OUGD503 - LCA Snow Society Project

As co-founder and co-president of the LCA Snow Society, I took it upon my self to produce all the design work for it. The project initially started out with a design of a poster to raise awareness of the society and announce a meeting for all interested.

 

For the original poster I didn't really have and specific ideas. I knew I wanted to use mountains and a snowflake as motifs but other than that, the poster was really developed as I designed it. I was quite happy with the outcome of this poster, although it was simple it was effective and all the colours and motifs worked well together.

I also had an idea of the colours I wanted to use, white, a cool sky blue and greys. 

At this point, due to the success of the initial meeting, it was decided that the society needed a logo. The only limitation for the logo design was that it should be contained within a circle as this would fit with the other Student's Union Logos.

The Student's Union had created a possible design to use and sent it to me to amend and change if I wanted to.

I really liked the use of the mountain motif in the logo but wanted to change the colour and include the type 'Snow Society' to make the logo clearer.

I wanted to use the colours from the original poster. I came up with four possible solutions. 

Each logo was really simple, using bold shapes and a bold type. Each logo was pretty similar with slight changes to the way the type is laid out.

After a discussion with the other co-founder and co-president we made the decision to use the first logo.

I was pleased with the decision we made as the logo still kept the mountain motif and the two colour text balanced the logo, whilst also bringing the original blue into the work.

With this designed I was able to move onto the design for the society cards. The cards are the main way of identifying someone who has paid there membership fee and are part of the society. 

I came up with several possible designs for the front of the card.

I wanted to keep the card simple like the previous designs that I have produced. I used the logo as well as the motifs in various different forms. After a discussion with Max, neither of us were very happy with any of the designs. We both liked the white mountains, however, were unsure on the colours and the use of the type. At this point we discussed with the Student's Union what had to be on the card. We were told that we should include a space for a name, course, level and society number.

This changed how I approached the design. I took inspiration from my original poster and adapted it to fit on the card.

 
The card also needed to include 'Leeds College of Art' and the year it was valid for. The areas that were to be written on had to be shown so that the printing company could apply a specific material that meant the ink would last and not smudge. I was on the whole happy with this design, although I thought there was quite a lot going on and maybe the snowflake was too much. After a discussion with Max we decided to leave it as it was. The design is clearly identifiable as the LCA Snow Society, even without reading it. This was important as it meant we could easily recognise it.

The back of the card did not have to hold any information. The back was therefore used to display the several logos. These logos were; the LCA Snow Society logo, the LCA Student's Union logo and the Snowzone logo. Snowzone is the indoor slope that we arrange regular trips to, in Castleford.

This is an ongoing project as I design a new poster/adapt an existing poster when we have a meeting or event. I will also have to design the card for next years society members. 

Here are a selection of other posters that I have designed. 

Again the designs were very simple, using the same motifs and layouts throughout.

As well as the promotional work the logo has also been printed onto T-shirts and embroidered onto a beanie. 

 

The strengths of this project have been the opportunity to produce a wide range of different design outcomes, have my work used and seen regularly and the possibility of taking it into other different outcomes. This project has enabled me to have my work printed on T-shirts, embroidered on beanies and printed on membership cards, all of which I would not have done without this brief. The posters are placed around college and anyone who joins the society receives a membership card and either a beanie or a T-shirt.

The future for this project involves the continuous designing of posters and membership cards, I am also planning on designing an information pack for anyone who is interested in joining. New promotional material will be needed in different formats, such as banners and leaflets, will be needed for the Freshers Fair 2014/15. The design of letterheads, envelopes and other merchandise will be required if we go on a trip abroad next year; something I will also be designing. 

As well as designing anything for the society whilst I am at the university, I also aim to produce a set of brand guidelines so that the next president of the society or the Student's Union can produce work that will be recognisable as belonging to the LCA Snow Society.