My Visual Language

My Visual Language University of Huddersifled

Nikolay Mihaylov

University of Huddersfield 2016Nikolay Mihaylov

Graphic Design Year 2, Studio Practices

University of Huddersfield 2016Nikolay MihaylovGraphic Design Year 2, Studio Practices

Book Contents1... YCN BRIEF - Student Annual Design awards ‘‘Feel Good Drinks’’

2... Collide Brief - University of Huddersfield Brief , main theme ‘‘ Info-graphics, happiness.’’

3 ... Conversation Brief - University of Huddersfield brief ‘‘Illustration Design’’

1422 Studio Foundation Practice/ Final Studio OutcomeIssue : M

ay 2016

YCN BriefStudent design annual awards, held each year for young aspiring graphic designers. In addition they provide a vastnumber of life competion briefs specifically for design

Student Awards YCN Live brief

The most important recogni-tion and aim of a designer is to share, sell his/her work in the open world. The YCN annual competition gives the oppor-tunity to designers in proving themselves and generating key ideas for real live companies. Each year the organisation helds events and from University one of our pro-jects was to answer either to YCN’s competition or RSA. I decided to work on YCN briefs

due to the fact I have more freedom in tearms of the brief requirements. The Brief I choose to work upon is for a company that makes juice ‘‘Feel Good Drinks’’.

1.0 YCN - Student Live Competition brief

Feel Good DrinksStudent design annual awards, held each year for young aspiring graphic designers. In addition they provide a vastnumber of life competion briefs specifically for design

Research Feel Good Drinks

I find the brief to be quite challenging due to the broad scope of possible approaches, while it can clearly be a benefit of having specific guides and rules, the company’s requirements were most broad. Feel Good INC. have been in the industry for fifteen years. Their aim is to increase sale and number of satisfied customers. Their strategy seems rather simple, seeking minimalistic design to communicate their message which is about spreading happi-ness amongs customers. There are numerous bullet points that will be mentioned with-

in this small booklet, a more thorough and detailed explanation of the brief and it’s obstacles I come through.Strangely enough the brief is concentrated on the female part of society, their specific aim is to increase positivity and attract females from the ages of 15-35. The approach of the brief is entirely mine, the only materials I have been provided with which was in the toolkit was the Logo.


The brand has constantly been developing during it’s life span. From highly illustratred designs and logo development, finally the have produced the current simple logo. The small moon-based objects within the ‘‘E’’ and ‘‘G’’ are made to increase the effect of happiness, more like emphasise. The brief clearly states their adgenda, in fact being a juice manufactering company spreading happiness. I made a thorough research in their packaging design, layouts,website and privous designs including earliy design in order to find the most suitableapproach to further developing the brand. To state my brief is about an upcomming

campaign. My design will be exactly answering the brief’s requirements, I won’t rebrand the company, I will further develop their concept for the campaign. Once the bullet points have been given It’s not so difficult to produce a set of bodywork which would be a coherant re-sponse to the briefing.

Research The Brand and packaging


Older packaging design

This is the website of Feel Good Drinks INC.From what I see they have tried to acomplish a more playful and interactive design aiming to attract the younger generation due to it’s shapes, col-ours and even applied sounds. I personally think the website is a poor execution due to it’s suprising amount of cramped design, a more simple and profression look would suit better my aim I think.

Research The Brand and Website


From this point onwards, after I have read about the history of the company, explored thoroughly their designs, concepts and executions of packaging, labels and concept messages, I be-gan my seccondary research which would inform and serve as inspiration to my fist stages of development. First of all I began a research into Vintage style, due to it’s suprising amount of clean and simple design to which I’m striving to complete, since the target audience is of young females my design needs to be with an element of abstract and simple for better understanding.Pinterest provides a vast set of ideas and executions. There are a suprising large number

of Pubs and other places of entertainment which are currently using this style for set of posters.They are a mixture of type and basic geomoetric shapes. The design artwork was made by Hustle Supply Co.

Research Vintage Style


Since the key concept is simplicity and innocent design I be-gan researching into thumbnails and simple illustrations of fruit symbols and objects. I believe such kinds of design would be really helpful in further developing a key concept and improve the packaging design of the Feel Good Drinks. The design ap-proach would be most suitable for the brief due to said simplicity and playfulness. The key idea in this simple design is simplicity mixed with basic shapes and multiple couring.This project was made from Flat Fruit Balls.Photo by Giovanna Mastrocola on Behance

Secondary Research Fruit Symbols


The next important step was to research into packaging design specifi-cally for developing the campaign packaging promotion. Here you can see a brilliant example of simplicity mixed with vintage style. I musy say it looks quite effective and beautiful. I think this kind of style would greatly influence the packaging design of Feel Good Drinks.this beautiful design I found on Pinterest from aldenchong.

Secondary Research Packaging Design


From wedding chicksVintage Seaside Elopement Ideas

from thejuicebox.caon Pinterest

The time come for me to lay my concept ideas based on my research for further developing and increasing the company’s sales and interest. The key concepts of my project are the following. Target audience are the females ranging from 18-35 age. In addition the design should inflence happiness and freshness. Play-fullness is a key concept as well. Main Keypoints :* Innocent* Friendly* Inspiring* Eye Catching* Interactive with the audience

* Fruity*Simple*EffectiveThese are my main keypoints from my research which are benefical to the design approach I’m going to develop for the brief requirements and hopefully improve the quality of work for the Feel Good Inc.

Ideas for CampaignFeel Good Drinks


Conversation briefI find the Conversation brief extremely interesting due to the fact of it’s challenging nature and favourite topics that I looked through which practically defined my project. In ad-dition I would really much like to give credit to Spenser for his assistance in developing the project. One of his lectures gave me an inspiratation which is a bulletpoint fo executing this brief.

The first brief we were given to wrok on was the Conversation brief. The main covering topics are tchnology, culture and the new age. I thought the best appraoch for the brief would be Loss of Cultural identity and the urge of finding ways of using graphical, technolgical means to preserve and influence culture through the usage of design and sym-bolism. One of my key influences are Wall-E and Klain’s bok titled ‘‘No logo’’.

Conversation Brief Technology, culture and Loss of Identity

1.0 Conversation brief

One of the main tourst attraction in Bangkok is the river market. People from all apart the country come here to sell their produce, it’s a place of huge cultural diversity since the distinctive style of selling merchandice from boats. I choose to place it in my research as one of the most symbolic exchange of Cultural diversity and sharing.

Cultural DiversityBangkok


I began firstly researching into inf-graphics regarding produced work of themes such as cultural diversity culture or technology. In Pinterest I found some really nice example of work themed upon technology and culture. The project itself is about telefone calls and waysof greeting in various countires, cultures. I found the project facinating and really tied with the Conversation brief.

Info-GraphicsCell Phone Etiquette


The seccond most interesting topic is about storytelling and using animation in order to emphasise on dancing and protecting people from walking on red lights to prevent casulties. What I found most interesting and the reason of being a research is because it presents a form of culture, to a broad audience, the different styles of dancing, move-ment. In addition they have used highly technological means which works as a further benefit. At this point I had some basic approach towards answering the brief.

Story TellingThe Dancing Street Lights


My most favourite films of all times would be Wall-E. The small animation is about a robot that collects waste from the ravaged Planet Earth until he meets a female robot named ‘‘Eva.’’ The small droid developes his character even further while interacting with Earth Artifacts all around him. In the end, the small robot helped in rebuilding the planet from it’s ravaged state.The film speaks quite clearly, that it’s a movie about Tech-nology ruining nature and the planet itself with people lead-ing a war against the robots, however the main tale of the story is actually using technology in a way to rebuild, renew and preserve humanity.

Story TellingWALL-E


HSBC is a UK bank that made a set of cultural adds in order to increase it’s audience and partly promote the cultural diversity within a specific country. I found it a fascinating and really effective cultural posters, it’s all about preservation and storytelling. Each tale had a different story in the short clips.

Cultural AddsHSBC BANKING


Leading branding designer Bruce Mau, targeted one of his pro-jects on our hugetechnological development and diversity. Massive Change made a huge impact due to it’s coherant similar-ity to my personal brief. ‘‘We are surrounded everyday by technol-ogy however we need to use it appropriately in order to preserve our nature.’’

Bruce MauA Massive Change


Based upon Naomi Klain’s book ‘‘No logo’’ the branding inustry has deeply affected culture in all parts of the world, decreasing the demand for cultural cousine with the fixed idea of Fast Food and drinks. Culture had a huge hit with these companies which technically own the market. The massive advertising increased substantially the interest in consuming those carefully prepared products due to the amazing and unatural tastyness.

Branding IndustryMulti-national Companies, Coca Cola, Mac Donalds


My DevelopmentMy Conversation biref is centered on Cultural diversity, loss of identity and technology. I find the topic of influencing Culture through means of technology as my main and I created a set of posters which emphasise on the need ofCultural aid through the usage of technological symbols.One of my most iconogrific piece of work is the Canwitch, the sandwitch that glares upon the city and assumes control.

CollideThe Final and most important briefs of this year was Collide.The brief was based upon, The future self, Happiness and the Digital Age. I enjoyed the brief due to the interesting ways of approaching and I think the main keypoint of Collide is actually happiness. One must love and appreciatethe path he/she choose in order to follow the steps of success.

THE KEY TO HAPPINESS University of Huddersfield Nikolay Mihaylov

The aim of the Collide brief is about self-discovery and the boundaries of human emotion. The small project ‘’The Key to Happiness’’ was purely research regarding the core feelings of reaching the state of success, positivity and happiness. Happiness is a state of mind based on personal needs . Now! Share a smile with your friends, family and lovers. :)

Listen to favourite music Music increases your efficiency and reacts on your sub-counscious and

counscious. Music contains emotions which are passed to you.1

Be Positive Most people blame their surroundings for their negative feelings. Change happens from within. Some of the sucessful people in the

world are are the happiest2

Travel Tired of your daily schedule ? Choose a travel destination and visit new places,

bring friends with you or family. The more you see the more people you shall meet.

4

Open your heart You are not perfect, nobody is or will ever be. Follow your heart and seek out

your dreams. Find friends who will enjoy your company,6Admire what you have!

What there is more to say? You are born for a reason, make the most of the world you live in!

7Leave somthing behind !

The world would not have existed if achievments were impossible. Find yourself and determine your future. The impact you leave will change the people around

you, or even the word!?8

5Find a job you will enjoy

Find a job that determines your inner self. The people who are most successful are working their dream job. People like Morgan Freemen have said:

‘’I never worked for even a day during my entire life’’

3Exercise

The more calories you burn the healthy you are, try finding a active daily exercise to keep you positive! You may suffer 80% less from illness!

Happiness is an emotional state produced by a set of positive emotions either being goals or dreams. Every living person on the planet has desires and seek a way to fufil their dreams. The main aAim of the Twenty First Century is to give opportunity for as many people as possible to fufil their goals. For every person the reason of provoking the emotional state is of self-discoveryHere are some examples. After brainstorming and researching , Happiness can be achieved by enrolling activities such as sport, traveling, jogging, vising concerts and communicating with people. In addition the urge of leaving something behind can be a benefac-tor for our entire race, either by rising children or achievments.

The State of Happiness3.0 Collide brief

Storytelling is one of the prime approaches when targeting a specific audience. It is known that the designs which incorporate visual stories are most sucessfull and most appealing towards the audience. The usage of Storytelling within commercial adds can produce emotions which respond with the observers. Design by itself is no design, it has to have a meaning and a reason for it ot exist. The trends set to our cur-rent age is about meaning full design. In this video of the Cadillac the female is entirely impressed y the model of the car which explains her actions

Story Telling3.0 Collide brief

One of the most interesting projects made by Stephen Seigmaister is about the level of happi-ness and ways of increasing, documenting what people have preceived as happiness. This set ofinfo-graphic work is one of the baselines on which I created my work technically. Happiness is the main topic within my work. It’s all about documenting research and understanding your personal-self.

Story TellingStephen Seignaister : The Happy Show

3.0 Collide brief

First of all I thought of using basic symbols and small illustrations to create an info-graphic poster regarding the several steps of happiness. I centered my project mainly about the joy of life, finding your-personal inner self. The poster is an recording of advice regarding successfullness and emotions. In addition I created all symbols from the poster design into various small flyers for peo-ple to comment on webpage regarding favourite topics and self-discovery. To further my work I created them to fit the shape of small cards for a game.The game itself is an interaction between people. Six various topics and each card contains a certain topic which you describe to your partner and he has to guess the name of what you are describing.DegreeSearch.org

From DegreeSearch.org

Concept IdeaGraphical Illustrations

3.0 Collide brief

3.0 Info-graphics DegreeSearch.org

3.0 Collide brief : Development

3.0 Collide brief : Development

First of all I thought of using basic symbols and small illustrations to create an info-graphic poster regarding the several steps of happiness. I centered my project mainly about the joy of life, finding your-personal inner self. The poster is an recording of advice regarding successfullness and emotions. In addition I created all symbols from the poster design into various small flyers for peo-ple to comment on webpage regarding favourite topics and self-discovery. To further my work I created them to fit the shape of small cards for a game.The game itself is an interaction between people. Six various topics and each card contains a certain topic which you describe to your partner and he has to guess the name of what you are describing.DegreeSearch.org

Concept IdeaGraphical Poster Design

3.0 Collide brief

Concept IdeaGraphical Card

3.0 Collide brief

Finally to summerise this project was aboutcreating a physical piece of art, interactive andplayable, enjoyable by many. It has been a most nteresting and pleasurable experience creatingthe design. I must say I’m quite happy with the outcome of the project

My Visual LanguageThank you for your time

University of Huddersifled Nikolay Mihaylov

Issue 2016 May

Documents

My Visual Language