OUGD504 Studio Brief 04 - Traditional Chinese Characters & East Asian Design Research

In the design for the album re-launch digital campaign I wanted to incorporate a sense of both the old and new by the use of traditional Chinese characters and modern/modernist graphic design so I looked at a book called Hanzi Kanji Hanja a book of which incorporated both of these styles. The book starts off by showing a number of different modern takes on traditional Chinese characters and how these can be used in such a way that take on a very modern style through the way the character is displayed and then goes on to show a wide range of examples of modern graphic design work of which incorporates traditional chines symbols so I believed that this is perfect research to help me with create this contrast of the traditional and modern aesthetics that I think is perfect for the digital launch campaign of this album.

The book has given me a fantastic look in to the way that the use of traditional Chinese symbols can be used with a modern graphic design style to create outstanding outcomes.

I then decided to continue my research with a look at a book that I own that is called "From Japan" by Counter-Print of which is just a display of a side of graphic design I don't get to see regularly of which is east asian design and often with a massive concentration on western designers and design studios so many different great design agencies, studios and movements around the world can be regrettably missed so I believed that this look in to east asian design may help inform the style in which I will design for this outcome.

This book focuses less on the inclusion of east-asian symbols in the designs although the majority of it still does but it just concentrates on the skill and standard of graphic design of which is coming out of a large number of Japanese graphic design agencies of which will give me an insight in to the standard and aesthetics of the work that is coming out of east asian countries and ultimately inspire my design.

Looking at the use this East Asian style of design in the book has helped me understand and further my knowledge in to how I should go about the design such as how and to what application traditional characters scan be used in design aesthetically but also the feature that East Asian design is consisted of be this the wide use of negative white space,to the comparisons between text and image but more importantly text as image and finally the colours used in design.

OUGD504 Studio Brief 04 - Digital Release Campaigns Research

Jamie XX

The research in to album launch digital campaign started by looking at the release website for "In Colour" by Jamie XX. The research in to this specific website lies with the fact that as a concept website it is well above the majority of release sites in that way that the whole concept of not only how the album and album title relates to the site through the vivid use of colour that is very attractive to the audience and that a consistent and appropriate contextual idea can be a crucial part in the professionalism and success of a campaign website but also of how the whole website works as a concept too. As a stand alone feature the simplicity of how the website works as a whole meaning all of the needed information in clearly conveyed through the website to a perspective audience contrasted with the fact that although the website is simple in how it works It is visually one of the most demanding and engaging release sites that I have seen, which is not only important and is firstly attracts the audience to the website and then when the audience are already there it does a very good job of keep them engaged creating over all what I see as a very good tactic to use in the campaign site...

Simple, Effective, Attractive and Engaging...

All aspects of the design of an album release website that I see as absolutely crucial in gaining and increasing an artists following, the colour full nature that would attract the eye of any member of the target audience combines with the simple yet effective navigation system and finally the over all very user-involved workings make this release site something I believe to be very successful in attracting and keeping the target market exactly where any artist would want them.

Adele

The next album release campaign that the decision was made to look at for research was Adele 25 and even though this album may not be strictly in the same category of the music industry as the Wu Tang Clan album that I am looking at and therefore not much inspiration will be took from the website aesthetically the look at the website will still offer me two very important aspects. The first of these is that even though the aesthetics of the website will be dissimilar to Adele's it will give me an insight in to the format that these sort of website usually take and furthermore how they incorporate user-friendly aspects in to the website to ensure that they create a whole user-based experience that allows the viewer to get exactly what they wanted from the website and be simple and easy to navigate while doing so. Also even though it doesn't relate perfectly this album is a new release in which the album is guaranteed to sell masses of albums and therefore a look at a very successful launch site has given me the insight in to what I may need to incorporate in to my designs to ensure the website is successful and finally increase album sales for my chosen artist. The website uses a very simple structure that I will need to learn a lot from if I need to translate it in to my website, it features a solo home page that includes a vast majority of information and then along side this home page there is a user-based navigation system that gets the viewer involved and makes the website easy to get around. The website home pages uses a scrolling automation so that masses of information can be seen and linked through the first page alone meaning the viewers can locate what every that need from the website at ease, but this home page include more generalised information such as Adele's thoughts about the album, the process behind the album and information of the Album release, Tour dates and finally special appearances and performances. Top navigate to the more detailed information such as preordering the album, buying tickets to the album tour, images and videos and finally social media coverage the user-involved navigation system comes in to play allowing this to happen at ease. Little touches like vector animation when hovering an scrolling ensure the attention of the target audience stays completely on the website and this is something I will need to use to ensure my album release site is successful. 

Inviting, Simple, User-Friendly and Focused!

Pusha T

Finally as the last two examples of album release sites weren't strictly in the same music genre of the music industry and therefore could have been a little more related the decision was made to now look at the release site of an album that hails from the same genre and so forth from this hopefully be able to obtain some research in to what the actual genre of music that my album release website would be competing in. Furthermore I look at this website as it tackles the process of creating this campaign website but in w very different way to the majority of sites and from this I can definitely see that I will be able to take some positive points but also some strong negatives. The website is the campaign site for Pusha T's new album "Darkest Before Dawn". The website open and show to the viewer an image of three doves, this is an aesthetic reference to the album cover and so forth means that the website remains aesthetically similar to the actual album itself. Underneath the album is a small logo, this is the logo of the record label that the album is being released on and then after this shows nothing happens, this was confusing at first but after a short time I realised that when the logo of the record label is pressed by the mouse what was in image in the centre of the page turns in to video instead, and the doves start flapping their wings, along side this more bird like vectors begin to fly around the page, and while all of this is happening an track of the album begins to play. This website stood out to me as many of the album release websites that are used even though they look aesthetically different all work very much the same and this style of website is like nothing I have ever seen before, and this notoriety is something that it needed to have people remember the time they accesses the website due to its unique nature and furthermore boost album sales, and by far this is the most unique example of a release website I have ever seen. The music in the background also gives the viewer an insight in to the album before it is even released. On the other hand even though this album is very unique in how it works it had major flaws and setbacks in the fact that It actually doesn't include any other information and so even if the album does make the target audience remember it, it still doesn't supply the audience the means of anything to do with this new interest such as the purchasing of the album, information of tours or even how to follow on social media and so the uniqueness that it brings to the table is over shadowed by its lacking facilities. To be able to harness this unique nature in my website but to also combine this with perfect functionality is exactly what I need to make it special.

Different, Exciting, Engaging! but remember Functional aswell.

OUGD504 Studio Brief 04 - Existing Digital Presence & Album Re-Launch Research

The best place to start the research for the unit was with the original album cover of which will be the feature album of the campaign launch. By looking at this original album cover I have chosen a few element of which will have to be taken in to major consideration when designing the launch website. The first of these points was the colour, the decision will have to be made to keep the colour coherent with the Wu Tang Clan style and use the bright yellow colour that they are synonymous for or to try to experiment with some other colours they are relevant to the album be it the link of the colours of the american flag to represent the artists culture or maybe a solo red colour to link the colour scheme in to the oriental feel the album conveys. 
Another major research point that I took for the aesthetic side to the design is whether to keep the historic serif typefaces that are used in all the old collateral for the artist and more specifically in the chosen album.

Now that the research in the album that was being re-released it was now time to partake in research in to the existing musical digital campaigns of which will become the inspiration and insight in to the standards and normals for this type of promotional music campaign work. I started by looking at the existing website of the artist chosen for the deliverables of this unit and here is a screenshot of it below…

Above is a screenshot of the existing digital presence of the artist who's album I am going to design the release campaign for and although this isn't strictly the best research I could partake in to gain inspiration for the layout and style of an album release website I thought it would be a good point to start by looking at the digital presence that already exists of the artist to see what themes they run and if there is any crucial parts of which I would have to take in to consideration in the creation of the launch website.

Like the album and all of the other collateral for the artist the existing website had maintained to use the simple back, white and solo colour theme and furthermore maintaining the iconic yellow colour that the artists are known for.

In contrast to the last part of the research they have decided to take a more modern feel with the digital side by the use of a block serif type font instead, this decision will have been made due to the fact that the original album was designed and released in 1993 meaning that it had become a little out dated, but I don't think in my opinion that this use or a modern style is appropriate for Wu Tang Clan.

From the research I have determined two very big points, the first of these is the crucial choice of whether to keep the colour scheme in keeping with the original theme of the album or to change the colour scheme to revitalise the following of the album by tying something new. This will have to be thought deeply about as although consistency in design is something I see as very important to build a brand as a whole but as the album has become slightly outdated a revamp and redesign in colour may be what is needed to regain not only the old followers but also to gain a new following of the artist and ultimately raising album sales.

The final important decision to be made is whether to remain with the sans serif style typeface used in one of the modern representations of the brand of which I don't believe is best representative of the music or even the traditional oriental essence of the album or whether it would be good to go back to the use of a serif typeface lending itself to the collaboration of the historic side of the album but the modernity of the rerelease, creating a harmony of original colours and old fashioned serif style typefaces with a simple colour palette and overall modern aesthetic creating the perfect balance of traditional and modern    for a new album digital re-release campaign.

OUGD504 Studio Brief 04 - Brief & Analysis

For the final unit of this module Design Production we were briefed that we were to create a digital campaign website centred around the release of a new album from an artist of out choice with the whole point of the website is to gain the artist interest and popularity with the end goal of ultimately increasing album sales. In the era we live in with the online digital presence making up a massive part of any artists album campaigns it is important to ensure that through the creation of the deliverables for this unit that the website works with an overall networking presence by sharing important information about the artist and to get not only existing fans onboard with the release campaign but to generate more fan base for the artist making sure that the correct and relevant range of information is displayed on the site while still maintaining the straight forward and simplicity a campaign website should incorporate.

There are a few considerations and limitations that must be taken in to context to fully engage with this brief. The first of these considerations is to think about the five biggest markets when it comes to the music industry of which have been stated on the brief are Australia, UK, USA, France and Germany meaning I will have to think about the brief in context to a much bigger target audience range than I am used to and these five specific countries may not be 100% correct as my chosen artist may have a bigger following elsewhere meaning I will need to think about that as well.

This is a brief of which I am really looking forward to completing due to the fact that working in the music industry is definitely an avenue I would like to take with my professional practice and also the fact that web design is a field of graphic design of which I am not as advanced in as I would like to be and so this unit with further develop my skills

OUGD504 Studio Brief 01 - Production & Considerations

When it came down to the production of the folded leaflet first I tried out multiple different mock version to identify which fold would be most appropriate for the leaflet and then when I had decided which fold to take forward in to the next stage. After deciding the next stage was the designing at that was completed interlay though illustrator to create the vectors and type used in the design and then the aspects of the design were then organised and put together in indesign as I prefer to use InDesign for layout purposes as I believe it achieves the most professional result.
Due to the brief being such a small outcome and also being aimed at such a small target audience that being ourselves and other tightly linked graphic designers at the university meaning the production methods didn't need to be too expensive and professional as when it comes to leaflet printing this can add a lot added expenses to the production stages, where as the printing facilities we have access to in university will be enough to achieve the desired level of professionalism and inexpensiveness.
As we have the limitations put upon us that are we can only use the resources that we have access to in the college printing these leaflets could become a very costly process as we are printing small limited runs. In oder to be able to keep these costs down I decided to use a lighter weighted stock as this allowed me to keep the prices for the production down but also helped the folded leaflet fold cleaner which ultimately made it look more professional. In a more commercial context if I had access to more money and alternative process due to the fact that the whole design includes only one printed ink colour on a cream colour stock the whole production costs could be kept well down when printing a higher amount of runs by using a spot colour of which can save you a lot of ink and printing costs at a professional printers and also it opens the possibility that this leaflet could be printed through a one colour lithographic process. This would mean that for the solo one off price of the set up and plate production casts which usually results around £100 1000's of copies could be printed for a price as low as the ink and paper around £5. If this method was chosen extra post-designing stage considerations must be in place to ensure the single spot colour printing process goes smoothly but none the less this would be reasonably cheap to produce whether using CMYK or Spot inks due to its minimal nature.

OUGD504 Studio Brief 01 - Development

The first stage of this was to design the background of which would serve as the backing to all the information on the leaflet. The background features a light blue colour included in oder to be reminiscent of colours representative of school and learning such as the similarity between the colour used and the colour iconically linked to the colour of biro's, and graph paper and more school based references making it the perfect point to start from. To finalise the background the decision was made to include a paper grain in to the designing stage to add further representation of the links to education and learning. This grain wouldn't be printed in to the final outcome of the unit but would actually be recreated though a grained stock choice but in the design it is only being used to represent what will be later included through stock choice.

As I was trying to represent my unorganised and unplanned design process through the leaflet in the main designing of the content I refrained from using any sort of grids so that it unconsciously represented exactly what was desired. Although I refrained from utilising a grid in to the design I did conform strictly with the margins of the page in order to retain some sense of professionalism while not using the grid.

To retain this representation of my design process I began by randomly placing the different questions that I had already outlined in preparation randomly on the page ensuring that they would all fit in to each page in some way and then each page could also be combined with the title of each step of the process. Some small editing of the position of these statements and title and I was ready for the finalising touches to the design.

The final touched to the inside of the leaflet were then all that was needed to complete the inside. To add emphasis to the essence of a flow chart that I was trying to convey through my design process leaflet I added some small additions. The first of these was a dotted line reminiscent of something seen through our educational career. The process was split in to five different stage of design and each included three different statements. Each statement had one dotted line going back to before that step of the stage and one dotted line that advanced on to the next statement signifying the progression from one stage of the brief to another. This was then further enforced by the small Y & N iconography to further reenforce the essence of achieving the stage and moving on from it, or failing on the stage and looking back at it and giving it another go.

The five different stages are then also linked between the full bleed images of which identified that when a stage of the process is finished for example research it was then time to move on to the next stage for example idea generation.

As the inside of the leaflet was very busy and hectic it was then decided that the outside would be kept somewhat simple to balance the inside. The typography used on the cover remained the font used on the front cover of the leaflet with the title that said "The Five D's Of My Design Process" and ensuring that the outside of the leaflets decisions such as the colour, typography and aesthetic style were kept the same to ensure a level of similarity and consistency throughout the design. The leaflet was finalised with the inclusion of my name on the back cover to shop authorship and finally another inclusion of the dotted joining lines to help promote similarity throughout the leaflet.

OUGD504 Studio Brief 01 - Font Decision

The next decision that  had to make was what font would be best to use in the leaflet to display the text that was needed. As the decision had earlier been made that to create my leaflet in a infographic flow chart style, the decision had also been made that due to the fact infographic style artwork needs to display a very high level of information while still having an heightened visual sense to keep the attention of the viewer on the leaflet and therefore that the font type used on my final leaflet would have to be bold and eye-catching due to the fact that it needs to interest the viewer in to taking in the information. Below is a sample of a number of different fonts that were being considered to use for the leaflet;

BEBAS

TES BOLD

GOTHAM BOLD

ALFA SLAB

After taking all of these fonts into consideration it had cut it down to the two most aesthetically pleasing and most appropriately relevant design choices of which were Alfa Slab and Gotham Bold. Firstly Alfa Slab is an appropriate design choice as it fit my necessary requirement of which was a heavily bold. It was also an appropriate choice as it is some what reminiscent of a handwritten style due to the serif nature but it is possibly to far away from hand writing due to its overly heavily bold nature. Although the handwriting style was what was desired when looking for a font for the final outcome of the brief it was just too far way from it to be perfect for the design. This lead to me on to choosing what I believe to be the most aesthetically pleasing but also the most appropriate design decision and that is Gotham bold. The decision for this came down to the fact that it also fit my necessary requirement to be bold making it perfect for my infographic style leaflet as this will help convey the information effectively to the viewer but also was a lot more reminiscent to a handwriting style, not in the way of the last font mentioned with serifs to be reminiscent of handwriting but almost in the style that might be seen as something similar to bubble writing of a child due to its very circular nature. This decision was perfect for the choice of the final font as the handwriting style worked very well with the intended message as it fully displays the notion of educational, school-like and infantile look that was preferable for the design decision that I was looking for.

The bold sans-serif style help the information be effectively and clearly displayed to the audience.