To be congratulated: Ulf Finndahl,
Graphic Design Certificate student from Sweden,
is the winner of the Gen Art design competition!
Ulf Finndahl 's final design,
after several stages of revision.
Marking our first foray into an html
design competition, the project was to design an
html invitation for a coctail shopping spree event
at the Altman Building in downtown Manhattan. The
client, Gen Art, attracts a hip, sophisticated audience
with a high taste level and an awareness of trends,
so the work had to be in keeping with that style.
Competitors were given free reign
with the design, and students took the idea in various
directions, but never straying from the fashion
theme. Five entrants with outstanding submissions
were selected by the faculty judges as finalists.
The client was able to quickly narrow down the piece
that most fit the Gen Art profile and the mood of
the event.
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| The client asked
Ulf to do a banner ad design as well. |
Here's the story of how Ulf
Finndahl won the Urban Word design competition:
| Round
One: The First Submission |
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Ulf's first
design impressed faculty judges and
Gen Art. |
"My goal was to create something
less ordinary. Not just a good looking
Web site, but something that makes
the target group continue to read
and hopefully buy a ticket to the
shopping spree." Ulf's first
design reached out to a hip, young
crowd.
Innitially, the client felt that
Ulf's page design showed great potential,
but the mood wasn't quite right. "I
love the energy!" said Tali Sedgwick
of Gen Art, "but it is a bit
too youthful. Our target for this
event is a chic, 30-something client,
not as funky, more refined. Someone
who is looking for high-end, one-of-a-kind
products and is willing to spend money."
Ulf went back to the drawing board
with the client's feedback in mind.
Showing a flexibility that is an invaluable
trait for a designer, Ulf took the
client's comments and came up with
a new concept. "After 100 ideas
or so I had an idea to make the invitation
as an exclusive-looking shopping bag
with the actual invitation on the
bag. I started to search for suitable
photos and illustrations to inspire
me."
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| Round
Two: A Winning Concept |
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|
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| Ulf's
revised design secured his place
as the winner, but Gen Art still
had plenty of revisions to request. |
His new design garnered him the
winning spot and introduced some
elements that really caught the
client's fancy. "We love
the image of the mannequin!"
said Tali Sedgwick. Also a step
in the right direction was the
use of the tonal lavendar color
scheme and colorblocking effect.
As a client who is used to dealing
in the visual vernacular, Sedgwick
was able to request very specific
changes to bring the piece in
the direction she wanted.
"We thought the lavender
was precicely the feel of the
customer we were trying to attract,"
says Sedgwick, "so we asked
Ulf to take out the red and orage
and go with the tonal lavendar
colorscheme." A few other
changes in the text and the use
of other images elevated the invitation
to a more dressy look.
While Ulf was working on
his design, Tali and her colleagues
at Gen Art were putting together
the lineup of designers and
talent for the event. As is
often the case in the arts
and entertainment industry,
nothing would be solidified
until the last minute. so
Ulf was advised that he'd
have to be ready for crunch
time at the end of the project.
As the chosen winner, Ulf
was now put directly in conctact
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| Round
Three: Final Revisions...And
a Last Minute Addition |
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In the end, Gen Art was so thrilled with the design
that they wound up using the invitation for both
their New York and their Miami shopping spree events.
On the first day of sending out the invitation,
they got 25 ticket purchases and a lot of positive
response from people asking "who did your design
for the invitation?"
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One
last-minute change from a white background
to lavendar.
|
Response was so positive to Ulf's invitation design,
Gen Art asked him to design a banner ad in keeping
with the concept of his invitation. Ulf worked quickly
to come up with a design that conveyed the mood
of the event in a different format. The sunflower
became a starring motif.
|
| Ulf's animated
banner ad design! |
"It's been a long journey from the first sketches
with different colors, photos and typefaces to the
final piece,"says Ulf. "It was a challaging
and very exiting mission to come up with a strong
design idea that corresponded to the soul of Gen
Art, and cool to have the opportunity to design
something for a leading American organization. I
will definitely take this experience with me in
my future in Graphic Design!"
