Research Project, Fulfilling A Brief:

A Final Major Project (FMP) gets us producing entirely self-directed work, solving an issue through the means of Graphic Design or Illustration. It is great to have all boundaries lifted, but it is also very daunting as the FMP is such a massive undertaking, in its early stages it makes you wonder where to start.

To ease these early stages of worry our course lecturers set us a project in which we wrote a creative brief for ourselves (much like we’re about to do for our FMPs) that was derived from an issue. Each group of three was given a tweet from a news website at random, ours was a video interview with Bradley Wiggins on the Tour de France and Doping.

Now, we had to evolve our project from a creative brief that we had written (see previous post, here) into the branding that we had proposed for an ‘anti-doping in cycling’ movement.

This series of images were taken from the slideshow presentation that we created to pitch our ideas to our lecturers. We thought a lot about representing doping and cycling in our brand and logo, but the idea of doping was eventually whittled out, as we wanted to keep the brand fresh and positive; instead of calling the movement ‘Don’t Dope’ we decided to call it ‘Go Clean’ - rather than focusing on the negative issues that have been raised of late about the amount of doping there is throughout cycling.

We mocked-up four possible colour schemes, but in the end stuck with a fifth, the turquoise and cream relay that fresh feeling that we wanted to get across, whilst the others included some darker colours that we wanted to avoid.

Throughout the creative challenge that we had composed, we talked a lot about merchandise for the movement. We created t-shirts and bracelets that could be worn at any cycling event in support of the Go Clean movement; our idea was that if enough people support positive, anti-doping role models in cycling, the shame of doping would hopefully deter sportsman from choosing illegal methods of winning. Similarly to this, we produced advertisements that would be posted around the Internet (e.g. Sky Sports) and posters that would be put across bilboards, both would appear near to key dates in the cycling calendar.

Adam Courtney FMP, Play:

Every Final Major Project (FMP) must resolve an issue, a vast amount of careful research must be put in place before beginning the creative challenge. Before I embark on my journey towards completing my own Final Major Project, it is important that I gain a broader understanding about what makes a good research project, and how to overcome the creative challenge that lies ahead.

Adam Courtney’s Final Major Project revolved around the issue of some companies having a boring workplace, and his creative challenge was then creating and branding a service that gave corporations innovative methods for helping employees not lose interest in the workspace around them. Courtney describes his work:

‘To encourage people to play more I designed an activity book, filled with creative based ideas to try. 
When selecting activities I wanted to make sure they could be done using materials found in a typical workplace and include enough variety for most people to find something to do. I have also kept the activities open ended so other things can be tried. The activity book is made of white paper and coloured card, this adds not only a visual difference, but also adds variety to the feel of the pages. The book is bound using an elastic band and the edge hasn’t been cropped, so that the pages bulge. This allows the colour changes of the paper and images to be seen. Both of these things make the design look more playful and fun. I also kept the type layouts different throughout, using different sized type and column widths.’ - Adam Courtney
 
A realised logo and brand that communicates playfulness and creativity effectively. His FMP was a simple idea that initiated a broad scheme of work, once he had completed his designated goals he was left with a well-executed project that is left to inspire others. 
 
To view Adam Courtney’s FMP, click here.
 
To view Adam Courtney’s Behance page, click here.

11 Beautiful, Colourful Logos - Maria Grønlund:

2012 has been a colourful year indeed for Denmark-based graphic designer Maria Grønlund, as she shares with us 11 brands that she has created in inspired form.

To take a look at these exciting projects, click here.