needed to cut down on a lot of stuff, and only choose a few elements that were absolutely necessary. 

           

We also submitted this video to illustrate our light projection concept. I would have liked to have actually projected my .mov firework files onto a black screen behind a mock up doll house, but the concept was too extravagant to make in the time frame, and so we only made one room mock up, and therefore I paired the .mov files with some audio instead. I am quite happy with the outcome, and I think it demonstrates our idea well, which is what was asked of us.

Overall I am pleased with what we have achieved. At times we focussed more on wanting to make the display, but it was just too big and too intricate for us to do in only a few weeks. It would have also been really expensive, so we then started to focus on how we could illustrate this concept instead, in a unique and interesting way. I loved working with my group, I feel like we really bonded and I learnt so many new things and got to try a lot of new things as well, which I wouldn't have done if I had paired up with other people in my class. 

A screenshot of our receipt!