OUGD602: GF Smith Exhibiton

As one of my extended practice briefs I have designed and produced a screen print for an exhibition to be displayed within Colours May Vary as an extension of the Leeds Print Festival 2016. 

The aim of the exhibition was to show off GF Smith's colourplan range of stock in an contemporary archive and so each participant was assigned one of the many choices and asked to produce a print for it.

I was given Factory Yellow and created a design inspired by yellow and black insects and entomology cabinets.

The final look of the exhibition is lovely, from a distance all the colours flow into each other creating a really nice spectrum. Up close details emerge and you can appreciate each piece of work as separate designs. I am also very pleased with my own contribution, it's a really nice illustration displaying lots of detail that's translated well into the screen printed medium. Also the high contrast of yellow and black makes for a very impactful design. 

OUGD602: The Leeds Print Festival

The Leeds Print Festival opening night was a really enjoyable experience. Having been there most of the day setting up spaces it was really wonderful to see so many people pouring in at six, even for a few hours before people kept poking their heads over the 'keep out' sign intrigued as to what was going on. There were certain pieces that I really loved such as the 'don't be a prick' print produced by Nick Deakin and the highly detailed four colour prints by Simon Lewis.

There was also some lovely work by Aimee Parker from our graphic design year group who produced an entirely screen printed magazine called 'Printgram', a play on the digital instagram. The magazine featured all forms of print techniques and highlighted practical printers and artists who keep the craft going.

OUGD602: DBA Brief- Logo and Development

From our feedback it became clear that the logo could become a simple symbol and that our main focus is now on the ticket/rosetta band and the possibility of having the hyperloop brand extend across all forms of transportation.

In order to find a form of organic loop to be used as our logo base I wanted to look into abstract sculpture and natural curved formations. From some found images I constructed abstract loop shapes to be used as a logo. I also used some loop sketches made the day before as a basis for more abstract shapes and designs.

As a group we all met back up and went through our various logo ideas picking out the strongest  designs for each of us and suggesting ways to adapt the designs further.

The group chose one of my ideas developed from a sketch and suggested attempting to make it three dimensional as well as adding a slight twist to the shape, something that can relate the rosetta loop/band with the branding. As they suggested in the

DBA feedback 'Make the band the brand!'

After further developing my idea I tried to incorporate it into the initial sketches and ideas of the rosetta band taking inspiration from the shape of the logo whilst keeping in mind the usability of the device, the look, and the comfort.

As another part of our meet listened back to the recorded feedback session taking notes on things we had previously missed in order to drive the project further. A key piece of feedback related to our use of technology, nature and bio mimicry so we spent some time going through other ways we could inject technology into the hyperloop system, and how we could make it feel more natural for a user to interact with.

We know the strong point of our idea is focusing on customer experience and trying to add technology into as much as we can, so in order to optimise what we could do we sat down and went through a typical travelling journey outlining all the problems we encountered and then suggesting ways to make things better, without going over board.

From our discussion we decided to add technology into several points across the journey. We wanted the rosetta loop to be a device that could track a persons luggage. Each chair will have a screen on the back of it which the user can interact with, watch a programme, the news, or even attach their own desktop to it in order to check emails or do quick pieces of work.

The rosetta loop will work across the entire journey, not just acting as a paperless ticket on the hyperloop and will create a 'door to door' experience. By partnering with companies like über as well as local public transport the rosetta band can be used to purchase bus tickets, to pay for taxis. Using the app linked to the band a customer can order a taxi to pick them up from the station, the can also access bus and train time tables in order to complete the journey outside of the hyperloop station. There are options to plan out the whole journey informing the user at every stage where they need to go next and how long they will have to wait, taking out some of the stress of travelling. The app allows users to track their taxi and transport letting them know through the band when their car will arrive and when the next hyperloop will leave.

We also thought of a clever car share initiative as a way to lower carbon emissions. If a users books a taxi using the app they can have the option of selecting a car pool option. This will pair them with another person at the station travelling either near the same destination or on the way to the destination leaving at the same time. The two users can share the same taxi, splitting the cost of the fair between them, saving money and also saving on the use of another car.

OUGD602: Leeds Print Festival- Volunteer Hanger

The Leeds Print festival opened on Friday 1st. As a part of the exhibition we were hosting our GF Smith printed collection and I popped down on Friday morning to volunteer setting it up.

The four hours that passed consisted of hammering nails and readjusting images to make the seamless 'flushed' look work and the colours run into each other. All of this whilst organising the works according to their placements in the GF Smith colour plan book and re writing lists and orders again and again. Then cleaning each frame inside and out, removing all the smudges and finger prints, then lovingly, gingerly, placing the frame back onto the wall before checking the straightness of each frame with a spirit level. You would never realise how difficult it is to get everything aligned properly until you find yourself painstakingly tapping nails up or down by millimeters just to get all the frames level, and oddly finding it satisfying.

I really enjoyed the work I put into this exhibition, the downside of course meant I could never see it completed for the first time but I think I have a greater appreciation of knowing what it looked like at each stage and knowing the work that went behind hanging each image.

With certainty this is something I want to do again, I really enjoyed the meticulous precision and effort required for something seemingly simple. Organising, hands on work and an appreciation for the work at the end. Yeah I do want to hang, and perhaps curate an exhibition in the future. 

OUGD602: DBA Brief- Meeting, Feedback and Next Stages

From the feedback we had the really loved the more organic looking designs and suggested using nature as our main inspiration for a more free flowing logo design.

They enjoyed the colours we selected, and commended that they had a good reason without being obviously 'eco'. 

The main feature they enjoyed and pushed us to develop further is the band/ticket idea. The suggestion to use a rosetta loop for a main part of travel and perhaps expand it even further for all of travel rather than just hyperloop.