Padd Solutions

This week I have really got stuck into making my finals knowing the chaos that would ensue at the digital print facility in the coming week. I finished two variations of my packaging which I printed on cheap card stock. The colours did not come out as good as I'd hoped, they have much more of a pastel finish, where as on screen they are much more vibrant. I'm still impressed with them though and they look really professional once made up.

The postcards are done too. I put together 4 or 5 different designs, and I have chosen to put them all in but I favour some more than others. My illustrated ones fit my theme well and I believe, are the most successful. However, I wanted to include a variety of approaches and so I chose to create a photography based postcard design and a very simple typographic design with featuring an equation inspired by Craig Damrauer.

I also made the wristbands, a few resolutions for the graphics course and a variation for the fashion course. These came out better than I expected. I used iron on transfer paper on cotton tape. The results were more vibrant than I expected and I was pleased with the results. I shot some photos in context and some of the wristbands in full so you could see the detail.

Overall, I am really pleased with what I have done over the year but these are the best results I have had all year, which is how I wanted to finish the year.

Last week of real hard graft this week. Damn, this has come around quick, maybe too quick and so my hand his been forced a little into making decisions. I have looked at plenty of other designers stuff and made decisions into where I want to take this project but not made many efforts into put these ideas on paper. Yesterday and this morning I put my best ideas onto paper and ran with what I had. I have a couple of postcard designs already set up and so this is the third and I believe this will be a final.

When I designed it I didn't really think about scale and now I'm feeling as though all the hard work I put in is kind of wasted on a postcard so I want to do a large scale poster print of this too, I'm just thinking that a duplicate of one of the postcards might be seen as a cop out but I feel its a nice piece of design that the kids might want to put on their wall as inspiration for what they are about to study. This literally took me most of the day. All the type is hand drawn scanned and coloured. I'm proud of it but I know some people could knock this kinda thing out quicker. This is totally out of my comfort zone so thats why I'm so proud of it.

For me, this shows where I have come from and where I am going in terms of how I design and what I design. Before this project I had not focused on illustration so I felt like I should because I admired alot of the work other people were doing, I just wasn't convinced I could do it, until now, that is.

These next images are of a sketch I've done for the packaging. I have the net finished I just need a design to go with it. From the moment I thought about how to do the packaging I wanted to cover the pack with illustrative elements and lots of colour. I am still planning to have a slipcase over the top and I hope these sketches will look as good as this once digitised. Lauren said in a crit that I should look for such a polished finish on illustrations like these as the beauty and charm is in the little imperfections. I put this into practice on this postcard so I am hoping to do the same with the packaging.

I am still experimenting with the wristband, I have a design that I am happy with. I did'nt want it to be too graphic heavy so I only spent a matter of minutes on those. I just have to find a way to print them as all the ways I've tried so far, the fabric has frayed. I dont really want to use paper, so I'll see what happens. The top trump cards have not been started yet, but hopefully I'll get those done soon depending how things go this week. I can print them at home because they are as small as a playing card so thats a good thing. Ideally I would want to print at college but I just think I will have enough on with the packaging and postcards.

That's all for now... possibly last update of the week will be friday.

Today, I quickly compiled a list of the works that I want to go in the presentation and my digital portfolio. Can I say right now how awesome it is to do a digital portfolio. The number of years I have had to mess around mounting work that was never straight almost killed me.

Now, here a few images of my work over the year and to be honest it doesn't look all that bad for a collection of work. I really beat myself up about what I had done early on but its not so bad after all.
The digital portfolio will have a selection of these works and I intend re-photograph some stuff with a camera from the photography department after the next module deadline passes. I think they have been short of cameras down there as of late so this seems like the best option.

Convince/Persuade us
This is from the first brief we had this year and I am including it to show how far not only I have come but how far the group has come. We thought that the series of posters we did looked really professional, and to me, this first project was a taster for what was to come. To start with I was really bothered about working in a group, but despite everyone not knowing each other that well we pulled together really well. Looking back we could have done some stuff different but it was a good set of visuals to start with.










No News is good news

These were for the 'no news is good news' brief and I decided to focus on football violence as my focus of the project. It was something I had background knowledge on anyway so I felt like it was a good and relevant subject. This first poster was based on Visual Literacy and using the English flag as symbolism. It was perhaps a little controversial as it paints england as a real violent nation that use sport as a way to inflict hurt on other communities as well as their own.

The other poster did not really have a message I just used illustration of found objects associated with football to spell the word violence. If I think about it now, it communicates that you don't always see violence but it is happening behind the scenes, and again football is used to fuel it. Of course there are rivalries between fans of different clubs but using violence towards each other makes the football redundant.

Wortleigh: A Typeface for Leigh Wortley
This was an enjoyable brief for me where I had to make a typeface for another member of the course. Leigh Wortley was the unlucky person I was paired with. For her typeface I incorporated traits that she told me about but also traits which I saw in her from day to day. At the time, I thought this looks a little like it was made for a guy but it does fit her personality well. I want to re-photograph this because I printed it off in sugar paper and it looked better than this.







Mailshot: No news is good news part 2
These, again, will have to be re-photographed and they are based on solving the issue of football violence in the form of a mailshot. I loved how these came out when I did them I thought they were the best thing I had done all year. For me, I felt that these had signaled that I had turned a corner because the format for this was different to anything I had done before. Before this I did posters and identities and that was about it. Working on a beer mat and envelope, etc helped me get to grips with what works on a certain scale and format.

Book of 100: Can Convention
These images are from the 'book of 100' brief. When this was first assigned, I felt like I had ages to work with. This was the first brief I really encountered problems. I was too quick to make decisions before actually thinking about every possibilites. This meant that I was left stuck on week 3 of the brief, and felt like I had done all I needed too. For sure, this brief opened my eyes and I found out how precious time was whether it be a one week or a five week brief. The finals were ok, but my finished book looked tatty, as I got let down by the print department.





What is a line? Identity
This was a much more successful book project for the 'what is a line?' brief. After experimenting and treating this project like an investigation it was a raise against time to actually come up with a final. This brief was interesting and it helped show me how to cope with multiple briefs with differing deadlines. The book itself I was happy with visually and the cover looked awesome. Again I want to photograph this again with a better camera. I printed on a see through stock on some of the pages which I still think is an ingenious idea and helps with interactivity.

Collaboration- If you talked to me...
The next image is from the collaborative brief I did with Lindsey. I loved working with Lindsey and had a good thing going. We both worked hard on it and I think we learned from each other. We both had different ways of working and we both had different strengths. I had the skills on the mac and she had the photography skills, both of which were vital to our finals. It was a positive experience which left my mind open about more collaborative work.

This is a full list of works I am looking at putting in the presentation and portfolio, but thats all for now.

Presentation
Craig Article – spread(s) + design sheet(s)
Leighs typeface – photograph sugar paper + work sheet
20 questions – poster, photograph card
Football hooliganism – posters (experiment + final)
Red Posters series – Illustrations
Exhibit A – look how far we have come in a year
Mail Shot – Design for logos – photograph mat, envelope, card.
What is a line book – photograph book and spread
100 book – can cd + plus packaging, book design – what went wrong? Everything
Collaboration brief – how I had to compromise

Portfolio
Craig Article
20qs – poster + card
Red posters series
What is a line book + spread
Mail shot – envelope, beer mat, card
Collab brief – serious tone
Leighs typeface

Finally decided to get these layouts out of the way due to them hanging around waiting to be finished. I have enough to think about so I wrapped up this brief along with the printmaking elective and now I can concentrate on the speaking from and the PPD stuff.

These magazine layouts are based on an article I had to write on a fellow course member. I got Craig Laing and I have enjoyed working on this. I had not spoke to him before but he's a very genuine and witty bloke, a mans man, if you like. I looked at his blogs and conducted an interview with him and felt that I wanted my piece to reflect that interview because I could take quotes from that to use for breakouts. I knew instantly two of the things he said that I wanted for breakouts, which shaped his views but also I think will make the reader want to read the article.

The mention of Nazi's could be controversial but that's what Craig is all about, not conforming to the usual safe approach, well at least that's the sort of person I have portrayed him as anyway. Hope he likes these. I wanted to keep them professional and incorporate his work into the layout as much as possible. I used the vector image that he created for a self promo poster and I used the warning tape as used in the Saville stuff he likes.

Just when I thought I had found an ideal visual approach in Kate Moross, along comes this guy. Parra, an underground star in Amsterdam works for Big Active. The work he produces really appeals to me as I am a fan of simplicity but with a degree of professionalism. Parra mainly works on small projects such as posters and flyers. I discovered his work firstly on t-shirts and I have delved a little deeper to uncover his awesome portfolio.

It's his typographic work that stands out the most for me. The composition and colour as well as aesthetic appeal makes Parra a unique designer. His approach is similar to Kate Maross but he has a knack for getting image and type working together beautifully. This has now changed my project for me, I want to focus more on this guy because I love his work, and I think my audience would appreciate this type of artwork.

If you would like to view more of Parra's work go to either RockwellClothing.com or BigActive



Here is a response I created for the speaking from experience brief. I am quite happy with this at the moment but I would tweak it a little if I were to use it for a final.

I haven't really decided on what messages or quotes I want on the postcards yet but this is something close to what I want.

Over the past few days, before I start designing the contents I thought I'd look at how to make up the box for my welcome/intro pack. I have tried out several packaging nets to see what does and doesn't work, and what the right choice might be for the job. At this point I am not too concerned about scale, but I want the box to be big enough to take the contents I already am working on plus anything I might come up with in the meantime. On the flip side the box has to be small enough to fit through a letterbox.



These are some images of what I have so far, two of which have patterns similar to what I am aiming for in terms of visuals, which will come in due course. I wish to continue to look for suitable packaging designs which I may have to customise slightly to take the contents.

The next step after this will be to decide on stock and scale.

I came across another example of contemporary illustration, this time integrated into packaging. Aaron Hinchion of Hinchion & Sons branded a new product in the dog food market. The approach and visual appeal is reflected in the product itself, which is made from decent cuts of meats appose to the cheap rubbish usually put into dog foods. The illustration reflects a natural and wholesome feel that the client wanted.

The image that grabbed my attention was for the packaging for this organic chicken and vegetable bake. The use of stock is important and I love the feel the brown paper gives to the product. Using the recycled paper is a growing trend but I feel this is a good example of an effective piece of design. The illustration, the typography and the stock all work so well together.




On a side note, by discovering this I also found that the team behind this have also worked for indie band Hard-fi, Innocent (smoothy drinks), Skype and UKTV. Seems like they are a pretty big deal.















Shoreditch Wifi

I wanted to try to take my research beyond asking people in the year. My facebook, and online questionnaires are not going too greatly so I wanted to get general opinion on whether people thought my ideas would work for them, and would they be interested in my welcome pack idea. I emailed the marketing department and also posed questions on yougofurther.co.uk, a place for new students to discuss university before and during the time they start the course they applied for. I got a response to both email and forum posts, and here is some of the feedback I received.

Hi guys, I am a first year graphic design student at Leeds college of art and design.

I have a brief which is to design something for new first year students. I have decided to design an introduction/ welcome pack for students who are nervous about their first day.

This pack will hopefully set them in the right direction to help calm them down before starting university. Things like not knowing people, and not knowing where things are or what you will be doing on the first day usually starts people worrying.

Do you think this would help any of you? or have you had something like this sent to you already?

any feedback/suggestions help

thanks

I think this would help alot of people, and depending on what it includes could help the people who know no one going to the university of their choice,

I think this would be brilliant, would definitely help me, I haven't been sent anything yet!

Great idea! This could be the potential next big thing :) i think something like this would help people feel more at ease in a new environment.

I want to do another questionnaire online and hope for more responses

I was thinking of using some really simple typographic work alongside the over elaborate illustrations I'm experimenting with. I have a love for both typography and illustration but I usually would not mix these two types of approaches because they are worlds apart in terms of composition and aesthetic appeal. I recognise that not everyone on the first year will appreciate the illustrative practice I am undertaking so I want to try to give everyone something they can enjoy.Enter Craig Damrauer. This pet project of his for 'New Math' does not only conform to a strict structure but also its impact appeals to me. The messages are clear and I love the way he uses these maths equations to get his point across. We shall see soon if this sort of approach would work within the pack I'm creating but I would like to see this type of thing if I was getting the pack in the post. Not only is this now helping people, it's also going to get them in the design mood. 





My Responses

I decided to respond to this by creating my own versions. They look alright at the moment, but I might have to work on the equations.

I feel as though I am cheating with this book but I felt that I should use a template for a more professional look to my packaging. The best thing about the book is that you get a CD with all the nets featured in the book. I got some eps files which I'm going to print and make up. At this moment I'm not really fussed about the size of the packaging, just how it looks and the way its constructed.

Yesterday and today I have spent time looking at other packaging nets and creating little mockups from them. Once I have done a few more I'll look at which would fit best for my audience and which is fit for it's purpose.

Here are some examples of what I've found.