Wednesday, 29 October 2014

LIVE BRIEF 2 / Ditto Workshop - 28/10/14

Ditto

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We started the day by having a briefing from Ben Freeman, the owner and art director of Ditto Press. 

http://www.dittopress.co.uk/





Ben spoke to us about him as an individual and his life

- Left school at 16
- Travelled with a body piercing company
- Went back to education to do a degree at Camberwell
- Did evening classes in Graphic Design
- Then went on to do an MA at Royal Academy of Art
- Had an installation in Trafalgar Square
- Harrods shop window
- Commissions for editorial work

We then received our brief.

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THE METHOD

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Your task is to develop your own research methodology and find a way to communicate that. It could take the form of a meta-project, or it could be more pragmatic and grounded in reality. 

The important thing to develop in this project is a clear and defined way of looking at the world, filtering it and editing what you find to fit your interests and working practice. 

Most successful designers have finely honed methodologies and this is your chance to really explore your own. 

IMPORTANT: This project is not about producing pretty things. We don't care what it looks like, only how well considered and useful it is. 

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Initially I wasn't sure as to what it is we were suppose to be doing. But we went to the studio and split into four groups to discuss with our peers. 

We decided to start by thinking about the ways we already work and research.

- Picking out words in briefs
- Internet
- Interviews
- Photographs
Questionnaires
- Reading
- Sourcing photos/articles
- Talking to people
- Travel
- Testing
- Exhibitions
- Galleries
- Visits
- Doodles/Drawing
- Network
- Processes, experimenting

Ben came round to talk to us a few times to make sure we understood what it is that we were suppose to be doing. 

He noticed that some of us were making mind maps and explained that that was a very uncreative way to express our thoughts in a visual way and said that this could be an opportunity to change that, and this would then become a methodology. 

I started to think of ideas that I could do differently that would benefit my creative practice and become my methodology.

- Talking to people - making the first step I make on a brief engaged with someone who knows or has been involved in the topic.
- Doodling - I often doodle when I am thinking and sometimes ideas come out of this, so I could make this a methodology by saying that I will doodle for one hour on every brief I get.
- Creative Diary - I write a personal diary every night, where I basically reflect on my day and think about everything/everyone I have seen or heard. I could do this for the creative world I live. 

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Crit

We then went down in our group to have a 30 minute chat with Ben to discuss our initial thoughts etc. 

He mainly wanted to clarify we were sure on what the brief was asking us to do. And explained further what he meant by everything that he was saying. And it did make more sense. We briefly spoke through some ideas we had and he explained that we needed to create our methodology that could be applied to any topic, to any brief. Instead of the brief dictating how we researched, it would be the other way around. 

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RESEARCH / The Green Exchange _ Workshop

The Guild 

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Bobby contacted the course to say that he was interested in setting up a designers guild, for anyone interested in sustainable and ethical design. He had learnt of the Green exchange. An exclusive opportunity for Leeds Students, with the possibility of funding if our work/ideas are good enough. The idea is to create a way in which to promote education and awareness of sustainability and ethics. 

http://www.thegreenexchange.co.uk/







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HOW TO GET SOME CASH
15 is the number you need to remember!

The deadline for applications is the 15th of each month. The application will then be assessed against criteria by our panel and a decision reached by the 15th of the following month.

For more information about applications, or to receive an application form, email Anna (greenexchange@leeds.ac.uk) or pop into the office on floor 2 of the Union building! We have drop in sessions between 1pm and 5pm every Friday, so please do pop in to talk to us about your idea.


Just to confirm – If you’re a Leeds student (regardless of what college or uni you attend), you can apply for a pot of cash. We are a friendly bunch and open to any exciting ideas you may have!

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The website is full of information to get a full understanding of what the green exchange is all about. 

When Bobby mentioned that the guild was involved in sustainable design, I felt I should go and ask further questions about what his intentions were with the Guild as it is an area in which I am interested and what I am writing my dissertation on. 

After having a brief chat with Bobby, I decided it would be a good thing to get myself involved in and the idea of funding is always an exciting prospect. 

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Meeting

We got together as a group to discuss what it is we were doing.

- As a collective we need to do a self directed brief. 
- Promote education/sustainable/ethical design.
- What are we going to pitch to them?

Ideas

- Try and get more sustainable/ethical knowledge/teaching in the curriculum. 
- Inks?
- Electricity provider for uni? 
- Heating in uni.
- Talk to Graham.
- Deadline 15th each month of 2015.

We decided from this point on we would have a meeting every Tuesday at 1pm.



Q1. What do you think of the College’s sustainable approaches?

Q2. What is the College currently doing to be a more sustainable establishment?

Q3. Is there anything which you would like to see the College do more of?

Q4. What is it you do for the College?

Q5. Is there an imbalance in some sustainable areas? Eg. Printing vs Lighting.

Q6. Do you think the College has a responsibility to educate the students on sustainable practices?

(Q7. What would you like to see done?)

Q8. Is there anything other Colleges/Universities could learn from LCA?


Q9. Do you feel the work done by the sustainable “board” is acknowledged by others?



THE GREEN EXCHANGE - TALK/WORKSHOP 


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Myself, Bobby and Laura went to a talk at Leeds uni given by the green exchange. We all thought that this was just going to be a talk/lecture given by the people who run and have set up the green exchange, however we had 3 brief talks before having an interactive workshop. 

TALKS

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Emma
- go to her to talk about funding, budget, project directing
- can find her on level 2 of student union
- the green exchange were given £250,000 to make leeds more green
- £60,000 of that is available to us for funding
- projects cannot be for commercial gain
- you must provide proof of need
- must include some element of carbon reduction
- Emma's project - HOME GROW YOUR OWN
- it got 10 student volunteers
- taught people how to grow their own food
- other projects include - THE REAL JUNKFOOD PROJECT
- PROJECT ENVIRONMENT
- InformARTive - LCA
- we can use these for inspiration


Sam
- From the uni
- Hot spots - Leeds
- Earth hour - different campaigns 
- training/inspirational talks
- 'Pocket Guide to Sustainable Purchasing' - Book specific to what they do
- Just launched sustainable construction publication/organisation
- @UoL_SUS - Twitter

Ed
- From Leeds for Change
- Lives in Beeston
- 'Anything for us without us is against us'
- Research, research, research - what we need to do
- Day event - SUMMAT NEW
- LS14 Development trust
- Peddlers Arms
- Andy Walker

We were then split into groups with people we didn't know of 3 and had to come up with 3 ideas for a project. We then were placed with another group of 3 and had to take our 6 ideas and finalise them down into 3... We did this over and over so at the whole group were left with 3 ideas. 












The workshop was really helpful, it took me out of my design head in a way and got me thinking about the endless possibility where design could be used but not necessarily the main focus that would be a good project that would get funding from the green exchange.

There was one idea, which was 'VERTICAL GARDENS' that all three of us really liked. So we were told to put our name and email next to the ideas we were potentially interested in working on. This would mean that it would be more of a group project, we would be working with students from different university's which was something I thought was very beneficial and exciting, as it was different. 

The ideas we came up with in the session would be fast tracked to the panel. however we could still however come up with our own ideas and pursue these. 

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

SELF DIRECTED 4 / Sloe Gin Packaging _ Collab

Sloe Gin Packaging - Collaboration | Rinesh Mistry

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Research
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Wiki
Sloe gin is a red liqueur made with gin and sloe (blackthorn) drupes, which are a small fruit relative of the plum. Sloe gin has an alcohol content between 15 and 30 percent by volume. However, the European Union has established a minimum of 25% ABV for sloe gin to be named as such. The traditional way of making sloe gin is to soak the sloes in gin. Sugar is required to ensure the sloe juice is extracted from the fruit.
Many commercial sloe gins today are made by flavouring less expensive neutral grain spirits, although some manufacturers still use the traditional method.






Recipes
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Link

Link

Link









Exisiting Brands and Packaging

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Starting to design_


Inspiration_









Initial designs_

(PICS)


After doing some quick designs on paper I started to create a digital version. Just using the pen tool. I made different variations of this, a lot of very slight ones, paying attention to detail. 
















I tried making the angles of the lines the same to improve the design. 





And then Nesh came up with the to make the lines at a 30 degree angle. 






As myself and Nesh had a lot of our own work to get on with including competition briefs, we had almost a two week break from working on this project and then decided to have another full day together just designing.

We met up, and looking back on the logo, we thought it was awful. So we started from scratch but with the same idea to try and create.


I started by writing out THIRTY with the pen tool in a completely original typeface that fitted with our aesthetic. Like the last one I took Nesh's idea to make all the angles of the letter to 30 degrees.






So ended up with this. 

We both really liked how this looked. 





Nesh then had the idea of maybe breaking up the word and placing them on top of each other. So I then altered the design to create something like this. 


This is what I created, which again was a huge step forward and we both really liked it. 


I kept playing around with different elements of it, taking input from Neshy aswell. 


















We made the stroke inside separating them larger which looked better and was clearer.





By the end of the day we had this. A strong potential final logo design. Neshy cleaned up all the letters making sure everything was neat and perfect. 









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Before our next work session, I decided to do some more research into bottle packaging and labels.














WEDNESDAY_

We met up on Wednesday to have a day designing again. 


Thinking about the label design, there were four ways to go. 





I liked the idea of having the label to one side, allowing more of the deep red of the sloe gin to show more. 


I starting doing a few designs for a label that would work with this format. 
















The logo that I had was the unrefined one that Nesh had cleaned up. So I then got the updated one off him to then place this into the label designs. 





It was then a matter of placing the letters in the form of the logo. 









One thing myself and Nesh didn't agree on at first was the dot above the i, however after comparing both of these, I started to change my mind. The three circles within the r, i and y worked really well. Plus this further took the idea of thirty with three circles. 


We also decided on the bottles that we were going to buy. 








Now that we've found the bottle, we can order them and go further with the packaging as to find out what will work best we will need to do tests on the bottles. 

We also thought as the bottles we had chosen had wooden topped corks, we could laser cut the logo onto this. 


We discussed the labels, and within the ones I had designed, as they were split into sections, we thought that potentially we could actually split the sections into individual labels. 





Rinesh was playing around with the accompanying typeface of 'sloe gin' with the logo. 


(PICS)





After trying quite a few different typefaces, we both felt that futura worked by far the best. We also played around a lot with the placement of 'sloe gin' with the thirty logo. 







We eventually decided on these two placements. 






After the day we decided that we would both go away and research more into how we could box and package the bottle. 


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PACKAGING RESEARCH



















































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MEETING / WORK DAY

Decisions_

From the research of packaging we both did, we both really liked the idea of doing a paper wrap, instead of something like a box. 



























So we decided that we would pursue this and aim to try out variations experimenting with this concept. 

For the label design, we needed to order the bottles before we could make final decisions, so in the mean time, we can make a series of variations estimating the dimensions, and when the bottles arrive alter them if needed and make final decisions when we can mock them up properly. 

What goes on the bottle label?

- logo
- Alcohol percentage (30.0%)
- amount (500ml)
- distilled in Cambridge
- bottled in London 
- small blurb
- calories/energy (nutrition info)
- ingredients
- barcode

Blurb - 'This quintessentially British liqueur is deliciously dry and warming on its own or mixed with champagne for a Sloepagne cocktail. Our sloe gin is deliberately blended to produce a drier and more sophisticated taste than some more traditional recipes.'



We tested out label designs and the packaging wrap design. 



















I went to the supermarket to find a bottle of sloe gin to see what the label included. Interestingly they didn't provide any ingredients. 







We met up again to look again at label and packaging designs to finalise the design. 


Tests_



The size and placement of the label was decided, there were just small details to finalise. 





We decided against the boarder, so the label was just white, with the logo and text. 


For the wrap we realised we needed an A2 circle for it to be the right size and shape to then wrap around the bottle. 
















The label designs just need a design picking. We had the information and the logo sorted, just small details needed to be decided. 




Final decisions_





Wrap_






Thursday - Preparing for print. 


Putting it all together_


Once we had printed, we then needed to put everything together ready to photograph. We filled the bottles with a liquid the same colour as slow gin. And bought the rope that would tie around the neck of the bottle to hold the wrap in place.



For the wrap we needed a circle, so from the prints we laser cut them out so we had a perfect circle instead of cutting with scissors as this would have been a bit messy. 






We fitted the labels on the bottles, trying to get them as straight as possible. 





The applied the wraps. 





We added black tissue paper underneath the wrap. 





Then we went off to photograph the bottles. 


Final photos_



























We were both really happy with the outcome. The photos looked great. All we needed to do now was to produce some mock ups for promotional material. 


Promotional material_