Leeds College of Art End of Year Show Boards

These are the boards for the brief. I got them handed in at 3:50pm on friday afternoon, 10 minutes before the deadline! I'm glad I took on the brief, although there were many points along the way where I wished I hadn't.














































































Packaged, labeled and ready to hand in.

End of Year Show Identity: Final Products

I think the final designs (flyer/poster and VIP invite) look nice and photographed well.





























































































































I mocked up what a web banner could look like using the identity taht I had designed.

VIP Invite Foiling

I wanted to keep the private view invites really simple; just black and white. But I wanted to add a touch of class so I decided to to foil the 'seal' logo. I tried out red and gold foil to see which one looked best. I think the red foil works best, it is a bit more unusual (gold foil is seen much more commonly) and it also ties in with the rest of the identity much better.

End of year show test piece

As I was working to such a tight deadline I didn't have much time to experiemnt with format. I decided to go withn a fold out A2 poster much like the one from last years end of year show. Once I had the infomation layed out I printed out a quick mock up.

It gave me a chance to see a few problems that weren't apparent on screen:
1. The seal on then poster was too big and needed to be scled down.
2. The strped pattern on the back wasn't working and made the text difficult to read
3. I felt the banners on the poster were going to close to the edge of the paper

2 Day Brief: End of Year Show Identity - Design Development

On Wednesday evening feeling a little worried that all my projects were coming to an end and I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do next I decided that I would try and submit a proposal for the Leeds College of Art end of year show identity, giving myself a little less than 48hrs to do it.

First thing thursday moring I had a brainstorming session and drew up some quick ideas.















One of my first ideas was to base the identity around a map of Leeds with an arrow pointing to the college with the words "fresh new talent on it" So I got a screen grab from google maps.



















And spent some time verctorising it. I think its quite a striking image (below) but when I started to work with it it didn't feel strong enough or gave quite the right image for an art college exhibition. Also even though I had spent quite a bit of time vectorising it, it was still quite sloppy when viewed close up. I think the quality of the vector work would have to be really good if I was going to base the whole identity around it and it was seen on a large scale etc.




































The poster above is OK, but I don't think it has quite the right image for an art college show, also I don't feel like there is a lot I could do with the idea; it only really works in one way.



















Above is another initial idea. I've abreviated all the courses to a few letters and assigned a different colour to each one. This is to represent the diversity within the college and represent each course equally on the poster. I like it aesthetically and I think it is starting to move in the right direction. But I wasn't happy enough to base the whole identity around it.



















I was going to use this 'seal' design as an overall idea for the identity. I didn't think it was strong enough for that but I really liked they way it looked and decided to carry it through and use it as an element in the rest of my designs.



















Above is again using the idea of representing all the courses in the show equally. I think it is continuing to move in the right direction but still isn't strong enough for a complete identity.



















I thought the diagonal lines and bright colours felt quite celebratory so at this point I introduced the slogan 'time to celebrate'. I think this gave the identity a hook and more of a direction to go in. I think this design works quite well and was tempted to go with it, however it is possibly too exuberant and not serious enough; the art college needs to come across as a respectable and authoritative institution.



















Above I introduced the suggestions of the 'banners' for the first time.



















Above, my first attempt at drawing out the banners, they didn't come out quite right.



















Here the overall layout is staring to take shape, I like how the banners work as a way of structuriong the information. I think the overall look is fun but respectatle.



















(above) experimenatation using lowercase.



















(above) I added an extra line to the banner so more information can be contained on it.



















Now the poster is starting to take shape, I added the colours I had been using at an earlier stage in development. I think they make the poster more interesting and eye catching.



















I wasn't sure wheather 'end of year show' needed to be more prominant so I tried putting that as the main title of the poster. With 'time to celebartae' in the 'seal'. (above)



















I also experioemted with a more simple version of the layout in red.

The banners concept is nice in that it is quite versatile and could work equally well in black and white or in colour and with recognisable elements that could work accross an identity.

YTD Badges

The YTD badges arrived this morning from Awsome Merchandise. They have been produced really well and they were delivered very fast, I would definately recommend dealing with these guys.

YTD Tote Bags

I have experimented with some variations for the YTD tote bag. I want to to be consistent with the rest of the YTD brand which is really simple and classic. I tried out a few more experimental variation but I think I want to stick with the simple centre aligned 'Love Type' design. Also the fact that I am screen printing it constrains me slightly, in that it will be difficult to print right to the edge neatly and I want to stick with a 1 colour design.

I really like this design, but I think it would be difficult to screen print it successfully

This is the design I am planning to print, I think it will look really nice; classic, stylish and eye-catching.