Final Crit - Feedback & Response

Overall, I think I have a lot of work to produce for the final hand in. I think I have been in the finalising stages for too long, and although I have had a good chance to develop, it would have been nice to have some finals ready to show in the final crit - printed & trimmed - rather than my final work on standard mac suite stock.

However, general consensus suggested that my blog was acceptable, so I won't need to spend much of my time catching up with that.

This is my action plan for this week:

Finalise my Rugby League & Best of Films work

DEADLINE - Thursday 11PM

Spend Friday printing out any work that I have, visiting the drop in digital print room. 

The weekend will consist of catching up with whichever areas of my blog I have missed, finalising any other work that I will need to complete. Printing everything else on the Monday morning and dedicating the rest of the day to photograph prints, preferably before 3:00PM when it gets dark.

From there, I only need to construct my final boards, adjusting any weaknesses highlighted today, and to make sure my blog is perfect for hand-in.

Best get to it then...

Tutorial With Phil

Overall, I think the general response to my work was good, but the main thing that I took from the tutorial was about the constraints of time.  With little over 3 weeks to get everything done, it's vital in reassessing what I had done and the mistakes I had made, any projects that I had underestimated, and set it straight for the final run-in for hand in.

Firstly, the 'Best of Films' brief was originally stated to have 10 outcomes. That was before Andy suggested that more should be added to the designs, more about quirky aspects than corporate statistics. That means each one is more condensed with information, and more is to go in each one. Also, more research has to be done to make the designs as engrossing and entertaining as possible. As of now, I have only managed to set out 1, the American Psycho. Now 10 is looking increasingly unlikely, and if I were to do 10 then I believe they would all be mediocre, not representing exactly what I want to create and pieces of design that won't expose my full potential.

With that being said, I have made the decision now to reduce the amount to 3, and focus on getting them perfect for hand in. After all, I would much rather have 3 strong finals than 10 sub-standard ones. I have identified the other 2 films now, as it will save the pondering later on: 300 and The Hangover. I will repeat the process of watching each movie as primary research and picking apart parts of the film that could be translated as an interesting statistic.

I'm also going to approach my typographic posters in the same way, doing them one by one, a minimum of 3 pairs of contrasting emotions, and adding any more should I find the time.

Crit Feedback 8/11

The main thing I took from the crit was to experiment with the layout of the infographic piece. There is no structure as of yet and there needs to be much more added in the future. I also need to experiment with layering to give the design depth.

The courage posters aren't bold enough, so I need to condense these down and make them 'tougher'. 

Feedback From Andy

Again, the talk with Andy has given me more focus and direction within my work.  I presented the work I have done so far, focusing on 'emotion & type', as I felt it was the most problematic.  Here are some issues that were raised:

• The fear quote can be played with - focus on open & close.  Try communicate the moment between open and close.
• The word 'freedom' in the courage posters could sit outside the parameters of the composition - play with the words involved.
• I was afraid that differing the posters would take it away from being a set.  Consistent labelling or branding could counter this.
• Why does it have to be an A size?  Try unconventional formats.
• I informed him of my idea to design to a shape (a shield, love heart, ghost etc.) but the amount of copy could be a problem - not enough.

Best of Films - American Psycho:

• Could use acetate to level the different events within the film.
• Could be a publication that sits within a designed DVD/Blu Ray special set.

Nordic Typeface:

• Try straightening the letterforms, such as the leg on the 'R'.

A final point was made to look at Jason Munn & The Comedy Carpet - in relation to my typographic posters.

Crit Feedback - 24/10

5 questions

1. Do you think the continuous lines of the iconography help to give it simplicity?  Are they clear?
   Yes it works well - really like them.  More colour experimentation could capitalise on them.
   
2. What format would you like to see a set of typographic posters in? eg. screenprinting, lasercut - what processes?
   A2 screen-printed prints.
   
3. Do you think minimal typefaces are necessary?  Are they recognisable or do you spend most of the time figuring out the letterforms?
   Because you see some of the letters next to each other they work but alone they wouldn't.  The direction you are going looks good but don't take too much away from the letters.
   
4. In what printed form do you think Rugby League would appeal to people new to Leeds the most?  What would get the most exposure?
   A booklet publication - with poster/fold out/pull out with icons.
   
5. Are there any typefaces that you can that you can think of that reflect on the Futhark alphabet?  45 degree angles & no rounded corners?
   No responses.

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The general outlook of the feedback given to me by the group was the concepts behind the projects were unclear.  Although I have done some research to inform my projects, the briefs themselves need a final tweak to make it completely understandable in what I need to create.  This will be the first thing that I will address, in the next few days, to ensure that a concise, well-considered brief can be included in the next feedback session to give my projects further clarity and direction.

Before the crit, I wasn't aware that our work was not to be presented to the group - of course, that would inform my fellow classmates a lot better than the collection of sheets I laid out.  In future, I will ensure that my work is easy to follow, and is easy to identify where the project is going, in the form of design boards.  Hopefully, it will allow the people giving feedback to produce a better response as they can get a firmer grasp of my concept and design ideas.

Something to think about for the next session...

Feedback From 9/10

(fred's feedback)

Feedback from the crit informed me that my briefs weren't focused enough to be sufficient.  Although everyone understood that I wanted to create a publication, a library of icons, a typeface and a set of typographic posters, I realised that I am not specific enough at this point of time.  For example, I have no idea what quotes I will be using, what style of typeface I want to create, which areas of Rugby League I want to cover and exactly what context the icons will appear in.

Fred also informed everyone that a proposal for the book fair next year would not be the correct deliverable, as hand in for the module is 3 or 4 months before the event; the work would be half finished.

It is clear that I haven't done sufficient research so far.  This is something that I need to address immediately.  I plan to rewrite the briefs that I have chosen so far - to refine them, to make them clearer, and take a look at the new ISTD briefs to find potential new briefs, or inspiration from them.