OUGD301 Self Evaluation

Final Design Boards

LCAD Christmas Card Ammendments

Today, as I have been ill  I have been emailing the marketing team from to design the inner Christmas card design. This has been rather frustrating as I wanted to talk through it with them face to face but I guess this is a taster of what occurs in the real design world.

LCAD Christmas Card inner

As asked by the marketing team, I have designed the inner card insert for the Leeds College of Art Christmas card

Meeting with marketing

Despite me having pointed out that the college would need to order the reindeer poo paper asap due to low stock as the seasonal period is coming to an end, it turns out that the manufacturers have in fact ran out! The marketing team spoke to the company and it turns out that another marketing and graphic design company purchased the remaining paper to produce their own Christmas cards too. It was also discovered that the lady who owns the company actually visits safari parks to collect the elephant, reindeer and rhino poo herself.

Anyway, this loses the concept my design without the poo paper insert. Nevertheless, Rose was prepared to propose that we still used the lasercut design and plain paper to the dean. However, the dean wasn't keen on this idea, so the college have now, unfortunately, going to use a different design.

In order to keep me involved, they are going to sew a paper insert into the chosen card design and have asked me to design the type on this insert. 

UT:: Website/App design

Photographing Products

Francesca and I took out lights and set up our own photography studio today to take pictures of the products I have produced for each of my briefs in order for these to then be put onto my design boards.

RSA: In-Store Presentation

As I am going to propose that my cards designs are sold in the National Trust shops across the country, I had already taken a picture of this when I visited, but I now need to mock my card designs into the image.

I also wanted to propose that the card designs are sold in the National Trust online shop, so I have mocked my design into a screen shot of their website too.

Final Crit

All in all, my crit feedback was very positive. There were a few changes suggested but they will enhance the presentation of my work, so I am going to ensure that I make these changes.

This crit was also a good opportunity to see everyone elses work and boards, so I can use inspiration from these to improve my own work.

To Do

Week Plan

Inpress Event at Dock Street Market

Unfortunately I was ill and could not attend the opening event on the Friday. Nevertheless, we had the boys of 'Form & Writing' and 'James Murphey Illustration' as guest designers, so they we able to help out with the others and get the event up and ready. We also had the Crash Blossoms playing live. It was a successful night and I am told we had a lot of interest.

Meeting with marketing

Today, I had a meeting with marketing to discuss putting my card into production. I talked through with Amy about ordering stock from the sites I had used to make my cards, I suggested that they do this sooner rather than later though as the Reindeer poo paper was a speciality paper over the Christmas period and would therefore more than likely run out in the build up to Christmas.

Amy gave me the option of printing and lasercutting a run of 100 cards myself, which they would pay me student ambassador rate for. Or, I could work alongside a student ambassador to create the cards.

She is going to order the paper tomorrow so that we can go into production as soon as the paper gets here, which should be the beginning of next week.

I need to add the logo onto the card somewhere. Amy and I spoke about this and decided that under the merry Christmas somewhere, as a kind of signature would be appropriate.

UT:: making the inner label

Using the fabric I printed earlier today, I have cut out around these and a plain panel of a similar size from the back (the fabric is too thin on it's own). Using a little help from fashion student Lavinia Rowland, I have managed to stitch the two together and attach it to the tshirt. We tried two different ways of stitching the two pieces of fabric together; one create a pillow effect and the other a concealed edge. However, when we stitched the concealed edge the fabric began to pucker (no good). So I opted for the other option as this has much more potential. When the pillow had been stitched together, it was a little wonky so we cut the outer edge to leave a raw edge but as it was close to the fabric, it didn't matter too much. We then tacked this into the inside of my tshirt.

Open publication - Free publishing - More label

UT: Packaging construction

I made up my packaging that I laser cut a while ago. I have had to leave some bit clipped to set over night but all in all it has come together well, the sizing is now correct and I even managed to find some colour toggles to match the inner sleeve of the packaging design.

UT:: inner label printing

This afternoon I dropped in at screen print to print the inner label of my tshirt design. The fashion shop didn't have any cotton fabric, so I went and got an XXL t-shirt (more fabric for my money, why not!) and used this to print on. I will then cut this up to produce my inner labels.

 I began printing this in one colour to see how well the screen worked; it started off fine but it slowly began to leak the more I used it and the emulsion was washing off the screen. This meant that I had to tape up the screen so that the ink didn't protrude onto my clothing, this worked for some of the pulls, but often it would the squeegy would get caught on the tape and let the ink through. Annoying.

I wanted to use 2 colours on the label (to keep in line with the rest of my branding for the tshirt line) black for the 'urban' part of the type and fluorescent red for the 'tease', I also wanted to use black to highlight what size tshirt was being purchased. I managed to line the type of the two up fine, but it seemed that the black ink leaked through the screen far more than the red and just made a mess. One of them print okay (ish) with a few marks but the screen was getting worse so I had to stop.

I also tried printing onto the hanger, however, after two attempts I realised this wasn't going to work. This ink wouldn't sit well on the hanger, I think this was because the hanger had a white gloss finish and the ink was too thin. Also, the hanger was curved so it was difficult for the screen to work with this. I am going to propose that this be done by pad printing on my boards.

Hope:: Pressing the plate

Today I went down to Vernon to press my copper plate into my Hope business card designs and swing ticket. Before I went, I pre-cut these to size so that I could simply position them onto the plate and press them in the correct place. I took one of design with the black type on it and one without. The one without would be blind embossed and I had the tricky task of lining up the type correctly to the design with the black type present. On pressing these, I became evident that the blind embossing was much more effective; it was clearer to see compared to the black and I didn't have the problem of lining the type up within mm of accuracy. The cards with the Hope type printed were incredibly difficult to embossed in the correct place and did not look as professional as the blind emboss.

I think I am going to use the blind emboss, however, I do not like it with the 'clothing' type written beneath it. So I am going to remove that type, a write 'Hope clothing' on the reverse of the business card instead. I am going to print the reverse type on the same stock as the front and mount both onto white mountboard to create a duplex effect. Hopefully, this will give it a much cleaner finish and look far more professional.

Back to the hydraulic press in Vernon tomorrow then.

inpress:: stock difference

I managed to get hold of the 2 pieces of the stock we flood printed our colours onto for the front of our business cards, I was going to print our collateral onto this stock, however, it feels far too weighty to do this. So, I have compared the stock colours to the colours I am already using and am going to use what I have already done but propose they would be the correct colour as they are currently only slightly darker.

To DO

inpress:: at Dock Street Arts

As our event was coming to an end at Dock Street Market, another event was beginning in the same place which we had been invited to have our work at too. Dock Street Arts is an exhibition and sale of an array of arts, which we are now involved in.

 
Our work will be in the exhibiton for the next month as the work changes on a monthly basis.

UrbanTease:: in-store presentation

This has been particularly challenging for me, as my Illustrator skills have become a little rusty and this is the first time I have tried to create something of this nature. However, I stuck with it and managed to create an mock-up which (with written explanations) will hopefully convey my concept.

Hope:: open/closed sign

As part of the Hope print collateral I am design an open/closed sign to be positioned in the shop window.

Within this, on the closed side, I wanted to include the opening times so that people know when they can come back, which should give Hope more business.

Hope:: Business Card reverse

I have been playing around with the type for the reverse of the business card. I am going to go in and use the hydraulic press down at vernon street on Monday (as long as im not still ill) to emboss the front of my Hope business card. I will test different stocks, but I am hoping to use white mountboard for the front and cream stock for the reverse. However, this is all going to depend on how well the different stocks press.

Nevertheless, I need a design to print the contact information on for the business cards.
I have considered the information which needs to be present for a small clothing boutique to be::
(in it's correct hierarchical position)

Logo, Name, Telephone, Email, Website, Address and Opening hours.

This will allow the customer to contact the boutique by any means necessary to them.

I am not entirely keen on this yet, but it is the basis which I can now work upon.

Drop shadow

I have added a drop shadow to the product images. I want the images to have a white background to give the sense that they are fresh, clean, high end products. However, in doing this I wasn't sure if the white box would sit better against the neutral tones with a drop shadow behind it.

This effect makes the products seem to become 3d (ish) and more prominent. This could mean that the customer is more drawn to the product and that Hope gets more sales, result.

HOPE:: 'clothing'

Although I do not want the 'clothing' type to be above the 'Hope' type in it's heirarchy, I do need to make it more prominent as it seems to get lost quite a bit into the background. To highlight the 'clothing' type a little more, I have added a drop shadow to the type...

...this seems to have done the job and given the type a subtle uplift.

Hope:: App

I have altered the size of the logo on the first two pages in order to make it bigger and more visible. I think previously it was too small and not obvious enough. I didn't want the 'clothing' part of the logo to be as prominent as the 'Hope' type, but somehow they both seem to get lost against the other components so making the logo bigger will hopefully eliminate this problem.

Hope:: App design

I have been working on the Hope app design, as before I had only applied the logo to show how it would work on the device. I have now created three different pages, I have tried to keep these pages in line with the branding of the other Hope products....

Illness

Unfortunately, I have been ill Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and diagnosed with flu. I have pushed myself to go into college each of these days as I have had sessions on and workshops which I have needed to attend, but unfortanetly I have then had to leave early to go home and rest each time, not good.

This has also meant that I was unable to attend the opening night of 'inpress at Dock Street Market'. I did manage to pop down though, for about 20 minutes and it was looking great. Hopefully, I will feel well enough to help out at the shop over the weekend, fingers crossed. 

UT:: at inpress

I took my UrbanTease t-shirt designs that I printed along to the inpress event at Dock Street market to sell. This has made this t-shirt brief become live.

The t-shirts designs are still in Dock Street Market being on sale as part of Dock Street Arts.

Web Session 4

responsive script (screen changes size depending on device)

Easier to use/save source from website using Google Chrome or Firefox.

...use this device to take the code from other websites. need to download it.

...use this website to test own website design as it would be seen on different browsers. (internet explorer)

Web testing is a massive part of web design. Needs to be tested on all browsers and all web browsers.

WINNER!

I have received an email this afternoon to confirm that my design has been selected as the winning design and will be used as Leeds College of Arts Christmas card 2012. Result!

I now need to have a few meetings with the marketing team to discuss the production of my card design.

Hope:: range

I want to extend my range of deliverables for the clothing boutique, so I am going to propose the design of an open/closed sign, receipt pad and loyalty card. I think the loyalty card would be a good idea for a small clothing boutique like Hope; if they were to offer a percentage off the customers 5th and 10th visit, it would give customers the incentive to return. An open/closed sign and receipt is a necessity for any small store; especially seen as Hope currently use one with their old logo on it.

RSA:: free e-card

I was going to propose that with everyone of my RSA greetings card, the buyer also recieves one free ecard. However, I wasn't really sure what an e-card entailed and after looking, I have found that are pretty much just short animations. Animation is not an area of design I wish to delve into, so I am going to leave that simply as a design idea!

Pressing the postcards

Seen as my crit was cancelled I decided to use my time wisely and took yet another trip down to the Vernon print rooms to press my postcard in the hydraulic press.

I got Nial to show me how to use the press, which was fairly easy, although it used a lot of arm strength! I put a piece of greyboard on top of the plate and postcard in an attempt to give it a deeper impression. This worked, so I then used a thicker piece of greyboard to give an even deeper impression. All in all, the plate worked very well in embossing the paper, I think this was also due to me choosing a low gsm paper stock. The laid concorde paper also looked very effective against the embossing.

I really like the fact that I have been able to use a specialist print process which makes sense to my work and highlights what the type is saying.

Fourth crit boards

These are my crit boards to show the proposed digital designs I have been working on so that my peers can see this as well as the physical products I have brought in to the crit.

Lasercutting Greeting Cards

I extended my range of card design and proposed that I could make the design with the Christmas trees work across different designs. Rather than just proposing this, I decided to put it into practice and got myself down to lasercutting to cut this design. I then sold these at the inpress @dock street market event.

to do

Hope:: Proposed Web design

I have also mocked up the proposed web design for Urban Tease onto devices, again to see how the designs work in context.

I wasn't sure if it would be clear to the user that they had to click the logo to enter the next screen, so I tried adding in an [enter] sign at the bottom to direct users. However, I think seen as there is nothing else that the user can click other than the 'Hope clothing' logo it would be sufficient and clear enough to leave it as just this type.

Photography workshop

This morning I attended the photography workshop, this proved very useful and educating me on the different types of lighting available to use, as well as different attachments and devices. All in all, this will allow me to begin to develop my skills in photographing my work to a professional standard.

inpress:: postcard artwork to print

I have printed the artwork for the postcards, ready to press on the hydraulic press tomorrow. I decided to use the lined paper stock as I thought that with it being only 80gsm it will deboss better than the thicker card stock I could use. Also, from previously printing onto these stocks, I found that the ink sat better on this paper whereas the ink tended to be drawn into the card stock.

RSA:: Notebook printing

I have printed the patterned insert of the notebook onto the Reindeer poo and seeded paper card, ready for my crit tomorrow and submission. I now need to reprint the instruction card and then this product is finished.

Making the reindeer cards

This evening, I printed the reindeer card and painted in watercolour each of the noses. The cards are now ready to sell at the inpress event on Friday.

Feedback I have had from peers has been very positive towards these, so hopefully these sell! 

Making the copper plates

Today I went down to Vernon street to pick up my copper plates, they were soaking in a solution which I needed to leave them in until the blue film was removed.

I then washed of the solution in the sink, blotted my plates dry and I was ready to go!

I took the copper plates home so that I could line up the type in the correct place and mark it with masking tape so that I could position every other postcard in the same position when I came to press them all.

Vernon:: Copper plate

I went down to Vernon street today to make a copper plate for my Hope branding and the type postcard for inpress. It was a fairly lengthy process but Neil helped me through it and I learnt a lot (could definitely go down and do it again).

This was one of the last stages, where the copper plate had been exposed to my image with UV lights; I had to use a sponge to remove the excess and reveal the copper plate.

I have left it with him to soak in a solution overnight so it will be ready for me to pick up tomorrow.

RSA:: UPlant Cards

To branch out from the 'UColour' notebooks I have created I have also designed greeting cards which use the same principle. I was considering calling these greetings cards 'UPlant' so that it carries the theme on. The instructions would be printed on seed labels (that are then pegged into the ground so you know that this is where your seeds have been planted). 

So, I tried to use the same layout as I had for the 'UColour' instruction card but made the format slightly more narrow to fit conventional seed labels. However, I found that it was rather difficult to then fit all of the instructions onto this reduced size....

Consequently, I may not taper the bottom edges into a point, as they are traditionally, but instead leave it as a square card so that all the type is evident.

Screenprinting tshirts

Today I have stripped my screen and got it ready for printing. I mainly wanted to test the colours and see how each of them worked on the different fabrics, so I printed on a light (white), medium (light grey) and dark (dark grey) tshirts to see how the ink sat.

I chose to use one of my simple vector image designs on the t-shirts so that I could experiment with colour, without it distracting from the image itself. So I created a gradient from pink to blue. The ink didn't sit very well on the dark grey fabric but worked considerably well on the light grey and white fabrics. So, I am going to buy some more lighter coloured tees.

IP:: Meeting with Manager at Dock Street Market

Today we went down to Dock Street Market to have a quick meeting with Jake, the manager. We just clarified with him the space we are going to have on Friday night and what furniture we require. We have also discussed where the band will be positioned (on a stage in the main area of the bar). We have also ensured that our work will be stored securely overnight. Excellent.

Pantone matching

I have pantone matched the coloured papers that I had screen printed recently for my projects: the packaging and swing ticket stock for my tee project and the inpress business cards. As they would be sent to the printers as a spot colour, I need to be able to specify the spot colour. Some of the colours didn't match a pantone colour exact so I had a few coloure to choose from, but I manage to match them as close as possible:

Open publication - Free publishing - More matching

Urban Tease:

-Pantone Solid Matte: 178M, 1785 M, 1777M
-Coated Euro: 1777c, 1787c
-Solid Uncoated: 1787U
-Solid Coated: 177c, 178c

Inpress Business card:

-Solid matte: 285m (Blue)
-Solid matte: 375M (Green)
-Solid matte: 1787M (Red)

inpress:: postcard prep

I have prepared my artwork ready to make a copper plate from tomorrow. As it is the second line of type that I want to make the copper plate from, I deleted all the rest of the type and then made it 100% black.