final boards

Evaluation

This brief was a tricky one for me. I feel a lack of good planning early on stopped me from really getting to grips with it until quite late into it. This caused much unnecessary stress. Long briefs are a mixed blessing and at the start I felt I had a a good concept (since 1991) and lot of time to experiment, but a lot of what I was doing didnt really help me find a resolution. As I have explained in earlier posts, I headed in a direction with a vague idea of using computer console graphics with the hope that everything I was doing would all fall into place. This didnt happen, the idea wasn't working and I had to make a tough decision to not use the majority of graphics I had created and start again. Ultimately I am pleased with the final design decisions I made and the direction of the final pieces but I know that I could have had much more time to resolve these if I hadn't wasted time perfecting graphics that would ultimately be of no use.

My main aim of this brief was to have a finished motion graphics piece that I can use in my portfolio, I feel its not quite perfected yet but I like the concept and its almost there, this is not a problem because I will continue to work on it this week but its a shame its not quite finished to the standard I would like for hand in. The other ranges were spin-offs from this motion piece and are fairly successful I feel. I am pleased with the t-shirt designs as they have just the 'feel' I wanted; retro without being a pastiche and using the logo in a clever way. The colours are much more subdued than ministry usually use in order to try and push the brand upmarket a little and appeal to slightly older customers that grew up with the brand (I would wear them, unlike ministry's current range on their website). The USB idea was quite a late addition; after the final crit so I didn't have time to develop it further, but I liked the concept even if its more product design than graphic design.

On a more personal note, I try to pick briefs that will help me improve my skills in one area or another and this one was no exception. After Effects is a piece of software that I am really into now, I find the possibilities it offers inspires me in the way photoshop did when I first used it years ago. I feel I am developing a specialism in using this now. Illustrator is another piece of software I am steadily improving my skills using. This has become such a vital part of my design work I hardly ever use photoshop now. I cant actually draw very well but I can photograph (or source an image) and vector it by careful tracing to get good results that can easily be adapted to a range of products as I have shown in this brief. This is the first time I have really pushed how I could combine both of the software together into a final piece. Its a good way of working because of the way After Effects can handle Illustrator files so this was very successful and I learnt a lot.

Further ideas, new distribution and ranges

Talking to John after the crit left be wondering about other areas I didn't explore to push my concept before hand in.

The most obvious one I missed was tag designs for my t-shirt range. I have played around with a few using parts of the MoS logo and also some using parts of my vectored graphics. The middle one here is working best I think, using casette tape reel design in a subtle way.

Also I have now looked at how Ministry of Sound might distribute music along the theme of the vector graphics I have already made. In the end I decided a limited edition USB pre-loaded with MP3 files would be the best option as CD's are becoming obsolete as a format and vinyl is a very niche market. This is a new take on the slider on DJ turntables and is quite a fun object I think. Sandisk do retractable thumb drives so they would be able to manufacture this under licence.

The missing link

It was pointed out to me (repeatedly) at the final crit that my bloging for this brief has been a little hap-hazard and you cant see a clear progression in the project. Its true that I hadn't that I photographed any of my design sheets or explained my design decisions for my motion graphics so this post should fill in some gaps.

concept to idea brainstorm i did early in the brief, this focused my thoughts and clarified the direction for the project. This led to the 'Since 1991' concept that I used throughout.

This was the start of the idea to base the graphics around simple vectored objects that have come and gone since 1991

Dead end No.1
Using a graphic equaliser graphic was an idea I played around with quite a bit in the early stages of the brief, but once I made the vectored objects and did a few mock-ups I realised it wasn't going to be as effective as I imagined it to be.

Storyboard for motion graphics to combine MoS logo with graphic equaliser to tetris and gameboy. I did use the equaliser in the ministry logo in my final but the rest was trashed.

Dead end No.2
At this point I had spent quite a bit of time vectoring console controllers and other objects around since 1991 to show this progression against ministry of sound as a constant through all this time. I wish I realised much sooner that this just wasn't going to work, it almost does, almost..

Another idea that went nowhere, trying to imagine computer graphics, and computers that were around in 1991, then branding the 'ministry, since 1991' logo onto them.

Progress at last! This was a quick story board I made with everything stripped back just to graphics related to music formats, looking at circles that flip over to become another format this was designed to loop around this was worked up in to an after effects test piece. This rough scrap actual saved the project

 My dynamic story board! This was great, I printed out my vectors then cut them up so I could move them around a board to see how best one could transform into another. Not much to show but a very effective way of getting thought out of my head and into motion graphics.

Design boards for final crit

Design boards (one still to be added to show some research and more of my development)

rough cut of final

this is a rough version of the final graphic, I have a list of things to sort out still. This is looped twice, not quite seamlessly yet...

test motion graphics

I'm still in the process of finishing my motion graphics piece, All the vectors I need are done and I have a storyboard I'm working from. These are some testers I have put up on youtube.





This is a rough tester to show the basics of the idea




This is a more refined version after a rethink, total length will be about 15 seconds I think when finished (there is plenty more not quite ready), quite short but it will form a continuous loop that will hopefully be quite effective.

Technology since 1991/graphic equaliser idea vector tests

Again following 'Ministry of sound, since 1991' concept, I am thinking of making a classic graphic equaliser graphic out of technology that has been used and surpassed since 1991. This will work well as motion graphics in time to music. This obiously needs more work. I have only made a few vectors of game consol controlers (need more in this set) so far, but I plan to make various old mobile phones, floppy disks/computer tech/ cassete tapes, vcr tapes. as a range of sets.

Arcade fonts, test

Another quick test of a possible design direction, Pixelated arcade fonts. I found an arcade font generator on the net, and used this to make text that I vectored in illustrator, the crappiness of the vectoring/colours/pixalation is deliberate, but that might not come across very well so this is possibly not a great direction to go in unless I am sure I can nail it. This style might work better combined with crisper illustrations in motion graphics.

Using my concept of 'Ministry of sound, Since 1991' I had an idea to build the ministry logo out of smilies. This graphic was synonymous with the rave culture at the start of the 1990's so this takes ministry back to its roots. I also used a pixelated computer graphic style as another nod to the early 1990's. This was built using a program that is usualy used for making photo montages, I havent seen it used in this way before. Each smily is genarated randomly from various fonts that incorporate the symbol (for example: ☺ ) The program then makes a judgement to fit the images into the shape of the logo graphic I made, this took a few hours to compute. I designed this to be printed on a large scale so the detail will be visible

(in detail)

Testing a concept direction

Ideas and direction so far

For this ministry brief, as I have previously explained, I want to bring the brand back to its roots and make it more underground and credible. I am thinking of some animated shorts based around the concept "since 1991". Retro style graphics are a good way to connect the brand back to the past as well as being quirky and unusual to appear fresh in the present. I have researched computer games around in about 1991 and there is quite a bit to go on. Mario is a good option, as is sonic (or both together?) Alternatively I could just use a old graphic style without using any actual references. Music will also be a key eliminate to any graphics, again combining am older tune with something new would be the obvious way to do it.

bonus after effects tester.

(because I have such a drawing deficiency, I realised that it would be quicker to do a live rough tester than sketch out story boards that woud be understood by anyone. for this I stole reappropriated various graphic elements: a mario vid from youtube, the ministry logo and an old arcade font.)

Ministry Logo research and tests

Well my original idea was to redesign or at least update the Ministry logo, but after looking further into this im not so sure this is the way forward for this brief. I found that The ministry logo has already been subtly updated in (around) 2002. I still think another update is due, but I dont want this to be the focus of my work in this brief.

This is the original 1991 logo

This is the c.2002 update. The illustration is much simplified all over, Rounded sans font replacing serif

Ok so now that is clear, on to my little testers of another slight update. I really dont want to change the meaning or the overall shape of the logo, but to give it a bit more edge .

The are 3 of my better tests, I really dont like the font used on the 2002 logo so I have spent some time testing ones to try to get a fresher look. Bottom one here is Dax and looks much nicer to me. I have experimented with filling in some of the portcullis to give an edgier feel.

Finally: a tester using the existing logo.

I wanted to see if I can do something fresh just using the old logo. The result is yes I think I can use it in visually interesting ways that are more 'low tech' than the typical over glossy rendered style ministry has long used.

10 things that make a good brief

1. Clear content
2. Enjoyable/fun/appropriate content
3. Defined content
4. Specific outcomes
5. appropriate tone of voice
6. Scope for development
7. Clear deadline
8. Realistic outcomes/expectations
9. Ability to learn/try something new/personal development
10. Outcome that can be used as portfolio piece

My New Brief. . . (In brief)

More to follow, but for this new project I want to update the Ministry Of Sound logo. This hasn't changed since I was buying mix tapes in my late teens! I have a fondness for the brand but I think it has lost its way and become far more downmarket and corperate. This wasnt at all how it started out and I think a refresh is well overdue.

PS.
This is the first compilation they issued, from 1993, This shows how little has changed in the graphics, and sadly how much has in the credibility of the music (Tony Humphries is a highly respected american house DJ whose carear started in the 1970's!)  As contrast, earlier this year MoS released a CD of 'running tracks' yes, music to jog to, attaching the same logo to that is abandoning all underground musical credibility.

Collaborative Brief Evaluation

This evaluation looks back at the creative contract we filled in at the start of the brief and compares this to how things actualy turned out

Why have you chosen to work with your creative partner?

I wanted to work with Mille because I knew she was a talented illustrator and I thought our skills were quite different and so could complememt each other quite well. This I still think is true, but the way the brief panned out meant that as Mille could illustrate far better than me, I was left doing the concept and copy-writing the slogans, this was quite tough on this particular brief, harder than we both expected at first. I think perhaps we were a little nieve in taking on the engage brief as it was a very advertising style brief. We initially thought we could sort out the concept in a few days then we could both get on with design work, this wasnt how it happerned at all.

What are your specific areas of creative interest in this brief?

I never actually got to do many of the things I am actually good at doing during this brief, and almost none of the things I planned to do at the start. This was actually very frustrating, I know I can come up with concepts and creative ideas, and make design direction decisions but these arnt the things I like to to all the time. We got far too bogged down in the concept stage of this brief and it felt like two weeks of going round in circles scribbling on scraps of paper. The only actual design I did for this brief was the submission board layouts.

What specific non-design skills do you have to offer in relation to your chosen brief? How do you intend to use them?

I think I did get to use far more non-design skills than actual design skills in this brief. I defiantly used decision making and problem solving abilities. I also took on much of the concept development and copywriting, this I found fairly torturous to be honest. We both kept a relaxed, level headed approach to the brief even when it wasn't really progressing in the direction we had hoped, so in many ways the collaboration was a success. 

Roles and responsibilities. . . etc

Looking back at this, we were very loose in defining these initially, but we found it quite easy to divide up the work and agree on things along the way. I think neither myself or Mille did our best work during this brief, but I think this perhaps more to do with the difficulty in nailing a concept rather than a reflection on the working relationship.

On balance, the collaboration was a success I feel. The result, although not fantastic, is not a bad solution to a tough brief and was (another) learning experience.