Matthew Leonard : new blood

Showing posts with label new blood. Show all posts

Its Grim Up North...

Having posted a work in progress a month or two ago about a project I had going on for the D&AD New Blood Awards. I can now post my entry, based around the statement of "Its Grim up North" its a reply to the Pantone brief of reimagining my hometown in a colour led graphic identity.

Looking at what my classmates were thinking about this brief I noticed everyone was trying to focus on the how great their hometown is and were going polished and technical with their ideas. I decided to step away from this point and try and take the brief in a completely different direction, celebrating the side of my hometown that the tourist board doesn't show everyone, Newcastle has a lot more going for it than the Quayside, so why not show the grubby side in a new and exciting way?

The concept behind my piece is to take abandoned and run down buildings around the city and add splashes of colour to them with the use of the boards on their windows, this in turn would allow the public to change their perception of these buildings and not see them as an eyesore but celebrate them as part of the cities character. My final concept is a city/region wide installation, using paste up posters to cover up boards on windows and run down areas to grab peoples’ attention using colour and imagery on places they would usually walk right past.

Photos by Andy Oman

Designs by Matty Leonard

Its Grim up North Inspiration...

Like in the Entrepreneurs Forum brief, this post will show the inspiration behind the idea I had for my D&AD New Blood Awards entry, after coming up with the main concept I started simplifying it until I was happy with the result. As shown in the In Progress post, film photography played a major part in inspiring this idea, making the most of the grungey feel and imperfections in both the photos and the area of Newcastle. The main outputs of this brief are wheatpaste posters that will weather over time and add some character to the area they are applied to.

I also have to analyse the way I have went through projects with the use of a SWOT analysis. Here is my analysis of this unit:

Strengths: My time keeping in this unit was definitely one of my strong points in this unit as I planned out everything that I was going to do, including photo shoots and hand ins, getting my entry in on time for the D&AD hand in.

Weaknesses: At the beginning of this project when I was brainstorming ideas I was trying to overcomplicate things, making the concept to complex and concentrating on how good it would look in the end, this in turn made me have a bunch of ideas that I wouldn't be able to do.

Opportunities: This brief was the opportunity to create a nice looking final piece with a strong concept behind it and also get it professionally photographed instead of using mockups, this in turn will make a great piece for my portfolio as well as the New Blood Awards.

Threats: Having more than one deadline and project going on at one time is always a threat when keeping time management in consideration, I planned out my time well enough in this unit for it not to be a problem.