OUGD502 - The Rivalry

THE RIVALRY is a collaboration of opposites who share a discerning eye. While we are inverses of each other, our collective strengths exceed our differences. This duality lies at the center of everything we do. The studio is owned and run by JESSE KACZMAREK and ANDY GUGEL—each a leader in their creative field (BRAND and DIGITAL, respectively)—with offices in NEW YORK CITY and MINNEAPOLIS. Together we create engaging experiences with clients who champion the potential of design.

The Rivalry's design is the sort of design that I appreciate the most. It's refreshing, simple and to the point design that almost seems effortless. Simple colour schemes and contemporary typefaces give an overall aesthetic of cleanliness inviting the user to pick them up. The most notable of their recent designs is the Google rebrand.

Caviar Identity

Mithun Identity

This sort of identity really appeals to me because of it's simplicity in just a logotype rather than over complicated symbols. The restraint shown for the colour palette further adds to the sophisticated feel of this identity. I also feel like the layering of stock in the stationary plays a big part to its success. As the design is not simply a flat page, it has elements that move making it more visually appealing. 

http://therivalry.co/

https://www.behance.net/TheRivalryInc

OUGD502 - Taking Care of Business - Website Design

For the website we wanted something really simple and straight to the point because none of us are really interested in web design. So we thought something simple would be simple to upkeep and not too confusing for clients to navigate. 

Also to represent our playful nature instead of adding portraits of ourselves on the about page we put our favourite animals instead. As well as including our likes and dislikes so that clients will treat as friends not just their employed designers. 

We also added a print store page because we wanted to be able to do our own personal work on the side of other client's projects so we thought that selling prints would add a little extra income here and there. Also it shows off our abilities in print if anyone was unsure. 

OUGD502 - Sophie Rose Wall Make Up Artistry

I was approached via my facebook page to create a visual identity for a make up artist student. She had given me some concepts of her own.

These initial concepts that she had created helped me a lot in order to get the kind of thing that she wanted. With the "smoky" effect she was trying to create the illusion of glitter. 

I started by taking a typeface very similar to her serif choices and framed it within a box. I created patterns based on different tools of the make up artistry trade: eyeshadow, glitter, lipstick and eyeliner. I thought that this sort of graphic style could be suited to any occasion and keeping the logo itself very simple would lend well to any situation too. 

However when sending these designs to her she preferred the one where she had found a diamond with watercolour textures, so I tried a range of designs with some quick textures that I produced. 

In response to this she changed her mind once more. Which was rather annoying as I just wanted to do it quickly as I could as I wasn't charging her much. But never the less she wanted to use her initials instead of her full name now. And I suppose this is just what it is like working for a client - sometimes they may not necessarily have the same taste as you as a designer so you have to deal with this sort of criticism and not take it to heart. 

I played around with using her first and last initial with a picture of a rose in between to represent her middle name and she seemed to really respond well to this. After that it was just minor adjustments, changing the colours to ones that are greyscale and altering the type a little.  

And this was the final logo that I created. I learnt a lot about possible work from this process as I feel like I spent a lot more time than I should have done making alterations. If I was to do this again I would definitely charge more as I only charged her £35 for about half a days worth of work. Still it is good practice for me to communicate professionally with a client and arrange payments for future work that I may receive. 

OUGD502 - Study Task 2 - HORT One Day brief

Today we were briefed on a one day brief to complete for Hort, a studio that hopefully we will get to visit when we go to Berlin. A little bit about Hort:

Launched in 1994 (originally as Eikes Grafischer Hort), Berlin studio Hort initially developed a sizeable reputation for its music industry-based design projects. Since then it has demonstrated both versatility and an approach to experimentation through the juggling of big client work (Nike, Volkswagen, The New York Times) and equally fascinating self-initiated output.

For the design I decided that I wanted to play with paper cut after looking at a lot of Snask's work. And the idea of a 3D message to Hort was my best thought. It didn't take me long to figure out what to say because I wanted to keep it cheerful and playful. So I went with "Hello gorgeous Hort".
 

The production of it took a lot longer than I had anticipated, originally I was going to have all of the letters in "Gorgeous" completely 3D with nets and everything but there simply wasn't enough time to do this. So I ended up just laying the paper cut on the work surface and propping up the other words with thick board legs on the back. However this contrast between perspectives of 3D and 2D creates more interest to the composition so it worked in my favour.

What I particularly liked about this was that I could take away the "Hort" and have a general message to everyone so I can use it on my social media pages and so on. 

I was really happy with the end result and I hope that Hort likes it too!

OUGD502 - Taking care of business - Installation Design

We chose 5 key areas to explore within our practice and each chose one to research. I was very intrigued by the idea of interactive design - not digital but analogue. I really like the idea of being able to have something physical for the audience to react to - that communication between the design and the user.

Studio Roosegaarde

Van Gogh Path

https://www.studioroosegaarde.net/project/smart-highway/photo/#van-gogh-path

"SMART HIGHWAY are interactive and sustainable roads of tomorrow by designer Daan Roosegaarde and Heijmans Infrastructure. Its goal is to make smart roads by using light, energy and information that interact with the traffic situation. 


Glowing Lines are lines that charge at day-time, and glow at night for eight hours. The first road has been realised, and will be further launched internationally.


The recent Van Gogh-Roosegaarde bicycle path is made of thousands twinkling stones inspired by 'Starry Night'. The path combines innovation with cultural heritage in the town of Nuenen NL, the place where Van Gogh lived in 1883."

This path in The Netherlands was inspired by the Starry Night Van Gogh painting and it lights up as people walk across it. This means that the path wouldn't need any street lighting by it for people to walk safely as well as creating a beautiful feature to the town that would attract tourists. 

Snask

Malmö Festival 2014

http://snask.com/case/malmofestivalen-2014/

Another piece of brilliant installation design is this 3D poster for a festival in Malmo. I love how the set up was used as the poster and then kept throughout the event so that people could constantly react with it and walk within it. This interaction between design and clientele is exactly want we want to portray in Roots. Snask do a lot of this sort of playful design where they use physical objects within the design rather than being purely digital. It really makes a difference to have real objects that are photographed as opposed to digital vectors. Real objects add a texture and a tactile-ness that could hardly ever be achieved digitally. 

Christian Hergarten

The 2€ T-shirt Machine

https://www.behance.net/gallery/26017969/THE-2-EURO-T-SHIRT-A-SOCIAL-EXPERIMENT

"Berlin, April 24, 2015 – The vending machine standing in the middle of Alexanderplatz in Berlin is a bright popping turquoise. And it promises a real bargain, too: ‘T-Shirt only 2 Euros’. But no t-shirt comes out after the coin has disappeared inside the machine. Instead a video plays on a display, showing shocking scenes from textile factories, where women and children sew without a break. They are paid only 13 cents per hour in addition to working under life-threatening conditions. After 20 seconds an option appears on the display: ‘Buy or Donate’. Consumers are faced with a decision. Do you really want to buy the t-shirt? Or would you rather donate the 2 Euros?"

Another installation design that I found on Behance was this t shirt vending machine. It encourages people to do something out of the ordinary from their day. And also the design itself of the machine is so bright and garish from the grey background of everyday life that it almost beckons people to look at it to see what it does. People would be drawn in by the price of the t shirts but then they are shown what goes on to make these t shirts so cheap so it raises awareness to those who would buy from retailers who support such practices. It encourages you to either buy the shirt or donate it to charity as a result of this video.