January 07, 2021

The Brazilian Creative Club (Clube de Criação) - Re-reborn

January 07, 2021/ Ted Howell

Advertising lecturer, Guy Lawrence, has recently seen this piece of work for sharing here on The Disciples. A winner at Cannes Lions, Clio and London International Awards; the project promoted the Brazilian Creative Club Festival – the biggest event in Brazilian advertising – in a way that is truly new.

Technology and creativity evolve at a dizzying pace. So how to promote the Brazilian Creative Club Festival – the biggest event in Brazilian advertising – in a way that is truly new? With an idea that changes like the world: every second. Using an exclusive algorithm, we created a campaign that was mutable in all its aspects: logo, tagline, colors and typography. A campaign that never repeated itself. The result was 9 different posters: each version of them could be seen only once. As they were living and mutating, the posters were digital-only: they were never printed or shown in a static way to the audience. Each one had its individual link, so the algorithm could work in real time. And we also replaced traditional media by an innovative one. The mutating posters were turned into guerrilla projections in dozens of different sizes on places that are often visited by our target audience: agency professionals, producers, students, and artists.

January 04, 2021

Typoems – 1977

January 04, 2021/ Ted Howell

An excellent find by Andy in his archives of Preston-past, this beautiful little book (and the tutors behind it) gave genesis to the typography projects we run today. Each example elegantly demonstrates the two pillars of Preston design: ideas and craft. The brief was to extract maximum meaning with limited means.

At first glance, you’d assume it to be a contemporary publication; either due to it being ahead of its time, or indeed timeless in its design. The last slide details the table of contents and the student designers included, note a young John Rushworth.

December 18, 2020

One week project: Pattern

December 18, 2020/ Ted Howell

As semester 1 takes its toll, here is the last post from Year 1 (this year)…

A new brief – based on pattern – took on the Christmas theme. It asked our young designers to make a connection between their client (a fundraising charity who rely on things like nice wrapping papers to fill up their coffers) and the Christmas season itself (in any form from snow to full-blown Santas).

The proof of course was in the (Christmas) pudding, and seeing the papers actually wrapped around a gift. It was a great turnout and showing for the final crit, with full use of the large format printers and a really pleasing range of ideas and connections; some of which are below.

December 16, 2020

England's Green & Pleasant Land

December 16, 2020/ andy Bainbridge

Here we feature a piece of work that has yet to be resolved but interestingly was in production as lockdown was imposed on March 19th 2020. The whole project stems from a table of natural meadow grasses taken from the book below.

The book was part of a set of agricultural cyclopedia from the Edwardian era - 1901 -1910. That short, often romanticised and tranquil period, sandwiched between the end of the Victorian era and just before the social upheaval and trauma of the Great War of 1914 -1918.

Stage 1 - Turn the list on its side to symbolically mimic grass.

I personally found this list of meadow grasses intriguing, as it listed the recommended combination of grass varieties when sowing one acre of virgin pasture (the numerals indicate the lbs per acre of seeds need for each grass).

The word pastoral came to mind, that idealised version of a long lost country life, lost now to mass consumption and the need for intensive ranch farming. This true English meadow, listed above, now only exists in small pockets, scattered across our national landscape. However the tables would appear to be turning once more, as our nations environment(s) and eco systems take on an increasingly more important role in the fight against climate change.

Here we see the grasses listed in the book, some you may recognise?

Stage 2 - Choosing appropriate typefaces to use for each grass.

The second stage of the design process was to source a series of condensed typefaces and fonts that were Edwardian or Edwardian in look and feel. These were all taken from large type display books and then photocopied several times in order to have enough letters to work with.

This process was necessary, as I was using the old school cut and past method, in order to create each strand of grass. So it was spray mount, a cutting mat and a sharp scalpel initially. Once I had created an aesthetically pleasing grass strand I then took to the machine and scanned them in.

Stage 3 - The composition takes shape as each grass strand is considered and positioned.

As I noted at the start of this article, the project has yet to be resolved. The intension was and still is, to finally silk screen the composition onto a large format and an appropriate paper stock.

Stage 4 - Considering colour and fine tuning the auxiliary information.

The weight of seeds needed to plant one acre, is positioned under each stalk of grass, see below.

Looking back over the past few months and the on going national trauma that is Covid 19, I can’t help but ponder on the parallel’s that his piece of work raises?

‘England’s Green & Pleasant Land’ silk screen prints will be available… one sunny day in the future.

December 01, 2020

Paul Rand – The Work

December 01, 2020/ Ted Howell

Unsure how we’ve not shared this before, but this website dedicated to Paul Rand, his work, his writings and more is a mine of information – and inspiration – for any designer, at any point in their career.

Paul Rand was an American art director and graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC, and NeXT. He was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design.

His work can be searched by category, or by client. This includes the heralded (but never implemented) identity designed for Ford. Another personal is the identity designed for Yale University, shown below along with some others from his greatest hits. But these merely scratch the surface, so delve in when you have time. There is a lifetime to be learned from the Modernist Master.

November 24, 2020

One week project: Symbolism

November 24, 2020/ Ted Howell

This semester staff have introduced two new projects to the end of the DD1101 module. These projects have been designed to bridge the gap between lateral thinking exercises, encourage the development of individual process and ultimately be resolved as a formal pieces of graphic design. As such though billed as one week projects, they have been extended to two weeks.

The first of these projects is underpinned by the theory of symbolism, in particular vexillology. The objective was to design a flag on behalf of any place, group or organisation of the student’s choosing. For those seeking some background of flags and vexillology in particular, then we highly recommend this Ted Talk by Roman Mars – host of the excellent design & architecture podcast 99% Invisible.

Like much of the world of design, flags are seemingly simple; but actually represent incredibly complex ideas. With this is mind, the brief required the students to remove all design representations of their chosen subject (and sometimes even more) to reveal an absolute purity of form and concept. The following five criteria outlined by the vexillology society were communicated by staff as a method of pressure-testing any design, and to also offer guidance on how to be self critical of a design.

Keep it simple
Use meaningful symbolism
Use two to three basic colours
No lettering or seals
Be distinctive

But beyond that, and quite simply…does it look like a flag? Can it be seen and understood visually from distance? And can it be made from cotton?

At the final crit all the flags were printed out at A2 and hung in the studio to test impact, message and above all design.

Process

Below is the process undertaken by one student who chose to create a flag on behalf of Cats Protection. All students were required to draw – specifically trace – to get their ideas underway. Also demonstrated in these sketches is a recognition of the symbolism of cats, protection and the task of graphically resolving the two as one design.

Final Crit

November 22, 2020

Numerals as pattern

November 22, 2020/ andy Bainbridge

Here we feature a series of patterns based on ornate numerals designed in 2018 for no reason at all apart from the joy of creating them. This post is in support of a current year 1 project .

There is a 5 second transition on these slides, so please have some patience.

November 22, 2020

Christmas 2020 Delivered

November 22, 2020/ andy Bainbridge

A doodle from October 2019 that has become a little more prescient in the intervening 12 months.

Thinking about it, as I have been and with Christmas just round the corner, the daily delivery to households nationwide of already pre packed and boxed christmas presents poses an interesting dichotomy. Why unbox them to then re rap them to put under the tree? Doesn’t make sense on inspection and think of all the wrapping paper and hassle it would cut out? You might as well just put the box under the tree as it is? Maybe put a name tag on it, but that’s it, job done. Save the planet and a slackers Christmas to boot! But then you think hold on a minute, why don’t Amazon jazz up their boxes with a variety of Christmas motifs? Then they could be slung under the tree and look reasonably seasonal, bob’s your uncle? Must be possible they can seem to do everything else. I don’t imagine logistically it’s not beyond them in the packing department. They could probably even personalise them to a degree.

If anyones looking for a nice little project then here you go. Brief - What can Amazon put on their brown card board boxes to jazz them up for Christmas and personalise them a little more? Constraints one colour only per box. Also think about packing tape design? Also do the delivery drivers dress up as Santa while we’re at it! GO, GO, GO….HO HO HO!

November 18, 2020

One week project: Illustration

November 18, 2020/ Ted Howell

This semester, the one week illustration project was focused around a famous or well known idiom or saying. As ever, this is a brief seemingly simple from the outset, but it does have its pitfalls. Those pitfalls being in the shape of catchphrase, Mr Chips and a sense of say-what-you-see as way to solve the problem. (It’s not.)

Illustration can use many wide and varied mediums: for example sound and theatre, rather than just image or words on paper. However, there were some really interesting responses to the brief developed over a slightly period due to reading week. Have a look below.

Swan Song

Design by Committee

Lost in Translation

A Game of Two Halves

Budget on a Shoestring

Easy Come Easy Go

How Long is a Piece of String?

Bits and Bobs

Always Look on the Bright Side

November 18, 2020

One week project: Copywriting

November 18, 2020/ Ted Howell

Recently, the first years were briefed to be angry! Their job was to write a placard on behalf of an organisation they are passionate about. Using wit, humour, straight talk, brevity; their placard had to get the point across and ultimately be memorable.

As we have said before: we write words everyday, but this brief always challenges as it brings a supposedly simple task back into conscious thought. Thinking about what you’re actually writing requires thought, concentration and time. But, the more we write, and the more we read, the better we get.