I was still struggling to come up with a major project idea, and it was getting later in the semester. I knew what I wanted to achieve from it, but I couldn’t think of anything that would allow me to do so.
I had a tutorial with Neil to speak to him about my concerns. He agreed that my intent was clear and that I just needed to find something to use as a vessel to achieve my goals for the project. He suggested that I think about my hobbies and interests and use these to come up with something that I feel passionate about. He told me about a past student who designed a range of infographics based on information about himself. I found this extremely useful as it highlighted that choosing a subject that I already know a lot about would be beneficial as I would have the background knowledge to get stuck in straight away.
From this meeting, I decided to go home and think about things that I am interested in that I could develop a project idea from. I considered that I could create a brand identity for myself. I had to consider what my brand values would be. I thought about my brand being a store- what kind of items would it sell? I thought about some things that I loved:
Then I thought about what kind of energy the brand identity would radiate by writing down words I would want to use to describe myself:
I thought about the brand being a store that would sell things to make your bedroom feel more like home. As a university student, I have always loved customising my room to make it feel like home, as the university accommodations aren’t always comforting.
However, I still wasn’t 100% sure I was happy with the idea. I wanted to keep brainstorming to see if anything else came to mind. This time, I thought about concepts that interested me rather than literal items:
I thought about astrology, considering a zodiac themed project where I would design something in different ways/styles that reflected the traits of each sign. However, I don’t think I know enough about the zodiacs to be able to do this, and I would not want to design anything that didn’t come across as accurate.
I also thought about personal growth concepts; I’ve read a lot of poems about healing, empowerment, and self-discovery recently. They have often helped lift my spirits when I have felt my mental health getting the better of me, and I considered coming up with a project that would incorporate these poems somehow.
While I was trying to think of ways that I could turn astrology into a project, a thought popped into my head. I thought about why astrology is becoming more popular in recent years, and I wondered if it had anything to do with how people identify themselves. I think something I have noticed about this generation is that they enjoy categorising themselves. It’s not just astrology either, more and more people are taking the 16Personalities test to find out what personality type they are. Also, since Harry Potter became popular, people were excited about the idea of finding out which Hogwarts house they would be in.
I then remembered some videos I had seen on TikTok, describing groups of fictional characters with similar personality traits as a specific colour character.
This is a relatively new concept, but from looking at how the popularity of star signs and the 16Personalities quiz is increasing, I think it could be interesting to develop.
I think it would be interesting to create a brand that sells products based off these colour characters. I would need to develop the brand identity, a website, product designs to sell on the website as well as any promotional material and potentially even physical items to present at the end of year showcase.
Although it was a worry with branding that I would not have as much creative freedom if I came up with a brief, I feel that designing a brand from scratch about something I am interested in will allow me to experiment freely, especially if I will be designing things like prints, as there is no limit on how many different designs I could create.
I made some rough notes on this idea and where to begin:
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