We then were put into several groups and assigned a problem per group. I was placed in a group with 6 others who I had never previously met.
The problem we were assigned to was:
"Concerned about the standard of your own work"
The concern was one I had experienced myself so relating to it was fairly easy.
We had to create a 'How to...' for freshers in aid to overcome these worries.
As a group, we created a mind map suggesting solutions to overcome this problem;
Possibilities of 'How to...' guides:
How to...
Not be embarrased about your work
Reassure 1st year students about the quality of their work
To stop worrying about the level of your work
Be confident in your work
We then thought about what worrying 1st year students should know:
There is no need to worry if you feel like your work is not as good as others - you are on a course to improve.
Everyones work will be different, some people may be better at conjuring concepts while others may have better technical skills.
Everyone has come from different backgrounds so ability and skill will of course range throughout.
We thought of creating a series of tips however after some consideration, we believed we weren't in any respectable position to give advice to first year students.
We came up with the idea of asking third year students to send us an example of their work in their 1st year and a recent piece along with a little piece of advice for worrying freshers.We created an email for our course administrator to send to 3rd years.
A response came from 5 students who all sent us examples of work and a piece of advice.At first glance it did appear their 1st year work was very impressive however the progression between the two examples was clearly evident.
Now we had the content, we had to decide on a medium and how to portray our information. Our target audience was clearly 1st year design students, not specifically Graphic Design nor Leeds College Of Art.
How can we do it?
Posters, Direct mail, Leaflets, Infographics, Flyers, Articles, Beer Mats, Poster with tabs
We considered what mediums, we as students, are happy to keep and take an interest in. We agreed we were tired of flyers and leaflets and this was not the best format for such a sensitive subject.
We needed something that was nice enough for a design student to take interest in, while being private enough to discretely keep if a student was embarrassed about their concern.
One of the group members then mentioned a foldable business card she had been given to promote an international festival. As a group we all agreed this was a great format to present our information with, not just because it was unusual, but the format of 3 columns meant we could present each example of work we collected horizontally starting with 1st year work, a quote from the student and then some of their more recent work.
We began to create a draft of a layout and also agreed we needed a sleeve of some kind to keep this folded paper in so that it would be more practical as well as being discrete. We needed to place a phrase or image on that sleeve that would express the information as well as creating interest within a creative target audience.
We agreed that the term 'Speaking from experience' was appropriately interesting and discrete. The term relates to the 3rd year students speaking from their experiences, which is the whole concept behind this idea.
We wanted to clearly show that there was a folded leaflet within this sleeve so the interest of our target audience was sufficient while also creating a sense of playfulness.
The counters of the capital Futura type had to been edited so they would still be intact after being cut on the laser cutter, I added strokes to all counters.
Here is our first draft of the leaflet, we created a 6 x 3 grid with 1st year work on the far left column, a quote from the student in the centre and a more recent piece of work on the right, with a title and explanation on the top row.
Using Futura as title and Georgia for body copy, we presented this in a crit with a peer group, here is the feedback we received:
- Good research for the information received
- Another typeface could be more effective, doesn't seem aimed at creatives
- Is the back of the leaflet going to have anything on it?
- Too much body copy, don't underline on title
- We asked ' Do you think this would be effective?'
- Our 'Speaking from experience' title inspired them to use a title themselves
We thought the crit was invaluable and were happy with the response however we made a post crit to do list:
- Minimise body copy
- Change position of title + underline
- Write the names of the students centrally under their quote
- Fill the back of the leaflet
- Change typeface
- Find better stock
We responded immediately, picking the 6 main points from the lengthy body copy, placing the the title in the top centre of the grid and took away the underline, repositioned the student names, changed Futura to Gotham Light and Medium as we as the target audience believed this worked.
In terms of the format, we created a larger sleeve to fit in the new newsprint stock. The off white of newsprint responded well with the range of colour in the example images.
After placing all of the information we collected happily on the front on the leaflet, we had to create some kind of design for the back.
As a fresher myself, I considered the design of leaflets and flyers I had received, I don't believe i've received a piece of information that has been minimally designed and not exploding with colourful imagery or some illustrated type.
Surely an a anxious fresher would value a leaflet that kept straight to the point, we talked about this idea and agreed we would simply place the design used on the leaflet and sleeve to the back of this leaflet, this creates continuity and a sense of uniform.
The response to the crit made the quality of our work much better and we all agreed we were happy with this design.
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