Brief 11: DBA Design Boards and Evaluation

Our group for this brief consisted of Joe Harrison, Leo Sims, Anna Sergison, Jake Greenhalgh and myself. Although each person was assigned a different aspect of the brief to design, there is a high level of consistency throughout. Having changed the logo a few times, which was a collective task, the design we landed on is an appropriate representation of our concept for the Capital North brand, which was to exhibit the diversity and culture within each city, while presented them as a unified capital of the North.

This concept is kept apparent throughout the designs of the trains and taxis, as the imagery of each design is individual to the city in which it would be based, while maintaining their unity through the layout and colour scheme, which is kept simple and recognisable. While it may have been beneficial to find some other ways of exhibiting each city, for example incorporating more big landmarks into the designs, this was the idea that the group all decided on.

While the logo was designed well, showing each city in a geographical manner around the N, I feel that it may have been a better option to make the colours more different to each other. This is because if the designs in Liverpool were in one colour, and then travelled to Hull, and saw another colour, they are similar enough that the difference may not be noticed, when the variation in colour is vital to the display of diversity in the brand.

Our group worked well, each of us given an even weighting in tasks and coming together once or twice a week to ensure we were on a similar path. However, a couple of days before presenting it came to our attention that one member hadn't done the work they were responsible for, leaving the other members only a day to complete all the work he was meant to do. Because of this, we presented our brand without him, and stopped associating him with our group.

In spite of a couple of hiccups along the way, the remaining four members of our group worked really well together, each person with equal responsibility and equal say in the design process. All of our ideas were landed on collectively and were of a good standard. Given the chance to do something differently, we may have needed to spend more time on the logo design, as this was a point of weakness in the brand that was picked up by the judges we were presenting to. However, I would be more than happy to work with the same people again as I was really pleased with our outcome.