RSA Student Design Awards
Design Council Awards
Studio Brief 1 is covered in the 1st semester.
Keep a record of all the briefs you're choosing, and cover what work you've been doing. The whole point of documentation is to show what you've learnt and why.
Documentation is key.
Work on a minimum of five briefs. They need to be fairly substantial. A fair number of students last year got offers for live briefs, which are added onto these five.
Identifying and analysing problems in briefs. How do you propose / present your work?
What can you get out of the brief?
Timescales, what's realistic? Select briefs which have appropriate deadlines.
Ensuring we don't take on work which is too much.
How can you challenge yourself from a brief?
How should we present our work for assessment?
What Do I Want To Get Out Of This Module?
- A better understanding of my stronger interests - Identifying individual practices.
- Ideas about timescale with specific briefs. How long should I tell a client things will take?
- How much to charge for certain things.
- How to ensure I don't break any copyright rules.
- How to present work at initial stages of a project.
- How to maintain professionalism through communication with the client.
- How do you know if you can trust a client?
- What type of client I would like to work with - any specific industry?
- Producing an invoice / ensuring you get payed correctly and promptly.
- Understanding cost in terms of mass production - specific printers etc..
- The best way to meet up with clients (if needed).
- Time management and discipline - Being strict on your time.
- Effective Professional Communication - Clear about timelines, how much interaction needed with a client.
- An award, prize & fame.
- How not to get exploited - including getting payed.
- Brief analysis - Pick it apart and understand it. Is it worth doing?
- "Creative Compromise" - It's not all about you, your client is your judge. It may also be the person you're working with.
- Exposure - Being able to promote your work so that people can see and recognise that you're a confident and professional designer.
- Portfolio development - stay away from style, this can be limiting. However, your own look could be important in terms of picking briefs to work on.
- Who are you and what are you about? - A coherent portfolio which holds an individual voice.
- This is the point where you can make your portfolio different from your class peers.
- Building industry contacts. Clients, studios, other students.
What Do I Want To Get Out Of Live / Competition Briefs? Why are they useful?
- Fill my portfolio with non - university work - it shows an actual interest in design instead of just a choice of course.
- Get global links / contacts through briefs on the internet.
- Possible collaborations in the future with other designers who enter contest briefs.
- When working on local live briefs, it would be easy to find more clients through word of mouth.
- Winning competition briefs / being chosen for live briefs allows you to gain more confidence in your own ability.
- In terms of a live brief, you can interact with a client (or clients) that you could possibly work for in the future. Interaction with clients also gives you more confidence when discussing possible ideas.
- Improving professional design skills
- 'More than just a student' - committed to the subject and becoming a professional.
- Real Work Benchmarking - comparing your skills to your competition.
- Professional responsibilities - Failing a module now won't tarnish your reputation. You can't submit professional work late.
- Professional Feedback
- Professional Experience
Why Have I Chosen These Specific Briefs?
- I have a strong interest in branding and logo design, which is why 4 out of my 5 chosen briefs are branding, with 2 of them being logo design.
- Briefs on logo design - I feel I have a strong interest in logotype, and wish to expire this further and in much more depth.
- I have reflected my own interests outside of design - One brief to do with music, another to do with photography.
- I have also reflected my views on ethics - One brief focusses on corruption in the UK and overseas.
- All the briefs are relatively short, as I wanted to start on something fairly small instead of 'diving into the deep end'.
- I chose global competition briefs as I intend to work with clients globally in the future.
- All the briefs I have chosen show clarity - This means I have a direction to work in, and can pick apart and analyse the brief.
- Outside my comfort zone? - I'm not used to designing info graphics, so this would be new to me.
- Free to enter competition.
- An interest in the content / familiarity.
- The Prize!
- The best that were available.
- Creative freedom / scope.
The above lists should be an important
part of evaluation.
Are you fulfilling your own criteria?
Are you looking at a range of problems?
Is it appropriate for you? What are you going to get out of it?
What can YOU get out of a brief?
YCN Brief
Churchill - Britain - Winston Churchill
The dog more famous than the wartime leader?
Restore Winston the most famous
Audience: 11 - 18 year olds.
Recognise Winston Churchills face.
Engage with kids, prestige, status, pleasure, convenience, fitting in, new experience, being loved.
Winston had a broad range of interests. Votest the greatest Britain ever.
Create Considerations: Churchill brand stay anonymous.
Any format. Work across all manners of channels.
Submission details on YCN website.
Lots of information.
Very specific / Or is it?
Big clients to work with.
What is the problem?
- The younger generation don't recognise Churchill as a leader, just as a dog.
- Lack of knowledge of British history.
- Getting kids to engage in history.
What is the brief asking you to do about it?
- Inform young people about Winston Churchill.
- Educate the younger generation about their history.
What's the brief trying to achieve?
- Trying to get children to recognise Winston Churchill's face.
Who will benefit?
- 11 to 18 year olds
- Schools
- Parents
- Churchill Insurance Company
What is the message?
- Winston Churchill was the greatest Britain ever, and kids should know more about him.
Who is the audience?
- 11 to 18 year olds
- Parents
How will the message be delivered?
- A variety of appropriate methods.
Can you foresee any problems with this?
- What tone of voice?
- What format is best to work with?
Can you foresee any problems with the brief in general?
- What format is best to work with?
- Lots of questions asked can be confusing to work with.
Commonalities in Briefs
What is the problem?
- Boring
- No one knows what we're about - Confusing us with competitors.
- Losing money and going bust.
What is the brief asking you to do about it?
- Help us!
What's the brief trying to achieve?
- We want to make more money.
Who will benefit?
- The companies.
Instead of paying a company £70,000, get students to do it for free. In the small print, once submitted, the work is now theirs. You will probably be ripped off. Work out what you can get out of it?
This is a student award - YCN.
Only enter competitions knowing what will happen with your work.
When entering competition briefs,
read the small print.
*Terms & Conditions Apply.
Who is the audience?
- Very vague.
How will the message be delivered?
- Not specified.
The problems these clients have is producing a bad brief, and coming up with bad concepts. Why are Churchill targeting 11 to 18 year olds when they can't buy insurance?
TASK
Based on what we've been looking at, identify a substantial competition brief, with scope for development. It has to be something you're interested in. Analyse briefs and pick one.
Answer a series of questions:
Why have you chosen the brief?
What do you want to get out the brief?
What do you want to do / make / produce in response to the brief?
What do you need to do / make / producing in response to the brief?
Then go through the above 8 questions.
Bring a few thumbnails on what you would want to do with it.
(2 weeks time - 13/ 11/12)
