Business Lecture - Induction

We started the first Monday back with a Theory as Practice lecture that was conducted by a new lecturer, Peter. He started out by getting us into the right mindset for the year, talking about how we should have confidence in our own ability as designers, and be independent self thinkers.  A nice quote that i took from the lecture was"regret is always more painful than failure".

Placements

He then moved onto talking about placements and what was the best approach for us to find a placement that will be best for us. This involved Peter explaining the different areas that we may want to move into, and what websites to look at in order to find job openings. I am defiantly going to be using the Institute of Practicing Advertisers (IPA) and Free Index in order to see what is available to me.

He then went on to say that it is better to send a written letter to a specific person in a company than just sending an email. This will help you to stick out a little bit more as it is harder to get rid of a letter than an email, and you are more likely to get a reply. We should make the letter person; to that person and company, and make sure not to ask for a placement outright, but ask for a meeting with them in order to chat about the state of the industry.

It is about who you know and not what you know when looking for placements, and making yourself known to influential members in the industry can not hurt at all. If I manage to meet with someone like this, i would intend to try and keep in contact and maybe ask for advice on projects and even competition work.

Different types of placement

The university route - This involves paying the university to see over the placement in case anything goes wrong. You can also opt to have the work you do at the placement marked by the university that will go towards a grade.

Suspended degree - This would involve me leaving university for a year in order to take part in a placement that i find outside of the university guidelines. If the placement of my choice does not meet the guidelines of a university based placement, it is still ok for me to do this for experience alone.

Designing for a client

The things that you should think about when designing for a client are:
- Who does the client actually need you to talk to?
- Understand the client and the end user.

Sometimes the client is not the correct person to be designing the product/ design for, as it could be a company that has customers of their own, therefore the design should be focused on the end user. It is important however to keep both the client happy as well as handing in a design that will be successful with the end user.

When making a design, it is important to think about the product orientation. If you are designing a product, where will this be advertised, and who will it be targeted at?

Being a creative, you do not need to limit yourself to a certain area of the industry. When a client is paying you, they are paying for your knowledge and creative ability. We have assets that the client needs and we can charge for that. Therefore we can move from different areas of the industry as long as we use our assets. It can be hard for clients to wrap their head around this prospect however, especially if they are convergent thinkers.

Markets 

There are different aspects to a market that allow a business to sell products, and it is important for a designer to know what is going on in the market / stocks as it will give them a better depth of knowledge of what is needed in the market at that time. e.g. If there is a disease in all of the coffee beans and Starbucks had asked you to re brand a product in their line, then you may want to check that they still wanted the design before doing it. They may cut back prices in order to survive as a company and a new brand design may be something they cut back on.

We went on to talk about the different types of economies. These included:

- Firms: Manufacturing, Sales, Management, Finance, Marketing, etc.
- Markets: Competitors, Suppliers, Customers, Clients.
- National Economy: Geographic entity - a country. Private sector - Firms, Companies, etc. Public sector - Financed by tax revenue such as schools, Government, Police, Armed service hospitals etc.
- Global economy - World trade, Economic blocks.

These can be put into micro economic and macro economic as shown in the diagram above. However there can be a knock on effect if something happens to one. For example, if we go into a recession on a global scale, then people will be less likely to spend money and you as a designer will find it harder to find clients.

There are a lot of factors that can effect these economies, and some are even out of our control.

Basic Marketing 

The 4 P's:

- Price

- Product

- Promotion

- Place 

These 4 aspects of marketing need to be thought about when designing. They are all as important as each other and different situations have the need to use different ones more. 

When thinking about a product in general, it is set into two categories. A core product which is what the product must do. Which is the reason for the product being made in the first place. And the secondary product, which is why the consumer buys it. This is the aesthetic of the product which actually persuades the customer to make a purchase when the product is compared to others similar. 

Promotion is done through advertising, pricing, offers and packaging. Sometimes loss leaders are used in order to get customers to buy other products or services. 

The place is where the product is being made available. This could be on the high street or on the internet. Different age ranges may prefer to shop in different ways, therefore the place of the product is an important aspect to get correct depending on the demographic. 

What is design?

Design is visual communication through problem solving and creativity. 

We learned about the two different mental processes which include convergent thinkers, and divergent thinkers. 

Convergent thinkers are people who see a problem and work their way through it piece by piece until they come to an solution. These would be people like accountants and engineers. 

However creative people such as graphic designers and animators are divergent thinkers. We do not think as literally as other people, and come up with more radical ideas with out of the box thinking that other people may not be able to figure out how the solution came to be.

An interesting think that i learned was that people who are divergent thinkers are usually better with shape and form, therefore this is why a lot of designers suffer with dyslexia. 

Attitude - Management Vs Designers

Design process

We recapped on the design process that we should go through when starting a brief. It was good to go through this again as I intend to stick to it more in my upcoming project in order to develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

I enjoyed the introduction lecture to intermediate theory as practice, as it took a different direction from what we have learned before, and went down the business route, and the things that we should know about the actual clients and how to understand our clients. Some of the things covered, i have actually learned before at A-level business studies, therefore i hope that i will develop a greater understanding, and will be able to excel. 

The most interesting part of the lecture for me had to be the different types of thinkers (convergent/divergent), and how being in a certain category could make a person more adapt to change that others.

Gentle Ease

This lecture was with Sara. which focused on after effects. I have become more and more interested in after effects throughout the year as i have become more informed on how to use the program and have started to create more aesthetically pleasing results. The lecture had a lot of visual aids that allowed us to see what sort of things could be created on the adobe program.



Just one day was a piece that was shown in the lecture that showed a mixture of stop motion graphics created by hand, that had been added to adobe after effects in order to animate and scale. I think that the finish of this piece is spectacular, and the mixture between the hand made element and software works really well. I have created a stop motion piece in the past for my visualisation of sound piece. This was done through blowing ink around a page and then taking pictures that were used in after effects. This gave a better texture and realness to the work, and i believe that the same applies here.

We also looked at another animation that was created by hand and then later added to after effects, however this is a lot more sophisticated. The animation is by Drew Tyndell who works for cartoon network. The video was created frame by frame which allowed more movement. This is called 'romoscoping' and as you could imagine takes a very long time.



I enjoyed this seminar, as i am becoming more and more interested in after effects and animation as i learn more about it and some of the outputs that are possible. I am not very strong at drawing, therefore may struggle creating something that is drawing based, however it interests me greatly as a concept.

Reflective writing

We talked about reflective writing. As a creative, we must know when our writing goes of course, and turns into ramble instead of rambling on and getting a higher word count filled with nonsense.

We were told in the seminar that there is not a wrong way of writing, as long as the subject matter stays at the forefront of the writing. The topic need to be addressed thoroughly and you must not go off on a tangent, and start talking about other topics where this is not needed.

It was a very good explanation of what is expected, and i am going to try and improve on my reflective writing as i continue as a creative.

How to have an idea

Today we focused on how to have an idea, and the process that we as creatives should undertake in order to develop a well thought out and contextually viable idea.

We first looked at aims, and how to communicate ideas through images, words, layout and sequence. It is preferred to build up a folder over time of references on a defined theme. This not only shows evidence of contextual and theoretical awareness, but also helps you to identify which way to approach the subject matter, and create a strong visual.

After this, I should evaluate weather the idea can grow in interest, or will it become boring and therefore not as fun to work on. I should also ask myself if it is just all facts, or is it just all process and technique. Sometimes the idea may be too simple and not have enough depth however other times it may not be achievable at all.

Sometimes creative blocks happen, and ideas can be hard to come by. If this situation arises, it is important to have a method of coming up with ideas in order to get out of this trough. It is good to mind map and get multiple ideas down. However, verification from peers is also a huge help. Acceptance of ideas, or even tolerances from society help for creatives to believe in their idea, and discussions can help in brainstorming more.

Graham Wallas (1858–1932), a British political scientist and sociologist came up with a theory for creative process. The Four-Stage Process Model Wallas believed the creative process could be described as a series of four stages:

Preparation: The problem to be solved is carefully considered and resources are gathered in order to confront the task. The conscious mind is focused on the problem.

Incubation: Drawing upon these resources, consideration of the problem is internalized and becomes a largely subconscious activity. The mind makes connections more freely and abundantly.

Illumination: Possible solutions to the problem transition from subconscious to conscious thought. This is a moment of insight and optimism.

Verification: Solutions are tested and may be applied if shown to be viable.

The process model is divided into four stages: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. For all creatives when coming up with an idea, we think of a lot of different ideas. This is "divergent thinking". Then we can refine and narrow down the idea in order to get to something to focus on. This is "convergent thinking" which can be represented by a diamond shape. However, the diagram is a double diamond for a reason. This process will be carried out twice. Once to confirm the problem definition and once to create the solution. One of the greatest mistakes is to omit the left-hand diamond and end up solving the wrong problem.

 If creatives use this method for idea generation, ideas will be developed, tested and refined a number of times, with weak ideas dropped in the process. This cycle is an essential part of good design.

I think that if i carry out this method when going through idea generation for my project, i will be a lot more productive in getting rid of the weaker ideas, and refining those that have potential. 

Design thinking

We looked at the double diamond in the first few weeks, however only looked at the first two quarters. The first quarter would help idea generation with an initial idea or inspiration, often sourced from a discovery phase in which user needs are identified, and the second quarter represents the definition stage, in which interpretation and alignment of these needs to business objectives is achieved.

The third quarter (develop) marks a period of development where design-led solutions are developed, iterated, and tested within the company and the final quarter (deliver) of the Double Diamond model represents the delivery stage, where the resulting product or service is finalised and launched in the relevant market.

This is just one of many design process models. 

In this lecture, we focused on a more detailed approach. This is called: 

7 stages of design process:

Stage 1: Define.

This involves asking all of the questions:

The 5 W's - who, what, where, when, why, (how).

- Who is the target audience/ client?

- What is the design solution the client is thinking of?

- When will the design be needed, and for how long?

- Where will the design be used?

- Why does the client think a design solution is required?

The questions above make you think, and it is understandable how ideas can be generated from just asking these five simple questions. If you know who you are designing for, and what the client wants designing. When it is needed therefore you have a time frame to complete the task in. Where it will be used, which will allow you to create a design solution that will fit to the environment it will be in. And finally, why the client requires the design solution. This may be because the design they have at present is not good enough and they need a rebrand for example. 

Stage 2: Research.

It is important to obtain both secondary and primary research as this will allow you to understand what you are designing more thoroughly. It can also spark imagination and help to generate ideas. Qualitative and quantitative research should also be carried out, therefore allowing you to have all of the facts and statistics needed. By the end of this you should have an informed concept and resources to draw from. 

Stage 3: Ideate.

"Creativity conveys a sense of pure inventiveness and lack of boundaries, yet design requires applied creativity towards a specific end." -Gavin Ambrose

Utilise different methods of Design Thinking which include; 

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

Focus Top Down and Bottom Up

Ockhams razor 

Python philosophy 

White space 

Text minimisation 

Graphic Impact User 

Centred design 

At the end of this stage, you should have a script and a rough visual language. This may include thumbnails, scamps or roughs. 

Stage 4: Prototype.

This is to test the feasibility of each idea, working in accordance with the guidelines  and from the brief.  If creating a video, you would create a few frames so you can see how it would look, instead of just having a sketched storyboard. This will allow you to see what works and what doesn't when looking at factors such as layout for example. 

At the end of this stage, style frames should have been created as well as a comprehensive layout that can then be brought forward into the final design. 

Stage 5: Select. 

This is the stage where you select what to take forward, and will help you to achieve a final composition that does not have aspects that do not work. 

Stage 6: Implement.

This is implementing all of the things that have been planned out in previous stages and actually building your output and defining the details, refining what has been trailed and clarified. In this stage, your work should be completed. 

Stage 7: Learn. 

This is the point where feedback is given on your outcome. This allows other people to view your work and voice some changes that could be made that would improve the piece. They could also comment on the things that (in their opinion) don't really work with the piece. 

It is important to get feedback as this how you can grow as a creative if the opinions of others are taken on board.  

G# Minor

In this lecture, sara talked about the power of the chord G# and how it is used in songs in order to make the sing sound similar to others. A lot of artists use the chord in this way. However they can change it ever so slightly in order to trick the listeners into thinking that it is something new. Some of the examples that we were shown in the lecture are as follows.

Dire Straits - Brother in Arms

Lady Gaga - Poker Face

Both of these songs use the chord G# Minor however sound completely different. It is clever how artists do this and does in fact show how powerful the chord is. I am interested in music myself, and actually contemplated taking music forward to college, however i now just play drums and dabble in compositions as a hobby.

Illustrator and Creative Cloud

In this session of process and production with Stephen, we first had a look at creative cloud and how it works. As I have creative cloud myself, I already knew most of the things that was pointed out. Things such as the use or creative cloud storage for saving work, and being able to continue this on another computer if signed into creative cloud on that. Also being able to save custom colour swatches for a project. However, I had never familiarised myself with the addition of Adobe Typekit, which is used for downloading new fonts to the creative suite. This is a very easy way to get hold of new typefaces quickly, and they sync to the creative cloud, therefore can be used on any computer once again. I was impressed by this and defiantly think I will be using it in the future.







These images to the left are on adobe capture. This allows you to create brushes, shapes and colour swatches from taking a picture of something and selecting the colours that you like.

There are different varieties of brushes that you can select after taking the picture of choice in order to create the brushes.












After looking at the creative cloud. we then looked at the tool of image trace on Adobe Illustrator, and played around with the different ones that could be used. For example; low fidelity, high fidelity, 3 colour and 6 colour. We experimented with these on an image taken from the internet as shown below.

After adding the image trace of choice, we went about adding some type. I downloaded a typeface from Typekit for this task (Brush Script Std Medium). 

This is the final image trace. Looking back, I believe that a different photo may have created a better result, as the sky on my image trace is to simple for my liking. I should have picked an image with a cloudy sky in order to create a more interesting look.