Initial ideas for briefs

 Initial ideas for briefs

MUBI brief 

The MUBI brief interested me as I personally use the streaming service and really appreciate how it sheds light on independent films and movements in cinema such as French New Wave and South Korean cinema. Due to this being a past brief, I was thinking that I could always shape the brief to my interests, and create a brand/ campaign that focuses on this theme of introducing new people to cinema. I've also had some ideas to possibly focus my brief around cinema, and exploring the issue of mainstream hollywood; especially today, I think that it is important that we continue to watch and discover new and upcoming directors. 

VICE brief 

I thought that the VICE brief could be interesting as I've always wanted to work with video and animation; again, this is an old brief, so I could always alter the brief to fit more with graphic design. I think it could be interesting to explore motion graphics, but I don't think its a good idea to spend half of the brief learning how to animate things; I need to make sure my time management is smart, so don't want to risk wasting any time. 

XL Recordings brief

This brief could work as a mini brief as it only requires one illustration; however, I'm not sure if I want to do multiple mini briefs or one big one. I could definitely take inspiration from this brief, as I'm interested in music and could possibly create a collaborative brief that is responsive to a piece of music or a musician. 

Self initiated ideas 

Collaborative publication examples: 

FUKT magazine

"FUKT is a magazine for contemporary drawing. It comes without ads, beautifully designed with a focus on the visual, with occasional interviews with interesting artists and essays by engaging authors. The design and themes are changing for each issue."

I really like how FUKT magazine creates a new theme for each edition it releases; it operates on an open call submission basis, and then selects artwork to be featured in the magazine. What I really like about this concept is that it would be exciting to have a multitude of different mediums in one publication; kind of unifying artists with one theme. 

Actual Source

I've been following Actual Source for a while now,  and really like their monthly publication called 'shoplifters'. Each edition has some kind of theme, and has a select amount of artists contributing work. What I like about Actual Source is how they've built a brand identity and sell merch, etc. I definitely want to focus on developing some kind of brand, and not simply creating a publication; this is something that I want to build on as a designer, as I want to create some kind of brand with items like t-shirts etc.

Quarantine zine 

Quarantine Zine is a collaborative zine exploring the idea of 'work made in quarantine'. I really love the concept behind this, and actually bought a copy myself; I really admire how it donates all profits to charities, which is possibly a concept I could use if I sell my publication in Village Books. I really like the black and white colour scheme for the publication, as it unifies loads of different styles and creates a consistent design.  

Still Here Still Life

I personally really enjoy illustration and life drawing, and follow this account on instagram that sets out the weekly task to draw a specific image. I really like how it engages audiences and celebrates peoples' style. The main drawback of making something like this is that it doesn't really communicate a deeper issue; it is more of side project that is fun and playful. 

A24 Film zines/ products

I love A24 films and recently discovered that they have a zine/ book series of their film collection; the books consist of visuals and cinematography alongside the screenplay of the film. It would be interesting to apply the same approach in my brief, by translating film into printer matter. What I love about film is how it brings cultures and people together, and is free for interpretation based on the audience; it could be fun to create a book that takes this idea of interpretation into consideration, by having an open call for people to draw what they interpret from scenes of a film. 

Photography: 13 Great British Windows 

Another concept that I thought could be interesting for a publication idea is focusing on a specific item or object. An example of this is Teddy Fitzhugh's 13 Great British Windows; it looks at images of windows and is purely photography based. Creating a photographic book would really push me as a designer, as it is something I haven't really tried; I like the idea of point and shoot - not really considering the technical side of photography and focusing on capturing the emotion.  

Illustration based: Bobby Engvall 

I love this illustration series by Bobby Engvall; the series depicts stereotypes and visuals from the Bay Area in LA, through fun and playful illustrations. It could be interesting to apply the same concept in regards to focusing a publication on a specific area e.g. Yorkshire; the brief could be a set of illustrations/ designs celebrating what it means to be northen?

Raissa Pardini - Groupfont.com

Group Type was a project set out by Raissa Pardini that engaged a multitude of designers to create a letter each; this generated a custom typeface that celebrated everyones individual style. I think type is definitely an avenue I could go down for the brief, as especially with hand drawn type, its pretty free reign and would be interesting to get people to respond to themes purely with type.

Anna Mills

I'm really interested in hand drawn type, and I enjoy creating quite abstract typefaces that are responsive to themes; I was thinking I could apply this to the publication concept, by getting people to design typefaces based on emotions or themes. By the end of it, the book could go through the whole alphabet, which could open the brief up to other things like t-shirts; for example, people could get custom t shirts with letters on?

What am I interested in?

• Film 
• Music 
• Stickers 
• Cartoons 
• Hand drawn typefaces 
• Zines
• Tacky shit 

Initial ideas (for self initiated)

• Create a publication that responds to a theme (like FUKT magazine); create an open call for submissions and contact village books to see if they would sell it
• Create a publication with a sticker pack and a clothing line; kind of like creating a brand? 
• Organise a launch for the publication 
• Send out postcards to people for them to submit their work 
• Drawing from film? There could be a weekly film that people have to draw from 
• Create a series of zines based on films; celebrating different cultures such as South Korean cinema; submissions could be drawing from scenes? The exhibition/ launch party could be a screening of the film
• Could choose certain scenes from a film and have people draw frames; stitch the drawings together to create an animation and have a publication of the drawings like a flipbook 
• Still life challenge; set out a weekly challenge for people to draw 
• Focus on a specific community; possibly market stalls? Could be photography based inspired by the 13 British windows zine 
• An illustrative book celebrating a certain area; e.g. Yorkshire; inspired by Bobby Engvalls' illustrations of the Bay Area
• Create a publication thats responsive to a piece of music; open submissions to how people interpret it? 
• Create a collaborative mood board; curate images for a themed zine based off key words 
• Create a type responsive publication; the whole book could be A-Z of peoples' typographic responses to a theme; a collaborative typeface? The alphabet could then be animated and put into a grid? There could be a key word for each letter (maybe correlating with the letter itself, or to do with an emotion e.g. A is Angry)
• Make the publication a charity fundraiser; all money/ a percent of the money raised will be donated 
• Responses to poetry? Up for interpretation 
• A book focused on folklore or something rich in history like Mythology?