Choosing between the briefs was rather challenging. Being faced with so much choice very quickly within my second year was overwhelming but after sitting down with a highlighter and a biro the choices seemed to narrow down quite quickly. Although the Stranger, Stranger brief and the Other words brief seemed interesting I felt more of a connection to the Gellas kitchen brief and the Conran brief. Mostly due to the family values I saw within Angela Simmonds and the creative freedom the Conran team offered.
I had more immediate ideas for Gellas Kitchen but, once I looked more into some of the histories of the buildings which Conran gave us , I fell in love with the vibrant architecture of the Crossness Pumping Station. The Wes Anderson aesthetic of this building excited me and sparked a lot of inspiration in regards to his use of symmetry and colour which is evident in the buildings design also. The neo-Gothic architecture, mainly seen in victorian buildings like this, also provoked my interest. I plan to look more into the victorian design and experimenting with how I can pair this with a Wes Anderson-inspired look.
On the other hand, looking at the examples that Conran gave to us for competitors, I found myself relating to the design style of the Hans Brinker Hotel. This "on the nose" design style fits my preferred work aesthetic more than the other briefs did. With this being said I believe it's the best fit for me as a professional and will allow me to show my full potential more naturally.
I created a zine based off of “people watching”. I saw an old man on one of my derives and decided to create a series of images inspired by what i reckon his life would have been like.
The world without graphic design would be extremely drab. In fact, it would be nothing like the world we know of now! Graphic design arguably goes into everything in life, therefore without it, we would all still be stuck in the prehistoric era. For example, if we didn't have advertising how exactly would you hear about a new product without word of mouth? This would mean that without graphic design if a product was made in Birmingham people within Birmingham would know about it slowly probably over a few months but it would take years for the information to reach somewhere like wales or even abroad. With graphics and thankfully the internet, of course, we can gage the interest of the public easily and much, much quicker. Without packaging, it would be very hard to tell what product is what, and even arguably having a plain white bottle which is probably how everyone pictures something without any design influence, is still a creative choice and, therefore, design. So, it is so hard to picture what any product would look like without design. If we just labeled things, that's typography! I mean it would be probably very poor design but still design no less. Without design, we wouldn't have as many businesses or at least not as long-lasting businesses. The whole premise of advertising is to make people want to buy a product and be aware of a brand, so without this will brands and businesses last as long? In my opinion, no, they won't as not many people will be aware of them, as stated previously, and attention won't continue to be on them. Like how when we put something down in a room, walk out to a different one and forget where we put it. Because we won't have that consistent reminder that the business or brand exists we would probably simply forget about them.
In conclusion, graphic design is fundamental to the economy and the way we live life within the modern world. Without the color and expression graphics enables us to have globally the world would be even more depressing. And I think we can all agree that we do not need that!