COMPLETE – STUDY BLOCK TWO

05TH FEB'24 - 10TH MAY'24

WEEK 1: 05th Feb'24 - 09th Feb'24

05th Feb'24 - Briefing and Zine Workshop

The morning kicked off with a fresh briefing on our comprehensive module, marking a pivotal segment of the course. This module not only lays the groundwork for future endeavours but also encourages exploration beyond conventional boundaries to enrich your professional practice.

The module commences with a variety of competitive projects or challenges presented by external organisations, offering you the opportunity to select those that resonate with your interests. These projects serve as catalysts for further insights and facilitate global or local competition, fostering alignment with peers worldwide or within your specific field.

Emphasizing professional growth, the module delves into refining presentation skills, exploring diverse studio models, and engaging with various cultural institutions and community initiatives. Additionally, you'll delve into topics tailored to your evolving practice, such as securing arts or research funding, understanding intellectual property laws, and gaining business acumen to nurture entrepreneurial skills.

In essence, this module encapsulates the ethos of your postgraduate program by immersing you in the realities of contemporary professional practice.

Project 01: Heatseeker

We had to Identify one (or more) brief(s) that you feel will help you scope future horizons for your professional practice. The brief could fall across one or several potential Communication Design areas such as publication design, design thinking, design for social practice, branding, service design, typographic design, interaction design, or user experience design to name but a few. As a starting point, you may consider a brief from one of the following competitions:

• D&AD New Blood Awards

• International Society of Typographic Design Student Briefs

• The Penguin Random House Design Award

• The RSA Student Design Awards

• Communication Arts Design Competition

• Core77 Design Awards

• RSA Student Design Awards

• Designpreis Halle

• YCN awards

• UX Design Awards

• Red Dot Design Award

Following a brief session, we proceeded to a zine workshop where various techniques for printing photos, drawings, and letters were demonstrated. My initial experiment involved gel printing, which proved challenging at first but became manageable with persistence.

Next, I explored the fascinating method of transferring photos to paper using tea tree oil, a technique I had never encountered before. Then, I discovered how straightforward it is to create badges, a process I previously perceived as more complex.

Lastly, I experimented with carving small alphabet letters to compose words, utilising ink to transfer them onto paper. Overall, the workshop was an enjoyable experience, filled with discoveries and creative endeavours.

Week 4 – 12th Feb to 16th Feb’24

12th, 13th Feb'24 - Penguin Book Cover Design Competition

What the judges are looking for in a winning design

Your cover design should

encapsulate the essence or key themes of the book in an imaginative, instant and engaging way.

After reading the summaries of three books, I found Atomic Habits interesting since I had already listened to the audiobook. Therefore, I decided to create the cover for this book. The first thing I did was to read the brief provided by Penguin to understand what I needed to remember while reading and designing the book.

The Brief for the Atomic Habit

The cover design should encapsulate the accessible and inspiring message of the book immediately and engagingly. Atomic Habits is for everyone who is seeking to make positive change in their lives and the cover design should communicate this message to the broad readership.

The cover design needs to include all the cover copy supplied and be designed to the Penguin standard design template (B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine width 20mm) and must incorporate the Penguin branding and all the additional elements such as the barcode. Please refer to the submission details page for full details on how to submit your entry. Copyright must be cleared for all images used in the cover design and we must include a credit line on the back cover of the design for any third-party images used; for example: ‘Cover photograph by Joe Bloggs’.

Listening to Ted Talk By Chip Kidd

I began my research by examining how other

designers had created their book covers. I

thought of Chip Kidd, who is well-known for

his book covers, and watched some of the TED

talks that he had given. The topic of one of his

talks was ‘Designing books is no laughing

matter. OK, it is.’ After listening to his talk, I

made a list of some points that I thought would

help me design my book cover.

Screenshot 2024-04-28 at 1.57_edited.jpg

Some things which I wanted to highlight which were interesting are:

The story which he shared was the first day of his graphic design training at Penn State University, the teacher, Lanny Sommese, came into the room drew a picture of an apple on the blackboard, and wrote the word “Apple” underneath, and he said, “OK. Lesson one. Listen up and he covered up the picture and he said, “You either say the name of the image,” and then he covered up the word, “or you show the word. But you don’t show the picture as well as the word. because this is treating your audience like a moron and they deserve better.

A book designer gives form to content but also manages a very careful balance between the two.

The book designer’s responsibility is threefold: to the reader, to the publisher and, most of all, to the author. I want you to look at the author’s book and say, “Wow! I need to read that.”

15th Feb'24 - Best Non Fiction Books

I researched how non-fiction book covers are designed and

discovered that these covers emphasize the title or a key

element in a minimalistic and simple way.