Collaborative Evaluation://

Although it wasn't completely intentional or our first choice, we ended up being the only group of 3 as opposed to pairs for this collaborative brief. During the session when we had to pick design partners, the majority of the year had already discussed and pretty much decided their partners, therefore leaving little choice for the remaining few. Although I do admit not really discussing about potential partners prior to the session, I actually wanted to be put into groups rather than select working partners as I wanted to test my ability to work with other designers. Similar to the working industry, It's probably very unlikely that I'll get full control of the choice of brief and people I work with/for, therefore wanted to keep this sense of reality with my collaborative practice. In hindsight, I'm definitely glad that this happened as I feel that I've learnt a lot from this in terms of both my own design attributes and working in a small team.

Out of the people who were still looking for working partners, I decided to work with Ross and Kate together as a group of 3 for several reasons, one of them being the fact that I wanted to work in a small group again, as this had not been done since 1st year. I chose Kate because she shared an interest in video but had an open way of thinking and wanted to work on a range of projects, she didn't just want to focus on one area of graphic design which I also shared; this is evident in her past projects where she's produced a selection of work that shows a wide range of design approaches and formats. In some ways, her outcomes are often quite unpredictable, which I really admired and was excited to collaborate with. I also considered Ross for this taste and interests in typography and design for print, which is similar to me. He doesn't really have a specific 'style', but similar to Kate, works on a range of briefs and has produced a nice range of work. Looking back, I think we've made the right decision to work together; because none of us worked specifically in a particular design approach, we were able to think conceptually during the early stages of our development, without being interfered by initially ideas of what we wanted to produce.


As a group of 3, we all had our own interests within graphic design that we wanted to focus on but were able to compromise to focus on identifying the initial problems of the brief. Although the beginning few days did go quite slow, with most minimal of decisions being made, we were all quite dedicated to the project and were able to make some bold decisions later on that made up for the slow start. I think with working collaboratively, you'll often become more responsible and this has definitely been the case with the collaborative brief. Although I did  suggest that I wanted to work more on print and editorial, as a group we all wanted to produce something that had a strong concept first before deciding on what type of product we would design, therefore we didn't really capitalise what specific skills each person would be responsible for until the later stages. When developing practical work, we were able to delegate specific roles depending on our strengths and interests on what we wanted to do. With 3 people in the group, we were able to produce slightly more ambitious ideas and were able to follow up on it, which became beneficial.

In terms of the management of the collaborative practice, we were able to keep on top of things most of the time. Before the project, I did feel that it would be difficult to maintain a fluent collaborative practice throughout due the fact that we're in a 3 therefore making it hard to arrange meetings outside college hours for example. However the dedication from the group as a whole has really shown that working in small groups can work effectively. I was mainly responsible for timetabling and action planning throughout, which was made effective by the use of the blog and emails between us. In terms of design responsibilities directly relating the brief, I didn't really get the chance to work on what I really wanted to develop as we had more people to share responsibilities between. At certain points, I did feel that there was perhaps too little work for too many people to work on, but as a whole design practice, we've definitely benefitted in specific periods of the development.


As a result to this collaborative experience, I'd be more than happy to work collaboratively as a partnership or as a group of 3 again. Although we did seem to have wasted a lot of time making decision between us, the collaboration has really made us think and work more professionally as designers; we were making decisions that were informed and considered throughout rather than simply for producing what could have been an easy way out. When responsibilities were delegated well, we worked efficiently and produced some good results, but as a whole a collaborative practice definitely requires a lot more project management to keep things together and on target. After working with Kate and Ross, I feel a lot more confident as a designers, in terms of my methods of tackling a brief and also working with other people. It was useful to work with someone like Ross who shared an opinion on the importance of researching to be able to resolve a brief effectively. Working with Kate on the other hand kept our ideas a reality, she was often very direct with her opinions, and because she had a very different way of thinking in terms of concepts and practice, it complimented to our development throughout. In hindsight, I'd definitely consider working with Kate or Ross again in the future and I'm satisfied with the design solution we have come up with.

Independent design boards://

Open publication - Free publishing - More typography

YCN Design Boards://

Final design boards ready to be sent to the printers and mounted. Our resolution(s) were very much research lead and we wanted to display a clear and coherent concept and development using 3 design boards. Our first one was to deliver an impact and strong first impression, while showing them what the idea, concept and product is. The 2nd slide was dedicated to explaining the concept and research behind the solution that we have come to and then finishing off with a selection of product photos and production specifications.

Open publication - Free publishing - More graphic design

Resolution://

Our final resolution consists of an interactive booklet containing 10 double page spreads that are initially binded together. The booklet is also held together by a map which opens up providing information and details regarding travel destinations and ferry specifications.

The booklet is aimed towards small families travelling by car, therefore will be distributed in petrol stations, service stations aswell as being promoted at travel agencies.

The concept was to entice potential ferry travellers to the idea of travelling with P&O by providing them with all the essential information they would require to begin their holiday straight away. The booklet contains perforated edges, encouraging users to rip them open to reveal information on a certain destination. Our emphasis was on 'travelling with your car'; one of the key selling points of travelling on ferries, we focused on this by infusing details of car related transport considerations, which ultimately prepares the users to start their holiday the moment they 'explore' the booklet.

1/ Packaged booklet in plastic sleeve to help protect and preserve the contents of the booklet until it is opened by the user 

2/ Booklet without map

3/ ---------

4/ Perforated pages

5/ Map unfolded

6/ Double page spread of Hamburg travelling details

Map development://

Development work for the infographics map which runs alongside the booklet contents. As a group, we decided on using Pantone 265 M as our main colour; it relates to the topic, cuts printing costs during production and keeps the whole product clean and simple without compromising legibility and the brand's image.

With this restriction, the main challenge of the map was to distribute the information evenly throughout while still making it aesthetically interesting. I experimented with a range of patterns, tones, stroke weights and overall layout. Part of the requirement of the map was that it needed to conform to the appearance of the editorial side of the product, therefore a strict grid system was used to plan out the text. Another main issue with the construction of the map was that the positioning of the countries itself was quite limited, I ended up placing it on the right, using the edge of the paper to suggest the border of Europe.

Ideas://

Let's get designing://

After today's crit, we have finally established our final concept and our design direction is starting to come together. Now it's just time to start getting the ideas together that effectively responds to the research and understanding that we have achieved so far.

Revised brief - FINAL://

After revising our written brief and refining our concept for the 3rd time, we've finally committed to a final written brief that we'll be working on from now on. With only a week and a bit left, we really have to get some ideas and started developing towards a final resolution.

The main part of the brief we've refined is the concept, rather than ' The freedom to travel around Europe with your car' we have replaced the word 'travel' with 'explore'. From our personal experience and the research, we have come to a decision that we wanted to promote P&O with the idea of exploring rather than travel as it gives the impression that your journey has no limits and that you are free to do whatever you want. 

Survey results://

These were the results from the 60 surveys that we got from the passengers traveling on the P&O to Rotterdam and back on the 28/0209-02/03/09

From this survey, we aimed to gather a better understanding of what existing passenger's experiences are and their main reasons for choosing to travel with P&O Ferries; this could potentially inspire our ideas and design direction.


(1) Occupation:

• 5 Retired.
• 4 Students.
• 3 Social Workers.
• 2 House Wife's
• 2 Admins
• 2 Adult Industry.
• 2 Lorry Drivers.

* The remaining occupations range from being a Solicitor to working in a Cheese Factory.

(2) Who are you traveling with:

• Friends 21 (33.87%)
• Partner 19 (30.65%)
• Other 13 (20.97%)
• Family 9 (14.52%)

(3) Where you from:

• Hull 9
• Leeds 4
• Doncaster 3
• Selby 2

* The rest of the results are from all over the country. See map for details.

(4) How did you hear about P&O Ferries:

• Other 25 (39.68%)
• Internet 20 (31.75%)
• Friends 10 (15.87%)
• Radio 4 (6.35%)
• Paper 2 (3.17%)
• TV 2 (3,17%)

(5) How did you travel to the ferry port:

• Car 51 (86.44%)
• Other 4 (5.08%)
• Taxi 4 (5.08%)
• Train 1 (3.39%)

(6) Reasons for using P&O Ferries:

• Cost Saving 24 (35.82%)
• Convenient Location 22 (32.84%)
• The Experience 20 (29.68%)
• Time Saving 1 (1.49%)

(7) What is the reason for the trip:

• Business 16 (20.25%)
• Holiday 15 (18.99%)
• Social Event 13 (16.45%)
• Days Out 12 (15.19%)
• Family 11 (13.92%)
• Friends 4 (5.06%)
• Shopping 4 (5.06%)
• Arts/Culture 3 (3.8%)
• Ferry Transfer 1 (1.27%)

(8) How long are you remaining at your destination for:

• 1 Day/Same Day 27 (45%)
• 2-4 Days 18 (30%)
• Over One Week 9 (15%)
• 5-7 Days 6 (10%)

(9) In a year how often would you travel with P&O Ferries:

• Non = 5
• One = 18
• One-Two = 6
• Two = 8
• One-Three = 1
• Two-Three = 6
• Three = 1
• Three-Four = 1
• Four = 3
• Four-Five = 2
• Six = 1
• Seven-Eight = 2
• Ten = 2
• Twelve = 1
• 20+ = 3

(10) What do you like about ferries to flying:

• Freedom To Walkabout 33 (27.97%)
• Other 25 (21.19%)
• No Delays 12 (10.17%)
• No Luggage Restrictions 12 (10.17%)
• Reliability 12 (10.17%)
• Better Facilities 11 (9.32%)
• Better Customer Service 9 (7.63%)
• Dont Like Flying 4 (3.39%)

(11) Whats your overall experience with traveling with P&O Ferries:

• Good 37 (58.73%)
• Excellent 22 (34.92%)
• Satisfactory 4 (6.35%)
• Poor 0
• Bad 0

(12) Would you travel again with P&O Ferries:

• Yes 60 (100%)
• NO 0

Ross got in contact with the marketing department of P&O to request for stock photos and general background and statistical information regarding P&O as a company. After weeks of pestering, we finally got a reply from them.

The information provided was useful and was nice to see that the things he mentioned reflected the results we gathered from our research.

Brief/ Concept Revised://

End of week 01 review://

The first week has pretty much been research lead throughout. We wanted to gather as much information and understanding of P&O and their problems raised in the brief before we can establish a concept and design direction. So far, it seems to be going well. Although we may seem to be at the earlier stages of only just deciding on our concept, I think we've made good progress so far in terms of what we've aimed to achieve for the first week.

We received some constructive feedback during the crit on Wednesday from both Lorenzo and Graham. They both raised some interesting questions on our development that has made us reconsider certain areas. In particular, there was emphasis that we should really pin point our audience first, which would determine our design direction and concept.

Things to consider from the crit://
- Why should people travel by to Europe by Ferry?
- Who are we targeting?
- What do people in general think of P&O? Why do they not use them?
- Should continue with research to aid the development of the concept.

I think from here, we'll just need to organise and put our research together and revise our concept statement. It was emphasized that the concept would be the main challenge of this brief, in some ways I feel that we're on track to get this concept nailed.

Revised P&O brief://

After a week spent researching on P&O and interpreting the brief's requirements, we have rewritten and refined the brief to something that reflects our concept and design direction.

Experiencing P&O Ferries://

During the first few days of analysing the brief given by P&O through YCN, our team found that the target audience and the reason for the problems mentioned in the brief were quite vague. Because of this, we found it difficult to come up with an informed concept that would tackle the brief. As we were all quite conceptual and rounded designers with the motive to come up with a informed solution to the brief, we decided to tackle it by first getting an idea of the client (P&O) by researching into them, which would hopefully identify the actual problems that would determine our concept.

We planned to focus the first week on generating as much research and understanding of the P&O first before establishing the concept or any ideas. Aswell as all the secondary research, we felt that we needed to gain first hand experience of what P&O ferries has to offer. From researching online about P&O, we found that the prices were quite competitive if not more expensive in comparison to other ferries and budget airlines flying to the same destinations, straight away we've discovered that the pricing wouldn't be something that we could put emphasis on towards our concept. We've established from the brief that not enough new customers were using P&O ferries to travel to Europe. Eventhough the brief suggests that people who had not tried using the ferries had an outdated perception of them as being a problem, we do not really know this. We needed to really pin point the main reasons why people are not trying out Ferries in general, many questions were raised in regards to the brief and identifying the problems://

- Are people put off by the prices?
- Is it because of the lack of destinations available?
- Do people have outdated perceptions?
- Are P&O not targeting their audience effectively?
- Do people even know about P&O?
- Why should people use ferries anyway?
- Who are their major target audience and who are they trying to attract more of?
- What are the benefits of traveling by ferry?

As a team we came to a conclusion that a first hand experience would be highly beneficial towards resolving the majority of these questions as we would be able to generate a non biased idea of the facilities and experience of the trip. We would also be able to interview both passengers and crew regarding their experience and reasons for choosing to travel by ferry as opposed to budget airlines that would be much quicker for instance.

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A visual documentary of our experience of P&O, showing our journey from Leeds > Selby > Hull > Rotterdam



Timeline of events://


4.15PM- Managed to get on bus which was already filled, therefore we left 5 mins early. Estimated time of 55 mins in getting to Selby.
5.20PM- Arrived at Selby Train Station. Departed at 5.24PM towards Hull Station
6.00PM- Arrives at Hull Train Station. Waited 10 mins for a taxi.
10 mins taxi ride to the port.
5 Minuet check in, got to the cabin at 6.15PM.
6.50PM- Explore the deck
8.09PM-At Bar. overveiw of the action plan and survey technique.
8.56-Leave the Port. 5 mins early
11.30- go to bed after 15 surveys completed.
6.00- Wake up
7.00-Arrival
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Review of 1st hand experience with P&O Ferries://

One of the main reasons for this trip on P&O ferries was to gather first hand experience of the ferry itself and to gather primary research, opinions and views from both the crew and passengers on the way to Rotterdam. However, things like transport to the ferry port, extra costs for food on the way and overall experience during the trip etc should also be considered as this would be things that people would think about when they decide on the mode of transport.

The main emphasis of the trip was to experience P&O ferries for ourselves, after looking at the potential destinations we could use to gain first hand experience,  After spending several hours looking at prices for ferries and options available for getting to the ferry port, we decided on traveling from Hull to Rotterdam. The price for this journey turned out to be the cheapest for people traveling from Leeds. Eventhough the ferry itself would be cheaper traveling from Dover to Calais, we also had consider the expense of getting to Dover in the first place.

The website of P&O was well designed, it was easy to navigate around, booking information and route details were all easy to find. Booking the ferry itself however wasn't exactly straight forwards, especially if you wanted to get the best deals. From adjusting the settings on the website etc, we've discovered that the prices of 1 foot passenger was the only £13 cheaper than if you were to travel with 4 people. 3 foot passengers was also the same price as 4 foot passengers. The prices in general varied quite a bit, which was made it quite confusing when booking.

On the day of the trip itself, we left Leeds at 16:15; four minutes earlier than planned due to the coach filling up so there was no reason for it to stick around. We arrived at Selby train station just under an hour later, 5 minutes late but mainly due to unforeseen road blocks caused by a road accident. The train at Selby departed on time and we traveled half an our into Hull station. The train journey itself was fine, was fairly packed but enough unreserved seats around. We finally arrived at Hull train station at 18:00, leaving us an hour and a half to get to the ferry port which was only 2 miles away. We took a taxi costing us £7 in total to get the port. On arrival, check in itself was a breeze, there were no queues and the whole experience was very relaxed. We got into our cabin within 20 minutes and were free to explore the decks.

The facilities of the Ferry were as expected from the descriptions on their website, which was good to see, I didn't feel ripped off at all. There were several bars, duty free shops, a small casino, a couple of restaurants, games room and an entertainments area for live acts and bingo aswell as plenty of space to wonder around. The prices of food and drinks were of an average bar price, something that we'd expected really, there was a choice of fine dining available, but was very expensive. There was a cheaper alternative but there wasn't much to choose from. Saying this however, the food available on the ferry was much more acceptable than what you'd get on a plane! The actual atmosphere of the interior was fairly impressive to be honest, half the time I forgot that we were on a Ferry, eventhough it was a 9-10 hour journey, it didn't feel like we were traveling at all.

Cabin wise, the beds were adequate. There was a wake up call at 6:30, the ferry was stationed at 7:00 and we were out by half 7. As a final conclusion to the journey, I would definitely use it again. For the price of £34 return including a coach return from Rotterdam to Amsterdam it was definitely worth the money. Eventhough the journey did take much longer than it would have in comparison to a flight, the ferry ride itself did feel like part of the experience itself anyway rather than just a form of transport. I think from this trip, we've established that the experience itself would be the thing that people pay for and something we could definitely emphasize in our concept. 82% of the people interviewed rated their experience to be good with 34% of that saying that it was excellent, which shows that the service is good and reflects why they're good at maintaining their customers. The question now is, who are the people who are not trying out the Ferries and why are they not using P&O for their holidays?

Booking with P&O/ user experience://

P&O customer reviews://

As part of investigating and researching into P&O as a company. Looking at what P&O is and how they advertise and state on their website alone wouldn't be a fair judgement on what they are like. Looking into customer reviews would probably give us a more accurate insight as to what the facilities and experience is like on the ferry.

Dreamweaver session 01://

Research P&O 01://

Information on the services, destinations and prices of P&O ferries in comparison to it's competition.

Week 01 planning://

Being a team of 3 people, there are many advantages aswell as disadvantages within a design practice towards resolving a brief. Things like time management, documentation and decision making for example becomes a lot more complicated when dealing with a work practice of a small team. Being 3 very different designers with our individual design methods, opinions and way of doing things, we wanted to utilise our individual skills. To keep our work practice organised and consistent, we've decided to keep weekly action plans and review sessions throughout the developmental process. Similar to the contract, this would allow every team member to contribute their ideas and views and make it heard. Through the process of the action plan, each designer would be sure of their individual responsibilities, utilising each designer in the team and as a whole, the design practice would be more efficient.

Below is the 1st week's action plan, showing each task designated to each team member, we wanted to keep the work practice quite professional, therefore we have set strict deadlines for each task to ensure that each part of it is completed within the given time limit.

The chosen one - P&O Ferries://

As a group, we decided on the P&O Ferries brief as it was for a client that none of us were too familiar with. Because of this, it would ideally allow us to generate the research from scratch and not have any reassumptions on ideas or concepts, meaning that we could really focus on the design practice. From the actual P&O brief, we found that the problems they identified and the target audience they wanted to focus on was quite vague, making it quite difficult for us to generate a solid concept. There were several issues that needed to be considered but all required some researching into before we could move on with our design direction. 

Team assembled://

Working in a small team has its advantages and disadvantages, as 3 of us are all quite different designers with our own methods of working, we wanted to make the most out of the collaboration to utilise our individual skills. Once we had established the brief that we were going to tackle, we started drawing out all the different areas to consider in terms of project management for a small design team.