At the beginning of summer I decided that I wanted to continue doing design work as I hadn't yet secured a placement. From the Responsive module in the second year I had created a profile on 99Designs to do some live briefs. While I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of having to do the work and potentially not winning and getting paid, I thought that my design skills had progressed substantially over the second year and I could maybe win a few. Even if I didn't win, I wanted to be choosing contests that were improving my skills, so I could at least have the benefit of that while potentially making a bit of money.
When it comes to 99Designs it is very hard to choose a good contest overall. A big issue is that until you enter, you never know if the contest holder is interested in speaking to the designers and giving feedback on the designs, or if they're just putting the contest up and coming back to it when it finishes. Another issue is that some of the contest holders also just go through and eliminate or rate designs without written feedback. While this is a bit better than silence, it doesn't really give much of a clear indication into what aspects of the design they like and don't like, which means more work is required to create a big variety of responses to their initial rating.
BerryBlendz
This was the first contest I decided to do. It was already a couple of days into the contest when I found it, and as there wasn't a huge amount of entires, I thought I potentially had a good chance of doing well in this, or at least be in touch with the client as not many designers had entered, and those that had were clearly getting feedback from the client.
BerryBlendz is a smoothie and fruit juice company. The brief was to redesign the homepage for their website, using white and bold colours from their branding. They wanted to keep the same elements that were on their existing homepage, but make everything much cleaner and much more up to date.
I decided on using iconography for the navigation bar and a very simple layout, splitting the page down into sections horizontally. I also took this as an opportunity to work on my Illustrator drawing skills. I haven't been particularly strong or confident in this area and knew that I needed to work on this, so decided to use this brief to do this. I created the icon images, and the images of the fruit selection, which actually worked out quite well.
In my submission I also showed how the navigation worked and how text/colour could be used over images. Overall I got positive feedback, however the contest holder didn't take me through to the final round.
Submission:
While I didn't get through to the final round, I enjoyed this brief and felt that it was a good start to this work as I was working on skills instead of trying to win the contest. I think that it gave me a good balance in trying to work vector design with photographic imagery, as well as trying to design a contemporary website.
The Family Postcard - Won
The Family Postcard is a small photography business located in Cornwall. The client wanted a simple design incorporating a camera and the name of the business.
When I initially found this contest, there weren't a huge amount of entires, and those that were there, were all pretty generic and weren't anything special. They were all quite similar and used garish imagery, type and colours, and I felt that I would be able to do quite a good job and give the client something different and more sophisticated.
First submission:
The first submission received positive feedback relatively quickly so I was able to improve the design. Over the few days of the contest I variated the design and the font quite a lot, under the instruction of the client before they decided that they wanted to go back to the original layout, but have some variations of this so they could use them for different medias etc.
Final Submission:
After providing the different versions of the logo and showing these in context across photographs and social media pages, the client awarded me the winner of the contest. It was great to win a contest, especially when I didn't have to compromise the design so much for what the client wanted. They appreciated the design as it was and liked it how I did it, which is quite refreshing after the previous contest I won in second year, where the design was completely changed and by the end it was nothing like my original design.
Josh Madrid
Josh Madrid is a photographer who was in need of an identity. He didn't want a typical logo design with his name and then an icon. He wanted something that incorporated both together in one. The design was to be put on his website and across printed collateral.
As I had just won the previous contest which was for photography, I thought I would have a go at this one as well. I decided to focus on the camera lens itself instead of a full camera, as he had said this isn't something he wanted. I created a very simple design, as shown below.
Submission:
I received quite positive response, however he said that it wasn't what he was looking for as it might be confusing to look at. This isn't something that I necessarily agree with because the distance between the lines will stay consistent at whatever size the design is at.
While I decided not to create another submission or go any further, I did enjoy creating this design as it was so simple. It shows that not everything has to be complicated to be visually impressive. Sometimes simple creates a more effective design.
SmartQuit - Shortlisted
I was invited to this contest by the client. The brief was to design one page of an App for 'SmartQuit' which is to help people stop smoking. The design had to be simple and display a video, a chart, a button, and two areas of numerical information. I decided that I would enter this as I hadn't done an app design since FindingVegan, which I completed as a live brief for OUGD503.
The colours they wanted were green and blue, and whatever else was positive. I decided on quite a light colour combination as this is bold, but also inviting and positive. I chose a simple layout with an emphasis on the video, using a small 'timeline' to show which program the user is on.
First submission:
The feedback I received was positive and helpful. From this I adjusted the design. The client wanted a much more straight and edged design, so wanted all the curved edges/circles to be straight instead. I also showed a few options for how the menu and notifications would look.
Submission:
At this point the client took the submitted designs and did a vote with their colleagues to determine the designs selected for the final round. Myself and another designer were shortlisted, and I was given more feedback.
I was asked to drop the graph completely and just have a large area showing the amount of times the user had 'let the urge pass'. Along with that the client wanted an animation to show how this would work. Creating an animation is not something that I have any experience in so I had to learn how to do this using Photoshop. This was something that took a couple of hours to be able to do it competently, but I think that it was definitely a skill worth learning.
Final submission:
Unfortunately the client chose the other designer, however I did like doing this brief as I taught myself how to make animations in Photoshop. This is a skill that I hope to use in the future in presentation of work.
iDreams - Shortlisted
I decided after doing the past few briefs that I wanted to do something a bit different, and I came across this contest which was creating an illustrative logo design. Doing a logo design like this isn't something I had done before so I thought it would be a good chance to try something new. The client had a very clear idea of what they wanted and gave an illustration that they wanted to be vectorised. As it involved curves it had to be completely flawless otherwise it just wouldn't work. It also had thick and thin elements to the same line. This was a good chance for me to work on this side of illustrator. I knew the tools to do this, but hadn't ever really utilised them too much.
The client was very forthcoming on feedback, giving a good amount of critique and context of where they wanted to use this logo.
Final submission:
I was shortlisted, however I did not win this competition. Obviously it is quite hard to win something when all the entries are practically identical.
Compulsion - Won
This was a two day open competition where designers submitted designs and the client chose a winner within two days instead of having two rounds and around seven days. I decided to enter this as it was a quick brief with a very simple outcome of creating six stickers for some juice.
I immediately got the best response from the client, which was good, however as I progressed in creating the labels, they kept adding more labels for me to add. This wasn't such a problem as the label designs were all the same, however as they continued to ask for changes for the label, it became a bit of a pain. They were constantly asking for colour changes, size changes and text layout changes, without taking the actual design use into consideration.
Some of the stickers were to be used on a very small scale - the shot stickers - however they still wanted the text layout to be the same for the ingredients - going around the bottom edge - however at this size, it would probably be quite impossible to read.
They did award me as the winner to this competition, but quickly added that they needed more labels doing in the same design, and very quickly. They expected me to have all labels complete in all sizes, colours and file types within a couple of hours, which was very hard considering they were always changing their mind on the actual design, after I'd presented them with all the labels, meaning I had to make changes to all labels every time.
I was quite reluctant in this project because the payment certainly wasn't worth the amount of work that I had to put in to continually change the design. While I think the designs for the middle sized labels - the original brief - were ok, I wasn't too keen on how this transferred to the smaller and larger scale, especially with the addition of the imagery, which I didn't have much time to create because of their strict deadline.
Final Labels:
Overall I didn't particularly enjoy the experience of this brief. Initially it was ok when I was creating the initial six labels, but when the client changed this to eighteen and put the pressure of the immediate deadlines and large design changes, it made it all very unenjoyable.
Mike Marshall - Won
Mike Marshall is a New York based photographer who was in need of a logo design. The main use of this was to be put on the front page of his website, overlaying his photography.
I decided to enter this brief because of the enjoyable experience I had on the other two photography briefs, and I thought I could further my design ability in this area. Initially the client didn't have so much of an idea of what he wanted, leaving it quite open.
Initial design:
My initial design didn't get a great response in rating or in written feedback so I was going to leave it there and not submit anymore designs, especially since there was no direction. However after rating the first lot of submissions it seems that it had given him a clear direction of what he wanted, which meant that he wrote this on the brief. This was a big help.
The client asked for the design to incorporate both his name, and a symbol of some kind. Within the symbol he wanted his name or initials to be incorporated. He also wanted his practice of landscape photography to be considered, and a colour palette, not just white.
With this new direction I decided to experiment with ideas. In the brief the client had given a few image examples of logos he liked, and one was of a simple bird design which was made up by overlapping colours. I decided that this was an interesting concept and something that I would like to try. I also decided that I would try using soft gradients as I hadn't really used this is my design practice before.
The design I produced was his initials 'M', built up as if it were two mountains - referencing his landscape photography. I also added a camera box around the image so it gave the impression of taking a photograph. I also used very soft colour gradients, which worked very well. I created this design in two variations, one in pink, green and blue and a second in red, green and blue.
Submission:
Both the responses gain much more positive feedback and gave me much more confidence in my design. The client decided that he preferred the red to the pink. He also gave feedback in terms of how the design can develop visually. Instead of the camera box, he asked for a circle behind the two triangles, as if to have a sunset, with some simple birds flying above the mountains. While I initially wasn't sure about this, I experimented until I found a composition that I liked.
Submission:
Following this submission, the client suggested that he wanted to have two circles above the triangles - one to represent day photography, and another to represent night photography. Once again I wasn't particularly sure about this, but did experiment with the idea. I created two versions, one with soft gradients, and a second with block colours, but all the overlapping seen. This created the 'M' a lot more on the tops of the triangles, and created an interesting effect on the sky circles.
Submissions:
Following this the client gave positive feedback, and I was chosen to move through to the final round. At this point he did ask for my opinion on the design. This is something a client on this site hadn't actually done before. I think because the client was a creative himself, he appreciated that I had an opinion as a designer. We agreed that the design created a bit of an odd shape, and that it looked better with just one circle in the middle. It creates a simpler design and keeps everything geometric.
Following a long discussion on how the design could progress, the client asked if I could incorporate the idea of looking through a telescope, which is a ring with lines around it, and crosshairs in the middle. He didn't have much confidence in the idea, but I worked with it anyway and did actually manage to make it work very quickly.
Submission:
The client was surprised at how well it worked and liked the addition of the green at the bottom, as to suggest grass. He then asked my opinion on how this should progress further. I suggested the idea of getting rid the the sky colour and leaving it transparent so the image the logo would overlay would act as the sky image instead. I submitted some examples and the client really liked this. After this we discussed the typography. He liked the typeface, but wanted some variations on how this could be laid out and the colours of it. I sent him many variations, using the symbol as a basis for what colours to use. He also wanted to work with the idea of the logo being slightly transparent at around 85% over the top of his photography, so the colours would soften against the photograph a bit.
Final submission:
The final round was blind so I had no idea what other designers had done. There were five other designers in the round, and it was very hard to know how similar or different the designs were until the competition finished. When it did finish, all the designs became visible, and they were all very different.
After I submitted my final design the client took almost two weeks to decide on which design to use. The client had been open on the fact that he was asking his friends and colleagues their opinion on the final designs and would pick his design based on that. It was quite nerve-racking to know that my design was going up against others in something where it was a majority decision with more people than just the client. However I did win, so it was good to know that people other than the client clearly liked my design.
I really enjoyed this brief because of the constant communication I had with the client. I managed to build a friendly dialogue with him over the amount of days the competition spanned, and I think that this ultimately had a lot to do with me winning. The client clearly cared a huge amount about the outcome of the design, and his feedback was beneficial to the development of the design, which is something that I think really helped me as a designer.
Empite
Empite is a creative agency who was in need of a new logo. My decision to enter this competition was a bit more of a selfish reason than an attempt to win. While I think a creative agency should be able to come up with their own branding, I entered nonetheless. They didn't give any direction into what they wanted or examples of what they liked, so that is something very hard to work with. For this reason I decided that I would try something a bit different and use it as an exercise to experiment with the type. Instead of just having a typeface and that being it, I decided to play around with the build up of the letters and make a bit more playful.
Submission:
As I expected, the design didn't receive great feedback. This didn't bother me too much as I think the designing stage had taught me a great deal in how letters can be broken down and rebuilt to look more playful. The client never chose a winner for the contest, so I didn't feel too bad about not winning or anything.
Massage Williamsburg - Won
Massage Williamsburg is a massage business which was in need of a new logo. The client asked for a very simple, geometric inspired design. When I found this contest there were no entries, and I thought the brief was quite clear on what the client wanted, so decided to enter. I created a design very quickly and entered it as the first design of the competition.
Submission:
The design received very positive feedback, and while the client asked for a large amount of variations in font, colours and the symbol design, in the end the the client did choose my initial design as the winner of the competition. While it was good to go through all the variations so the client could figure out what they wanted, it was great to know I had won the competition in one design.
Cykel
Cykel is a bicycle maker and seller based in Belgium. They were in need of an identity to go with their new business. I decided to enter this competition because they wanted a retro and vintage style, and this is a style of design which I hadn't really worked in. While I didn't expect to get particularly far in the competition, I wanted to use it as a means to experiment with this style of design.
Taking inspiration from the bicycle wheel, I created a design around this. I created a design which could be either one colour or multiple colours so it showed the client the diversity. I also used this as an opportunity to find some decent typewriter style fonts that were contemporary. I did find a couple, and my favourite is the one I used in the design below.
Submission:
My design received quite a neutral response, before the client decided on a completely different direction to what they were previously suggesting. At this point I decided not to continue with the design as I had experimented in the way which I had wanted to.
Rockies Water
Rockies Water is a new mountain spring water brand in Canada. I decided to do this brief because it's a brief which I haven't seen around a lot, designing a water bottle sleeve.
While I had originally entered this seriously, I found that I lost interest pretty quickly as I was creating quite a generic design, and the brief was very open. I took the opportunity to experiment with tools in Illustrator. Something I had always wanted to do in Illustrator is create the watercolour/brushed overlay effect that I have seen so many times, so I decided on looking up tutorials. While doing this I found a tutorial on using the tool, and using it within a shape.
I used this newfound skill and experimented with it until I was confident enough to use it as a part of my design. I thought that the brushstrokes were quite reflective of water. I also created the mountains in the logo using this.
Submission:
While I think the effect I did was interesting, the design isn't anything special so it didn't surprise me when I didn't progress to the final round. I enjoyed the brief as I learnt a new skill that I will aim to use in the future when appropriate.
Applied Imagination - Shortlisted
Applied Imagination is a newly established decorating service. I decided to enter this contest because of what they wanted in a logo design. They asked for a stamp-like design with very simple illustrations as a symbol. They initially didn't have such an idea of what they wanted, but gave examples of some of the work that they liked. They wanted to use the colours orange and grey.
First submission:
My first submission received positive feedback and the client then gave more information on what tools they actually wanted in the design. It is a bit annoying that they can't put information like this in the brief initially as it would have helped me and helped them. However some clients aren't particularly good at writing briefs for designers as they don't think about the fact that the designers don't know anything about the business.
The clients feedback was helpful as they clearly did have a direction that they wanted to go in. They sent me an image of a layout of tools that they wanted. They also decided that they wanted to get rid of the orange because the colours were the colours a local American Football team and they didn't want to be associated with that when they are a decorating firm.
Second submission:
Following this second submission the client asked for a few different layout variations. They were interested in seeing a different shape, such as an elongated oval, hexagon or octagon. While I didn't like this idea, I did submit these, as well as a design without a shape.
Submission:
Following this, I was put through to the final round. The client liked the elongated octagon design. I wasn't convinced by this so continued to experiment with different ideas. I changed the layout and came up with a design in an elongated hexagon. I felt that this worked better than previous submissions.
Submission:
At this point the client decided to go back to including the orange colour. They didn't give any feedback on the layout of the design, so I applied the orange to the design as it was and submitted it.
Final submission:
I unfortunately didn't win this competition but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was a bit of a challenge to have to take the same design and apply it to a number of different layouts and styles, so this was something that I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it because I also got to work on my Illustrator illustration skills. I created completely geometric tools, creating them all in the same grid and shape, which was a challenge, but fun and taught me a lot about how I can create compositions in Illustrator.
One Greek
OneGreek is an exclusive app for college students at the university of Arizona. I was invited to this contest by the holder. When I was invited there was only a day and a half of the initial qualifying round left, so I didn't have a particularly long time. Usually a website/app contest has a six day qualifying round because of the context of it all, so to have only a day and a half wasn't particularly useful or practical.
I decided to do the contest nonetheless as I hadn't done an App design since FindingVegan, which was around six months ago. I also thought that I would like to improve my skills in creating an app so I am more confident to use this in my practical work. There are a lot of contemporary and clean apps out there and I want to be able to create something that stands up to those and be as excellent as they are.
The client also needed a logo in the design of a bow tie. They had two specific colours that must be used for the branding, but were slightly confusing in how these must be applied to the app. They said they wanted the colours to be present and strong, but they had said previously that they want designers to use whatever colours they want. This was a bit conflicting, so I decided to base my design on the blue and the pink. As there wasn't much time left I decided to focus on the app design and have a very quick logo design in place as that wasn't particularly important at this point.
Before designing I did do a bit of quick research into some of the app designs that I liked, and into some app designs for social apps/websites. I found that this was useful, and there were elements that I could apply to this. On the navigation bar at the bottom, the client asked for the middle button to be the bow tie and for it to stand out in some way, though unclear as to how they wanted this done. There were four screens that they wanted to see.
First submission:
The client gave positive feedback in terms of the layout of the pages, especially the first page - the profile page. They gave feedback on how to improve the design and what they wanted to see. They said they liked the green colour and would like to see this incorporated more into the design instead of the pink. They also wanted the bow tie to incorporate both pink and blue, and for the middle button to be more obvious. They also suggested using gradients and shadows in the design, however I certainly didn't think that this would work well in the design. I decided on two designs, one incorporating the green more and one incorporating the red more.
Second submission:
Following this and as it was so close to the end of the round, I decided to go down another route of a design and see if that was something that they wanted a bit more as they clearly weren't sure as to what they wanted.
I did some more research into app designs and created a much flatter and continual design where sections were split by colours instead of white lines. I also changed it so it was all the blue, but with different shades, and using an off-white as well as white. With the small amount of time left, I created the design for just the first two pages. I also explained to the client that for the girls version of the app, the blue could be changed to pink, as to fit in with the branding.
Submission:
I didn't progress through to the final round, however I didn't mind this so much as I found the client quite hard to work around, and found it was more beneficial to me to just experiment with layout and designs that I wanted to instead of what they were asking for.
One big issue I had throughout the brief was they actual content. I am obviously very unclear about the whole Greek system at American universities, which was a bit of a challenge when creating this App. The client gave feedback like I was supposed to know what they were talking about, even though I had previously explained I wasn't informed on it, and didn't have time to research into it and understand it. It just shows if you don't know the content well, you can't create a design which really works for it or work with the client particularly well.
I felt I learnt a lot through the experimentation and through the research, and I do actually feel more confident in creating Apps and the designs which go along with it, such as icons and buttons. I think that this definitely helped me in trying to make a design clean and more contemporary, as well as trying to accommodate for features that are quite individual to the design.
Pakini - Shortlisted
Pakini is a luxury food delivery business in Europe. I was invited to the contest after the client saw my profile, particularly my design for Massage Williamsburg. The client wanted an identity to go with the launch of the business. I decided to enter this because I did enjoy the Massage Williamsburg brief and if this client wanted something similar then I would enjoy this brief too. It also gave me a chance to work on creating geometric and symmetrical imagery in Illustrator, as well as how this design can be applied across different colours and media.
Initial submission:
My initial submission received very positive feedback from the client. They liked the whole idea of it and how it applied to media, however they said that the composition made it look like a disc, and they would like to see some more concepts I had as well as how this one can progress to look less futuristic. They also asked if I could not have a rounded 'P' as they didn't like that.
I took the comments on board and entered a few more ideas, one of which they liked better than the rest and asked me to moved forward with.
Submission:
The submission above is the final submission of this style of design. The client really liked this, however they had been convinced by a colleague that it looked like a parking sign. This is something I thought was ridiculous, especially when I did look into parking signs and find that it certainly was not the case at all. They were also convinced that the 'P' was not in the middle of the shape, which is most definitely was. This made things quite frustrating as they weren't really listening to my reasoning behind the design and how I created the design.
They also asked for the same design in different shapes. I did try this, however none looked good apart from in a circle, but that is blatantly the same as the MasterChef logo design, which is obviously something I wasn't willing to do for them. Following this discussion I submitted a few different designs using the 'P' as the basis.
Final Submission:
Towards the end of the competition it became very hard to give the client new ideas because a lot of people had submitted a huge amount of ideas so it was hard to be original. I didn't win the competition but I did enjoy the brief in terms of application of an identity. Towards the end I didn't enjoy the brief so much as the client wasn't being particularly helpful in what they wanted.
Mary O's Cafe
This was a very quick brief with a two day turnaround. The client didn't specify at all what they wanted apart from that they wanted it to attract a young professional audience. I decided to enter this as I didn't really have many competitions on at the moment so thought I'd do this to pass the time while working on my skills.
Submission:
I didn't win, but I enjoyed doing the brief because of how quickly I had to produce it, and because of the style I went for. It might not have been what the client was looking for but I'm glad I did it.
The Soul House Project - Won
The Soul House Project is a ski & boarding equipment store recently established. Originally the brief was for 'The Soul House'. The client wanted a logo design which would be turned into a sign to place above the front door of the business. This was a triangle space, so I decided on making a geometric mountain design which followed the idea of a triangle.
Initial Submission:
There weren't many designs submitted, and the client instantly took to my design, giving a good rating but no written feedback. I decided to continue development as the client clearly liked the direction I was going in.
However I wasn't happy with the overall design. The layout was something I liked, but I thought that the mountains needed more development and the typeface could be something a bit more striking.
Submission:
This second submission is so much stronger than the previous one. The angle of the mountains is better and the style is much better as well as there's more colour and a much stronger visual in general. The typeface is much bolder as well.
The client instantly took to this design and took me through to the final round as the only designer to work with. This was great for me as it meant that I had won the competition before I'd even finished the design, which was a positive.
The client then provided some feedback on how they wanted the design to progress. They wanted the middle mountain gone, the house larger, and the font to variate. This was also the point where they decided to change the name to 'The Soul House Project'.
Final Submission:
Although I followed what the client wanted and did win, I certainly don't feel that the final design was strong. The client was adamant that this was the layout that they wanted, however, I really think the previous submission was far stronger as a visual, so I do think it was a shame that the client decided on the direction they wanted.
Avesah - Shortlisted
Avesah is a nut retailer in need of a label design to use on all products. I decided to enter this contest because the client had requested a luxury style label, and this is something I was interested in. Also creating a simple label design instead of full packaging is something that I am very happy to do. The client didn't give any information in what they wanted aside from what packaging it would be used for. They also didn't give any information in terms of content for the label.
After submitting my initial design, the client had positive feedback and gave me the information necessary. They also gave a bit of feedback in that they wanted to see other concepts I had, but no indication into what they liked about my initial design.
While this made it hard to work from, it meant that I came up with a variety of different concepts after researching into the different kind of label designs that are currently around. As the contest was blind, I was unable to see the other designers designs, which was a bit annoying when the client was constantly telling me to see those for a bit more of a direction of what they liked. They did ignore me when I explained I couldn't look at them.
Regardless of this myself and another designer were moved through to the final round. At this point I decided to completely redesign the label and go for a much more minimal and simple design. It used a colour coded system so each nut product had their own distinctive colour.
Submitted design:
While they were positive about the direction, they didn't like the typeface, saying that it didn't look expensive or luxurious enough. I took this into consideration and experimented with different typefaces.
Final submission:
While I am happy with the final submission, the client chose the other designer to win the contest. At this point all designs become visible, and I was a bit surprised that the other designer had created a logo design and not a packaging label. This was a bit annoying considering the client had requested a label design, and at no point had said they wanted a logo design creating as well. I thought it was a bit of a waste of my time as the client hadn't explained fully what they wanted, and posted the competition on the packaging section to the website. I was under the assumption that this was a packaging contest, not a logo contest. Having both in one isn't allowed on the website so the designers aren't exploited and used for more than they're being paid for.
DreamState Productions - No winner chosen
DreamState Productions is a Production company that was in need of a logo design. It was a two day brief so needed a quick turnaround. I entered this brief because it was quick, and from what I saw, a lot of the submissions were very similar and weren't really thinking about the brand, they were all very generic and boring. I thought I could create something that was a bit more interesting and creative, as well as professional.
I didn't want to spend too much time on it as I wasn't particularly fussed about the brief, but I did want to see what concept I could come up with. I thought that the name was interesting and was something I could work with.
I decided on the concept of a dreamcatcher. I thought that it is something that is regularly associated with dreaming, and is a concept that none of the other designers were anywhere near. I decided that I wanted to create a very simple and geometric design. This is a style of design that I have been working on all summer, however I haven't used it in a way which would create the dreamcatcher.
Submission:
I'm really happy with the way this logo turned out. It is such a simple design, but looks intricate and professional at the same time. I prefer it in a darker colour, but the white does work as well.
Following the first day of submission, the client decided to finally give some direction in what they wanted, uploading an image of the kind of logo they wanted. They wanted to follow a surrealist route with a clock melting on a top hat. I found this quite bizarre as a direction and decided that because the brief was a quick turn around one, I wouldn't continue on. I am happy with what I created and didn't want to spend time creating another design when the client wasn't responding to the many submissions already there.
SlickLaunch - Shortlisted
SlickLaunch is a new technology start up who were in need of a logo design. Initially the client wanted a simplistic rocket design. I entered a few submissions following this with a positive response before the client decided on going with the direction of a simplistic triangle design with a focus on the exhaust. They also chose their finalists at this point, myself and five other designers.
With this new direction it was very hard to come up with different exhaust ideas as everyone had the exact same triangle design - by the clients request - so options for the exhaust became quite limited. On top of this, the client didn't really say what they wanted in an exhaust, whether they wanted it more simplistic or realistic.
Final Submission:
I decided on a more realistic exhaust as my final submission. I felt that it balanced out the simplistic triangle and did give the idea of it being a rocket. The client chose the design of the designer who initially did the triangle idea, which is the way it should be as it was their original idea. Regardless, I did enjoy the contest and liked working with the fact that I had to focus on one small element of the design.
BlackCoffee - No winner chosen
BlackCoffee.buzz is a website for coffee drinkers. They wanted a logo to go with the launch of the website. They were very specific in the fact that the design had to be either a geometric or illustrative image of a Chemex Coffee glass coffee maker. This isn't a product I had come across before, however when I did research into the product, I found that it is something that was very easy to turn into a geometric design as the client had requested. They wanted to use the colours black and orange only.
Final Submission:
I did a variety of designs which included the Chemex Coffee maker, as well as this with some mugs. However the client immediately took to the design with just the coffee maker. They rated this five stars, which was the best rating of all the other submissions.
However, the client didn't choose a winner in the end, so while I got the highest rating, I didn't win. I don't mind so much as it was a simple design that didn't take too long to create. I did enjoy doing the design, and fulfilling a brief where the client had a very clear idea of what they wanted.
Gourmet Freezer - Won
Gourmet Freezer is a gourmet food delivery business. The client was in need of a packaging wrap for their meals. They have 33 meals, and each meal is split down into parts. The competition was to design the packaging for meal #23, and if won, the designer would be offered the job of the other 32 meals. They provided all the information, imagery and some of their own mocked up versions to show how they wanted the front to look. The client invited me to this contest. I decided on this contest because not many people had entered it, and because I felt I could give the client a contemporary outcome. Their mocked up version looked very old fashioned and I felt that a much more modern look would benefit the business.
Initial submission:
The client gave a strong positive feedback immediately and asked for me to show them what the entire wrap would look like. I moved forward with this and created the wrap based on the packaging measurements provided.
Submission:
Once again the client gave strong positive feedback and asked me to think about a way of defining each 'part' to the meal, so that when a customer is taking it out the freezer, they know which part they are holding. I decided on a colour coding method, using three bold colours, which the white type would stand out against still.
Something I also suggested to the client was to simplify the front a bit more and have the cooking instructions on the side of the wrap. Having the cooking instructions on the front is a little unusual and does ruin the overall aesthetic of the visual, as it's a lot of information at once and might be best spread across the packaging. I did suggest this to the client, uploading two variations to explain what I meant.
Submissions:
I think that they make the front design a lot less cluttered, while keeping the important information there for the customer. However the client was completely adamant on the instructions being on the front, so I had to respect that and move forward with them in place.
Final submission:
The final submission I made was selected as the winner to the competition. It was selected before the competition even progressed through to the final round, so that was really great for me. I did enjoy doing this brief, but did find that I had to compromise the design to accommodate what the client wanted. While this wasn't such a big issue in this case, I still would have liked to develop the front design a bit more and make it something which is a lot more professional visually.
Follow Up Work
Following the competition win, the client set up a 1-1 project and offered me the job of creating the other 32 labels. Obviously I took up the offer as it was a simple case of having to replace the images and type for each label. They also asked me to quote them for the work. This isn't something that I have done before so it was a new experience for me.
Creating the labels for the other meals was a long task as it involved changing nutritional information, meal information and the images.
To create the labels properly I had to use all three adobe programs, Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign, so it was a lot of work in that respect. I had to use Photoshop for the images and editing them because they certainly needed editing. Illustrator to create the actual label, and then InDesign to put both the label and images together at the highest quality. On top of this, the majority of the meals had two labels needed. Some needed three, with the third in the form of a small circle with a lot less information.
Overall there was 59 labels that I created (Including meal 23 from the initial competition). The client wanted each as an individual PDF, which is something that you can't automatically do on InDesign, so I had to save each sheet individually, which was tedious. Looking back at it now, I do think that I should have quoted a bit more as I didn't realise how long the work would actually take. However it is still something that I learnt and will certainly keep in mind.
Following this work, the client then gave me the job of redesigning the logo, deciding to change the company name to 'Classics Quality Meal Service. While I was all for updating the logo, I didn't see the need for the company to change the name, but I wasn't going to complain at being given more work. The client decided on a fair payment for this job and secured it through the site before I began working.
Initial ideas:
Following me giving the client some initial ideas, they decided that they wanted to keep their original name and original logo. They still released the payment for me, so that was good for me. However I do still think their logo isn't quite a design masterpiece so could definitely do with being redesigned, but if the client is happy with it then there's nothing I can do.
The client then offered me the chance to enter the web design contest they had set up to create their website. I decided that I wouldn't enter this as I had done the packaging work for them and had found that they were slightly difficult to work with in small aspects, and they knew I could design for web, so if they had confidence in my design skills they would have asked me to do the work instead of shopping around for other designers.
PassionTree Velvet - Won
PassionTree Velvet is a cake business which was in need of a small A5 foldout to be created. All material was provided and clear instruction was given. I decided to enter this as it is a quick outcome and layout is something that I am confident in. It was also a two day contest so there wasn't much waiting around to find out if I was through to the next round or anything.
The client also uploaded a menu of theirs, as well as brand guidelines. From this I quickly adapted my design to work with their branding. I think that this is the most important thing to the client, knowing that they have promotional and printed material that works cohesively and seamlessly. While there were a few elements that I wasn't too keen on, I used them anyway and created the design.
Final submission:
The client liked my first submission and asked for a couple of minor changes, which I did, before they chose my design as the winner. This certainly gives me a bit of a confidence boost in my layout design. I have always thought my layout work was pretty decent, but for someone else to think it as well is always a plus.
Follow Up Work
Following this the client asked me to create a small concertina booklet with the same content. This was also a quick turnaround brief as I was already used to the content and knew how it all worked together.
Follow up work:
Wheatless & More - Won
Wheatless & More is a freefrom food wholesaler located in Belgium. With the launch of the business, the client was in need of an identity to run across printed and digital material. The client wanted a simple design which was typographically driven and could work in a number of colours.
I decided to enter this contest because it seemed like a well written brief and I had a few different ideas as to how I could approach the logo design. The client also seemed to be giving feedback to other designers relatively quickly, so this is always a positive.
Initial submissions:
The client was very positive in my two initial designs and asked for more concepts and colour options. The client also said they liked the way in which I had created a logo which can overlay an image and work in different colours.
From this I came up with a large variety of different options, some where the 'W' & 'M' were made into a logo symbol, and some where this wasn't present. I also expanded on colour options and how these could all overlay images, changing the colours of images as well to show the variety that was available. I decided on five variations to submit.
Submission:
From these variations the client moved me through to the final round with a couple of other designers. The contest was also turned blind. I was glad about this as there had been a fair few designers who were copying the layout of my text in my initial submissions. While slightly flattering, it was very annoying, but I was glad that the client did notice and appreciated that I created the original design.
There was also one designer who copied the third of my second lot of submissions (Rectangle WM symbol), and tried to display it as their own design by changing it slightly. They entered around three variations of this, and I did report all three to 99Designs, so they were swiftly removed. They then commented on one of my designs saying how nice it was, before submitting another design which was practically the same again. I reported the design again. This designer wasn't moved through to the final round thankfully so I didn't have anymore trouble with them.
From the designs submitted, the client liked the last two the most. They didn't want to use a symbol design, preferring just the text. They also asked me to continue with the layout of the initial design and try different weights of text or typefaces in general. Another piece of feed back was that they liked the way the fourth design (Circle) overlaid over the image where the majority of the image is still visible, and asked if I could apply this to the second initial submission.
Final Submissions:
From the feedback given I created the two final submissions above. These two were the strongest designs as I had more time to develop them and refine them. For the circle design I showed the different variations in the fact that the design could be inverted to be solid or transparent. Both designs are very simple and can be made to work over any media.
The client was torn between the two but did eventually choose the first design as the winner of the competition. I think that this was mainly down to convenience and size. The first design can be scaled down much smaller and still be read than the circle design, and fit into a smaller space. Following their choosing I had to complete the brief in giving them files for a letterhead, business cards, envelope, logo, social media images, as this was a competition for a full identity pack and not just a logo. While doing this the client sent me some images to use for the various social media pages and business cards.
Stationary:
While doing this for them, the client also asked my opinion on the website that is currently being built for them by a web developer. They asked for some feedback in terms of how the overall visuals could be improved. As I wasn't getting paid for this, I did a brief look over and gave a bit of feedback, sending them an image of how the front page could be, as to fit in with the branding I had created.
Website suggestion:
They took this on board and did something very similar on the website. While I would have liked to design it for them completely, obviously they already had a web developer who was doing the job.
Follow Up Work
Following the completion of this work, I was asked to create slides for a powerpoint for them, as well as a email newsletter, which I am currently working on now.
Summation
Overall I think the summer has been quite productive. I got through a good amount of briefs and found that my design skills in Illustrator have improved in terms of creating imagery. This is something that I wasn't entirely confident with throughout the first or second year, however now I feel that I can create whatever I put my mind to, and do it well. I am definitely better at creating geometric and simple designs than something more illustrative and complex. Though this is obviously something I can work on.
I think that this also gave me good experience with different kinds of clients. Some are not into giving much feedback, or aren't very good at giving feedback, while some are very interested in me as a designer and the work I am doing.
I have enjoyed doing the majority of the briefs, however there have been times where I haven't enjoying the work I am doing or the changes I am making to a design because I am doing as the client is asking and not particularly what I think is best, but I suppose that's just part of what the job is. The last few competitions have been quite positive in the fact that the client has liked my initial designs, whereas at the beginning of the summer, it took quite a bit of development and work before the client took my designs seriously and rated them well.
