Whilst planning my ten briefs as part of the OUGD301/Design Practice III briefs for the first half of Level 06, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do for nine of the ten briefs, yet still had a space "available" for something new.
Throughout my selected briefs, there were a few I'd chosen which were competition-lead, such as the end of year show/prospectus guides for various degree courses, however, I wanted to also work on a competition brief with a little more scope and variety, and therefore, as shown below, have started to research several briefs/competition submissions sites with strong potential, and with something I would find particularly interesting/beneficial to the development of my portfolio in the final year of my degree.
The Yetee is a contemporary, playful t-shirt design retailer and submission site that I recently discovered whilst looking for potential ways to boost my freelance sales and work through selling/licensing some of my illustrative and typographic designs.
Whilst, of course, there is potential for monetary outcomes and benefits from submission, I feel that, as a brief, it perhaps wouldn't be as substantial as I would ordinarily choose a brief to be, and perhaps a little closed in terms of what I could do for development. Also, for my third year, I'm hoping to move away from solely working with illustration and type, and seeing ways in which I can apply it more effectively for a considered and well-rounded brief.
Again, like the Yetee brief, I think this competition to design a typographic, motivational sports quote poster, is perhaps a little too narrow for a fully explored brief, and not challenging enough for my existing plans for my third year portfolio.
This could potentially be expanded into a publication or promotional pack for a sporting event, but I think it doesn't particularly coincide with my existing interests, and may bore of it a little too easily.
In this competition to design a cover of a condom wrapper, there could be potential for something quite creative, and, of course, quite different to the existing work in my design portfolio- also open to the diverse range of potential design outcomes, whether it be illustrative, typographic, or photographic. Again, I feel the design outcome is a little short-sighted. Potential expansion of the project could include advertising and retail graphics, but, again, I feel as though I want to particularly focus on branding, and although this brief has potential, I'm sure I could find something that was a little more suited to the type of design I hope to pursue upon graduating.
Much like t-shirt submission site, The Yetee, Threadless is a website that I have wanted to submit to for quite a few years now, often with a playful and whimsical illustrative design stock range that appeals to my own style of design and sense of humour.
Traditionally, getting designs printed on Threadless can be quite challenging (it works on a scoring system by the public and Threadless account users), though the rewards can be great (both in terms of seeing your design printed on a wide variety of textiles such as baby clothes, t-shirts, bags, totes, etc, but also in monetary value).
Again, like The Yetee, I feel as though, although it's still an ambition to submit a design to Threadless in the future, as a brief itself it's not quite substantial or challenging enough, or furthering my potential for placements/employment from my portfolio after graduation, yet, still, certainly an ambition to submit a design before the end of the academic year.
A project that's really up my street in terms of personal interests and development throughout this year, creating typographic book (paper and e-book version) covers for the Faber and Faber Print on Demand Projection series (a minimum of three designs).
I feel that this project would be not only fun as it appeals to my existing interests, but also well-suited to my love of research and brand development to create variation, yet consistency throughout the cover designs.
My final project of second year included designing promotional material for the 200 year anniversary addition of Puffin's 'Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm'. Although initially I thought that this project was ideally suited to me, I found a great deal of problems along the way, and feel as though this project would be an excellent chance to "start again", and learn from the mistakes I made in the last project to ensure this was as successful as possible.
A definite favourite contender for the tenth brief so far.
An interesting brief from greetings card manufacturers, Tigerprint, looking at new, conceptual, and innovative ways to send and personalise greetings cards in a high-end and almost "luxury" production and print outcome range that their existing cards would be regarded as.
Although this would undoubtedly push my experience and portfolio in terms of illustrative and typographic design, I feel that the digital/web-heavy nature of the brief wouldn't be particularly suited to my interests. Although web and design for digital development is something I undoubtedly want to explore and work upon this year (for my own interests as well as increased employment potential), I would much rather perfect my experience and work with print and professional printers, so feel that although this brief would be beneficial in some ways, I wouldn't regard it as ideal or a priority brief at this moment in time.
Certainly an interesting branding brief from The Body Shop, looking at campaigns to rebrand the company and reinstate it's position in the beauty and retail market as the original, and best, natural and ethical brand.
As a fan of The Body Shop myself, I have interest in the brief and company, and feel that the research side (in terms of it's products and advertising) could be quite fun, with the often playful nature of the brand suited to my aspirations for my own design practice and portfolio.
Also, the potential to work with typographic and photographic outcomes would certainly be something different, and enjoyable, to work on for my own personal interests as well as expanding the variation within my existing design portfolio.
Again, a definite consideration and contender for the chosen (final) brief.
Quite an interesting photographically-lead brief to communicate and inform people about dementia for the Alzheimer's Society. With a parents working, in the past, in science and healthcare, I've been fortunate to have been bought up with a reasonable about of insight in regards to medicine and health, and find it a natural interest. From a research and documentation point of view, perhaps as an editorial or publication-based project, I would certainly find this interesting, and from a visual perspective, very interesting to convey and communicate.
However, from a photographic perspective, I could see a great deal of problems that could arise in regards to arranging to photograph dementia patients, and there would be a great deal of loops and laws that could potentially get in the way of achieving the results I'd desire. Due to this, the project is one that, at least for the time being, would be one I'd avoid, but potentially something to look more into, or develop, in the future.
Information not available online
Originally a brief I looked at and was interested in when choosing self-initiated briefs for Design Practice II at the end of Level 05 (Year II) on the degree programme, the ISTD brief, 'It Happened On This Day', I feel, could have a lot of potential.
Initially discarding it due to the lack of illustrative/image-based development, I would now consider this a blessing as I want to expand upon projects and the diversity within my portfolio as well as exploring publication and editorial design a little further.
Again, however, the project, on the surface, wouldn't necessarily have room for a great deal of development or expansion, and feel that the natural thing to do with the requirements of the brief would be to rather rigidly stick to the suggested outcomes.
Despite the fact I don't believe this would be a substantial enough brief for my final selected brief for the ten of OUGD301 (Design Practice III), again, as with some of the other briefs I've researched, I would definitely consider working on the brief as a short personal brief, perhaps working on the design over the period of a week as opposed to a month or two, as other briefs would ordinarily take.
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CHOSEN BRIEF
It was a tough decision between the Faber and Faber brief and the branding brief for The Body Shop, but I have chosen to work on the typographic Faber and Faber brief, largely due to balancing out my existing chosen projects, which are heavily branding based, as well as looking at my own personal interests and seeing how these will translate in terms of research of the briefs.
Certainly looking forward to getting started and developing as much insight and knowledge before writing the brief on my return to Uni on the week of the 24th September.
