Design Strategy Presentation:

I began the presentation by referring to the beginning of the year and discussing my new found love of experimentation. Something I hadn't done before this degree was to try quite a physical approach and use strange and random ways to explore the project briefs. One of the things I began doing was placing masking tape on traffic lights and exploring light with a card board box in my flat. These were both to find new ways of exploring type, and even though they weren't directly linked to my final outcome, they did influence my creative practice. In fact, some of the work I produced at this stage was exhibited by the college at part of a competition. This showed me the importance of doing work you're passionate about, even it means diverting from the original task. Also, by doing work in my flat it worked as an unofficial form of collaboration, living with two fine artists meant that they would share their ideas and help me with photo composition and visual experimentation.

The typeface I created as part of this initial project was very illustrative so it was important to showcase it carefully. The type specimen I created didn't do this well, it was overcomplicated, with too many layers. However, when I created a book cover using the type, it became a lot more visible and comprehensive. At this point I realised the importance of simplicity.

Later on in the year we were given the task to create a poster design using a grid layout and featured a piece of origami. At this time I was very interested in sci-fi, having recently watched Stranger Things; so I decided to apply this to my poster design. This meant that I was really passionate about what I was working on, causing the work to go so much smoother than previous projects. Similarly for the wayfinding project I created a system that would work for a zombie apocalypse, linking to the Walking Dead which I had been watching at the time. Both of these projects became something I was willing to invest a lot of time in as I enjoyed the research and the concepts behind them so much.

For the object project we were given a lot of freedom, which meant I struggled to find a clear direction. I went down several avenues, unsure of which to pursue. However, during that project Studio Build came in, and Michael C Place advised that for some projects it is “important to have self imposed rules and constraints,” in order to give a project direction. So I ended up giving myself the rule of creating the design purely in a spreadsheet program. This meant the work was refined and pushed into something I was really proud of.

Something I have particularly enjoyed is editorial design and the book cover work we have done. This partly links to my love of literature and the research involved for original cover concepts. This is perhaps something I want to pursue later on in my career. A particularly inspirational set of work I've seen was from Toormix studio in Barcelona, who have created book designs with blurbs on the covers and designs on the backs. I thought this was incredibly unique, made even more creative by the unique mouse doors placed on the bottom of each cover (linking to their brand Rata.) A personal project I undertook was to design a book cover for my dad. If I had been given this project a year ago I would have only come up with one outcome, however since doing this year of work it has led me to realise it is important to experiment and have a varied set of ideas for a client.

Another studio I particularly enjoyed looking at in Barcelona, was Brosmind. Not only was it inspiring to see their amazing illustrations all over the walls, it was fascinating to see some of their personal projects. They've received lots of interest in their personal projects plus it seemed they were quickly expanding their skill set because of them. It made me realise that I wanted to pursue more of my own personal projects, such as the poetry zine I have started publishing.