Urban Regeneration: Presentation feedback.

 I recently presented my ideas to the class, and got some helpful feed back. I presented them the mock ups you see below. They contain one idea for the cover of the leaflet, and a 2 groups of ideas for the posters. I chose posters in the end, because I felt that I would excel more in that field. The feedback I received was that I hadn't fully answered the brief. People liked my designs, but I hadn't mentioned anything about London Road. What i need to do is include that in my designs.

Brainstorm: Urban Regeneration.

Here's another brainstorm, but this time for Urban regeneration.

Brainstorm: Brighton

To get an idea of where to start with my designing process, ive started to make up some brainstorms.

Research: London Road

London road in Brighton is not known for its high life, and its night life, and its large amount of things to do. A lot of the time I try and describe it to people, i end up just saying, "Its that road with the nasty co-op on." And they usualy know what I mean. When thinking about this task, London road seems PERFECT for urban regeneration. I mean, I'm not one for going out with 30-somethings, drinking cocktails wearing the latest fashion and talking out of my behind, but the design oppotunitys for such an endevor are almost endless.

First, lets take a look at London road.

Its not exactily one of the most classy places. I can see that whoever will be taking on this project will have a lot of work on his or her hand. My job however is to push the idea of sprucing thing place up to the public, is a good idea. To do this i will need to first establish my target audience, and come up with a way of selling the idea of a swanky new london road with resturaunts and bars and clubs on is a good plan.

When we think of Brighton, you usually think of quite hip, and trendy people. The kind of people who wear scarves, not because its cold, but because its a cool scarfe. Bearing that in mind, i figure that my designs will also have to be modern, and trendy, and eye catching, but must also push the idea of regeneration to the public. For that part, i will most likely include a link to the Brighton and Hove county council website, or even have a QR code. I feel that im going to have to brainstorm to carry this on..!!

Research: David Pelham.

Ive been looking into different artists styles recently, and have come across a man named David Pelham. David Pelham worked as a cover designer for Penguin books, and the style he used is very much like Paul (something) in the way he used colours, and lines. It all looks very 60's, but not so pop 60's.

David Pelham has designed a few book covers, but famously designed the cover forA Clock work Orange (Anthony Burgess, 1962). This caught my eye because of how simple, yet how complicated the design was. He has only used block colours, and thick, simple curved lines, yet you really get a sense of forboding when you look at the cover.

He has also designed 4 books for a Science fiction series for J.G Ballard. They have the same striking lines and curves, but the colours feature heavy gradients on them, which is very effective, especially when pusing the idea of Science fiction. The way he has used shadows as well is very effective.

Research: What is Urban Regeneration?

What is urban regeneration? When we got this project, I was horrifically confused at what they where asking me to do, but after having a little look on google, i think ive come up with what I believe urban regeneration is.

Urban regeneration is the restoration, and improvement of inner city areas. The main focus of it, is to turn old, dirty, crime infested areas into nice, clean shopping areas, that are safe for the average lower middle class pedestrians.

I believe that the main target for doing this, is to be able to sell this idea to the kind of people who enjoy restaurants, and going out for a drink, and seeing shows, and watching live comedy. The brief asks for an age range of 18 - 39, which seems to have it it right on the nose, because they are the perfect age range that are more likely to have a disposable income.

My next post should be some example about Urban regeneration, and a look into in more depth.

Urban Regeneration.

Another project aye? A week to do the bulk of it aye..?! Well... Here we go..

Brief:

Inner cites changed enormously in the 90s and 00s, with run down areas of disused buildings and land, and in some cases substandard housing, being redeveloped into pockets of urban cool, featuring flats, shops, hotels, restaurants, venues and conference centres, with the intension of breathing new economic life into the previously derelict.  In Brighton, two examples of this are the area around the Jubilee Library and the New England Quarter at the back of the train station.  Further afield, the work of Urban Splash has redeveloped areas of English northern cities.

This kind of regeneration has slowed right down in the current recession, but for this assignment you have to imagine that London Road Brighton is being redeveloped into a gentrified urban centre attractive to the young and single or couples without children.  Flats, bars, restaurants, shops, a hotel and a club / music venue are designed to be attractive to the target market of 18 – 39 year old well off students and professionals. 

You have been commissioned to create the graphic design for the promotion of the London Road Brighton project.  You need to develop a consistent visual language across a range of print pieces, using typography and a graphic style in a way that creates a visually coherent campaign.  You need to produce a folding leaflet which promotes the project overall combining text and images, and a series of at least three magazine ads or posters which focus on a specific aspect of what’s on offer in the zone (such as a bar, the hotel and the flats).  The ads are for distribution as full page ads in relevant magazines including Time Out in London and Latest 7 in Brighton.  The posters are to be placed in London and Brighton bus stops and train stations, and London Tube stations.  You will need to create these print pieces at suitable aspect ratios and mock them up into a photo of a location or magazine to show their impact in situ. 

You will start this project by undertaking visual research.  As well as looking at existing posters, magazine ads and leaflets for their design characteristics, you will look into the visual presentation of architectural and urban regeneration projects, and you will also explore the work of artists, designers, design movements and images to select a visual language that will inspire and inform your work.  This research needs to be reflected in your blog. 

You will devise the concept for your campaign (inspiration, imagery, tag line, colour, font, layout etc) from research and design development processes including brainstorms, mood boards, sketches, mock-ups etc and pitch this concept to the group and your tutors for discussion.  Your design development work must be shown in your sketchbook. 

You will use any combination of Photoshop and Illustrator to produce the artwork for this project.  The leaflet must be laid out and typography incorporated in InDesign. 

You will show your completed artwork to the group for critique, justifying your design decisions and looking for potential improvements.  The crit feedback needs to be written up on your blog.  Once improvements have been made in response to the crit, you need to print your artwork to put in your sketchbook.  These do not have to be printed at full size for the poster; you can print at A3.  The leaflet printed double sided and folded.  You need to get your printing done externally at a print shop (Blow up in Brighton and The Print Room in Lewes are recommended).