My Pictograms in situ

Final Designs for Pictograms

Here are the final designs for my pictograms, in both black and white and the version with colour. In terms of the colour use, I decided to use pastel colours so that it was not too bright and bold but subtle colours. I wanted to use a different colour for each department to add distinction to each one, which I think is particularly useful for the subjects, which are homed in the same buildings on campus, to avoid the confusion that they are not part of the same department in terms of subjects. Some colours add to the clarity and understanding of the symbols, which I think has been beneficial for the communication of the departments. For Japanese, I have incorporated the flag into the design. The colour red had been used to highlight this, which I think works well in communicating that the subject is Japanese.

I have tried to make the set as unified as possible in terms of the design of the symbols representing each subject. I have used both straight and curved lines to bring depth and more of a quality to the designs, which can be seen through the progress of my development. I think this combination of curved and straight edges has made them look more professional particularly as they developed from the initial ideas.

For each of the subjects, I found some much easier to communicate in terms of the choice of symbol to show the subject. However, there were some that were slightly more difficult to represent, including Spanish and also Design. For design I started off with the initial ideas of having a Mac computer as well as a pallet and paintbrush but this did not fit very well with the set having simply one symbol for each. I found this quite tricky trying to think of a single symbol that communicated design as a whole because of the many different aspects of it like graphics, fashion, product as well as art and design. I managed to come up with various tools that are associated with different design subjects, such as a pencil, paintbrush as well as a scalpel and this is the idea I went with. I tried to keep the designs as simple as possible so that the communication was clear to the audience.

Further Pictogram Development

I had a few different designs in terms of the actual symbol representing the subject of Spain. To begin with I had the fan and the castanets, which both represent Spain quite well in terms of its culture and traditions, particularly with the flamenco dancing. However, from the first feedback session it came to my attention that the fan symbol could also be used to represent Japanese as it is apart of their culture too. As well as that, having the two symbols together for the one subject did not link well with the rest of the set, which were each being associated with just the one symbol, such as the the calculator for mathematics, the helmet for history and the cylinder for chemistry.

So I decided to simply look into developing the castanets symbol. On testing it to see if people could tell what it by itself, knowing that it stood for a particular university department, it did not do so well at communicating the subject of Spanish. There was confusion with it perhaps being boxing gloves so presenting something to d with sports, so I then went on to look at a new design with a completely different symbol, which seemed to work much better at communicating the subject of Spanish.

Pictogram Development

Here are a few examples of the particular subjects I was designing pictograms for, including mathematics, history and chemistry. For each one I started off with the basic structure and shape of the designs using the colours black and white, as it was important that the symbols communicated the subject to the audience in the simplest of colour use. I then continued by introducing a colour to each of the subjects, in order to bring the element of distinction to each of the subjects. For the audience to recognise that each subject is represented by a different colour would bring about that distinction between each subject. However, the design of the symbols themselves with both curved as well as straight lines also introduced consistency to the set of subjects, which are all part of the University of Leeds.

From the ideas that I came up with, I found that the ones which stood out the most were the plain black background with the white symbol (no lines separating the symbol and background). This simple white on black or white on a specific colour worked well in terms of standing out and communicating each subject effectively to the audience. I then when on to further develop the pictograms in this style in both black and white as well as white with a specific colour representing each subject.

My Initial Pictograms for Project

Here is my initial set of pictograms for each of the subjects in question, Chemistry, Spanish, Design, Maths, History, Japanese, English and Engineering. As a set I think that they need to become more unified. After the first crit, it was seen that perhaps the use of the black, such as in the fan representing Spanish could act as a basis for part of the design which is apparent in each of the pictograms. I am going to see whether I can come up with a set of designs that fits this, thus making them appear more unified and part of a set all from the University of Leeds, as this is an important component for the designs.

It was apparent that the subjects were easily identifiable from the initial designs that I had produced. However, the importance of consistency came up with the fact that most of my pictograms are represented by one image, such as the book for English and the flag for Japanese. However, for Design and Spanish, perhaps the fact that I have used two objects this needed to be re addressed in order to tackle the problem and create the consistency within the set. The pictogram, which I created for history also needs re thinking because of the way I had included the years on the time line. Text should not be appearing and also the time line doesn't fit in with the other subjects being represented by single objects or representations.

More design also needs to arise because these initial ones I have done are quite basic but on a positive note they are communicating each of the subjects effectively. So adding and re working some of them is required and perhaps a little more thinking in terms of the design of others such as History and Design is also needed.

Mum's Thoughts

This is my one frame diagram of how the mind of my mum works. I have decided to use the shape of a house to fit each of her thoughts inside because I thought this would be an appropriate way of showing how she thought. The house has allowed me to split it up into three levels using the white lines because I wanted to have a hierarchy to show what the most important things are for her. So at the top is family and the cats, she is always thinking about these two things. Then next I have an image of her worrying because she is always worrying about things along with money and cleaning and maintaining of the house. These are all next in the hierarchy of her thoughts because I think her worries take over the more fun things that she enjoys to do. Then the final level shows shopping bags because obviously you have to do your shopping each week to make sure you’ve got enough food in. But she quite enjoys shopping, which is why this is alongside having a glass of wine, which most mums enjoy as well as the speech bubbles to represent socialising.

My pictograms: eating; drinking; studying; socialising

I have created my own pictograms that represent eating, drinking, studying and socialising. I have tried to keep the design as simple but effective as possible. My use of colour white on black stands out well and I have aligned the images so that they are all central within the boxes in order to get consistency in the designs. Like from the previous lecture where some of the Olympic pictograms were not a full silhouette, I have tried to do this too. By separating the images I wanted to give the symbols more depth rather than them seeming very flat and 2d.

Postcard for "I'm in a Rock & Roll Band"

Here is the postcard showing some work that I did with the SumCreative team at Sumners in Manchester. I thoroughly enjoyed my first design based work experience and being a part of a team of designers. It made me realise how much I want to be a part of the industry in the future.

Good manners

For a recent uni project the brief was to encourage good manners amongst a target audience of your choice. So I decided to choose 16-24 year old males who are religious video game players from higher income backgrounds.

Good manners from Rebecca Roche on Vimeo.

Skeet shooting

For a recent uni project I had to attract 40-50 year old women to the sport skeet shooting, which is an Olympic discipline. I had to come up with strategies to do so and then also develop this with concepts. I decided to make the sport a sociable one with the concept of trying something different to the usual activities women do together.

Skeet shooting from Rebecca Roche on Vimeo.

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Sorry Chaps it's Ladies Day

I have been recently working on a skeet shooting project at uni. The aim being to make this sport attractive to women 40-50 years old. It is also related to the London 2012 Olympics and how there are certain sports that are not as well known as others, one of them being skeet. I have found it quite challenging from the start simply because on getting the sport at random, I had to look up to find out what it actually was. Firstly having looked on the urban dictionary at the word skeet (which I really shouldn't have done) this completely confused me. I thought the tutor was havin a larrrf! I then realised, however, that it was actually a sport, that is a bit like clay pigeon shooting.

I have been working on this for the past few months now and shall be handing it in next week. In terms of the strategy for my target audience I decided on making the sport seem attractive in a social way, whether it be with their friends, family or even boyfriend or partner. I further narrowed this down to target socialising between friends as opposed to family. I came up with a few different ideas, one of them being a Ladies Day. Here is a poster I did for promoting a ladies shooting day. A man is sat with his dog and his gun. He can't go shooting though because it's ladies days, hence 'sorry chaps it's ladies day'.

Calling all men!....well 35+

For a project brief that was given way back in September, I had to add value to the product.......a battery, in whatever way I felt would be successful in line with the target audience I chose. After much research into the history of the battery, as well as product comparison within the current market and price comparison, I decided to produce a battery that was suitable for the male target audience of 35+. This was a challenge in itself, getting into the mind of the masculine man who obviously used batteries all the time for the countless number of gadgets that they owned. I used the market research website Mintel to help find out what it is that attracts a man to purchasing such a product. The main reason I chose to look at males specifically 35 and over was because according to market research these are the people who by batteries most regularly. The reason being was that they owned a variety of gadgets, most of which needing a different type of battery in order for it to work and function correctly.



The is an image of my batteries on the shelf in a supermarket, which is where I would want to sell them. As you can see, I have created a multipack of batteries to suit all kinds of gadgets. On the actual packaging, I have included images next to each battery type to show the audience which battery works best in which gadget. So for example, the low drain batteries work best in remote controls or games controllers, whereas the high drain batteries are best suited to the more power eating gadgets like CD/MP3 players or even digital cameras. Obviously, the rechargeables are the other battery type that I have included within my product. The rechargeables can be used over and over again as long as they are recharged. By including three different battery types, I wanted to capture my audiences attention, obviously the more batteries the better for them and all their gadgets.

I wanted the packaging to stand out on the shelf against other types of battery products. So by making the packaging itself quite big, the idea was that the consumer would be drawn to this product over the others and so want to buy it! For the second part of the project, I then had to advertise my product. I created a storyboard, with the intention of it being a tv advert and I also produced a poster as well as posters to advertise each battery type if they were to be sold separately rather than in a multi-pack.



Nitracell - The Ultimate Man Pack Poster



Nitracell High Drain Battery



Nitracell Low Drain Battery



Nitracell Rechargeable Battery



Nitracell Batteries Storyboard

The Adventurous Little Fairy

I have just recently created my book as part of one of my modules for a uni project. I have tried to get across what I am like as a designer as well as showing my personality to potential employers. I have designed my book in the style of a fairytale and put a modern twist on it. Take a look....let me know what you think. Thanks

Facebook Group RMRoche Design & The Adventurous Little Fairy

I have recently set up a facebook group on my profile to promote my blog and also my website. By doing this I hope to get more and more people to check out my online presence. Here is an image of one of my ideas for my brand identity. I think I need to work more on it and perhaps make it purely typographic for my brand name.



I like the idea of using my name within my brand RMRoche, as it makes it more personal and also more identifiable for the audience. I think that the paints and other drawing implements within the image above also shows diversity in my particular design style because as well as working on computer programs I also love and enjoy drawing and painting.



My facebook group - RMRoche Design


For another part of this digital design project that I have been working on this semester, I had to produce a digitally designed book. I had the idea of creating a fairy tale that showed what I was like as a designer as well as hopefully also allowing my personality to shine through my work. Just to give you a taster of how I designed my book, below is a fairy that I produced using the program Illustrator.




Let me know what you think........comments are appreciated thanksx

Amedeo Modigliani

I looked at the artist Modigliani a few years ago when I did my art A Level controlled test. From the choice of topics that were on the examination paper, I decided to look at 'elongated form'. To begin with, I researched into a variety of different artists that particularly looked at and studied this sort of form, including Giacometti and also Modigliani. These two artists were my main influences for reaching my final outcome, which was fifteen hours work under controlled examination conditions.

I always wondered whether it was fair that students carrying out an art examination should be under the same sort of conditions as other subjects. I mean, how could you possible copy someone elses work in this sort of situation.....it was pretty much impossible.....particularly the fact that you were given the exam paper four weeks beforehand. You had that length of time to carry out extensive research in order to fully prepare for the fifteen hours (obviously spread across a few days rather than all in one go!) I mean I suppose you wouldn't really know what I'm going on about unless you actually studied, or knew somebody who was studying, art. What I'm trying to say is we could have at least been allowed to listen to our ipods or something.....not too loud though, obviously!

Amedeo Modigliani was primarily a figurative artist, who mainly worked in France. It was these kinds of work, which I became fascinated by whilst researching him. The figures he drew were beautifully elongated and the facial expressions were simplistic yet complex in a sense that it was quite difficult to tell how the person being drawn was feeling. Their expressions were fixed and all very similar. Here are a few examples of his work



Jeanne Hébuterne in Red Shawl - Amedeo Modigliani



Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne (1898-1920), Common-Law wife of Amedeo Modigliani, oil on canvas - Amedeo Modigliani



Jeune fille au corsage a pois - 1919 - Amedeo Modigliani

As you can see from these examples beautiful elongation of the entire figure. The nose and neck and particularly exaggerated with elongation. The other facial features such as the eyes appear very tiny and delicate almost like small incisions and the mouth is also small, not really exaggerated in comparison to the nose. I became very much aware of Modigliani's style during the weeks leading up to my fifteen hour practical exam. Here is my final piece.....take a look....hopefully you can see the link and the influence of the artist Modigliani.



This is an oil painting of my sister Emily- 2007- Rebecca Roche

My Portfolio

I have recently set up my own portfolio online to run along with my blog right here. I have included a selection of work, including some that I have done at university, as well as work that I created during my A Levels and Foundation Art course.

Please feel free to take a look at it and leave comments either on my blog or simply get in touch and email me!

To view My portfolio, simply click on the link to the left in the toolbar.
Here is the website http://www.finalcrit.com/design/rebeccaroche

I will be adding more work in the near future.... so watch this space!