BOOK LAYOUT

Oliver O’Malley
Third year
Final Major Project

DISCOVER
DEVELOP
DELIVER
6 - Water
8 - Alcohol
13 - Documentaries
14 - Research boards
18 - Touch based technology
20 - Exsisting interventions
22 - PSA research
24 - Survey Monkey
32 - Tutorials
34 - Collide
40 - Bottle experiments
52 - Liquid drop
66 - Lid concept
84 - Table concept
88 - Calorie equivalent concept
100 - Palm (Phone concept)
28 - Summary

WORKSHOPS
142 - Iceberg Workshop
144 - NB Olly and Alice
150 - Evaluation
152 - Bibliography
146 - NB Sam
148 - Kieran O’Connor ‘Normal’

4
DISCOVER

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6
The initial direction i went towards was picking one word. This word
was water. I mindmapped and collated different images that were about
the word and its form. After looking at the forms it takes, imagery to
a microscopic level, and even to mythical sea monsters, nothing was
grabbing me to push forward with this word. I spent time reflecting on
what I wanted out of my FMP. I knew in order to do a good project it
needs something that makes me passionate to carry on and this was not
the topic to do that.

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8
ALCOHOL

Through the combination of exploring water, and
searching for another avenue that can be persued,
I stumbled onto alcohol. It is a topic that I believe
has many different avenues to explore and obvious
problems in whic graphic design could perhaps tackle
and make a difference. Such things as alcoholism,
branding, perceptions, and student culture were all
things that I initially brainstormed above. Still being
very broad, I decided to step back from researching
and develop some experimental visuals, collide, and
think what if?
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10

Ross Kemp - Alcohol Abuse
- Major impact on government
resources (i.e. Ambulance services,
police services).
-Sunderland is the worst for
alcohol related emergencies.
-Causes 50 different illnesses.
-Middle class most effected.
Tubes - Happy Hour Podcast
- Used alcohol to build confidence.
- ‘Planned my life around it’.
- ‘Drinking is our culture’.
- ‘Wouldn’t remember anything’.
- ‘First 6 months were hard’.
Adrian Chiles - Drinkers like me
- 14 Units a week is new limit.
- Lie about how much we drink.
- Half of alcoholics use alcohol to
deal with depression and anxiety.
- Cost services £47 billion a year.
- Related deaths risen since 2001.
The Truth about Alcohol - BBC
- Pain tolerance is higher when
drunk.
- Makes your appetite increase.
- Remember to drink water on
nights out.
- Club Soda initiative.
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12

Here I am trying to define a more
specific problem within the topic
of alcohol through researching
topics driving by my analysis of
the documentaries in the previous
spread. The demonstrated a wide
variety of issues revolving around
drinking and even conveyed
specific demographics of people
that are suffering the most (i.e.
the people of Sunderland and the
middle class).
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14

One of the problems I decided to interrogate further
was the every growing obesity epidemic within the
uk being due to alcohol. The research boards were
the stepping stones towards some of my main visual
experiments that will be show at later on in the
defvelop and deliver section of this book. Key insights
were:
- Low Alcohol/ Alcohol Free options are encouraged
as they equate to less calories.
- Size of the glass is impacting us (portion control?)
- Weekend is the most boozey day.
- Sedentary jobs are adding to the problem.
- Knowledge of calories in food are higher than of
alcohol.
- People highly in favour or labelling system.
- 3rd fattest in europe.
- New trend of fitness nights out in london.
- Understanding of calorie equivilents of food to
alcoholic beverages.
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I was very intrigued to see where science has come
in terms of a product solution to the problem at
hand. The main technology I stumbled across was
bio-sensor and touch based technology, which uses
sweat to guess alcohol blood content. This defined
my upcoming concepts later on in the book.
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20
Drink not Drunk by antigone
acconci from italy is a glassware
collection that attempts to tackle
the problem of drink driving
through developing a solution by
looking at the vessel we actually
drink our alcohol in. Again, as
show in the develop and deliver
section, I took this approach with
my lid concept idea.

‘BAM’, a black ceramic
breathalyzer. the palm sized
gadget works by measuring
the amount of alcohol in your
blood through your breath. The
information then sends its data to
your phone via bluetooth.
My first impression was why would
people want to carry two things
around with them in the first place;
how could it be more convienient?
This is something I tackle head
on with my main concept later
on in the book. It must be taken
into consideration that this was
developed in 2013, so it may of
seemed trendy and advanced in
the year it was in, but as shown in
the previous spread, technology
has evolved for us to create
something better and convienient.
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I decided to look into drink driving PSA’s when
I discovered my idea of a touch based security
system for cars to prevent drunk people driving was
currently being devloped.
The main theme that I found resinated through out
a lot of the them were the use of shock tactics as a
way of scaring people out of driving drunk or just
being excessively drunk. However it was refreshing
to see in one of Think’s newer ads to use a less brutal
approach and take one of showing the viewer a
relatable situation most couples have probably been
in. The husband has had a few glasses of wine and
recieves a call from his wife, asking to be picked up
from the station as it is raining heavy.
He refuses and in doing so is resorted to sleeping on
the sofa. It shows however that the problem is a small
compromise compared to potentially dying at the
wheel. This is a fresh new approach and something I
try to adopt in my experimentation of video later on
in the book.
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Roughly 1400 Calories
My initial aims of this primary
research carried out via survey
monkey was looking at the
problem of obesity and alcohol.
It is clear that the secondary
research is correct and people lack
knowledge of the calorific content
in what they are drinking.
However, I think in terms of my
final concept, the reasonings to
why people drink is to be taken
into consideration the most; being
in a social environment.
Something to inform people
discretely in these social
environments?
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30
DELIVER
DEVELOP

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My tutorials with Marten were crucial in the development of this project.
With the topic so broad ad having many different pathways to go down,
we deconstructed the different ways of exploring those paths and
methods of data collection and primary research that could be carried
out. With out these I’d probably still be floating about in space.
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OLLID

DE
Here are some quick mock ups experimenting with
branding or perhaps the unbranding of alcohol the
same way the government has with smoking, to
encourage people to stay away from drink. It’s an
interesting thought to think what would happen to
the industry, since so many companies rely on the
design, especially small independent breweries.
In retrospect, it could be argued that now with the
cigarette packaging, its has become a norm and had
become part of our familiarity.
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Looking at ways alcohol compete with other brands,
I played with this aspect of calling ou other brands
and saying that their option is the best. In a sort of
Parody, I decided to flip BrewDogs advertisment as a
drink responsibly ad/campaign.
I think its simplistic and effective in its humour. This
has always been a way people have tackled serious
problems effectively, especially evidenced in such
campaigns Movember have created in the past.
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Here is another collision of the traffic light system used on food and
seeing how it looks on the alcoholic products. From my research it did
show people wanted to be more informed and were in favour of calories
to be shown on the packaging. The system is there, its just wether the
companies use it. It is not bound by law of the food agency to have it on
alcohol like it is for food, but perhaps a change in making it compulsory
for brands to put a traffic light system on their products is the step
forward for an ever growing health conscious society, to help make
informed decisions on their drink choices. We even see steps forward in
pus such as Wetherspoons, displaying calories on their menus.

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I then decided to get off my computer and get hands on with the topic
phsically. I decided to look into the traces left behind from a wet cup,
can, glass, or bottle and decided to make some prints using wine, red
paint, and coke as the liquids.

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The outcome resulted in interesting patterns in which they were all
differentiated through thickness, completed structure and boldness. How
to apply something like this though? I instantly thought typographical,
with the O’s being part of a message that reveals the full statement that
wants to be conveys.
It’s like a stain, or a mark, maybe similar to what the alcohol is doing on
your body. A play on a message of alcohol leaving its mark on you is an
aspect to be explored?
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Here shows the appliction of the patterns to some words associated
with the topic, I believe that they work really well but was still quite
unsure how to apply them. Nice visually but definitely an extension of
something bigger. I sketched a possible appliction below but decided to
park the idea ad explore other avenues.
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I instantly went onto playing with
the imagery behind the bottles,
seeing what different shapes
of bottle effect the image. This
resulted in interesting disfiguration
of form.
How could this be applied?
Thoughts going through my head
at this moment is vision when
people are drunk, their decision
making is skewed and so on.
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Carrying on from the previous experiment with the bottles and liquid
distorting imagery, i set up a test to use water droplets and see how
that would react to the image. Using a sheet of acetate, I discover the
the maniplation increased with the distance of the image being further
away from the acetate layer. I tested with repetetive patterns and look at
typography, along side pictures of axctual objects and people.
At this point I knew the tests i’ve done already needed to be shot and
produced better and played with more in terms of the meaning behind
the imagery or type. With better lighting and preperation helped me to
see the distortions true effect. What other liquids do I look into?
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Using the dropplet as a way of highlighting parts of the body that are
impacted by alcohol. As you can see I could not make the desired results
that I wanted, however it is part of the process and i’m glad I explored it.
Where could I go from now?

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Do it PHYSICALLY rather than
digitally! Making the effect
physically then putting it through
Illustrator produced some really
intriguing visuals. I was very happy
with the outcome but again I
decided to park this experiment
because I felt that is more part
of something bigger rather than
being a main concept to branch
out of.

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Here are some reciepts that
have come into contact with nail
polish remover which contains
alcohol. This opened up another
possible aveue to interrogate; the
destructive properties of alcohol
perhaps in a scientific in terms of
its reaction to different materials
and to our bodies, all the way to
mental avenue and how it effects
peoples lives and those whom
surround them.

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Lid Concept
This concept was inspired through my research of not only the
obesity crisis due to alcohol, but the correlation between violence and
irresponsible drinking. Main thoughts when developing this were to
devise a restriction that slows down drinking to eliminate binging, in turn
eliminating the two other problems.
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First thoughts were to think
of something people can
carry around with them to any
environment. The concept was a
fold away key chain lid for people
who are conscious of their alcohol
intake. However I quickly realised
that keys are very dirty and it
would be an inconvienience to
keep washing.
However, I still wanted to test how
much it does slow down your
drinking. By taking two sips per
minute, its took on average 9.5
minutes to finish a large can of
beer with the lid off apposed to
15 minutes with the lid on. So this
does really slow down your intake.
When testing I gained some
thoughts whilst the users were
using the lid:
‘Hard to down’
‘Feels safer’
‘Don’t really notice it after a little
while’
This made me think of different
problems it could tackle, such
as spiking of drinks and general
saftey of no spilling of drinks.
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Problem - People can just take off the lid.
Solution - A all in one cup that uses bottom fill technology.
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I put some Cad designs together to further visualise my designs into a
real thing, and tested with different styles of glass. When doing this I
realised that it is not possible to apply this to every drink.

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Where can this
live?
Because it cant apply to every alcoholic beverage,
I thought of what environment selling a restricted
range of alcohols; festivals. As seen on the first image
to the left, festivals such as glastonbury have major
litter issues once they are over and they are showing
interest in reducing plastic.
The image next to it is of a cup that Malcom showed
me. Looks like normal plastic but is in fact 100%
compostible and made from plant matter.
- Covered top cup that promotes responsible
drinking.
- Safe from spiking.
- Environmentally friendly.
- Applied to music festival setting combatting the
litter issues that they face.
- Less spillage when dancing!
83

Table Concept
This concept looks at the pub/bar environment and uses the are in which
people converse. It aims to create a talking point about the calorific
values of the alcohol they are drinking with a centre piece in which they
can slot their drinks into the grooves that correspond to their drink/
bottle size. It’s a fun activation for people to get the conversation rolling
and hopefully make them more cautious in their choice of purchase.
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The grooves are also labelled with estimated to the kcals within their
alcohol. Rather than just showing people on the menu the calories which
they most likely glance over. This forces people to engage with the facts
in a physical way and talk about the topic since it is between the people
having the conversation.

87

Calorie Equivalent
Concept
The idea of this concept is
to inform people about the
calories they are drinking in a
way that they do understand (as
established through secondary
research) food.
The initial thoughts were to use
humour, similar to the THINK ad
previously shown. To do this, I
wanted to play on the view that
the food equivalents were the
actual ingredients of the alcohol,
and show people happily drinking
a pint of jaffa cakes (beer).
To apply this I initially thought of
just shooting relatable scenarios in
which we drink; hard day at work,
meeting friends. But decided to
go down the route of online video
recipies and tutorial, incorporating
parody within it.
I researched some cocktail
tutorial videos that informed my
art direction before shooting the
video.
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These are storyboards that
correlate to relatable situations
in which we drink, replacing
the alcohol with its food
equivalent.
I managed to shoot the story
board on the left, as the one on
the right required me to have
a bar setting which I could not
obtain. It turned out okay but I
didn’t feel it had the irony that I
wanted it to evoke.
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The parody cocktail tutorial turned out much better
and I feel it conveyed the humour aspect more in
depth.
Here are a couple variations of story boards I did,
one verbally instructing and one typographically
instructing. I chose to do the typographic one as I felt
it would be more punchy and not as slow
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Where does it live?
I believe it could be a series of parody videos displayed on drinkaware.
As shown above they are not shy to using humour in conveying a
message (stay with your friends campaign). Using this method breaks
the boring informative nature of the topic and because it is on Youtube,
had the ability to breakthrough and become viral.
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OBESITY
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‘Pizza’ After Work.

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The ‘Real’ Pina Colada
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Phone Case
Concept
Through a bit more research, I looked into ways of
tracking your alcohol data and cutting down on
drinking to talk the obesity crisis.
Alcohol Change recommended a diary, therefore
I went and presented on to a few of my friends to
complete that was made by the NHS.
Amoung their feed back they claimed it to be an
incovienience to carry this round all week and
involved them getting out their calculators to find
averagegs and such to obtain their data. How could
this be more convienient.
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Looking back at my research into
the touch based technology, I
began to visualise a way in which
data could be detected and
collated in a convienient way.
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BAC trackSkyn is basically the fitbit of blood alcohol
measurement. I began to look at the product and find
its disadvantages and how to adapt its technology in
a better way. This is when I looked at applying it as an
extendable attachment to a popular exsiting product,
rather than just a tool for one function.

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Cut out the
middle man
Upon further research, I did disicover a product that
was not shown in their video was actually the idea I
had. To the left you can see they have applied it to a
strap of an apple watch.
Going back to the drawing board, I had to think of
where else this tech could be applied; what do lots of
people have that is convenient for them to get a hold
of quickly? THE PHONE.
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How would it
work?
Thin Circuit Board - Amplifies, calibrates, and
translates raw alcohol data from your sweat into
blood alcohol content (BAC). Transmits your data to
phone via bluetooth.
Sensors - Detects ETG (Ethyl Glucoronide) in Sweat
molecules. This is a minor metabolite of alcohol
formed when the liver reacts with glucoronic acid,
detoxifying the alcohol into water soluble compounds
which is removed and detectable through fluids such
as sweat.
ETG vs Blood testing - ETG can be detected 24 hours
after one or two drinks of 2 to 4 days with heavier
consumption. Blood testing measure ethanol, which
has a low specificity and very short window of
detection making it a less reliable marker.
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Taking inspiration for the design by looking at
charging phone cases and how they make space for
components.

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Prototyping
I began prototyping, seeing it it would be built into the case its self,
of if it could be something attachable through magnets. With some
cheap phone cases, thin metal, and magnetic strips from some L plates,
I began to to explore, concluding that the best option would be a fully
incorporated product.
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I went on to Tinkercad again to make my prototype
again, adding an extention to the bottom of the case
to take into consideration the power pack for the
case and port for the charger.
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Trying to figure out a name using
different elements of the product
and what it does. I sided with
palm. Simple and relates to the
products funtion.
Logo inspiration used a few
elements:
- Phone
- Palm
- Heart (health)
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After getting a few people to
select the one they liked the best
with a coloured tab, I made then
made the Informed decision to
pick the one I felt suited best.
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I went with a rounded sans serif
font. I feel serif promotes luxury,
where as I want an approachable
brand which people feel
comfortable to use their products.
Something for everyone.

Vag Rounded Std Font
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I feel the Logo is a strong shape
which can be dynamic, similar to
the MTV one, through either filling
with colour, replacing the phone
with an object, to animating the
thumb itself. It’s important to
consider these things in relation to
the longevity of a brand.
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#000000
#5AB190
#00B4EB
#FEC925
#FA1E44
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Supporting
App
Here are some designs for the supporting app for all
the data to go to from the phone case and how it can
be viewed.
- Add events to Calendars
- Set sample rate through notification slider
- Community pages for information about alcohol,
peoples stories and journeys, tips and tricks,
challenges.
- Leaderboards within groups and friends.
Competition could encourage better drinking habits
and increase health.
- Real time graph, along with weekly averages and
history search.
Research into the BAC Track Skyn showed that
apple now how an alcohol blood level tab in their
health app, so the data from the phone case could
potentially feed straight into other apps such as this
and fitbit, alongside a more indepth stand alone app
by palm.
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Light level displaying charge, with
engraved back (couldnt laser cut
as it would melt) with logo and
power button.
Sensors that can be on either
side of the phone. This is where
the palm normally rests from
conducting my research
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Summary
Palm is a phone case with intergrated bio sensor
technology, allowing you to monitor your drinking in
a non-invasive way, through measuring your blood
alcohol content through the sweat of your palm.
Sensors detect ETG (Ethyl Glucoronide) in Sweat
molecules. This is a minor metabolite of alcohol
formed when the liver reacts with glucoronic acid,
detoxifying the alcohol into water soluble compounds
which is removed and detectable through fluids such
as sweat.
Once the thin and flexible circuit board converts and
analyses your data. It then transmits it via bluetooth
to Palm’s dedicated app, which keeps a history of
your records, and provides a platform to inform
you about your well being with alcohol through its
community page.
Here you can join specified pages and also connect
with friends, allowing you to compare data and
encourage some healthy competition to whos blood
alcohol content is lowest.
This product is available to many demographics
such as social drinkers, fitness fanatics, all the way to
people who may struggle with addiction.
Data is also transferable to other app that contain
a blood alcohol setting, such as the one on Apples
health app.
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WORKSHOPS

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Iceberg
workshop
This workshop presented by Marten was really
informative and helpful in how to approach my
project, conveying the fact that you must not jump
straight to a conclusion and deconstruct the the topic
from the structures ‘below the surface’. In doing this
you are able to create a project which ticks all the
boxes in solving the problem through defining all the
main c
143

NB - Olly and
Alice
It was a really inspiring talk and a treat to look into
their design process within an industry setting. Main
points I took from this talk were to be:
Brave
Bold
Think Big
Take risks
I liked the emphasis of getting away from the
computer and use your hands. This is what i’ve tried
to do more this project through getting images and
ideas on my boards. It definitely helps in clicking two
things together when all layed out together.
Another thing is to never make assumptions and back
up your direction of a project with evidence.
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NB - Sam
Really cool to see a students journey into the industry and preference to
size of industry he works in. Inspiring in terms of experimentation and
exploration of his FMP with his paper dresses.
Showing some of the work that he’s done at NB studios such as the Petit
Pli branding and Chivas Regal limited edition tins, I got to saw ways of
getting around alcohol advertismet rules and using a products design to
be the brand.
Main things to take from this is that constraints are good in creating a
good outcome and to think big.
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Kieran O’Connor
‘Normal’
148

A really inspirational talk from Kieran. Was really good
to listen about his journey and time as being founder
of ‘BOB’. The main things I took from his talk were:
1) Bend the rules - Constraints can be good.
2) Rearrange the furniture - Print stuff on paper and
see it from a fresh angle.
3) Value the small things.
4) Question the big things - Talk to people!
5) Look at many different angles.
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LUATION
LUATION
EVALUATION
150

What a rollercoaster this project was! In the beginning the wheels were
barely rolling, struggling to even find an initial starting point being stuck
on the theme water too long. Along side this I was also improving my
D&AD and fell into the trap of putting my focus into that project too
long. However, once establishing a topic such as alcohol with so many
paths and problems to go down and interrogate, I felt more confident.
What I did find is that even if you went down a specific route, say
tackling obesity, I’d find that it would cross paths with another problem
that arised with alcohol (i.e. spiking) and so your concept ends up having
multiple uses which was amusing when realising it.
In terms of my research, I really enjoyed exploring the science of
technology and widening my knowledge about alcohol in relation to
health. Testing concepts and conducting primary research really helped
in guiding my ideas.
I feel the cup idea and the parody video do have potential to be refined
into final concepts and is something that I will take into consideration
after hand in.
With my main final concept being Palm, I wish to go back and improve
the app design and features within it. This was my first time designing
the app and really getting to know Illustrator so it was a slow process
for me. However I have improved my knowledge and have no regret in
challenging myself. Adobe XD will be useful in displaying the interface
and testing how it would work.
Logo design and branding was also a first for me too and I enjoyed the
experience of deconstructing what I wanted it to evoke. An approchable
brand normalising the monitoring of our health in relation of alcohol.
To conclude, I’ve learnt so much this project and I am very proud of
where it’s come and is a piece that I shall be adding to my porfolio.
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