Day 25: Final Presentation and Praise

With our 83 page presentation ready to go we traveled to our meeting with confidence, relief, and a bit of sadness that our time in London was drawing to a close. The work that all the students did shined and the presenters made it come to life. The clients were nodding and had many nice things to say after we concluded. Here are just a few: "Great Job" "Great Presentation" "Great Work" "Great Listening & Responding" "Remarkably Competent" "If I thought it was sh*t, I would tell you... But well Done!" "Rich, Engaging, and Fresh" It sounded to all of us that the work we had done will be used in the very near future on this global and international project. we could not be more excited.

Day 23 & 24: Polishing & Penultimate preparation

On Wednesday we worked to polish all the parts and pieces of the package we were presenting on Friday. On Thursday we went to work at our host's office in Central London so we could print. The students and teachers came wearing fancy clothes for the evening soiree with the client or brought clothes to change into. With the final presentation complete we walked to the Lunar Mission One event, met our client and many of their supports, mixed and mingled then had a late dinner.

Day 22: half day of work and half day in a 500 year old palace

Today with our project moving forward we broke mid-day to travel by tube and train to Hampton Court and Palace. The summer pad of Henry the 8th. The students walked the grounds and the palace enjoying the mild summer weather and the historical beauty.

Day 21: Refining our final presentation

With 4 days to go until our final presentation and 3 days to go until we attend an LM1 event in London, the students worked on making sure all the pieces were in place, all the "i"s were dotted, all the "t"s were crossed, this will continue the next few days looking for holes in our designs or communication strategy.

Wet Weekend

The weekend saw students go out and explore many aspects of London and the countryside. From Shoreditch, Tate Mondern, clubs, Manchester Soccer/football games, Harry Potter Museum, The Tower of London, National Portrait Gallery, Borrough Market, and more. Below are pictures from a wet Cambridge on Sunday.

Day 20: Rainy Day

It was a lovely day on Friday - temps in the low 60s and rain - dropping into the 50s at night. California Winter had arrived in London. We elected to postpone the field trip to Hampton Palace till next week when sun is forecast. Instead we worked all Friday and got ahead on what is due Friday the 31st. At 5 we broke and all headed off to find some dinner and continue exploring.

Day 19: Presentation #4

This morning was spent polishing the presentation. The class left the hotel at 11 for our 12:30 meeting. The tube was packed with people, hot, sweaty, and after taking the Northern line to the Central line to the Picadilly line to the Northern line and we made it to our destination. Buro Happold provided a lovely lunch and we met with Mr. Allan Fraser-Rush to go over the project progress. The meeting went well and with positive feedback and clearer direction we go into our final week in great shape.

Day 18: polishing and prepping

Today the students did a lot of job shifting and team jumping to help each other get things done so that we could be in a good place and ready to present on Thursday at 12:30. Class ended at about 5:30 in spite of a small oddity that happened this afternoon. A mysterious person entered the part of the hotel where we work, at first we were not sure if they were a guest at the hotel or if they were up to something. We formed a protective "neighborhood watch" program and alerted the hotel staff. The hotel was quick to react, sending a manager to check on us, later the individual (who had left the area we were in) was sighted and identified to the hotel management. They then took over and we went back to work. Several students and the professors went out to dinner, taking a nice walk along the canals to a pub called the Narrow Boat. Some folks had more than one dessert.

Day 17: tying up loose ends

Today was a day of exploration, trial and error, and fits and starts. However, by quitting time the class and the work we need to finish for the client are both in a good place as we head into Wednesday and heavy meeting preparation. The power strip in the image is a good way of capturing what today was like...

Day 16: Making what's needed…

Today all the teams pushed hard toward the goals needed for Thursday's client meeting, which was moved up from 2:30 to 12:30. Now with two less hours and the same amount of work the teams had to work even harder. Four variations of the Mascot were created, the Launch Kit and details were moved forward, as were the presentation deck, and brandmark standards.

Sunday = fun day

Today was a free day for the students and they were all off on their own having fun in London. I will report back more tomorrow and possibly share some of their pictures. I made my annual pilgrimage to the Victoria and Albert Museum and enjoyed the many things they have on display. And, yes I do like the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Oxford visit

Today the Chimenti family and several students went by tube and train to Oxford. A walking tour through many of the colleges and the history of the city were enjoyed, followed by afternoon refreshment and sustenance at the Pub that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien frequented.

Day 15: Half Day & Design Museum

With refined and clearer direction from our client the student teams were reshuffled slightly as they began to work toward our upcoming client meeting. But first we had to sing Happy Birthday to Melanie - the first of two student birthday's we will celebrate while here. Melanie enjoyed a personal sized cake with candles. At 12:10 we stopped, headed to our rooms to drop our laptops, gather our tube passes, and then met in the lobby by 12:30. The Design Museum is located just on the other side of the Tower Bridge with plenty of eateries to grab a quick bite from. Some of the students ate while looking at the Thames and the historic Tower of London. We then spent a bit of time looking at the exhibitions in the Design Museum including the winners of the international design awards across the broad spectrum of design. Thus ended our first work week in London and thus began the students first weekend to explore and experience our new surroundings.

Day 14: Presentation Day

On Thursday the students worked in their three groups to finalize and polish their presentations for our meeting with the client at 2pm. Please look closely at Dee's expression in the upper left hand picture. Documentary photography is not everyone's cup of tea. We broke at noon to change into our meeting cloths, then boarded the London Underground to get ride to meet our client. Once we were in the neighborhood we stopped for a quick bite to eat and then on to set up and hear a brief presentation from Mr. Andrew Comer of Buro Happold - our gracious host. Then we heard from David Iron our client about Lunar Mission One. This was followed by the student presentations along with feedback from the client. The meeting went well, we have clear directions and steps for our second to last meeting, next week. Then it was time to hop back on the tube and wind our way home to change and have dinner.

Day 13: pushing toward the first face-to-face meeting

The routine resumed this morning with students in their groups working on the pieces of the project that will be presented on Thursday. The work was long but the effort paid off as we ended mostly on time and some of us went out to Primrose Hill to eat food, take a walk that let us over look London, and then a further stroll by the canals. Tomorrow we rehearse our verbal and visual presentation and then on to the client.

Day 12: Classroom in a Bar, Tubes, Pubs, and Fun

Tuesday morning came early very early. The hotel is having many of their conference rooms remodeled and so the best place for us to meet for class was the hotel bar that is not used until the eventing. The students split into their teams and worked on the next phases of the project. We broke for lunch and then resumed work quitting at a bit after 5pm. Everyone retired quickly to their rooms, freshened up, changed clothes, and headed out to ride the tube, explore a bit of London, and grab some dinner.

Sunday blurs into Monday

I'm writing this on Wednesday morning, the 15th of July. 12 of the 13 students met in the AF parking lot at CU at 1pm on Saturday the 12th. Professors and students then rode in 2 shuttles to LAX where most of us flew on Virgin Atlantic leaving at 6pm on Sunday afternoon and arriving at Heathrow in London at 11:30 (4:30 AM California time). At Heathrow we met up with those flying in on different airlines. We piled into 3 shuttles and headed to the Hotel. checking in by 3pm. Tired we regrouped at 4:30 (8:30 am PST) to sort out tube passes and grab some dinner. Most of us returned to the hotel by 7 pm to try and get some sleep.

Day 10: Presentation Two

Today class began again at 7:30 again. We moved from our class room to another building and room that had dedicated video conference equipment - there was a technical glitch and so we had to move to a university conference room in another building. After the pleasant morning walks we got down to business - the business of presenting our much improved solutions of our clients communication problem. The client was very pleased and a much clearer direction has emerged for what we are doing next week in London. The rooms we have lived in for the past two weeks have been cleaned and all the "tish" is stored for the November exhibition. The t-shirts have also arrived. We are ready for London...

Day 9: One day to go

Today the students were treated to donuts, thanks Jeanie! Much time was spent sourcing pictures that conveyed the correct emotion; refining and reshuffling presentation decks, and practicing presentations for tomorrows big presentation. Eventually the students started to show some strange behavior due to fatigue and relief as the class ended before 8pm, two hours earlier than the Thursday before.

Day 8: Visual and Verbal Presentation Preparation

Wednesday the class immediately formed up in their teams to work of their visual and verbal presentation decks. Ron and Eric (who you never see in the pictures as he is behind the camera) moved from group to group art directing, helping, and imparting best professional practice wisdom. The end of the day saw the students run through their rough group presentations in anticipation for Friday.

Day 7: Running Smoothly

By end of day Monday refined visual directions had been chosen, which meant that the teams were able to begin digitizing their brand and sub brand marks. This involved hundreds of iterations of font exploration, type size, weight, and placement. At the same time iterations of marks testing size relationships, line weights, texture, and composition. By end of day each team had a clear, clean brand and sub brand direction.

Day 6: Heavy Concept Lifting

Monday morning began with an entire class debrief on the notes the customer sent after Friday's presentation. Then the teams broke up and began to unpack how their visual ideas needed to change. The hard part of visual communication is to match the message the client wants to portray to the visuals that represent that idea.

Day 5: Presentation

It is 5:15 am. Emails begin to exchange between the UK client and the professors over the logistics of the video conference. It is 7:15 am. The entire university is closed and quiet. Tired but professionally attired the students and professors arrive. Last minute run throughs of presentations take place. Long distance phone calls are exchanged as technical glitches occur. Video is not possible. The students adjust. Hearing is difficult on both ends because of the "fish bowl" effect of conference calls and the language nuances between UK English and American English. The presentation and QA take over an hour. The client is pleased with where things have gone, but have also changed the parts of the assignment originally given. After the call ends, relief and debrief. The stage is set for next week…

Day 4: Long into the night…

Thursday is crunch day. Everything we've been working on needs to come together - concepts, artwork, oral presentations, and visual presentations. There is a lot to do by end of day so that the final presentation deck can be sent to our client in the UK. Sometimes things don't go according to plan. We were sad to lose one of the team to illness. We were sad to lose a quarter of the presentation to a computer/operator error. In spite of these the teams rose to the challenge - staying late, working hard, helping each other. There weren't 3 sub teams any more, there was ONE team working for the same goal. (the university closed at 3pm for the Holiday weekend) Comfort food snacks were acquired - munching commenced. The work continued. At 7pm pizza was ordered and devoured. Students were rehearsing, polishing, explaining, and refining their part of the presentation. Others were scanning, editing, designing, checking for consistency. By 10 pm the presentation was done and sent. Time to go home, sleep, and get ready to return in just a few hours...

Day 3: Expanding, contracting, and preparing.

Today the brand mark preliminary design directions were refined, the "launch" kit preliminary designs were expanded, presented, contracted and refined. All of this was done to get each team ready to prepare their presentation for Friday's early morning SKYPE meeting. Each team then presented a rough version of their work to help them prepare for the work needed on Thursday.

T-shirts to brand us all

This year we are having t-shirts made for the class, the professors, and our clients. The students came up with a variety of ideas, the students voted on the best one, and that design was polished and sent off to print. Thanks to Chapman University President Doti for supporting our class and project by generously covering the cost. Ms. Lindsey Meyer was the winner and her design can be seen here.