~ Creative networks- brief & initial ideas ~

Client: CEE (Careers, Enterprise and Employability) - Leeds College of Art.

Brand: Creative Networks
Date: September 2016
Contact: Andrew Jones andrew.jones@leeds-art.ac.uk (Head of CEE)

Initial test brief to determine finalists:

We want to see your work. Following the brief below, please provide a 1xA3 PDF and/or a moving image file designed for the next guest speakers. One design for Mike Mignola and one for Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF 30) with a guest speaker of your choice. This could be someone you would like to see talk at Creative Networks or someone you have seen speak. Submit to joshua.edgington@leeds-art.ac.uk - DEADLINE 14th October, 5pm.

Project description: Promotional material for five Creative Network events. Creative Networks in Leeds College of Art's majoy external engagement event where high profile speakers from the creative sectors are invited to share their expertise to an audience consisting of industry, staff and students.

Requirements: The CEE team are looking for a small team of students (3 to 4) to help promote and design material to be used at each of the five Creative Networks events happening this academic year. Each event is unique based on the guest speakers and flexibility with designs and concepts is key.
The digital materials are needed a month in advance of the event to assist in promotion, whilst printed materials need to be approved by the CEE team as soon as possible and need to be printed a week before each event. See below:

Print:
- A1 Posters (pre-event and on the night decoration)
- 1 x A1 previous speakers poster (list will be provided)
- Signage for guests (choice of size)
- Signage for the night / Vinyl branding (guest speakers name etc.)

Digital:
- GIFs, images to social media dimensions etc. to be used as promotional material for the assistant CEE Manager.

Event Design:
- Predominantly managed by the Assistant CEE Manager, students will be welcomed to suggest ideas and facilitate them if appropriate (work displayed through projectors, light boxes etc.)

Moving Image:
- Played before the guest speaker is introduced as a way to quiet the audience in the lecture theatre. Moving image must include the Creative Networks logo and the name of the guest speaker(s), 15 seconds max and must include sound. The master version will need to be edited for each speaker's name.

Collateral:
- Postcards
- Floor stickers/Vinyl
- (Open to ideas)

Purpose and Benefits:
Creative Networks is Leeds College of Art's major external engage event. The event brings in industry to mix with students and staff as a way to develop connections and also to demonstrate the quality of students work found at Leeds College of Art. Looking forward new ideas will be introduced in ways to develop stronger ties with industry guests attending as a way to benefit students. It is an exciting time to be involved with this series of events and develop some great work for your portfolio and get it seen by guest speakers and a range of industry professionals.

Target Audience:
Staff and students at Leeds College of Art are aware of the events. Our main objective is to bring in professionals from the creative industries. Each guest speaker will appeal to different types of industry and so the work will have to adjust to these needs. A large majority come from Leeds with some who attend repeatedly, but the events are welcome to all from Yorkshire and surrounded cities. The main channels of promotion are print (posters) for within the College and around Leeds, social media and email campaigns are used to contact everyone about the events.

Background:
Creative Networks has been running for a couple of years now and has gone from strength to strength. Creative Networks is our own major professional events programme, and the largest network of its type in the region. It's a fantastic chance to mix with people from industry and to hear fascinating talks from leading speakers in a relaxed environment. Students, former students and staff at Leeds College of Art are all welcome to attend. For a list of previous speakers please look on the Leeds College of Art website under Creative Networks - http://bit.ly/2bT1tDc

Mandatory Requirements:
Leeds College of Art logo and Creative Networks branding must be on all material. A link to the Eventbrite page where tickets can be bought will also be needed.

Timescales & Approvac:
- Initial test brief deadline - 5pm 14th October
- Winner announced - 18th October
- Design work commences - 18th October

Creative Networks is a series of 5+ lectures/talks throughout the year by renowned creatives and influential people. Examples of past speakers include...

- Jimmy Choo

- Patrick Grant

- David Shrigley

The overall requirements of the brief (that will span the year) is to produce

Print

- Posters advertising the events

- Previous speakers poster

- Signage for the event

- Vinyl branding/backdrop for the event

Digital

- Gifs, social media, email promotion material for each event

Event design

- Animation to introduce each speaker

- Props, backdrop, light boxes - any ideas relevant to each speaker

This brief is an initial mini test to determined the finalists that will be chosen to produce the designs and branding for Creative Networks throughout the year. The brief is to create 2 mock up posters 1 for the up and coming talk by Mike Mignola and one for any chosen person from LIFF (Leeds indie film festival) who could possibly be a future guest speaker (of our choice). The posters need to be submitted via email by 14th October at 5pm. 

Screeen - Last year for PPP we got into groups and created small business like set ups for collaboration. Me, Amelia and Cameron have decided to use this group set up to collaborate on this brief, it will give us chance to bounce ideas off each other and share time responsibility as if we win briefs within this could come up as busy hand in times.  

Mike Mignola - Most well known for the illustration and character design for...

Atlantis

 Batman

And Hellboy. His illustration style is iconic of the comics and films (Disney). His style of illustration is very dark, comic book & often dystopian. Iconic imagery includes, horns, bats, city buildings etc.

Looking at examples of lecture & talk posters

These are some influential poster designs for creative talks & lectures. Something I have noticed is they don't all necessarily use the artwork or even style of the designer themselves. As the talks are more centred around spoken work and content than visual aspects. 

Consistency - if this brief is won we need to consider a constant theme to be used throughout the posters. This is an example of TED talk posters, they all differ in style, composition, layout etc. but are consistent and recognisable through their use of a fixed colour pallet throughout. This is important through the brief as it would allow people within the uni to recognise the posters about Creative Networks from something specific within each one.

Thinking outside the box - A way to create posters that instantly grab attention particularly inside the uni cafe that is saturated with posters, advertisements and information would be to use 3D elements within the poster. Its something that could also be used as a running brand theme throughout the year (consistency), used on all posters & the props/backdrops for the talks themselves. 

These are some examples I collected of posters using 3D elements to grab attention. Some of them are very complicated and would be difficult to reproduce in mass and short amounts of time. If 3D is used for this brief we will also need to consider how easy re-production will be when creating multiples of each poster; simple yet effective use of 3D elements can ensure this.

The opposite idea of this effect would be to create a 3D design using cuts in the paper to reveal a design below.