#profdevgroupproject

[littlebitlearningcurve-blog]

Liverpool ONE - Reflection

After looking back on the group project, I have realised many of my downfalls and accomplishments. I found working with a group of people that I do not know very well, very challenging, as well as a very good experience. 

At the beginning of the group project, I made it very clear to my group that I can use Illustrator quite well, however I do not know much at all about Photoshop. I also said that if I needed to use Photoshop I would and I would try my very best, but to get a professional result, someone a bit more experienced in this area would be better off using the software. Strangely enough the majority of the work near the end of the project required Photoshop, so other members of the group would take on the roll. This left me feeling very unhelpful, I would give my opinion and any advice whenever possible and I would be around to consult any time the group needed. This has left me knowing that as an individual, improving my photoshop skills would be a huge help in the future. I am very happy to come away with a decision like this, as it will help my self-improvement. 

Although I was present whenever needed during the group project, and I did any of the work I could, to my best ability. I found the social aspect of the work quite challenging. As an individual, I am not a very confrontational person, therefore if I find a problem with something a person has done, I will politely explain my feeling to that person in order to avoid confrontation in the future. This is something that I expect in return, if anyone finds a problem with something I have done or said then I expect them to explain it to me so that I can immediately apologise and explain myself properly. I have suddenly realised that not everyone is like this, and I found myself in some uncomfortable positions where the group were not all getting along as happily as I would like. I suppose that is just one of the negatives of group work. 

One more thing I have learnt from this group work is to make sure that I keep every photograph I take, and to personally document the group work. I have learnt this because I have been put in apposition where photographs I took part in taking, and work I took part in creating, I did not have evidence of. I automatically relied upon others to be able to pass them on to me a week before the deadline, and that was a silly thing to do on my behalf. This has taught me a good lesson for the future, and has made me feel like I will be able to improve personally, and socially for future group work.

Overall, the experience has been very up and down. I have gained a lot of experience and have learnt a lot about myself professionally. I have discovered that learning to use software such as Photoshop will give me an upper hand in the future, and that I should not assume other people will be reliable. I should always take my work into my own hands and document everything I do. However, I am very happy with the work I have created and taken part in. 

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual development - Final Images

[hannahtinsleysecondyear-blog]

Developed print magazine proposal

Think this is a massive improvement on the last printed magazine advertisement. It includes '8' items of 8 different big brand consumer products such as Michael Kors, John Lewis and Debenhams. I'm going to try more grid type layout for another 'Street view' experiment as I feel it will communicate the '8' icons theory in a more successful manner. 

[rckelsallround2-blog]

i created a new gif with brighter images and the new layout.

I feel this works really well as it is clear to see what shops are at Liverpool ONE and also feels more family orientated this time compared to last time.

[littlebitlearningcurve-blog]

Liverpool ONE - Outcome

We have finally created our advertisements. We have created a series of five portrait and landscape advertisements that represent shops such as Cafe Nero and The Body Shop. Our advertisements were created with the intention of focusing on the number 8 whilst attaching the advertisements to some of the shops included in the "Open Until 8" campaign. The images above will be used as posters. The images you can see, I have edited. I have done this because I did not agree with the small 8 logos the group wanted to put on the top of the posters, and I feel they are much more effective without them.

We have also created a series of publications and a GIF that is ready to be used on the website. One of the publications holds a mixture of the groups drawings/sketches, the other has areas of the magazine images in. I took on the job of creating the images in the right sizes to be in the magazine. To do this I had to measure each area the images would take up, then I had to re-size the original photographs and add the logo and slogan to each image. 

Whilst in the interview with the client, he did mention a few things that I had mentioned to the group in advance, however the majority vote won, which is only fair in a group project. He mentioned things such as: "the window stickers should be bigger, they are pointless if they are as small as the opening timetable", "the small 8 logo does not look good on the top of the posters", and "the 8s should all be central to the image". I feel that our campaign ideas were very good and the small things that have been mentioned by the client could have easily been fixed. One thing I feel unsure about is that the 8 should all be central to the image, this is only because I feel it is better to advertise the shops as well as the open until 8, in my opinion as long as the 8 is clear to the viewer, then the advertisement has worked. 

The only other improvements we could make as a whole would be to create an 8 shaped doughnut, or an 8 shape soap, this would require a mould or doughnut baker, and with a budget this would be a possible idea, and would definitely improve the images. 

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual Development - Postcards

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual Development - Magazine Advertisments

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual Development - Window Stickers

I have changed the window stickers slightly to fit in with my change on the advertisements.

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual Development - Street views

I placed the advertisements in places other than Liverpool One. This was due to the feedback we were given. The client wanted to advertise to place around Liverpool, other than the centre of Liverpool itself. For example, Warrington, Ormskirk, Chester etc. Therefore I would place the advertisements on bus stops in these places and on buses traveling outside of Liverpool. The advertisements could also be placed on trains and on billboards in these areas.

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual Development - Online Advertisements

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual Development - Experimenting with the pm

The images above show the amount of experimentation I did before coming to a conclusion as to which pm I would place on the advertisements. I played around with creating the pm out of circles as the 8 is a very circular type however I don't feel this worked. My final decision was togo with a round typeface which looked graphically better and would reiterate the fact it was remaining in the same position. I experimented with the size of the type as much as possible, printing off designs to see whether the type was the right size. The last image was my final choice on both layout and style of the pm.

[hannahlowrievans]

Individual Development - Experimenting with layouts

After receiving the feedback and re-photographing the coffee cup I deciding to place a pm after the 8. This would remain in the same place, along with the 8 for every image if I was able to create one for each shop. The 8 would remain in the same type which is futura throughout every image, creating moulds would allow me to do this. However, this could only be done if there was a big budget and I was able to get into the shops once they had closed.

The images above show the experimentation I went through to decide on a layout for the design. The amount of information on each advertisement would depend on where they were situated however the 8 and pm would always remain.

[littlebitlearningcurve-blog]

Liverpool ONE - Development 

The group wanted to create an advertisement for The Body Shop, however, even though they gave us a lot of packaging and labels, we did not actually have any of their products that could be manipulated into an 8. I offered to use my own HEMP products to help the group. We practiced 8 shaped on the board, and decided to use a paper stencil with the body butter. After talking to Jon we realised that the 8 in body butter wasn't very realistic, and it would not be spread across a worktop in the shop. It would be better if we could use round soap to create an 8 shape. 

[hannahtinsleysecondyear-blog]

Developed Idea

I decided to re design the idea using the same icons but as photographed images, using a red colour scheme throughout making it bolder and eye catching 

[littlebitlearningcurve-blog]

Liverpool ONE - Group Adventures

After showing the group what I had done with the 8 stencil, we all spoke to Jon, and in a group decision we decided that it would be better to try and make each 8 specific to the different shops. We decided the only way to do this would be to go to the shops and have a look around, and see what freebies we could get while we were there.

So we did.

While walking around the shops we noticed that some shops like Pandora, are very protective over their brand and would not give us anything, even when we showed them the brief and our student cards. Other shops like Lego, Krispy Kreme, Cafe Nero, Body Shop and Build a Bear were all very helpful. They managed to give us bags, packaging, tea cups and saucers, we also picked up things like sugar and napkins, for Cafe Nero, and doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. I was very surprised that some shops were so willing to help us, it was a nice experience, and they gave us a flying start to creating a shop scene.

After our shop adventures, we immediately went back to uni and began to try and photograph them. We began with the Cafe Nero, using the stencil I had designed and created, we bought a coffee and made a chocolate sprinkle 8 on top. We then borrowed a table from the cafe downstairs and began to photograph.

[littlebitlearningcurve-blog]

Liverpool ONE - Experiments

After talking to the group, I mentioned that it might be a good idea to create the 8 out of items that can represent the different shops in Liverpool ONE. They seemed to like this idea and all jumped on board. We then decided to all go home and experiment with different materials.

In order to make the shape of the 8 consistent throughout I cut some 8 stencils our of cast acrylic, on the laser cutter. I cut these in two different typefaces and each typeface in three different sizes, that way the group would collect a range of different experiments. I took the three Ariel Black 8s and I offered to try out toothpaste, chocolate, rice and cake cases, I also carried on to try out flour (from the stencil and the negative of the stencil), face cream and lego. I feel that the best ones were the negative 8 in flour spread across the surface, and the Lego 8, as I feel that these most represent different types of shops and have turned out the best.