One week project: Christmas

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Here we feature a new brief for the Christmas project. It asked our first year designers to make a connection between their given client and Christmas crackers. A well known table decoration at Christmas time here in the UK that are just the type of Christmas merchandise the clients chosen would sell to help raise funds.

As a foundation in 3D thinking and packaging, the final crit (in conjunction with the use of the large format printer) delivered a pleasing range of ideas and connections; some of which are below.

London Transport Museum

The Design Museum

the comedy store

kew gardens

National History Museum

RNLI

The Design Museum

Guinness Storehouse

One week project: Symbolism

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The penultimate project for the graphic design first year this semester is focused on symbolism. In particular vexillology: the design of flags. Each student was briefed to design a flag on behalf of any place, group or organisation of their choosing.

Like much of the world of design, flags are seemingly simple; but actually represent incredibly complex ideas. With this is mind, the brief required the students to remove all design representations of their chosen subject (and sometimes even more) to reveal an absolute purity of form and concept. The following five criteria outlined by the vexillology society were communicated by staff as a method of pressure-testing any design, and to also offer guidance on how to be self critical of a design.

  1. Keep it simple

  2. Use meaningful symbolism

  3. Use two to three basic colours

  4. No lettering or seals

  5. Be distinctive

But beyond that, and quite simply…does it look like a flag? Can it be seen and understood visually from distance? And can it be made from cotton?

Below are a selection of the final designs and a brief description of their origins.

Dogs trust
a charity which specialises in the wellbeing of dogs

Football for Humanity
a charity which uses the power of FOOTBALL to educate, empower and protect children facing the threat of violence, exploitation and poverty

the society of vintners
an association of British wine experts

retro gamers society
a group of gamers dedicated to the original class video games

little princess trust
The Little Princess Trust provides free real hair wigs to children and young people, up to 24 years, who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other conditions

BLACKPOOL CHESS CLUB
the tower comes into play

BFI
The British Film Institute is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom

SKELMERSDALE
a young town built in the brutalist style

E3
a trade event for the games industry held annually in los angeles – the city of angels

uclan rams
an american football team based at the university of central lancashire

gainsborough
a town known for its agriculture, river and oil deposits

ondo, nigeria
an area known as ‘the sunshine state’, which predominantly grows cocoa (a yellow coloured fruit), and also palm fruit (which are red)

harris museum
a preston building with six columns to its facade

cumbria
a geographical area famed for its lakes, fells (hills) and natural scenery

bhutan
a buddhist kingdom known for its colourful prayer flags

uk downhill ski club
an organisation interested in descending whte covered slopes

lancashire archery club
lancashire’s red rose meets arrows and a target

Liverpool
a weathered city with scandinavian heritage which was originally designed with a ‘h’ formation built around seven main streets

cumberland cliff diving association
leap from the land to the sea

polish community in preston
the two p’s of two communities weave together in a slavic pattern

lytham
a town know for its welcoming vista of green grass, blue skies and a white windmill

trafford libraries
denoting nine libraries found in the southwest region of manchester

shrovetide football
an ancient game played each shrove tuesday by the up’ards and the down’ards along a three mile stretch of river

layton juniors football club
a junior football team who play on the site of a former windmill

One week project: Illustration

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The sixth of our semester one lateral thinking projects has just been completed be the first years. The brief took the definition of the word ‘illustrate’ [ORIGIN early 16th century (in the sense ‘illuminate, shed light on’): from Latin illustrat- ‘lit up’, from the verb illustrare, from in- ‘upon’ + lustrare ‘illuminate’] and use that idea to convey the meanings behind idioms and proverbs. Students could choose any idiom they wanted in order to think broadly around any potential solutions. There were no restrictions with regard to technique: image / photography / video / sound / performance were all encouraged, in order to best present the idiom in question.

One week project: Copywriting

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As we approach the final third of the semester, the latest first year brief asked the students to directly engage with the concept of copywriting; to put words front and centre of a communication.

Each student was asked to research and immerse in a given area of interest: ornithology or philately for example. Then, whilst imagining themselves as a keen pursuer of their given field, write an advert seeking like-minded individuals on campus.

Mountaineering

One week project: 3D

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Graphic design first years have recently completed their fourth creative brief roughly halfway through their first semester here at Preston. The latest task was to produce an invitation to the opening of an exhibition, at a Museum or public space.

This year staff were presented with a bumper crop of responses in both creativity, and craft. Also pleasing was the thought given to the copywriting and how that supported the idea (and on occasion was the idea).

Surrealism at The Tate

Sir John Tenniel at The Pencil Museum

Sir Antony Gormley at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Heinz at The Packaging Museum

Wallace & Gromit at The Harris

Hacienda at Manchester Art Gallery

Sir Antony Gormley at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Surrealism at The Tate

The Flower Show at Tatton Park

Alexander Fleming at The Wellcome Collection

One week project: Image

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Our most recent first year project was image, taking a theme - high & low for example - and bringing the two opposing ideas together in one composition. The brief is straightforward, but this is a project which requires depth of thought, research and craft. Being a hard brief (this is a regularly used technique, so to be original requires digging deep), many were of a good standard, but only a handful truly surprising.

light and dark

One week project: Typography

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Inspired by the Reverend’s good book, this year’s typography brief took the raw materials of letters, numbers and glyphs; and asked the students to create faces and animals from them. The premise of the project was to instil the notion that through taking a seemingly everyday object and looking at it with fresh eyes, you can create a completely new idea. This is a fundamental lesson in lateral thinking, and a primer in the ‘art of looking sideways’.

One week project: Research

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Here we share some examples of the first Year 1 creative thinking project – research. This year marked a return to the physical. So the potential for exploiting the space and format available were far beyond the perceived restrictions of the digital realm.

The above example takes the word house, and through research exploited various definitions of the word. A doll’s house opened up, the archetypal version of ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ featured an opening cover, and the representation of a full house in poker was set on real gaming cloth. With the research topic clearly being communicated as the given word, staff were also encouraged by the crop of a light house, as a visual reward for the canny viewer.

The above was a response to the word language, and the below to paper. Though less physical, the interpretations for language were deemed to be the most cohesive suite within the crit.

For the following example, there was visual interest in the gift wrap, the actual origami and shredded paper.

A further two good examples below for the words table and bear. Staff highlighted both of these responses due to their graphic nature; particularly the gingham and timetable on the first image; and the road sign and the flag on the second.

One week project: Pattern

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DSC_0070.jpg

As semester 1 takes its toll, here is the last post from Year 1 (this year)…

A new brief – based on pattern – took on the Christmas theme. It asked our young designers to make a connection between their client (a fundraising charity who rely on things like nice wrapping papers to fill up their coffers) and the Christmas season itself (in any form from snow to full-blown Santas).

The proof of course was in the (Christmas) pudding, and seeing the papers actually wrapped around a gift. It was a great turnout and showing for the final crit, with full use of the large format printers and a really pleasing range of ideas and connections; some of which are below.

British Heart Foundation

British Heart Foundation

Water Aid

Water Aid

The Art Fund

The Art Fund

WWF

WWF

Salvation Army

Salvation Army

The Art Fund

The Art Fund

RSPB

RSPB

One week project: Symbolism

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This semester staff have introduced two new projects to the end of the DD1101 module. These projects have been designed to bridge the gap between lateral thinking exercises, encourage the development of individual process and ultimately be resolved as a formal pieces of graphic design. As such though billed as one week projects, they have been extended to two weeks.

The first of these projects is underpinned by the theory of symbolism, in particular vexillology. The objective was to design a flag on behalf of any place, group or organisation of the student’s choosing. For those seeking some background of flags and vexillology in particular, then we highly recommend this Ted Talk by Roman Mars – host of the excellent design & architecture podcast 99% Invisible.

Like much of the world of design, flags are seemingly simple; but actually represent incredibly complex ideas. With this is mind, the brief required the students to remove all design representations of their chosen subject (and sometimes even more) to reveal an absolute purity of form and concept. The following five criteria outlined by the vexillology society were communicated by staff as a method of pressure-testing any design, and to also offer guidance on how to be self critical of a design.

  1. Keep it simple

  2. Use meaningful symbolism

  3. Use two to three basic colours

  4. No lettering or seals

  5. Be distinctive

But beyond that, and quite simply…does it look like a flag? Can it be seen and understood visually from distance? And can it be made from cotton?

At the final crit all the flags were printed out at A2 and hung in the studio to test impact, message and above all design.

Process

Below is the process undertaken by one student who chose to create a flag on behalf of Cats Protection. All students were required to draw – specifically trace – to get their ideas underway. Also demonstrated in these sketches is a recognition of the symbolism of cats, protection and the task of graphically resolving the two as one design.

Final Crit

Cats Protection

Cats Protection

City of Coconut Creek

City of Coconut Creek

Swim England

Swim England

River Lune Metal Detecting Club

River Lune Metal Detecting Club

Sustainability UK

Sustainability UK

Stanley Park, Blackpool

Stanley Park, Blackpool