OUGD503 Responsive: Lakai T Shirt Contest (Brief 03) - Development / Final Submission

I chose this brief as a quick turn around brief. It's a T Shirt design contest, for one of my favourite skateboarding brands - Lakai. Due to me being their audience, I thought it would be appropriate for me to design for them. 

The Brief

                                                                                                                                                                      

Design Development / Final Ideas

OUGD503 Responsive: Hip Hop Art Book (Brief 02) - Development / Final Submission

Original Brief

Design artwork inspired by rap lyrics and get published by RAB in the Hip Hop Art Book.

Creative Brief

Launching in several countries early 2014 the Hip Hop Art Book will feature artwork from new and established artists around the world. Each page will feature an iconic rap lyric interpreted as a work of art.

RAB is calling all artists to choose their own rap lyrics/quotes and create an inspired piece based on them. Artists can submit portraits, typography, abstract paintings, illustrations, photographs and more.

Each page will have the artist’s image on the front, description of the piece, and the artist's details on the back. Profits from the book will be divided among artists, depending on the number of pieces used.

Please feel free to  email the host if you need assistance on choosing a lyric: ramsey_m@live.co.uk

Career Opportunity

The artist as selected by RAB will receive:

• A Profit Share from the Book Sales
• 50% of revenue for Prints/Posters made from their artwork
• Full Ownership of their work
• Credits in Book (in same space as artwork)

Community Choice

The artist with the largest public support will receive:

• Profit Share from Book Sales
• 50% of revenue for Prints/Posters made from artwork
• Full Ownership of work
• Credits In Book (in same space as artwork)

Schedule

Launch Date: November 14, 2013

Submit by: January 3, 2014
Voting Period: January 4, 2014 - January 10, 2014
Artist Selection: January 13, 2014

All phases close at 10am PST

Next Steps

Click 'Participate' to review the guidelines and submit your artwork.

How RAB will select

Ramsey Mullaney will select from all qualified submissions with special consideration for the top voted entries. A qualified submission is one which meets all the Terms & Conditions, Guidelines and Official Rules.

Guidelines

• All submissions should capture the essence of the Hip Hop Lyric
• All submissons must include the LYRIC and RAPPER in the description as well as the link to the artists' Talenthouse portfolio
• Designs must be original (meaning not using third party pre-existing copyright materials)
• Submitting artists may be requested to provide their original project files
• Designs must be submitted in JPEG or PNG format and no larger than 5MB
• Artists must join Talenthouse using an active email address in order to ensure they can be contacted should they be selected as the winner
• Inappropriate or harmful submissions will be removed

How I Found The Brief

The way I found this brief was through a classmate - James Keefe. James informed me that he had been contacted by Ramsey Mullaney (the owner of the project), saying he had been disappointed with the Talenthouse entries, and wanted something better than what he had received. He enjoyed James' Secret 7' entry from last year, and wanted him to design something similar. 

As I was part of the finalists in Secret 7' last year, I hoped to have a chance working with Ramsey. 

Below you can see the email I sent to Ramsey, and his responses: 

Ramsey's Response: 

Thanks for getting in touch.
I recognize you secret 7 design, it was one of my favorites from the competition to glad you're interested in getting involved in this.


So originally we planned to create an Artbook based around iconic Hip Hop lyrics, but because we haven't received enough designs of the standard we need, we're going to create a platform that specialises in printed Hip Hop artwork, on posters prints etc. It should be live within 30 days (there will be a bunch of other Hip Hop related content as well). So in that time we're definatley open to new designs.


Do you have an idea of what design you want to create? what lyric/line to base it around?


Let me know if you have any questions,
Cheers,
Ramsey (07503035566)

                                                                                                                                                                                       

Lyrics To Work With

I was lucky enough for Ramsey to have both seen and liked my entry. He sent me a list of songs with lyrics to work with, in order to create posters:

Jay Z 'I Got 99 Problems'

Kanye Drive slow: Open up my mouth and sunlight illuminates the dark

Pusha T: I believe there's a God above me/I'm just the god of everything else

Kanye West: Close your eyes and imagine, feel the magic, Vegas on acid/Seen through Yves Saint Laurent glasses.

Immortal Technique: Check to check, constant struggle to make the payments, working your whole life wondering where the day went

Jay Z (A Dream) : Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself..

Common: If revolution had a movie id be theme music.

Run DMC, Sucker MC:: I cold chill at a party in a b-boy stance/And rock on the mic and make the girls wanna danceFresh Prince: Listen homeboys don't mean to bust your bubble/But girls of the world ain't nothing but trouble

Public Enemy, rebel without a pause: No matter what the name - we're all the same / Pieces in one big chess game

NWA, EXPRESS YOURSELF//It's crazy to see people be/What society wants them to be, but not me

Scarface/Geto Boys, mind playing triks on me:
At night I can't sleep, I toss and turn / Candlesticks in the dark, visions of bodies being burned (this song inspired a generaion rappers to talk about mental stress of street gang life)

Warren G; regulate: It was a clear black night, a clear white moon / Warren G was on the streets, trying to consume

Common: inhale imagination and breath wonder

Kanye West, Power: "Screams from the haters, Got a nice ring to it. I guess every super-hero needs his theme music."

                                                                                                                                                                                      

My Selection

I decided to choose my own lyrics to work with, so I made a list of my favourite rappers:

Notorious B.I.G

Sidewalk Kal

Mad Villain

MF Doom

Schoolboy Q

Ab Soul

Ace Hood

Big Sean

Evil Needle

Flo Filz

Jaylibren G

Lloyd Banks

Beastie Boys

50 Cent

Tyler, the Creator

A$ap Rocky

You can the artists I have chosen to work with above, which I then noted down words I would associate with the artists:

   Notorious B.I.G

   Big, East Side, Deep, Large, Tough, Gangs, Death, 90's

    Mad Villain

   Menace, MF Doom, Cartoon, Underground, MAsk

    Beastie Boys

   Trio, White, Influential, New York, East Side, Brooklyn

                                                                                                                                                                                     

My Finalised Designs 

Below you can see the final Issuu document of the finalised designs and explanations:

Final Mockup

OUGD503 Responsive: Collab Brief (Brief 04) - Selecting a Brief / Why I Have Chosen My Partner

You can't assume or presume anything - Your work is about you as an individual. Response is the same. You interpret things differently to your partner. 

Ensure that you have a dialogue with each other, what do you agree / disagree on? 

Go through all three briefs, identifying the pro's and the con's:

Royal Albert Hall

Pros:
- Good cause
- Not restricted in terms of media output - We could produce as much or as little as we want. This includes websites, blogs, emails, social media, print and PR. 
- Easy to find out information about the RAH. 

Cons: 
- Not local enough for primary research - photography & conversation
- Large audience - Could this be narrowed down? 
- No provided photos (even though a link was provided) 

Dominos

Pros:
- A variety of packaging ideas that could change existing packaging. 
- Flexible for change
- Strict brand guidelines - An easy focus. 
- I have yet to do a packaging brief, so something new!
- We're the audience - Primary research made easier (through buying lots of pizza)

Cons: 
-Strict brand guidelines could limit what we design. 
- No exact deliverables. 

Boost

Pros:
- I have yet to do any packaging briefs this year, meaning this could be beneficial. 

Cons:
- Very similar to the D & AD 'Purdeys' Brief - Alex is already working on this. 
- It would be very difficult to produce a physical design to photograph, and also difficult to mockup. 
- Promoting to a female market could be difficult for Alex & I. 

                                                                                                                                                                     

Roles
Researcher - Joint
Project Manager - Joint
Photographer - Alex
Finance Manager - Joint
Image Manipulator - Joe
Craftsman - Alex
Web Designer - Joe
Print Designer - Mainly Alex
Concept Designer - Joint
Printer - Joint
Communications Manager - Joint

Responsibilities
Budget
Communication
Sticking to Deadlines
Research Activities
Researching Audience
Subject Research
Primary
Secondary
Contextual

The Collab Sheet Filled In: 


A digital version of the sheet:




Presentation For Next Week
Who will do the pitching? What do we need to present? Rehearsal / Organisation
- Contextual Research
- Concepts?
- Concept, research, development

OUGD505: New Research Topic & New Boards

After a crit with my classmates, I realised that 'Phonetics' could be a difficult research topic to work with. My boards displayed a huge amount of text, and contained complex linguistic vocabulary, something which unfortunately is necessary for Phonetics. 

There is very little imagery involved with phonetics, apart form complex diagrams, which cannot be understood easily. 

For Studio Brief 1, we have to produce a publication, and I feel that with Phonetics, I would have to produce a second publication for Studio Brief 2, which wouldn't be too exciting. 

I considered other things that have interested me, one of them being product design. 

Below you can see the areas which I considered looking into, with my chosen topic in bold: 

- Iconic product design

- The history of the chair

- Iconic British products

- The history of Alessi

- A brief history of the mobile phone

OUGD503 Responsive: Interim Evaluation

Overall I have found this module to be exciting, as it's create the step up from student into being a professional. It's a good feeling knowing that people enjoy my work, and would like it to brand, sell, etc. 

Saying that, so far this module has been put as less of a priority, due to module hand ins. Now I have more time to work on my live and competition briefs, I intend on giving them the effort they deserve. After all, producing good work for clients now could lead to a larger network of clients I could work with, through recommendation. 


Live Briefs
At first, I found these were difficult to find, and did not know of a way to solve this. However, I found that by promoting my work on Behance, I had a few people speaking to me about doing them some work.  

I have also learnt to not be ashamed of asking people if they need work done for them, as it will help me gain experience. 


Competition Briefs
Having analysed competition briefs in a few of the studio sessions, I have started to dislike competition briefs much more. They are often way too open, making me feel drowned in ideas, with no idea of what to produce. However, I think it's been great to learn how to analyse the briefs, and find out exactly what is wanted. 


Charging For Work
This has been an issue for me, as I haven't been sure exactly how much to charge. One project will give me 15% commission of the prints (I have designed) when they're sold, which I think is fair. I have also done a lot of work for free, which isn't what I wanted to do. I plan on charging a set price per hour in the future, roughly £15 an hour. 

Size of Brief
This seems to be an issue that has been difficult to solve. So far, most of the live briefs I have been working on have been relatively small. I intend on trying to find larger live briefs to work on, or possibly larger competition briefs. 

Blogging
Due to being so busy with other modules, I have spent very little time blogging my live briefs. I intend on catching up on this now, since I have more time. 

OUGD503 Responsive: Collab Brief (Brief 04) - Deciding on 3 Briefs

Sat down with Alex and discussed the briefs we had available to us. We narrowed it down towards our experience and our skills to the following:

YCN - Royal Albert Hall

YCN - Domino's Pizza

YCN - Boost

OUGD505: Studio Brief 1 - Research Boards

Below you can see the 5 research boards I prepared for the workshop: 





Ideas I was given in the crit: 

- A possible exhibition on phonetics?
- This project would be heavily typographically based, is that what I want?
- Possibly look at something slightly less 'dense', and more visual. 

In the afternoon, we looked at the presentation of our boards, you can see the feedback I received below: 

Notes On The Lesson

What not to do:
- Write in 1st person
- Initial sketches aren't always relevant (they want to see what you produced, not how you got there)
- Spelling mistakes / typos
- Food stains / crumpled paper
- Print problems
- Poor image quality
- Too much text (TLDR - too long, didn't read)
- Too little text - like a scrapbook

What to do:
- Name and number your boards
- Titles
- Show your final products
- Good quality photos of final products
- Crit each other's boards
- Proof read

After this, we handed our design boards over to someone else on the same table and wrote everything that they did wrong on their boards, for example spelling mistakes or poor layout.

My feedback was as follows:

RESEARCH BOARDS
- Bad quality images
- TLDR
- Grammar errors
- Slightly pixelated images
- Misalignment
- Annotate images so that they can be understood
- TLDR!