OUGD403 Evaluation

The first module has gone well, the work load has been intense and with constant work being set every week it was sometimes hard to keep on top of it all. However this was a great insight into how the industry is and it was nice to have work to do especially an interesting and broad range of projects. A new project being set every week meant that it was possible to briefly explore different areas and keep looking at new techniques and types of graphics.

The first project allowed a wide range of experiment with different resources and media. It was originally a challenge to make the word instrument fit around the font Garamond but it was good to have something like this to get me back into the thought process of designing. It fed nicely into the next project and this really made it feel like it was going somewhere, it also allowed me to see how I could develop my own ideas in graphic design and produce an outcome I am happy and proud with. Although there were a few flaws with my Brief 2 outcome this feels minimal compared to how far I have progressed in illustrator from originally not knowing anything. This has been the hardest and most challenging brief for me but at the same time one of the best because it made me face my illustrator fears.

The Partner project (Brief 3) has been enjoyable because it made people in the class talk when actually they may not have previously. It was a great way to make you think of a practical solution to represent someone. I found the research interesting and a good challenge to find a way of showing they key aspects of someones personality through a letterform, and then making this letterform work through a whole alphabet.

Brief 4 and 5 were my favourite, most probably because of the chosen topic. The flexibility to choose what ever story suited us made it more interesting, I chose Nuclear Power because I didn't really know anything about it but found myself being very negative towards it. The project has led me to completely change my opinion and then with this new found passion and interest in nuclear power I really wanted to create high impact posters that would throw peoples initial thoughts. This has been the most successful project and the one that I have enjoyed the most as its kept me interested and hasn't felt like I have been working.

Overall this project has allowed a nice introduction to the world of design. The tutorials on illustrator have made it less daunting and actually encouraged me to experiment with it in my spare time rather than stick to the comfort of photoshop. The mono printing inductions and digital print have shown me that there are so many possibilities when printing and creating work. Now that I am aware of these different methods I don't feel like creative ideas will be limited. I am excited to move on to other projects and take the skills I have learnt with me to progress and explore other ideas.

Brief 5 - Message Delivery: Interim Crit

The interim crit yesterday was divided into two groups the first group would layout their work and then leave the room whilst the second group went around and gave anonymous feedback. This was an interesting way of doing it because it meant you were looking at the work soley by itself and it had to speak to itself. It meant that you could see if the message you were trying to portray became clear to an unknowing audience or not. This allows for tweaks to be made before the final crit on friday.

Much of the feedback received was of use and will be considered when making the next set of changes. Below are some points that were highlighted:

• "Are you for or against nuclear power? make this more clear"
• "good quote - try different layouts and type faces"
• "consider kerning and leading"
• "one plug would be more concise and hard-hitting"
• "maybe work with the cloud idea but instead of a line around the cloud, use the writing to make a cloud shape"
• "find a bold typeface that doesn't detract"
• "experiment with international plugs"
• "you could think statistically?  - research stats and facts on nuclear energy"
• "I like the text idea. it is a shocking fact and really reassures people about waste -- focus on waste more"
• "good statistics to shock audience, effective layout of text and image design, but the text disappears slightly"
• "best way to show tonnes of information across is in the form of info graphics - simple layouts dependant on perfect positioning"

From here other ideas will be explored but the key issues will be taken into consideration when making the posters.

Brief 4 - Message Delivery/ Research: FACTS

This post will look at the facts that will be used or could be useful when creating info graphics or the text and image combined piece. Its been interesting reading different fact sources because the way they word the fact really affects the connotations it implies. For example on site wrote "Nuclear energy comes from uranium, a nonrenewable resource that must be mined." which is written in such a negative light, where as another site could have written "nuclear energy is sourced from uranium which is in ample supply and the quantity used means it is almost infinite" Both say the same things but in different ways to support their argument. Because the posters will aim to open people's eyes to the nuclear power options the facts below will focus on a positive light.

• Nuclear power emits no carbon dioxide.

• World wide nuclear energy avoids on average 2.5 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

• nuclear power facilities can produce energy at a 91% efficiency rate 24/7  whilst still having lowest emissions.

• There are now 430 nuclear power plants in 31 countries.

• They provide 13.5% of the worlds electricity.

• All you see at the top of the cooling tower is steam.

• 6,702 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent was released into the atmosphere in 2011.

• 1 in 5 households and business in the U.S. are electrically powered by nuclear energy.

• A nuclear power plant must shut down every 18-24 months to remove its used uranium fuel, or radioactive waste.

• The peace symbol was initially an anti-nuclear weapons symbol.

• Nuclear power plants are more efficient than coal or other fossil fuels and renewable energy.

Brief 5 - Message and Delivery: Info-graphics

This piece of info-graphics uses 3 main colours plus stock. This piece on Nuclear Power has managed to compact a lot of information into a small space whilst not looking over packed or busy. There are separate sections for separate parts of information and appropriate displays to illustrate the points.

I really like the idea of creating infographics however I don't know whether it would be appropriate because its hardly shocking, facts don't jump out at you and change your opinion.

Brief 5 - Message and Delivery: Research into Two Tone

One of the brief restrictions was that it had to be two colours and stock colour. This obviously affects what can be produced and how it will look. Because of this restriction it only seemed logical to do some research into other pieces of design, which may not be a relevant story, but that only use to colours. This way it is easier to see what colours work well together and how shape and composition can affect the layout of the piece. Below are some examples.

On the two posters above the use of a creamy off white background makes a real change from white. The red on top is less harsh as there is a lower contrast and the simplicity of the image in the centre with the small text either directly above or below on the right leads your eye to the central image.

 

The advertisements above primarily focus on the colours orange and blue and using white or an off white for backgrounding and outlines. These colours may not seem like a first choice but they compliment each other so well. The orange adds a warm sense whilst drawing the eye to text on the two with text. The blue levels out the advertisements and makes the orange less empowering. The 'for the love of letters' poster has a pritn screened element to it. This makes it look so much more personal and intriguing. The coloured blocks aren't perfect but this makes it more curious and feel like a piece of art as well as advertising. This is definitely a route to explore even though it may not fit the story of nuclear power.

Orange alone or with the strong contrast of black and white seems to be another way of advertising. The poster above and book page spread really use the colour well. The simplicity of the text almost becomes transparent as it doesn't even spark question to why it was chosen and placed in its position. 

Brief 5 - Message and Delivery: Research

One thing that is useful to research is how other designers have tried to show the issue of nuclear power. When I began researching this it became clear relatively quickly that there are very few pieces of design explaining to pros and cons in an non bias way. Most pieces were anti Nuclear focusing on the iconic mushroom cloud. 

The anti nuclear posters are featured below as some of them use subtle tactics to make their point. The majority of them are created by Greenpeace and they use a range of different methods.

Firstly the obvious showing of a nuclear plant but covering it in white and drawing a child like sketch of what the scenery behind it would look like. The caption "its about time something was put right" displayed in the bottom left corner doesn't distract from the image rather lets it speak for itself. 

The clever use of russian dolls in the shape of coffins to remember the Chernobyl disaster that happened in russia subtly reminds people of the downsides to nuclear power.

This advert states "in France we don't pollute. We use nuclear energy" it is drawn onto a boomerang with mechanical and tubes illustrated in the background. To me this piece is trying to show that what ever you put out there will come back to haunt you in a sense. However it can be slightly misleading because the piece and slogan itself seems to suggest its for nuclear power but the fact it is designed by greenpeace strongly contradicts this, unless they are trying tone ironic?! 

A genius but subtle take on the situation. The poster is showing the idea that society are teaching their children then there has been radiation in the family for years stating it like a family air loom or a family trait, so casually. This really gets their point across that we shouldn't stand for nuclear energy with its radioactivity or else it will become part of us.

   

The concept behind this piece of having the nuclear plant resembling an iceberg. The fact that you can see a very small amount on the surface but there is so much more under the surface that we are not aware of. Their message becomes more engrained with the chosen shape of the mushroom cloud underneath and the captopn "everything you don't want to know"

It has become useful to see what campaigns have been created prior, however none of these are looking at it from the view that I wanted to take. I have decided to create an educational piece of work which explain the pros and cons of nuclear power without being bias.

Brief 5 - Message and Delivery: Research into Possible Concepts

The brief specifies that one poster has to be purely typography. However this doesn't mean it has to be generated on the computer. Creating the typography by hand and layering it would fit in better with the idea of Terry Borders work, this would also link them together as a suit which was a vital factor in the brief.  On the right is an idea that could work well by having the text all cut out individually and layered to show the 3D and hand made aspects. Whether it would work like the advert on the right by showing the background or actually whether it should be scaled to fit the whole poster could be something that is played around with. This would also play well into the rules of only being allowed to use two colours as you could preselect the colours prior to creating it. It would also allow to put a lot of information in one place but not over crowd it. 

 On the right is an great idea that would be suitable for the 3rd joint poster with the combination of typography and image. The handmade fonts filling in the gaps and explaining a story provides a simple but affective campaign. Whilst looking at it you are not bombarded with images or text, it is simple and clean, you can understand its message before reading the text but then reading the text helps to give it more context.

The simplicity of the idea on the right shows creating the letter into a 3D box out of cardboard. It works for the advertisement for pack and store as it is showing a minimal room and how much more space you would have by using their boxes to store your items. The box idea may also work well for Nuclear Awareness as the 3D factor allows both sides of the argument to be shown and then the audience can make up their own mind.

Brief 5 - Message and Delivery: Research into Possible Concepts

Terry Border is an artist who uses everyday mundane objects and turns them into a scene portraying something. The reason behind looking at him is to get ideas for the piece we have to create where we can only use an image. No text or explanation is allowed so having an image that could be created out of everyday objects and yet still narrate a story would work well. However it is unknown what objects could be used for nuclear power but this is something that could be experimented with after the crit.

His use of colour and lighting works well together in defining the photo. This would definitely be an interesting idea to play around with especially since we are confined to two colours and stock colour which may make it harder and show this type of image doesn't work if its not in colour or it may have a higher impact especially with the topic of nuclear power.

He has also used his style to advertise for certain companies, as shown above. The two adverts for oxo play around with items relevant to their slogans.

Brief 4 - Message Delivery: Nuclear Waste

One of the main arguments that people seem to bring up against nuclear power is the waste that is produced. Little is known about the waste produced or what happens to it. An image is created in our heads of a massive pile of green neon waste glowing somewhere, hopefully the point of this research will actually show the facts behind this imaginary image.

Nuclear power surprisingly produces less waste than that that is produced by fossil fuels, whether this is because there is less nuclear power production in comparison to fossil could be a factor. However for the energy produced there is less waste. Nuclear power takes into consideration the cost of disposing of the product safely. The nuclear fuel which is left behind can be used further as another way of forming energy, this is definitely something worth researching although saying this, the fact that this doesn't happen that often suggests there is something about it which may not be worth it.

The cost of managing the waste is included into the bill of the consumers. There are different types of waste which have different procedures to be disposed of depending on their level of radioactivity. The level of radioactivity decreases over time. Each radioactive nuclide (normally called radionuclide) has an unstable nucleus. For every radionuclide it has a half life, this is the time that it takes for half of its atoms to decay and loose half of its radioactivity. They are easier to handle if they have longer half lives, if they have a longer half life they tend to be alpha or beta emitters. If they have a shorter half life then they emit more radioactive rays which penetrate more, an example of this would be gamma rays.
Radioactive material doesn't stay radioactive forever which is a common misconception it does eventually break down into less harmful elements.

There are four categories that the waste can be split into:

Excempt waste and very low level waste - This isn't harmful to people or the environment, it tends to be things or part of the building structure which has been near nuclear radioactivity such as concrete, bricks or metal etc... This waste is removed along with any domestic waste as it is not seen as a threat.

Low-level waste (LLW) - this includes anything which has been in a radioactive area and contains a small amount of radioactivity which tends to be short lived. It doesn't need special handling and can be buried shallow. However before it is buried it tends to be burnt down, this isn't because of the radioactivity but the sheer size of low level waste.

Intermediate-level waste (ILW) - Requires some shielding as it contains the contaminated materials or chemical mixes like resins, chemical sludges and metal fuel cladding. Any liquids have to be solidified before being disposed of.

High-level waste (HLW) - This is the burning of uranium in the reactor. Because of how radioactive it is as well as the heat it emits it requires shielding and also cooling. HLW is over 95% of the waste produced! HLW can be separated into long-lived and short lived lives this then makes for a more efficient disposal. 

Brief 4 and 5 - Message Delivery: Chernobyl Photograph

Many photos were taken of Chernobyl and the damaging after affects that came with it. Some truly distressing images are shown of not only the disaster but the affect of children born with radiation poisoning.

No use of legs - they rely on their arms to pull them around.

Deformed toddler with the brain membrane at the back of his head, almost looking like another head.

hydroencephalitis (inflammation of the brain)

These photos may work well with Brief 5 because they are powerful enough by themselves. They don't need text to explain them, the fact they are in a grey scale makes it more grim and powerful as an image. It will be interesting to look into campaigns and see how they have used simple images to raise awareness.

Brief 4 - Message Delivery: The Chernobyl Disaster

The spread of radiation from Chernobyl 

The Chernobyl disaster happened in April 1986, It was the worlds worse nuclear accident when reactor 4 exploded. The reason this is so key to the research into Hinkley point because it made people question the very idea of nuclear power. It brought death and birth defects for years to come.

There was a fatal floor in the reactors design where it becomes highly unstable whilst running at low power. The owner and man in charge wanted to dominate over the technology. On the night of the disaster they were supposed to be running a test on the safety after a few years before they were bombed by Israelis, because of this soviet scientists demand tests to check how they would cope with out the power. However the man who was in charge didn't follow the guide lines and did not run the test properly. There was instructions to run the reactor between 700-100 megawatts when the test began but he ran it at 200megawatts to preserve the cooling water from over heating. He didn't listen to anyones opinion of the workers below him. 

The water drums levels were low so the low power stalled and grounded to a halt, and the foolish decision to pull the control rods to start power up again was made. The control rods are the break and the accelerator of the nuclear reactor, so doing this was described like cooking a gun. There are over 1000 uranium filled fuel rods the splitting of uranium atoms realises heat from the fuel rods, this produces a mass of steam from the water. This steam then turns a turbine and generates electricity. To control this 211 control rods are spread through the core, if they are raised the power accelerates and if they are taken out altogether they loose the ability to apply the breaks. This is what happened.  They believed the chances of the accident were completely rare, even those who are aware of risks and danger estimated that there was only a 1 in a million chance of an accident.

KGB Documents came out which showed the plant had ignored serious warnings about the design floors of Chernobyl between 1979 - 1986. The director and senior mangers rushed to open the reactor number 4 early so they could win bonuses, for them the safety came second. For example the roof was meant to be made from non flammable, fire proof materials but they didn't feel they had time so they used combustable material. Accidents were constantly covered up and swept under the rug so to speak. Interestingly the test that they were running on the night was meant to have been ran before the reactor was even opened and operational.

Power built up at the bottom of the core which formed hotspots where a few of the control rods had been left partially in at the top. These lower parts would not show up on the system so the plant became a ticking time bomb. As previously mentioned the water levels were low, the alarms for this were ignored. This meant that is was boiling like an empty kettle. More and more energy began to be produced with less and less water. The steam pressure from the core managed to lift the 350 kilo caps to the fuel rods out of their sockets!

Reading into the disaster and also watching documentaries on it, it has become clear that living in the soviet country played a part in why the workers didn't speak up more often. It is reported that quite a few did say that the station wasn't following procedures but even they were fully aware of the risks. One of the points that was highlighted was that the workers for the plant had been provided with accommodation near to the plant together and schools were built for their children along with other benefits. They were given a very comfortable life style so rising up over an accident that they thought was unlikely to happen didn't seem worth it.

Brief 3 - Alphabet Soup/Typeface: Last Modifications

After the crit it was useful to reflect on the feedback given. One of the main things that became apparent is that the new letter forms should be working around the basis of the chosen font. For this reason some of the ideas were scrapped and four were kept and adapted to the silhouette of Briem Akademi (STD Condensed).

The two preferable outcomes from the ideas shown above are the 'A' and the 'D' as both of these portray his character best.  The final alphabet and glyphs will be hand rendered onto tracing paper which will show how Johnathan's hand made style of work. 

The 'A' will probably work best because it shows the idea of being busy but from afar looking neat and organised.

The next step (shown above) is to format a grid that fits in a 4 by 8 ratio with all the letters in and 6 chosen glyphs. This will then make the process of hand rendering it a lot easier and quicker.

Brief 5 - Message and Delivery: Brief

Brief
Produce designs for a set of three high impact posters that deliver a personal identified message derived from your research into part one of this brief.

The three posters should work as a set or series and be visually consistent. The first must be produced solely using type, the second solely with image and the third a combination of both type and image.
Background / Considerations

Focus on what you are trying to say and avoid generalisations and vague messages.
Keep it simple and to the point.

Are you making a statement, delivering facts or posing a question?
You should consider and investigate a broad range of possible visual solutions before making your design decisions.

• Tone of Voice.
• Memorable, immediate high impact and clear.
• Challenging, potentially controversial but appropriate and not offensive.
• Factual, statistical, informed and specific.

Mandatory Requirements

Each poster should be supported by comprehensive visual research into frame format, composition and content.

Use notebooks to document your ideas. Use worksheets to develop your visuals 

investigation.

Deliverables

You are restricted to the use of two colours plus stock.

Three Posters ( 2:1 format) presented at A3 scale (but not A3 format).

Brief 3 - Alphabet Soup/Type Face: Interim Crit

The feedback that was given for Brief 3 has been really useful for developing the alphabet further. The way the crit was laid out meant that we didn't present to the group, but rather lay our work out and let it speak for itself. On a separate sheet was written anonymous feedback which we could then use to develop our alphabet.

The main pieces of feedback that seem to be of value are the following:

• examples of the font silhouettes being used as the starting point
• begin looking at 3D and mechanical 
• Top heavy letters work well
• exploring the idea of tracks and working that in with the font of Briem Akademi
• tall letterforms
• 'divided idea is most visually pleasing' - idea of constructing and deconstructing
• choose a clear path, focus on one of his traits or think of overlapping traits
• focus on creating more legible letterforms

From this it allows for a wide range of ideas to be developed further and hopefully form a strong basis of work.

Brief 3 - Alphabet Soup/Typeface: Development

To create a suitable alphabet it needed to incorporate our partners personality and characteristics in the way it was designed. One thing that is notable from the questions with Johnathan is that quite a few of his hobbies or attributes are linked or could be portrayed in the same way. For example he is a very busy person with work, university and socialising, this can be represented by the idea of movement - lots of lines or a busy letter. However this also could fit in with the idea of his fear of wasps, the lines representing the path the wasp takes.

On the right shows an initial idea of trying to present 'busy' and the sheer amount of work through the alphabet. A significant part to this design was trying to show that even though he is busy and has a lot going on he appears and composes himself as a calm and neat individual. The development on the right is playing around with using capitals only. Capitals are best because they are a statement, bold and can also relate loosely back to his love for caps.                                                                                                                                                                    

This idea developed further as it began to look at the slicing up of letters to show the break between the two sections; busy and neat and organised. The first A on the left is showing the idea of it being hectic under the service, the idea that no-one knows how busy he is. This developed further into actually slicing the letter to reflect the mechanical side of his personality. The letter is being constructed and deconstructed depending on your outlook

The next idea that followed looked at a combination of a few things: his love for driving to relax, his dream job of being an F1 driver and his love for mechanics. The first thought that comes to mind with the idea of driving was speed, this again links back to the idea of being busy and speeding around. Acrylic paint was used to create letters that looked like they were moving. Acrylic paint was the best material choice as it lends itself well to being smudged and creating movement. 

Then the idea of the car engine itself became the focus looking at taking aspects of the car engine and simplifying them down so that they could represent letters in their basic shape. The side view of a V engine worked well as a V and a Con rod works well as an I, however although this idea may work it doesn't lend itself well to the whole alphabet. The "i" on the far left works well as the letter is still legible and clear but shows the track well. This will definitely be an idea to continue.

   

Brief 4 - Message Delivery: Interim Crit

The interim crit proved not only useful but also interesting. It was interesting to see the wide range of stories people had chosen and also to listen to the range of research that the people had collected especially those who had also chosen nuclear power. 

After the crit it became apparent that the final piece for Brief 5 will be informative and educational. This means that the next amount of research will be trying to gain more knowledge on different aspects of nuclear power. The final posters will aim to show the facts about nuclear power to people and allow them to make up their own mind on it. Many people are against nuclear power but with no just reason so hopefully this will make it a fair argument.

Brief 4 - Message Delivery: Is Nuclear Power just a taboo?

There is a lot of negative press towards Nuclear power, even the idea being suggested as an alternative tends to raise a fair few glares and shaking heads. However is it as bad as people seem to think? What are the real figures and facts behind the use of nuclear power? As a country we need to think of other alternatives for energy understanding that one-day coal will run out and renewable energy may not be substantial enough.

After Chernobyl and Fukushima people are very hesitant and hostile towards the idea of nuclear power. However it can be argued that the proper procedures were not in place when both disaster happened, and although it was a tragic accident, it was perhaps easily avoided If correct precautions were followed.

People worry about radiation from nuclear plants, which is a fair concern, however they seem to overlook the fact that we are subjected to radiation everyday from natural processes, it is not something that is escapable. For example people who live near a large source of granite such as Cornwall have a higher exposer compared to others. Daily checks expose people to a high amount of radiation but this does not seem to be on the same level as nuclear radiation to people. For example x-rays expose you to higher doses of radiation than nuclear radiation.

There are very strict and rigorous plans in place involving both the safety of and in the plant and also in the case of an accident. After Fukushima there were restrictions placed in Tokyo about drinking the radioactive water, and as scary as this sounds they failed to mention that the radiation dose received by drinking the water in Tokyo would have been less than moving to Cornwall and living there for a year.

It is thought that over 100,000 deaths each year is due to coal related air pollution. But this doesn’t seem to be such a worry to people or at least not as much of a concern compared to radiation.