SB2: Life's A Pitch Results

Today we had to the results for who won the presentations for our group project for Studio Brief 2. We found out that we won as the lecturers thought we had a strong style and visuals already set for the idea as well as a well thought out concept and ethos, which was supported with a strong branding idea as well, and the fact that it shows "the future" that is very tangible. Now we are going to start up the podcast, however with some slight changes.

• Instead of doing it with ALL of the courses, a TRIAL RUN with just Graphic Design but still available to everyone, would be more efficient - Orlando told us that it would be safer to do a trial run just for our curse first in order to see it's success as well as the fact that if we start to  do it with all the courses from the get-go it would accumulate and become too for us and will be hard to keep up all at the same time. It's also smaller scale so it will be much more manageable especially as we're also doing other module overlapping it. 

• Instead of separate website, it will now be linked through the uni website and Estudio/ Proportal - it will be much more easier and cost/time effective rather than to create a whole new website which involves a website developer and constant communication back and forth in order to create the website that we have envisioned. As well as it would also need to be trial first to make sure that it works smoothly and does what it needs to do perfectly. 

• Branding needs to change slightly - the name of the podcast needs to also change as it's smaller scale now to fit it's current purpose (possibly LAU GRAPHICDES PODCAST?, GRAPHICDES POD, GRAPHIC POD, VPP - Visiting Professional Podcast). 

• Have a shopping list of ALL THE COST AND LOGISTICS needed in order to make the podcast successful - we will need to give the lecturers an accurate measure of all possible costs for the podcast e.g. mics, recorders, booths, VP's needed, podcast subscriptions (hosting website etc.) as the uni needs to know how much they are going to invest on the podcast as well as for-see whether or not it will be successful in order for them to invest on it fully, giving the possible podcast longevity in the future. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

I'm really happy that we won and I'm looking forward to being part of the actual podcast. I think that it's also a great opportunity for me to expand to a different field whilst still applying my design skills into avenues such as advertising and branding for the podcast. At the same time, it's also a great achievement for us to be able to provide our fellow students knowledge and insights about visiting professionals and their practice in other courses. Hopefully, the podcast will be successful in order for us to carry it on with the whole university itself and become a long standing project in the university.

SB1: Further Initial Developments

From my initial ideas, I have further developed the design through changing the grid composition of the content in order to look optically balanced on the square page. I thought that doing this would make it easier fro the readers to follow through the report better as well as help them navigate through the concertina. In addition, I also added a heading to further emphasise the hierarchy of information within the publication. I also added images giving visual link to the written content. 

In addition, I decided to to highlight parts of the interview which I think had impact to me and will have impact to the readers, making the overall design and zine more educational and informative reflecting the overall mode of the interview.

I think digitally printing it is the most economical way of printing the design as it's fast and efficient, however I do still want to screen print it though I know it will take a much much longer time, I want to get a raw and rough style out of the design, making the design more personal in a way. Furthermore, because it's a concertina, when screen printing I have to make sure that both sides are lined up and because the paper stock that I'm currently experimenting on it too opaque it will be quite hard to do this. Lining it up may be a problem - possibly cutting it to actual size will work? or drawing bleed or crop marks both sides? I will have to think of a solution for this. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think this experiment went okay and actually might be better than screen printing as it very quick and easy and though I though want to see how a more raw and handmade textured outcome will look I think the sleek and professional finish on the printing compliments the serious and educative tone of the overall interview. 

In addition, after putting together the rough draft of the publication, I realised that I haven't included my thoughts on the actual interview itself within the design (kind of like a narrative) which I think would be more appropriate if it's put within the publication as it shows my own reflections and what I think about Rick Cho's answers and his ethos and if they fit my own principles and what I believe in as well. 

In addition, there are also some design aspects which I need to change, as I found them more prominent when I printed out the physical version of the publication:

• Title needs to be put on the back page the front page can be folded inwards rather than outwards.

• Use more of the Craw Modern URW serif type in order for a more noticeable contrast between the two typefaces. 
•  Have a more significant reason for the grid system.
• After peer feedback, the letterset on the quote page was deemed too awkward as words like 'concern' was separated making it hard to read. I will change this and make sure the letterset is legible.

• Leading is too far apart for the subheading, making the subheading bigger than it actually is - will have to tighten it a bit.

START OF SB3

PRESENTATION

5- 7 MINUTES THAT REFLECTS YOUR EXPERIENCES AS A DESIGNER ON THE COURSE TO DATE. 

1ST & 2ND OF APRIL

*Presentation file SHOULD BE SUBMITTED ON PPP SUBMISSION DAY - 19TH MARCH

• Who you are as a student and designer?
• What are my ambitions? - reflecting and evaluating experience
• What are your creative concerns?
• It should reflect your own design style - use format appropriate to you 

Make a short manifesto that summarises your presentation basically.

SB1: Initial Idea

Following the initial ideas that I've outlined in my previous blog, I've decided to design the initial layout of the screen print design that I'm intending to do. I'm intending to create a concertina album sleeve reflecting Rick Cho's own work and practice and his main body of style. Following this is the typography that I've chosen, which are bold sans serif font (Nimbus Sans Extended Black) and (Nimbus Sans Light Italic/ Bold) and a contrasting serif font (Craw Modern URW Light Italic). Choosing these typefaces creates a contemporary and modern style to the design which compliments the single bold colour that I've chosen for the background. I've chosen orange as it reflects an experimental mood and conveys strong emotional aesthetic which reflects the style of design that Cho approaches the projects that he takes. 

"THEMAN ON THECOVERS" title is a play on words to Rick Cho's main page 'THEMANBEHINDCOVERS' implying that he creates album cover art.

Thoughts & Reflections:

As of now, this is just a really rough idea of the composition and layout however I am planning to screen print it first to test if the aesthetic that I'm trying to create is what will become the outcome when I screen print the design. I'm aiming to create quite an industrial aesthetic and roughness to the design reflecting Cho's style of design and similar characteristics that the style evokes. I'm also hoping that the concertina approach will be successful however, it may be quite restricting and hard to do as the screen can only come up to A0, however I may struggle to handle this size so I may downsize the screen to A1/2, meaning I will need to use multiple screens, which may slow down my process. Nevertheless, I have a think if I could do it or not.

SB1: Creative Report Initial Ideas

In order to get some initial ideas for my creative report practical work, I read back on the answers that Rick Cho has given me from the question's that I've sent him. From the answers I've gathered key points which I think would be useful in my creating my initial ideas:

• 80's Switzerland and Japanese flyers and books
• heavy influences from hiphop culture
• tempo & instrumentals
• "having the right decisions doesn't mean that you are omnipotent"
• visual art that can be interpreted by audiences in their own ways

Initial Idea #1

CD layout to reference him being an album cover art designers and art director - possibly have the report as a CD insert design referencing the answers that he did. (4.724 x 4.724)

Mix tape / J-card design? BUT.. is that too obvious???

Initial Idea #2 

Collage CD Inser/ Concertina? 

*Taking influence from his style of working (taking inspiration from music tempo and instrumentals) maybe I could interpret his answers in a more visual way and link it to design elements such as use of colour and typography).

Visiting Professional: The Archipelago

"DESIGN THAT'S SIMPLE, FUNCTIONAL AND FOR EVERYDAY"

I really liked The Archipelago's ethos as they are able to freely do whatever they want and design for themselves. But, also at the same time they are also able to work with people in different people in various fields in the industry, especially when they were working on The Plant Room. Working on The Plant Room gave them lots of opportunities to work with other people and connect with different agencies, companies and etc. 

Thoughts & Reflections:

I found The Archipelago's talk really informative and fun as I could tell they really enjoy what they are doing and were really honest about the path that they were taking. They were also really helpful when they were going around our group to talk about our idea for the group pitch that we are doing and were really enthusiastic about it. 

SB2: Final - Life's A Pitch (lauradio Presentation)

Today, we had to present our idea to the class and to Orlando and Amber and the best pitch and idea will be picked to officially create their idea with the help of the class and the course leaders. In order for our presentation be smooth and clear to understand we decided to reflect what we learnt from employability week and have a book opener and ending for our presentation in order for it to be engaging from the start. We also decided to have each person talk about the aspect that they were assigned to as they are the most knowledgable of the ideas and concepts behind it, as well as show that the group has distributed the work evenly and each member have understood the overall concept and the whole group were able to work together harmoniously.

Our presentation was split accordingly to who has done what part of the designing process, so naturally I talked about the advertising and social media aspect of the pitch:

Twitter - advertisements a month before to give students time to write in their questions and with the sue of the hashtag the questions will be more uniformed

Instagram - will be used to give snippets of the podcasts in order to gather audiences for it that may be interested, as well as utilise the stories feature for possibly running polls,  questions and countdowns

Facebook - mainly used for event reminders and possibly can get shared through the Art Union page to garner more audiences.

Posters - and finally, physical posters that will be put up through the university in order to primarily pique people's interest.

Questions and Feedback we got:

• How would non-hearing students listen in - Koyni pointed out that she knows someone who is hearing impaired that studies in our uni and asked if we thought of any alternatives that we offer in order to accomodate them. 

We actually didn't think of this throughout the project, which to be honest I think was our fault as we focused too much on other things. As she was asking the question I was thinking of possibly braille or a written summarisation or transcript of the interview, which can be read on the website would be the best possible solution. I was also glad she asked that question, because it also made me think of other possible scenarios that we have to accomodate to. 

• Couldn't we just integrate our podcast with the Illustration students that have a slot at Leeds Student Radio? - We've always thought that the podcast should be within the uni as it's catered and centred towards the students in all the courses within the university, so taking it out of context would be pointless. We've also emailed the Student Union president and informed us of the Illustration students, so we're thinking pf bringing them in to our podcast instead, not only would it beneficial for us, but also fo them as they'll have better access within university grounds. Amber was also against the idea, as she also agreed with us of having it purely within our university. 
• How will it be accessed easily, can't it be available on existing music apps like Spotify? - As a group we thought of having a separate website for the podcast itself, which is only linked to the university portal for students and future applicants to access to. Therefore, naturally, we thought the podcast should be uploaded to the website in which the listeners can listen from. However, we do understand that it can be inconvenient for some, therefore we may have to rethink of possible linking it to a music app instead or the uni website. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

Overall, I think that our pitch went really well, as we have talked about all the aspects that we have researched and created in a concise and detailed manner, making sure that it's straight to the point whilst also pushing our main selling points to the panel. In addition, I also think that because we had several practices before doing the actual pitch we were able to talk about what we have done more confidently and we were also able to answer the questions that we presented to us, which I think makes our pitch much stronger as it shows that we have thought about all the aspects that revolves around our idea - design wise and practically.

The only thing that I was disappointed about was that because our team went over time we had to cut it short and didn't have as much feedback through questions as other groups. Maybe if we had more feedback we would have a more varied ideas and point of view to consider to make our idea better, especially from an audiences' point of view (our course mates) because students are the main audiences of our idea.

SB2: Development

I showed my group the design that i created for the social media aspect of the project (Instagram, Facebook and Posters). They really liked the designs and thought they were consistent of the overarching style aesthetic that we are creating for the project. However, the phrase was too basic and sounded like another phrase from another company, therefore we decided to change it to 'catch talks from another course' as we thought it was simple enough to be memorable and straight forward but also encompasses ur overall ethos as well.

We also discussed that we could host and put the actual podcast on the website that Kristen had created instead of linking it to existing apps like Spotify and Soundcloud as it would be easier to manage and would be consistent, therefore we concluded that there was no need to develop the social media aspect for Spotify and Soundcloud, so in the end I have left these two apps away from the overall advertising aspect of the project.

After discussions with the whole team, there was nothing much to change from the designs, in terms of it's design elements, so only the content was needed to change. I changed the slogan across all social media platforms making them all consistent with each other, and took off the Spotify and Soundcloud information from the posters.

 

SB2: Initial Idea (Social Media) Mock Up Posters & Applications

For our 'lauradio' pitch idea design, Me and Ellie were in charge of social media and advertising of the podcast. I created draft posters that will potentially be posted around university as initial advertising material for students to know about the podcast. I created these posters using Kristen's line illustrations as I thought they look very clean, simple yet impactful which fits our smart casual style that we are trying to coin. I also thought the phrase 'a creative podcast by students for students' was good as I think it summarises the idea in a memorable and punchy way. 

Idea #1 

As the illustrative are quite literal, I thought they were great as single illustrations one the page as they get across the idea quite well on their own anyways that if adding patterns or other elements to it would just make it look too messy. Also, to keep to our clean and contemporary aesthetic I thought simple single illustration posters would work quite well. Though, to work with the single illustration posters, the bold blue colour from our chosen colour palette would help give it more impact when students would look at it from a board alongside other posters. 

Idea #2

Similar, to the first idea, the illustrations are also the main point of the poster in order to get across the idea of the podcast. I thought using the headphones and the lightbulb was a good visual illustration of the "listening to the podcast to gather insight and knowledge" was a good was of summing up the idea of the podcast. 

Idea #3

This idea visualises the podcast itself and the casual conversational style that we are trying to convey through it, in order to get students on board and make them feel like they are part of the conversation themselves. I think it also reflects the idea in a very simple and straightforward way that students can grasp what it will be about, which I think could be effective enough that it will be memorable and easily recognisable around university and among other advertisements that are up around the bulletin boards in uni. 

Idea #4

This final idea aims to portray the relaxed and chill atmosphere that the podcast will have. Similar to the conversational and casual vibe, it aims to get across the idea that students can listen to the podcast in a relaxed manner or when they are doing other things at the same time like drawing, or doing uni work. 

Social Media Applications

I also applied the advertising on various social media sites and our medium is mostly if not all digitally focused, I thought having the advertisement on various social media platforms that most students use will be effective in spreading awareness of the podcast, which in turn may make students to listen to it more. 

Facebook Page

The podcast can have its own Facebook which will notify students when a new episode will come out or when a recording will be taking place in order for them to send in their questions. It will act as a reminder for them to listen in and send in their questions. I also thought that it will be easier to interlink it with other societies and organisations in the university who also have their own Facebook page such as the Student Union. Therefore, I think having a Facebook page will be a useful social media platform for the podcast.

Spotify & Soundcloud

As listening platform for the actual podcast, we thought that either Spotify or Soundcloud would be the best as they are the most accessible and cost effective, so I also drafted what the podcast format is going to look like in these platforms.  However, after discussions with the group we thought that Soundcloud would be the best suitable platform as it's free and can be linked to the website that we are planning to create easily. 

 

GIFS & Instagram Implementation 

To get people interested and tune in to the latest episodes of the podcast, we thought of giving small snippets of it on the Instagram page along with a gif that introduces who the visiting professional or student speaking is. Giving a small snippet will give the listeners a small chunk of info of how and what the whole episode will play out which will hopefully make them willing to listen to the whole podcast when it is out. 

Along with giving snippets, the Instagram page can also include behind the scene pictures and preparations of each episodes leading up in order to get people excited and curious of what's to come up next. It can also be a way to interact to students and people who listen in to the podcast, and let them know of the progress, giving a real sense of togetherness and inclusiveness. 

Thoughts & Reflections:

I think that my bit of the social media is quite effective and appropriate to the certain style and aesthetic that we are going for as well as the content and concept of the podcast. I think that it's going to be effective in engaging students into listening to the podcast as well as hopefully make them listen to it regularly as we try and make it quite personal and regular in order to keep up to date as well as show progress in order to keep people interested and willing to listen to it.

SB3: Name Change

Me and Jocel went to get feedback from the lecturer's about which visiting professional we could interview (we thought of Pat), and while on the subject of the podcast, we also told them we were naming it 'Pitch In' however they thought might not be as appropriate as we thought, as it can sound like 'Bitch In' or 'Pigeon'. This made us realsie that the listeners may also hear the title wrong if the lectueres heared it wrong in person! Therefore, we told the whole tema about it and decided as a group that we will need of another name again for it.

Orlando also said that it should be straightforward, therefore during a crit he suggested the name 'LAU Radio' which we thought was a good shout. We didn't really intend to name it that simply, however as our alternative were either at risk of being misheard incorrectly or too abstract we decided that a simple name like 'LAU Radio' would be the best at this point.

The group also contemplated whether 'Radio LAU' would flow and sound better (which to be fair I thought it did) however, when written down, it looked really off and unbalanced which the typeface that we decided with, therefore we concluded that 'LAU Radio' was the final name of the podcast.

SB2: Name Ideas

Our group started to think about different names we could call the podcast which needs to be easy yet memorable as well.

Ideas:

• Heard It Through The Grapevine - Jocel thought of this famous phrase as she thought it would be quite satiric and catchy on the ears. At first we also thought it was a good idea, however we realised that the phrase can have negative connotations such as gossip which we don't intend to have for the podcast. 
• Pitch In - as in 'pitching in' an idea. This connotes to the idea of connecting and sharing ideas, much like how the podcast is a sharing medium for all the informative talks around the university.
• For the Student Body - I though of this title, as I thought it was simple and as the podcast is centred and catered to students, giving it a straightforward name which still has room for curiosity was good. 
• Pool - Kristen thought of 'pool' much like a 'creative pool', similar to the Pitch In idea. I thought this was also interesting as it could catch on quite quick and is a simple one word name. It's also quite open and unique which entice people to listen in and find out more about us. 

At the end, we thought Pitch In, was the best name for the podcast, as it was easy and catchy enough as well as have a good idea and reasoning behind it, giving the audience a good idea of the content of the podcast itself. 

SB2: Research on Costings

Today we pinpointed down the things that we needed to know in order for us to develop the content of our idea, which is a university podcast. We  allocated jobs to everyone and I was in charge of the costings that come with setting up podcasts and the platforms that users can use it from and what they need to do and pay for.

Application Subscriptions for Users

Apple Music (Store) - Podcasts are free and users can chose to subscribe to a podcast that they want to listen to.

Spotify - Podcasts in Spotify are also free. However the only difference is paying for the app itself if users want to have other incentives from the application e.g. no add interruptions and listening to them without internet. Students can pay £4.99 a month or regular users can pay £9.99.

Soundcloud - Podcasts are free on Soundcloud. Similar to Spotify it can also be paid for for other incentives. *Soundcloud Pro - £5.25 / Soundcloud Pro Unlimited - £7.50.

Google Play Podcasts - Podcasts are free to subscribe, listen and download on Google devices and services.

Podcast Hosts

Podbean -  Basic free only has 5 hours storage space which is not suitable for us as we aim to the podcast to be a long running service. Unlimited Audio - $9 a month with unlimited storage, available for iPhone and Android, embeddable players, allows monetisation and a customisable podcast site.

Buzzsprout - *Free only lets you upload 2 hours worth a month, *Paid for 12$ will let you upload 3 hours, with unlimited storage. This host is very expensive and not very good for the money that we have to pay. Therefore, we probably would not use it.

SB2: Change of Idea

We ended up not doing the chaching idea as it was too much and there's too many variable to think about that we thought it would be too disadvantageous to initiate. Therefore we decided to think about something else.

Our group thought of creating a podcast for the university as the uni doesn't have a podcast at the moment, unlike Leeds University. Ellie and Sarah thought it was also a good idea, as they had a podcast in their previous college which let students interact and send in songs etc. to it, which they thought they could implement within the podcast project as well. The who group agreed to this and thought it was a good choice therefore we decided to go with this idea instead

What is the main point of the podcast?

• A way to let all the students in the uni have access and listen to the designer talks that goes around in each course. There might be designers/artists that student's from other course want to see, but can't or don't know about because they are not in the course which the talk is taking place. 
• To let existing students promote themselves and let everyone know about their practice e.g. Prawn Shop in Level 6
• Ask designers questions which weren't asked during the talk they did. 

What else it could have?

• Let student's send in song requests.
• Let student's asked questions to the artists
• ASMR
• Games? 
• Designer requests?
• Let students come on the podcast to promote their 'collaboration requests' which may be more effective than sending emails. 
• Student to student talks
• Different themes every week

After dotting down the different elements the podcast can have we decided to delegate research parts to each of us. I was in charge of researching for the cost of the podcast such as costs for hosting podcast websites, in order for us to know the expenses that we will need in order to start the podcast. Having the right expenses would possibly make it more realistic and tangible for us as well as when presenting it for the presentation as the judge can evaluate whether or not it's worth to continue the project idea.

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think that our new brief now will be very fun and exciting as it's something that's never been done in the university before. As well as, it's also similar to the idea that I had when we were thinking of individual ideas, so maybe I could also contribute ideas that I was already thinking before. It's also something that will benefit not only the students but also the university as a whole as it promotes connectivity and student participation showing the proactivity the students within the university participates in and creating their own content for themselves. 

So far, the group is also quite proactive and effective and delegating jobs as the group is quite big, utilising the time the we have for this project. Also, the fact that we are a big group will also be advantageous as it means we can split the workload better and work up to speed, as  well as give a wide breath of ideas to the team. Hopefully, this will be steady all throughout the project. 

SB2: Life's a Pitch Briefing and Initial Idea

Module deadline: 19/03/2019 (13:30-15:00pm)

• Work in groups to produce ideas/concepts for an event or creative opportunity in Leeds. 
• Prepare and deliver a 10 minute pitch presentation to an audience of peers and members of the faculty. 
• Successful pitch will be taken forward and will be given support from the rest of the Level 5 year group, as well as the Graphic design department e.g. venue hire, podcast, workshop etc. 
• Document research on PP SB2 blogs to show progress.
• Culminate with a summary post which explains you personal take of the project and individual experience and how the collaborative brief has helped your own practice.
• Group rationale explaining approach and final outcome.

Deliverables

• 10 minute group pitch presentation (with Q&A afterwards)
• Copy of pitch presentation with any supporting visual material (PDF, Powerpoint, Video etc.)
• Minimum of 6 x A3 design boards
• PP Blogs labelled OUGD502 SB2.

For initial ideas for this brief, we first came up with individual ideas which we thought could work and can be taken forward:

• Termly podcast talking to current students about their personal projects giving them exposure and knowing more about art school culture.
• Skill exchange - connecting with students from other courses to exchange skills with them from their own practice and yours *this can encourage networking as well as knowing skills that you'd otherwise not know or will have to learn yourself.
• Design Otley Run - going from exhibitions/ places throughout Leeds to look at exhibitions which are interrelated together.

I've thought of ideas which are much more university related as I thought this would attract most of the students first and get them to participate. In addition, I also thought that through students the event may spread letting more people outside the university know more about it.

We had to put ourselves in a group in order to proceed with a concept that we want. I've teamed up with Sarah, Lizzie, Georgia, Jocel, Kristen and Ellie and called ourselves TBC as we really couldn't decide what name.

Lizzie: 
+ Illustrative, Writing, Bossy
- (Very) Bossy

Sarah:
+ Creative
- Literary Stuff

Georgia:
+ Illustrative
- Perfectionist

Ellie:
+ Project Managing, Visualising Idea
- Writing

Jocel:
+ Public Speaking, Production,
- Not Text Heavy

Kristen:
+ Animation, Digital and Motion, Practical
- Not good at Illustration

Me:
+ Time Management, Composition, Layout
- Passive Ideas

*Roles/Jobs

• PR person - 
• Branding/Marketing - 
• Logistics -  
• Materials - 
• Budget -
• Location/ Venue - Everyone ?
• Technology -

First Idea

Our first idea was Ellie's geo chaching concept.  We thought of creating an open area exhibition where people were to explore a specific part/area of Leeds in order to see the artwork in the exhibition. The artwork shown in the exhibition will be submissions that we will recevie from students & people that participate when we release or brief. This type of exhibition would be quite effective as it is much more interactive and unusual that 'normal' exhibitions, such as that audiences can to the artwork that they've seen therefore it will look slightly different for the new audience, making their interpretation and view of the artwork different as well. 

Advantages 

• Unusual and Intriguing which may attract initial audiences.
• Interactive, Tactile (Audiences can actually interact with it rather than just see it)
• Encourages people to go out and explore
• Informative

Disadvantages

• Will only be appealing to a certain demographic?
• Will be costly to rent places?
• Does it have enough impact and appeal to attract enough participants/ audiences?
• Might become too complicated