I just saw a pig fly..

Making friends.. it is a very broad term and in order for my product to be successful i really need to be specific in what i am creating and not try to get a head of myself and try to do too much. Which is what i have done in the past and the final product has lost quality because of this.

What my main focuses with this project are going to be the Buddy product itself, and the way in which it is packaged. Once i have that sorted and if i have time i will think about creating the online profiling and other products that could come with it i.e a poster that as all the varying Buddies on it.

One way to help me focus myself, is to create some specifics now. And in order to do this i have looked at the audience a little more thoroughly. We all know its going to be net years first years, which was essentially us a year ago. This is great because we can immediately relate to them and what they have been through. It also means that we can think like them.

below i have taken the audience apart into different categories and see what i would associate within those categories.

Audience - YOUNG - VIBRANT - ARTY

Within these catagories i have done a word association, always keeping in mind that the students are arty and it must relate to graphic design.

Young - Colourful, interesting, visually engaging, interactive, stylized, contemporary.

Vibrant - Colourful, bright, loud, heavy drawings, fun, humorous, interesting, relatable

Arty - Graphics, visually engaging, humorous, interesting, different, quirky

After i did these, i decided to take out the ones that i want to evolve my product around:

- colourful

- contemporary

- stylised

- visually engaging

- interactive

Now i have some specifics to start focusing my product and project around.

My idea...

Making Friends...

After coming up with my inital idea, i decided to investigate it a little further in order to see what avenues i could come up with. I had already thought about having a portable companion, something that could fold out and have your information within it. In order for your information to be there, i thought about creating a possible online profile. Either using what is already readily accessible i.e facebook. Or creating my own splash pages to illustrate it. And on this profile you would be able to fill in your personal characteristics. For example the sort of music that you're into, or what social scene you prefer (house parties or oceana nights). Each would have a different category and you would fill in which ones most suited you. That way later the personal companions could be customised to fit you, and that would be where the colour coding would come into play, you would be able to meet other people with similar interests to you because their buddy would show it too. That way you already having something to talk about.

The interests themselves need to be researched more thoroughly but its a start in helping put together a profile for the next lot of students to fill in. They don't even have to do it online they could do it on the first day, after picking a companion that most suits them by the look. This also leaves room for me to create sets, and each set corresponds to a different sort of person.

Concept

After spending a day trying to come up with as many ideas and different concepts for this brief i settled on using my first idea. This was to help the next first year students make friends in the first week without feeling awkward and forced. For me, and i'm not being arrogant, making friends has never been much of a problem as i have had a lot of experience over my life in mixing in a lot of different groups. Whether it be through work, drama groups, snowboarding groups, teams etc and i haven't had a choice but to make friends. Having said that it is still a very daunting task walking into that room on the first day not recognising anyone not knowing anyone, and thinking that you won't make any friends. This is the reason i want to make it that much easier. The college did do a lot for us in our first week, making us mix etc but i think there are certain things that i have learned from previous experiences that can make it all a little more comfortable.

So..My idea.

The general idea is to create a buddy, and/or buddy system. I want to create something that you would be able to carry around with you that first week and that you could use as a starting point in making conversation. Somehow i want to include information about 'you' so that the person can then go on and stalk to people. I also want there to be a way in which people can recognise other people with similar interests, im not 100% sure how i will go about this, i am assuming it will be some sort of colour code, but again im not sure.

I like this idea because it gives me a lot of room to explore different avenues across a range of different medias. That way i will always have something to do over the coming weeks.

These are the resolution ideas i have come up with so far:

A poster/flyer

Personalised Buddy

A companion

A Pack (possibly with all the above included)

In-Design Brief

Charlotte Warren.

We were given a partner from our year to do an In-Design layout on. I got given Charlotte Warren. We were told to interview each other and find out as much as possible about one another. I decided to go down the route of Graphics. I thought it would be appropriate to talk about her interests in the subject and her inspirations. This also included designers she loved from Graphics, as well as anything other. I managed to find out a lot about her, especially about her mentality towards the course, and projects we got given which i thought was interesting. I decided to make my article all about her love for graphics, her favorite designers and then a little about her as a person. (All in folder).

I was quite excited about the prospect of doing something like this as i have ever done anything like it before. Especially using In-Design which would be completely new to me.

Once i had interviewed Charlotte, i decided to have a look at her work on her blog to just gage a certain style she might have or a certain she may be interested in pursuing to try and tie it into the design as much as possible.

Rational 2

Rational 1

What is a line... Evaluation

I have thoroughly enjoyed this project. It has been completely open to me experimenting with a range of different materials and processes, being able to take my time and set my own pace which has been great. I really think out of the time given, as well as other projects etc i have produced he best work i could. there are a lot of aspect of this project that i would love to take further in the future which i fully intend to. I think finally i have produced something of a professional standard and looks visually pleasing (to me at least). I have learn't so much, and really pushed myself in developing my skills further in both illustrator and print.

The final products that I have produced, are there to show an idea of where this could go. In the end i want to actually screen print them all and make a lot more sets before i finally pick the ones i want to take further. I think i want to blow one up as well and see what it will look like on a larger scale.

I cannot wait to take the project further and see what other avenues i can go down. I also have realised i like this style of work and hopefully I have started along the avenue to being comfortable with my own style and incorporating it into my designs in the future.

What is a line...

FINAL IMAGES