I am Lucy Scougall, a 3rd year Visual Communications Student at UHI Perth. I am originally from Edinburgh, in 2018 I got my HND at North East Scotland College in Aberdeen before settling down in Fife & taking up a degree course in Perth. This year of study has been my most challenging by far – studying from home is a lot more difficult than I had anticipated, especially as the days got shorter and weather colder but I have enjoyed the challenge that has come with self-directed study and online classes. I have managed to keep myself motivated and focused most of the time, surprisingly and am having fun with the briefs this year. I am feeling more organised for this semester as well as a busy 4th year next year. Lockdown has me missing my main form of inspiration, which is travel. Under normal circumstances, I grab myself a yearly flight to South East Asia, as well as cultural European countries and go on some of the beaten track adventures. This inspires my creativity and ideas and is fuel for passion for design as well as photography.
Having the spare time in lockdown has inspired reading and with that I have discovered a keen interest in typography and have now focused my work to as type based as possible, moving away from my usual vector-based logos. I have also invested in a vast selection of books as well as an iPad to improve my skills and allow myself to be more creative (without the mess that comes with paint and pastels).
In semester one of third year, I enjoyed all four modules, but I particularly enjoyed learning about design thinking and wicked problems. I found it interesting to see how the design process can be adapted and used by so many different organisations to solve so many business problems. I found the reading a lot to take in, but as I got more in depth and pulled the information together. I really enjoyed the challenge of putting the theory into practice through the RSA brief. I worked with a friend in Indonesia to carry out new and interesting design methods to come up with a plan that would help the community in the long run. I felt proud feeding back my ideas and final solution to the community members who had been interviewed and who had helped me with my project, and I am really looking forward to seeing them all again on my next travel adventure.
This semester I am really enjoying the D&AD brief, specifically I have chosen the brief by Landor and Key4Life on using the power of typography to tackle knife crime. Although this is a sensitive matter, the statistics show the severity of the consequences of knife crime, one particular statistic has really stood out to me – 7 out of 10 young people treated in A&E in the UK for a knife related injury have been stabbed by their own knife. This kind of data has really pushed me to want to make a difference with my designs and really learn how to harness the power of the written word. My process started with looking into campaigns relating to similar matters, as well as researching the companies involved in the brief. I also used a book called “top secret” I then considered type styles and personalities along with considering related images for inspiration. I have worked hard on idea generation and development of a physical poster so far and am about to start researching and storyboarding for a digital typographic animation as well as a non-traditional touch point. I am excited to keep working on this along with my other projects over the next few months.
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