Graphic Design 2.1: Professional Practice, Project 6: ‘Professional Bodies and Graphic Design Competitions’ Research points

Jun 4

Reading Task 1: Professional Graphic Design Organisations

As you would have already learnt, there are many different creative pathways and specialist areas within graphic design. As a sector, professional bodies, such as D&AD, YCN, ISTD, RSA, IT’s NICE THAT, reflect the diversity and broad scope of graphic design, and include areas such as advertising, illustration and motion graphics. The bodies, though very different, represent and showcase the very best work created by design professionals and students. So who are they? What do they do? How long have they been in existence, and why do they matter?

To answer these questions, read through the following and explore the website links in greater detail. Make brief notes in your learning log, identifying key information.

International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD):

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I began this task by perusing the ISTD website, making notes of areas that interested me to research further, including ISTD’s history and cultural relevance.

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I researched Vincent Steer and his book ‘Printing Design and Layout’. I was able to find some excerpts of the book on eBay (figure 3).

Under the ‘Events’ section of the ISTD website there were links to some great videos. I began with watching Ariane Spanier discuss some of her works (figure 4).

Figures 5 and 6 are some further examples of Ariane’s work. I was really glad I had come across this video as I hadn’t heard of Ariane, her work is very inspiring. I really like the fluid and tactile feel to her work, even when it looks completely digitally made, it has a great individuality to it, which is something I aim to achieve with my own work.

Figure 7, 8-10. shows some examples of work from ISTD’s Student Assessment Scheme. There are some really inspiring bodies of work, along with videos or descriptions of their work processes/idea creation etc.

Design and Art Direction (D&AD):

I recently have used D&AD’s award categories system to look at winner’s design work. They have some really impressive designers work displayed, with links to their Behance’s or other profiles etc. I collated some of my favourites (figure 11 a set of poster designs, figure 12, branding for ‘Imperia’).

Figure 13 is an example video of A&AD and Google’s ‘Shift’ project for amateur-newly pro creatives.

I looked through D&AD’s website, reading their backstory and taking notes of individuals, advisors and designers who were involved with the charity to research further.

D&AD awards for design and advertising are some of the most prestigious and respected within the design space, using an interesting pencil ranking system as shown in notes 2, with the Black pencil being the highest accolade.

The Royal Society for Arts (RSA):

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You Can Now (YCN):

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Pentawards:

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The Pentawards is a global competition that focuses on packaging design.

After reading about their goals as a company and brief history I explored their winners section which was full of inspiration- a really great resource to refer to for future projects!

Figure’s 18 and 19 show 2 award winners that stood out to me. I collated their winning designs into mood boards for future reference.

It’s Nice That:

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It’s Nice That is a media company/online platform that celebrates creatives of all types. They run events, curate content online and act as a space where creatives can go for inspiration.

I really like the fact that It’s Nice That celebrates all forms of creativity and acts as a central hub for creatives.

Resources:

Figure 1: ISTD (no date) Org.uk. Available at: https://www.istd.org.uk/about (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 2: Wikipedia contributors (2023) Vincent Steer, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vincent_Steer&oldid=1176092227. (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 3: Printing Design and Layout - Vincent Steer - Possible 1st - Good (no date) eBay. Available at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393545379189?itmmeta=01HZHCBYA26P1RRT33HWG0CC90&hash=item5ba121ed75:g:k98AAOSw6MFhL4oC&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8G400hIuyRx4WOBC7EzYkCV2c0Y6SNnMjCp2b%2FK5Ah4G8Qwwu1M%2F%2BQfifyZKA1sl24k3WsQrjfblNJZjae5xWTB%2Buc0Y8DxJuQVJOk0ULq1UiTJZfHXNnvaO1bJHAJOYYCOYHHsMK%2Fd18f7Vu5Ojk%2BaIizSPPJ6rP08G2xDe4MidKaSEqeGG4LYw%2BtElc8Sw3Ku32D8Z9dCWH8vs0uVnI6Mk81HxW9Bqgg84oNsI5T4vYSZ7WGHx4fvbkMJ1ZKfj5ndHq7R9Osr%2B8yHkio0EUkmLJYOfzpGJf6cyrcYqWmrAoYKGYpZ8qfzKIuK2nk6NEQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMkOWvrPxj (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 4: International Society of Typographic Designers (2023) Astrid Stavro introduces Ariane Spanier. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tskl0MA5rZE (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 5: Ariane Spanier design (no date) Ariane Spanier Design. Available at: https://www.arianespanier.com/ (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 6: Ariane Spanier design (no date) Ariane Spanier Design. Available at: https://www.arianespanier.com/ (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 7: ISTD assessment - student work (no date) Org.uk. Available at: https://assessment.istd.org.uk/student-work (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 8: Behance (no date) Behance.net. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/131920471/N-America-2021-Gabrielle-Martin-AiglePass-%28Full-Sub%29 (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 9: Behance (no date) Behance.net. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/93871635/UK-2019-Jennifer-HallPass-%28Outcome%29 (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 10: Behance (no date) Behance.net. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/111298503/UK-2020-Lau-Eve-LynPass-%28Outcome%29 (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 11: Theatre Magdeburg – premiere posters 2023/24 (no date) Dandad.org. Available at: https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2024/238210/theatre-magdeburg-premiere-posters-202324/ (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 12: Imperia (no date) Dandad.org. Available at: https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2024/238342/imperia/ (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 13: RSA Student Design Award 2022-23 winner: Fishing for power (no date) The RSA. Available at: https://www.thersa.org/student-design-awards/winners/2022-23/powering-people (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 14: Wikipedia contributors (no date) Royal Society of Arts, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Society_of_Arts&oldid=9490938. (Accessed 29 May 2024).

Figure 15: YCN site (no date) YCN. Available at: https://www.ycn.org/platform (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 16: YCN Instagram (no date) Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/thisisycn/ (Accessed: 29 May 2024).

Figure 17: Pentawards, E. (no date) Pentawards 2024 - home page, Pentawards.com. Available at: https://pentawards.com/live/en/page/home (Accessed: 3 June 2024).

Figure 18: Pentawards, E. (no date) Pentawards the:Portal - the winners, Pentawards.com. Available at: https://pentawards.com/directory/en/page/the-winners (Accessed: 3 June 2024).

Figure 19: Pentawards, E. (no date) Pentawards the:Portal - the winners, Pentawards.com. Available at: https://pentawards.com/directory/en/page/the-winners (Accessed: 3 June 2024).

Figure 20: It’s nice that (no date) Itsnicethat.com. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/ (Accessed: 5 June 2024).

Research Task 2: Competition Briefs

Having read through the previous listed professional bodies and award schemes, you should have a better understanding of graphic design networks and communities. You would have noted that many of them, though based in the UK, have expanded internationally. OCA is, of course, global, so explore and identify graphic design bodies and competitions that are based in your own country. The professional bodies listed are not exhaustive and there are many other organisations and competitions which may be of interest to you.

On the Professional Practice Padlet, locate the tab marked ‘Student Award Briefs’ and read through the wide selection of briefs.
Choose one that you find interesting or best reflects your own practice. The briefs cover everything from branding, advertising, user experience, typography, packaging and Illustration.
Include a copy of the chosen brief and write the reasons behind your choice in your learning log.
Breakdown what the brief is asking you to do and research the aims and objectives. To aid you in this, please read through and refamiliarize yourself with the following guide.

I then expanded on my notes with a spider diagram (notes 3). Here, I simplified the brief, noted important questions and identified areas of research.

This task has been great practise for researching future briefs. I look forward to implementing some of the more specific research questions I have re-capped from the design strategies guide on OCA learn into future tasks.

After looking through the example briefs on the Student Brief Award Padlet I decided to move forwards with ‘Big Data’ (figure 1).

I liked the concept of representing such an interesting topic typographically. The idea of creating a typeface/s that are representative of the impact of ‘big data’ on people’s lives sounded like a fun and challenging brief with many elements to consider.

Despite the fact that I am very new to type design, this brief piqued my interest and would allow me to explore this sector of design in a challenging way.

I began by taking notes (notes 1) on the design strategies guide. I then read through the brief description (first 2 paragraphs of figure 1), taking notes of keywords, then noting keywords of the brief. I then read through the ‘strategy and research’ section, took notes and finally re-read the design strategies guide, taking notes of the key sections (notes 2).