Showing posts with label Bath Uni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bath Uni. Show all posts

Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Bath Uni - Poster designs

I have been struggling to come up with a satisfactory poster design for a little while now. Basically I wanted a simple template that could be used for four A2 posters, one for each of the four areas covered by the Bath Uni brief:
  • Element Scarcity
  • Attitudes to Chemicals
  • Fuels for the Future
  • Bioplastics
I thought it would be nice to use the symbols we created for the stencils and screenprint them in a single flat orange colour, as close as possible to the one we have used for everything else.

As it happens, I came up with this rather nice design using a subtle orange gradient, so I may print them digitally instead:



If there is enough time, I will still try to screenprint a bunch of these. Problem is screenprint will be insanely busy from now until final hand-in, plus getting Steve to print the artwork onto transparency will also take forever. It might be best to do them digitally for hand-in, then do the screenprints afterwards when things have died down.

Once the posters are printed, the only remaining tasks for this project will be to screenprint the t-shirts, labcoats and the sheet that will go over their tables. And the stickers that will go on the paper coffee cups. Again, if there is time I may put a simple website together where people can go to get more information than can be printed on the leaflet and posters.

Bath Uni - Leaflet redesign

After my recent visit to Opal Print, it became apparent that I would need to redesign my science leaflets if I wanted them printed at a sensible cost. I was told that the five-panel concertina design could have a maximum width of 430mm, making a max page width of 86mm. A page height of 103mm max would allow three leaflets to be printed per sheet.

I rejigged the format to these specifications but decided it looked a bit squat. As it would only be marginally more expensive to print two leaflets per sheet, especially at such a low run (250 or 500 to start with), I also did a slightly taller version with a page size of 86mm x 120mm.



I think that this intermediate size (to the right in the photos) is the most suitable. I also had to bear in mind that a minimum font size of 8pt was recommended by Opal, due to the fact the the text is white out of an orange background.

I showed the two new formats to the Bath Uni guys this week and they seemed happy with my decision to go with the taller version.

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Bath Uni - Stencils are cut!

Yesterday, Jordan, Nathan and I took some big sheets of orange perspex to Tim in the plastics workshop to get our scientific stencils lasercut. The process was totally fascinating to watch and Tim was extremely helpful. Imagine if all the technicians at uni were like that... actually being there to help us get our work done, rather than being an obstacle that has to be negotiated.

First of all, Tim took our 1000mm x 600mm sheets and cut them down to 700mm x 400mm, which is the maximum size the laser cutter can handle.



He then took the files off my memory stick and sent the first one to print:



It's a fantastic piece of kit - it should be for £30,000 - and it cut each sheet pretty quickly. In the Illustrator files, we had to set the lines as red (255,0,0) at a thickness of 0.1pt, so the laser knew where to cut. We decided to have the logo and name of stencil etched at the bottom, which is done by simply setting the vectors as solid black (0,0,0). We reversed the stencils as the etched stuff looks much nicer viewed from the smooth side.

Once finished, we took out the stencils along with all the pieces that had been cut out. I took a few of these as I am sure I can find a use for some of them. I also managed to grab two As, a 7 and a 2, which I will light and photograph and possibly use as my new logo. The finished stencils look amazing, just how I had envisaged them. I love the way the edge glows as it catches the light.

Thursday, 28 March 2013

Bath Uni - T-shirt design finalised

Nathan and I mocked up the text for the front of the t-shirts today. The Bath Uni guys decided to go for the "Actual Genius" parody of the Apple t-shirts. We decided to put this text on the front, in DIN Medium, which is the font we have used across this entire project. A small white CSCT "coffee bean" logo will go on the left sleeve.



We will screenprint a bunch of these t-shirts when the facilities reopen at uni on the 15th April. Yeah, really handy that when you have around six weeks left until final hand-in.

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Bath Uni - Perspectives on Perspex

This week we managed to get Tim in the plastics workshop to do a few laser cut tests on Perspex. We gave him a selection of our icons, the ones we thought might cause and problem and unfortunately quite a few of them did!

We were forced to reduce the detail on quite a few of them to make them usable and we were also able to ascertain a minimum width for any element of around 5mm. With these restrictions in mind we went back over the four stencils and adjusted the symbols accordingly. We also found out how the laser cutter reads an Illustrator file - anything in a red (255,0,0) line of 0.1 to 0.25pt is cut and anything in black is etched. The etched stuff looks incredible when flipped and viewed form the smooth side, so we decided to reverse the stencil files and have our revised Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies "coffee bean" logo and the name for each stencil etched on the back side. I think it is going to look great.

The other thing we realised was that 6mm thick Perspex was probably going to be too heavy to use at the size we want (700mm x 400mm), so we have ordered 3mm stuff instead. We should be ready to make cut the stencils next week!

Saturday, 9 March 2013

Bath Uni - A visit to a science fair

Today I popped down to Green Park Station to take a look at the annual Bath Taps Into Science event. I wanted to see how these things were presented and thought it might be nice to catch up with some of the Bath Uni people.



First impressions were that it is very busy, each exhibit only has a tiny amount of space in which to work and that the use of Comic Sans was abundant! I can certainly see why Bath Uni were keen on getting us involved. The whole thing looked very Blue Peter, which, in a weird way, was part of it's charm. I introduced myself to the guys from Bath Uni - they didn't seem to be aware of the collaboration as they were first years and we are dealing with third years and above. Funnily enough it is actually these very first years that will be taking our designs to Cheltenham Science Festival!

I was slightly perturbed to see these crudely designed posters:



Why were we not aware of these? They will obviously have to be redesigned to keep them inline with our new branding. I have contacted Bath Uni to get hold of the files. One of the guys on the stand mentioned that the laminated sheets were printed on both sides and that no-one actually ever turned them over. I will bear this in mind with the redesign.

Monday, 18 February 2013

Bath Uni - What next?

This week we set to work on designing the actual symbols that would be used on the giant stencils. We also sourced a supplier for large sheets of 5mm orange perspex and spoke to Tom in the plastics workshop at uni about getting the stencils cut. He said it would be no problem for the CNC router and that it wouldn't cost us anything, bar the materials themselves. The plan is to get them cut but also to screenprint the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies logo onto them. We have given the details to the Bath Uni guys and they have ordered the perspex, along with a bunch of orange t-shirts, lab coats and chemistry glassware.

So to the symbols. The four of us (Nathan, Andy Penn, Jordan and myself) each took the massive list of desired symbols that the science guys gave us and ploughed through them on our own, trying to make as consistent a set as possible. We then looked at the results and picked the best examples from each. We believe we now have a complete set - we are just waiting for approval from the science guys before we consolidate them and modify for consistency of size, stroke, corner radii. Here are the symbols I designed that survived the cull:



Once we have the definitive set of symbols we will set about designing the four templates themselves. I will also use the symbols to finalise the leaflet design (information from Bath Uni permitting), along with four big orange posters (screenprinted, one for each "message") and the artwork for printing onto the t-shirts and lab coats. We can also design the paper cups that will be used to serve coffee, as well as the large Actual Genius Bar logo and type that will be cut from vinyl.

Friday, 15 February 2013

Bath Uni - Leaflet design concept

Prior to our next meeting with the Bath Uni guys, I thought I could make the client/designer relationship run even smoother by presenting them with a mockup of a handout that they could give to people at a science fair. I thought that a concertina design would work well, so set about mocking it up with a bunch of placeholder text and images:



My idea was that the orange side would feature big bold graphical symbols for the four distinct areas that the Bath Uni people wanted to raise awareness of: Resource Scarcity, Attitudes to Chemicals, Fuel of the Future and Bio Plastics. The symbols themselves are still placeholder at this stage (I wouldn't dream of using the actual Apple logo to represent an apple!). The white side on the reverse would hold more detailed information about the exciting research carried out at Bath Uni.

I figured that if I set up this structure, they could take a look and see that there is not actually much writing required by them. They just need to fill in the gaps. I have dealt with clients in the past who are very reluctant to give you content until they can really see exactly how it is going to be used.

Andy Penn also designed a really nice "Little Book of Facts" which featured some lovely cutout sections. I am not so sure how this will work on a production scale though, as getting about 10 pages die-cut would cost a fortune. The Bath Uni guys really liked both ideas though, so it is up to them how much they want to spend. I think it is good to offer a variety of solutions to suit a variety of budgets, as we have not been given an actual fixed budget up front (I would assume that it is pretty small though).

Monday, 11 February 2013

Bath Uni - Presenting our ideas

We set to work putting together something that would help us get the Bath Uni guys as psyched about the project as we were. I worked up a mock of the Actual Genius Bar in Google Sketchup (3D modelling tool) as well as the logo for the bar itself.



Nathan and Andy Penn came up with a couple of alternative logos, although is it just me or does Andy's one look like a cat?



I think that the chemical symbol looks best, although we will need to confirm with the science guys that the caffeine symbol is indeed correct and appropriate. I also came up with some t-shirt designs, with the chemical symbol on the front, along with "actual genius" or "scientist", and a modified Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies logo on the sleeve, where Apple put their logo. It would seem that there may be a few issues with us modifying the logo, primarily using it orange on white and a reversed white on orange, although the Bath Uni guys were happy to go with it. We also thought it might look nice on lab coats.



Nathan suggested having some snacks on the bar, covered by those clear plastic domes that would be branded with the chemical symbol for the food inside. We also liked the idea of an elaborate system of tubes and glassware for making coffee, like the scene from Breaking Bad:



Finally, I produced a few typography samples using various weights and styles of DIN, while Nathan and Andy photographed the Helix stencil that I had bought, then used Photoshop trickery to illustrate my giant stencil idea, as well as a teeny business card-sized version that could be given to kids:



Nathan put all the content together in a nifty little iPad book, which we took along to a meeting with the Bath Uni people at a pub in town. Suffice to say they were impressed by our presentation and were fully onboard with our ideas. It was really useful to meet in an informal setting and we got a lot done before the drinking began in earnest. We agreed to have such meetings on a regular basis until completion of the project.

Friday, 8 February 2013

Bath Uni - A very useful visit

After a very quiet period on the science projects front, we contacted the Bath Uni people and arranged to pay them a visit. We were shown around the impressive facilities at their campus and took lots of photos of "science stuff" so we could get more of an idea of the particular visual language they use. Here are a few examples:



It's good to see that someone shares our own puerile sense of humour. Anyway, after they showed us around we all went into a meeting room to discuss our ideas. It was pretty heavy going and I didn't really get the impression that they were buying into our concept, which was only half-formed, truth be told. We needed a breakthrough.

So we wrapped up the meeting and headed for the SU bar to chat about how best to proceed. Amazingly, halfway through the first pint inspiration struck! I was trying to think of the stuff that people associate with science and chemistry in particular when I thought about the old Helix scientific stencils that we used to design experiments at school. From this came the idea of using a strong orange colour scheme, like the plastic of the stencils, along with a good stencil font (I remembered having seen a lovely stencil version of DIN). How about getting HUGE stencils made up in the plastics workshop at Sion Hill? Then the Bath Uni guys could use them to illustrate the points they want to make. Yes!

Then I started thinking about how they would dress. How about riffing on the smugness of the Apple Genius Bar? Those guys are essentially IT drones whereas the Bath Uni guys are ACTUAL GENIUSES (well, sort of - it's all relative). I proposed that we took the look and feel of the Genius Bar, making it orange rather than blue, and using the words "actual genius" or "scientist" instead, sat below a logo that could be a chemical symbol (perhaps for caffeine?). Maybe they could serve coffee at their Actual Genius Bar, out of branded conical flasks or test tubes...

Finally we had some real progress on this project and we were all very fired up. We couldn't wait to tell the Bath Uni guys what we had in mind.

Incidentally, we also found out that they really liked my poster ideas that I sent them before Christmas (the apple, gold phone and platinum map of Birmingham), they just didn't let me know so I assumed they thought they sucked!

Friday, 28 December 2012

Bath Uni Brief - Resource Scarcity

The other Bath Uni brief that really interested me was about the scarcity of precious metals that go into the hi-tech devices that we take for granted. They talked in particular about smartphones and how it was currently too expensive to retrieve the metals once the phone is discarded.

My favourite soundbite was something to do with how a smartphone "contains around 17 of the rarest metals on the planet". I decided to mock up a poster to illustrate this fact, using gold foil on black, as gold is surely the first precious metal that people think of (I am not sure if it actually in smartphones - must check). I chose to use the recognisable silhouette of an iPhone 4 to represent smartphones. Here's a mockup of how it will look:

I figured this would look beautiful screenprinted using gold foil onto black card. Unfortunately there were lots of problems achieving the desired effect. First off I had to screenprint the foil glue onto the paper. I figured this would be the same as printing regular ink but alas no. Firstly, the foil glue is much thinner than the inks. Secondly, it dries into the screen in under a minute. I had to use the power-washer to get the glue out, which had the unfortunate side effect of stripping the stencil too! So, I made my screen up again and had to print the glue as a one-shot deal - no time to do a few tests on newsprint.

Once the glue is on the paper, you leave it to dry completely. You then apply the foil over the glue and put it into the heat press. Our print technician Ed had only done this once or twice during his second year, so it was going to be a bit hit and miss. Anyway, here is the result:

The cracked effect on the smartphone itself is quite nice but it is not what I was after - I wanted it to be totally smooth gold. I am quite pleased with the legibility of the text as it is quite small (12pt Myriad Pro) but unfortunately the "17" didn't print, so it doesn't make much sense. It is supposed to read:

Your smartphone contains around 17
of the rarest metals on the planet.

It is not currently possible to reclaim
these and reuse them.


I am not sure quite why all of the text didn't print. Perhaps it had something to do with the temperature or duration of the heat press. If the folk at Bath Uni like the idea then I will look into getting these printed professionally. At least I have done enough to prove the concept and figure out that doing it myself at uni is not an option.

My second attempt achieved about the same level of success. This time the factoid was about the precious metals that are deposited on the roads thanks to their use in catalytic converters. The actual quote I remember went something like:

The catalytic converters found in regular cars use a matrix coated in palladium, rhodium and platinum to filter out harmful pollutants. Over time, traces of these precious metals are released onto the tarmac.

It is estimated that there is currently more platinum on the roads of Birmingham than in the largest mine in the world.


Now, I know that this statement is not actually correct but it was something like that and I am only using it to illustrate an idea. I thought it would be apt create a map of all the roads in Birmingham using platinum foil, again onto black mount board. Here's the mock:

The map printed really nicely, although the text was not quite so good. Again, if the Bath Uni guys like this idea then I will look into getting it done professionally.

Bath Uni Brief - Chemicals

We were recently given the opportunity to work with Bath University on a number of live projects that aim to raise awareness of the important research carried out by the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies. In particular, there were two briefs that I found very interesting. The first one was about trying to change the public perception of the word "chemicals", as it invariably has very negative connotations.

I immediately thought about the word itself and the fact that actually everything is made of the same basic chemicals - they are not always synthesised in a laboratory. So I got to thinking about things that people instantly associate with being the opposite of man-made or artificial, things like apples, water, fluffy yellow chicks, flowers, etc. I think this idea has legs, now just for the tricky part of representing it in a graphical way.

I figured the apple would be a good starting point, so I bought a lovely specimen and headed down to the photography studio. It was at this point that I contacted the boffins at Bath Uni to get an idea of the actual chemical composition of your average apple. Here's the first poster idea that I came up with:

Okay, so the brown leaf on the apple looks a bit ugly but at this stage I just want to test the concept and see what the Bath Uni lot think about it. I can reshoot a more perfect specimen at some point in the future.

I then got the idea of running the posters in pairs, both identical apart from one says "100% Natural" and the other "100% Chemical".

I imagine these posters on bus stops all over town, so I have mocked up a few examples of how they would look in situ:

I don't think that the poster design is by any means final, I just wanted to test the concept and get approval before taking the project forward.