Studio Practice: End Of Year Exhibition Branding: Initial Ideas

Initial responses

Proposition 1:

'underCONSTRUCTION'

A concept that reflects the new building, its visual qualities in colour, texture and material, a well as the idea that the graduates are in the making and coming soon...

Proposition 2

The design group were really inspired by the toy almost everyone played with growing up in waiting areas. The design of this product alone has many compartments that weave in and around each other, which the group thought to be a possible visual representation of collaboration, and a great way of depicting a journey with twists and turns, from start to finish. The assorted shapes for moving around have scope for signifying the various courses, as well as the individuality and diversity of the students.

Often referred to as a rollercoaster play table/rollercoaster abacus, or bead mazes, the entire structure has strong connotations of growth, play and learning.

The specific university values that the design felt this structure responds to, whether that be contextually, conceptually or literally, are:

collaboration
interactive
network
responsive
international
engaged
vibrant, collaborative community
student-centred

The group then discussed ways this concept could be transferable across the range of required design outputs. It liked the idea of piecing it all together like a puzzle, and noted how the different British coins make a shield when ordered in a particular way. This was the kind of subtle configuration the design wanted to produce, where each section works alone but something bigger is revealed as a unit. Another design decision where the layout and form reflects the concept of a collaborative community, and a high quality physical environment.

The design also looked at ways the poles could come together in a way that formed the LAU logo shape, as with geometric lines, and different pillars representing different courses, this could be a really relevant approach and solution to the design problem.

Combining the propositions

Combing the new building aspect of underCONSTRUCTION with the waiting room toy concept.

The group then wanted to explore ways on incorporating the 'high quality physical environment' that is another pillar of the universities values. After our first meeting where the design agreed on the key concept to move forward with, it was decided to go around the new building and record the colours, textures and surface patterns. This could then inform the design decisions make later. At this stage, the design focused on material (wood, metal, aluminium, tin, stone, astroturf, mesh, carpet), shape (dots, triangles, zigzags, pentagons, vertical & horizontal lines, grids, nets,) and colour (brown, grey, green, beige, gold, black, orange, blue)

Progression

Inspired by an article on Intern about, Khyati Trehan, The National Institute of Design graduate turning feelings, sensations and memories into arresting 3D artworks, the design considered methods of manifesting these ideas.

The article reads:

'Khyati Trehan’s tactile and textured 3D artworks are inspired by an incredible urge to visualise the intangible: a passing memory, a lingering smell, or the flavour of a velvety ice cream. Often these ideas are sparked by a stream of questions like: “what did that vintage store smell like? How can I visualise a smell? What would that store look like if I squinted my eye?”

Her latest project, ‘Memory Palette’ began as a way to build explorative palettes of Pantone’s Colour of the Year, Living Coral, but soon evolved into something entirely different. “I built compositions of soft 3D shapes that would present the palette in a space. As I kept fiddling around, I chanced upon colours that took me back to a memory. The project morphed into an exploration of sensations and memories and had nothing to do with the Pantone colour anymore.” A juxtaposition of geometric shapes in shades of peach and beige evoke the flavours of butterscotch ice cream, while a towering composition in pearlescent green became a snapshot of city life in Berlin, where Khyati lived until last month.'

Her approach to visualising nostalgia, geometric shapes and use of a strong colour palette all through 3D rendering was a great template for the design development. Her structures and incorporation of textures (i.e. gold poles) was a perfect model of something the design wished to communicate.

The design considered other ways of developing, but concluded on the idea of a 3D rendering production method as something to stand out from the rest. The design wanted to be current, relevant and industry ready. Cinema 4D is evidently a really popular software in the world of design at the moment, thus encompassing our concept of designing 'For Tomorrow', the use of a 3D render in presenting these concepts seemed fitting.

Cinema 4D also allows one to design an entire space/scene, which means if the design is successful and chosen as the winner, making a video and motion graphic for the promotional aspect would be really efficient. Forward thinking that would prove beneficial in practice.

First renderings

The group then came together and discussed which out of the first renders each designer deemed to be the most successful, and why. Despite differing opinions, the group sought compromise. It was agreed there was not enough diversity in the initial designs. The design needed to stick with its intentions of representing the various courses and building blocks, and this design was too linear and repetitive.

It was then revealed that the design had gone in two ways, with one idea focusing more on the structure of the new building (pipelines etc) and the other focusing on the game representation. In order to successfully merge the two, it was decided that the imagery should focus on more literal representations of the game for the shape and form, and that the colours and textures could be inspired by the new building and/or LAU's existing branding.

Name

Once the name was decided, the rest of the design group could progress with the typographic treatments. As such. various name ideas were then explored off the back of the research, focusing on he language of endings and leaving/moving on. As a group it was decided 'For Tomorrow' was the most successful at encompassing the key concepts and motives for both the design and the exhibition.