Design practice 2 Evaluation

This module might appear in principle like any other, but there are a few elements that make it quite different from the others.

With Studio Brief 1 having to research an event that took place in Leeds limits the scope much more from what we are used to. It was hard to find an event I felt convinced by, but the truth is that commercial briefs can be very much like this one, where it's necessary to praise a place/event one doesn't feel completely related to. But going to the bridge and researching about it has taught me some history that I would have never known on my own.

I could say this kind of brief has taught me not only new design skills, like victorian ornamentation and screen-printing something with most of the screen revealed, but also cultural knowledge about a specific event and this is always very welcome.

This learning process was something I wanted to illustrate in the final print so the people in the exhibition don't just pass by, but maybe stop and appreciate the details that make it not only another victorian illustration, but one with a story behind with witty references. Also, the final outcome could have been improved by subjecting the print to a fake aging process to enhance what was intended.

In Studio Brief 2 the approach and development was quite different. The first part of the brief focused on research, which I think was vital to pin down what needed to be done. When working with ethical and social issues a designer can easily find stones in the way that are difficult to deal with as, eventually, the work is going to be more subject to judgement, misinterpretation or critique as in opposition to a commercial brief. It is designers job to find workarounds to make sure the message that is intended to be sent is appropriately understood. This is particularly challenging with positive messages, as it's easier to point out what is wrong instead of encouraging others and oneself how to face these problems, as it's not very nice to tell people how to deal with certain stuff. That's where the challenge is in a brief like this.

The outcomes of this project wouldn't have been possible without using content created by third parties. New photographies or illustrations that don't copy a photography would be needed in order to make this brief 'in the real world'. Although, it was very interesting and reinforced the point of this project was the fact that the images on internet that can be found of these famous female athletes are very limited in terms of quality and variety. This made very hard to find information about the photographers to contact them for permission.

The technique that is proposed to be used to lay those illustrations on the walls requires time and high doses of patience. Using small stencils might produce a displacement that can be very noticeable with words being split. Also, despite the work wasn't physically produced, I wanted to make sure it was doable. After speaking to the staff at LCA, I realised that the illustrations would need to be re-done as the letters would need to be modified in order to place them on a stencil. For instance, the counter in the 'O' needs to be linked with the exterior of the letter so it stays there when the paper is cut. This was a valuable lesson for future ideas.

On feedback sessions a common suggestion was to make this somehow work in social media. A very good idea would be to release an app or add a feature to an existing one that could make an illustration out of a photography with a chosen word. This could be done by giving simple instructions like, for instance, making sure that the picture taken has a white background. To ease the process of making the app and to avoid a misuse of it, the words might be limited and offered to the user as a choice. The promotion of this app could be done as a footnote of the illustrations or through the celebrities. This would encourage people from everywhere to make their own picture with a similar technique and share it on social media. This could work as an addition to the main purpose, but I didn't want to make it the main purpose of this project as what was important from the beginning of the production was the normalisation of female athletes figures in common environments for young generations.