Advice on concepts

[Nicola]

I'm in my second year of a degree in Multimedia. I have an assignment that I am struggling with and I think it's mainly because I just don't know what a concept is.

I've been reading a couple of books who say first identify the message then a theme that carries that message then from that create a concept to work from. But I don't know what a concept is and as such I'm at a loss as to what to do for this assignment.

Can anyone give me some tips or point me to some helpful articles, tutorials please?

 

[Levi]

I'm in my second year of a degree in Multimedia. I have an assignment that I am struggling with and I think it's mainly because I just don't know what a concept is.

ehh (got to say this as it's baffling me)you're on a second year of a degree and not sure what a concept is, did the tutors not explain this in the first couple of weeks? I had on my product design course a lesson a week for atleast the first term on the fundamentals of my course and how we were expected to produce work for them etc.

I've been reading a couple of books who say first identify the message then a theme that carries that message then from that create a concept to work from.

well thats confusing.

But I don't know what a concept is and as such I'm at a loss as to what to do for this assignment.

Can anyone give me some tips or point me to some helpful articles, tutorials please?

What I usually do for concepts (these are basically your initial ideas of where the brief can be taken for a final design - it was usually 6 options when I was at uni) is take the brief and highlight any parts or words which are key to coming up with ideas - think things that mention styles, colours, dislikes, likes etc

I then take these and put them into a spider diagram (or mind flow chart - whatever it's called these days) which help focus my ideas towards a unified idea or several possible directions to be discussed with the client.

I normally have a sketch pad or paper near me when I'm doing this as visual ideas normally pop up while doing this.

Then it's just a case of following the usual development processes that you would normally use to get to your final design.

 

[Anagoge]

Very simply put, a concept is your idea, on paper, for all the world to see. A concept is not the final thing you will submit for your assignment, but simply a path which you have an option of going down.

However, as Levi has said, you're in your second year of a degree level course. Even before enrolling, you should know what a concept is and it leads me to think that the whole post is fake.

 

[Jimlad]

No there are people that struggle with concepts at uni. Not sure if I was one or not but I definitely knew a few. It doesn't help that many literary references and tutors throw the same gobbledygook talk at students.

Basically, you have an opportunity to say absolutely ANYTHING with your next assignment. So what do you want to say? And what emotion do you want to use to say it? And how are you going to convey all that with colours and styles and references and... well... DESIGN?