MDDN413 Jwen's Personal Reflections

In the midst of writing the logotype brief now. My brief is for the Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust which is a charitable trust in dire need of a logo revamp. Since it's a trust it doesn't have any 'products' so I've resorted to Google to find out how to specify the brief for a non-profit or charity. However, there are not many resources out there that I can find, so I might need to resort to bringing my draft in class and checking with Sarah & Walter. Here are some links I checked out for my research: https://medium.com/inkbot-design/charity-branding-tips-a-logo-design-guide-for-nonprofits-faa561068fb6 https://www.charitycomms.org.uk/design-brief-template https://fabrikbrands.com/ultimate-guide-to-charity-branding/

  Watching some videos that Sarah shared regarding logos. Very interesting and I do agree that once you become a designer, you see things that no one else sees. 'Bad' design is everywhere, but it doesn't affect people's lives so nobody actually notices it. However, I disagree with Michael about the Nike swoosh not meaning anything except in our minds. I read an article about the Nike swoosh being designed by a design graduate (for only $35!) with only one request in mind: it had to look like speed. So it started off as that, but yes, the brand itself grew thanks to their innovative products, customer service and brand campaigns. Here's a link to the article.  Ah - I uploaded the above before I watched the next video! It talks about what I just mentioned above. Vox really makes good content - they're one of my favourite YouTube channels. I do understand what Michael means about infusing meaning into the design. It's nice that he likens it to a swimming compet...

After a weekend of working hard on the zine, here are my final results! And the reflections to go along with it. The cover page. I opted to keep it simple, just like the poster. I used Adobe Garamond Pro for the whole zine because it reminded me of a storybook font, and since I was telling a story, it would be a good choice. I didn't want it to be a story for kids, more like for adults, so that's why I felt it was still sophisticated enough but able to provide some character. I also purposely kept it small because I didn't want it to steal any attention from the letterforms. For the cover, small caps is used for emphasis that it's the title of the zine. To B, Or Not To B. The origins of this saying is from William Shakespeare, and it was originally a question of whether it was worth staying in this world or not. In the context of this zine, it's about B finding his own identity. And so I feel that this smoky, unformed image represents that quite well, as B's not...

I explored some colours for the poster today. Decided to use one of the ash marks because the texture is beautiful. I realised that the original work looks stronger and has more impact compared to the scanned version, but it can't be helped. Scanned version and inverted it. Tested it in blue spot colour (B for Blue). Didn't like how it turned out. It's a bit hard to show progress digitally cause I don't tend to save the older versions. But here are my reflections. I didn't want to edit the poster too much because Sarah mentioned the simple ones have the best impact. So I just settled with placing it on a black background. It looks quite amazing as is anyway. Almost looks like it's done digitally, save for the smudge marks (in a way that helped to add to the authenticity!) I used Futura here because it's a nice, clean font that goes well with the organic-ness of the letterform. I feel like because my text is worded like a story, it's not like it will be a...

So I've been thinking about what to put into my zine and decided to write my own piece with as many 'B words' as possible. I wanted to try and tell a story of how B is always coming in second place, so close to being the first. He tries really really hard but gets disappointed/angry/frustrated, and in the end, comes to terms with his role as the second place in the alphabet. After a whole lot of looking through the thesaurus and idiom-searching, here's what I came up with. To B, Or Not To B Behold, B. Bare. Basic. Beautiful. But barely bagging second-best. Born beta. ‘Plan B’. Basically, in the backseat. Bah, what a bummer. Beaten, blue, B brooded behind the background. Brick by brick, building up blocks back to back. “Be bigger. Be braver. Be bolder.” “Be brilliant. Be better. Be best.” But brainwashing backlashed. Brimming bitterly, B bristled, boiled, bawled. “Boring! Brainless! Bad! Broken!” A beast beyond benevolence, bursting berserk behind borders in his brain. B...

I woke up with some sudden inspiration today - B for burn ! What if I could burn out the shape of my letterform somehow? It's definitely something that I can't perfect or control - of course, I can guide the shape I want but the ultimate outcome will be a collaboration with a natural force - fire, which would make it authentically organic. Since it was the last class of graphic design, I only had a few hours before class starts. I had to use whatever I had... lighter scrap paper (copies of my old working holiday visas, ha!) 230gsm and 160 gsm black paper (from the matauranga design project) portable camping stove I also ensured I had a bucket of water beside me in case I had to put out any sudden fires. Which was a pretty smart move, because my first few attempts did not go so well - I panicked and dumped a lot of water onto my tests. My failed attempts! Tried circling the paper with water at first to 'guide' the flames. Spoiler alert: it didn't work. As you can see...

A screenshot where I'm testing the word 'bounce'. I kind of want to play with typography a bit and add some personality to the zine but I'm reminded that I shouldn't try to over-edit. That's not the point of the brief. So I'm doing my best to let the letterforms shine and only use text if it's truly necessary. During class, I sketched a possible layout plan.  I think I've got a pretty good idea which works I want to include in my zine, but I haven't found anything that I'm happy to use for a poster yet... I'm thinking of making a story for the zine...so I've been compiling a list of words that start with B. Here are the list of words that I've come up with so far.   Title Ideas? The Big, Bold B To B, or not to B? ( I like this one) Be Brave. Be Bold. Be Beautiful. The B List Blacklist Bye benefit boost build up Brainstorm Bring Blooming By a bear Bar / bass Blocking beyond the bounds before behind besides Border B-flat. Busy Burst...

Today, I thought of the text I was going to put in the zine. I really want to do a whole piece of content that only uses words that start with the letter B, but obviously it's going to be really hard to find something like that on the Internet - especially one that might relate to letterform. I might just need to write it myself. I was also toying with the idea that each page could represent a different characteristic of B, depending on the style of the letterform. For example, one page could be brave . Another could be bashful . And the body of work chosen would kind of represent that personality somehow...? I also did more exploration with hand lettering today. Here are the results. Experimenting with different shapes. I like this one cause it's more organic. A smaller and neater version of the blackletter form. Playing with negative space - reminds me of the black square exercise again. Exploring graphic shapes - makes it look like the B blocks are tumbling down some stairs....