Final Evaluation

My rationale has remained the same throughout this module; I have continued to focus on branding and promotion across print and motion. However, my statement of intent has changed, in particular the briefs I intended to do at the start. I had to drop the Fashion Branding due to the client being slow in getting back to me, which has been an issue across a lot of the live briefs I’ve worked on.

The Yearbook and St Martin’s brief have been the most stressful, which is down to the clients. For example, the St Martins brief was extremely slow due to the client not being able to pick who she wants to work on the branding, resulting in re-pitching several times. Even when she picked Maya and I, we still had to pitch one more time, in the end; we have had to produce some of the other deliverables outside of the FMP due to it holding up our schedule and individual deadlines we had. Thankfully, this did not affect the working relationship between Maya and I. This is a slightly different situation with the Yearbook brief as there were group tensions from the start, but we have ended on a positive note and can look back and learn from errors.

I have learnt a new program this module also, for Brief 04 – E4 and Brief 03 – ITV2, as the kind of visuals I had in my head were not possible to produce in After Effects so I started to learn Cinema 4D end of February, beginning of March. At first, I was wondering if this would mean my ideas would be inhibited slightly due to a lack of knowledge, but it actually set me free. I was able to produce whatever ideas I had written down, and I am really pleased with the colours and quality of the finished pieces. Especially the E4 deliverables, I think the music really refines it and makes it more final than my ITV2 idents where I would have liked to have had a narrator talking over the top, but finding somebody without a strong accent, who would be willing to record audio may be more hassle than its worth.

I am glad I did the E4 and ITV2 brief, as it was a chance for me to do what I wanted to do and enjoy, and it is something I would be proud to have in my portfolio, plus it gives me more content for a showreel. I am equally as glad I did the other briefs as they were a chance to work with clients, one on my own, one with Maya and one with Nick Morgan, Natalie Jackson and Kirsty Hair, so it gave me an all round experience.

As always, I think time management has been a weak point, writing this evaluation now, I can think of many things I should have done, which unfortunately at this time is tough, as I can’t have another go.

Relating to the issue of time is the motion graphics work itself, as much as I have a real passion and spark for creating this kind of work, especially in Cinema 4D where it has that high quality, glossy look, this is disadvantaged by the time taken to render and work with it. For example, to render my Discoball Ident for ITV2 with a duration of 10 seconds, it took 2 hours to render.

In terms of my boards, I am pleased with the way they are, they show what I have done for each brief, and I am actually surprised at how well the motion briefs turned out as the images came straight from Cinema 4D which is RGB, as when I changed them in Photoshop to CMYK, they became murky. An error with the printer and paper stocks has resulted in me having 3 different stocks for my boards.

With respect to my final products, some of my St Martins work was water damaged when I wasn’t in the studio, so reluctantly I have handed some in. This was the same for the Indiependent brief, a few deliverables were ruined but they have been photographed, although they all needed reshooting after advice from the Final Crit.

Without the chances to work on live briefs this module, I don’t feel I would have been ready to work with clients straight after university. The learning experience from these briefs have prepared me in a way I wouldn’t have achieved without the Final Major Project on this course.

Looking back over my work, from the past three years, I am shocked at how my work has developed, and how my pathway within Graphics has changed. I started the course interested in type and layout for campaigns and posters, and now I am more image based interested in motion graphics, for branding and promotion.

My blogging has really let me down this module, there is a lot of development work missing for Briefs 3 and 4, and I am worried this will have a huge effect on my marks.

I feel I have worked to the best of my ability, with the exception of poor time management, and I have learnt a lot about myself personally and professionally. I walked in to the course, naïve and unconfident, and now I feel my confidence has built up and I know what I want to do next. Touch wood, this is a positive end to the year, and the course.

Brief 02 - Final Boards

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Evaluation:

The St Martins brief has been a challenge for Maya and myself from day one, and not always a healthy challenge. The first part of the challenge was to win the pitch, which initially the client should have picked the successful pitch, this didn’t happen, and Maya and I were still pitching in April. Three months to pitch one logo isn’t healthy. This put Maya and I quite far behind with our deadlines, and we were beginning to worry. In the end we decided to speak to Camilla after we had handed in as it was becoming an issue, a few tutors also noticed this.

I am really glad Maya and I were picked for this brief, it would have been devastating to not be picked after  4 months of pitching, which made it unfair for the other person who was competing for the pitch. I know life’s not fair, but 4 months of pitching to then be told your idea isn’t being used is rather unfair.

It was hard to ‘design’ for this brief as once we had the initial logo, the NHS guidelines were that strict, some of the deliverables just felt like we had ‘stuck’ the logo on, but we didn’t even make the decision of where it could be placed, it was from the guidelines. I had some freedom with my app, but I tried to keep that corporate feel, I think this is was a really good idea, and I am glad I carried it through.

In terms of working with a partner, I think Maya and I made a great team. We get on really well which means we are able to comfortably say what we feel without affecting our friendship and professional relationship. It’s funny how one of my first ever projects at Leeds College of Art was a partnership with Maya, and one of my last ever college projects is with Maya.

I think my boards represent our work well, and successfully communicate the ideas we have worked with. I was going to do a concept development board, but I felt that the final ideas were more important than the development, which I think we would rather forget now as it was stressful.

Product Shots

Photos for Brief 2:

External Signage

These are mainly within the NHS guidelines, although when we present to Camilla, we will have followed them very precisely:

St Martins App

A proposal for an easy to navigate app, customers are able to check in without having to queue at the desk, or use the computers to do so. They can also book an appointment up to 2 weeks in advance, register with the practice and see basic information about the practice such as the doctors, location, contact numbers and facilities.

Crit Feedback

I will definitely take the comment about the doctors front in to account for my boards, it would be good to see the signage in context.

As for combining E4 and ITV2 brief, I feel its too late in the game now and they are completely different. I definitely think the E4 brief will be substantial enough when I am finished with it.

St Martins App

Idea for an app I came up with, its a really simple interface to allow patients to register, book an appointment, check in or find information about the practice. These are ideas for the main menu:

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Fifth Pitch

This is what was sent to Camilla this weekend, 2 letterheads, and a colour selection:

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Deliverables

Now Maya and I are closer to a final logo, we decided to draw up a list of deliverables that will be appropriate to the project- we emailed this to Camilla:

Hi Camilla,

Hope you're well.  Sorry for not emailing you earlier on today.  I have attached a file with the oval and square logos mocked up on letterhead.  We have also given you 3 variations of blue and 3 of purple so that you will be able to decide which colour you want to go with.

In terms of the deliverables, Gemma and I had a bit of brainstorming session.  This is the list of possible products we could apply the logo to (some are obviously more suitable and important than others:

- External sign

- Interior signage (reception, waiting room, etc.)

- Way-finding/directional signage

- Signs for the doctors' doors

- Comments/complaints leaflet

- Business cards

- Appointment cards

- Letterhead

- Compliments slip

- St Martins Notepad

- Opening hours sign

- Name badges for the staff

- Uniform/t-shirts for staff

- Staff ID cards and lanyards (we aren't sure if something like this would be used?)

- Website

- An app which people could use to book appointments, check in for appointments and contact details for St Martins

- Pens

- Mugs

- Proposal for how the interiors could relate to the branding

- Overall brand guidelines as to how the logo and branding should be used to create a strong and consistent brand image

Please let us know if any of these would be of interest to you so that we can focus on developing them for you as soon as possible.  Feel free to email or call us if you would like any clarification on anything at all.  My (Maya) number is *************.

Looking forward to hearing the final logo and colour decisions from you at the beginning of next week.

Have a lovely weekend.

Maya & Gemma

--------

Maya Srivastava

www.mayasrivastava.co.uk

Final 2 Logos

Camilla decided on these 2 logos:

To be honest the square one is my favourite out of the whole set we presented. It has a modern feel and it's minimal and clear. We just need to nail down on colours before we carry on. On the phone one of Camilla's main concerns was this logo may take up too much space for publications such as letterheads. Therefore we agreed to email her some letterheads this weekend to help make sure she has made the right decision.

Logo Variations

Now Camilla has decided on a final logo idea (kind of) Maya and I both went away and experimented with different shape ideas and colours as she suggested:

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Maya investigated into blues that may be suitable and I looked into purples. These were the initial set that I liked:

After I presented this palette to Maya we were able to narrow down the colours to these:

We will narrow this down to three for the next pitch.

Fourth Pitch Boards

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E-mail from Camilla

As it's after Easter we were hoping to hear back from Camilla regarding the St Martin's Practice logo development. Will hadn't heard from her either so Maya and myself dropped her a gentle reminder...

This was the response:


It's very exciting that we will be the only ones working on the brief from now on, our hard work has paid off. Although I am aware it will still be uphill until a final logo decision is reached.

Third Pitch Boards

This is what Maya and myself submitted to Camilla - this is the last set of boards (we hope) before Camilla reaches a decision.

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Meeting with Maya

Ready for our next pitch, Maya and I have met twice over the past 2 days to discuss our plan of action:

Camilla Updated Feedback

Crit Feedback

Today's crit was with Robyn R, Will Skane, Pav, Josh, Richard and Charlotte. Most of the feedback I received was from Pav and Robyn.

- They advised me, at this point in the game to forget the Fashion Branding brief, it's too late on for a brief with absolutely nothing. My client has missed 2 meetings with me, and not delivered the required work. Major time lost.

- Storyboards and initial ideas for ITV and E4 brief - as it was hard for people with a non motion background to understand.

- Indiependent work - good to have live charity work.

- St Martins - not a lot to say, client driven, well under way.

- Yearbook - same with that.

* Blogs - I didn't receive any blog feedback, as this wasn't the focus of the discussion.

More Ideas - NHS

After discussing the feedback with Fred, he advised Maya and I not to design anything else. This made sense, we have spent an awful lot of time on this brief, and have only shown a handful of our designs, so we revisited our older work, and tweaked it!

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Camilla Feedback

Personally, the white-out logos will not be affected by photocopying, and we did mock-up how this would translate to black and white, but once Maya and I get together to discuss our plan of action we can decide whether to completely leave this design out.

Comments, Compliments and Complaints Leaflet to Pitch

These are the proposed designs we will pitch to Camilla - put together a little bit last minute, but they work within the guidelines and show how the logos operate on a smaller scale:

I adjusted the top band of colour to work with the logos.