OUGD201, submission form

OUGD201, evaluation

I have definitely learned a lot from this module, I feel it's been the first introduction into production outside of college work. The introduction of it which emerged from our chosen 'good' subjects, automatically made this module all quite independent, which I liked.
The inductions with Mike and Graham were very helpful, my skills on illustrator have developed therefore I was able to use it a lot more for my projects which helped a lot. Also, I became aware of some of the basic rules of type thanks to the sessions with Graham. I now know a little more about InDesign, and feel slightly more confident on producing a piece of type work, and it looking better than what I would have produced last year.

'Wrap it up' was a short and sweet brief, although panicked most of the time, I do work better under pressure. It was a chance to explore a variety of nets, and also learn the importance of an effective package. I was quite happy with the design on my work, but not so much the nets I chose. I feel they did work as a sold package, but I feel more research could've been done to choose something a little more appropriate. I think I wasn't quite sure on leaving my comfort zone, the nets I chose seemed easy, resulting in me being satisfied but not very much so. However, although I didn't use the other nets, I did learn about them and can use them for future purposes.

I started off this project (Design Production - Print) contemplating constantly about what I should finally decide as being my 'Good' subject. It seemed to be changing often and I was never completely comfortable with what I had chosen.
My 5 'good' subjects were originally,

• deep sea creatures
• family photos
• faces/mugshots
• piano
• film trailers

I decided to choose the catagory faces/mugshots, I feel I wanted to somehow work with mugshots/faces within my design work, as it is something I think looks effective independently. 

I feel although this project started off slightly off-balance, my final subject continued to change, I felt that 'mugshots' was too hard to connect to a valued piece of design. Once I had properly thought about things it became something I could really indulge in, I decided that I would use the mugshots in order to design for a product. Ever since I have started this course I have wanted to incorporate photography somehow into my work, this seemed the perfect opportunity to do so.

My research into the varieties of print methods was interesting, and I found myself liking quite a lot of 'type' based design work, this through me a little off track but it got me involved in the importance of colour as well.

  

Communicating a flavour through different colours and mugshots could be a way I could use my subject effectively? Questioning this option, it became aparent that my subject was no longer 'mugshots' but what I really liked from them, 'facial expressions' .  

Even after I had finalised my 'good' subject, things still weren't completely comfortable, I started to branch out into using Illustrator to draw cartoon animals to communicate the flavours of juice.

Visually this looked quite effective because it was a lot different to your average design on a bottle of juice, however, after discussing it with Lorenzo, I felt that it was too unrelated, and that I needed to take the photographs and try my original idea, to use facial expressions to express the flavour. Once I had taken the photographs and edited them in Photoshop, using a 'duotone' effect I learned in one of Mike's sessions, everything seemed a lot clearer. My designs seemed to design themseleves slightly, then again it was slightly what I wanted, the facial expressions themseleves to do the advertising. 

This project really enabled me to get in involved with areas I had never reached. Although I felt confident in my work because I was dealing with photography, this sense of satisfaction was balanced out with a healthy dose of unsurity (which I feel helps work develop). I was able to really enjoy this project, which towards the end I did. I liked working with photography, as well as colour, and juice. It was fun actually producing an actualy product at the end, even though all the juices but one, are actually edible.

However, I still feel my levels of research have to increase? I feel it doesn't effect me so much in my work but I never seem to do as much as I should. Perhaps if I did more research, more of my project would more easily pull together and faster too.

My skills in Illustrator, InDesign, Print methods, and colour have all developed throughout the duration of this module. I really enjoyed certain aspects of it. After a rocky start, I feel during the last few weeks I have really endulged in it. 

I want to start off as committed as I became these past three weeks for my next project, I think I was too lazy at the begginning and it became obvious how much more productive my work progressed into towards the end. Overall, a stressful, tiring module, but towards the end very enjoyable and informative. I have enjoyed it.

final boards

My final boards. 

For some reason I feel that the first two are a lot better than the others? 

I am pleased with them though, I like how they are colourful throughout  but also have structure. I didn't want them to be too boring, the colours loosen things up a little, make them visually engaging and also relate to the juices themselves. 

juice bottle production and photographing

   

I had always thought about how I was going to make the juice the extreme colours I wanted. I had thought about food colouring, or photoshopping the colour, with added hue and contrast?

Turns out watercolours were perfect:

 

I tried to match up the colours perfectly to the colour that runs througout the label. 

Even though the juice looks a little bright then your average juice, the type of responses I received were, 

"Would be sweet if juice was really that colour"

"You're making me really want some juice"
"They look tasty"

Even though the bright colours look a little like paint, I think with the labels and the fact that the orange juice is actually completely natural, it kinda evens everything out into being, a brightly coloured juice.

Final shots. 

These are screen shots of the photographs I took that I then edited slightly to use for my boards.

 

front view

 

side view, you can see the back of the bottle slightly

 

side view 2 

Back of bottle

 

I am pleased with how my bottles of juice have turned out. 

I was worrying about a few things, like how the labels would look as a set, the colour of the juice and also whether the labels would fit perfectly. 

I think the labels balance out well, a large image on the front, is balanced with delicate, simple type behind.

I'm just hoping the juice doesn't look too much like paint.

SUDDEN LABEL DESIGN CHANGE.

These were how the labels were going to look originally. The layout of the label was inspired by the layout of the drink 'This water'. 

When I was placing the image of the mugshot into the label, it came up a lot larger before I readjusted the size. Alice Vine and Ben Mckean said they much preferred the design when the face was larger. I agreed, so I decided to do this to all of the designs. 

 

I did quite like how the two colours did go together quite well here, but I wanted to keep my designs consistent throughout. After trying the design out with all colours matching to the same pantone, I did actually prefer it that way.

Here I the labels all complete, on an A3 sheet, ready to print. 

boards, first ones

I referred back to the sketchy piece of paper I got from Lorenzo during our talk about where my work is and where it should go. One of the discussions was about the boards, I found it very useful to do a few rough sketches of them first, to get a rough idea of the layout/design and also the contents.

  

The first board I think will have the bottles on it. A large, clear photograph to address my brief simply to the point, to get my point across. Also, this enables my first board to be colourful and eye catching. I want as little text as possible on each board. 

FOIL BLOCKING

 

I have always wanted to either foil block or spot varnish onto my final posters. Here I tested out foil blocking with the old logos I was going to use. The reason I decided to go with spot varnish over foil blocking was so ensure that the colour remains consistent throughout the posters design. The poster only contains one colour and stock. If I were to use spot varnish, I could keep the right colour, but also get the shiny, smooth finish I would like. 

Unfortunately the spot varnish available to me doesn't have the strongest effect, although I could state it is what I want, after seeing the effect of the foil blocking, I think it's a really nice print effect I need to use. 

If I'm going to use foil blocking, I think I'll use it on the logo, top centered image. I need to decide what colour to use, one colour running consistently throughout? Perhaps a multi tonal colour, rainbow?

the bottle

When it came to the bottle design, I thought about how it could be placed on the bottle. 

I think I want the bottle to look good individually, but also as a range, photographed together. It would look quite sharp and clean if all the heads lined up together when the bottles were in a line, I thought about having the label skimmed along the bottom of the bottle, however, I want to be able to produce this myself and photograph it nicely, and the label wouldn't stay up. 

To ensure my product looks clean and professional, and also works nicely, I decided to go for a classic belly band, with a simply bottle style. 

I had looked at different bottle styles in the shop, but the 'This Water' one seemed to work the best.

I will be printing onto actual belly bands, these are just mock ups to test out how they look on bottles.

I think I need to experiment with a contrasting colour that can sit somewhere on the bottle's design? Maybe a strip of colour behind the type? Something bold, at the moment I'm not sure if it all seems a little wishy washy. This could be because it all looks so white, as it has been done all clean and vectorised on Illustrator.

I do like the logo being on top of the bottle cap though, and also the bottle cap being the colour that runs throughout the design. 

posters

 

Larger image on the poster?

Border?

I like how these have turned out, I think I will print them around A2 size, on gloss/silk or matt paper. I wanted to have the logo spot varnished, however in print you can only print onto silk/glossy paper for it to work properly and it isn't proper spot varnish. This doesn't matter, as effectively they are kind of mock ups. 

render logo

I can't work with the fruit! type only,

 

Talk with Lorenzo, 

  

After I had a small chat with Lorenzo, I left with a clearer head of what I needed to do and tips on how I could do them. These sketches were rough ideas of how I could plan out my boards, what was to go on them, and the type of layout that would be ideal. 

I had definitely been having problems with the logo, the advise of sketching a few down on paper roughly first was useful, and made it easier for me to start designing them a little better to see which ones worked best. 

Rough design sheets:

 Out of all of them, the idea of using a circle seemed best to use. Not only did it relate to some of the design context I had liked relating to logos (circular), but also, my idea of having the logo on top of the bottle cap, made the shape fit perfectly. 

I tested out more than one though:

I thought that using circular shapes would be relevant, as I had visualised it being also stamped on top of the bottle cap?

Here I was going for simplicity, the little 'o's were there to represent the seeds of a strawberry, but also become the form of the strawberry itself. 

However, I felt that this block colour strawberry had more of a better effect, and balanced out the logo well. I also like how the logo seemed pretty versatile, it could be a stamp?

From opinions I got, the line thickness of the circle should've been thinner, I agreed as it made the type stand out a bit more.

I experimented with using all of the fruit shapes, just as block colours and shapes. 

I think these work in black and white as well, I checked this just in case through production they had to be black and white for some reason. I like how these look, I think they would suit the design of my products.