Studio Brief 01 - Reflective Practice

What I have learnt...

• getting feedback from peers is an essential part of the design process and seeing other peoples work is a great motivation
• research is a huge part of the project to ensure a piece of work has context, everything must be for a reason, not simply to look ‘good’

What has engaged me...

• inductions such as bookbinding, monoprinting and software inductions
• keeping a blog (not)

What I have NOT enjoyed...

• having to juggle so many projects at once whilst trying to have a life outside of uni, leading to a very messed up sleeping pattern
• having to continue with a project I had little interest in as there wasn’t time to start over

What  I aspire to...

• to discover my own creative direction
• to start working on a project as soon as it is briefed
• to work in house design team for a clothes, makeup or food/drinks company (favourite things)
• to travel the world

How I will approach this task...

I have discovered that the best way to start a brief that is very open ended in terms of the design aesthetic, is to give myself constraints:

• 5 colour palette from pantone
• sans serif typeface
• only 3 different text sizes
• use geometric shapes to add depth
• a2

I decided to use a modular grid for the design of my poster and went for a minimalistic approach, after hearing from Michael (Build) saying that as a designer you should either go all out detail or keep it very minimal, anything in between just looks like you're lacking confidence in your decisions. With this in mind I opted for a monospaced typeface - Andale mono as it has consistent stroke weights and spacing that won't draw attention or add unnecessary detail to the poster. The typeface is also very readable.

I reached a colour palette by using the Pantone app on a screenshot from my identity Instagram therefore the colours are from what I have recently uploaded. I think the colours accurately represent my ideas at the moment I have been using black, white and grey a lot with the occasional injection of a vibrant colours - a splash of colour to focus the eye (The graphic design idea book).

Whilst keeping to the rules I imposed on myself I did bend the rules with layering and opacity to create more interesting visuals. I also added in some photographs I had taken last year on holiday as one of my aspirations is to earn enough money to be comfortable and able to see the world. I edited the photographs slightly by adding noise to take away the harshness compared to the rest of the poster as it is quite plain and neat.