I feel that my strongest idea is run through of all the steps when tackling a brief, as I was unsure of what was expected from me when I was approaching a brief. I had no idea what the tutors expected or what standard was expected of me. I wanted to know what I needed to do to reach the higher grades. I am unsure what format would be best for the information I want to include. I will look to the critique for feedback on this. For now I have written a paragraph for the stages that I feel are appropriate for tackling a brief. I have tried to have a laid back tone-of-voice to appeal to the younger audience and hope that the friendliness would make them feel more comfortable.
I am currently considering producing my content in postcard form, so that the information is easy to digest and broken down simply so that it is easy to understand. I would like to experiment with foiling, so I imagine the title on the front of the postcard e.g. Research, in gold foiling with the information on the reverse side. I imagine the 10 steps I have written as the 'golden rules' for a brief, so I feel that gold would be appropriate. I also feel that foiling would be appealing to first years just coming into the course and would hopefully inspire the techniques they could use in their own work.
I feel that this content is also helpful for myself to refer back to, as a reminder of what I should be doing for a brief.
Below is the content I have written for now subject to change -
How to Tackle a Brief
1.Brief Analysis
It may sound obvious, but always read the brief! You would be surprised to know how easy it is to make big mistakes from not reading the brief thoroughly. All the written briefs are found on estudio, so it is important that you get to grips with using it.
The briefs are great because they are usually filled with resources to get your research started, as well as giving you an understanding of what you are expected to produce. What is also useful about estudio is that all the assessment objectives are on there, which basically tell you what to do to get marks - sorted!
Always write a quick blog post about the brief, it should't take you too long but it is good practice to get you to read through a brief and understand what it is asking you to do.
2.Idea Generation
This can sometimes be the hardest part. In the creative industry you will need to be generating ideas day to day, so you need to find your own way of doing this.
Blog about all your ideas, even the ones you are unhappy about - its better to show everything you have thought about. Research is one of the best ways to get ideas, but other ways include asking other students, sketching and keeping up to date with the design world through blogs, publications etc. Pinterest is a great way of creating a visual board of ideas, simply pin anything that interests you and you can refer to everything later. Now is also a good time to define your target audience, this makes it a lot easier to focus your designs.
(Note - time to book any printing slots!)
3.Research
Yawn! Yeah I know - sometimes the research bit can be a bit of a drag, especially if you aren't feeling the brief. BUT without research you are seriously limiting your final outcomes, and you are limiting yourself as a designer overall.
See the research positively, it is your chance to spend hours admiring nice designs and remembering why you decided to apply for graphic design in the first place! You will soon learn how crucial research is but try not to be 'too inspired' - and by that I mean don't copy people. You need to keep your work original. Teaching yourself the bad habit of copying other designers when you are stuck will not help you when you graduate.
Research should come before you start designing. Try not to rush into designing as you may find that you get stuck easily or get carried away with a design that could be more successful with some good research.
When you find a nice design, analyse it. That means don't just describe what the design looks like or what you like about it - it means ask why it has been designed in a certain way.
Finally, don't just google everything. Leeds College of Art has an amazing library so take advantage of it. Keep your research broad and varied, don't just look up the obvious e.g. if your brief is on posters avoid only googling "poster design".
4.Experimentation
Yay designing! This is the bit we all like to rush into sometimes. If you only had your briefing an hour ago and you're already designing, STOP.
If not, hooooraaayyy! Time to get down to business. The key to this stage is in the name - experiment. If you submit your first design as your final outcome, something isn't quite right. You need to see how you can explore your ideas as much as possible. Try experimenting with a few of of your strongest ideas. Consider type, layout and materials. It's great if you play around with more traditional materials such as ink and paint rather than running to the Macs and opening all the Adobe Software.
5.Critique
A critique (or crit) session is normally timetabled into a brief where you get into groups and give each other feedback about each other's designs. You will look back and laugh at how awkward they feel at the beginning of the year but soon you will get into them and realise how useful they are! Take advantage of these crits as much as you can as your designs will benefit as a result. Have preplanned questions and make sure you blog about all your feedback too! If a crit is not timetabled in for a brief, organise one yourself!! Often the best feedback is given when you organise it yourself.
6.Development
Now its time to select and reject your experiments. Consider the feedback from the crits, your own opinion (you don't have to agree with everyone!) and the purpose of your designs. Once you have selected the best designs, consider how you can stretch the designs to their full potential. It may be helpful to refer back to your research.
Everyone has their own way of working, but try not to dwell over one design too much. It's better to produce lots of designs over a short period of time, rather than spending hours perfecting one design that you might not take forward.
7.Production
Time to bring your designs to life. The key here is to take your time. Always check your work and get others to give it a quick spell check. Print a mock up if appropriate before printing your final copy.
Be adventurous! First year is the best time to play around with materials and techniques. Try different sizes, stocks, colours and printing methods. But be prepared for something to go wrong.
8.Evaluation
This is really important, not only because it is part of the assessment criteria, but also because it offers a time of reflection whereby you can think about your mistakes and how you can improve. Try to write a short evaluation at the end of each brief. Consider what went well, what went badly, how you could improve, what mistakes you made, what you have learned from these and what you would do differently if you had to do the project again.
You should write a larger evaluation at the end of a module (normally 4 briefs).
9.Design Boards
These are a way of mapping out your design process. You should have a minimum of 5 boards (including a minimum of 2 research boards). Imagine that you are using your design boards to present and explain your idea to a client. Only include details of what influenced your final outcome, so you don't need to explain all the ideas that went wrong. You shouldn't spend too much time on these, its basically copying and pasting the important stuff off your blog. Try to be concise and include module codes and brief numbers for organisation.
10. Blogging
This will become your life. Blogging can feel like a bit of a drag sometimes but your thought process won't be obvious to other people from looking at your work. Find a way of blogging that suits you - some people find it easier to blog short, regular posts whereas others prefer keeping all their research etc to one larger, less regular blog post.
Try to make your blog as professional as possible. It is easy to find the LCA blogs, so you never know who could be looking. Photograph everything using the DLSR cameras if you want to look super professional. Consider the tone-of-voice you use and do a quick spell check before posting.
Finally, never forget to label. If you don't label your blogposts correctly then they will not be marked. Label with the relevant module code e.g. OUGD401 and if you want, the studio brief e.g studio brief 1. Don't use any more labels than this as things can get pretty complicated.
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