George  Wright  –  Creative  Industries  Project  Management    

Creative Project Final Evaluation At the beginning of the academic year, I was intrigued to see what the unit of Creative Industries Project Management consisted off. After a few lectures it was clear that it was a unit that had no similarities to any unit I’ve done before whether it be in school & college or at university. I have never had to entrust myself to find a client and creative a time management schedule to create a project before. Finding a client was an easy task. In the summer just before the university year started, my friend Ronan Lilley told me and my other mates that he is starting to rap, and although it was more of a hobby, he would obviously welcome any success of his project. So after the lecture where we were given full details of what our coursework aimed to achieve and how to find a client, I had no hesitation asking Ronan if he wanted someone to create & design all the artwork for his forthcoming projects; and with him knowing my history of graphic design, he also had no hesitation agreeing to work with me during the entirety of this project. The client wanted an album cover, a booklet, a printed CD and a poster to begin with. But further discussions with him meant that we thought we should create a full EP design, including the aforementioned but also some merchandise, a logo which he could affiliate himself with and also a custom drawn box to present these artefacts, whether it to people he knows within the London & UK rap industry or even potential record label scouters. The EP will also be made free to stream on Soundcloud as you need to build a solid fan-base before you can start charging people for the product. Therefore a well-designed project could indeed help my client turn this hobby into a source income if the project is successful. It’s also worth to note that the actual EP in its entirety will be posted on Soundcloud as a release near the summer. Communication throughout was always going to be good, whether it was professional or informal; but amid concerns that our familiarity together would lead to procrastinate the project tasks I devised a Gantt chart online in which you could allocate tasks to particular people. I shared this with my client so he could ensure that the tasks he was allocated were completed on time. Obviously as with any project there were delays with a fair few of the tasks due to university, work etc. The tasks the client had to face were mainly down to sketches and artwork. We both agreed that using his art skills he could draw pieces that would feature across all the artefacts. This gave a sense of uniqueness to his work and also made his project standout in a fiercely competitive and growing market in UK rap & hip-hop. Of course I researched some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed albums and the artwork used for each CD. This included The Streets’ Original Pirate Material, Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner and Loyle Carner’s A Little Late EP. With the latter album/mixtape being the only recent release mentioned, we took importance from that. It also has a hand-drawn design and simplicity to the cover that we hoped to integrate into the client’s final artefact. One of the first tasks that directly influenced the final artefacts was creating a logo for my client Ronan Lilley. It had to be under his rap moniker ‘Casso Clay’ which has been his name since he started getting into his hobby. In line with the initial client proposal, Ronan himself would draw the logo that I would then use to digitally trace

George  Wright  –  Creative  Industries  Project  Management    

on Adobe Illustrator CC to ensure that the final logo would be a vector file and could be re-sized to any dimension and retain it’s top quality. Adobe Illustrator is a programme I only started using last year in my Graphics unit and my previous experience in this would come to fruition, as I was easily able to trace the artwork my client sent me. This process would be repeated several times with all the artwork sent to me by my client, for the exact same reasons. Once this was completed, we could start focusing on the front cover for his EP. Using researched covers as an inspiration, I decided to start the design with a photo that was taken of my client whilst he was attending university. It’s got a similar colour tone as the Original Pirate Material cover which gives out a late night feel, with lighting provided by street lights to show the urban area in which he lived in. A similar sort of picture featuring my client would also be used for the CD print & the back cover to keep the same consistent design throughout. The cover design was created on Adobe Photoshop CC, a programme I have at least 6 years of experience with so I understood how to use Photoshop to it’s maximum potential. Several drafts were made with different colour designs of the drawn artwork & logo and also the darkness of the background image. Eventually the client and me settled on a design that would set the theme for the rest of the artefacts. Next was to create the booklet which the front cover would be on and also other pieces of artwork & photos my client has taken which relates to each song. The same process was done with these pieces of art Ronan sent me. This was all done on Adobe Illustrator CC as that is what format the booklet template was on (.ai). I showed the client the finish article and he was happy with it. The images were meant to be in line with the track listing, so the user could flick through chronologically whilst each song was playing; although this did not reflect the final artefact as the Anglesea printing services had it printed in an alternate order. Even though it doesn’t match the track order, it isn’t really a big deal but it would’ve been nice to have it perfect but unfortunately there’s no enough time to correct it. There was also a sizing error meaning I had to shorten the top and the bottom but luckily I left enough bleeding space that the edit would lead to no real loss of quality. As the back cover with track listing kept the same format as the front cover, not much discussion was needed with my client about the design. I just needed the artwork and edited it for final use. The exact same techniques were used throughout and the final product was as expected, I just needed to trim the sides yet again to fit inside the jewel case. The poster was an issue with the client, as he didn’t have an idea of what it could consist of. He entrusted me to create a poster that would help promote his EP if it were to be distributed and put up around the area. My inspiration for the poster was straight from the display of Soundcloud on mobile itself. With one of my clients tracks already on there as a single, I took a screenshot on my iPhone 6 and edited it on Photoshop, inputting the EP cover as it would look on Soundcloud itself. As the younger generation today is mobile & technology based, I thought this would be perfect. I also created a QR code of my clients Soundcloud page, which if scanned, would send the potential consumer straight to it. This ease of use could draw in a fan that just happened to pass the poster and wanted to listen to some music. I showed my

George  Wright  –  Creative  Industries  Project  Management    

client the final outcome and he was impressed with the innovative nature of the artefact. Finally was the t-shirt. The client wanted a simple design that showed off him as a ‘brand’. His logo was great for this and after some minor adjustments of the positioning of the logo I got it printed off of RedBubble, of whom I’ve used before. The t-shirt arrived and I also ordered some stickers of the logo at a low fee too. It was of good quality and one I expected off of RedBubble. If the t-shirt is successful and people start asking my client where they can get merchandise then we can work on more elaborate designs. Overall this unit was challenging and tested my skills in an area that I was wholly unfamiliar with. Working closely with a client is something I’ve never experienced and even though it was stressful at times; there was great joy to be had when it was all finished and my client was happy with my project. We’ve both benefitted from the project and hopefully it aids our success in the future.