Research and investigate how designers and makers publicise their activities or products, and the media organisations and business platforms that will be a mouthpiece for the PR and marketing of your initiative.
Design and create a prototype or series of prototypes, in the media of your choice, through fast iteration, testing and development, to help an audience or business partner see the potential of your proposition.
Create and communicate a one page outline or short video of next steps, and even production partners, to support any future development.
Research and investigate how designers and makers publicise their activities or products.
I’m going to focus on how community projects are publicised through the community and then in the wider world…
Zetteler, as mentioned in the lecture, definitely has some community projects …
Vernacular Typography
Searching for typography community projects, one stuck out to me: Vernacular Typography. It is “a non-profit photo archive and community-based initiative dedicated to the documentation and preservation of rapidly vanishing examples of lettering in the everyday environment.” It was set up by Molly Woodward to capture everyday typography inspired by a trip to Cuba. There was also a kickstarter campaign:
I really love how she described her project, and it fits between this and my collaborative tool, Filo’type. The main website has errors and doesn’t load, but some parts on the blog domain still function. There are a few hiatus, and then she picks up posting over the Corona-virus epidemic and Black Lives Matter protests.
The instagram page is followed by lots of mainstay typography accounts like letteringdaily and abctypography and has nearly 7,000 followers. I feel like Woodward has moved on somewhat from this as the last post is from 2018.
The media organisations and business platforms that will be a mouthpiece for the PR and marketing of your initiative.
There are two levels of marketing that I need to engage in for this project. Firstly, the people in the community with whom I want to engage and secondly, to share the outcomes with people. The two audiences require different techniques that overlap in some situations and on timelines.
To engage people in the project, I need to be more focussed on the community. It is geographic in audience, so the strategy needs to be geared to that. For the initial market research survey, I decided to print out posters with tear off tags that I distributed around local places to pique the interest of people in the area. I also contacted Facebook groups based in the area, hobnobbed friends and colleagues in the area, and their contacts. and sent an email to Artillery Arts, a local arts facilitator.
On the survey, I created a field where people could enter their email address if they were interested in hearing more. At the end of the week, when this is handed in, I will email these people to thank them for their contribution and give them an update of my plans. This will form an ongoing email newsletter.
I need to expand my audience base. From here, I plan to contact more local community structures, such as places of worship and charity to learn how to reach more people. I am to gain more qualitative feedback before proposing my project.
I intend to engage more people through partnerships that I will forge. Firstly, I want to get in with Artillery Press as they have a huge following and we will be able to mutually help each other,. Then, with the Mills Community Space where I hope to hold the first workshops. For production of the publication, I would like to partner with Paekarikiriki Press, the local letterpress studio, and Rabbit Road Press, riso printers, so that we can work together and promote the project.
Throughout this, I am to be in touch online with people and establishing a respected presence online in the Facebook groups. I plan to write small articles for Waltham Forest Echo, the local newspaper with photos of the workshops to include people in later stages of the process. There are some non-English language local newspapers too, and I’ll try to do them same in them.
The overlap between the two audiences will be social media and a website. I am personally not keen on Facebook, but given that there are several groups on there, I will have to consider setting up a business page as a hub for information. On Instagram, I will set up a page where I can share content from the project as it goes along and calls for action. I will also make a hashtag so that people can share their own content too.
To advertise the project, I can use the content that has been collected from the sessions, such as videos and photos (permission given, of course) taken by a professional to send out as press. The Instagram page will have a natural wealth of content from the project and give it gravitas. Setting up a website will provide content to the press – such as a press section, names of contributors and details where to buy the publication.
In the same way that Alec suggested in his lecture, reaching out to people with ready made content seems like a great way to go. I’d need someone to help me write (thank God I can usually ask editors to proof read) and maybe I can ask people on the project to write about what they’ve done.
Next year I will qualify for the D&AD New Blood Awards, and provided that there is a suitable category I will submit the project in the awards and for a showcase in the exhibition.
For this project, I think that hiring a PR agency will be overkill and exceed the budget. However having quality images to send out is essential so I will include budget for a photographer/videographer to capture the project to send out to press and to record it as it goes.
Design and create a prototype or series of prototypes, in the media of your choice, through fast iteration, testing and development, to help an audience or business partner see the potential of your proposition.
My authorial artefact is a framework, and a framework that depends on a project that I can’t complete in a week. The outcomes depend on the community workshops … so I need to think about this for a bit.
/Later
I made a tiled image of lots of different doodled letters to illustrate the PDF and show how much letters can vary:
And then I mocked up how a publication could look without influencing the outcome too much:
Create and communicate a one page outline or short video of next steps, and even production partners, to support any future development.
How can you ensure a business / creative idea is targeted and researched to maximise potential?
Select one of your ideas from the previous week and develop a clear business outline of your intended audience outlets for distribution or purchase.
You may need to evolve aspects of the proposition, and ensure there is a clear objective for the next stages of development.
Your output will include product development, research insights and production challenges; all of which will come together in the final week of this module.
Upload the artefact and evidence of any development undertaken (this might also include brand names and approach to the product’s story), and include a one page report outlining research, insights and development challenges.
Idea chosen
Walthamstow Typeface design: For Walthamstow, by Walthamstow
This is more than designing a typeface for Walthamstow: the objective is engage the community in the creation of a means of communication that reflects them and to have a discussion about how type influences how we feel about the content it displays.
The project starts with a series of workshops, each aimed at a different demographic, where we talk about the elements of type and our experiences of living in the area. We will go on to experiment with how we can encapsulate our thoughts in letterforms and go on to design our own glyphs.
From there, I will go on to design a body typeface and a display typeface that embody the themes talked about in the sessions. The typeface can be used by participating members free of charge for personal use, and can be purchased for any commercial usage.
The typeface will be shown to the community to gauge reactions and invite people to contribute pieces of writing about Walthamstow. In collaboration with Paekarikiriki Press, the typeface will be cast so that it can typeset the writing into a publication. Members of the community will typeset pieces at Paekarikiriki Press, allowing them to experience how books are made. The publication will be available for sale at local businesses to help fund the project.
The project will form the basis of the framework, where it can be refined and packaged as a community venture that can be applied in any location and as a commercial product that is sold as a tool for companies to understand their audience.
Evolution and Objectives
This started just as a typeface project called W’stow.otf, but has now developed into a framework called Stowe Framework so that it can be transported to different areas.
The goals for this project are community-based …
Engage the community in typeface design, letterpress and book publishing;
Run workshops for people to create glyphs of a typeface together;
Explore how typography is used in the Walthamstow area;
Facilitate conversations about how typography can shape how we view our space;
Foster communications between community and creative spaces;
Showcase the communities’ experiences in a piece of written work.
… and will have physical outcomes:
Latin-script body typeface and display typeface, based on workshops, for use by the community;
Publication of writings on the local area, set at a local letterpress studios;
Online tool where people can select display characters from the workshops to write “Walthamstow” and share online.
Framework that can be taken to other communities and sold to companies for as an experience-based session to enable them to understand their customers better.
Product development
Name
The original name for the project, W’stow.otf came from a shortening of Walthamstow and the typeface file name suffix of Open Type Font – because the font would be open to be designed and used by all.
After transforming the project to a framework, it has been renamed as Stowe Framework. I have chosen to make it non-location specific, and kept the Stowe. The word Stowe/or Stow derives from Old/Middle English as a way to describe a holy or meeting place. Bristol was originally “Bridge stow”, or meeting place by the bridge. I hope that the project and typeface will serve as a meeting place for people of a community,
ReseaRch insights
Quantative
I am going to run a survey asking people who live in Walthamstow a few questions. Here is the Google Forms I set up:
I would have liked to, as Dan Parry suggested in the lecture, set up a questionnaire that uses logic jumps so that I can drill down into certain answers and with people only answering questions applicable to them. However, TypeForm is too expensive for one survey and does not allow such features on the free version.
Distribution
I am a member of a number of Facebook groups for the Walthamstow area, and have posted on them asking for people to help me out. I don’t have much traction with the groups yet, but I hope people will be willing to help.
I also have some friends in the area, and I’ve asked them to help me out by answering and distributing the survey.
I am also going to distribute posters around places I know where people might be interested, and make it varied so that a wide a selection of people as possible are surveyed.
Production Challenges
It’s ambitious
Oh yes it is! This is not a simple project: this has many different stages and facets that need to work together. I will tackle these by breaking everything into stages with a schedule and plans to clearly communicate to participants and partners.
Talking of partners …
I’d like to team up with Artillery Arts, Rabbit Road Press and Paekarikiriki Press so that it is truly community-based. Artillery Arts have a strong base in the area and facilitate projects regularly. RRP and PP are riso and letterpress printers respectively and I hope they will be part of this so that the publication can be produced. I need to make contact with this organisations soon to build a basis of the project.
Have you ever designed a typeface before?
Well … no. Not completely. To produce this I need to get my education hat on ASAP to learn and to sign up to masterclasses where my work can be refined and critiqued.
Have you ever run a session at this scope before?
Nope. I’m nervous about running workshops, but I can’t progress to be the designer I want to be working the projects I want to work on without starting somewhere. I will enlist the help of my arts facilitator flatmate to structure and run sessions.
How are you going to attract people to come?
I’m hoping the survey will at least make people aware that something is happening, and start to build a following through partners and social media.
What about Covid-19? How are you going to keep people safe?
This project is community-based and needs people to meet in some way or another. Ideally, this would be in person, but I need to make this safe. I would run workshops at the Mill, a community space, and have reduced numbers and safety precautions.
In your survey you mention running sessions for children. How are you planning to keep them safe?
Running sessions for children, and any adults too, requires safeguarding. I would apply for a DRB check and provide all details, and invite their carer to come with them.
Finally, finances. How are you going to pay for it?
I can’t self-finance this, and so I would build the project to make it eligible for funding from the National Lottery, Arts Council and see if there is any local funding. I don’t want to charge people to come to the sessions or contribute. The publication will be available for sale, which will help finance the project and the created typeface will be free for personal use, but charged for commercial and online use.
Research, analyse and comment on the role of designer as author and as maker.
Imagine and communicate 10 initial ideas for a series of outputs you could make as an author.
Ideas
One) Building a typeface for Walthamstow, created by the community in workshops.
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Two) Creating books and film props based on the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. It would involve writing substantial amounts of content and devising ingenious ways of displaying it
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Three) An anthropological look at the village pantomime and community, based on my own childhood
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Grandfather, father, brother
Four) Profiling makers of the Robinette and Turner family, the birth of the Al-Turner-tive Prize and the history of Huguenots
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Five) Cee Em Wye and Kay – an extension of a project for History and Applications last module. A children’s story about the CMYK printing process and half-tones
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Six) Building a typeface based on knitting stitches. Why? Because it came to me in a dream one night
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Seven) Mapping my runs of London and significant places to me for different reasons. Done in a Street View setting so you can see significant routes
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Eight) Investigating how to make an ideal exhibition for people on the Autistic Spectrum, with an example virtual exhibition to display the findings
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Nine) Going back to maps… using contour lines to map out and define what is important to you. There are a few peaks, ie friends, family work. The most important things in those categories go in the highest contour line, and gradually radiate out and merge.
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Ten) Hidden in plain si(gh)te. An augmented reality game based on trade craft and ciphers hidden out in the open for people to discover and solve in their local streets.
Create an information graphic, or diagram, or animation that, for you, highlights the effective definition and process of a being a design entrepreneur today.
Upload your diagram to the Ideas Wall and discuss the pros and cons of how risk, failure and innovation is built into a model for business success;
What is the impact of different cultural insights with regard to opportunity and potential?
“DESIGN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS THE COLLECTION OF CORRECT SKILLS AND ABILITIES TO DEVELOP THE RIGHT IDEAS AND MARKET THEM AS SUCCESSFUL DESIGN PRODUCTS … [INCLUDING] EXECUTIVE RESPONSIBILITY, BUSINESS PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING ISSUES”
(GUNES, 2012)
The traditional design process has the designer working for a client, who holds the problem, to find a solution that fits the client’s specification. This holds some advantages for the designer because it allows them to practise their design skills and concentrate on the creative side of problem-solving. All the other tasks of positioning, financing, managing and marketing fall under the responsibility of the client, thus freeing the designer of the hindrance. However, the lack of responsibility is also a lack of power: the designer does not have any control other than what they have been briefed to do.
The situation I have described above is where design entrepreneurship comes in. It allows the designer to take control and assume responsibility for the full breadth of the project and provides a more holistic experience for those involved.
Design entrepreneurship projects are initiated for a number of reasons, as a student creating a self-initiated project giving themselves the voice of an imaginary client and their response to best show their skills, an experienced designer following an idea outside of their usual briefs or as a conscious decision of a company to embark on these ventures. It could be any combination of these situations and people, however, the common element is that the business skills are undertaken by the designer in addition to the creative tasks.
I would imagine that the process of developing a design entrepreneurship project (DEP) take on a very similar timeline to any other project, however, the tasks are completed by the same person or company.
First, the idea has to be conceived: the designer has the chance to use their own knowledge of their world to empathise with an audience and build a project around that. It gives them the power to draw boundaries of the project and lead in the development.
At the same time, the designer has to manage the financing, product planning, positioning and marketing, which are skills they might not have had to consider in a pure design role. However, these skills are essential to design entrepreneurship and requires the designer to gain additional skills adjacent to their project and thoroughly connect to the world in which their project is being launched. It challenged the designer to place their project in context and make the executive decisions over such balances such as quality vs cost.
The knowledge gained in producing design entrepreneurship projects will enable the designer to work with new perspective as they understand the cogs working around them.
There does remain the question of authorship if a DEP is undertaken by a company or studio. Does the project have to be under the remit of one person, or can responsibility be shared in a company?
With regards to cultural insights and how they can impact opportunity and potential, I think cultural insights could either help or hinder a project. For a designer to come in with fresh eyes might invigorate a situation because they are able to see the issue from a different perspective. This could lead to startling and innovative solutions that would otherwise not have been conceived due to ‘situation blindness’. On the other hand, knowledge of the situation means that the designer can apply an appropriate solution well.
Infographic
I’ve been thinking about how to represent design entrepreneurship in an easy way, that’s also novel. I don’t want to spend too much time on this week so I can concentrate on the larger project for Brief 3. When the week’s challenge mentions animation I thought oooooooooh what can I do, knowing I can complicate things easily.
Spending some time this evening to practise After Effects following a Domestika course has led to this:
animation
I imagine creative skills and business skills being on two different sides, or axis, fundamentally different but coming together. I see this as weaving fabric. In a traditional design brief, the client forms the warp (vertical) to provide the structure whilst the designer is the weave, (horizontal), making the pattern:
from Wikipedia
Lego man evolution
Or I like the idea of putting together an entrepreneur and a designer forming different lego figures from blocks and putting them together to create a mega figure called the design entrepreneur.
Tripod
Or thinking of design entrepreneurship as three different corners to form a triangle, all essential in order to be a DE.
Or reinventing the wheel in a new combination?
Final Outcome
Resources
Gunes, S., 2012. Design Entrepreneurship in Product Design Education. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 51, pp.64-68. (Gunes, 2012)
Hi everyone! Welcome to my pitch to present my digital tool to enable collaboration. Last week you saw my elevator pitch introducing filo’type and here I am going to go into further details.
Slide 2 – Contents
I will tell you about the project, the users I am aiming for, similar products and the opportunities for collaboration during development. Then I will take you through the potential feature modules before showing you my development plan. Let’s get going!
Slide 3 – About
The digital tool is aimed at people interested in typography to enable them to capture, catalogue and reference type examples for their future projects. It will build a collaborative library to expand horizons and save time in the research of projects.
Slide 4 – Users
I am focussing on three consumer segments, namely typophiles, which is anyone interested in type and its history, set designers who build fantastic worlds for audiences in films, theatre and TV; lastly, type designers who create new typefaces for clients. This is a summary that looks at the users.
Slide 5 – Users 2
Here is a more detailed look at the Consumer Segments and the jobs, pains and gains for each group. The information is based on assumptions at the moment. At the bottom, I have listed questions to which I want to find answers.
I need to do further work to validate the assumptions about the consumer segments I have already made. It may be that the project and features shift slightly to accommodate the feedback.
I plan to form focus groups to isolate the issues each group face and propose solutions.
Through the development stages, I plan to collaborate by continually testing and developing with the users to meet the goals of the project.
Slide 6 – Market Research
I have looked into other digital tools that have a feature overlap with my tool. Firstly, social media sites such as Pinterest and Instagram can act as discovery and archive tools. However, even with hashtags filtering content, they are not explicitly built for type and posts cannot be viewed geographically.
Type resources such as Fonts In Use have grown to be able to identify typefaces in other people’s work. It is a useful archive that enables the identification of fonts but doesn’t show examples you would see walking down the street and doesn’t present the context in which the work was created.
I want to incorporate Augmented Reality Technology into the digital tool, and Adobe Fontphoria is a brilliant example of using machine learning to extrapolate a whole typeface that the user can project into an AR space. Those features alone don’t match what I am trying to do, and no context is provided to the new typefaces made.
Slide 7 – Collaboration 1
When I look at the features that I want to include, there are opportunities to collaborate with others throughout the development process. I have mapped these opportunities onto the Double Diamond process on the next slide.
Slide 8 – Collaboration 2
At the Discover Stage, I want to validate my consumer segment values and draw further wisdom from my users and consult with a company like Metier Digital to build a solid structure for the tool.
At the Define stage, I need to consult with lawyers that specialise in copyright and intellectual property because features such as distributing others’ work might breach some laws. By considering this at an early stage, I can mould the exact features so that they do not contravene any laws before it gets to the development stage.
At the Development stage, I imagine including many more people. Some are to do with the actual construction of the tool: App and Augmented Reality designers and Search Engine Optimisers to build a flexible system of tagging. Before development gets too far, I’d like to include Type Historians and Archives to populate some sections for quality control and test the design with users at different points to create a strong project.
Lastly, I see the delivery stage as an ongoing process where testing, feedback and development continues as an iterative process.
Slide 8 – Features
I envision the tool as four different modules, called Catalogue, Archive, Explore and Augmented type. Let’s take a look.
Slide 9 – Catalogue 1
This is the core of the tool and aimed at all consumer segments. Here, users can upload their images into a shared catalogue that details the type features, usage and context and location. To help the user build a full description, I will include multi-choice tags and questions. The user can view posts in a feed or on a map to identify resources close to them.
Slide 10 – Catalogue 2
Users can build a profile and create collections for inspiration and gather references for projects. Users can set their privacy for these features.
Slide 11 – Archive
From the base of the Catalogue, the Archive module builds on the information to detail the further context. Users can message each other to share jobs, resources and knowledge that they can use to rebuild typefaces for the future. For example, fonts from ghost signs can be restored to create a background sign on a film set to add depth to the scene.
Slide 12 – Explore
Typography reveals the history of an area and knowledge from the Archive module can build self-guided walking tours with information about chosen examples. There will be some built-in tours with the feature for users to craft their own.
Slide 13 – AR
Finally, Augmented Reality. It’s not enough to see what others have created – let’s create our own. Using typefaces designed in the Archive module, users can type their text to leave invisible messages for others or module a concept in Augmented Reality.
Slide 14 – Road Map
Going forward from this point, I have mapped out a rough route I can take to bring this tool to live. I begin with user research, consulting with experts before developing the tool. Then, the tool is tested and developed and improved up to launch, from when it will continue to this iterative process.
Slide 16 –
Thank you for paying such close attention to my pitch! I hope that you can see a place for this tool in your creative process. I can’t wait to see what you guys have come up with.
Slide 17 –
Do you have any questions?
Reflection 1 – Recalling my presentation
I like how this presentation went because I was much more prepared and together than in previous crits. I knew my stuff and was proud of my idea. That made a huge difference.
My slides were a little bit iffy thanks to Big Blue Button and optimisation and so the logo on the first page was missing. To me it was glaringly obvious and I pointed it out so that people would know it was the techs fault rather than my poor design. Sometimes I think that it helps to appear human rather than perfect in a presentation because everyone can relate to it.
The slide information and talking ratio was generally right, although on a couple I could have spoken rather than displaying the text too. This was deliberately set up for an in person pitch, and I wonder how best to translate the pitch to a format for a remote pitch instead.
I felt calm whilst doing it and measured out my pace when I thought I was going too fast. Writing out most of the script helped as I prepared the presentation so that I knew I was including everything I intended too. I might have come across as a little scripted and stilted but there were times I took the text more freely and ad libbed to include comments from Alex’s presentation before mine.
The trouble with bright pitch decks is that the app mockups came across as a little bland in comparison. The sage green didn’t give the impression wanted and I want to make it look cleaner,monochrome with one accent colour for the final presentation.
I need to think about how copyright will be addressed in this app, as it has legal and financial implications. First, I’m going to take a look at existing terms of use.
Pinterest
First impressions: It is very open and split into different categories. It also has the legalese followed by Plain English, so that people are able to understand what they are agreeing to.
Key quotes:
If you post your content on Pinterest, it still belongs to you.
If you post your content on Pinterest, we can show it to people and others can save it. Don’t post porn or spam or be rude to other people on Pinterest.
Pinterest has adopted and implemented the Pinterest Copyright Policy in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other applicable copyright laws. For more information, please read our Copyright Policy. More simply put We respect copyrights. You should too.
You will have to sue us here in Bay Area. In the EEA, this applies if you’re a merchant, but not if you’re a consumer. If you are a consumer in the EEA, you can sue us in your home courts.
To submit a DMCA notice, just fill out our copyright complaint form.
Pinterest respects the intellectual property rights of others and we expect people on Pinterest to do the same. It’s our policy—in appropriate circumstances and at our discretion—to disable or terminate the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe or are repeatedly charged with infringing copyrights or other intellectual property rights.
Our goal is to give you simple and meaningful choices regarding your information. If you have a Pinterest account, many of these controls are built directly into Pinterest or your settings.
Children under 13 are not allowed to use Pinterest. If you are based in the EEA, you may only use Pinterest if you are over the age at which you can provide consent to data processing under the laws of your country.
Pinterest isn’t a place for hateful content or the people and groups that promote hateful activities. We limit the distribution of or remove such content and accounts, including:
Slurs or negative stereotypes, caricatures and generalisations
Support for hate groups and people promoting hateful activities, prejudice and conspiracy theories
Condoning or trivialising violence because of a victim’s membership in a vulnerable or protected group
Support for white supremacy, limiting women’s rights and other discriminatory ideas (and it continues)
We don’t allow content that reveals personal or sensitive information.
Instagram
Less immediately friendly than Instagram, but seems to be written in easy-to-understand language from the get-go.
Key quotes:
You must be at least 13 years old.
You can’t post private or confidential information or do anything that violates someone else’s rights, including intellectual property.
We do not claim ownership of your content, but you grant us a license to use it. Nothing is changing about your rights in your content. We do not claim ownership of your content that you post on or through the Service.
Fonts in Use
Arghhhhh legalese! Still, it’s not too long and I think I can cope. There’s a lot that I would need to put into my terms and conditions to protect myself and my users
Key Quotes:
Fonts In Use makes no claim to the trademarks or copyrights of third party’s works displayed on the Site.
This license does not include any resale or commercial use of this Site or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, images, prices; any derivative use of this Site or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another vendor; or any use of data mining, robots, spiders or similar data gathering and extraction tools.
If you post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Fonts In Use a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sub-licensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Fonts In Use and sub-licensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they so choose.
I am developing an exciting new app aimed at people obsessed with type, filo’type. Our world provides us with abundant typographic inspiration to capture and save for future reference, and we want to be able to store those images separately to our selfies and everyday photos. This is where filo’type is perfect. Upload snaps direct to the app, tag the location and away you go. Add information such as type of font, serif or san serif, colour, effects, and how it is used, that is saved with the photo and displayed on a map.
See what others have discovered, and pull together boards for reference for a new project, whether for a printed publication, website design or set design.
Take time to explore the local area by going on guided walks with a theme and stories of the context of each piece of type.
Based on some of the debates and discussion covered so far, outline a series of ideas that could help you to work in new and more exciting collaborative ways.
What media and communication platforms could help support this? (This might be to help you collaborate with new design partners, introduce yourself to a new network or culture or area of investigation.)
Present your ideas as a one minute elevator pitch video (with the aim that you will develop one of those ideas further next week).
Rather than typing it all out again, please go to this post, where I explain the idea for a typographic sharing system.
Virtual Workshop
Zoom is magnificent! It has transformed the way we communicate in this tough time of Covid-19 lockdowns and can be used across software platforms. We’ve made it work how we can for we need it do to, and I think it can be levelled up. Say you’re in a workshop or meeting, and you want to divide into groups. With this programme you can do this. Here’s a metaphysical representation of what it would look like:
Meeting mode: your standard online session where everyone gathers in one room for a big chat with a meeting host. This can form the start or end of the meeting or workshop.
Group conversation mode: the group is split into smaller groups, either by predetermined lists or by the host clicking and dragging attendees together. There is a group leader who can steer the conversation, remaining in that smaller group, whilst the meeting host can tour around the groups as they please.
Workshop mode: Set-up beforehand, the meeting host can introduce tasks that can be rotated between the groups after a set period of time. The groups can write their thoughts on a virtual board for each task as a recording of the task.
At the end of the workshop or meeting, each group leader can present a brief overview of the tasks to the all attendees.
The session can be predetermined by the host and can move between any of these modes at the time or after a set period of time. A host can build the session exactly how they want before, adjust it throughout, or let it flow freely.
The session can be recorded and marked under each task/group for people to have a record of the work they have done.
Pass-a-line
This is nothing more than a diversion tool for teams! With friends, when we’re talking about hard subjects, sometimes we use a technique of additive drawing. We start with a blank sheet of paper, and as we talk, we take turns to add to the existing drawing in whatever way we like; the theory being that a shared activity can bring us together and provide a distraction when talking about really tough shit. To put a virtual and positive spin on this, it could form a creative way for people to come together to create something virtually – as long as it has nothing to do with the meeting – the more abstract the better! There would be some restrictions; it would be a line drawing app, no import of images or text.
Mode one: everyone gets a blank square on the website to doodle whatever they like on for the duration of the virtual meeting. At the end, a checkerboard would form to show all the squares, anonymously, of the meeting.
Mode two: everyone takes a turn for a certain amount of time and has to draw a line that starts where the last person finished at the edge of the page, and at the end of their turn, return the line to a different edge. The result would be continuous line through the meeting and challenge people to use one line only. At the end a wandering path would be displayed, and again it would be anon.
Networking Safari Supper
Getting to know people in the industry can feel like an expedition in the jungle. Will that frightening company head be a secret softie, and will that other newbie be a poisonous *****? At a traditional networking event, it can be anyone’s guess. Introducing the Networking Safari Supper, where if you’re involved you gotta be at least a bit friendly. Like its predecessor, the Safari Supper, the NSS groups people together for each course of the meal, splitting and growing for each course until they converge at the same venue for drinks. Smaller studios in Shoreditch would host sets of participants in their space, starting with nibbles, dividing the group and joining at bigger studios for some lush nosh, then at the megaliths to indulge those with sweet tooth and finally heading to a local bar for an almighty industry piss-up. No, sorry, a final debrief.
People starting out in the industry will have the chance to meet people like themselves and see a range of different studios where they can meet the people who work there. Ticket prices would have to be looked at to ensure a price that is accessible for everyone, but with the talent potential for the studios, it would be an opportunity for an industry-wide collaboration.
The safaris would be limited to an area of a city, for example, Shoreditch, and they would take place in studios rather than homes for safeguarding. It might take some walking or tubing to get between studios, but you would always be with someone from your previous course, plus a member of the previous studio to guide you on your way and show you the local area.
Elevator Pitch
Filo-type
I am going to take this idea forward, and present it as an elevator pitch. It was really fun to play around with AfterEffects to make this, and I learnt a lot. I did want to make it even more jazzy, but I decided to keep the animations simple so that I can reveal a UI later.
Research, discover and analyse the different ways in which graphic designers produce work collaboratively. Demonstrate through posting onto the Ideas Wall and your blog.
Research and analyse the essential components of collaborative practice. Demonstrate through posting onto the ideas wall and your blog.
Design, write and deliver an editorial piece illustrating a collaborative project that has led to an exemplary and historically significant piece of work (300 words plus imagery) on your blog and post the link onto the Ideas Wall.
Different Ways
Through the examples given in the lecture, I’ve looked at some different kinds of collaborations and have drawn out three common lines a project can follow. Read more about them here. Here are some other collaborations…
Meg and Mog by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski
Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski
For me, the Meg and Mog series of children’s book by Nicoll and Pieńkowski is exemplary and historically significant collaboration in my life. The illustrations and colours are simple, bright and punchy with funny stories involving Meg the witch and her cat, Mog.
Nicoll and Pieńkowski met when they worked at the BBC together on a children’s art show, Watch!, where he was commissioned to provide live drawings. They developed a technique where the images appeared on screen as if my magic, but were a trick of the light, and they learnt how to create a narrative through illustration. When Nicoll left the BBC in 1971, she suggested that they created a children’s book series.
As a condition of being illustrator, Pieńkowski insisted that the spells that the witch cast could never work, and this rule creates the madness and mayhem around which a narrative can be woven. After showing their first book to the editor Judith Elliott at Heinemann, she commissioned more and they have been loved since then.
Their collaboration was a distant one: geographically apart in Wiltshire and South West London, but in pre-internet times meant that they have to be inventive in how they worked together. Pieńkowski wrote that they …
“… had to develop a way of working together. We hit on the idea of meeting at the Membury service station on the M4. This became our routine. We were regulars, the friendly staff didn’t seem to mind and I always brought a little bunch of flowers to put on our table. We spent many frenzied hours struggling with stories and pictures, accompanied by any number of cups of tea.” (Pieńkowski, 2012)
They identified that space away from their everyday lives, with Nicoll saying that “one of the biggest difficulties … is getting rid of the rest of your life, if you’re going to do it together … Because we do it in this curious way, where we battle over every page” (Rabinovitch, 2004). What is more away from everyday life than a service station, a transitory place only visited in places.
Working together out of the studios, they developed a new process “on a big white pad. Nicoll would dictate some words, they would both scribble. Loosely, she writes the stories, he does the pictures, and the spells they make up together.” As the stories are short at 32 pages long, there is little space for a complex story. “The way we work is, we do the beginning, then we talk about the middle, but then do the end. So if there’s a squash it will be in the middle – but we must have an elegant beginning and end” (Rabinovitch, 2004).
Collaborating in this way obviously worked. Between them, created 23 books in the series, many of which are still in print and have spawned theatre productions and audiobooks. Since Nicoll’s death in 2012, Pieńkowski has continued to produce a few Meg and Mog books with his partner, David Walser. The collaboration was strong, though not without its difficulties, as parties have remarked!
Pieńkowski: “Each time we start on a new book it becomes a struggle and a battle – the course of collaboration never did run smooth – but somehow in the end our Muse has not deserted us in our hour of need – so far!” (An Interview with Jan Pieńkowski | Playing by the book, 2020)
Walser says of Pieńkowski: “We have been together for 56 years but he isn’t at all easy to work with. [He] works much better on his own,” he added. (Flood and Lee, 2019)
Pieńkowski of Nicoll: “Helen was an inspiring but merciless collaborator and usually managed to get her way with her innate charm.” (Pieńkowski, 2012)
Perhaps the separation allowed the collaboration to flourish, as they definitely seemed to work better on their own day-to-day.
The stories were drawn from Polish witch tales told to Pieńkowski by his next-door neighbour in childhood, and the colours draw both from Polish traditional folk colours and the bright pop-art of the time.
The books have earned Nicoll and Pieńkowski many awards across the book industry, but more importantly, they have been treasured by generations of children in Britain and they continue strong in print and memory.
A learned, and/or implicit, trust that the people involved have the successful completion of the project as their focus
A Sweet Spot of numbers
Sometimes a project needs greater numbers of people to weigh in to make sure that it is well received, at the same time too many people can cloud the water. I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule of numbers, just experience and numbers!
Communication
How the collaborators communicate and how openly they do so can make a break a project
Understanding of practice
Does everyone understand where the other collaborators are coming from, and who the project is really for? Will it work for the intended audience? Are the collaborators the best place to fulfil these roles?
Common Goals
but also skills that complement each others
Afterwards, Alex challenged me to put them in order. Here is my response:
Research and analyse naming and copyright issues, the basic pitfalls of illegal practice and the common areas of the copyright process, and the ethical and legal factors most frequently affecting graphic designers. Demonstrate through posting onto the Ideas Wall and in your research journal.
Communicate clearly the key areas that may infringe copyright or require IP protection in relation to a chosen designed object. Present as a designed piece, incorporating an image of the chosen design and a typographically designed list of key areas.
Typography is one of my graphic design interests and so I thought that it would be appropriate to cover typefaces for this project. I am going to look at the specific example of Songwriters Fonts, how it was taken down due to copyright issues and through that look at typeface copyright law.
WORDS HAVE MEANING & TYPE HAS SPIRIT
Paula Scher
It is well established that typefaces immediately give the reader a flavour of the piece of writing before the content is absorbed, and subtle changes in leading, kerning, line length and a myriad of other factors can greatly enhance or impede a reader’s experience with the piece. One subset of typefaces are esteemed overall as inviting the reader into the writer’s mind: handwriting.
The choice between Calibri and Garamond might tell something of a personality, but still comes with a set of expectations from the type designer and other examples where the typeface has been used before. Handwriting, though, is something more special. Whether or not you believe in the ‘science’ of graphology, which Wikipedia describes as “analysis of the physical characteristics and patterns of handwriting claiming to be able to identify the writer … or evaluating personality characteristics” (before noting that “it is generally considered a pseudoscience), handwriting draws the reader into the words. That someone has taken the time to write or annotate their words on paper is intoxicating when compared to mindless tapping on touchscreens. Annotations in the margins of books and poems similarly give us insight into famous people’s minds unadulterated by outside edits.
Take a look at Wilfred Owen’s draft for this seminal poem Anthem for Doomed Youth, annotated by Siegfried Sassoon, revealing their shared war experience and effort to convey that to their audience.
Original manuscript of Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, showing Sassoon’s revisions
Tying into the world of design, take a look at one of Paula Scher’s maps:
The World by Paula Scher
Her hand-painted type gives these pieces spirit that would not be the same if the words were formed on a digital screen. Letraset would have the charm of appreciated craft and hard work, but not the same personal effect.
For millennia, humankind has sought to make their writing as uniform as possible so that it can be read by the literate – through scribes and then movable type. Now that with the ease and ubiquity of desktop publishing, the prestige falls on handwriting and handcrafted type. To use our own is personal, but with the weight of authenticity that handwriting undoubtedly conveys, what responsibility do we hold to use others’?
Handwriting is more connected to the movement of the heart.
Natalie Goldberg
Songwriters Fonts was a short-lived project in April 2018 that digitalised songwriters’ handwriting to create typefaces from people such as John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard Cohen and David Bowie. Here are some images of handwritten lyrics by these songwriters:
Songwriters Fonts: David BowieSongwriters Fonts: Kurt Cobain
The typefaces were free to download and the project was featured on many websites, for example It’s Nice That, NME and Dezeen. The creators Nicolas Damiens and copywriter Julien Sans said about the project:
“Write songs as the ones who inspired you before. The Songwriters fonts have been created to give musicians inspiration. Writing lyrics with the handwriting of influential songwriters helps imagination to develop. Being in the mood of Bowie, Cobain, Cohen, Gainsbourg, Lennon, might be purely imaginative… but that’s precisely the point.”
After one week, the pair were instructed to take the website and download links down, saying in a statement that they had “been contacted by intellectual property rights owners, and are sad to announce that we have shut down this website because of legal issues. We’re sorry to have to say goodbye.”
I feel that the project was done out of love for music and wanting to inspire others, but can see how it is crossing the line. In the case of intellectual property law my feelings are beside the point, so what are the legal issues with this project? Some of this is going to depend on the jurisdiction that the design was created in: the designers identity as French and the website is registered as a .com with a Canadian company. The songwriters are a mixture of American, Canadian, British and French so the designers are likely to have come across lawyers from all over the world with differing copyright laws.
For the purpose of this work, I will consider UK copyright law as this will be the territory in which I work most often.
Handwriting vs. typeface
The original material used for the typefaces was taken from the handwritten lyrics of the songwriters and from what I can see, UK law on handwriting is unclear at best. The content of what is written would probably fall under UK copyright law, in particular the song lyrics which would be covered under the The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which states that gives the creator rights “70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies, or the work is made available to the public, by authorised performance, broadcast, exhibition, etc.” (Copyrightservice.co.uk. 2020) However, Damiens and Sans don’t share the lyrics of the songs.
Also included in the source material were letters, “including Kurt Cobain’s suicide letter, on websites and public libraries to collect examples of the various glyphs” (Morris, 2018). As we have seen in the UK with the Daily Mail publishing excerpts of Meghan Markle’s letters to her father, the rights would stay with the creator and could only be shared if the work was published with permission of the creator. Again, a moot point because this covers content rather than design, and to go back to the source material I question whether it is appropriate to use a suicide letter for this project. Why not, if it were published already, but the use of it makes me uneasy.
Typefaces could be considered to fall under another section of legislation, computer programmes which the Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations 1992 extended the rules covering literary works to include computer programs. In a 2001 case, GreenStreet Technologies was successfully sued by Linotype Library and parent company Heidelberger Druckmaschinen in the High Courts of Justice. Linotype Library claimed that GreenStreet was infringing the copyright of the design of four typeface families by including copies of the typefaces in its own software library without proper licensing or permissions. The court ruled in favour of Linotype Library as the company had gathered substantial evidence of the copyright breaches (Typeface copyright decision in UK High Court, 2001).
In the US it differs: “under U.S. law, typefaces and their letter forms or glyphs are considered utilitarian objects whose public utility outweighs any private interest in protecting their creative elements. However, there is a distinction between a font and a typeface. The machine code used to display a stylized typeface (called a font) is protectable as copyright. In 1992, the US Copyright Office determined that digital outline fonts had elements that could be protected as software.[9] Since that time, the Office has accepted registration of copyright for digital vector fonts, such as PostScript Type 1, TrueType, and OpenType format files.” (Intellectual property protection of typefaces, 2020).
I’m not sure this legislation applies as the source media and created media were different (from handwritten to typeface) and I am unaware of court cases that cross the media line.
The Leaky Cauldrion
In other handwriting examples, one founder of Mina Lima, Miraphora Mina found herself in a tricky position with her own handwriting. As an inhouse designer for the first Harry Potter film she had written the prop letter from Professor McGonagall in her own handwriting and therefore Warner Bros. considered it to be part of their intellectual property. This problem did not emerge for years until Mina Lima was taking on work outside the Harry Potter Universe and Mina wanted to use her own handwriting for new projects. She has only recently recovered the rights to use her handwriting in a professional capacity. I can’t find published proof of this and heard it from Mina Lima themselves at a walk. So, please internet, do not quote me.
Tiny Hands typeface
In a more solid example, BuzzFeed designer Mark Davis created a freely available font version of US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s handwriting, called Tiny Hand. It was created for a satirical piece published by BuzzFeed, which “purported to be pre-debate speech notes written by the candidate” (Tucker, 2016). The typeface seems to be taken from similar sources to the Songwriters Fonts but has not incurred any wrath from Donald Trump. Maybe he can’t tell his own insane ramblings from the ones written in Tiny Hand?
Although we must steer away from drawing graphological conclusions, the handwriting does lend itself to “for a font whose graphic properties are external traces of their author’s inner consciousness”. The font is “characterized by an odd mixture of capital and lowercase letters and by outlandish and looping shapes”, looking oddly like Disney and Comic Sans. (Donzelli and Bugden, 2019). The paper goes on to contextualise the creation of the typeface and that is very interesting, but beside the point for this post.
By using a typeface to create protest signs and point out Trump’s hypocrisies from the man’s own insults and smears against people seems, to me, a fitting spoof for the spoof of this presidency. The typeface has not received any comment or derision from Trump, considering that the font is named after his famed insecurity over his hand size. That, and that it takes direct letterforms that to form a method to produce slander that could prove damaging to his character and standing.
Right to identity & THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
Here I will keep with the same theme, that of identity, but return to my original example: Songwriting Fonts. The songwriters whose handwriting Damiens and Sans mimicked for their fonts had passed away at the time of release, the latest being Cohen in 2016. Death does not dissolve rights, though. Copyright laws extend past the point of publication for varying points of time, regardless of the living status of the copyright holder.
For typefaces, the copyright extends for twenty-five years “from the end of the calendar year in which the first such articles are marketed” (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988). Some references the designers used might have fallen within this date – Kurt Cobain’s suicide note as one example. Because the songwriters are no longer with us might mean this project is much less likely to piss them off, their rights still exist and their estates hold the power to exercise them.
In the US, personality rights are more widespread than they are in the UK. If a celebrity feels that their image is being exploited in the UK, a lawyer will usually try to argue their case under traditional intellectual property law. I can’t find past precedent for typeface usage tied to personal image. Considering handwriting is personal, and how much physiognomy of typeface and the personality of the writer are tied together, I would expect that a lawyer could argue that manipulation of writing is an infraction on that person’s image.
We know from the statement released by Songwriters Fonts that the fonts were taken down after some of the estates contacted them to complain about the project. The details haven’t been revealed, and evidently, all parties felt the infringement was strong enough to warn the designers felt that the warning was strong enough to take heed.
Usage
When purchasing and downloading typefaces (here I am making the assumption this is done legally), the buyer has to agree to use the typeface within the constraints that the copyright holder sets out. One common division is between personal and commercial use, which can be further separated.
Personal: you can use a typeface for personal projects where generally you are not working for a client and you are not making money, but boundaries can differ.
Commercial: for a project for a client where you might or might not charge a fee, or where the client might charge a fee for the service/product
There are subtlities between the usages, as some foundaries might allow you to use a typeface for a pitch, trial or presentation so designers can reduce their costs of buying typefaces a client might not like. However, an appropriate license must be bought when the designer moves forward.
There are further points to consider, as typeface licensing takes into account how you are going to use it:
A desktop license enables “you to install a font on your computer and use it for a whole range of offline purposes” which includes most print applications a designer might use (Webster, 2020)
A web license means that you can use the font for online projects, and sometimes there is a viewer count: the more website or online project is viewed, the more it will cost to license. This is a good way to scale costs to allow small scale producers to access quality typefaces whilst ensuring the foundry/designers receive fair payment. For example, “Good Type Foundry charges €450 for its flagship Good Sans if page views are below 15,000 per month. The license scales up, reaching €2,600 if the site receives up to one million page views. (Webster, 2020)
An app license: for use in applications and programmes
Within this, there are many nuances and differing types of licensing again, as can be seen on the Dalton Maag website here. Combinations between online and print, personal and business, exist, as can be seen with their end-user licence which allows you “to install the fonts on any number of devices which you own or solely control, for simultaneous use by up-to-the-number of users specified. It allows you to print and produce personal or business documents, including PDFs, but this licence does not include webfont use, ebook distribution, or app distribution.” (Dalton Maag, 2020).
Of course, you could always download that knock-off Baskerville font for free and use it without shame, or any pride for your work. Maybe your reader won’t notice, but you’re breaking “don’t be an arsehole to your fellow designer” rules. There are no copyright laws, at least in. the US, about how much a typeface must differ from an old one to be considered a new font in its own right, so knockoffs are easier to pass off as new than a direct copy. Typefaces, good ones, take many hours to conceive and craft even if they are revivals of old typefaces and it is right that designers are paid for them.
Adobe and Google both have typeface licensing software for free typefaces for commercial usage, albeit with some restrictions but for the majority of designers, the licensing is sufficient. The typefaces are more functional than decorative, but no-one needs another font crafted from snowflakes, thank you very much.
The main takeaway from this section is that typeface licensing has many facets and can differ from foundry to foundry, and that font licensing software is available for large scale audience to keep track of their typeface use.
PRICE
Damiens and Sans released their typefaces for free and given that they had spent a month making them, they seem to have done the work as a personal project as opposed to a commercial venture. It also harks back to their intention to inspire new songwriters by making them available to everyone. That intention is laudable.
Because they sought no permissions and paid no money to the estates, I could take the view that they should only be free. That being said, fonts are digital pieces of software that can be endlessly duplicated, and their ready availability means that Damiens and Sans had little control over what was created once they released the files. The typefaces could have been used to create malicious content that would damage the artists’ reputation and income. Although they would (probably?) bear no legal responsibility for this damage, it should have been a consideration in creation because they are enabling others. Instead of realising the typefaces to the world, could they have done a collaboration with the estate holders where young songwriters could use the typefaces in a closed system, perhaps?
Intentions
In my opinion, I think that Damiens and Sans did not intend to aggrieve the estate holders for these musicians and that on face value they wanted to do as they stated: to inspire new songwriters. On the other hand, how they went about achieving that aim was tone-deaf, showing a shallowness of thinking, and that there are more appropriate ways of doing this. For example, either gaining permission to do this or hosting an exhibition (perhaps online) showing the whole artefacts from these songwriters using images with the appropriate permissions. Undoubtedly this approach would take longer than the one month they spent on this project. In balance, I think that Songwriters Fonts had noble ideas but they lacked awareness or carefulness in regards to personality rights that they should have looked into.
“Registrability of Computer Programs that Generate Typefaces”, 57 Fed. Reg. 6201 (Feb. 21, 1992), reproduced in U.S. Copyright Office announcement ML-443Archived 7 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
Map a resourcing model for budget and staff allocation to deliver a project or creative initiative of your choice.
Example
You have been asked to pitch by National Theatre for a campaign to promote a new play, to include:
Promotional poster;
Programme;
Digital banner;
Print;
Design production.
Your client has not given an indication of the budget but would like to pay you fairly. There are no existing images. Please outline the time and costs required to deliver initial stage one body of work across three concepts. Also provide an indication of production costs based on your design proposals.
Whilst it is an example, I’m going to go with it: I love the National Theatre and have been to see many of its plays from when I was a teen up to now, including the example play Small Island. I’ve been on costume tours, building tours and walked along the Shearling Walkway to see the backstage production process many times.
Small Island was a gift to my mum, as she loved the book, and also My Brilliant Friend – to make the presents more special for her I used the poster materials I found on the internet to make a giftcard. Here is my one for Small Island:
Small Island gift card for my mum
So I can ape the style, can I create one of my own?
A couple of years ago I met an Art Director at the National Theatre through a mutual friend at the ABCD awards (The Academy of British Cover Design), which is an industry event to celebrate cover designs all over London. Designers submit their covers, the organisation shortlists them and on the night we all vote for our favourites in the category. It’s a great evening of meeting up with old colleagues and making new acquaintances and is of course, a very jolly evening. Emelie, the NT Art Director, has since moved on to starting her own freelance studio and I’ve given her a message to see what it was like in her role and if she would be happy to talk to me.
First, research: What kind of images have National Theatre in the past used in the past? Is there a theme and how can I do it differently?
This webpage has a thorough history of different styles, from Keven Briggs building a strong identity using typography and a Swiss style grid in 1960s from which to base most of the photos, to his abandonment of this style in early 1970s in favour of a new design for each play:
Kevin Briggs
When the theatre moved to its current home on the Thames, Richard Bird took the designs further to have a strong typography with striking illustrations:
Richard Bird
Around the same time, Michael Mayhew used photography with strong type:
Michael Mayhew
More recently, Charlotte Wilkinson (2004–2014) has steered away from using photography already in existence to art directing photoshoots for the purpose of the campaign, with strong Helvetica type.
Charlotte WIlkinson
Since 2014, National Theatre has branded its work as Graphic Studio rather than a specific Art Director, with strong branding but wide graphic styles:
Graphic Design Studio
After taking a look at the history, I can see it is a useful tool to be see where the brand has come from, but I can’t fall back on that. Theo Inglis mentioned in his presentation that for one pitch he went with the constraints set, but they were safe compared to the pitch that won. Emelie Chen also puts her hiring at the National Theatre as going beyond the brief:
I was sent the script for the play Ballyturk and had one week to come up with two concepts for the poster. I went beyond the brief to show how we could turn one of them into an installation for people to interact with at the NT. They loved it and offered me a 12-month contract.
Emelie Chen for Lecture in Progress
Setting myself outlines
For this brief, I am giving myself the role of Art Director, where I can hire for the roles I need and be responsible for the overall look.
This brief comes at a time when National Theatre is closed, and is doing an online series of previously filmed plays to raise money on Youtube. When lockdown can lift, what will happen? Maybe plays online will be another part of the cultural programme that the National Theatre can offer to reach more people. How will the designs be appropriate online as well as print? How can the programme be displayed online?
National Theatre have founded Public Acts initiative to involve people around the country in participatory theatre. The first Public Acts was Pericles and it involved partnerships with Body & Soul, The Bromley by Bow Centre, Coram, DABD, Faith and Belief Forum, Havering Asian Social Welfare Association (HASWA), Open Age, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Thames Reach for a huge cast and amazing costumes. This year’s Public Acts was The Caucasian Chalk Circle and has been postponed.
My play will be an imagined 2021 Public Acts work from an existing play and from this I will have three concepts:
Concepts
Illustration, using hands such as Pericles and As You Like It
Photographic, using body parts such as legs or hands so as to not single out a character in an ensemble production
Another photographic idea I have yet to decide upon.
Within those concepts, I will play around the typography. Custom or Helvetica? In a white space created by the imagery? Fitting around the imagery? Deliberately breaking the imagery?
What do I need to do right now?
On the Ideas Wall, Richard has suggested that we focus on framing the costing process as:
Costing of consultation, concept routes and pitch.
Costing design development of clients selected route.
Costing of production and implementation.
So while I need to keep in mind the deliverables to make sure that my initial stage fits I need to work on how long it will take me to
[to be posted later] Here is my final outcome, in this post.
Anna Robinette 