Brief workshop

Being able to rationalise what I want and ultimately need to do over next year has definitely helped me focus my strategy for 3rd year. Beforehand, I somewhat had an idea of what I wanted to focus on but this workshop really helped to clarify that.

Notes —

• The briefs are an ongoing evaluation - document every step of the process
• Things may (will) change
• Allow ideas to develop and evolve - uncertainty & ambiguity
• Brief start & end date is entirely up to us as all briefs will differ
• At crits, present work we want feedback on
• The bibliography (design context) is a general list of references and source material
• Rationale writing - what direction do we intend to take
• How does the brief fulfil what we need and want to achieve
• Focus on our interests, skills and what we want to develop, improve, investigate and learn
• What is the overarching rationale for our entire design practice
• With live projects, there may be a confidentiality agreement that prevents work from being shown
• Combine briefs into a more comprehensive brief (10 starting points, not finalised briefs)

Brief 1 - Formula

Probably the most important brief of the year, this is to design and develop the branding for mine and Luke's collaborative practice, Formula. We will need to devise a logo / brand mark and create all of the accompanying promotional materials. As this is a live collaborative brief, we need to manage our time effectively to ensure we create a brand we are proud of and one that best defines us as a joint practice. We will also be able to explore web design and also look at potentially creating mail outs / invites / prints etc.

Brief 2 - National Rail rethink

This brief is another collaborative project with Luke, looking at proposing a rethink for the National Rail. After sourcing potential ideas for this collaborative brief, we came across a proposal for an overhaul of American road signs (DC) which has been making its rounds across design blogs. As this was getting a lot of attention, we thought it might prove beneficial to try and get ourselves noticed through a similar approach.

Luke came to me with the idea of a brand rethink of the National Rail due to incoherence throughout their brand application. There was an article recently, that one passenger had to buy 12 train tickets for one journey and more recently, National Rail have now proposed new smart cards that will soon replace paper train tickets. The London underground, for example, has a well thought out brand mark and with the addition of an oyster card which commuters can use whenever, they have created a simple and efficient method of communication. This brief will allow us to explore brand design, signage & way finding and potentially type design.

Brief 3 - Film magazine

Brief 4 - Type collab