Connor- It's Nice That

Will the creator made a blog whereby he published work as response to a brief which set out to make people feel better about themselves, so by posting and celebrating people's work this is achieved.

Office in London, grown from one man in his uni bedroom, to ten years later 14 people in an office.

The site features animation, photography, film, illustrations etc...

They interviewed the guy behind the set visuals for Aphex Twins- Field Day facial projections

Interviewed Rick and Morty illustrator, visuals are created in photoshop then animated in after effects


Printed Pages- publication (The It's Nice That Publication)


Publication tip- print out all pages really small and align them on a big board to give yourself a better idea of layout.

Creative Talks Event- Nicer Tuesdays- free beer around a tenner in London, have talks with famous iconic practitioners.

Harry's life drawing event- ties in men's shaving with a mixed gender audience through life drawing men

uniqlo life wear- fluorescent high visibility

https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/new-perspectives-thomas-traum180116 

The Graduates - a number of graduates are selected

Animated Design: (outside of Its Nice That) 

Numbers Josey Rebelle Bleaker



Keep learning new skills - everything you learn becomes useful in one way or another
Don't pretend you know how to animate- but you can learn really quickly
Apply for the Graduates!

Night Line Brief: Small Responsive

The Night Line brief specified certain key points, the use of the blue, the imagery of the owl as an extension of pre-existing branding, but mainly specified an updated image, avoiding looking 'too girly'. I specifically focused on avoiding anything too clinical to try alleviate the stigma behind utilising mental health services, or 'girly' as it's put in the brief to hopefully make the services accessible to a wider audience.

I originally started playing around with backgrounds, linking Van Gogh's Starry night in as I felt the brushstrokes are not only recognisable as an iconic imagery (using imagery from popular culture  hopefully alleviates stigma) but soothing and in-keeping with the suggestion of a blue colour palette. I used a colour swatch from the dull yellow shades to use for the typography and a sans serif font to contrast the fluidity of the background, keeping the overall appearance contemporary, especially with the alignment whereby the type fits in a box with adjusting the kerning.

I felt this wasn't in keeping with the brief too much however as the owl aspect is non existent which is a strong theme and would be consistent with the rest of their current branding which they specified they liked, so for this next example I used owl feathers the background and considered using the 'line' literally throughout the design, thinking about how this telephone line can metaphorically run through the business card front and back (below) and sticker (featured underneath).

Then I developed this idea and included the 'I' in this line, the use of colourful background and negative spacing for typography I felt was contemporary, however it didn't include any blue, there was furthermore something I just didn't like about these designs, I feel the aesthetic would suit the context of a clothing store or night out more... it doesn't look appropriate.









This next design utilised the owl in vector form, as well as a dark shade of blue which I felt looks professional and I recognise if frequently used in the context of mental health branding, for example for Mind the mental health charity and Bipolar UK. Whilst blue is associated also with the NHS most famously and many other medical companies, using blue in this context maintains that sense of knowledge and guidance.


I felt I should therefore add implicitly contemporary methods of overlaying and collage subtly to remove the feel of it being too professional and inaccessible. Maintaining the imagery of the 'line' the natural ending of the imagery acted as negative space underneath as I aligned the typography here.

Furthermore the use of lower case for their motto was to bring about this feel of informality, contrasting the company name which in bold uppercase hopefully readdresses this balance of informality as they provide a professional confidential service, which should be clear throughout the branding.

I made this design just before the latter but didn't think much of it as although I felt the concept was strong and in-keeping with the minimal logo concept as mentioned in the brief (picking out key facial features distinguishing an owl) I felt it was too scary looking for the context, however during the briefing today people said this was their favourite and most appropriate, dependant also though on the fact it had to be less scary. Initially it looked like a simplistic unsettling poster for a horror film.
I thought this could be played off like this owl was the inner demons we all struggle to fight with, I like this concept and I feel even you could say it looks like there is pain in the eyes, however it may put people off further as they're too afraid to face their own demons.

I then went back to the imagery I'd used to create the simplistic representation of the owl and picked out a few feather formations to add which I felt might soften the appearance. I feel this was successful, but avoids looking too 'cute' which the brief also specified they wanted to ignore as original imagery included pink cartoons of owls which was too 'girly' and 'cutesy'.

I then played around with the typography on the back, I used Hoefler and Kannada Regular for the telephone numbers as I felt the Hoefler text (first example to the left) is too complicated to read and old fashioned, ease of access should be a key factor for the type design of these numbers as in a stressful situation for example, legibility should not be a issue for those in need of this service.

I also changed the type into all lowercase to maintain this informal theme, while the subtle colour and bold kerning suggests professionalism.

Business Card (front & back below):


Sticker:


Leaflet (A5 with space for further information to be added by Night Line):


I've just emailed these mock-ups off to Leeds Night Line along with a link to my blog to explain further my rationale and hope to hear a response of some kind!

OUGD503 Briefs

Liam's Brief 

A1 print or 60 second video 

based on personal interests, create your own artwork 

deadline: February 

Other Briefs choose

1 big one

2 little ones

1 big collab/ 2 little collab

Come up with 50 ideas by Friday of responses to a brief(s)

Prepare a short description oh why you have chosen those briefs (Individual/ collaborative) 

A plan- what are you answering 

Responses can be: 

A word

sentence

diagram

mind map

question 

persona

mood boards 

Develop these to present on Friday 

Audio & XD walkthroughs

Audio That Would play using the app (my meditation tapes alongside Adobe XD walk throughs):

Enchanted Forest Meditation

Under The Sea Meditation

Complete Map:

Projector Page

Projection

I will now enable people to use a projector, enhancing their user experience. I want to have a link on this page to a guide to making their own projector, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx4vPeL9y2g) available if they don't already have an iPhone specific third party projector.

This being my initial concept for how this mid-way projection page would look, I experimented with this layout in Illustrator but instead of using block like light rays coming off the body of the projector, I thought using the same curved lines coming off the lighting icon would be more consistent. However in context I feel this doesn't look quite right, the image was too literal and I feel I can afford something more subjective, as I have done with the camera/ screenshot icon. I then tried out a more conceptual image, using the lighting icon outline, I made it look like the lens of the projector with light specs. Although it doesn't necessarily look like a projector, it's more fitting with it's aesthetic.

I put this in context, linking it as an in-between from the menu screen to your chosen Happy Place.

I'm unsure wether this page is too plain, but don't want it overly dramatic due to it's informative functionality, I feel perhaps a way to get around this, maintaining purpose but upholding style may be to edit the contents of the iconography.

I feel this is the perfect solution, it's not too hectic as I want to maintain a calming process, but it's not as clinical as it was in black and white, the imagery used I've decided should correspond to which ever Happy Place you're about to visit. 

Happy Places Icons

At first I made very simplistic icons, slightly rendering existing iconography. The images didn't fit particularly well together, the thickness of lines especially frustrated me, they didn't look like a uniformed set of images. I did however really like the use of the smiley logo as the special features icon as it seemed fitting and not like it was assigned to any Happy Place specifically. I thought about using the screenshot icon as a camera at first but thought a landscape icon may be more appropriate as it references nature, a place away from social media which the camera icon is so typically used in and recognised in mainstream media, with connotations of selfies and Instagram for example which harbours social pressure typically pronounced with younger audiences. 

I then started to think about a more uniformed approach, leading with the smiley special features icon, I thought it would make sense to use this outer circle as a barrier for all my icons, this coincides with the circular aesthetic of Mandalas, symbolic of a microcosm of our universe. 

A Madala is a complex abstract circular design, the name itself is Sanskrit for "circle" with one identifiable center point.

(Use of colour purely so it was easier to design)

I really liked the first lighting icon's sun rays so kept these, image tracing it without the details in the center so it looked less like the sun and more an orb of light.

After using the pen tool to construct all of my icons, I tested them out on a colourful background. Clearly as they're white the visibility is quite a concern, however as the backgrounds of the Happy Places are mean to be videos, this worries me less as you will be able to see them the majority of the time 100% clearly and some elements may not be so clear infrequently due to the nature of the lighting of the videos.

I'm happy with these and feel they look a lot more consistent than my original designs which were also not sketched out by me which felt inappropriate, especially as this project has a personal place in my heart as something that helped me. Hence fitting the brief of resolving an issue which for me remains the stigma behind meditation not being particularly contemporary or accessible.

Happy Places Places.. Enchanted Forest

I really love the last image, however in practice I feel the second image below is a better screenshot to use as it's more of an open space and looks more like a walk through video than the first, it's also less gloomy which could be construed as threatening.

 

Going with this second image, I'm building up the interface as I did with the Under the Sea Happy Place. I chose these two because this enchanted forest path is possibly my favourite kind of guided visualisation, whereas for me 'Under the Sea' would be my idea of a nightmare, I wanted to test myself to make this as relaxing as possible, myself being quite a good tester of this as the idea of being underwater frightens me. 

Like with the Under The Sea Happy Place I have replicated the same functional layout, with links going to and from the different hues, as well as the camera icon, audio and special features.

Having got the hang with the previous happy place, it was quite simple to recreate this for a different environement as initially I had never used XD before and found simple things difficult to complete, for example finding the methods of linking pages.









Below are the special features for Enchanted Forest, you can select from wildlife, fairies and sun beams.

I now have two different complete experiences for Happy Places, the Enchanted Forest and Under The Sea. It's a shame XD won't support a video background or enable me to actually include the audio elements but I'm really pleased with the design outcome, and these elements would obviously be available if this app was actually developed.