Kingswood Kid's Page Drafts

Having met with Rachel and gone through mood boards and example sites from the web I began to get a good feel for what she was after. I am much more prepared for discussing such issues with clients and now have a number of strategies for eliciting key information including some of the questioning suggested by the Jim Krause 'Design Index' book. I still struggle around the issue of costing; I want to be fair but at the same time don't want to sell myself short. It's difficult as a fledgling designer with limited experience, knowledge and skill to feel comfortable in this area.

Rachel established the site plan by way of a flow diagram as I had suggested. A key feature will be areas with quite different identities; one for adults, particularly teachers, and another for children. There is a great deal of potential within the site for further interactivity - games, puzzles etc. - but that's for the future; for now the site's main focus is on the transmission of information. It also needs to incorporate minimal animation to support end users who may not have state of the art equipment.

Having said all that I couldn't resist having a go at a Flash based web page for the kid's section of the site. It's the kid's part that I have been able to make a start on as I'm still waiting for content to arrive from Kingswood. I have also carried out research into fonts that may be appropriate for headings and titles. Kingswood have a logotype which Rachel and I consider to be a little stiff and formal - it's reminiscent of a prep school logo. At the moment, due to budget constraints and other logistics, it is difficult for her to embrace a full rebranding so we decided that I would look at ways in which to soften the look to make it less formal. I have already started to experiment with this.

Rachel and I met to look over the progress on the kid's page. We were both of the opinion that while the vector based Flash page appears cute it is perhaps just a little to young for the core audience - 6 to 8 year olds. We both like the 'magazine' type look of the other dummy page and I need to work to develop this. The child characters need a little more work and I'm still not sure whether to go with children or an animal centred character. I was intending to use Image Ready to slice it ready for HTML editing but Adam has pointed out that this route creates accessibility issues due to all of the text being presented as images. I think there are ways round this, for example creating text-based links as a footer on the page, but in just underlines my current state of understanding in terms of developing web pages. I need to learn more about the techniques, pro's and cons of page design, particularly the technical issues that impact on these. It's one of those instances where technical know-how can inform creativity. Without that level of understanding it becomes difficult to appraise sites that appeal as a stimulus and to see ways forward for planning my own sites. I feel like I need to take time out to learn more about the technicalities but also feel that I don't have time to do it. Catch 22.

Creative Futures

I was contacted by Neil Pritchard, Glyndwr Careers Service, to take part in the marketing strategy for Creative Futures Week. The organising committee want to include a student in the process and are keen to devise a strategy that engages all art and design students in a way that last year's poster campaign failed to achieve. The time scale is fairly tight in that the design has to be created and produced within 3 to 4 weeks, with Christmas plum in the middle. If possible the strategy is also to operate in a number of formats; print, phone text, web and electronic flyer.

I played around with symbolism and metaphors relating to the future and its prediction and tried to combine or manipulate symbols to witty effect. I produced four draft ideas to pitch to Neil.

The strongest, in my mind, and the one that Neil and I are most interested in pursuing is shown above. Here's the rationale:

All students face choices surrounding their futures, and choice is at the heart of the concept here: you can take a considered and constructive view of future plans or you can leave your future to chance.

As one part of a direct marketing strategy all eligible students will be offered an A6, folded to A7, card containing a tea bag. The message contained plays on the idea that you can either take a kind of mystical approach to the future, or you can take control - by engaging in Creative Futures Week. You can also have a cuppa too.

The artwork supplied is by no means in finished form and will need to carry additional information such as Welsh language equivalents. I would also like to illustrate the six stage process using ‘first aid’ style diagrams. The campaign could be further enhanced by an animated web link, electronic flyers and guerilla style tea bag stickers placed in strategic locations.

The strategy is quirky, direct and personal. It also avoids reliance on poster advertising where there is fierce competition and a tendency for it all to become ‘wallpaper’.

Neil and I also considered the use of a tea bag with string and tag as a means to reduce materials and costs but considered the amount of space available for text on a tag prohibitive. It could be a nice teaser but would require further marketing materials to then place the idea in context. There would always be a risk that the audience would become too perplexed or wouldn’t then be exposed to the following stage that started to make sense of it all.

Anyway, when you put your mind to it, tea has lots of possibilities. It’s the future.

Alternative ideas were essentially poster oriented. The above plays on retro ideas about the future and the image of a stylised robot holding a paintbrush is mildly amusing and quirky. Below is an illustrative solution that I really enjoyed creating and which plays on the idea of being creative with the future - the characters are engaged in manipulating the calendar to their own chaotic ends.

The final idea is a metaphorical representation of the future, the gently blurring dots indicating a kind of succession or passage onwards. This is possibly the weakest of the presented ideas.

The problem with all these poster related ideas is their indiscriminate effect made worse by the competition they face from a multitude of other posters. The tea bag idea is direct and also promotes a fairly serious message: if you want, you can be proactive when it comes to your own future.

I can't say that I'm really enjoying this, I think it's the intricacies of dealing with a committee and also the target audience being my peers -  a savvy and demanding lot.

Glyndwr University Christmas Cards

Having had my designs chosen to be used by the university this year, the arrangements for their printing has been incredibly rushed, and laced with a number of complications. The most difficult of these was Marketing's stipulation that the cards should be produced in bilingual form with the Welsh always preceding, and having equal prominence to, the English. For two of the cards, where the design plays on the substitution of the Glyndwr g into English seasonal phrases, this proved considerably problematic. I could kick myself for being too anglocentric but this constraint was not part of the written brief.

I also assumed that there would be time to rework the designs to bring the fonts and CMYK colours into line with those used in the actual branding. However, due to the 24-hour turn around time, this was a misplaced assumption. As a result of all the to-ing and fro-ing between the in-house design team, Marketing and myself, plus the deadline at the printers, I ended up surrendering complete control of the final design adjustments. The result is a compromise that I am not entirely comfortable with. I am not proud of the results. I think the integrity of the designs have been compromised.

All this highlights the need to be certain about restrictions from the word go and to approach the appropriate people to elicit all necessary information early on in the design process. I need to be much more proactive in this area in future. The penalty you pay for not taking these steps is work that you are not that keen to attach your name to.