Design & Visual Communication I

 
 

UWM Student Grace Lubinski

student feedback

OVERVIEW

Design and Visual Communication One, which is a thorough introduction to contemporary graphic design studio practices, emphasizes the development of creative and analytical skill-sets that are utilized to solve multifaceted visual problems.

The purpose of this course is to explore the role that Graphic Design plays in the development of sophisticated and interconnected visual messages - in particular how we understand, interpret, mediate, manipulate, derive value from, and in turn, contribute meaning. Significance will be placed on the development of conceptual skills and formal sensibilities that allow designers to effectively and meaningfully communicate. Through the use of iterative processes and practices, students will continue to build upon a visual vocabulary that reinforces one’s creative, critical, analytical, and perceptual skills and insights. 

Objectives

  • Recognize and implement design elements and principles in the development of design solutions

  • Create and develop design concepts through sketching and thumbnailing

  • Recognize the importance of meeting needs of both client and audience when developing design solutions

  • Demonstrate the process of designing symbols and pictograms

  • Explain the importance of typography as a design element

  • Explain and implement basic color theory, color harmonies, and psychology of color

  • Review and explain the history of graphic design

  • Create and construct comprehensives for presentation utilizing various design tools, materials, and techniques

  • Review and analyze finished designs through group critique

UWM Student Victoria Mora

UWM Student Aleigh McDermott

Identity Design | Comprehensive mark-making

Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design– or any combination of any or all of these – for an established brand, with the intention of developing a new position in the minds of consumers and competitors.

Part 01: Research

  • Brand History. Find out as much as you can about your brand. When was it first produced? By whom? For whom? Where was it sold?

  • Brand Analysis. How has the brand changed through time? Create a visual timeline with any images you can find of the brand, along with the dates of the design.

  • Market Analysis. How is the brand positioned currently? Who is the consumer? What is the market? What do people think of the brand? (You can ask them!)

  • Brand Visual analysis. Deconstruct each element of the current design to identify the graphic communication tools used, such as color, font, design of logo style

Now bring together all the findings of your research to define the issues that the current brand is suffering from.

Part 02: STRATEGY

You can now start to consider how you might rebrand through repositioning and redesigning the identity to help it communicate more effectively to it’s consumers. The following questions may help by giving your strategy a direction:

  • Could the brand be targeted at a new consumer?

  • Could the brand be targeted at a new market?

  • Could the brand be recreated with an updated name?

  • Could a new strapline aid in the brand communication? 

Identify your consumer/audience 

  • A clear understanding of the target audience, their lifestyle, needs and aspirations 

  • The appropriate way to communicate to them, verbally and visually 

Identify your Competitors 

  • Develop a clear understanding of the competition and their strengths and weaknesses  

  • Consider how they communicate and interact with their consumer or audience 

  • Identify the key opportunities and gaps in the market 

  • What are the threats posed by existing or emerging brands market sector?

  • Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the key visual commonalities across the market sector

Part 03: Conclusions

In addition to your research findings, the answers to these questions will help you develop a rebranding strategy to direct and guide the creative process. 

  • Who is your chosen consumer?

  • Why would they use the service or buy the products they sell?

  • What tone of voice/personality will your new refreshed brand have? 

  • Where will you position it in the market?

  • Who will be it’s main brand competition, and how will you make yours stand out from the crowd?

  • What will be the brand’s new USP (Unique Selling Point)?

Write a design brief addressing the design direction for your rebrand. 

Part 04: Translate into a powerful and memorable identity

  • Mark (concrete, recognizable, visually concise image) 

  • Wordmark development (freestanding name)

  • Create your color pallet 

  • Application of color to mark 

SIMPLENarratives

A step toward abstraction and understanding issues related to visual literacy 

brief

  • Choose a 18th/19th/ or early 20th century short nursery rhyme along the lines of Mother Goose or other common children’s verses.

  • Research the history of the selected tale, if possible to find. Identify the most plausible context that you would like your version of the narrative to portray…

  • Restate/redefine the problem, list possible approaches/ideas

  • Distill and simplify - find/identify the tale’s essence

  • Begin the brain dumping process = Externalize ideas See/Compare/Sort/Combine

  • Deconstruct, reorganize the story utilizing only the most relevant elements to retell the tale over 4 - 10 frames 

  • Keep color usage focused on the expressive nature of the words/passage/story

Final online critique of rebrand designs on Freehand by InVision board.

UWM Student Samantha Barker

UWM Student Joshua Bausch

UWM Student Meghan Bain