Design Practice

OUGD203 - Design Practice(part2) Evaluation.

2009-05-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you applied them?

Within this module I wanted to further my skills with the screen-printing process and the Sainsbury's brief enabled me to do so. To begin with I knew that I wanted to actually create my Sainsbury's bag and in doing so I would have to look in to the different methods of printing on to material. So another skill that I gained from this was screen printing on to material which is very much similar to the normal process with the exception that you use a different meshed screen and don't use the vacuum screen beds. I definately want to continue to improve my screen print skills and to further this in my next year.

My skills within time management were definatly tested within this module but to keep this on track I decided to create a timetable to plan out my time throughout the module. I tried to stick this as much as possible but still things didn't go according to plan.

Within the briefs that I chose I felt that I could also push my skills within the use of colour and simple illustrations. For example within the postcard brief I decided to limit myself to just using two colours and simple line illustrations. I felt that giving myself these constraints to work against allowed me to produce designs more effciently since this brief was so broad.

I also re-gained a new skill in sewing, I was abit rusty to start with so a few practice runs were needed before I started on the real bag but I feel that my final bags turned out well in the end.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

One thing that proved to be helpful when designing for the postcard brief was that I set myself some limitations within my work to create some focus as the brief was so broad. I decided to limit the use of just two colours and to not over complicate the illustrations.

For my feelgood brief this was a challenge in a sense as the brief was to promote awareness of the brand and to spread feelgoodness. So researching in to thier brand ethics was important to gain an understanding of what they already to do make their consumers feelgood. Another important factor was to find out what other people did to make them and others feelgood.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I found that the Sainsbury's brief was the most successful out of the three briefs I chose as I enjoyed creating the artwork for the bags and producing prints for it. It was also beneficial as I got to learn a new printing technique and I was able to produce some screen prints for my portfolio. I am also really pleased with the bag that I made and quality of the print on to the bag as I was unsure how this was going to turn out. I also created a hessian bag aswell and printed on to that too. But because its more of an open weave I was unsure how my design would come out after printing, however it was worth the risk as it came out ok.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

I would have liked to have had the chance to reconsider the duration of the briefs I chose. As I would have liked to have spend 4 weeks on the Sainsbury's brief and had that as my main brief, for then to have the feelgood one to just 3 weeks. As I really enjoyed the Sainsbury's brief and I could have progressed that one further if I had the extra time that I spent on feelgood brief.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

Improve on my photography skills when presenting my final resolutions.
Time management is still an issue so to address this I plan to continue to use timetables to make sure my time managment is kept on track.
Organise my work from the start of the module instead of leaving it til the end.
To have used screen printing to produce my postcards, as I feel that the ideas that I had could have worked well within this process.
Explore other ideas even if they don't turn out so well and make design decisions early on so that I can develop it further.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance - 4

Punctuality - 4

Motivation - 4

Commitment - 4

Quantity of work produced - 4

Quality of work produced - 4

Contribution to the group - 3

Boards for Feelgood Drinks Co.

2009-05-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

Boards for Sainsbury's Bag.

2009-05-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

Board for postcard.

2009-05-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

Finished bag.

2009-05-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Iv finally finished both bags now. This has been quite a challenge to sew these up as I haven't sewn anything like this in ages so i was a bit rusty to start with, so i had a lot of practice runs to begin with before i started on the final bags. but im pleased with the final outcome.

Hessian Bag.

2009-05-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

I decided to make this bag to a different design and its more like a tote bag with short handles rather than the style of the original sainsbury's bag. I did this to see what it would look like as a different version to consider other formats.

Fabric Printing.

2009-05-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

The top image is printed on to hessian. I wasn't sure how well the print would turn out because hessian is quite an open weave and I wasn't sure whether my design would come out or not. So i gave it a shot anyway and it came out really clear.

The above image is printed on to canvas this one worked really well and gave a clear image after afew prints.

Bag designs.

2009-05-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here's just a selection of some of the designs that i have considered using a variety of different fruit and veg.

Final Bottle Designs.

2009-05-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Bottle neck design.

2009-05-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

On the reverse of the bottle cap there is a feelgood task/tip in which would then photograph yourself doing your feelgood antics. Then in doing so upload it to feelgood's website to become part of their community and spreading feelgoodness.

Bottle lids.

2009-05-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

These are the feelgood tips that will appear on the reverse side of the lid.

Peel off stickers

2009-05-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

These peel off stickers are attached to the front of the bottle where the logo would originally go. Each colour represents the flavour of each drink.

Postcards in context.

2009-05-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

Horror postcards.

2009-05-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

Keeping the imagery quite simple and using only two colours, I think I would have liked to have screen printed these or to have maybe produced some prints from these?!?But I stuck to the time limit I gave myself for this brief.

Postcard from a haunted house.

2009-05-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

After going though different ideas for the postcard from the edge I have finally decided to take on a horror theme. These images by Ray Frenden really help when considering imagery to use within my postcards. I want to mainly work with just image and maybe the use of a bit of type, but I want my postcards to be quite simple in design and have impact with colour perhaps this could be limited just to 2 colours?!?!

Eco bags.

2009-05-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

paper bags.

2009-05-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

Lovely line quality to these bags and limited use of colour.

Canvas Bags

2009-05-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

Really nice use of simple imagery sticking to just using one colour making a bold statement.

Juice Box

2009-05-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

These are all designed by Naoto Fukasawa.
I think its the quirky nature of these that make them so appealing.lovely stuff!!!

postcards of dooooooom!!!

2009-05-05T13:25:00.001-07:00

This set of postcards is lovely I want to own a set of these!!!its nice that they all come packaged together to make a set. The postcards represent imagery from a fairytale that depicts lots of different stories and the brief was sent to lots of illustrators for them to create imagery for a postcard.

sweet love.

2009-05-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is a lovely illustration, has sort of a tattoo style to it and the simple use of just 4 colours works really well.

Little trip to sainsbury's

2009-05-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

This is the current bag for life.

Moo postcards.

2009-05-04T12:36:00.001-07:00

All the design above are by kate moross.

More bags...

2009-05-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

Current bag for life.

The bag above was designed by leading fashion designer Anya Hindmarch for Sainsburys and was part of their limited edition range.

Sainsbury's bags.

2009-05-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

These bags have been previously limited edition bags for life. Designed by Michael Craig-Martin, Anya Gallaccio and Paul Morrison.

Sainsbury's Values.

2009-05-04T12:11:00.001-07:00

We're working to reduce our impact on the environment in everything we do.

We work with our suppliers to source excellent food. Our suppliers are our partners - we rely on them and respect their enterprise.

Our goal is to provide customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty products. We want to make healthier eating easier, enjoyable and more affordable for everyone.

These are the themes that i have to work from and i have to chose only one of them to design for.

Shape Studio Postcards.

2009-05-04T10:14:00.001-07:00

Project:show off
These postcards were designed to go in a pack to be sent out to encourage young creatives to enter work to YCN.

Free encouragement postcards!!!

2009-05-04T10:00:00.001-07:00

These postcards are from the 'free encouragement project' by boooooom where you could send in your response to the brief. In some respects its quite similar to the postcard from the edge brief.

Postcards by Riitta Ikonen!!!

2009-05-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

These unusual postcards have been created by Riitta Ikonen where she sent 100 different postcards over 2 years and in doing so she was testing the postal system. Only 3 of the cards never made thier destination. I'm guessing that the 'hair mail' was one of them because it hasn't got a stamp on it and to be honest its just gross!!!nice play on words though.

But the one above is my favorite!!!i like the format of the postcard as it takes it form as a clear plastic wallet. Just abit different to a normal postcard not sure about the content though?!?!

Feel good drinks eco-warriors!!!

2009-05-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

The above image is of a post from the feel good blog stating that their company is eco-friendly and recycles a lot of their waste.
Therefore i must consider the stock i use for my promotional device perhaps using recycled stock.

Feel good doodle!!!

2009-05-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

The doodle on the one above is of stripy pants!?! and the one below is of a pig?!?!so it really can be anything that makes you feel good...
Introducing the feel good doodle:

'Another thing that makes us (big) kids smile is doodling....! Why not do us doodle of something that make you feel good? We'll add it to our collection here for all to see, what's more, it might just end up on one of our packs one day!!!'

This is a great method of promotion having the chance to have your doodle on the product and in doing so makes more people aware of the brand. The images above show the winning designs so far.

New feelgood products 2009.

2009-05-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

The latest addition to their range is using 100% recycled bottles making them easier for the consumer to carry round. As previously they have only come in glass bottles.

And another addition is the Feel Good Kids range, offering handy kid-friendly wedge cartons that contain 100% natural ingredients.

Feelgood Drinks:The Golden Rules.

2009-04-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

These are really helpful when considering the companies values and their message of a quality product.

Feelgood website.

2009-04-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Their website is full of colour which makes it a lot more appealing to the eye and it is very interactive as everything moves every time you click on to another page.
The image above is the loading page for the website it beats just have the normal loading bar.

Timescale for each project.

2009-04-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

Design Practice:Part two.

2009-04-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

For the next part of the module design practice we had to choose 3 briefs from a selection of YCN, D&AD and ISTD briefs.
The briefs that i chose are:

YCN 07/08 - Sainsbury's - 'create a piece of design or illustration for a limited edition range of Sainsbury's shopping bags.'
D&AD - Don't Panic - 'design a postcard from the edge.'
YCN 08/09 - The Feelgood Drinks Co. - 'Grab everyone's attention and put a smile on their faces by spreading some feelgoodness.'

I chose these briefs because i feel that i can challenge myself with more promotional based briefs and i also feel that within these briefs i will be able to further my skills in screenprint.

Evaluation for Design Practice.

2009-04-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you applied them?

Firstly a skill that I have gained from this collaborative brief is from my partner, Caroline. As she has very capable skills when it comes to all things digital and the use of software, which i can do to some extent but not as good as her. So I really feel that I have learnt a thing or two from the use of her skills and how we applied them to the brief.

However my skills in illustrator were beneficial to this brief and this is where I found that my skills have developed the most, when producing imagery from both our design sheets and conveying our message appropriately.

Also when working with a partner it really inspires you to work harder within your work as someone else is relying on your design work. And with working so well together we could voice our own opinions with each others work and communitcated well so that we both had an equal share of the work.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

We started this brief by firstly researching in to the brand of O2 and what they do for thier customers that makes them better connected with them. So we looked in to their methods of communicating with their customers and the graphics devices they used to persuade potiential new customers to thier network. We also had a little trip to one of the O2 shops for some primary research, even thought the sales assisstants proved to be quite unhelpful.But in doing so we managed to collect some really helpful leaflets and abit more about their brand identity.

We also gained alot from the use of the internet and researching in to what O2 had done previously when promoting their brand. This enabled us to be informed on what they had already done before so that we could come up with a completely fresh idea.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Our time managment skills were definately beneficial to this brief and in doing so when things went wrong, like when our laser cutting didn't work out so well, we had the time to correct this efficently.

Also as we both shared the interest within screen print it allowed us to use this workshop effectivley within our project.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

Pehaps we could have had abit more research contained within our work and not just on our blogs. And abit more development of our early designs and to have produced alot more screenprints of our final idea.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

If I ever get the chance to do some more laser cutting I must remember that sometimes there are problems with registration that will occur if your using a screen printed image.
To be more organised with digital files.
Perhaps to have a had abit more research within our work and not just on our blogs.
To update my blog abit more regularly.
To be more decisive when set new briefs and not to be afraid of things going wrong. As you learn from your own mistakes.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance - 4

Punctuality - 4

Motivation - 4

Commitment - 4

Quantity of work produced - 4

Quality of work produced - 4

Contribution to the group - 4

Timetable.

2009-03-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

Extra boards for submission.

2009-03-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

YCN boards.

2009-03-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

These were the final boards that we sent off to YCN.

Mailshot.

2009-03-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is our final mailshot put together containing the leaflet and cut out with sim card underneath the cherry.

Complete Cut Out's

2009-03-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here's just one of the complete cut out including the sim card.

Info leaflet.

2009-03-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

This is the lovely leaflet designed by Caroline, containing O2's tariff and how to connect to their network. This would come in an envelope along with the cut out containing the sim card.

Laser Cutting!!!

2009-03-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today was when we got the chance to do abit of laser cutting yeyy!!!But we hit afew problems along the way with software issues, as our illustator files weren't opening correctly on the PC in the laser cutting room. Which meant afew dashes to and from the mac suites, but we managed to over come this problem eventually.

But when our cut outs returned we had yet another problem to face. Because we had screenprinted the designs on to our stock the registration was out on the laser cutter as its all digital.This is what one of them looked like:
But because we had screen printed more designs on different stock we were able to resolve this issue by cutting the prints up and sticking them to the surface of the laser cut pieces.Which worked a treat!!!

Printy Print.

2009-03-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

After coating our screens on Friday we finally managed to get in to print our designs. Here are the designs that we printed:

We printed on to a variety of different coloured stock and then decided that the blue card would work best.

While these were drying we then went to investigate about the possibility of doing abit of laser cutting???

Dogs without tails?!?!?

2009-03-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here are afew more posters I created using our jigsaw idea of more of a visual metaphor, in which something is missing and in this case it would be dogs tails:

Poster designs with illustrations

2009-03-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here are afew designs I came up with using the illustrations:

Some O2 posters.

2009-03-12T13:38:00.001-07:00

Cupcake!!!

2009-03-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Here's another idea for something missing. Whats a cupcake without a cherry on top!!!

Cut out illustrations.

2009-03-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

Some illustration ideas for the cut outs:For these the part that would be missing would be the tails of the dogs and the fin of the shark. We wanted to keep the illustrations quite simple and only using the quality of line, so that when it comes to putting them on the posters we can achieve the outer glow easier. As if they were complex and totally filled in images the outer glow effect wouldn't have worked so well.

Crit 3.

2009-03-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

For the crit we had more designs for our jigsaw cut outs but this time relating the jigsaw as more of a visual metaphor.

Caroline had also found this really nice bit of research, it was from Airside studios and they had made these lovely die cut beer mats.

So in finding this little gem of research it sparked a new idea for our cut outs, so we put this forward in our crit with our designs. The new idea went down well but it wasn't enough just presenting the designs, so after the crit we decided to then make a mock up of a couple of the designs.

I decided to make the man with/without an umbrella as seen below:

O2 Paper chain people ad.

2009-03-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

Im not sure if this was actually used by O2 or whether someone has just created but it was designed by Adelphoi?!?and heres what they had to say....

We created a magical track which led the viewer on a journey through an endless blue world. The paperchain represents customers connecting to friends and family using the 4 Free Pay and Go sims offer. The resulting track combines sound design, using paper sounds to echo the animation on screen; and music with feelings of mystery and wonder.

The part that i like is the paper chain people, this is a nice way of portraying the way the O2 customers are connected.

Crit 2.

2009-03-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

For this crit we had come up with more designs for the jigsaw and refined our idea to 'O2 is the missing piece of the jigsaw.' So that O2 completes things.
We had focused more on imagery of bubbles for the designs on the jigsaws, so that it related more to O2. But it was said in the crit that we could use our jigsaw idea as more of a visual metaphor rather than just using the jigsaw piece. Which allowed us to develop the use of different imagery away from our original bubble idea. Other suggestions were...what is missing? What could the missing image be? Things that don't work without something?
These were all valuable comments that we can now take in to account when we further our development within our designs.

O2 - March of the ducks advert.

2009-03-04T15:05:00.000-08:00

Crit.

2009-03-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

For this crit we decided to present our bubble wrap and jigsaw ideas to the group. In doing so they thought it was a good concept but the finer details need to be addressed like, how was it all going to be put together and would it just be a throw away mail shot or could it be more interactive so that you keep it. It was also suggested to make our jigsaw more interactive it could be made it in to a magnet that you could use on a fridge door. Which is something we could take in to account.

After the crit we then decided to develop our jigsaw idea further and address the issues rised in the crit.

'Do the O2' tv advert.

2009-03-03T15:39:00.001-08:00

Valentines day O2 ad.

2009-03-03T15:34:00.000-08:00

The latest advert from O2.

2009-03-02T14:30:00.001-08:00

This is really great way to get O2 customers to top up their phone more, as each time you top up you get the chance to win a prize via O2's hook a duck game.

Free sim cards.

2009-03-02T14:16:00.001-08:00

Happy Homes.

2009-03-01T14:08:00.000-08:00

O2 better connected advert.

2009-03-01T14:04:00.000-08:00

O2 adverts.

2009-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

The brief.

2009-02-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

Background
We believe a more connected world is a better world. From the birds and the bees, to smashing the Berlin wall, all human beings share the instinct to connect.

That’s why everything we do is there to make connecting simpler. With the people you like. Or the things you love. From music, movies and games, to football, rugby and facebook. If we can, we’ll put you there in person. Like at our Wireless festival in Hyde Park. Or with priority tickets to The O2.

We all like joining up. Doing things by yourself is ok, for a while. But we’re better, connected.

Creative Requirements
There are no limits. We’re open to anything that brings the idea to life. If you want to script a short film, fine. If you think you can bring the thought to life on a poster, go for it. Or if you want to invent a new product that no-one’s thought of yet, be our guest. The only limitation is that we’d like to share the best ideas around O2, and maybe make some of them a reality. So whatever your idea is, it would be nice if we could showcase it.

Other Things We Should Let You Know
We believe in keeping things fresh, positive, and simple. As a brand, we aim to be warm and optimistic. Like a breath of fresh air. That’s the feeling we’d like to get coming through in your work.

Any ‘Brand Guidelines’ To Bear In Mind?
Not really. If our brand was a colour, it’d be blue. But the blue of a beautiful sky on a summer’s day. If you want a visual metaphor for O2, you could use oxygen bubbles, but there’d be others.
When it comes to words, keep it natural. Fresh, positive, simple.
And if you’re looking for a phrase that holds it all together or sums it up neatly, use ‘we’re
better, connected’.

Deliverables
Please adhere to the deliverables guidelines in the Awards section at ycnonline.com. Full details on the judging process and associated timings can also be found online.

OUGD203 - Design Practice.

2009-02-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

This is my blog for design practice which is a collaborative brief for YCN and I chose to team up with Caroline Henson. I'm working with Caroline because she has skills in type, layout, computer based work and has an interest with working within print. Where as I'm more in to illustration and hand rendered work and also have an interest in all things print. So hopefully with the varying skills we both have this will work to our advantage within this brief.