PROJECT FILE

Links to the individual project briefs and evaluations can be accessed below;

BRIEF ONE

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/brief-one-natura-project-evaluation.html


BRIEF TWO

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/brief-two-dsm-brief-evaluation.html


BRIEF THREE

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/brief-three-nest-brief-evaluation.html


BRIEF FOUR

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/tdr-conclusion.html


BRIEF FIVE 

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/brief-five-drme-brief-evaluation.html


BRIEF SIX

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/brief-six-feathr-brief-evaluation.html


BRIEF SEVEN

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/brief-seven-intern-magazine-brief.html


BRIEF EIGHT

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/brief-eight-design-publication-brief.html


BRIEF NINE

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/brief-nine-secret-7-underworld-brief.html


BRIEF TEN

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/brief-ten-secret-7-chemical-brothers.html


BRIEF ELEVEN

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/brief-eleven-ycn-moo-brief-brief.html


BRIEF TWELVE 

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/brief-twelve-bapt-brief-evaluation.html


BRIEF THIRTEEN 

Link - http://j-harrisonreader1215-ep.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/brief-thirteen-abigayle-libberton-brief.html

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - SUBMISSION BOARDS

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - BRIEF & EVALUATION

PROJECT BRIEF - 

PROJECT EVALUATION - 

DESIGN PUBLICATION - EXTERIOR PACKAGING - PACKAGING DIELINES RESEARCH

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - CRITIQUE

Today, I attended a group criticism with Tony Broomhead in which we had the chance to present and get feedback on projects of our choosing. 

I decided to present my current progress with two of the largest briefs I am currently undertaking as we approach the final hand-ins on the 22nd of May. The first project I presented was the design publication and the second, following as it has relevance to the publications concept, was the branding for photography student Abigayle Libberton.

The design publication itself acts as a research journal in which information is recorded and visually explored. As the topic of focus is brand identities, and more specifically Abigayle, the publication focuses on exploring the different facets of Abigayles identity and profession. 

Below is a video of the website I have currently created for abi which was presented alongside the design publication and various other elements of Abigayle's branding.

Notes documenting the feedback I received after presenting can be seen below. 

IMPORTANT POINTS;

• Book should move away from the hand rendered explorations and work towards the minimal outcome Abigayle's branding has taken. 
• Add images.
• More design.
• Pressed flowers.
• Ink and print found objects.
• Present book in clean white box, represents minimal outcome of the branding and visually contrasts the book and hand rendered explorations. 
• Go to village bookstore and research photography zines.
• Print promotional booklet on satin paper to get best result for the printed images.

The feedback I received was really useful and will undoubtedly help me to improve both of the projects I discussed with the group. However, the idea I believe will have most impact is the packaging idea for the design publication. The concept fits well with the direction both projects have taken and will act as a relevant and visually engaging way to present the project for submission.  

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - PUBLICATION CRITIQUE

Earlier today I attended a criticism reviewing our current progress with the design publication brief. Something that I felt was needed as I hadn't yet talked about my concept in detail in front of people and was unsure as to whether it made coherent sense. 

In preparation for the criticism creates notes that broke down the project into subsections, subsequently helping me to explain the concept in a simple, understandable fashion. 

Notes and feedback from the criticism can be seen below;

IMPORTANT POINTS; 

• The concept makes sense and answers the brief.
• Support the book with a written document explaining the concept to the reader. 
• I have made good progress with the brief so far and need to ensure I continue with my efforts to get the project finished in time for the submission.

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - METHODOLOGY FURTHER REFINEMENT

While I was focusing on the COP module I had little time spare to concentrate on the Ditto brief set by Ben. Therefore, once I had some free time I decided to review my current progression with the project. 

Aside from producing the research notebook I will start to use as part of my research methodology I had done little work on the structure of the methodology itself. Therefore, the first task I set myself was to review and analyse my methodology to see if it is still relevant to my practice or if it could be improved. 

EXISTING METHODOLOGY 

The refined version of my initial research methodology can be seen below;

After reading through the refined methodology produced at the end of the second session with Ben I was able to ascertain that;

• The methodology and sketchbook idea are still relevant to my practice. 
• Aspects of it can be refined -
• Get brief and internet research can be removed - Elements are a standard part of every brief so do not need to be included.
• Anti-positivism research methods can be segmented - Focuses methods and refined process.
• Methodology needs naming. 

After identifying the aspects of my methodology that can be improved I progressed with the brief by refining and naming the process. 

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - NOTEBOOK PRODUCTION

Images below document the step by step process of creating the sustainable notebooks, from trimming the collected paper to binding the individual booklets. 

During our last session with Ben, I presented the idea that I wanted to move back to working in notebooks as this is an aspect of my practice I lost when I came to university. I feel working in sketchbooks has many benefits to my developing practice, some of which have been listed below;

• Get back to working with my hands - Sketching is something I don't spend a lot of time on since starting the course and using a sketchbook to record research will help me integrate it more into my practice. 
• As a designer whose practice is largely influenced by hand rendered development, sketching more regularly will help my practice to develop. 
• Portable, allows me to collect and record research easily while on the move.
• Less restrictive than blogging - pages can be scanned with important aspects highlighted within the blog post. 
• Working in a sustainable notebook has relevance to my ethics & manifesto. 

Although the notebooks were mainly developed as part of my PPP module, I am planning to use one of them as my research sketchbook.

COLLECTED PAPER 

The image below displays the range of waste paper stocks that were collected throughout the first five months on the course. 

The stock, which will form the covers and interior pages of the notebooks, was collected from bins and tables from around the university, and so would have otherwise been sent to be recycled. By collecting and using waste paper stock instead of buying some recycled stock from the internet I am able to vastly reduce the carbon footprint associated with the notebooks.

Stock collected over a four month period. 

I also collected some recycled grey board for the notebook covers that had previously been used to print business cards. Luckily for me, the board was unused due to a misprint. 

TRIMMING

The stock that was collected came from a range of sources and undoubtedly had been used for a range of purposes. A consequence of using waste paper was the varying sizes of the individual sheets. One of the first major tasks that needed completing as part of the project was the process of trimming all the sheets down to the same size. 

Paper was trimmed using the guillotine. 

As the collected stock came from a range of sources individual sheets varied in size. 

Paper was trimmed to an A4 size so that when folded it met the outlined individual page size of A5.

NOTEBOOK PRODUCTION 

The sheets of trimmed paper were taken back to my house where I completed the various stages of the binding process. 

Tools used during the binding process. 

Folding the paper was very tedious and took over three hours. 

Paper was arranged into piles of stock type, this helped when creating the individual signatures.

The signatures consisted of six folded pages and varied in stock type giving the books a lot of character. 

An etching needle and custom template were used to pierce holes through each signature.  

Each booklet will feature five signatures giving a total of 120 individual pages. 

A singular signature was used to measure the size of the grey board cover. 

The inside face of the grey board used for the covers was lined with a coloured stock to make the notebooks more aesthetically engaging.

A hole punch was used to punch holes into the cover. 

The coptic stitch was completed using hemp string, a stronger and more sustainable alternative to most conventional twines.

FINISHED NOTEBOOKS

After the stitching process was completed the notebooks had any excess trimmed from the pages and covers to ensure that they are neat and finished to a professional standard. 

Once the process of trimming was complete the sustainable notebooks were ready for photographing and sale. Of the seven produced, one was taken to serve the purpose of a research sketchbook with the other six being sold as part of the PPP module. 

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - METHODOLOGY REFINEMENT

At the end of the session with Ben he suggested that we should review our methodologies and refine them where appropriate.

Therefore, after the session with Ben I decided to review and analyse the methodology presented so that I could start to refine it, ensure that it is completely relevant to my practice and restructure the defined process to ensure it can be applied to all briefs.

Before progressing with the brief and refining my current approach to collecting research I reviewed information detailing the specifics of research methodologies. By examining this information I will develop an informed understanding of what a research methodology is and should achieve and in turn improve my own methodology. 

DESIGN RESEARCH THEORIES -

• Ethnography is a design research approach which aims to understand cultural phenomenon - Very similar to my outlined approach.

REMEMBERING ETHICS - 

After collecting the research I started the process of analysing and refining my methodology by ensuring that it is relevant to my personal interests and design practice. Therefore, on a spider diagram I listed my personal and professional influences that impact my design work.

RELEVANT POINTS -

• Visuals - Images (primary & secondary).
• Visuals - Primary sketches.
• Visuals - Collected printed media.
• Outdoors - Getting out the house/studio.
• Nature.
• Sustainability.
• Travelling - New cultures encountered.
• Travelling - Inspiring individuals met.
• Travelling - Architecture & other definitive visuals.
• Hands on creation.
• Sketching/Drawing - Method of recording. 

COMPARE & ANALYSE -

Using the list created detailing my design influences I reviewed my current methodology to see if has relevance to my practice.

• Gonzo style research will get me out the house/studio and involved in the culture or subject reviewed - In turn this will help me create informed insight & innovative ideas.
• The research methods listed are all quite social and will engage me with a range of new individuals, activities and take me to a range of new places - relates to my adventurous nature.
• The hand bound sketchbook proposed as a method of recording information while collecting research is relevant to various aspects of my design influences and passions such as; sustainability, craft and my hands on approach to working. 
• PROBLEM - One problem that was identified during this process is the fact that the research methodology is only suitable for collecting socially relevant information, any scientific or strictly data specific research would need to use a different methodology.  

REFINING THE METHODOLOGY -

Once I had reviewed the relevance of the methodology I progressed with refining its process to ensure it is applicable to all of my future briefs. To do this, I simply defined important aspects of the process that had not been included in previous renderings of the methodology. Aspects included, reading and analysing the brief and collecting some brief internet based research to form a base knowledge of the subject. 

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - WORKSHOP TWO

Today we had our second session with Ben from Ditto Press in which we presented our progress with the brief so far. 

After starting the session it was made apparent that Ben wanted to see a physical start to the brief such as a methodology diagram illustrating the individual stages of our personal research approaches. Unfortunately, due to confusion with what was required for the session nobody had brought anything physical to talk through, and so we were given 20minutes to generate something to present.

Luckily, I had already defined the specifics of my personal methodology and so just needed to quickly illustrate my approaches and illustrate the method defined to record information. 

PERSONAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY -

• Style of research similar to Gonzo Journalism - Hunter S. Thompson.
• Gonzo Journalism immerses journalist in culture reviewed - insiders perspective.
• Relevant method to me - Gets me out the studio/house.
• Relevant method to me - Creates a balance of visual and written information.
• Methodology - No particular order, depends on subject.
• Observations, primary images, conversations, interviews, intervirews, listening into peoples conversations, attending events, sketches, recordings, collection of printed material. 
• Idea - Hand bound sketchbook - would be taken while researching and used to record.
• Would be produced from recycled papers and hand bound - relevant to my design practice. 
• Relevant as I miss using sketchbooks and the hands on approach used to record information within them. 

After each person had presented their idea Ben gave feedback to the group;

• Good ideas, some need more development than others.
• My method needs naming.
• Refine and structure the methodology.
• Put into practice.
• Have something more physical to show for the next session.

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - GONZO RESEARCH

After feeling that I misunderstood the task and developed a methodology that was too vague I decided to start researching into existing methodologies published by graphic designers, studios and agencies. 

While reviewing information on the topic I was inspired to look into the varying research techniques used by creatives within the industry. As I was reviewing the different research methods I came across an article that discussed a style of collecting information called 'Gonzo Research'. 

During the Ditto session with Ben I listed Gonzo Journalism as a research method relevant to my practice and listed it on my personal spider diagram. I was inspired by Gonzo Research after reading about Hunter S Thompson, a journalist who emerged himself within the culture that he was writing about, living like they do to get the truest and most unbiased view of the subject.

Personally, I think that gonzo research is a extremely effective method of collecting information as it allows you to compile relevant research in an unconventional way that allows you to generate innovate insights and directions.

The article discussing gonzo research is featured below;

CONCLUSION 

Personally, I find the idea behind gonzo research very appealing as it allows users to generate information from primary sources and simultaneously draw innovative conclusions from the generated information. The methods applied to collect information are engaging, and allow users to experience the culture first hand. As a designer, I have previously predominantly relied on secondary information when researching for projects. I plan to move away from this mundane way of researching and start using gonzo methods to collect my data. 

BRIEF EIGHT - DESIGN PUBLICATION - WORKSHOP ONE

Today, Ben Freeman, co-founder of Ditto press in East London came into university, gave a short, informative presentation and delivered the days research based workshop.

Notes taken during the talk;

In the presentation Ben introduced the specifics of the company and talked about the types of work they are responsible for creating. An interesting aspect of the company that appealed to my personal interests is the companies use of risograph printers, which are used to produce work whenever the method is applicable. As a designer risograph printing is a very appealing production method as it creates tactile, interesting outcomes and allows printers to use vegetable based ink helping the process to be more sustainable.  

As a company Ditto Press are responsible for creating a range of different print based outcomes from posters to stationary. However, around 80% of their client based work comes from people wanting to print books and zines. During the talk Ben showed some examples of the books and zines that the company have produced, one project that stood out due to its comical content was 'Frozen Chicken Train Wreck' by Laurence Hamburger. 

Link

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY WORKSHOP

At the end of the presentation we were each given a brief detailing the specifics of the task and were divided into small groups of around 12 people. 


THE BRIEF;

BRIEF SUMMARY;

Although I felt I initially understood the task, after discussing the details with other members of the group I soon discovered that I was confused as to specifically what we were tasked with doing. 

It was soon explained that the task for the day asked us to develop our own personal research methodology that can be utilised when starting future briefs and projects. The aim of creating the methodology was to help us challenge the conventional ways of collecting information commonly used by members of the course. The methodology that we develop should reflect our interests and passions as people allowing us to collect informed information in innovative ways that engage us as learners. 



DEVELOPMENT 

I started the process of developing my personal research methodology by first documenting as many approaches of collecting data and information as I could think of. Next, I reviewed the methods listed and started thinking about how they relate to my design process and personal interests. 

Relevant/Interesting research methods;

• Observations - insights and opinions gained from observations. 
• Case study - primary images, personal notes & observations - like a report.  
• Investigative research - Gonzo research, immerse yourself in the culture.
• NOTE - The above three points are almost identical. 
• Primary body of photographs. 
• Visual research - collected print ephemera, relevant visuals etc. 

After creating a list of research methods I was ready to start developing my personal research methodology. 

Ben mentioned that the methods we develop should form an approach to research that will be applicable to most of the future projects that we receive. Taking this into consideration, I decided to create a fairly open methodology that utilises vague terminology to ensure it is applicable to the varying contents of design briefs.

As a designer I find that a balance of visual and content based information is the most useful when developing from the research to development stages of a project. Therefore, when creating the diagram I tried to develop a balance between both visual and content based research methods.

When creating the methodology I considered the research process commonly used to ensure informed and relevant information is collected. The process relies on analysing the brief to ensure you understand what is being asked and using secondary research to form a basic understanding of the topic. It is important to generate this basic understanding before progressing to use primary research methods as without it you lack the basic knowledge often needed to collect relevant information.

As I used vague terms I decided to break down the individual parts of my methodology to evidence how the creative approaches of collecting information can be found under each section;

CRITIQUE

After lunch each group had a critique with Ben where we were given the chance to talk through our chosen research methodology. After, we were given feedback as to how relevant and applicable the chosen methods were.

During the critique I discovered that I may have slightly misunderstood the task or not communicated my idea efficiently enough. 

The vague methodology I created had an almost identical approach to the standard academic way of collecting research, and this is not what was wanted from the workshop. Instead, I should have listed the innovative ways of collecting research that have relevance to my design practice. 


After presenting Ben gave useful feedback to each person; 

Critique Feedback;

• Research methodology presented uses a very academic approach. 
• Consider what methods have most relevance, drop the ones that don't - refine.
• What innovative research approaches have relevance to me?
• What research methods do I find most enjoyable? 

CONCLUSION 

Firstly, I found today's session really useful and inspiring. Learning about creative approaches to collecting information made me realise that I really need to develop my current approach to researching. Previously, I have predominantly relied on secondary sourced information coming from books and the internet, although this is useful for getting an informed understanding of the topic, regurgitating information is probably one of the most unengaging ways of collecting information and data. Having become inspired today I plan to progress by creating a much more practically driven research methodology that allows me to collect relevant primary information in an creatively engaging way.