I friend of my brother has contacted me on Facebook looking for someone to do some design work for a bar that he has recently bought. The work desired has yet to be discussed or outlined but I've already begun to look into the bar and the current designs and reputation.
It's quite a classy venue with a warm modern feel to it and it even has a members club so it has an air of sofistication. The current branding doesn't really portray this and it lacks the impact that a bar of its standard should have.
I hope that this will become a live brief for me as its a great opportunity to practice branding and identity and there is scope for a range of point of purchase designs and some print collateral for things like cocktail menus and place mats etc. If all goes well I'll go to Buxton where the bar is and have a look around to get a better feel for the place.
Bretts Fish and Chip Restaurant
Situated in the middle of Headingley in Leeds in the biggest student populated area of the city, you;d expect this place to be booming but when I went last year the place was empty apart from an old couple. The building looks like a very old fashion house and has a very homely, warm feel to it but seem to disappear amongst the surrounding buildings, pubs and bars.
The restaurant needs a fresh and revamped brand which still keeps the rustic feel and the authenticity that it has cherished. There is a big gap for a promotional campaign to launch the new look and get customers involved. I will make contact in person with the owners and staff of the restaurant to see what else I can learn about it and if they would be willing to get on board.
Bradford International Film Festival (BIFF)
I've always been passionate about films and I got a real taste for it in my Product, Range and Distribution brief based on a D&AD brief for Little White Lies magazine. The BIFF is another competition brief which I'm interested in because its focussed on my interest in film and It's asking for an illustrative response to re brand the festival for the 2013 festival.
Although this will be a live brief there is one problem. The deadline is September 28th 2012 so I only have 4 days to enter. However, I will be entering the competition but I would also like to use this brief as a platform to develop a response using illustration.
View Holographics
View Holographics is a company based in Wales which my Dad works for. I Spent some time there as a creative director and consultant to help the company visualise their ideas and present themselves to potential clients. The world of holography is going to be a massive development in the way we think about delivering a message and communicate to the world. The use two methods, Analogue and Digital. Analogue is almost like taking a photograph and digital is similar to printing and the work they can produce are quite impressive. For digital especially there is a massive scope for 3D design work and I would imagine that over the next few years that games and animation students will be looking for this kind of work.
One major problem with the company is that it doesn't have a good way of drawing in the clients to get the revenue and investment they need to make the big leap into the commercial world and fully refine the process. The branding for the company, in my opinion, has been very well done by a design studio called View Creative. I don't want to alter this but instead create some well informed and easy to understand booklets, brochures and leaflets for the company to give to potential clients that can explain the process and what results they can get.
This brief will be a research brief mostly but I'm going to keep it interesting by designing some informative and entertaining posters for the laboratory space which they aren't short of. Alongside the information booklets I will design templates for presentations that they may need to deliver to an audience of potential clients.
Lastly there is a small gallery space in which they are able to display there previous work and samples. Its very dull and run down at the moment but through the use of photography and editing I'm going to propose several layouts for vinyls and display cases that will give the company a range of ways to show off their products.
Personal Clothing Company
I've been thinking about doing this for a while so I thought I should probably take the plunge and use these briefs as an opportunity to create my own clothing label. I'm going to start buy printing T-shirt designs and promote them via the social networks of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I would like this brief to go well and essentially become a fully functioning business by the end of the year which I will going forward with full time.
It's also a good opportunity to look back on the Enterprise module and keep the skills I learnt fresh and active.
There is some opportunity for me to collaborate with a photography student to create a look book for the clothing and give is a solid brand and identity. This is a brief that is very personal to me and will require a lot of attention and market research into competitors and existing independent retails.
Who knows, maybe somewhere along the line others will want to join the crew.
Popina's
Popina's is a descreate little cafe on Brudnell Road in Hyde Park. Surrounded by students they make up the majority of their revenue how ever it's only promotion seems to be word of mouth. Having eaten their several times myself I know that the food is brilliant and the atmosphere is spot on however I could do with getting a bit more attention.
I'm proposing to rebrand the cafe through an illustrative approach focussing less on printed collateral and more on a makeover of the shop. I have an idea for a promotional scheme to put forward to students in student welcome packs that could be given to them by student friendly landlords and letting agencies.
Bikology
Bikology is a small bike shack that you can buy, sell, customise and get your bike repaired. I recently broke my friends bike and I took it in to be fixed and I was fascinated by the inside of the shop and the workshop. It's almost like a garage of a grease monkey inside a shop front. I really just wanted to photograph the place and maybe rebrand the company. However, I already have a few rebranding briefs for small or independent companies and businesses, so instead I thought I'd eplore the world of 'Bikology'. I'm using the term bikology as though it were a science (bike biology). This brief will be dominantly research based and I intended to use a vector graphics based response juxtaposing some photography. The outcome is completely open at the moment but there is scope for deliverables such as a publication, a website, and app with functionality navigation designs.
Dissertation Inspired Posters
I want to produce a series of posters which are inspired, informed and based upon my dissertation research and case studies. The idea is to, in a way, turn the dissertation into a brief alongside the essay. This will help me stay focussed during writing the essay and will be a great chance to create some one off pieces for my portfolio. For now I'd like to keep the posters image based with some illustrated type, but if my research and developments of topic change then the design approach will change accordingly.
This is probably the most straight forward brief I have but I think it will be one of the most important as its fundamental purpose is to help me through writing the dissertation itself.
The Gentlemanifesto
Since the 'What is Good?' brief at the start of my second year I have been very interested in the aesthetic and culture of the chap. I want to continue my research as produce a range of printed deliverables that aim to inform and entertain readers.
I'll be looking closely at the articles featured in 'The Chap' magazine as part of my research. It may end up that the outcome is an additional publication that comes with the magazine.
The reason for the title of this brief is that I would like to develop the existing manifesto of 'The Chap' magazine and take an illustrative approach to displaying it. This is a very open brief at the moment.
The Good Journey (Competition Brief)
http://www.thersa.org/sda/the-briefs
I've found this brief which I think is aimed more at product designers and designers that can invent physical solutions that enhance society. However, I was really interested in the idea of a journey. Big or small journeys are made everyday, this brief tackles the morning commute to wherever you work or have to be. The problem outlined is that the journey can be somewhat of a drag and it needs to have some sort of design solution to make it more enjoyable. I'm going to find this brief one of the more challenging ones.
It's another competition brief and the deadline isn't till next March so I have plenty of time to refine it and hand it in. I'll even be in with a chance to win a few pennies and a paid internship. So fingers crossed.
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