Internship 02 / Everyday Something / Melania Trump Cards

Internship 01 / Rabbit Hole / Brief

When I met up previously with Martyn from Rabbit Hole, we discussed which areas I would like to work with within design. Knowing that editorial design is my specialty, I wanted to build upon this and improve it within a professional setting such as a design studio. It was discussed that I could use this week placement to undertake the brief of designing the Transform 17 brochure, a job that had already been completed by Rabbit Hole, as it was said that it would not be appropraite for me to do live work there without payment.

When I arrived I was introduced to a folder containing the brief, brand guidelines, style guide, content copy, images, assets and fonts.

Brief:

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Background:

Transform is a festival of bold, local & international theatre. 

Presenting festivals of performance from Leeds and internationally, whilst concocting projects with bold artists all year round, Transform presents theatre works everywhere from arts venues across Leeds, to city sites and outdoor spaces. Celebrating the independent and adventurous spirit of Leeds, we want to reflect the socially conscious and radical North, whilst connecting to the world.

Transform was originally established by West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2011. Setting out to reimagine what theatre can look like and what it can do, the annual Transform festivals took place across the theatre building and outside its doors in a range of sites and spaces. Transform has now evolved as an independent organisation with a local and global outlook.

Transformfestival.org

Pages: 

28 pages

Print Method: 

Litho CMYK

Size: 

Designers discretion

Deadline: 

5 days

Eurotopia:

As the festival draws to a close, Transform and Live Art Bistro invite you to delve into the world of Eurotopia, an audiovisual spectacle. Immerse yourself in the fetishised freedoms of dark excesses, and party across the satirical edges of the old world.

This is the island we have staked our flag in, and now we must live it. One nation divided in the groove.

Images:

All imagery for the show with be provided with the exception of ‘Eurotopia’ (see above) which will need it’s own visual language designing and applying the the spread in the brochure. 

Copy:

Copy will be provided in a word or text document for you to copy and paste and format into the design.



From here I began to formulate pieces of inspiring design and gather information on the brand. I realised how important it was to research into Transform to understand what it was, which then informs target audience and design decisions. 

Internship 01 / Rabbit Hole / Final Mock Ups

Although I have worked with mock ups before, I have never actually created my own. During the end of my week at Rabbit Hole I was taught a few handy tips on how to create a realistic but not-too-realistic mock up of a publication. Below are some of my favourite spreads created during the week.

I can now transfer these skills within upcoming work for Extended Practice, knowing how to mock up my work quickly by myself without using a downloaded psd mock up will be useful and more authentic to my process. It means I can customise the mock up to how I like it, using subtleties like low gaussian blur, adding staples, a fold and a drop shadow all mimic a printed treatment, without variables such as lighting and the setting getting in the way of ruining the photographs.

Internship 01 / Rabbit Hole / Report from Martyn

Strengths:

–Got to grips with an already designed brand identity and created a publication ready for print within the 5 days given. 

–Pushed that brand identity in places to create new ideas and add to a growing visual language. 

–Strong initial typographic and layout skills*

–Punctual and professional attitude. 

–Good attitude towards directions given, be that design direction/tips, time management or general advise about the design industry. 

Where to improve:

Research

Look deeper into the brief, ask questions and challenge it. Spend a day looking at influences collating them and evaluating why they would work for the brief or why they might not. 

Experimentation

Needs to push and really exhaust the experimentation stage with the brand where appropriate and create lot’s of new directions to then evaluate and make decisions on what’s working and what’s not. 

Make sure those experiments are to the extremes i.e. Pushed massively in a new direction but keeping core elements of the brand then the complete opposite maybe stripping back and just having what’s needed. 

The more options you have the better the decisions you can make to get to the right solution. 

Typography & Layout

*Improvement of ‘craft' in terms of typography and layout. Think about baseline grids, type sizes and those little things that only the most anal of typographers and designers would notice. This will make you stand out from the crowd and change you from being an exciting, fresh designer to an exciting, fresh and meticulous designer. Once you have this strong base you can then go on to be more expressive and have the best of both worlds. 

Ref: Type Matters book. 

Time Management

We sat down and helped plan out days and priorities, this is something you can take and put into your own personal practice. It will help you organise projects, priorities what’s important and hopefully make for a less stressful experience. 

Step out of your comfort zone

When given a blank sheet to work from with a piece of content it was noticeable that design work tended to fall under your own 'stylist approach’. There is nothing wrong with having a stylistic approach but it needs to be correct for the subject matter or brand you are working for. Really try to step out of your comfort zone when designing. This will help you become a more rounded, experienced designer who can deal with a number of clients and projects. 

Decisions making.

Make decisions about what is right. Then be confident about those decisions. If the decision is right you will find it’s easy to be confident about it. If you find your self doubting your own decision it’s often the case it might have been the wrong one and it’s also harder to persuade or convince someone else (client, design peer) that it is right. 

Overall

Overall Lo has been a good edition to the team in the short time she has been here. Her work on the given project is what we would expect of a junior. We’d rather see work that might make a client a little nervous than work that won’t make them feel anything and get the ok straight away. The work you create feels fresh and has an edge to it but needs improvements that will come with time and practice. 

We wish you all the best from Rabbit Hole and hope to see a diverse, well crafted and exciting portfolio of work in the near future. 

All the best, 

M.