OUGD502 - Life's a Pitch - Yeah Collective

Definition: An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims.

6 graphic designers living together.. We took the opportunity to create a collective for the Love Triangle exhibition to allow us to showcase our individual styles. Reflecting on the interview stage of PPP, we have all managed to interview well established designers from a range of creative backgrounds.

We began by creating a collective name.

After being exposed to Goat Collective throughout first year this helped to inform a friendly, independent, less serious tone of voice. To begin with we were all very indecisive of the names after brainstorming a range of ideas. We focused mainly on single words to accompany 'collective' to make it memorable. Suggested a name based on the surnames of every member:

Harland
Harpin
Hastie
Humphries
Crowther
Green

Taking inspiration from mathematics:

H4CG - However it was received as too serious

'Yeah' was also a high contender due to its simplicity and vernacular language.

I suggested we all write down three names to submit into the voting system in order to establish a few names to narrow the scope.

Bind
Common
Fuse

Combing forces:

The idea behind the names I submitted were predominantly influenced by the fact all of the members have come from different backgrounds and take influences and skills from different places and we are combing forces to increase potential and distribution.

After much debate, we decided to stick with 'Yeah.' due to its simplicity.

Promotional Video

Michael volunteered to create a short promotional video that can be used at the start of the presentation to introduce each member of the collective. This also provides a great ice breaker.

Created a presentation to pitch our collective and define our aims. Intro:

Pretty much half and half split between the North and South which shows how we can gather a range of influences to encourage diversity. Addition of 'Singapore Island' replaces The Isle of White to add humour and engage the audience.

Examples of the diverse range of styles and skills that we bring to the collective we all selected work that represents our practice. Editorial, collage, poster, user experience/interface design and animation:

As a response to Studio Brief 02 we thought that we could combine our interviews into a publication. Each member of the collective have interviewed an established designer across print and digital. This would allow us to combine our knowledge and skills.

The target audience for the publication would be designers, design students and people interested in contemporary visual culture.

Connor mocked up of a potential zine cover design:

I applied Connors cover onto a mockup zine and altered the colour mode to duotone to make it look like it was printed on a risograph/photocopier onto coloured stock. If we were to take this forward, I would suggest a neutral, minimal cover to allow the content to showcase our diverse styles.

The publication provides us with the chance to showcase our design skills whilst informing genuine recent knowledge about leading professionals in the design world.

Distribution:

Our target audience will be culturally engaged young people and designers. We intend to place the free publication in a variety of locations around Leeds that attract this audience:

If we could manage to get funding it would be great distribute the zines our to these locations for free, however if we took it into our own hands we would have to charge for them. If we were to take things forward we would make sure that we contact the professionals that have been interviewed and ask for their permission to publish what they say.

Taking advantage of the Universities facilities to save money and it would allow us to use digital and analogue processes.

Another addition of humour and ask for questions: