Numiko Visit

Numiko.

Designing for screen.

By Matthew Tweddle & David Eccles.

What they do: 

Make digital things

Don’t do: 

Make things that go to landfills.

Clients:

Disney, BBC, Channel 4. Non-profit type companies.

Why they’re here: 

Introduction to Numiko

Dismissing myths

Explain why studios need designers like us.

Common perceptions of dd.

Too many limitations

Designers need to be able to code

Designing websites website all the time must get boring

Web designers lack an understanding of design principles

You need to move to London to work on high profile projects. 

Limitations are disappearing:

Typography

responsive Grids

Scaling vector graphics (SVG) Vectors for retina.

HTML5, Canvas and Open GL

Connection speeds.

Designers don’t have to be able to code!

With Numiko only one came from a programming background.

Not Boring

Constantly evolving technologies

Host of new exciting challenges that comes with them. Mostly all the new different devices that everything has to work for. 

Maturing industry, take design seriously.

Leeds, Leeds, Leeds…

Mostly all the clients are based in London. Leeds is 2 hours from London by train.

Cheaper rent, better people.

Nesta:

Charity company. 

Campaign, getting kids into making digital things. 

Make things do stuff. 

Typefaces created around touch.

A lot of this was done using SVGS.

WaterAid:

Approached to create a gifting platform, fundraise, etc.

Gift a digital story?

Supplied logo was a big mess, didn’t work well on screen.

Looked like Yahoo.

Lewis Hamilton:

Wanted the best website on the internet basically.

Big timeline of his lift. 

Has a F1 pass. 

Iconography is something that’s a huge part of web design. As well as that typography.

National Lottery:

Lots of custom type design. 

Office of National statistics:

For students, about the complications of money. All vector. Looks sick.

Channel 4:

The Spirit of Now

IPTV:

BBC, Primary Art:

A lot of illustration work. A lot.

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Projects are normally 3 weeks in design. A lot of the pitched stuff is very compressed. 2-3 Days. 

As a junior design theres a lot of room to breatdfd. 

PLACEMENTS:

2 weeks, all had opportunities to do live projects. 

Design Council:

Discover, Define, Design Develop, Deploy.

1: Find out what they want, what they want to make, the audience. etc. etc.

Audience:

Who they are

What they need (wants to give, and recieve)

To understand digital lives (no point making an xbox app for a 80 year old woman)

To understand Your organisational needs from a digital platform

To ensure we’re answering the right questions throughout the project

Ensuring we’re answering the right questions throughout the project.

A) What it is

B) What it looks like

“There’s nothing more dangerous than the right answer to the wrong question.”

Peter Drucker

To get all these questions:

Key stakeholders workshop

Interviews

Surveys

Interviews (More)

49 audience types

8 groups

Created personas for each group of people.

A persona made up.

Blend aesthetics with physiology.

Short statements that you can integrate a design with. 

for example:

“ I need facts, figures and in-depth insights at a UK and global level”

He has minutes to find what he wants, conduit to highly influential ministers. Make it count.

Resulted in 180 user stories.

The Creative brief:

At the end of that process, a creative brief is then created. It’s succinct, distilled all of the previous research.

Clear, Flexible, Simple, Creative.

User-centred

Mobile first

Device agnostic

Optimised for any screen

Guiding principles

Focus on content

Make it simple

Embrace less is more

Be consistent

Consider context

Be bold & confident

Iterate based on feedback

Everything is user tested. super important.

Wire frames.

Whats important, what needs to be on the page. It’s not design to blog down a designer. it’s to help refine the 

The grid system needs to be hidden so it’s not too easy to notice. 

Imac - Ipad - Iphone.

Designing for 3 different sizes.

Why they want graphic designers:

Typography is King online, Just as it is offline

A knowledge and understanding of Brand design

Unique layouts and concepts

Iconography

Illustration

Infographics & Visualisations

———

matthew@numiko.com

@numiko

numiko.com

Interns are paid.

OUGD504: Peer Review session + Group Progression crit.

Print:

• Product being be referable after graduation.
• The interactivity between the book and the package is engaging.
• If there's time to touch on other mediums.
• Concept of the screen-print package, will beginners get it? Would they understand it's a screen-print bed. Make sure it's realistic enough for them to understand.
• Don't over-crowd the poster with too much information or it will become to cluttered and unreadable.

Additional:
Screen print the package.

Web:

• Great concept that hasn't been done before.
•  A conflicting idea with the audience - adding drinking games with traditional family card games could cause problems
• No need for a home holding page.

Additional:

Summer Brief Presentation: Feedback Session

10 (Group) Successes

1: Passed first year

2: Living alone / Learnt to be independent

3: Learnt to cook

4: Printing resources/ Learnt different processes

5: Developed digital skills

6: Learnt how to answer a brief/ structured process

7: Confidence

8: Improved personal & professional practice

9: Improved literacy skills
10: Balancing part-time work on top of the course

11: Learnt to integrate workshop skills into practice

10 (Class) Successes

1: Presentation skills

2: Feedback

3: Workshops integration

4: Independent

5: Research/ Development

6: Understand and Time Management/ Priorities

7: Working In/ With Groups/ Specialisms

8: Independence/ Motivations

9: Theory/ Context

10: Style/ Finding your feet

10 Successful traits: To explore...

1: Cooking new and different meals. (Too much pasta last year.)
2: Take advantage of the resources around University more.
3: Gain more confidence doing presentations.
4: Better Time management.
5: Blogging often to keep up to date.
6: Money Management (Less funds = Wiser spending)
7: Attempt to keep fit throughout the year.
8: Better production techniques/ Professional.
9:
10:

Summer Brief Presentation: 
Presenting & Feedback

For the Summer brief presentation, In a group of 9 we each took our turns to present our summer briefs on the table to the rest of the group. We all had 5 minutes each to present, 1 minute to receive our feedback which we wrote on Post-it notes and passed on.

I'm really glad we did it in this fashion, mostly because I was a bit nervous of coming back and presenting it to the class at the start of the year. I ended up enjoying it.

PPP Evaluation ( End of Module )

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughout this module I have developed my self evaluation skills, this is mostly down to the workshops and how they get us into the thinking and they've really helped because of that. I've applied them to allow me to view my strengths and weaknesses and through this I have been able to improve my self. This is in conjunction along with the crits where I can also improve on my self and also through evaluations too like this.

Another skill I would say would be public speaking and this has majorly improved throughout this year at the start I wasn't so confident and when it came to the end PPP presentation I felt a lot better in my self as I have become really exposed to it now and It's slowly becoming natural. I was a lot more relaxed in speaking and I think this allowed me to get everything out I wanted to say.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on them?

One strength I have identified would be identifying my professional self and what I like and what I want my image to look like. I feel this came across best in my pack because I was very me, I don't have a work look or style so to say. But I do however carry a image with how I brand my self and I think it's recognisably me. I think It's something I will continue to develop over summer, fine tuning perhaps.

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

Time management throughout the PPP module, because of how long it runs on I often put it back in terms of priority and I didn't address that throughout the year when I really needed too. It's something I'm trying to improve throughout all modules, but it mainly effected PPP.

Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1 - Continue to add to posts throughout the year to build a huge range of work. Hopefully to gain a broad range of examples to help me identify my self.

2 - Do my work a lot sooner giving me time to do other things or giving me room to experiment more.

3 - Ask more questions and hopefully from that I'll be able to learn more. It's not that I don't have questions I just get them after.  When it's too late in sessions.

4 - I would have redone my self as a something more interactive and fun I think rather then a pack of cards as I don't think they really give the impression of what I'm about. hopefully from this I could give people a better impression to what I'm more about.

How would you grade yourself in the following areas?

Attendance: 5/5

Punctuality: 5/5

Motivation: 4/5

Commitment: 4/5

Quantity of work produced: 3/5

Quality of work produced: 4/5

Contribution to the group: 3/5

PPP - Presentation 1

Final: Promo pack

Development: Promo Pack

Communication is a Virus: Final Crit

Final Products:

Logo: Produced by Joe & Adam

Stickers: Produced by Adam, Grace & Anne

Leaflet: Produced by Emily & Grace

Twitter Images: Produced by Adam

Twitter Page: Managed by Joe

Instagram Images: Produced by Joe

Instagram page: Managed by Joe

Posters: Produced by Grace and Adam

E-Book: Produced by Emily

Sticker Video by: Anthony

Final Presentation: Produced by Adam

In a way we were successful, we had over 200 followers on our Twitter page, but with nearly 800 followed. It seemed a bit, not so. Mostly because of Joe's use Twiends.com. However without that I don't know how many would have attributed to that total followers so don't really believe it was all the 'successful but...

We did however get a response from some of them people that did follow us, we got a reaction from at least some people and when they did respond they posted a lot which is great! But it never spread out anywhere from there which is a shame really because they did produce some great quotes for us to use.

This was mostly all down to the online media, resources. etc. Where the posters and stickers all that successful? I don't think so. I really liked the design of the posters, but in actuality they weren't all that successful and that was clear from the crit. Not many people had any clue to what they were actually on about voiding their existence. Plus a lot got taken down, which is a shame because they cost quite a bit to print. We didn't however, to what I assumed receive any response from anything within the Leeds area so I can't say that the stickers posted around the bus stop were successful either. (and they also got ripped down.)

The feedback we gained from final crit cemented the facts we already really knew, the posters were ineffective and the overall aim of our project were rather unclear. I wouldn't blame anyone, because I think it was all really our own fault, we never really cemented our aims and our project seemed to change every other day due to bad communication/ people not understanding and raising their voice to be heard or voicing their opinions to something they didn't like. 

Inspiration Ideas

http://www.nobrow.net/11443

http://www.selectism.com/2010/02/03/its-nice-that-interview-with-hot-chip-artwork-designer-wallzo/

http://sleevage.com/hot-chip-the-warning/

http://jonburgerman.com/

http://www.goranfactory.com/

Alexander Rodchenko

http://www.salaocoboi.com/

It's up to you: Initial Ideas & Research

Brief

Design, develop and produce an information pack that effectively communicates or promotes you as an individual, designer and learner. You will need to reflect on the first year of the programme and aim to communicate what you have learned, the skills you have developed and how you see yourself applying them in the future. You should  also aim to communicate the context of your interest by referencing specific designers, studios, principles and audiences where necessary.

You should use this brief as an opportunity to explore, develop and demonstrate content, processes and areas of design that interests you at this point in time and may indicate your emerging creative concerns in Graphic Design.

Background / Considerations

Your resolution to this brief should be a representation of what YOU see as important as an individual designer and learner in light of what you have learned on the programme to date. You will need to consider the following:

Who are you now? What have you learned? What skills do you have? What do you know? What do you believe? In answering these questions remember that your design practice is informed by a broad range of social, ethical, creative and professional concerns. What are they.

What information do you need to include? and what formats can you use to effectively communicate or promote this information? What tone of voice best reflects you, your practice and your ambitions? 

What experiences have shaped your opinions and views both in and outside of the programme?

What are your creative concerns, opinions and beliefs and how do you communicate these practically, conceptually a practically? What has informed these decisions and who are the contextual references that reflect your individual focus?

What is 'Brand You'? Your visual identity will help tie the information together. What fonts, formats,colours and production methods will help communicate and enhance your content.

Research:

Self promotion material:
+ Self branding

http://cargocollective.com/search/self-promotion