Responsive - Collaborative Brief

For this part of the module, we were asked to pair up with either an Animation or Illustration and pick a D&AD brief to work on.

I partnered with fellow animation student Rosy and we decided to go for the Monotype brief as we both have previously studied Graphic Design and though this would be suited to us.

So first, we analysed the brief. We had to choose one film director, pick 3 films they have directed and deliver at least one digital element, a presentation on our production process, at lease one poste and at least one touchpoint of our choice. 

First we picked our director; Mamoru Hosada.

With him directing films such as Digimon the movie and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, me and Rosy found that this would be a good choice for us to do as we're both fans of the films and know them pretty well.

We then chose the films we were going to base our work on and assigned ourselves jobs. I took the posters advertising each film. 

We both looked into reference material for our project so that we could both get a good idea on what style we wanted our work.

We then both put together some concept art. I liked the idea of having a very professional looking poster for this, ones that reflects Hosada's work, not ones that reflect the feel of each individual film.

We showed our presentation on initial idea to our group for feedback. 

The feedback we got was quite positive but there were some tweaks to be made.

Here are my initial designs of the posters. I created them using a mixture of Paint Tool SAI (for the backgrounds) and Photoshop (for the type). 

As I mentioned before, I wanted to give these quite a crisp feel to them so I kept them quite minimalist - with the backgrounds in the silhouettes being the main focus. The backgrounds are supposed reflect the essence of the film and I think thats gone pretty well. 

I've added in the Japanese title of these films as well, to bring them together as a set showing Hosada's work. 

I think these worked together pretty well as a set but Rosy tweaked them before submission. 

I don't think they look bad, I just think they now reflect the film more than the director. 

We also submitted web banners, mobile banners and leaflets featuring the designs. 

We submitted all of the designs to D&AD.

My experience doing this collaborative brief wasn't a particularly steady one. I didn't dislike working in a team, but I much prefer working on my own. You don't have the worry of letting anyone down or not working how someone else likes you to. I've also learned to not work with friends who will help you procrastinate!