In keeping with the colour scheme previously used in my first poster and given that my client has expressively mentioned that a range of posters needs to be created as part of as the entire body of work I moved forward by creating additional posters as well as began creating a leaflet.

Poster In Progress (2)_01

I think that this poster has a clever message, however, needs more explicit explaining in order to make it work effectively, the correlation between the lines of the logo and the lines of a maze exists, but perhaps not quite clear enough, my visual languages general explicit, minimal and crystal clear style is not supported within this poster, perhaps the lines need to represent that of a more traditional maze and the type needs to be larger on the page and more incorporated into the maze, I think that the addition of making some of the lines an off white colour does benefit the poster as it allows for some contrast and stops the poster from becoming too minimal and almost boring to look at, the change in colour makes it much more interesting to explore the different lines however I think that they do need to be larger and perhaps more rounded lines so that they can appear larger on the page as well as then allowing the text to be a larger point size and still remain to integrate with the maze pieces.

The looser maze pieces offer an interesting opportunity to incorporate some alternative angles. Additional body copy could sit parallel to the maze pieces allowing for more dynamic opportunities for the body copy and subheadings.

Poster 3

My third poster uses previously existing elements of my visual style found within the app, using a collection of lines put at such an angle that they represent a pen nib and then turned that into an opportunity to create a contract type poster, allowing me to contrast the sans serif thick lines with some script font for a more unique feel, offering a change in pace that I think is required within these posters so that they remain interesting to look at. unlike the other two posters there is sufficient empty space to input detailed body copy containing contact details for my client. I think that the overall design should be left alone as it has a clear message, uses new and interesting imagery opportunities while remaining minimalistic, however, I think that this poster could become one much heavier with details and body copy and would make a good example to begin the experimentations for layering body copy on top of the titles. However, if I were to change the design at all I think that I would make it less flat, although this may not be a good idea due to the overall flat illustrative look of the rest of my work so far.

Leaflet

As the posters are relatively fast to create I think that the best way to both create a large amount of work as well as stop me from overworking one poster I am also creating other media to support the posters, another example of the physical media is a leaflet that I am creating. Something that I spotted very early in the project within the research stage was that often housing advice companies tend to hit the viewer with too much information too quickly, this often intimidates and scares away viewers, with this in mind when creating my leaflet I will avoid doing this, my minimalist style will help to stop this as I need to leave some empty space on the page anyway, this will only help me avoid tripping up as well as allow me to incorporate larger and more interesting visual elements.

So far only the front cover has been created in this style.

page 1_01

I like the layering effect seen on the text and I think this could be something that could be used as a subject for a potential fourth poster. I order to reflect the line style of the brand I have created the leaflet in a longer, landscape orientation allowing the lines to flow down the page with more impact as well as it allowed me to have the pages flow from the first page in a downwards direction, I plan for the lines to flow from one page over to another, this will make the leaflet appear more as one document rather than many different pages thrown together, tying together the brand in a together package as well as offering some interesting design opportunities for how the lines are going to be presented within the leaflet and within further media.

Following on from my previous critique I have decided what visual style I am going to create my work within, although a logo and first three screens for an app have been created I am still lacking in created media to show off my visuals to my client, as the client has specifically asked for a range of posters to be created I have decided to move forward by creating my first range of posters, although I have no solid colour scheme at the minute the black and gold seem on the app appears to work effectively. However, I still think that experimentation and variance are vital to creating a successful brand.

Given my previous blog entries, particularly those concerning my three concepts presentation, I have created a range of posters using the ideas taken from concept three, using large headings to attract attention and then layering body copy and subheadings on top of the very large titles to give people information once they have been drawn into the posters.

Poster colourways_01

After trying out a variety of different colours and styles for my first poster I think that both the black and gold, as well as the off white and red colour schemes seem to be working the best. However I feel the design of the bottom right poster is most effective, the large scale logo in the background allows the viewer to identify the poster with other content created within the MET Living brand and well as leaving enough blank space within the borders of the poster to allow it to breathe and create an effective minimalist look, the addition of a third color into the poster allows me to layer body copy onto the headings without worrying too much about a large loss in legibility. An additional change made from the app and previous posters is the darkened yellow, I felt this was necessary as the extremely bright yellow would not only perhaps print out incorrectly when converted into CMYK but it would also not allow enough contrast when placed under the off white, hurting the legibility of the thinner subheadings seen both at the bottom and top of the poster.

I have used two separate typefaces for this poster, originally I wanted to create the whole poster using just the one typeface to strengthen the sense of minimalism and simplicity, however, I found that the typeface that I was using for subheadings and body copy (Bronova) was very effective for use in small point sizes, however when converted into the large point sizes used for the “STOP” of this poster, I found that the typefaces’ letterforms were not round enough, this made the letterforms fall off the page too much and made the “STOP” almost illegible and certainly made it lose some of its impact, the “STOP” needed to be instantly legible from a far distance, something that was lost when Bronoba was used. As a result, I searched around for a more rounded typeface (Nimbus) and as a result, the “STOP” was able to be put into a larger point size and still remain on the page creating a shocking and extremely impactful message coupled alongside the slogan fitting within the header and footer that would become legible once the poster was approached.

Further improvements for this poster would be to include a greater amount of body copy and information about the new MET Living, however, this would need to be done very carefully as to not ruin the impact of the simple poster made above, perhaps simply including a small QR code that would take you to the app would suffice and allow viewers to gain enough information about MET Living while still being presented with aesthetically pleasing, clear and impactful poster design.

App Template

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R1QAJX9S15swa3_MOpUZkfQudt59i1Kk/view?usp=sharing

After a critique from both tutors and fellow students, I have decided to take the first two concepts and push them further in order to achieve a clearer visual message throughout both of the outcomes. One of my thoughts on creating digital media is creating an app, this will allow for the large amount of information that my client has to be displayed in one, all-inclusive environment, this could be run by student reviews of landlords in order to lessen the workload needed by my client, the app would essentially run itself once all of the vital information is input into the app, followed by the fact that it would then have to be developed after being designed.

The app has been created in both of the visual styles, with a small amount of basic information and templates in order to give a sense of what the final outcome would look like ready for when I will be presenting to my client.

I think that the transitions of the app are very smooth and create a comforting experience, however, I am worried about if I can keep this aesthetic throughout the entire app yet change the pace enough so that the app would lose its sense of dynamism.

Concept 2 App

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o4e0jI_ubsZtsHVXzFK2mzCnFnTrrG1B/view?usp=sharing

Concept 1 App

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ieMGEBR3jnfjNDo0Ju5XM5KvVXs0KMb6/view?usp=sharing

Contrasting the two apps, I think that concept two still has more potential, I also think that the posters and leaflets for concept one lacking something interesting to look at, the colour scheme is very loose and the posters could exist without it, meaning that Concept 2 is certainly my stronger outcome at this time, to ensure that I can complete this project on time I will only have time to continue on with one outcome, I am choosing concept 2, accepting the challenge that the more complete and dynamic visual style may give as well as accepting the risks that come with choosing a more complex alternative as I feel the potential for impressing the client with a more complex rebrand ultimately will benefit my portfolio more than if I were to play it safe with creating further content for concept 1.

challenging myself as a designer is perhaps the most important part of being a designer to me, and as such I have decided to take on the larger of the two challenges, moving forward my client has asked for a range of posters to be created, I will create my first examples of posters within the style of concept two next, this means that I will need to adopt a colour scheme as well as begin collecting all of the information that the client has to offer about their service and start using that information as body copy within posters, this includes contact information and housing tips etc.

Following on from discussing and brainstorming a large number of potential ideas, I then proceeded to condense the list into a few options and express these ideas visually, this coincided nicely with the timetable set out for me, a “3 concepts” presentation is due soon, and as such I have created a large number of draft visuals, mostly in the forms of posters, banners, leaflets and logos, the purpose of this is to give the client a sense of what the visual language is while streamlining the design process and not forcing me to create a full brand just to get a sense of the what the visuals look like, the ways this could be done could be by creating a logo and templates for posters coupled alongside a rough idea of the colour scheme and typefaces used. This is important so that the designs can be easily critiqued, even by someone who is not a designer.

Concept 1

The first concept adopted a very corporate approach to the brief, I find this concept to very be the safest of the three outcomes, however, due to the outcomes being so safely designed, with large bulky blocks of colour and thick-lined illustrations that crystal clearly show that this is indeed a housing advice agency, this may the posters and various other media boring and therefore young students will not pay attention as the relatively simple colours will not catch people’s eye as they pass the created media. This is likely however not guaranteed, I think it is important to create work like this, especially in the earlier stages of the project in order to get feedback from the client, if this is the type of safe and standard visual style that they are looking for then it gives me a very strong sense of understanding of what the client is looking for, allowing me to create something that the client will be very happy with, even if I think that it will lack a dynamic and interesting aesthetic. However, this outcome, even if not used will still form an important stepping stone in creating something exciting and effective.

I think the illustrative style of the logo is friendly and conveys an appropriate message, however, I think due to the fact that the client does not have a set colour scheme, to improve this outcome some experimentation with the colours would be advantageous.

Concept 2

Offering a contrast to the first concept in order to get a more varied response from the client and ensure that at least something that I create is useful the second concept uses a much more complex and dynamic style, unsure of the color scheme yet, but I feel that to continue the contrast with Concept 1 I should make this concepts colour scheme a dark background with an extremely bright second colour to grab the viewers attention when seeing the logo/posters in passing.

I think that this concept is more complex and the even from just a logo, presents a larger amount of potential design opportunities, the lines could indicate a direction or be used to create shapes, make underlines for titles, or simply to add a large splash of color to the page giving certain areas a greater demand of focus and shifting hierarchies with a single path. however with this dynamism comes a greater degree of risk, these ideas may be done incorrectly and ruin the overall aesthetic, the bright contrasts could create potential issues with legibilities when using large bright lines of a dark background. However, I think that if these issues can be overcome, then this concept will be more successful than concept 1.

Concept 3

I think that this concept could quite easily be converted into a visual style, but expressed in the format of both concept 1 and concept 2. The large titles naturally attract the attention of people passing, using words like “Stop” and “Wait” are useful to get my message across immediately, in the hope that the viewer then proceeds to walk up to the poster and view the additional information upon their approach, large scale typographic posters are not something that I have made before and so this would be an interesting challenge for me as well as serve to fill a large gap within my portfolio. I do not think that this colour scheme works with the current posters, however, this can easily be changed due to my client having a lack of branded content. A sans serif typeface would be appropriate for this type of poster, however, serif would offering a different aesthetic than is so often seen within contemporary graphic design. The large serifs would also offer room to place small amounts of body copy or alternatively, I could input elements of text layering, by placing smaller body copy over the top of the large titles will not hurt the legibility of the large titles due to their size and will also allow me to input all of the vital information the posters require.

Overall I think that my second concept is the most interesting and will challenge me much more than my first concept, however, I think that the interesting visual elements of the concept three can easily be transferred into my second concept, perhaps the large scale text will complement the bright-line style of the logo and create effective, minimalistic posters. This is something that I have often attempted to create in the past, however, I have a tendency to overwork minimalistic work and make something overdesigned and therefore, loses its clarity.

Upon initial research, it seems like the student housing advice lines are lacking in branding, identity, and recognition. The vast majority of these sites are only in existence as a smaller section of the existing uni website.

While the student advice lines are lacking in branding, the actual student housing agencies around the country are extremely well branded, using modern aesthetics and bright, bold colours to attract attention as well as ensuring to stay in trend in order to attract as much student attention as possible. This huge imbalance may be why so many students succumb to the pitfalls of renting a house far too soon, these companies have far larger budgets and therefore can shout their message much louder with far superior visuals compared to the housing advice websites.

Prime Student Living

Prime student living is a provider of student properties rather than an actual advice line, however within my research, I found that the branding of advice lines was very minimal and where there was branding, it was not particularly interesting or aesthetically pleasing. The Bright and bold color of Prime attracts me straight away, quickly making the posters and leaflets successful. The visual language is simple, yet interesting, a theme that I have been noticing within student housing branding is the use of arrows, roofs and other similar looking objects, I think the connotations attached to these objects are the reason they appear so often. The neat and geometric lines and shapes used by Prime support the bright and contrasting colours, making a highly appropriate background for the large, sans serif type that is placed over the top. I personally like this effect, large scale text posters are not something I have done much before and therefore would like to at least experiment with in order to fill certain gaps within my portfolio.

I think the use of the arrow as a metaphor for a journey that the student will go on is successful, the designers behind prime also describe how many companies attempt to appeal to students by using things like emoji’s or stock photos of students, looking to appeal to students, but often missing the mark and not appealing to anyone. I think this is an extremely crucial point to be made, the balance of making something appealing and modern while avoiding the cliches of what people like and use is vital to creating a successful student hosing brand. While at first glance using what students surround themselves with within my branding would be a good idea in theory, in execution it would simply look too corporate and it would be too obvious what you are trying to do, scaring people away. I feel it would be a much better idea to create my own unique visual language, inspired by contemporary design, the visual style would naturally appeal to students without the need for overuse of cliche and inappropriate visual languages such as emoji’s and text messages, etc.

Activity took place between March 4th 2017 and May 4th.

• Student bookings for Brass Founders increased by 1022%.
• The Facebook ads reached over 26,000 people, and received 159,000 local impressions.
• Prime Student Living’s website gained 11,000 pageviews.
• Brass Founders’ property page received over 1700 hits.
• Approximately 3,000+ leaflets handed out at various events.
• Over 480 email addresses collected at events.
• On average, 29.65% of follow up emails were opened by students.

Clearly, Prime is a successful example of a student housing agency, however this is not what I am creating, but I still feel it is important to make myself very aware of the strategies and style that brands take. Understanding the brands more closely will ultimately make it easier for me to make students aware of the dangers of these brands when creating a student housing helpline and support system for Cardiff Met.

UNIPOL

UNIPOL is closer to what I will be creating in terms of content than Prime, however, I think that the visual style of Prime is more like what I will ultimately create. Offering advice and tips on what students should do when looking for a house to rent as well as providing a large number of appropriate resources to assist in the best way possible UNIPOL is more branded and more noticed than my client. Analyzing the visual style adopted by UNIPOL it seems to be similar to housing agency, using brightly coloured backgrounds and vector illustrations of houses

The use of infographics to display facts, figures, and checklists is something that I have considered, I think it would be a very straightforward and effective way of displaying information. However, although all of the vital information would be there, it would not attract as many people to the posters if all they are seeing are small illustrations, accompanied by large blocks of text. This will make my work lose its contemporary feel and therefore drive away many students. I think perhaps a better way of completing this project is, rather than trying to get students to come into the physical ephemera world, such as looking around for posters and stopping to read the information wherever the poster is seen, Creating large illustrations and bold titles that take up large portions of the poster to attract attention, then including small amounts of body copy accompanied by QR codes and links to other resources that exist within the digital realm. This means that if a student in need sees the poster they will not only not be greeted by huge amounts of facts at first glance, which may scare people away or bore them. The large titles and bold colors will instead invite people in to read the small amount of body copy, and then hopefully use their phones that they are most likely already holding I their hand to scan code/follow a link to a resource that exists within the digital realm e.g. an app or website.

I think that UNIPOL is a useful resource that provides all the right information, however I think that it is displayed in the wrong way, the mark has been missed, students who are looking for housing advice would still use the site for its abundance of useful information, however, a more successful branding campaign would benefit the site incredibly, boosting its audience and making the creators so much closer with their audience, the corporate looking infographics and too much information in too small a space have created a gap and began to remove the human factor of a student housing advice line, appear more as a block of text rather than a team of people.

Student Advice Centre

The Student Advice Centre is very similar to Cardiff Met accommodation service in that it is ran by the Univerity of Sheffield. The service also finds itself in very similar problems as my client, in that the service does not have its own branding of any kind besides a basic altered logo and an extremely loose colour scheme, it is simply branded under the university, therefore not creating an identity for itself and as a result, the service will not be being used to its full potential, perhaps having a large amount of very useful information and a well trained and well-informed team to support that information, if the service is not noticeable then it will not be used, there is not much to review for this source however because it finds itself in such a similar position to my client that I think any successful outcome that would work for the student advice center would also work for my client. A large scale event to make people notice the service may be needed for this service, to be run every year once the new university students for that academic year have arrived in university and given a month or two to acclimatize to their surroundings.

Cardiff DIGS

Cardiff DIGS in an independent advice line and website for students as they make their way through university. Having a good amount of content presented in a way that is not too intimidating upon first glance and therefore would invite people in to explore further and find out more information than they originally thought they wanted, effectively educating those who need to be about the “Pitfalls” that could arise when looking for a house to rent after their first year in university.

I think the website has the correct message, using #AvoidThePitfalls to get their purpose and message across in a moveable, succinct and understandable way. The website does lack the professional touch of a graphic/website designer as does a lot of the branding including the logo. As a result, a large amount of the imagery is very cliche, however, this does not stop the information being useful and does allow visitors to instantly identify the website for what it is, a student housing advice page. Having short checklists that get straight to the point is vital and something that Cardiff DIGS using to its advantage, Providing the vital information right in front of you without having to first tread through hours of scrolling through large paragraphs of confusing, complex housing information that is so common when looking through website such as this.

Overall I think that Cardiff DIGS is the perfect opportunity for a graphic designer, having a good message and clearly an intelligent and knowledgable team that know what they want behind it. As well as some previously existing, however not very successful looking branding and a colour scheme already in place, I think that I will be looking back at this website throughout the project in order to get inspiration for the writing and information side of the posters, leaflets etc. that I will create for my client.

GCU Students’ Association

Very similar in visuals to UNIPOL, GCU offers a small amount of information to students about how to go about renting a house/flat. However, after looking through the website I believe the information may be slightly bias, as they do often promote one site for accommodation and seem to focus more on the positives of that one site, rather than trying to offer general helpful information as well as lacking the message of encouraging students to explore their options and search around before renting a house. However I still find this to be an important source to review, if I am to respond appropriately to the harmful messages put out by housing agencies, pressuring students to buy a house as early as they can, then I must first understanding what they do and how it is done so successfully.

Much of the visual language of GCU is very cliche, using stock photos of happy-looking students everywhere within their leaflets, however they are also successful at attracting the attention and time of students by offering free discounts and attractive offers to those who use the service.

I am unsure if the problem Is that housing agencies are shouting incredibly loud, or housing advice lines are not shouting at all. However, the large budgets and overall much larger teams often employed by housing agencies seems to suggest that it is the not the latter option.

Overall It seems my challenge will be creating something that, rather than hits a viewer with masses of information but hides it services away, making an attractive looking brand that presents the most vital information in an appropriate format, while providing links to documents that met have fewer design elements, but contains a greater amount of information.

https://www.cardiffstudents.com/advice/housing/finding/privaterented/

https://www.sassh.co.uk/Help

Cardiff SU Advice Page

The purpose of the Cardiff SU page would be to purely educate those who are reading, the SU does not fund any student housing themselves they have no reason to have a more sinister purpose, the audience of this information is mainly Cardiff Uni students, however, access is not restricted for others not attending Cardiff University.

The information is entirely texted base, providing links to other articles that provide a different view on the information provided. Although being text-based the text is split up and therefore made much more clear and concise, allowing the viewer to access the specific information that they need, quickly.

The headings are listing the largest concerns that those looking to sign a student house for second year would have, making the page seem instantly more comfortable and friendly. The source is from an official Cardiff university, this seems a very credible source without bias and seems to be purely offering information rather than trying to get students to sign with a specific housing agency, however a list of approved agencies is given, this list has been sufficiently researched and appears true and unbias as well.

the information provided is not including anything new or extremely surprising however to those who are within the target audience that would be looking for information on the subject of renting a student house for the second year, much of the information would be unknown and therefore it would be necessary and comforting for a credible source such as Cardiff University SU to provide everything within one, a concise document addressing most of the concerns that many first-year students would have. While the document does list the more obvious hazards and concerns that you would face (encouraging visitors to look at multiple houses and check for scams etc.) the source also lists some much lesser-known, more specialist knowledge and topics such as avoiding agency fees as well as holding deposits, giving visitors both general and small amounts of specialist knowledge, enough to educate a first time visitor to the website, however not too much complex information as to scare off anyone.

Word of Mouth (Talking to Others)

After talking to others about signing a house for second year and what the overall experience was like for a student in their first year at university I found that the majority shared much information with the advice given by Cardiff University SU, while others lacked some of the more specialist knowledge, the general tips of “ensuring to wait and visit multiple houses” remained the same, While others purposes may be less clear when compared to a completely impartial Student Union website I feel as though in the context of our creative brief many people would simply be talking to their friends/Families about the issue and therefore these people would remain unbias towards the situation, given that any individuals did not work for a specific housing agency and therefore would potentially give a more bias, angled view to make their company seem potentially more positive.

Accuracy of the information would be hurt quite considerable when just talking to others, their opinion and judgment may have been skewed by their own experiences or the experiences they have heard from others concerning renting a property for their second year in University as well as individuals not being factually checked and reviewed sources of information when compared to a very credible source such as Cardiff University Student Union. The accuracy of the word of mouth information would, therefore, be low, however, should still be considered as it could very easily be extremely useful, giving it a rating of 2.5/5 as those who have gone through the process would have a wealth of information from a first-person point of view, however, bias their viewpoint is now, the information should still be useful in some respects. If the person is a friend or a family member their interest should be purely in you, listing information that they believe would be useful to the individual themselves, this in a way makes information more concise than searching through large amounts of irrelevant information contained within a website,, whereas an individual could simply ask exactly what they want and the others would respond with hopefully, some useful and relevant information. Addressing someone personally would also add an element of emotion that may not be able to be achieved through looking at a website, this can become both a positive impact as well as a negative one if the person has had a particularly unusual experience or has personal bias with e.g. One specific housing agency that they now feel you need to not like in order to agree with them.

SASSH (Southampton Accreditation Scheme for Student Housing)

The information provided by SASSH is somewhat similar to my first source, however, does differ in some aspect, such as the specific topics that it goes into detail with alongside the overall tone of the document seeming more corporate and less friendly than the information provided by Cardiff University SU. The information is much heavier and more daunting to first-time visitors, potentially scaring some individuals off who are only looking for a small, specific piece of information and therefore would not want to explore the plethora of information available, however, the work is split into chapters in order to help cut browsing Time down. All of this alongside the checklist like the layout of much of the information seems to make the document more aimed at those who are very new to renting houses, have no previous knowledge of the subject and are looking for a wealth of basic and specialist knowledge in one, inclusive environment.

Given that the interest is purely the well being of the student I think that this is a particularly useful source for my creative brief. Sharing that particular value is extremely important as it is something that the client specifically expressed within the brief provided and as such has been translated into our own creative brief. The information is backed up by clips from experts and companies that are concerned with housing safety and therefore the information is extremely valuable given that these are exactly the people who would review health and safety within the housing and set the standards for what is suitable to live in, having the same level of knowledge as these people within the concerning areas would ensure that the student is not able to be scammed/given an unsuitable house and prevent any unwanted surprises. Because of this, I would rate the overall accuracy of the source as a 4.5/5, an all-inclusive environment that condenses itself within the website as to not cause too much irrelevant text to be read if the reader is only looking for a smaller amount of specific information.

CPS Housing Student Advice Line

https://www.cpshomes.co.uk/students/student-guide/looking-for-a-property.aspx

Unlike the other sources of information, I believe that the purpose of this source of information may be bias in nature, given that the organization that is posting the article is also a large renting agency within Cardiff makes me think that the purpose of the information may be to keep customers on that webpage in order to rent with CPS Homes. Ending much of their information with a link to their own properties, attempting to make their information a guide to buying their own properties, making those who read the information naturally feel more secure with renting with CPS, regardless of if their properties are actually high quality or not.

The information is not informative like the other websites and rather attempts to take a more emotive approach to rent a house, however the small amount of information available on timings when renting properties does mention that before Christmas is the better time to sign a property. Although this is not quite said outright and almost tries to hide and manifest the false information in a more friendly way by using different tones and attitudes to the way of writing within the website. Attempting to write in a more casual tone in an attempt to feel less corporate, this part does fit into our creative brief, and much of the information here could be useful in learning how to write my information for my campaign in a more effective manner. The point of view seems to be from the housing agency however worded in a way to appear as though another student is saying the information.

The 6 Frames

Triangle- Purpose

What are you looking for from the Information you have?
What is the Purpose if of the Information?

Ask yourself a series of WHAT questions. WHAT is this actually about? Think generally then look more specifically.