OUGD 203 Individual Evaluation

On starting this module I couldn’t wait to get started writing my own brief, but it turned out harder than I thought. I wanted to take so many different approaches that I became very vague in my brief. This held me back for the first week as I kept trying to make decisions and ended up with little direction in ideas and concept. It wasn’t until I had a talk with Fred that I realised I had to narrow my direction down. I felt I would be constricting myself and would miss out on designing for other approaches that I wanted to explore e.g. editorial, packaging, print, typography and hand rendered. So I chose to look into typography and packaging, this way I was able to start research and start designing appropriately.

In the first few weeks I researched into a wide range of relevant designs that had really inspired me in my work. However from the group crits it was said that they couldn’t see how it had influenced my work, I didn’t make clear of the link between my contextual research and my own practice. This feedback was very useful and made me realise that I need to get my work up to a more professional standard.

One of my downfalls with this project was my organisation; this has never really been a problem as I’m good at keeping all my files together and labelled and in appropriate folders which makes it so much easier to document and keep a track of. But I got a bit lazy with it in this Individual brief, as I was doing lots of touch ups and minor changes and towards the end of the module I had files everywhere which took up a lot of my time trying to find what I wanted.

I’ve had a real software realisation throughout this module. I usually use one piece of software for my work which I can normally do everything I need to do. I started of in Illustrator as I was tracing my hand drawn designs and made most of the different elements of the packaging designs in there, e.g. logos, patterns, informational tables. However when I started putting these designs on to a net I stayed in Illustrator, rather than moving these designs into Photoshop. So it took me twice as long to put a design together as I couldn’t use the right tools and had to compromise some things. Even though we have had inductions into this software and I have been using them for years, I now realise the strengths of each piece of software and how they actually work together.

In a similar way to the software issues that I had, I have really realised the importance of file types and size. Again we have had lessons on this which did help but it’s not until I actually started using them all e.g. PNG, TIFF, JPG, AI, PS and PDF, that I understood the values of each.

We had a show and tell crit during the middle of out brief and I felt I was quite prepared as I had my mock up pieces with their range, and my digital and print distribution. I think I got a bit to confident with myself and this was the point that I eased of a little as I thought I was quite ahead of myself. However this meant that I fell behind (of course) and even though I was still producing work I wasn’t developing anymore.

The last crit that we had was one of the most useful crits we had during this module. I was really blow away with the quality and quantity of work that people had come out with. Up till this point I was quite happy with the work that I had produced and was sure of what I had left to do, so I was surprised when I got positive feedback but I also got some rally useful suggestions on how to improve. I made a decision that day that I would spend the next day producing more work and push the boards back. This was a risky decision but I now know it was the right one as I produced the same amount of work in one day that I had spend weeks doing. I feel that I have learnt more about my own practice through this module as I have before and now know the standard of work that I can produce.

At the last stage of the brief I was getting all my boards together and taking all my product shots, but I really struggled with it. As I had produced white products with a subtle pattern on them I found when I was photographing them on a white backdrop I was looking all the detail and definition of the products. I used photography studio lighting and different set up stations and still ended up re-photographing the products 4 times. I was dubious in using coloured back drops as I didn’t want to loose attention from the products so I still needed something neutral. In the end I used some cardboard which I was still unsure of but I worked really well for the product shots. However this whole process got me back into using my digital SLR properly. I was having to manuel set the settings to get the best quality image, so I really felt a sense of achievement when I got some great impact images from it.

When designing the packaging I wanted to use a thick, uncoated and coloured stock. With my initial design I printed onto stocks such as cartridge paper, watercolour paper, white card, coloured card and grey card, but most of these didn’t fit with the designs. If I used any sort of coloured stocks I lost all the detail in the background patterns and it wasn’t appropriate for each variation. This meant that I had to stick with a white stock so that I could apply all the various colours and patterns without it being disrupted. 

I do feel that i need to work on the quality of my boards more, they are not as good as they could be and some of them look a bit to crowded which looses all the impact. This is a skill Iv been working on throughout the last year and even thought I feel it is better than it was, I can still improve more, especially as now we only hand in boards so this has to represent my process clearly.

By the end of this module I was really please with the work that I had produced, I really feel that I have put the effort in and had the quantity of work to support my brief. This project is one of the first that I have produced that I feel I have gained a understanding of a professional practice and the process of which I best work within my practice.

Product, Range, Distribution boards

Product Distribution

Cheese
This really isnt a great mock up but it shows the product in context. The designs will be applied to stickers that wrap round the cheese and placed in the shelves.

Cake
These cake boxes are the same size as the present value cake packaging, they would be placed in the same shelve space.

Beans
Iv mocked these cans up to show them being distributed in the Morrisons stores within all the cans. I;v also showed them in context in someone's cupboard.

Website Advert Final

These are the two final designs for the web advert, iv made the idioms the main focus as they link directly to the product. For the cake advert i wanted to show the whole range of the cakes as i think the format of the images workes well in the advert space.

This cheese advert was harder to arrange, this gives impact on the prduct for customers to recognise 'The big cheese' identity and then when in stores can easily recognise it.

New product shots

I re took the product shots and used a neutral cardboard backdrop. This image works better as you can still see the details in the designs, the patterns are a lot more clearer than before.

a bit more fun with product shots

As the photos went coming out great on the white back drop i decided to use a coloured one so its easier to distinguish the white boxes. I chose this yellow as i still want this whole range to be fun and friendly and is aimed at everyday people who shop in Morrisons on a budget. 

I decided to set up a little scene to acompany the cake box, as if it was at a party. I really like these shots, but i dont think they appropriate to show in my final presentation but i might go on to develop them as a portfolio piece.

I tried different ways to show the range that i have designed. i needed to show each variation of cake but still have them working as a set.

Product shots

So i have been taking some product shots all day, trying to get a good quality image. This is one of the best that i got and its quite a nice shot of them all.

These photos have lost all the detail though so im going to have another go and see what i can do to make sure i don't wash out the image. 

I like the layout of the iamge though so you can see the range of different products but still how they link together as one identity.

Cheese product shots

These are the two final design for the cheese range, they will be sticky labels that wrap around the cheese.

Product shots

These are the final product shots for the beans labels. i really like this range, i think they work really well together and the layout works for the whole range.

Bean label mock ups

These are the first mock ups iv done for the bean packaging. they are just a test to see how they look when printed out and so far they look quiet good. 

I'm going to darken the green as its a lot brighter than i thought it would be and you can distinguish the bean shape in the counter. but apart from that im pretty happy with them.

Broad Beans

These are the elements for the broad beans product, they are exactly the same layout as the other two but again changing the colour and the sub-name of the product. 

Baked Beans

This is the backed beans label elements. they are applied in the same way just a variation of colour and information.

Kidney Beans

This is the final label design for the beans. 

bean pattern

I used the 'student beans' logo to create the patten as it is a stereotypical bean shape. I have tried a few different combinations of patter to see which would work the best as i didn't want the pattern to take to much attention away from the rest of the design. 

I chose this design as it is more subtle and relaxed than the other as they are more spaced out, also as they are filled in colour i can reduced the opacity and it will still show up subtly rather than a very faint line.

'Spill the beans' begins

I only had a day and a half to produce this design and get it mocked up so I didn't do much experimenting or developing. I chose the 'Headline Two' typeface as i was looking for something quirky and more relaxed looking. I didn't want a sharp slick typeface for beans as they are quite odd themselves, all different shapes and sizes.

I wanted something subtle in the design of it to reflect the product as i have for each of the other products. I decided to use a stereotypical bean shape as the counters of the 'p' and the 'b'.

Also the colours reflect the products which iv colour picked from images of the beans.

Cake product shots

Iv been taking loads of photographs of these cake boxes trying to get some good quality shots. I'v been trying to get some fun looking shots as i want this packaging to look fun and friendly, but I still need to get the full range and show what they actually are.

I took photos of each box to show how they work separately as well as a range of packaging but im not quite happy with the quality of them. As i have use a white back drop i seem to have lost some of the detail around the box and the patterns on some of these images and they all look a bit flat. But they are good in showing the colours and layout for each variation of box.