damien's design methodology

My process will almost always involve a lot of research, chatting with the right people (preferably over a tasty drink), and diving into the abyss of the internet. When I finally emerge and come up for air (quite) some time later,  I’ll start sketching and tinkering, playing with the various elements I have found on my journey, often only to dive back in to find new elements that I think I need to go further on the design. This process can be time consuming, but it makes coming up with the perfect design so much easier in the long run.

When I have finalise the project and have something that I am confident in, I’ll prepare it for showing off (presenting and selling it) to the stakeholders. I consider my designs as being deliberate, each element is created for a reason, and there is a story behind it. This is what I try to convey this when going over my concept.

Mattel case study

I was heavily involved with the creation of the graphic elements that were to be used in this Family Entertainment Centre. I had to dive deeply into the styles that would be used and translate the relevant infomation to the rest of the team building the concepts for this project.

I’ve added the different research and concepting below to try and give you an idea of the way I worked for this endeavour.

 

Branding deck

Before creating any of the graphic elements of this family entertainment centre, I made a deck that would be circulated amoungst the (3D) artists and designers to ensure that they would keep within the guidelines that I had specified. This was derived from both the guidelines received from Mattel, as well as from myself. The deck was made with each of the attractions that we were developing, and the general look and feel that we wanted from each. I have added a couple of pages below introducing the general guidelines for the Barbie section of the centre.

 

Primary Logo design progression

My first step in this case was to look for a suitable font.

These were the first few concepts I started to play around with, using elements from the Barbie, Hot Wheels and Mega Blocks logos in a couple of them. I decided that I wasn’t so keen on where I was going here and took a different approach.

 

My second round of concepts focused on a different font for this logo design. I decided to eliminate the colours in these concepts so I would focus mor on the form of the logo.

Having pretty much desided on the form that I wanted to use, I have played around with the layout a bit, adding a shape and some depth to the later versions.

Now I start adding in some colour. The colours chosen are from the palatte that Mattel had in their guidelines for Barbie, Hot Wheels and Mega Blocks. I liked the idea of plastisising the logo to try and highlight the toy aspect of the centre.

Final design, and horizontal alt design for the Mattel FEC logo

The final concepts that was presented for the family entertainment centre. My final decision was based on the bright colours, the plastic, toy-like, appearance of the logo, and the way that the logo can be given different forms (as with the horizontal form I included), yet still be recognisable.

NGUX Sticker examples

This series of stickers was developed for the National Geographic Ultimate Explorer Family Entertainment Centres that would be opened in different countries accroiss the world. 

I pretty much had a free hand in the design and was also expected to come up with the text used in these stickers as well. I only had to respect the guidelines as set out by National Geographic.

I have shown some of the reseach I had done on the internet, some of my first concepts and the final design.

Sticker concept - Mexico

Small sample of images used to develop final design for Mexican themed sticker
Design progression of the final design for the Mexican themed sticker

Sticker concept - Botswana

Small sample of images used to develop final design for African themed sticker
Design progression of the final design for the African themed sticker

Sticker concept - Indian Space

Small sample of images used to develop final design for Space org. themed sticker
Final design for the Space org. themed sticker