Gaps in my knowldege

• I have never heard of HG Wells.
• I am not into science fiction at all, I am the opposite. I prefer learning about fact based/ historical stories about the past instead of fictional stories of the future.

Research

As I started looking into some of HG Wells books the one that got my attention the most was the book ‘the first men in the moon’. After reading the blurb on the book I felt intrigued to find out more. There is a film based on this book which I am going to watch which will make me more familiar with HG Wells and his works.

I am also going to ask my friends and family if they know anything about HG Wells as a form of primary research.

Secondary research

• I am going to research and watch tutorials on how to design book covers.
• Research and get a better idea of which audience  HG Wells is targeting.

Mind mapping

After reading the brief I decided to mind map the word that stood out to me the most which was “midlife crisis”. The more I expanded on some of the words the more radical my thoughts were getting. However, I was able to find a link with my mind map and HG Wells.

Radical solution

After skimming through some of HG Wells books I felt like the book “The time machine” linked with a big chunk of words that came into my head from my mind map. I was happy that the mind map helped me be more creative and also helped me find a radical solution to the brief.

Obvious solution

The second two books that I chose were ‘The war of the worlds’ and ‘the first men in the moon’. I chose these two books simply because the titles caught my attention. This is my obvious solution to the brief.

Sketching

I began to sketch my ideas on to paper, the first book I began to design was ‘The time machine’. The second book was the ‘War of the worlds’ and the third one was ‘The first men in the moon’. This is what my ideas looked like on paper.

I then went on to put my sketch ideas on to adobe photoshop and began to produce my ideas. I came up with unique designs for each of the covers, but I kept the font of the titles, the colour of the background and the sky blue outline on the bottom of each page (which carries the name of the publisher and the author) the same. I did this to make them work together as a set.

Finished designs

Final thoughts

Overall I am extremely happy with how my book covers look. I have never designed covers before and for my first attempt I feel like my covers look very professional. Creating these three unique designs has taught me many new skills and has increased my confidence when it comes to using Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks. The only problems I faced was the length of time it took me to complete these designs mainly because of problems I was having in my personal life. However, this exercise has given me a confidence boost in my abilities.

Tutor Feedback

It would help you to provide images of your research and then articulate on
their various merits, this would give you a broader understanding of the
history of this author’s covers. In addition, you could have looked at
contemporary book cover design to see if there is a modern translation.
Generally, more visual research and critical reflection is required.
Secondary research is generally in relation to the contexts, for example social
cultural political. By reading the books for example you could have seen a
way of translating the text or the general socio-Political themes.
The first men in the moon has an interesting focal image but your decision to
place every image centrally for all three books with the type at the bottom has
a very predictable effect. More experimentation with type and image through
iteration of each cover shows visual development. There is a need to show 2
your analysis through image development. Also, to be more adventurous in
terms of contemporary images and typefaces.
I am pleased to see you feel that you have gained knowledge of software, and
there is a sense of finish that you refer to as professional. Try to find your own
voice as these are a little predictable.

What is a brief?

A brief is all the information you will need to complete a project. When you don’t understand a brief simplify it. for example “innovative”, “fresh”, and “ground-breaking” all suggest that the client wants something new, while “functional”, “direct” and “simple” suggests your designs need to be practical.

What am I being asked to do?

The brief for this task is for me to design a packaging for Quakers new chilled creamy oats product. The target audience for this product is young women who have many priorities and a very busy schedule who want to eat something healthy which also tastes good. The problem I face with this task is that oats are known to be very boring and bland in taste. However I can make this product more appealing by designing the packaging.

How will the client judge a successful outcome?

First of all the design of the packaging has to be appealing. We also have to make sure all the criteria is met. The brief tells us that the target audience for the package is young women who have busy schedules, i’ll have to make sure that the package clearly indicates that. I’ll also have to make sure that the package conveys the message that the product is not just healthy but also delicious because this is one of the criteria’s of the brief.

What are the keywords of the brief?

“Young women”. The target audience is “young women” is repeated twice. “Young women juggling many jobs and priorities” suggests that their target audience is women with busy schedules. “They like the idea of eating oats” but dislike the idea of eating them because of the taste. The brief describes them as “bland and unappealing”.

Brief 2

What are you being asked to do?

The second brief is very vague. I feel like the client wants to understand more of our thought process and the “design process” we use t0 achieve our goal. The brief can be achieved in many ways as long as it relates with the idea of connectedness.

How will a client judge a successful outcome to the brief?

As long as the design relates to the idea of ‘connectedness’ the criteria will be met. There are many ways that the brief can be tackled. I think the client just wants to see something unique.

What are the keywords?

“Take a metaphorical journey on the theme of connections”. “Explore the theme as broadly as possible”. “Communicate to the viewer the ‘connectedness’ of your thinking”.

All of these quotes indicate that the client doesn’t want anything specific. As long as it relates to the idea of connectedness the criteria is met.

What questions would you ask the client?

One of the main questions I would ask my client is, if it is possible for them to show me a collection of designs that they like? This will give me an idea of what kind of designs they are expecting.

Brief 3

What are you being asked to do?

My brief for the third task is to create a campaign for teenagers aged between 13 and 16 about the dangers of under age drinking. The objective for the campaign is to also encourage parents to speak to their children about the consequences drinking can cause.

How will the client judge a successful outcome to the brief?

The brief has suggested two slogans to be used, one is ‘alcohol leaves you vulnerable’ and the second one is ‘why let drink decide?’ These quotes are both direct and straight to the point and as long as my poster has the same effect to the audience that I am targeting the criteria will be met.

What are the keywords?

“To raise awareness of under aged drinking”. “With a core propositions of ‘alcohol’ leaves you vulnerable”. “Use the campaign identity ‘why let drink decide?”. “Specifically target young people aged between 13 and 16”.

Which brief would you most likely tackle?

The first brief would be the last on my list because there is too many restrictions. The second brief was very vague and hard to grasp when I first read it. But as I looked into some examples of ‘connectedness’ I liked the idea and the theme of the project. The third brief is the one I would like to tackle. The reason for this is because I wont be too restricted like the first brief and I wont be left confused like the second one. The client is clear with what he wants but at the same time allows me my freedom of using my own ideas.

This first assignment is about introducing yourself so that your tutor can get to know you, your interests and your work better. This assignment is not submitted for formal assessment.
Design a series of at least three postcards (final size A6) that say something about who you are, your interests in graphic design and your wider cultural influences or interests.

Use the front of the card to present your designs while on the back of the card say something about what this image means to you or why you chose it.

Postcard 1

I decided I was going to make three postcards which would give my reader a better understanding of my cultural background, my hobbies and what influenced me growing up. I started off writing a very brief mind map with a self centering question “Who am I?” Although the mind map was very brief and basic I had a lot of visual ideas flooding in which I began to sketch up.

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These pictures below gave me an idea about how a visual representation of unity looks like.

I then started to sketch up a few ideas that came to my head and this is what I came up with.

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I used Adobe Photoshop to put all my ideas and sketches together and I was very pleased with how my postcard looked. I have explained below why I came up with these designs and the meanings behind them.

First of all I started off my postcard by designing the background. I wanted my background to be a visual representation of my nationality as a British Bangladeshi so I used both of the flags and combined it into one. I am a big fan of motivational quotes and I love keeping a log of quotes that inspire me. I felt as if the quote “United we stand, divided we fall” would be a suitable title for my postcard because I wanted this to be the theme of my project. This quote is also a positive reflection of Oldham (the town I grew up in). A decade ago racial tension was dangerously high and hate crimes were on the rise which led to people isolating themselves into their own areas, neighbourhoods used to feel like territories and people were constantly looking over their shoulders. However, we have moved on from the dark past and Oldham is now a safe, care free place to live in. Furthermore, I then had an idea to use two silhouettes of hands shaking each other after seeing some examples on google, but instead I used my own idea to personify my project by creating the effect that the hands were shooting through the flag to hold up the quote, one from the union flag and one from the Bangladesh flag as a sign of unity. The reason why I chose this topic is because this played a big part in my life and everyone that grew up in Greater Manchester in the past two decades.

Postcard 2

For my second postcard I browsed on the internet for inspiration and I came across a poet who’s twitter account goes by the name of ‘@Dialectichiphop’. On this page I found a few pictures that really stood out to me and caught my attention. One of the images brought back nostalgic, childhood memories whilst the other one got me thinking.

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The artist who designed this image used all the famous characters from the most popular cartoons and tv shows from the early to mid 2000’s and created this image. Not only did the colour catch my eyes but the idea behind the design impressed me and I wanted my Postcard to have the same effect.

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This is another picture that caught my attention. The artist posted this image with the question, what does this image mean to you? People have many interpretations about the meaning behind the picture but what caught my attention was the emotions on everybody’s face. Everyone faces some sort of hardships in their life’s whether its physical or mental, this picture influenced me to make a postcard about my hardships and how I overcame them.

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My second postcard was inspired by a few negative moments I experienced in school which had a huge impact on a large period of my life. When I first started secondary school I felt like I entered a new world. I went from a happy, innocent primary school to a secondary school which felt more like a prison, People were constantly trying to instigate fights and looking for trouble, I remember feeling helpless and weak all the time and after being coerced into a few incidents my anxiety got worse. The first two years of school was a struggle. But once I discovered boxing, my life changed. The more I trained the more confident I felt and overtime I was able to break through the wall of fear that was taking over my life.

First I started off my postcard by making a mood board of everything that boxing gave me. I used words such as: discipline, overcome, confidence etc… I then placed the mood board onto a shield that I designed using shapes. The reason why I used a shield is because boxing was a source of protection for me and I wanted to visually narrate that.

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I then wanted to transform my postcard from just being a simple mood board to adding more meaning to it with designs so I added a pair of boxing gloves and headguards. I also designed a set of strong looking arms and I added a ‘ultra-instinct’ theme to my image to represent the strength that boxing gave me.

Finally, I then designed an image of a wall being smashed through where I placed my image. My aim was to narrate how I used my passion for boxing to break through my wall of fear.

Postcard 3

My third postcard was inspired by a tattoo of one of my favourite UFC fighters TJ Dillashaw. The tattoo is a picture of his wife’s eye and in the eye is a reflection of him after winning the world championship title. This reminded me about my dream as a young teenager when my only vision was to be a professional boxer, it also reminded me about the tough training camps that I was doing when I was preparing myself for upcoming matches. I want my postcard to be a resemblance of the hard work and torturous training that I put myself through to become successful.

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Brief sketch

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Before I started designing my postcard on Adobe Photoshop I made a sketch of how I wanted my image to look. I decided to create an eye with a reflective picture of me after winning one of my boxing matches; I did this to represent me visioning myself as a champion. I then added red lines and tear drops to make my eye look fatigued and stressed and I added an eyebrow and placed it at a 20 degree angle to add to the effect.

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My aim for this postcard was to take my reader and delve them deeper into what it feels like to be a boxer. I want my reader to look at the external blood, sweat and tears and then look at my internal vision by looking inside of the eye of my postcard. Because this is a resemblance of every single boxer who fights through the pain visualising himself as a champion.

Ever since I was a child I have been very keen on art and design, my creative skills were very helpful when I studied DIDA IT and GCSE IT as graphic design was a big part of it. However, as I went onto college due to many personal circumstances I started drifting away from education and I started working in security. As the years went on my regret for not following my passion for graphic design became deeper and deeper but when I discovered OCA I felt ecstatic. I have finally found an opportunity to re-ignite my passion for graphic design and I am looking forward to building a proper portfolio to help turn my vision into a career.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton