Tuesday, March 29, 2016

OUGD602 / DBA / Hyperloop

*The documenting of the brief set by DBA sits within PPP, it is to focus on the professional manner of collaboration within a commercial environment and not the design practice.

The Team:

Kieran Walsh
George Boreham
Rory Blakemore
Jake Simmonds

A conscious decision between the group was made to cap the number of people within the team at 4, collectively we agreed our mergence of strengths would be considerable enough to tackle the brief efficiently.

George’s skillset, strengths, weaknesses and levels of effort were familiar to me therefore the decision to work collaboratively with him came at little questioning. His interest in branding would contrast my own practice (as identified in the design strategy presentation) of creative direction/ design for culture and commerce.

Rory’s practice is somewhat similar to my own although, notably from a music direction, rather than the fashion orientation I intend to take. His work for the TRIPTYCH brief impressed me and the design to collaborate came at no hindrance.

Jake’s practice, similar to Rory’s too reflected my own from a music direction although the difference in outcomes between the two is considerably different. Jake’s digital practice; web and app design, had previously impressed me.

The mergence of these specific 4 (myself included) creative’s practice could be considered unorthodox in relevance to the brand/identity brief for a commercial conglomerate - especially my own, Rory’s and Jake’s practice, which can be seen as great contrast to the nature of this brief.   This unorthodox approach, derived from our practices excited, not only ourselves, but DBA in our first meeting – an irregular team to approach such a commercial nature could create something unlike the stereotype.



The Schedule:

01/02/16 – 04/02/16:

Briefing

Conceive Group

Individual begin general research (Hyperloop, Context, Visual Language, Technology)

Collectively identifying Target Audience, Deliverables, Considerations and mandatory requirements.

Individual idea generation + application

05/02/16 – 07/02/16:

Collective initial meeting: Collating research and identifying possible concepts (5)

Collective concept refine and development

Individual visual drafts

08/02/16 – 09/02/16

Collectively refine initial ideas

Collective visual application of initial ideas

Collectively create presentation.

10/02/16

Critique with DBA to require presentation of initial ideas, development and 5 draft outcomes.

11/02/16

Response to feedback given in the previous day’s interim pitch

12/02/16 – 22/02/16

Responding to the feedback received in the interim critique we were to work collectively with the intent of adhering to the direction given by DBA.

23/02/16 - 25/02/16

Collate and create presentation ready for final pitch and judging.

26/02/16

Final HYPERLOOP pitch and judging



Collaboration practice:

Online sharing folders were set up after our initial meeting, the use of platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive allow sharing, archving and accessing of collective files from several locations. Platforms like these are used in commercial environments – such as DAZED (See industry experience).

Regular scheduled meetings and deadlines- both individual and collective practice were to be set to deadlines with the intent of having an efficient, deadline-driven practice, as close to a true reflection of commercial environment as possible.


The Design Process (Pre-Interim Critique):

Identification of the Hyperloop’s greatest USPs – attributes to be communicated in order to sell the service to it’s target audience; the commuters currently flying between LA and San Francisco were identified initially in order to begin to decide the best manner in which to communicate them.

*Note: The identification of the route between LA and San Francisco as the initial Hyperloop route gave us the ability to create a design for this specific context although the ability to apply the same design to all potential Hyperloop routes was considered and adhered to.

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Several key points were deduced from into Must and Must Nots – this would begin to create a direction for the design to adhere to.

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Derived from several key points, concepts were created individually and discussed collectively in order to constructively criticize and develop.

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5 approaches were defined in order to develop further through collective, democratic discussion. We believed these 5 variations to be of the strongest concept and subsequent application into the visual.


















The Feedback:

The response from DBA was of constructive critique – the greatest points we deducted from this were:

The illustrating of technological attributes, such as the tube, are shallow. Very few people will use the service because of it’s construction but instead due to it’s offer of benefit to consumer – the saving of time and effort:

What can the average consumer do with the free time the Hyperloop will grant them? Family? Friends? Adventure? Relax? Socialise?

The majority of our outcomes were predictable, does ‘predictable’, ‘common’ or ‘average’ communicate Hyperloop, the exciting, new form of transport, to you?
The story you’re giving to the brand is dull, that is not fitting.


The Design Process (Post-Interim Critique):

Post critique, the team met up and discussed the best way to adhere to the given feedback. We had decided to start from the conceptual stage focusing upon a narrative, a concept that reflects an emotional value.

As the previous method of working individually and then meeting collectively to critique, merge and agree on ideas worked well pre-critique we thought best to continue this manner of team strategy.

With meetings every other day the team began to develop, what we considered, a concept and visual application that was a lot stronger than the initial proposal. With the development of our response the roles of each member naturally developed in order to benefit from each’s strengths.

Rory – Video
George – Mock up
Jake – Web and Digital
Mine – Advertising concept

This manner of working was incredibly efficient was most definitely the peak of the group’s efficiency.

After each had completed their given tasks, we collated all material and collectively curated a presentation with the hope of impressing DBA – before the presentation it would be agreed that I was to introduce the group and the proposal while each member would discuss their own input into the project throughout the presentation.






















In conclusion, I believe the process of working individually and regrouping worked incredibly well for this specific dynamic however I do appreciate this manner of working may not be as efficient for future group tasks. Working collectively does bring benefits and ensures the entirety of the team is working to the same ideal, rather than an individual’s practice taking a tangent while working individually. Unfortunately we did not win however the project itself was one of the strongest pieces of work I’ve seen and I am content to say I don’t think there was a better response.


I believe it is the extentsion and further application of concept that may have swayed the decision, the ability to present the hypothetical pitch as a reality with the help of extension proposals would have benefitted us greatly.



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