Lego - Few Ideas

Wanting to get cracking with this so I have some sort of a starting point. Tried drawing but turned out crap so figured I might as well just mock up ideas on illustrator as it will give a better idea.

Had a play around with some ideas.

Made a block of what could represent lego bricks. Thought it might be interesting to have letters missing from the block?

Above is the process I did. Below's how it turned out. Looks alright.

Did the same with the rest of the word 'back' (intentions of spelling out back to basics).

 Looks alright. Fitted them together to see how it works as an actual word.

Needs colour. Lego is colourful.

The colour makes a huge difference to it. Not sure if it is clear enough? Hmm. I'll leave this for now.

Mocked up the way that is suggested to have bricks if using illustrations of them (as suggested in the lego brief pack).

The top of the brick is what makes lego, well lego. Could apply this to the top of a normal letterform.

Looks alright at this scale, but when it's made smaller probably wont work as clearly or be as obvious what it actually is.

Tried them bigger, as though the letter is actually the lego piece. The two on the B looks a bit too small actually. Just the one works better.

Applied this then to the A. The one piece on top of the B was too wide for the top of the A so I altered the size of it so that it would fit, and changed the one on the B too to be the same.

Did it for all the letters then, this time for the word 'basic'.

Having just the one works better on the rest of the letters except the B. I'll try again with the two on top of it see how it then works alongside everything else.

Looks better. Lego is colourful...

Looks alright. I quite like this, but not sure if it is strong enough really.

Had a quick play around with how it could maybe fit together as though the letters are being used like lego. I like the third one but do think its only readable to me because I know what it is supposed to say.

Considered having it so the letters are built on to a bottom piece of lego which holds them together. The logic is there, but the kerning is way too dreadful to even consider using it at all. 

The next obvious thought was why not build the letters out of lego? Decided to give this a go. Each bit is a piece and tried to make it obvious that it is lots of different ones built together by leaving the faint white lines between each piece.

Looks alright actually. Takes way longer than I expected it to though. Wanting to make sure that I stay as true to lego as I can in terms of how they would fit together, can't really have a floating brick or anything. Tried a couple more variations of the B as well.

Moving on to the A. My initial thought was to try and get it to look like an A with the diagonal sides. The first turned out way too wide compared to the B that I have done so made it thinner.

Realised then it doesn't really need diagonal sides so made this one.

Next the S. For the last two letters, they have been 7 noggins on the top of the pieces wide, and 13 pieces high. I used this to form my S.

Seeing how they all work together so far. Works quite well.

The I is a toughie - do I stick to the same dimensions as the other letters of have it just a simple two noggins wide like the widths of the rest of the letters and 13 pieces high but then now have it the same overall width as the others? Decided to try having the tops on as well. Could only make this 6 noggins wide though. 

Decided to have the top and bottom not as wide, and did the C as well.

Now I've got them all done I tried them all together. Works pretty well.

Lego - Outcome Ideas

The direction that I can take this brief in terms of outcome ideas falls under two things.

• Create an advertising campaign that focus' on the basic of lego, to remind adults about the possibilities of it to pass on to their kids and what not.
• Produce packaging, sort of like a new range labelled basics or something, where you can literally just buy lego bricks. Specific colours or mixed or what ever.

I like the idea of the packaging thing. But then would it be pointless because there is already something similar even though it is hard to find? Hmm. Maybe I could introduce like a basics range, and advertise it, so basically tie the ideas together? Suggest that the products would be available to buy in stores everywhere or something?

I'll look at existing Lego stuff people have done on Behance and sketch down some stuff.

Lego - Research

Decided to have a look round the Lego shop website - http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/?CMP=KAC-GOOGEU&HQS=lego

Clicked 'products' and what comes up is w hole list of the different themed lego that they do.

It's great that they do this, but again it proves my point that they focus mainly on the fact they do this now. 

Took a bit of clicking about but found the 'individual bricks' section.

Even this isn't so simple.

Found a couple that are just bricks though, and have more elements in like wheels and what not.

Hmm. These weren't available in the shop that I went in though. The second one is actually tagged with 'hard to find items'. Surely it shouldn't be hard to find?

Lego - Starting Point

What sticks out to me with Lego lately is that it is so themed. You buy a box of Lego tailored to build/make the specific thing on the box and that's all it can really be used for. And it's expensive!

It is great that you can get this, I mean I would love to own the campervan one to build but its £80. And it's something that you only really build the once.

The way that I remember Lego from when I was younger was that you'd have a box full of the stuff and you would build what ever you wanted to out of it, like houses and dodgy box cars and what not. I took a trip into a toy store that sells lego at home and the shelves were full of the themed boxes but you couldn't actually buy just lego bricks. You could in other brands though - which is interesting as they don't want the others to be bought over lego.

What was so great about Lego when you're younger is that you can do what ever you want with it. I think in a way from my point of view them seemed to have been sidetracked from this a bit.

BACK TO BASICS
The only way that I can really sum up the point that I am trying to make is that I think to attract the new younger generation into Lego, then maybe they need to go back to being a box of simple mixed bricks of all shapes and sizes and colours to use to do what ever you want to use them for.

Design Context - Question(s)

Following my previous blog post, I have been trying to figure out what to ask people and how to word it as I don't want it to be confusing or result in me not getting the answers I am looking for. Just having a quick brainstorm.

• Why do you want to be a graphic designer?
• What made you want to be a graphic designer?
• When did you realise you wanted to be a graphic designer?
• Why are you a graphic designer?
• How did you find out you wanted to be a graphic designer?
• Why did you want to become a graphic designer?

Design Context - Idea

I need to make a start to this.

I have already been collecting together examples of work that influence me, some that are for other briefs that can also suit this one as well as ones specifically for this. All blog posts like that are labelled with Design Context, and then specific ones for this brief are also labelled with Brief 6 DC.

I need to start making a point to this whole thing so that I can start gathering more information for it.

Idea
When I was watching Scrubs not long ago, a girl on there had an exam question where she had to tell someone 'why' she wanted to become a doctor. She went around loads of people and asked them and each of the answers were different and unique to each person (yes I know it's only a TV programme), and this got me thinking 'why' I want to be a Graphic Designer.

I can't remember exactly why I do, but I can remember the exact moment when I knew I wanted to be.

I think for an interesting path to take this brief on would maybe be for me to find out why I do, and then could maybe ask other people on the course as well as industry professionals why as well (great excuse to contact them!). Hmm. And I reckon through doing this I can answer the question as well. Then all the information that I gather then could maybe be put together in a book or something with work examples along side peoples answers as well as my own answer.

It's a starting point. I need to start thinking about contacting studios and what not to start gathering information before the surgeries next week.

I also need to write up my brief.

Brief 10 - Idea

During my portfolio surgery with Ben, he gave me some interesting feedback regarding my Typographic Expression brief that I did during the last module.

He said that he really liked the quotes and thinks that what I have done is a great starting point for something that could be pushed further. He said it is something that could be interesting to have in a coffee shop (which I explained was the purpose for the posters), and he said that it could be nice to use as some sort of promotion for the coffee shop, maybe doing a book for people to pick up and read, and maybe having t shirts for the staff to wear. Tying it all together with some sort of 'yes I have been asked this' sort of thing.

Listening to the feedback I agree with what Ben said, and think to push this brief to be more than it is would make it more substantial and more worth having in my portfolio. I figure since I already have the sayings and the ways that they are designed, then I could maybe do a smaller brief now for FMP to use these then to apply to other outcomes that could be used within a coffee shop. I don't want to spend too long on this brief because I still need to get cracking with the others so will just have this maybe as a day or two day sort of thing.