Done

We left the hotel at 8:45 to make our way through London rush hour tube traffic and get to our client for our 10am meeting. We left under overcast skies, rode in packed and sweaty tube trains, and emerged into drizzling rain where we navigated our way down the always busy Oxford street till we could turn off and head to our clients. We stopped at a great little coffee place first to "fuel up" for the meeting.

The meeting started shortly after 10am and went till about 11:30 with our client, hosts, and 4 visitors from the UK chapter of Lunar Mission One's Pilot School Program. The presentation was followed by a lively Q and A session. The work was well presented and well received. The client was pleased and anxious to start using our work. It is expected that it will reach the web and international audiences soon. Then it was on to a local pub to relax and celebrate with our client who has asked us to continue on this project next year. We have also been asked by our host, Buro Happold, if we would like to work with them again next year. Decisions will have to be made as to how we handle the "demands" for our services.  Early afternoon saw the students off to continue their exploration of London.

The students in this course learned over these last five weeks the following and more about the process of design strategy, thinking, and production:

Creative Brief – 

this is a document that you and your client have put together, describing what the problem to be solved is, and what deliverables need to be designed at the assigned deadline. There’s an asterisk here…we’ll get back to it.

Problem Solving – 

alway begin with writing down words; word associated with the problem, brand words, words that add value. 

Then, Tish & Fat Markers - 

quick sketches to begin thinking about how your words can be illustrated, or draw a concept that you can write a headline for. Sketches should can range from rough ‘big ideas’ and then become refined to allow you to present them to your creative director or client.

We present sketches before we present computer comps - why? 

You clients’ imagination is much more vivid than anything you can quickly put together, or otherwise spend a million hours on only to have them say “no.”

Presentations Decks - 

we hope you’ve learned how to put these together, and the importance of telling a complete story that leads a client to understand *why* you’ve made the design decisions you’ve made. 

Storytelling - 

must have a beginning, middle and end. Right? 

Brand, branding, brand touch-points, brand elements - 

these are all connected and need to have a cohesive look-and-feel. As you dig further in to the development of brands, you’ll learn about authenticity and the importance of being real to your desired audience. For now, please know the importance of consistency in your design developments.

Scope-creep - 

this is either the client asking for more than we agreed to in the initial creative brief, or changing the direction. This happens. This happens quite often. Embrace it - as it continues to present new challenges on how to become a better problem solver.   

Love what you do! 

Professors Leland and Chimenti hope our students learn to hone their craft; from designing, to writing, to strategizing and leading teams by being a leader someone would want to follow. 

One...

...day and then we were ready. Today Severina, Catherine, and Kalyn rehearsed and poured over the script with the help of Jeanie and Shayne. Jamey worked tirelessly on the deck to get the interactive PDF to work with embedded video. Justin took over the Style guide and made all corrections/additions. Molly and Sadie prepped the LM1 posters for final delivery. Kirsten, Aaron, Claire, Stephanie, Emily, and Karissa worked on their posters. Gillian collected and gathered all the assets for Eric so that he had everything for Friday. We broke at 4:20 and all went out for Italian food and to take one last group picture. We walked back to the hotel in a light rain.

Two...

... days remain. We are in good spirits as we head into are final preparation day before the presentation. The script is almost done, the rehearsals have begun, the speakers have been chosen, the presentation deck is almost done, the style guide is almost done, and the personal posters are in various stages of completion. Tomorrow is all about polish and tying up loose ends.

Thanks again to Jeanie for the fun photos. Several of us went out to a highly rated burger joint in the middle of the old street round about - the burgers were good even if we did get rained on.

Three...

... days to go.  All aspects of what we have been working on so hard for the last 4.5 weeks is coming to a conclusion. We just need to make sure it is glorious. The young designers are learning to flex between teams working on multiple parts of a large project. Helping each other. Critiquing each other to the betterment of the work and the designer.
We are expecting about 10 guests on Friday for our BIG presentation, on top of the client group. The pressure is on, yet there is a mostly relaxed demeanor...
Thanks to Jeanie for taking the great pics today.

Four...

are all the days that remain. Today the six remaining videos were all but finished. The style guide is coming along, the presentation deck is falling into shape, the poster corrections are coming along, and the other deliverables are almost done.
We continue to work in the hotel conference room, London Wall, our office has windows and AC. With plenty of nice places to walk for lunch, grab a coffee, and cool sights to see on the way.