End of Year Show 2019 Branding Internal Collaborative Brief - Design Development

Poster Design

After choosing the typeface and colour scheme for our exhibition branding, as well as the way the title 'One Small Step' and the moon graphic will interact, we continued to explore with how the rest of the content of the poster will be laid out. We had to incorporate the university name, dates of the exhibition, and the university logo. Below are various composition/layout design by all members of our group, and just like throughout our whole project, we all discussed, suggested ideas and shared spoken feedback on our designs.

We explored interesting ways how we could include the copy for the poster into the design. This idea aimed to visually represent 'steps' by having the title broken up by the exhibition dates. This however visually looked a little awkward and we felt there was too much room in the top part of the poster.

We quite quickly realised that we will struggle with finding a balance between the moon graphic and title, and the copy and university logo. This was because the university logo especially, we felt did not fit into the fluidity of the rest of the poster. Nonetheless, we had to include it, so we attempted a large range of different layouts to accommodate all the necessary information. In this attempt, we felt that the text/copy was grouped too closely which made it slightly illegible and confusing.

In this layout we liked how the text/copy lined up with the grid and guidelines created by the title, however, we thought that all the information was packed too closely which made the poster visually unbalanced.

We tried various ways of making the copy/information 'slot' into the design by following the angles/grid laid out my the moon graphic and the title. However, we were struggling with creating a balance. For example, in this design the copy felt too squished to the title, leaving an awkward amount of room in the bottom of the poster.

I had the idea  that to create some overall cohesiveness to the poster, that the text/copy should also include the same colour as the moon contour. In this way, we are able to give the poster not only some cohesiveness between it's elements, but to also highlight the more important information such as the dates, and the university name. In this layout attempt, the copy/text sits a little awkwardly due to the sentence lengths, which makes the information slightly confusing to read.

In this layout, the poster again feels a little unbalanced as all the information is on one side. The text also looks to be too squished as it has no breathing room between the title and the side of the poster.

In this layout again we liked how the text/copy line up with the grid/lines created by the title, and this is something we have been trying to do in quite a few of our layout explorations. However, again the information feels to squished and seems like there's no breathing room, especially since there's quite a bit of blank space left on the bottom of the poster. 

This layout I personally liked, although the other group members disagreed. I thought that if we are struggling with finding the right balance between all the elements, then we should embrace the unbalance and even highlight it. In this layout I purposefully made all the information left side heavy. I thought this looked interesting because it was something different and unique, but it was also clear and legible enough to be appropriate for the audience. I also thought that this in a way could represent 'steps' coming from the bottom left of the poster and leading to the 'moon', which also represents our journey as students as we learn and grow and finally reach the 'moon' as we graduate. Even though I liked this idea a lot, because my group members disagreed I had to compromise and let it go. This is okay because in a group project all opinions have to be taken into consideration, and it's only professional to step down if you are the only one rooting for you own idea.

This layout was starting to feel as if it was going in the right direction. The text/copy was given enough room so that it was legible, clear and di not at all seem squished. The logo in this case however feels a little awkward as it seems to hoover on top of the design rather than be a part of it.

This layout again felt a little too squished and the information did not have enough room. Throughout this design development process, we tried a variety of layouts, quite a lot of them having only small changes made too them, and the problems with them that we had seemed to be repeating. This was only because we wanted to really perfect the poster so that it could become the foundation for the rest of the design deliverables that we needed to create. We hoped that possibly only a small change in some of these layout explorations could turn out to be the right one.

In this layout we quite liked the logo placement. At first we wanted the logo to become a part of the design, but we then realised that maybe it did not need to be. Having the logo in the corner we thought was not too distracting from the concept of the poster/branding, and in fact actually looks quite professional. In this layout exploration however we disliked the text/copy because it felt again squished between the title and bottom of the poster, as well as being slightly hard to read.

In this layout I liked how the text/copy within the poster seemed to be in a box, but was also clear and legible. The only issue we faced in this layout, and in many of the other layout experiments was the university logo. Here it sat quite awkwardly right next to the text and in relationship with the moon graphic and title, even though it was aligned centrally to them. Because the style of the university logo is so different to our branding concept, we seemed to struggle to find a fitting place for it within the poster design.

This layout we felt was a step in the right direction because it utilised the space on the bottom of the poster much better, and allowed enough room for all the information. The only thing we thought was still awkward and did not belong was the university logo. In some previous layout designs we placed the logo in the corner of the poster, which we thought was much more professional and appropriate.

This is the final poster design. After a massive array of experiments with layout of the text and university logo, we decided to in the end keep things quite simple. This is something we did during our initial ideas design phase also. Instead of trying to make something a bit different or unique, we realised that we shouldn't try and force it, and that we should focus more on the clarity and legibility of the layout. So for the final poster we put the university logo in the corner, so that it was clear and accessible to the viewer, but also did not feel awkward within the design or distract from the theme/concept. The copy/information we gave quite a bit of space, so that the information had visual hierarchy and would be legible and clear for the viewer. Using the same colour as the moon graphic we highlighted the key information within the text/copy. Overall, although we spent a large part of the project on the poster design and the design itself does not look very complex, the thought processes and discussion that went alongside the design of this poster is what makes the design so successful in communicating it's message. Each small detail within the design of this poster was thoroughly discussed by us as a group, and this poster is what became the foundation for the rest of the deliverables we created.

A6 Leaflet Design

One of the deliverables was an A6 leaflet that would promote the exhibition. I took the visual language we had created collaboratively within our poster design, and applied/adapted it to create an A6 leaflet design that fit into the branding of the exhibition, but also introduced some more interesting visual elements. 

Going back to our exhibition concept, one of the things we wanted to do was to create a sentence. The title of the exhibition was 'One Small Step', but we also wanted to have a sub-title 'One Giant Leap'. Our concept was inspired by the Apollo 11 mission and the famous first words on the moon. We thought that the Apollo 11 mission was an appropriate metaphor for our graduation because to us, graduation is just as an important and grand accomplishment in our lives just as the first steps on the moon was a grand accomplishment to humanity. That is why the title 'One Small Step' symbolises just that, a small accomplishment for each of us, and the sub-title 'One Giant Leap' symbolises a giant impact this will have for our lives. The two phrases are taken from the famous first words on the moon, which aids the communication of our concept.

 

At first I simply took the poster design we had created, and applied it to two sides of the leaflet, changing only the title/name. Although this communicated everything we wanted it to, this leaflet design felt boring, because it was so similar to the poster design. Each deliverable for the project has a different purpose and audience interaction, and this was something that needed to be considered. The same audience member may seen various materials from the exhibition, and if all of it looked the same they may get the impression that the exhibition itself would be like that. I wanted to make the leaflet design slightly more exciting and interesting visually, so that audience could be enticed and interested to come to the exhibition.

 

To make the leaflet design more interesting, I tried to play around with the moon graphic. I knew that I somehow wanted to create a connection between the front and back of the leaflet, not only to make it interesting for the audience, but also to show the connection between the title and sub-title of the exhibition. I quite liked this design as it was interesting visually to see the moon go from one side of the leaflet to the other. However, this felt a little too disjointed from the branding/visual language we had created up to this point. The poster design only contains one moon graphic, and to have two of them on the leaflet design would make the branding too disconnected overall. 

 

In the previous design I discovered that creating a connection between the front and back of the leaflet was an effective way to showcase the difference and relationship between the title and sub-title. In this design, instead of using the moon graphics, I decided to make the connection quite visually obvious and used a line. The line stems from the 'P' in 'Step' on the front of the leaflet,  and connects to the 'E' in 'One' on the back of the leaflet. I used a line because so far everything we had done to communicate the concept of our branding was quite subtle and abstract, so by adding a visual element that was quite typical and obvious created a juxtaposition that would be unexpected and intriguing for the audience. Although the line was a very strong design element, apart from that the design still felt a little awkward. The back of the leaflet didn't follow the rule of having the moon graphic above the rest of the content, which broke the balance and cohesiveness of our branding. Also, the line connecting to the 'E' in 'One' looked unnatural.

 

Considering the flaws in the previous design, I developed the leaflet and created this design. The layout of the moon graphic and the content in respects to it now followed the branding guidelines we had created, and was cohesive against the rest of the branding deliverables. The moon graphic sat above the rest of the content. The line that connects the title and sub-title now connected to the 'N' in 'One' which looks more natural and visually appealing. The sub-title on the back of the leaflet design had to shift slightly so that the line could connect seamlessly, however this only makes the back of the leaflet design more visually interesting and unexpected. By having the information about the exhibition on the back of the leaflet makes it clear  to the audience which side is the front and which is the back, which then also makes it clear that 'One Small Step' on the front is the title and 'One Giant Leap' on the back is the sub-title. The information that is included about the exhibition is slightly more extensive than that which is on the poster. This was done so by taking into consideration that whilst a poster would only be read in passing at a glance and so needs as little information as possible to interest the audience, a leaflet would naturally allow the audience more time to read it so it can contain more information that would not only create interest, but also inform the audience about the exhibition. 

Print Ad Design 

One of the deliverables was to show how the branding would work in different print-ad formats. I took the visual language and elements from our poster design and my leaflet design, and applied it to a horizontal print ad format. 

This print ad adapted the leaflet visual elements, and tried to showcase the connection between the title and sub-title in a one-sided print format. This did not work as well within this format as it does on the leaflets. Because on the leaflets the lines seemingly connect from one side to the other, the message and connection between the title and sub-title is clear. However, on this print ad this does not happen because the lines do not connect, but simply run off the page. Without having seen the leaflet, the viewer would not be able to understand that they words should connect. Which also means that it would not be clear to them which of these two statements is the exhibition title. Overall, although the connecting lines idea works on the leaflets, I found that that is the only format that they can work in.

This print ad adapted the poster visual elements. Having learnt throughout the project that simplicity is key, and again so in the previous print ad design attempt (above), I decided to simply transfer the graphics from our poster design, into a horizontal ad format. This was an appropriate and successful approach, because it ensured that the visual language of the branding within the final poster and the print ads was cohesive. The viewer would easily be able to recognise that both the poster and this print ad were for the same event. The only small changes I made for the print ad that is not present on the poster design is the amount of information. Whereas the poster is meant to be viewed by the audience simply at a glance, as they are driving or walking by it, it only needed very little information to entice the viewer/audience into finding out more. Whereas the print ad design takes into consideration that the viewer/audience has the time to stop for a few seconds as they are flicking through the print pages, and therefore more information can be supplied. Into the print ad I added the location of the university/the exhibition, and the dates range of when the exhibitions will be happening.