Lauren West Graphic Branding & Identity Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? The simplest of graphic design can be the most effective whilst informing important decisions in your daily life. This can include the smallest everyday actions, for example, warning signs – this can affect your life in the smallest or most dramatic way. These signs are carefully considered to save millions – using simple graphics to get the message across fast. This is especially the case when considering graphics for medical reasons – this can include, pill packets, hospital signage and condom wrappers. Graphic designers have been involved in generating health campaigns that use formats, such as graphic novels and animation to disseminate information. Graphic design can help people take greater ownership of their own bodies and their health, especially within these trying times. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, graphic design has played an important role of demonstrating how to correctly wash your hands, and provided warnings of social-distancing in public areas. Dutch studio Lennarts & De Bruijn has been working around the clock, making a selection of posters to send to hospitals as a show of support for the inspirational workers that are going above and beyond to fight COVID-19 and save the lives of its victims. To give everyone access to the posters and the opportunity to make their own versions, the studio has launched STAY SANE / STAY SAFE. The files for the posters are available online to print out, meaning they can be hung in your window or sent to your local hospital, doctor’s office or nursing home if you choose to. There’s a selection of posters to inspire the home-stayers and remote workers too. If you don’t have access to a printer, the files can be downloaded and shared to a social media platform of your liking. After having received an email about this opportunity, I chose to make my own. For my specific poster, I wanted to stay true to the original slogan used, this being ‘Stay Sane, Stay Safe’. The overall design is minimalistic and easy to understand, using the iconic pharmacy symbol as a display of recognisability, which in-turn provides a quick association to health. I’ve learnt a considerable amount during this period in-regards to the importance of design, and our platform during these times of need. Our skill of communicating an important message through design should not be brushed over, but instead, should be used to help save lives or improve the quality of life. Lennarts & De Bruijn have done exactly this through the creation of this project. Using their platform to encourage and unite those who may feel helpless in comparison to those on the front-line. When in fact, their contribution could further improve or save a life. Let’s discuss all things D&AD, and if creative freedom is less achievable when designing for client briefs. Is creative freedom achievable when working within the brand identity sector? Throughout this year, the different approaches and perspectives I’ve taken professionally have contributed to the development of my knowledge within graphic design. The D&AD New Blood Awards in particular, have contributed to my professional approach within my discipline, therefore being applied to my practical, theoretical and technical knowledge. When creating a campaign for the Audible D&AD brief, Sara and myself had to apply the brands guidelines to each aspect of the campaign, taking into consideration the brands tone of voice, colour palette, typography and use of logo. Working with these guidelines proved to be difficult as neither of us had experienced this level of limitation on our course. Nonetheless, having worked with these guidelines in place and the companies vision, I learnt that this is what the professional industry is like within the design world. This realisation was an eye-opening experience as not every brief has complete creative freedom and the ability to adapt aspects you feel should be changed. It’s what the company wants, you have to listen and visualise their needs by taking into consideration the guidelines. This knowledge I would’ve only learnt from having taken the Diploma in Professional Studies year. This experience has taught me that the industry is more commercial than I had previously imagined, and has provided me knowledge that I can integrate into my final year. I will optimise the most of my experience by working on projects with full creative freedom. Allowing myself to build on the experimental aspect of my portfolio before fully immersing myself into the industry as this opportunity may not arise often. This brief further taught me, and solidified my beliefs of, working for an agency may mean an overall limitation on my creative freedom. As I hadn’t managed to obtain a placement this year, my updated plan is to secure an internship once I’m back in London. I need to know the extent of the creative freedom and versatility allowed whilst working for a design studio, and whether or not this would be an ideal route for me to take once having left university. Bibliography
Audible (2020) Audible Assets. International: Audible. Available from https://www.audible.com/about/newsroom/audible-assets [Assessed: 03 May 2020]. Bourton, L. (2020) Not just another project for designers: meet a new poster platform promoting positivity. London: It’s Nice That. Available from https:/www.itsnicethat.com/articles/stay-sane-stay-safe-coronavirus-graphic-design-270320 [Accessed: 03 May 2020]. D&AD (2020) D&AD New Blood Awards 2020. London: D&AD. Available from https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-new-blood-awards/ [Accessed: 03 May 2020]. Lennarts & De Bruijn. (2020) Stay Sane / Stay Safe. The Netherlands: Stay Sane / Stay Safe. Available from https://www.stay-sane-stay-safe.com/ [Accessed: 01 May 2020]. Morris, K. (2020) Positive results: uplifting coronavirus posters – in pictures. London: The Guardian. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/may/16/positive-results-uplifting-coronavirus-posters-stay-sane-stay-safe-in-pictures [Accessed: 03 May 2020].
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