Week 4: The self and identity | values and equities; giving form to your story
Analyse and communicate your understanding of your practice, your character and your values as a designer.
Imagine and communicate a single visual expression that conveys you.
Document and communicate your working process on your blog.
Participate in and reflect upon debate on the ideas wall.
Manage your independent learning through good planning and self direction.
Workshop challenge wk 4 - The Self and Identity
Challenge Question - How can graphic design enable you to communicate your core values at this moment on your course?
Distill from your understanding of your practice and your character, your values as a designer (aspirational, honest, negative).
Make an initial list of 20 words you can then edit down to 5 words
Create a visual mood board for each word
Create a single visual expression that conveys you (eg a film, 3D, typographic, an artefact or an experience).
Document your whole process and reflect upon it on your blog.
Upload your five words and your final visual response to the ideas wall on the following page, along with the link to your blog.
Task 1 - 20 words that define me
Overview: How do I describe my core values? How do I get across visually to communicate? Read on my blog how I got some help with this question by asking my close friends and family what they thought my core values were.
From this, it helped me make my initial list of 20 words which was then edited down to 5.
These are the words I have chosen…
1. Loyal
2. Reliable
3. Creative
4. Curious
5. Friendly
6. Self-critical
7. Funny
8. Humourous
9. Enthusiastic
10. Professional
Task 2 - My final 5 words and why I have chosen them
1. Humour - Is there a witty way to get a message/headline across?
2. Curious - Always asking why to the client, what they are trying to achieve, and who is the competition, gives you the potential to understand what needs to be achieved in the brief from the onset.
3. Patience - When asked to create something you don’t think will work or look right.
4. Vision - From establishing all the answers from the brief (curious) I am able to create my best work for the client
5. Professional (changes to empathy for final piece) The ability to read the clients experience by placing myself in their situation.
11. Honesty
12. Vision
13. Colourful
14. Hard-worker
15. Witty
16. Frantic
17. Calm
18. Daydreamer or thinker?
19. Loving
20. Positive
Task 2 v2 - Final 5 words as visual form
(s-i-m-p-l-i-f-y)
I felt I over-complicated this challenge, so I decided to simplify my findings in typographical form. I follow made.by.james on Instagram who makes great word-associated logos and used this as my inspiration. Struggling with ‘professional’ as so many words/links are too clichéd (business suits, chart etc).
Workshop challenge question
Q. How can graphic design enable you to communicate your core values at this moment on your course?
A. By exploring different design techniques and experimenting with various styles, I can develop a visual language that enables me to communicate my core values effectively and creatively.
Note to myself to ‘simplify’, be specific and don’t overcomplicate things.
(See source Paula Sher, Netflix Documentary, where the ballot paper was so complicated, voters weren’t sure where to put their vote and consequently threw the election. )
Resources:
Wit and Humour in design
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/the-graphic-design-ideas-book-wit-and-humour-060416
Instagram simple logos and humour used in design
https://www.instagram.com/made.by.james/
Overcomplicating design, ballot paper chaos (taken from week 1)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/19/bad-ballot-design-2020-democracy-america
Abstract: The Art of Design | Paula Scher: Graphic Design | FULL EPISODE | Netflix
Final piece - Version two, Cocktail recipe card
This is my second attempt of my visual expression, as a cocktail card/poster which I’ve named the ‘design classic’.
My visual expression to represent myself is a cocktail card/poster I’ve named the ‘design classic’.
I felt all my chosen values were equally measured so portrayed that in bright eye-catching colours.
Using humour in the copy, I have set my tone of voice as playful and informal.
My visual mood board is based on humour that a lot of designers will be familiar with. It demonstrates the regular questions I am asked.
Final piece - First version, Cocktail recipe card
Challenge - Create a single visual expression that conveys you (eg a film, 3D, typographic, an artefact or an experience).
I was trying to think of an expression or object that combined my 5 words in equal measures and after a bit of ‘Saturday night inspiration’ I decided to create a cocktail recipe card.
Using the solid block colour logo style of @made.by.james I created a poster. I felt I rushed this and wasn’t happy with the result, so I also created a photographic version.