Extended Practice / Module Evaluation

Extended Practice has been an exigent and dynamic module that has given me an insight into my specialism through a variety of briefs. This allowed me to determine which briefs worked well and which did not, through analysis and evaluation. The briefs varied in scale, meaning I gained experience with working with shorter, fast paced projects, alongside projects which took 6 months. 

Diligent time planning  ensured the projects ran smoothly especially when some of them overlapped, although there were many things out of my control that resulted in me having to think on my feet and adapt; such as professional services not printing samples in time, or content not being sent by the client for long periods of time. This allowed me to gain knowledge in planning ahead and being prepared. This is a skill that can be taken forward for industry, as there will be times where I will be working on multiple projects in the future. 

The module demanded skills within problem solving, such as when things did not go to plan, for example within the Ceramics brief. Many prototypes broke, which resulted in me having to discuss new ideas on how to approach the next set to try and produce something successful. This also included problem solving within other editorial briefs, for example producing the publications and considering stock, binding and other treatments to ensure all error was avoided. Experience with this is helpful for after graduation, when things may go wrong or not work, and I must approach the brief in new and more effective ways to generate a successful resolution in the end. 

Research and contact/communication was another crucial aspect within Extended Practice. A lot of briefs needed primary research and contact from other sources, for example contacting sources for the research brief, conducting surveys and research to establish aims/goals/things to avoid and contacting potential collaborators. This was especially apparent within Brief 05, when I needed external collaboration in terms of producing content for the magazine, and Brief 09 when conducting research and testing the successfulness of the branding resolution. These skills can be taken forward after university, as communication and contact is always a beneficial skill to have within the creative industry. 

Throughout extended practice I feel I have attempted to produce resolutions that are as professional as possible, whether that be through professional printing services or ensuring effort and time was put into producing high quality design resolutions. As a result I have predominantly been proud of the projects I have completed for the module, and feel they have allowed me to explore editorial design to a greater depth, along with other design practices such as branding and identity, another area which I am interested in. 

The module has also allowed me to discover an aspiration in producing my own magazine, something I have been wanting to do in the future, and allowed me to put this into practice in it’s first stages. Demon Magazine has become a passionate project of mine that I hope can be explored further and developed again after university to hopefully become successful in the future. 

Overall I am proud of the effort put into Extended Practice and feel I have evolved as a designer, communicator and creative thinker, and will hopefully be able to translate these skills I have gained into the industry next year.

Ceramics / Evaluation

This brief was self initiated, and intended to be a break from strictly ‘graphic design’ projects. The brief included the exploration and experimentation with ceramics, and their various methods including hand sculpting, casting moulds and using the wheel to produce different ceramic responses. The other half of the brief was a branding project, creating an identity for the ceramic whales as consumer products with relevant deliverables.

There were plenty of problems throughout the brief, the main one being that the ceramics continued to break, due to thinness around the tails and fins, and exploding clay in the kiln. However, even though a lot of the forms were unsuccessful, I managed to pick up a lot of new skills and experiences along the way, that would benefit my practice if I was to ever work with ceramics again. Working with clay was really natural and enjoyable for me, and took me outside the studio for a while. 

The branding side allowed me to visit a different aesthetic style which was suitable for the brief, and let me work in a more hands on way. 

Overall I really enjoyed working with a different discipline and combining this with graphic design - it’s definitely something I would want to expand on in the future. 

Ceramics / Final Belugas

The final belugas are made from jesmonite, with white pigment. This material is very hard, durable and has an attractive smooth matte finish. For this set, they were neck ties and blusher, but in the future they could wear lots of other fun accessories, such as party hats. 

Developments in the future would be an easier mold to take the belugas out, and more time to really refine their shape/smoothness. Overall they do the job for this brief and show what was intended. 

Ceramics / Studio Arhoj

Studio Arhoj has been a favourite of mine from the start of the year, specialising in unique ceramics through different materials and techniques, I visited their website to find out what they're all about.

"The Studio

Located by the harbour in Copenhagen, Studio Arhoj is a Danish interior & design studio run by Anders Arhoj. Originally founded in Tokyo in 2006, Studio Arhoj is now based in Denmark.

In addition to exploring the visual relationship between Scandinavian simplicity and traditional Japanese culture we are interested in keeping alive traditions and knowledge about old crafts such as wheel throwing and glaze construction.

The Design

We design and produce new items on a regular basis - with the ambition to present something new around spring and fall every year.

Our products are developed on both paper and on the potters wheel. Materials used in production include wood, clay, porcelain, paper and glass.

Our main focus is form as opposed to function. This doesn't mean you can't use our items in your everyday life, it just means we're really focused and interested in creating beautiful, fun objects.

The Process

Experimenting is a deeply integrated part of our daily production. We dedicate a lot of time to discovering and testing the seemingly endless possibilities of glaze and clay. Failure is something we know well, however, when something works the reward is worth the struggle.

Many of our items are hand-thrown by skilled potters on the throwing wheel in different kinds of clay. Our porcelain items are cast in plaster molds by skilled artisans." source

Some of my favourites...

Studio Arhoj are well known for their ghost ceramics, which are sold in other outlets such as Colours May Vary. 

They also deal with everyday items such as mugs, bowls and cups, but what sets these aside is their unique treatments and colours/glazing. They are mesmerizing and each one hand crafted, making them special and personal.

The cute nature of a lot of their products draws me in personally, and is something I want to capture in my ceramics and branding.

Swamp thing. This one is my favourite on their website, I wish I could take him home myself but sadly he is sold out (and very expensive). Once they're gone they're gone!

Looking further into Studio Arhoj gave me an insight to how a contemporary ceramic studio works, and how everything is hand crafted through various methods and techniques. 

Ceramics / Final Branding

Icon

Logotype

Full Logo

Bag

Website

All these collateral resolutions followed the same guidelines such as colour/style/hand rendered type, to show continuity across the whole range. Soft colours such as pastel pink and lilac/blue are used to set a calming and soft tone throughout. The lowercase type further pushes this and creates a friendly and relaxed tone of voice. Colloquial and informal discourse is used throughout the Belooga brand to also create a specific informal tone of voice. Sketches are used throughout, combining realistic elements such as proportion and shading, but incorporating more unrealistic and abstract shapes such as party hats and blusher, using just lines. This communicates the character within the brand and it's unique qualities.

Ceramics / Product Range & Distribution

Product 

The Product is a fully branded set of ceramic beluga whales. They will be made out of stoneware clay and each hand crafted. The idea of selling bespoke ceramic is definitely more appealing to myself and others because of it's personal quality which corresponds with the branding for the project. 

Range

There are two characters, Lasagne and Spaghetti, who each have their own personality and appearance unique to that beluga. They wear party hats and appear to have blusher on which gives the project its own individual identity. The branding entails logo, used on a variety of collateral e.g tags, website, bag, and advertising. The branding adopts a hand rendered feel just like the belugas themselves. The name of the brand is 'The Beloogas', and in full, 'The Beloogas: ceramics by Lo'. Putting the creator in the name makes it even more personal and special, for example Lush - they attach a sticker that says who made your soap at what time. 

Distribution

The belugas will be sold in the shop/studio, and will be available online globally. One shop makes them feel more special than having them sold in chains and various outlet stores, but this could be debated later down the line if their popularity grew. 

Online, the belugas can be bought and information on them such as character profiles and the Belooga Trust is available. The online aspect allows easy access from any location. The Beloogas are intended to be a bespoke and niche product not suitable for mass production, and part of their USP is that they are unique and one of a kind. 

Ceramics / Abstract Sketches

Sketching out ideas makes it easier to keep thinking of new ones. I sketched out belugas to start coming up with quirks they can have, for instance wearing crowns, or having no fins/tail. This changes the form of the whole animal and makes it interesting and even more decorative.

Ceramics / Wheel Experiment

Whilst I was conducting this brief I wanted to learn about as many methods as possible in the ceramics room whilst I was available to make the most of the facilities.

I had a go on the wheel and tried to make some pots and a bowl. It's definitely something that takes practice and was hard to achieve smoothness. I wanted to pots to look a little bit quirky and odd, but I still think it would take time and patience to become skilled on the pottery wheel.

I also glazed what I had made using blue and white earthenware glaze, and here are the results.

Although this isn't a method that I need to use during this ceramics project, it is useful to know how to use the wheel for future reference, for example if I wanted to create more ceramics projects in the future, or a work opportunity needed someone with experience in that area.

Ceramics / Branding / Stickers

To add to the collateral, stickers were also created with the characters on, and the logotype. These stickers can be a nice free addition to purchases made online, or bought separately in store. The stickers extend the use of the beluga sketches. 

In context:

Ceramics / Circus Whale Experiment

After drawing out a whale wearing a circus ruffle, I tried to make this into a physical clay beluga. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough air inside the form when he was in the kiln and he sadly exploded. Heres a photo of him before the accident. RIP.

Something to take away from this is that there needs to be proper ventilation inside the form, and it can't be too solid. I also like the look of this model but prefer the more realistic forms. I would like to try more realistic touches with these aspects together such as just the blusher and party hats.

Ceramics / Branding / Website

Homepage and navigation burger bar, easy to follow access for the user, no clutter, clean and spacious design.

About page, again very calm colours and simplistic design.

Each purchase helps real life belugas giving the users the incentive to buy. Makes them feel good and they get a very charming ceramic beluga for themselves.

Contact information, easy to read, no clutter and mess. Shows where the shop is very simply. 

The best page - the page about the beloogas that can be bought. There are two characters who are friends (again another incentive to buy so they're not separated...), named after pastas, called Spaghetti and Lasagne. I thought these were good names as I personally really love pasta and I'm pretty sure most people do. They're also very cute names. They both have different looks and personalities for example Spaghetti is quite agile and long, and Lasagne is more squishy and short. 

Ceramics / Website Sketches

Making some initial sketches with a rough colour palette allowed ideas to be put to paper for development. The website aimed to be a cute, simple platform for consumers to purchase the Beloogas online and read about them. The layout needed to reflect the tone of voice, audience and overall concept of the whales, and look very minimal, easy to use, and childish.

Ceramics / Branding / Type Development

I firstly sketched out the first idea on my tablet directly, and really liked the handwritten look. However, I wanted the ceramics to look modern, so I tried a variety of clean, round typefaces. They were all very friendly and some quite fat which could increase the cuteness of them. When getting feedback I asked various members of the class whether a handwritten feel was better than digital typefaces, and it was a resounding yes.

Handwriting is personal, and each ceramic beluga is made by hand, so it makes sense for this to be reflected in the branding. I experimented with different hand written type using black ink and two paintbrushes:

I felt the hand written fonts communicated a much more personalised touch, relating to the hand crafted aspect of the project. These will now be refined to decide which works the best for the brand.

Ceramics / Branding / Type

I made these using a custom alphabet drawn with black indian ink/paintbrush and then scanned in. Vectorising it lost the effect, but tweaking it made it suitable for use. I then created headings for the website using the same alphabet and settings:

And also spelled out the two Belooga's names: 

The type is not too different to my actual handwriting (more refined), so this makes it personal by myself since I am the one who makes these ceramics. The type looks appealing because of it's childlike and quirky nature which will easily attract people's attention with its unique letterforms. The belugas have a niche audience of those who may like quirky ceramics/decor, so the branding needs to appeal to this target demographic effectively.

These will be applied to the website and various packaging material. 

Ceramics / Wax Prototypes

The first material that was tested in the molds was wax. Unfortunately because of the structures of the whales, the material when set is hard to take out of the mold, and their tales broke off. Jesmonite was used next, but the tails also broke off again.

In the next cast, the form will be cut out of the mold which will avoid breakage, but it makes it harder to use the cast again.

Ceramics / Branding / Final Logos & Assets

About the type

Hand rendered type created by a very small paint brush and black indian ink. Scanned in and set out. Thin forms and spontaneous line heights give a quirky feel which is pinnacle to the brand and style of the ceramics. Aims to look child like and preserve innocence.

Final logo which will be used on all collateral. 

Headers for use on digital platform. Keeps continuity within the branding and adds personal touch.

Tells what the brand is, and who by. Again creates a personal atmosphere, as though it's signed by the artist. Would also be used on tags and digital platform.

Names of the Belugas, again keeps it personal, and gives the actual ceramic pieces a personality in a name. These can be used on the tags to label which beluga is which. 

Ceramics / Beluga Moulds

Now I've experimented with clay and felt as though I was developing the skill of creating the belugas by freehand moulding, I wanted to experiment with more materials the belugas can be made from. From previous experience I know that vinamold is a cheaper alternative to silicone but less materials can be poured into it. Silicone can host a variety of different materials, from resin to jesmonite. This seemed the most versatile component to make the mould from as then I could experiment with a wider amount of materials and not be limited.

The technique which was advised which was to make a silicone 'jacket' rather than a full mould, cutting the cost.

I created two more belugas, again which were an improvement on my last, and then poured silicone onto each whale, which created a thin layer. This dried overnight and then a 'thixotropic' was applied to a mix of silicone, and 'iced' over them again, to create a thicker surface mould. This again took hours to dry.

Then was the plaster. Creating two 'walls' of plaster forms a hard cover for the molds when materials are poured inside. The plaster is pulled apart when dry, and fastened back together with rubber bands with the silicone mold inside when in use.

This method has been quite long winded in comparison to hand making the belugas, however this would be more cost efficient in terms of distribution if this was to become a proper business as the molds can recreate the same shape multiple times with a large amount of materials.

I filled the finished mold with wax and Jesmonite but both of these ended up with the belugas having broken tails. My options are to try again and be extra careful when taking them out from their molds, or to just hand mold them again and glaze the final products.