heidisdegreeshow

Sketchbook page 41

Formative assessment developments: Card design

During the formative assessment Matt was happy with the exterior of my card designs; however, noted adding my roll design to the inside as a colouring in activity. This he said would add no additional costs when producing the card but would add market value. Despite Matt being happy with my card designs i still felt there was room for improvement so took my initial concepts and developed them.

To start with i started playing around with my happy birthday card. First i rearranged the text into a more readable linear fashion as i felt the text on my previous design was slightly too jumbled up. To help the text fit onto the card better instead of using a 7×9 inch template i used a 7×8 inch. I wanted the card to be more of a square shape so the text would fit better; however, still leave room for the area that would be cut off at the top.

Within my initial design i only thought about giving the top of the card a jagged edge once printing it, so i wanted to put more thought into this during the designing process. I first went about cutting away the top and sides of the card, using the same wavy style which is embedded within all of my designs. Overall i feel i have cut away too much of the below design and there is a huge unsettling contrast between the wavy top and straight edges. From here i went about applying the same technique; however, in a more restricted way.

Realising i had cut away too much on my previous design i decided to make the ‘happy’ text slightly bigger to better fill the space and then cut away the top and only part of the sides of the card. Overall i feel this is my strongest design so far as it is now easily readable and has a more considered top edge. Despite being happy, i did wonder if there was too much negative space on the card. During a tutorial with Suzanna she noted that she felt it was appropriate as there is so much going on within the text its self.

Once being happy with the exterior of the card i then went onto consider the colouring in page within the interior of the card. For this i used only the outline of my roll design and selected an area. Overall i feel this will really help my design to stand out on the market and appeal even more so to my target market. If consumers look inside the card and they see it has this extra element they may be more likely to buy it as they feel they are getting better value for money.

Once deciding on my interior pattern i then started to think about how both sides of the card could work together as one unit. As the left side of the card would be black and white i integrated these hues into my happy birthday text. As well as this i decided to add a note that the left side of the card is for colouring in. To do this i used a text i downloaded online and then drew an arrow using the pen tool in illustrator in a style which i feel reflects this font and my imagery. Overall i feel this interior comes together really well and the colouring in page will help my design appeal to my target market.

For my second card i had already outlined some areas i wanted to develop, mainly that the imagery was taking over the card and not leaving enough space for text. To combat this issue i traced some of the elements from my roll designs and then arranged them onto a 7×9 inch piece of paper. I found by working onto a piece of paper the same size as my card will be it gave myself a good indication of of how much space i was exactly leaving for text. As the text is the central part of this design i wanted to ensure this stood out.

Once happy with my design on paper i then followed the usual process of scanning it in, editing the levels in Photoshop and then bringing it into Illustrator to image trace it. Once doing this i then added the hues from my colour pallet and the text.

From my initial design i really liked the blue background as felt this would really appeal to my target market so, decided to stick to this. As well as this, as my gift sheet now has a blue background my designs are working better as a collection.

Overall, i am a lot happier with this design than i was previously as now the text is at the centre and not the imagery. It was really useful creating my first card mock up as it gave me a good idea of what needed improvements within this design.

As this card is for a very specific age where as my previous could be for any within my target market i decided to add a much simpler colouring in design to the interior of this card. For this i decided to extract elements from my roll design and arrange them in a tossed formation. As the children receiving this card may be younger than that of my previous, i need to consider that they may not be as able to pick out one monster from the next when the design monotone like an elder child would. For the interior i selected a range of monsters, all in different shapes and sizes to diversify the range of imagery.

Initially i had used 7 monsters for the inside design; however, decided to refine this down to just 5 so the monsters do not look so compact. As well as this i decided to add some text to the inside of the card inspired by my research which states this is for a colouring in activity.

Initially for this text i experimented with the Snot font i used within my moodboards; however, because this text will be small i needed to pick one which is a lot simpler. To find an appropriate font i went to an online site called 1001 fonts and downloaded 3 which i felt were appropriate. Once having them downloaded i then played with them to see which best suited my imagery. Overall i am very happy with this development which Matt suggested as i feel it will help my card appeal to my target market and also draw more customers to the product.

Despite being happy with this design i couldn’t help but wonder what it would look like with a background hue, much like the interior of the cards i produced for the formative assessment. Overall i feel this coloured background would help to bring the interior of the card together i do feel it detracts from the colouring in appeal.

To try and find a happy medium between integrating the red; however, not overwhelming this page i decided to turn the outlines of the creatures red instead. Once again i felt the red overwhelmed the colouring in aspect so experimented further and have decided just to have the text in red. I feel the interior of the card was very attractive with the red block hue; however, i also now have to consider the purpose of this product as well as the design aspect.

Once deciding on the layout of the colouring in side of the card i started to experiment with how i could integrate the two interior sides together more. Initially i placed a flat red hue across the right side; however, felt there was more i could do. To try and appeal to my low demographic i experimented with the edges of the red box. To do this i used the distort tool within illustrator which allows you to add a more exciting edges. Despite thinking this was a good improvement which also reflected the wavy lines within all of my designs i still wanted to develop it further.

Inspired by these developments i used the pen tool to create a wavy edge to the bounding box. Overall i feel this has been the most successful as now the two sides of the interior work better as one unit and the wavy lines reflect the style which is present on the front of the card. Despite liking what i had created i still wanted to integrate the white background from the left side of the card into the right. To achieve this i simply added a wavy line, reflecting the shapes and curves of the red box. Initially i added this like using a 1 pint pen; however, developed this further by changing it to 0.25 pint. I think the 0.25 pint addition better reflects the line thickness within my monsters and has a more subtle touch than the 1 pint.

Overall i am now a lot happier with the interior of my card which includes the points from Matt at the formative assessment. I feel the addition of the colouring in page on both of my designs has really helped my card to appeal to my demographic.

Despite being happy with the design choices i had made, when creating a mock up of the card i realised that the interior and exterior may come together better if the interior was in a blue hue instead of red. Red is present on the front of the card; however, blue is the prominent tone covering the most negative space. Because of this i have decided to change the interior hue to blue instead of red. I feel this brings together the interior and exterior of the card and makes the design a lot stronger.

Children’s games research

As Matt has asked me to include some imagery on the inside of my card i thought it be a good idea to do some research into games and activities within children’s magazines. Although Matt only mentioned using some of my own designs as colouring in activities i thought it be worth wile to see if there are any games and activities on the market which would relate to my theme and target demographic.

Overall the magazines contained the basic games i was originally thinking of and nothing that really caught my attention. I found the most frequent to be word searches and maze games. Within some of the magazines there were also colouring in tasks which Matt suggested within my own products.

From my research i feel colouring in activities would be most suitable to my demographic and theme especially as this was what Matt wanted me to include. If i were to develop my collection further i would definitely include some word searches and maze games. So these activities would relate to my theme i would use monster themed words and put a monster at the end of the maze.

Sketchbook pages 42 and 43

Formative feedback response: Gift Sheet

During the formative assessment i presented two of the same designs in different colour ways as i was not sure which i preferred. In response to these designs Matt suggested adding a blue background. So the text would stand out against this new blue background i decided to remove the blue hue from the text and only use the orange, green, red and purple. Despite initially wanting to use all the hues within my font i feel using these 4 rather bright hues will still help my design to stand out against other designs on the market.

Once changing around the hues within the font through Illustrator i then went about constructing my text on a 50x 70 cm template which is the standard size dimension for a gift sheet. With my previous design i was worried that the scale may be slightly too big as when the paper is wrapped around the present all the letters will not be visible. To rectify this i have made the font slightly smaller. Although i wanted to play as much with scale as much as i could within my collection i need to remember the product my designs will be applied to and consider this throughout the designing process.

Once happy with the placement of my font i then went about adding the blue background. Overall i feel this design is a lot stronger than those i have done previous; however, i am still not 100% satisfied. One letter which is really standing out and drawing my attention constantly is the orange D. As orange is the brightest colour and contrasts against the blue, this combined with it’s large surface area draws the eye directly toward it.

Because of this issue i wanted to experiment with an orange background and replacing the orange text with the blue background hue. Although the letter with the largest surface area would still have a maximal contrast with the background i thought this may help it become more subtle. Overall despite thinking this does help to some extent i really need to swap around the hues of the letters so the D is at less of a contrast to the background. From here i will either go ahead and complete this experiment or perhaps swap the D to a lower case which should mean it has a more equal surface area to the rest of the letters.

In the end i decided to change the d to a lower case just to be sure it would not stick out compared to all the other letters. Overall i am now a lot more satisfied with this design than i have been with my previous as now no letters in particular stick out. I feel my roll and sheet design are now coming together better as a collection as they have a more unified colour pallet and imagery.

From here i will now start to think about developing my card designs from the feedback Matt gave in the formative assessment.

Sketchbook page 40

Formative Feedback Developments: Gift Tag

Following the formative assessment i have decided to develop one of my gift tags to help diversify my collection. Although Matt did not note having two monster gift tags as an issue, he did appear fond of some of my mouth gift tags i had within my sketchbook. Initially i did not select a mouth gift tag as i felt it was not resemblant enough of one; however, Matt noticed it was a mouth straight away and seemed awfully keen of it.

Instead of just using one i already had i decided to develop my favourite design in Illustrator to see if i could make it stronger as a design. The initial design i have developed is shown bellow.

As i felt my previous experiments had worked quite well when i drew directly into illustrator i decided to do this again. I tried to experiment with a range of shapes of the mouth, all oval or circular and then experimented with the shape and amount of teeth. Despite thinking this was working to some extent i felt the inside of the mouth was quite plain so decided to add the black hue from my colour pallet. Overall i feel this worked really well and helped to add depth and contrast to my designs.

Out of all of the designs bellow it is the one to the far right which i will be selecting for my gift tag. Within this design i really like the shape of the mouth and feel the high volume and shape of the teeth will really appeal to my target market. As well as this, i also have a few monsters with a mouth like this within my gift roll design so it should help to bring the collection together.

Sketchbook pages 38 and 39

Response to formative feedback- Roll design

In response to some of the feedback Matt gave for my gift roll design i have decided to remove the text. Matt felt my collection would benefit from the roll design to be just imagery and the sheet just text to help diversify the collection. Because of the high intensity of stylised pattern within my roll design i believe removing the text will also help to draw the imagery together.

Instead of just editing my previous design i decided to almost completely redraw from scratch to ensure my monster imagery was as strong as possible. There were certain monsters from my block and brick repeat that i felt would really engage my audience so, started my design by tracing these and applying them to my new design.

Before the formative assessment i went into town and bought a monster gift sheet which i have previously blogged about. When studying the repeat in this i realised there were a lot fewer monsters within this design than there were in my brick, and still it was a very successful pattern. Inspired by this i decided to use 3x A6 pieces of card where as previously i had used 3x A5. By working on this smaller surface i hope that my design will be more refined. Also, as i will be using digital processes to edit my pattern i can still ensure this smaller design is at the same scale as my previous as Emma really liked the scale of it.

To create the repeating pattern i used the same technique i have done previously of accurately measuring the paper, filling the middle with a design and then separating the pieces and rearranging them so i can join the outside edges. From my previous experiments i have realised working directly into illustrator gives me a very different style, so decided to use the technique i know works best for the marks i was looking to achieve.

Once happy with the design i scanned the image into my laptop at a very high DPI to ensure the quality was retained. Unfortunately as i only have an A4 printer at home i had to cut up my design in the same way i did when filling in the outside edges and scan it in in two parts.

Following this i brought it into Photoshop where i played with the levels to heighten the contrast between the black and white. As i was planning to image trace the design in Illustrator it is essential i did this to make the tracing easier for the image trace process. If i had not have altered the levels, image trace may have missed out certain details, or added in details when in fact there were none.

Once happy with the contrast between the black and white i took the design into Illustrator where i image traced it. To ensure the design had the perfect line weight and did not loose any detail i played with the threshold. Once happy i expanded the design which meant every line/ detail within the design is completely editable. Via going through this process it also meant the white background had been removed so i could apply colour behind the black outline. One more benefit of image tracing a design is that i can now scale it to however big i want and it will not pixilate, which is vital seeing as this design is a lot smaller than my previous.

My next stage was to add colour to my design. As this is my hero design i decided to use every colour on my colour pallet. To apply the hues i created another layer under the black outline and used the paintbrush tool. For this design i followed the same principle which i have done with my previous designs in that no two monsters touching can be the same colour. This will allow the eye to easily separate one monster from the next in a very busy pattern. As a good proportion of the monsters were half cut off and their heads/ bodies were on another outside edge on the complete opposite side of the design i had to copy and paste this image to i know which areas were part of the same monster. As this repeat is an odd shape this made this process more complex. If you look at the black and white design above and try to work out where the other half of one cut off monster is on another part of the design you will be staring at it for a while before you are able to work it out.

Once happy with the hues i had applied i then went about repeating the design. The design presented bellow is at a lot smaller scale than it will be; however, i wanted to ensure i had the design repeated enough times so i would have enough for the formative assessment but also to get a view of what a large piece of it on the roll will look like.

Overall i feel this is my most successful roll design to date. As the text has been removed the design comes together a lot better as a whole and the repeating structure is less obvious. I feel my colour pallet works really well as the purple and blue add depth to the design and the pops of orange really help to brighten it.

As well as this i am a lot happier with the forms of the monsters themselves than i have been within my previous designs. I feel the monsters from my previous were rushed and not considered so came out in odd shapes which were more resemblant of a blob than a monster. Knowing this was potentially the last time i would complete this design i spent a lot longer contemplating each and every monster.

From here my plan is to edit my gift sheet design which needs some minor changes to do with colour.

Now completing my gift roll design i have decided to create a mini book using this imagery. This experiment is something i had first done during first year as it allows you to zoom in on certain elements of the pattern. To create this experiment i printed out my roll design A3 and then folded and sewed the paper together using embroidery thread. Overall i feel this is a great way for you to view the monsters on a more personal level as it is easier for the eye to extract individual elements and view one monster then the next.

This experiment has also shown myself how my designs could be developed for different products and different market areas. I think this pattern would have a great application to the inside cover of a children’s book or the cover of a note book.

Thats not my monster

Upon telling one of my support workers about my monster project she mentioned a book named Theats not my monster she remebered which festures a variety of images of monsters. Despite being 6 weeks into the project now i still think it is important to be open to new ideas incase i need to change my imagery in any way.

Upon viewing some of the images online the overall feel of the book is a bit babyish for my target market. Despite this the monsters still have some interesting characteristics i can draw inspiration from and portray them within my own style.

I selected the image bellow as i really like the curled horns on the monster. Horns are something i experimented with a little bit right at the start of the project; however, got lost a-mist all my other ideas. I think adding horns to some of my creatures when re drawing my gift roll will really help to diversify one from the next and also help to create a more interesting shape to base my next monster on.

Wells, R. (2010) Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=thats+not+my+monster&sxsrf=ACYBGNQpJJwRcjphEDTZuj4s9TDoD48rTw:1572546155625&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjowf73jsflAhUBu3EKHcCrBPsQ_AUIEygC&biw=1440&bih=821#imgrc=_ (Accessed: 31st October 2019)

Low end market

Having changed my market to working for a low end i have had to come up with a new store i am producing my designs for; however, also new competitors. For my new store i have selected B and M as they sell a range of gifts for my target market; however, not much gift wear. I believe i could sell my products to them by giving them the motive that if customers are coming in and buying gifts why let them leave without buying products to wrap their gifts in. I feel this store could create a lot more sales through stocking my products as customers could get everything they need for a childs birthday all in one place.

Having changed my store i have also had to change my market competitors. First i have selected Card Factory as they are also reaching out to a low end market and also Clintons as they are one of the biggest gift wear retailers. I think it is important to consider that although my designs are for a low end market i will still be competing against other big brands as, if a customer is looking for something specific they will try a range of shops across the market.

Updated Moodboards

One thing i have been wanting to go back and do for a while now is re do my moodboards as i was not happy with them previous to this. To re create them i decided to use my previous ones to inspire me and also images i found throughout my research.

Overall i am a lot happier with my moodboards now as i have refined them right down to key visuals which really reflect my project. The one moodboard i decided to keep from my previous collection was my customer one as i felt this had all the elements which really reflected my target market. After speaking to Matt when he came round and done some tutorials a few weeks ago he said not to get too caught up with the millennial parents so i have decided to remove this one. This was because although it will be the parent buying the card they will be thinking more so of the child than their own personal interests. On my colour and texture board i decided to remove the yellow from my colour pallet as when designing i felt this did not suit the rest of my colours in my pallet, nor my target market. Going forward now i feel a lot more confident referring to my moodboards for inspiration as i feel they better reflect my theme.

Formative Feedback

Overall my presentation ran very smoothly as i had prepared notes on key parts of my project to touch on and also book marked key pages in my book. It was interesting to hear about other peoples work and how they have got to the stage they are at now as everyone has taken different paths. As well as this it was interesting to see peoples sketchbook content to give myself ideas of things i need to improve on.

One thing i did notice that was lacking within my own developments through seeing other peoples work was sketches of my products. Although i have done this for my gift bag i feel from now i should do this for all my products to give the viewer a better picture of what exactly i am talking about on my blog.

I think having my A2 foam board and bag mock up already completed really helped Matt and Emma to visualise what i was intending to create. Before showing these Matt mentioned he liked some of my monster mouth gift tags which feature in my book. To help versify my collection before the summative assessment i would like to produce one monster and one mouth gift tag. This will show that i have taken into consideration Matts opinion and also give customers more choice when purchasing my products.

After analysing my designs on my blog i had some preprepared questions for Matt about my gift sheet and gift roll. With the sheet i wondered whether the black or white background would be best; however, he suggested a blue one. I think this would work well within my collection and definitely something i will experiment with before the summative assessment. My main question about the gift roll was whether to use my monster text or the original as i felt my monster text featured on a lot of my products. His response to this was to either use the original text, or to remove the text completely and just have an all over pattern. As i already have a design with my original text in it, from here i will develop a gift roll which is just one all over pattern. Once producing this i can then make an informed decision on which best suits my target market and collection in general.

Another element Matt picked up on was an idea i had for my gift roll before starting the collection; however, i did not think it was appropriate for this product. This suggestion was to include a game or colouring in piece within the interior of my card. I think this would really appeal to my market and Matt said it would not make the design more expensive to produce. As well as suiting my target market this would also help to fill a lot of negative space within the card making the customer think they are getting better value for money.

One thing i knew that was going to be picked up on was the blue textures on my bag as even i was not happy with this; however, before the formative assessment i was not sure what to do with it. Matt and Emma both suggested using my gift roll design just with its black outlines and covering the entirety of the blue and red back gusset with this. I think this idea would work really well with the bag as it would also allow myself to introduce a bigger variety of scale to the product. Before the summative assessment point this is definitely something i will experiment with as well as the points made in my product mock up gift bag blog post.

From here i am very confident going forward as i now know exactly what changes need to be made before the summative assessment. Although there is some tweaking to every design these are only minor changes which i agree with so am happy to experiment with as i know they will make my collection a lot stronger.

Collection board

For my collection board i decided to add a black sheet of card to the background as i felt this better suited my theme and market area than the white. To stick this down i used a glue stick and then went round the edges with black electrical tape. Overall i feel the black electrical tape gives the board a clean finish and helps it to look more professional.

When trying to present my ideas on the board i used Matts for guidence; however, had to rearrange a few elements as i could not fit everything on. As i have two cards i decided to add a pocket like structure to the board so i could have both in once place as there would not have been room to have them both separately.

As i have not decided as of yet which gift sheet i prefer i decided to present two to see Matts onions. By doing this Matt will be able to see both side by side and make a more informed opinion on which he prefers.

As my gift bag is so big i have decided to present this separately rather than cram everything onto one board. Incase both this and my semi attatched cards go missing i have attatched my name to them so Matt will know which collection they are from. As well as making life easier for him i think this looks more proffesional.

Overall i am happy with my board; however, it has made me realise just how much i have used my own font. With this in mind depending on Matts feedback i would like to go back to my first idea of the gift sheet and use monster imagery instead of text. I believe this will help to extend my collection and diversify my products.