End of Module Evaluation

At the start of the module my rationale was ‘A brand/identity investigation of type and image with a focus of print and packaging’ To be honest I didn’t think of this until the very end of the module. But looking back at my work I have kept to this rationale quite well. All my briefs relate to my rationale apart from my ‘book fair’ brief but that was something I did on the side really. Personally I think you shouldn’t get too bogged down with what ‘type’ of designer you are. But I think I have succeeded when designing a brand/identity for my projects they all have a recognisable logo or concept to the brand. As for the print and packaging side, I only did one ‘packaging’ brief so I could of pushed that side of the rationale further. The print aspect touches on all my briefs I did and has taught me to think a lot more about print in the world rather than on the screen.

Everyone says it, but if I had worked as hard as I had done in the last 3 weeks since the very beginning I would have achieved a far greater amount. As a designer I think I miss or don’t do enough research. But there is a point when you have to stop researching and start designing because you can carry on researching forever. Perhaps I just make that step a bit too early. In future I will try to fix this. I have thought more in depth about print processes and functionality this module. But I would say I haven’t done this across all briefs where I should have. I should have looked more deeply into methodologies into everything rather than just a few aspects of the ‘brief’. This is probably due to time. Time is always the killer on this course. I think I manage my time well enough, it is maybe that I am not aiming high enough or not really thinking hard enough about my work that my design work isn’t as good as it should be. I do a lot of my ‘time management’ by just writing to do lists or drawing a quick sketch of what I need to do. This works well for me because I think spending time on organising time management is wasting time. I know what I need to do, then I do it. As for showing this is where I fall down. I don’t tend to keep these little scraps of paper with my lists or doodles on. I lost a lot of time this module due to unfortunate circumstances but I think I am happy with what I have achieved with what time I had.

Being in the studio more and more has given me a constant flow of feedback and also I’ve been giving feedback to others. I have also learnt a whole lot more about Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.

This module has pushed me the most at any point on the course. Through the module I have learnt things from my self and other around me and I have produced 6 briefs that I would be happy to put in my portfolio.

Brief Evaluation - BPKA

This live brief taught me lots of things including that time management sometimes isn't left up to you but the client. If the client doesn't give feedback or you are out of contact for a while progress is often slowed. I feel I did create a identity for the company through use of colour and a recognisable logo. I could of improved this brief by extending the 'branding' through advertisements and website design.

Brief Evaluation - Manchester Book Fair

This brief was a really quick one so there isn't much work to show for it. I just wanted to produce a cool screen print to sell which I think I achieved. If I where to push this and make it into a full project I would perhaps create a series of different famous Red Indian chiefs and make different screen prints for each one. I could of also pushed the packaging further than just a string and a tag.

Brief Evaluation - D&AD 'Little White Lies'

This brief was my shortest. I didn't push for a wide range of deliverables because the brief only wanted a magazine cover. I did focus mostly on this design cover and I feel I came up with an ok concept for the illustration. I did find this hard to do because the film is so dreamy and ambiguous that there isn't a real focused theme apart from Life/Death/ Childhood. Its pretty hard to draw all those things at once.
I did keep to the brief though, which asked to have the main character and as the focus and make it iconic.   If I had more time I would probably change the type that I used, perhaps trying more handwritten methods and making it slightly more legiable. When printed out it is readable, but on the boards it isn't which means if it were to go into production I would have to consider stocks to be used to make sure it was legible.

Brief Evaluation - Nuts About Nuts

I think this has been my favourite brief. This is because I came up with a strong concept that worked really well with the brief and gave me lots of scope to play with ideas. Through this strong concept I really pushed to make a really good design outcome. The 'point of sale' part of the brief is where I lacked input. I think this is because it just doesn't interest me as much as branding and packaging. Because I lacked enthusiasm for the area you call tell that the designs aren't as well thought out or executed. But a part of the  'pos' area was the booklet which I made. I really enjoyed doing this and researching into the 'nuts' world further. Although 'layout' wasn't part of my initial rationale I think this helped me learn and understand it further. I think these skills are useful when being a designer in any niche
Taking final photographs made the deliverables stand out even more and I think this brief will look good in my portfolio.

Brief Evaluation - Higher Ground

This brief to me feels lacking in some way. Probably because there aren't as many deliverables as the others. I am happy with my branding of the band though. The logo I designed I am very pleased with, its what a logo should be simple and good looking. I think I have conveyed the message through the branding and done this appropriately for the target audience. What I would have done differently if I were to do this again is really explore the mail out layout and push different ideas and themes within it. The mail out works and looks alright but it doesn't really have the 'wow' factor which I want to produce with all my design work. This brief has made me taught me and made me think more about print processes and inks because I usually design full colour, so designing duo tone make you think differently about approaching a design.

Brief Evaluation - Surf and Ski

For this brief I have achieved what my main goal was to achieve which was to make that boring building look cool, at least I have made it look better. I think I would have been more informed and would have more ideas if I could of seen the inside of the shop more and understood how it works. I think knowing this information it would informed my designs better and perhaps I would of come up with more appropriate design resolutions. Especially for the in store signage. Also I think I should of pushed my logo development further as I could of come up with something better than the logo I used.

Submission Boards

The main changes that I have done to the boards since the crit was to add a grid as I was not using one before (I know awful..) I also split up the last board into 2 separate. One for web and one for in store designs. I also changed the size of some images as I wanted to create an image hierarchy on each board.

The image of the mural of the building has also been edited to make it look more impressive by making everything apart from the building B&W and getting rid of the scaffolding on the left hand side of the pisture.

Submission Boards

Main change was the 1st board in which I switched the image of the mailout/business cards with the logo as it has more impact and is more appropriate. Added more negative space to the 3 board as it looked to full.

Submission Boards

The changes I made to the boards were added a grid system, getting rid of a few pictures as I was repeating my self, adding pictures of detail of the design, separating the POS board and the booklet board. Also gave more thought to hierarchy of images no the boards.

Submission Boards

Submission Boards

I spilt this brief into 2 boards rather than 1 because it was to cluttered on 1.  The first board also has more impact with just the screen print.

Submissions Boards

Webbanner in situ

Printed out

The cover printed looks pretty good. The type isn't overly legible which may be an issue but I didn't want to make the type to bright other wise is would take the focus of the spiral which leads nicely to the face.

LWL web banners

Here are some design Ideas for web banners. I think the use of sections of the colourful windows on the black background brings a nice aesthetic and doesn't give too much away about the full design.

Final Cover

This is the final cover design. The colours and the composition I feel works well and looks like a real magazine cover. I decided to use the type following the spiral shape, I also increased the point size. of 'tree' and 'life' to highlight the title.

POS

Through the final crit and speaking to people in the studio the drawn point of sale wasn't working. So I used photographs of what I could get my hands on or just vectored objects. 

POS failure

I tried to find a table suitable for my POS and photo shop it, but the best table I could find looks awful and the products on the table look ridiculous, this only leaves me with vectoring the table.

Spiral Colour

I added a dark back ground and then colour to the stain glass window. Then experiemented futher with type. I think this route for this project is working well and I think the cover is looking better than the bland 'just colour' background.

Spiral.

Using the idea of the spiral. I did another illustration. I think the composition and the concept works well.

Type

 Here I tried some handwritten type so it links with the illustration. I don't think either of them look good and the 'rooted' one is a bit obvious. Roots - tree of life.

Boards for Final Crit

Boards for Final Crit

Boards for FInal Crit

Boards for Final crit

Type on cover

Using the new colour I experimented even further with type.

Colour...

I used the idea of a inside of a tree to show the life span of a tree. A sort of play on words.

An alright idea but I don't think it works for the film.

Using the more ambient Idea of just colour behind I changed the blue to a greeny grey. I think this colour works better than the blue as it works well with the illustration.

Title Type

As a requirement of the brief you need to incorporate the title of the film into the cover. These are a few variations of type layout with the cover so far.

Beach / Blue

Using colour to bring the 'scene' alive I used mostly blue and grey. The composition stil doesn't feel right though.
I then added some texture and then I didn't think the sea looked good so I got rid of it leaving a just the colour blue behind the character which works quite well but needs more work.

More Cover Ideas

Another scene in the movie which could be used as a concept is the beach scene, another dreamy sort of scene where poeple past an present are all milling about. Another is the desert scene, where one of the characters is wondering around.

I think the beach one would be more appropriate for the cover as the desert cover may confuse people.

Cover ideas

Here I tried 2 different concepts for the cover. Taking imagery from the film seen HERE.
I don't think either of them work that well due to composition or colour. The orange/red of the sun is too bold and colourful for the general feel of the film.

Photohraphy

Speaking to Joe Gilmore, He suggested that I take new photo graphs on a different wood. I tried it on lots of different surfaces and then I tried it on this darker wood. Although it looks good I think the paler wood brings out the blue better.

Boards for Final Crit.

Brad Pitt

This is the main illustration for the LWL cover. It is Brad Pitt who is one of the main characters in the film. He is definitely the most recognisable from the cast and people link Brad Pitt to the film.

The brief asks that you need a portrait of the main character and and all the other covers have the main characters face on it, so this illustration will work well.

Tree of Life ideas board.

Final Designs for stationary

Logo letter heads and business cards together. They all look like they are part of the same brand as I have used the same colour, fonts and design elements across the whole design.

Hoodie & Lanyard

Blue, yellow and red hoodie.

Lanyard

The client wanted a logo that could be easily applied to clothing, mainly hoodies. The design of the logo means that screen printed white ink can be applied to any colour. The same with the lanyard, but the lanyard only has enough space for the 'BPKA' letters.

Letter Heads

Business Cards

These are my design ideas for the business cards for BPKA. I think the full blue on the backside of the card with the persons info works well and looks professional.

Syllabus

The client also asked me to design the front covers of the syllabus'. They wanted them to be simple with colour coding for each syllabus.

I thought that the design shouldn't just be confined to the front cover so made the design go over front side and back.

Proposed colours of different syllabus'

 

Then speaking to the client, they decided that yellow and purple were the ones to use.

Blue - 1

Yellow - 2

Purple - 3

The client preferred the syllabus with just the No. on the front.

If these ever do go to print I would propose the No. and the logo be letter pressed to make an impression on the paper.

Letter head backside

For the other side of the letter heads I wanted to design something a bit different. I think the designs that have incorporated the keys element works well.

I also had the idea of designing the letter heads that you would need two of them for the design to make sense. After thinking about this idea I have gone against it because most people only get 1 letter not 2.

Revised Booklet

Point of Sale

Booklet cover

P.O.S. Banners

Booklet

I decide to produce a little booklet that would be at the point of sale and the customers could take home with them. The content is a about Rorschach and nuts. Gives people a deeper understanding of the brand and the nuts they have bought. It also gives me the chance to practice my layout skills and understanding of Indesign, print and layout.

After my crit with Joe and speaking to people in the studio there was a few things I needed to change. Colour in the info graphic, colour with the walnut outline and a few legibility issues.  Also I am going to add more content to make sense of the design. More info about the nuts and also show the Nuts about Nuts products.

POS

Point of sale, table with banner on front. After my crit with Joe, he pointed out that I need more of a message with the point of sale and really push the name because the ink blot on the front is a bit ambigous.

Smaller outer line

Client wanted the outer line slightly smaller because it took your eye away from the main part.

Logo development

The client preferred these four colours and also I changed the pavilion to be more symmetrical. I added a outer lined circle to tie the design together, make it more bold.

Hanger

After thinking about what retail use I decided to mock up a hanger for the shop, because alot of shops have there own hangers,

Colour

Colour exploration. The client wants maroon and yellow although I feel it looks like a curry house when those colours are involved.

Logo Amends

After showing the proposed logo to the client there were some changes they wanted. The Royal Pavilion building to have less detail and to be pushed up so the BPKA wasn't touching the white lines.