From the workshops I shortlisted the briefs that allow me to design for print over the digital ones, it became apparent to me that my practice has it's emphasis based predominantly on print, promotion and publishing. Since the workshops last week I've been thinking about my shortlist of four negotiated briefs and ways in which they might be improved. I've also tried to look at how much scope they have, possible problems I might encounter and options available to me.
The first of the four briefs is the promotion of a night club:
This brief is primarily a branding and promotion brief with a large scope for expanding the range with products and merchandise. It would be a good brief to use as an example of my ability to design low cost disposable promotional items (flyers, posters etc) as well as packaging for a product range (series of mix CD's etc). When talking about promotion for this brief it can be broken down into parts - promotion / identity of the club as a whole, promo of specific club nights, merch line, record label + art direction. Art direction is something that would underpin the brief as all the aforementioned elements would need to be present as a whole but operate within their own right. A unifying art direction would provide this vital link. As mentioned in previous posts, art direction is something that came up as a personal career aspiration in the workshops last week, so this brief provides me with a perfect platform to explore that.
At this point I am still unsure about the club I will promote - I could re-design an existing one or may choose to invent a fictional one. If I do plump for an existing one I would have to decide on a location (Leeds or London).
The second brief chosen from my shortlist is the promotion of London Jazz Festival:
At first I wrote this brief as a chance to produce a small 'throw away' publication that lists event information, venue line-ups amongst other things. It would be a small format publication designed to be used as a flyer left in venues in and around London. Since writing the brief I decided that it was probably too small and might lack weight. I have since changed it so that it becomes the promotion and identity of the festival, encompassing ad shells, tube posters, magazine ads, billboards as well as the original publication. It will be much more of a marketing campaign than simply a publication.
One of the problems I thought I might encounter when producing a 30 page publication was the amount of copy I would need. The shift from publication to marketing campaign helps reduce this as the posters etc would be mainly image and type based. I will also still produce a free promo handout publication, but with a smaller page count so that the amount of copy is reduced. Another problem I can foresee is getting musicians photos at a high resolution so they print correctly. The hunt is on! Definitely getting excited about this brief.
The third brief is to design and promote the back catalogue for a music label:
Originally intended to be a series for a Jazz record label back catalogue, I have dropped the Jazz element and left it open for now so that any record label could be introduced. This brief gives me a good level of scope to show of my high-end print finishing skills so I think it important the series or set is commemorative; i.e. a limited run, exclusive and collectable. Packaging is key to this brief so it is a good excuse for me to get crafty and explore promotional packaging design. Ninja Tune have just turned 20 years old so could be the perfect context for this project. More to come on my design context blog.
The fourth and final brief is a combination of two poster briefs from my original twelve:
When writing my briefs I thought it important to have an ongoing brief with found content, such as quotes or lyrics. One of the combined briefs was an exercise in screen print, purely exploring the process and what is possible to produce within it. The deliverables of this brief were a series of prints aimed at being entered into next years Royal Academy of Art summer exhibition. The second of the two briefs is an ongoing brief that looks at producing posters with found content. The idea being that once a week I spend a a day finding a suitable quote, spend a short time (3hrs) designing a poster and printing it the same day.
By combining these two briefs it gives the Royal Academy brief a context and the poster design a chance to explore print. Winner.
The biggest problem I can see with this new hybrid brief is that it is very reliable on the place I choose to gather my content from. I will need to make sure I find a good, reliable source; i.e. newspaper, twitter feed, facebook etc. Perhaps humour can be made by taking a quote out of context?
