Tuesday 7 May 2019

OUGD505 SB2 Design Development

I had a vague idea of what I wanted to produce in terms of visuals, it was more of an issue deciding on the name and the logo I was going to use. I usually work on the logotype and then flesh out a visual identity using the logotype and its design.




 I started with the literal idea of “talk” as the campaign name as its clear, direct and straight up. I didn’t have too much development for this as It was a very quick idea. I tried a sans serif that communicates a warm, welcoming, softer feel that would hopefully come across as more open to viewers. I tried a simple white/black white/sky blue to further exaggerate the soft, welcoming and comforting nature of the logotype. I didn’t go too far with this one as It wasn’t what I was aiming for, despite being a good idea I wanted something with more impact, something more stylised that would jump out at the viewer more.




I decided to look more into the idea of ‘not avoiding’ and decided that I wanted my entire campaign to revolve around this idea. The name is literal, straight to the point and relates to the entire campaign perfectly. I feel the name is a lot punchier and has the potential to grab a lot more attention than ‘talk.’ I implemented the same idea of welcoming, rather soft logotype design while implementing more a style I usually work in. Despite using the same ideals and implementing an initial minimalist style it was too basic for me, it was plain and didn’t have much personality, I also felt it wasn’t as stand out as id hoped.



I changed the weight of the logotype to something heavier, this gave the logotype a lot more purpose. As well as a logotype and name of the campaign, it was also the literal message, because of this it was important that the logotype stood out just as much as the rest of visual identity. It was important for me that the logotype was an integral and consistent part of the visual identity rather than a throwaway logo and campaign name, the idea of the entire campaign, each individual part being just as important was something I wanted to implement. The weightier type had a higher impact, stood out more and grabbed more attention. Type of this weight on a background of contrasting hue and harmonious negative space I felt would do well in grabbing attention.



I wanted the entire visual identity to be punchy, stand out and grab peoples attention, I looked at the idea of incorporating duel typefaces that would change randomly across each medium. I thought that this would make the design stand out more, be more attention grabbing and be more visually stimulating. I wanted to also relate my campaign more to the cause through my designs and using the mixture of typography would relate to often the struggle some men go through suffering from a mental health issue. Often with anxiety and its confusion, as well as the bipolar nature of some mental health issues, the switching of typography across the visual identity would relate to this, communicate this idea more clearly and be more visually stimulating and better and grabbing attention to viewers and passers by. I wanted to achieve this by using varying weights and contrasting serif and sans-serif typography. It would also incorporate a more stylised design style, in keeping with the clear minimalist style, but playing on current design trends as well as breaking up rather plain, standard design. The difference can be seen in the poster designs in the initial stages and the new mixed typography. The poster becomes more stimulating, the information becomes more striking, breaking up the negative space and working better in the space









I started with the idea of an application to work in conjunction with the campaign that would allow people to track their personal well-being. The app was simple and was design purposely not to be a solution to mental health, but rather a physical way of recording your general feeling with a general log everyday, more in depth questions, a tracker of these logs, daily inspirational quotes that may aid someone in a low period and quick links and phone numbers to local mental health charities in their area or popular mental health charities. I played with the idea of a live chat system as well. Despite thinking the idea was good and could work very well in conjunction with the campaign I didn’t have enough time to flesh the idea to more than the current designs and mock-ups. I tried implementing the mixture of typography across the application as well that’s when in the smaller format it became cluttered and less legible that the original, minimal style. If I had more time I would further develop the app and think it would be a really good idea alongside the rest of the campaign.






As well as being a typographic focused campaign, which aligned with both my style, minimalist styles, current graphic design trends and the idea of broadcasting a clear, de-cluttered message, I wanted to try broadcast various facts, stats and information about the subject in a way that still felt de-cluttered,  one that was legible, easily understandable from close and afar and bits that would break up a fully typographic project. I tried to do this originally in poster form, trying to convey the message with simple info-graphic style posters. I quickly decided it wasn’t working, they looked tacky and I personally thought they wouldn’t work on the street. I opted for a billboard style to broadcast the information and that seemed to work rather well. The billboard style allowed the information to legible, clear, and viewable from various distances, while feeling balanced, with the information, info-graphics and negative space working well together in the format. 



 The idea of the floor mural further progressed with the development of the billboard style design and was further condensed into a versatile package that incorporates type, negative space and the info-graphics well. The condensed nature of the floor mural design allowed for versatility in terms of scale and placement. It was clear that the floor mural piece would be too big a task to complete so the versatility of the piece allowed for changes in placement, such as on a billboard, digital screens, or poster designs if needed. 




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