Work Based Learning 2

This year for Work Based Learning we were given a brief by Sheffield/Barnsley based design company Ledgard Jepson.

The Brief was for Barnsley MBC and the title of the project was “No Limits Disabled Festival, Barnsley”.

Barnsley has above the national average disabled or impaired and as such wanted to put on a week-long festival that celebrated this often forgotten section of society. No Limits Festival is the first of its kind in the UK and as such, the council wanted to launch the event with a professional high-quality profile and a brand that would leave a legacy and be around for many years.

The event will take place over several venues across the town, including heritage sites such as Cannon Hall and the Cooper Gallery as well as arts venues like The Civic and Lamproom Theaters.

The event will offer a broad range of activities across the borough for old and young including comedy, dance, drama, theatre, yoga, well-being classes, sports, art, painting and learning etc.

This is a celebration festival and as such, it needs to be lively, fun, engaging, different, eclectic, friendly, empowering and above all inclusive ie. it’s for everyone, able and disabled.

It is not typical disabled, dull, boring, boring patronising etc. The last thing they would want to see is a disabled badge.

Ledgard Jepson has expressed they would like us to produce:

A Festival Identity- that will work in full colour and black and white.

Festival poster/ outdoor ad- “We want this to be creative, exciting and expressive, but make sure it communicates the message and is understood. This is a new festival, and as such people need to “get it’ instantly and know what the offer is.

Innovative Flyer- not a standard size flyer, but somthing with stand out. Explore different formats, folds or materials. Somthing that will promote the festival as being different.

Other notes from the briefing in session:

• Hand-drawn/ generated would be interesting and is currently treading.
• should be energetic and non-apologetic.
• We are free to make up the dates, there is no admission, held indoors and outdoors so most likely will be in the summer.
• don’t focus too much on the disability side

Research

To begin my research I looked firstly as Barnsley, the venus mentioned in the brief and what stood out or gave an identity to Barnsley. The venus mentioned apart from Cannon Hall are all very close together in the city centre and on building not mentioned the Experience Barnsley building right in the centre seems to be a popular identity for Barnsley and is used in various business logos around the city.

I then looked into festival posters to look at differently layout and styles to try and formulate how I could incorporate the aspect of Barnsley into a festival poster design. I liked the colour an illustration style used in the examples below and this is somthing i wanted to replicate.

 Identity Development

I being by sketching idea for the festival identity, I looked at illustrated, typography and a mixture of both to make up my designs. I also looked at using imagery of Barnsley, disability and illustration that represents the activity that will be available at the event. I then picked my favourites and created digital developments of them ready for the first feedback session with Dan Clarkson from Ledgard Jepson. While creating the digital mock-up designs I also added another quick design based on a map of Barnsley roads. I created the digital versions in both colour and black and white as the brief specified the identity would need to work in both.

I would the map idea worked the best and it was somthing I really wanted to develop and look into a bit more. I looked on Pinterest for some ideas of how I could develop and found a wealth of inspirations. I focused on trying to make a hand generated map of Barnsley using the locations mentioned in the brief as well as ones that are popular/ iconic to Barnsley. I focused more on the City of Barnsley because I wanted to create somthing that represented and reflected the city and everyone in an attempt to make it more inclusive rather than just focusing on the venus or the imagery of disability. As part of making an innovative post too, I wanted to experiment with making the building pop to make somthing more visually interesting and fun.

I liked the style and look of my design but I need to work on creating more of an identity and make my design editable so I could recreate it into several forms. I did this by using an iPad pro and apple pencil to redraw my design digitally. I wanted to uses the apple pencil so my work would lose the hand-generated look of my original design. I think the hand drew look also create a more fun and friendly appearance which I think will positively benefit the final outcome.

 

I really loved the digital outcome of my map and also worked on a prototype flyer idea that incorporated the information by having each square created by a fold in the paper would hold a piece of information.

Once I made a poster prototype I still felt it was lacking somthing and a unified identity that I could use across multiple promotions. I still wanted to informed my loo and style along with the venus I sketched so I looked back at my very first initial ideas sketches and decided to recreate and develop a small idea I brushed past.

I used the pngs of building I created as well as the colour and small details such as the trees to recreated this idea and I was really pleased with the result after…

I thought this final redevelopment of my design shows a well rounded inclusive identity that is colourful, fun, lively, and energetic. I think it represents both Barnsley, the venues and the people in a unified and positive way and works in both colour and black and white. I also changed the ‘no limits’ font from underland sans to wildflower as its a much lighter font which I think gave the logo a smoother hand generated looks. I also added colour to make it have a bit more energy and chose this pinky red as I think it stood out the most against the rest of the colours in the design and is really lively. I didn’t want to go for a full red foalthoughught it would match the Barnsley council one as I thought it would be too harsh and too bold.

Final Products

Festival Identiy-

 

FestivalPoster/ Outdoor ad-

 

I kept my design simple and informative so people would get it right away and I didn’t want to make the design too crowded as my logo identity is already busy full of energy. I think the use of white negative space makes all the individual part of information stand out and easy to read.

Innovative Flyer-

I looked at several flyer designs but then can across a gallery advertisement on Pinterest which was printed on a balloon and thought its was truly innotive and would be somthing that really made my campaign more fun and intresting.

Extras promotions and identity placement-