OUGD404 | Design Principles - Study task 02

BOOK ANALYSIS

For this task,  I focussed on the analysis of books that the rest of the class had brought in. We were asked to consider each books purpose, binding method, whether this was appropriate, why I thought it was a book and finally whether I liked the book and why.

I began by analysing a Nandos Menu. This consisted of a folded bind which I felt was appropriate as this booklet was likely to be mass produced and so folding is the cheapest method. Its aim is clearly to inform customers of the food that is on offer and any deals available to the customers. Along with information about the restaurant such as contact details. It also aims to attract customers to buy the food. What makes this a book is that it consists of a front cover and multiple pages, which are moved to reveal more information. I liked this booklet because the design had a warm and inviting feel and the menu was clear and easy to read.

The ASOS magazine was formed by a glue fold and the paper had a matte/satin feel. One page had been laminated with glossy newsprint on one side. This was appropriate as their were many pages in the magazine so a firm binding was required, especially since this magazine would be in transport. The stock gives the products inside a desirable feel. This is ideal as the aim of the booklet is to sell the products inside and advertise ASOS itself. This was one of my favourite books because the variation in paper adds a quirky touch and the design of the print as a whole appealed to me.

The Hunger Games is what is commonly thought of as a book. This was glue bound to support the large amount of pages.  The stock consisted of a card cover laminated with a glossy feel. Its purpose is to entertain and tell a story. This is your classic book as it consists of a front cover, contents, chapters and pages.

The Gay Map of Leeds is constructed from many folds. This is because the map needs to be a large scale when opened to be easily understood, but it needs to fit into the pocket easily for visitors to the city. The purpose of the booklet is to give the gay community information on what Leeds offers for them - including events and places. The stock is a thin matte so it is lightweight but tough to survive being opened and shut and taken in and out of pockets. I personally do not like the map as it is difficult to fold back to the original.

The STA Travel guide was the only staple bound booklet. Made from a matte/card stock its purpose is to inform potential customers about their deals/packages/locations and to make holidays from them appear more desirable. I personally like the feel of the paper, its nice to have in your hands.

FOLDS

As a group we then began to try and create a book (using old folds) with as many pages as possible. After some experimenting, we were taught the common way to tackle this is to use the Hot Dog fold as this had the most pages, a good structure and it most resembles a book. To create this the paper is folded in half both ways, then in half again to create an 8 x 2 grid of folds. A slit is then cut through the middle. The paper is then folded in half and pushed into a 4 pointed star shape. The pages are then brought together to make the book. The pros to making books this way os the time efficiency - no glue is required. However it is difficult to design in that the designer requires good crafting skills to avoid pages sticking out, this is even harder with a thicker stock. The easiest way to design for a book fold is to number the pages, then unfold the book so where the page numbers lie on the paper is visible.

Before making a book like this I am advised to always make mock-ups first!

The books our group created

Hot Dog Fold Book

Hot Dog Fold Book

Cut down the centre of the hot dog fold book

We then began to deconstruct each others attempts at book folds by numbering the pages and folding these out. You can see the books I experimented with below: 

 BOOK 1

Closed Book 

Book open with pages numbered

Fold the Paper in the same way as the hot dog fold

Cut two sections in one side and one section in the other side

Original book and my copy 

BOOK 2
 

Closed Book

Open book with pages numbered 

Fold book in half

And in half again

BOOK 3 

Front of book

Book fully open

Book partially open 

Fold corner to side to create a triangle

Fold rectangular shape on to triangle

Fold triangle on to rectangle

Fold remaining triangle to back

OUGD405 | Final Evaluation

OUGD405 has offered me the opportunity to apply the skills I learned in the previous module and create some final graphic design resolutions. I found this far more enjoyable as it felt like I was producing some real graphic design.
The module has been highly relevant to my development as I have been able to start writing my own briefs and design for bigger projects which I am likely to encounter in a job.
I feel that I could have stretched my learning potential by experimenting with book binding and stock as well as developing more of an understanding of grids as despite my research, I am still confused by this.
With this module I feel I have improved by constantly asking why I have made a decision and documenting this. I have also improved my self evaluation by evaluating the end of each project.
I myself feel that my skills on Adobe software are really improving. I am learning how to use these simultaneously and quickly for the best design outcomes. I am also spending my own personal time trying to learn new skills on the software and practicing in general. I have also been better at organising and documenting my own critiques. The critiques were far more helpful in this module as much for feedback is given. Asking for opinions of every element such as type and colour has been helpful for me as my layouts have been better as a result. I feel that my final resolutions have been presented in a far more professional way, this improves the look of my work, and will mean future clients will take me more seriously. I aim to consider the presentation of all my future resolutions so that I can practice this form of professionalism.
Looking back on the projects there are many areas in which I could improve. Firstly, my research has not been very broad. For example, for the photo frame brief I only researched existing photo frame designs. I have learned that I need to broaden my research but I am unsure how to do this. For the next module I plan to chat with tutors to find out what research is appropriate for the brief. I also need to aim to collect more primary research as secondary research does not always offer the best starting point for a brief. Furthermore, my research skills need to improve overall. For example, my research was limited to the internet and a single museum for Studio brief 02. I need to be more creative with this research and collect a broad range so I have more to select from.
I could also try and wider range of materials and approaches such as using traditional media, rather than jumping straight to sketches then a computer. I feel that this is due to lack of resources in the actual studio. As art materials have to be purchased, it is often easier to go computer based. However, I did try a paper/origami approach when trying to make my photo frames. I suppose time meant that I was not as experimental with materials for the final two briefs.
Also, I want to stretch my final resolutions to more than just the required deliverables. I would like to create more than what is expected as this will help with my own personal development, rather than achieving the same deliverables as everyone else on the course. I feel that to do this I need to improve my time management by setting personal deadlines for research, experimentation and design development. I need to make smaller plans for each of these and plan as if I am going to create more than expected, this way if I fail I know I will at least have the deliverables required.
Furthermore, I feel that my planning stage needs to be improved. I need to create more sketches and notes and document these. I also need to find creative ways for idea generation as coming up with ideas is something that I often struggle with.
Overall, I am far more pleased with how I have approached this module compared to the previous. I have seen my skills develop with every project and more of an organisation in my work. I am expectant to have improved even more by the end of the next module and I am excited to begin.

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 03 - Final Indesign Layout, Development and Evaluation

Above is my final design for my indesign booklet.

From my research I had decided to try out the two favourite typefaces American typewriter and Futura. I decided to keep the preliminary colour palette for my layout as this had received positive feedback. I placed the palette as an image on the side of my layout and used the eyedropper tool to select the colours as I worked. 

I also decided to keep to a simple circle and vector based theme as this is what appealed to me in my layout research and I felt it represented the SLBs well. 

I then began the design stage. I set up a 6 column (per page) grid as I had decided from my research that many columns would be best for my content.  I started out using American typewriter as my chosen typeface. However, this did not work well on every page. Specifically on pages where I wanted the text to be more spaced out(like I had seem in some of my research), the type looked unusual and out of place. The front cover didn’t appear to have much of an impact. 

I then tried my second favourite typeface, Futura.  This typeface looked far better in the rest of my booklet and it gave me far more flexibility as the typeface worked with the layout in all its forms. The only issue I had with this was that from my research lowercase futura had been voted as the best. However, this was difficult to fit well onto the front page, where I had planned the text to fit snugly together and obtain most of the space of the page. So therefore I decided to use uppercase Futura. I made sure to keep getting feedback as to whether the typeface was appropraite or not. It was agreed that the typeface looked good in practice in uppercase so I kept to this design. 

My type testing

American typewriter front cover

Lowercase Futura front cover

My final designs consisted of a blue & yellow vector based theme. I used the same vector silhouette of a superlambanana across the booklet for consistency and to bring the pages together.  I also used the circles filled with colour and photos like I had decided from my research. I brought in the landmarks of liverpool into the background of some pages to give the spreads a bit of character and to represent the culture of Liverpool. 

I mainly followed my final sketches for the page spreads, however some layouts did require some minor tweeking as the layout did not appear balanced. 

I have chosen to use an acetate stock for the front cover - an idea I came up with while sketching my final thumbnails. I have wanted to be more adventourous with my approach so I felt that this was a good way to go.  As the front cover is acetate, this allows you to see through to the contrasting pattern underneath. I felt that this touch would intrigue others and encourage them to pick the booklet up. As for the pages, I have planned to use a stock similar (but less dense) to matt as I saw throughout my booklet research. This stock is also easy to draw on for my colour in page. However, as my booklet is not yet printed I will need to see what papers are in stock for my booklet. If no papers are suitable, I have planned to use a cartridge paper. I felt that lightweight paper is more suitable as this would be cheaper to mass produce and the booklet is only a light read. 

I did encounter an issue with including my photographs in my booklet. As we had learn in an InDesign lesson, for best print quality the images need to be 300dpi. Unfortunately, none of my own photographs, or others that I could find were high enough quality. To resolve this issue I live traced the images that I did have, using a lot of colours so the detail wasn’t lost. Although I felt photos would have looked better, the live traced photos matched the vector based theme and also tied in with the style of my studio brief 04.

As I had the time, I did create the full booklet using American typewriter above. You can see particularly on the GO SUPERLAMBANANAS page the effect of the type isn't as bold as Futura. I also prefer the symmetry and similarity in shape of the letterforms in furtua as this leads to a neater layout.  

Above, I was screen shotting the spreads to compare the typefaces. 

As you can see Futura looks far more clean and organised on my first page. The strokes are also much bolder, which is required for it to be readable against the strong blue pattern seen behind the acetate. 

I felt that a positive quote of the SLBs would set a good introduction as it would give the reader a good idea of the impact SLBs have had. This also breaks down the book into cover and content. I used larger speech marks as this is a technique I often see in magazines, it just looks a bit more interesting! I used american typewriter for these so it was brought into my layout somewhere. 

I found this spread quite difficult to create as there are so many SLBs, and I needed to make sure that the reader understood what they were. Because of my lack of images, I used a photograph showing multiple SLBs to show that there is more than one, and then a close up to express their unique designs. I then placed the same SLB vector I had been using multiple times as if they are walking across the page to further communicate that there is more than one. I had difficulty positioning the statistics "30,000 mosaic tiles...etc" as I did not want to make the layout too busy. This was subtle enough in a white type over the Landmark vector. This also filled an empty space and balanced the layout. 

I felt that the names page was my least successful. This is because of the unusual content on the page. One of the names is twice as long as the others too, so the names did not fit nicely into a shape. I originally tried spreading the names right across the page in two sections, one with a lower opacity. This design became a bit too crowded, and the names were difficult to read against the silhouette. I would have removed the silhouette but the spread felt empty and too text heavy without it. This did not fit in with the scheme of the booklet. I decided to place the title names, in that way because I wanted to keep the layout varied as this was a tip I found in my research. The body copy then fit nicely into a column with the title. I used a line to separate the two for easy reading. 

One of my most sucessful pages I felt was ‘The best Superlambanana’ page. I had originally planned to place the SLBs on a stand to represent their win. However, as I placed the SLB vectors on to the sheet, one came out as the size of the spread. This had a really good effect and I felt it filled the page with something relevent. Their size represents their victory.  I had taken these images from the vectors I had created for studio brief 04.  I liked that this brought the two projects together.  I had seen the use of strip of colour across a spread in my research and I wanted to use this somewhere in my own work. However, the same strip did not fit happily into any of my pages as it was distracting from the other information on the page. So I experimented with the place ment of this strip and found it looked best as a strip along the bottom half of the page. This was great because it resembled the River Mersey.

For the Auction layout I decided to use images of Mandy as she was sold for the most. I would have placed the statistics in larger text across the spread, similar to "The Original" page. However, I did not have much body copy for this page. So I decided to keep it in one short paragraph.

I was really pleased with the design of my final page ‘Design your own’. Although this was very simple, the page spoke for itself and the colours really complimented each other. I liked how the yellow strip framed the outline and the pencil was a good key to the reader. 

My final page contrasts the first, as a yellow SLB pattern rather than blue. This is seen through a blue pattern on the acetate cover. I am yet to see the effect of this but I think the two patterns overlayed will have an interesting effect

STUDIO BRIEF 03 EVALUATION 

As I am interested in magazine design, this was an exciting brief for me. I was grateful to learn how to use InDesign properly. Up to now I had been very self taught and this had caused many problems. For example, I did not know that InDesign used links for images. This was very useful to learn as well as how frames work and overflowing text into other text boxes. 

I was happy with how I approached this brief in terms of type testing. I feel that this definitely improved my outcome and was a form of critique. Often I would not receive enough critique for one element so this allowed me to receive plenty of feedback. I am happy with how my illustrator skills are developing and how I can now use adobe programs simultaneously for effective design. I am excited to be using new materials and learning how to make booklets. This has inspired me to try making my own notebooks and experiment with binding methods. 

The main issues I encountered were Adobe illustrator vector problems. A lot of the time, the way I had created a vector meant that I did not have the same flexibility than if I had done it correctly. For example, sometimes I would use the pen and paint tool to create one shape, which meant when resizing the lines were different thicknesses. I think the unusual shape of the SLB did not help with this, but it has helped me understand how to tackle complicated shapes in illustrator. I feel that I could have refined my content to a higher standard as this was basically my research written out very quickly into a short paragraph - not much thought was put into this. I also feel that I should have spent more time in the sketching stage as this way I can document my ideas more clearly. 

If I was to do the project again, I would have created more than just the one booklet but experimented with other binding methods. I also would have tried to get paper samples from the printer room and find out more printer restrictions - the reason I didn't do this was because I understand that the staff are very busy and thought I would not be able to 'stop for a chat'.  With both studio brief 03/04 I have had many issues with losing documents and files because of an issue with my account. I was continually saving my work to ensure I did not lose too many files. Thankfully, the technicians were able to resolve this issue but it did slow my whole process down. Perhaps I would have created more and put more thought into the design had this not been an issue. 

I was pleased with how I displayed my final resolution in an Issuu format. Although we were advised to do this, it is a tool that I have found very useful for my other projects and good presentation of work makes the design look better. 

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 03 - Rough Plan/thumbnails

I have made a rough plan as to how I want my booklet to look- this is a development of my previous sketches. I personally find it easier to plan as I design and see where it takes me. However, I am trying to refine my design process by spending more time in the sketching stage. The main reason I find it difficult is that a lot of my designs revolve around the typeface, and I find it hard to draw type by hand. This means my sketches don't look anything like the designs. 

I did however, use sketches to plan out my layout. I decided from my research that I wanted to use a grid with many columns, similar to the design I had seen in one of the books I had researched. I decided to use a six column grid as my booklet is only going to be an A5 size, so a huge amount of columns is not required, even for my own reason of making a more interesting design. 

The pages I plan to have include

-a front page with title

-introductory page to break down content and front cover

-Information about original sculpture 

-Information about Go Superlambanana sculptures. 

-List of GSLB names

-The best Superlambanana?

-Auction details

-Design your own SLB

-Patterned back cover

For the front cover I plan for it to be very minimalistic, I plan to have the title covering most of the page in one of the typefaces selected from my research (whichever looks better during the design process). I cannot think of any creative names other than Superlambananas - A quick guide. 

In many books there is a break between the content and the front cover. For this I plan to use one of the most interesting opinions or quotes I found from my research, and on the alternative page a vector of a SLB as I feel this will balance the spread. I have seen this in my research and in many books I have read, this is why I want to try the same thing. 

It seems obvious for my first page to introduce the Original sculpture, as this explains where the whole idea came from. Similar to my research presentation I plan to have two SLB vectors illustrating the scale of the originals. Across the whole of my layout I plan to dot coloured circles and circles with photographs in, as I saw this technique repeatedly in my research and it appealed to me. I also think that  a circular shape represents the characteristics and patterns of the SLBs. As you can see from my notes below I have made plans for the general themes of my layout. 

The Go Superlambananas page is going to be very random and the content is to be dotted around the page to mirror the variation of all the SLB designs. I am considering having various statistics in larger text. I would like the letters on this page to be spaced out as if they are spread across the city (like the Superlambananas). 

The names page is going to be the most challenging to design as the content is unusual. I am currently considering having them as a list diagonally across the spread to give the simple content a bit of an edge. One of the ideas I came up with is to write the title 'Names' in a 2 x 3 grid, this will make it easier to fit into the layout. Again I plan to continue the use of circles across this spread. 

I have come up with the idea of having the best Superlambananas on podiums to represent their victory against the others. Similar to my spread on the Original SLB page I plan to have the title around half way down the page. The eye often looks straight into the middle of a page first. And similarly I have seen this used in the layouts I researched.

I am really unclear about how to display the auction page. I plan to just keep it consistent with my theme and include circles and text dotted around the page. Again, auction will be around half way down the page. I may include a hammer silhouette to communicate what the page is about. 

Since my crit group agreed that a design your own page was a good idea, I decided to take this forward. This widens the target audience for my booklet but I still feel that even adults will want to design their own! For this I plan to have an outline of a SLB spread across the whole spread - providing plenty of design space. I will use a pencil vector as if the SLB outline has just been drawn and to encourage the reader to draw on the page. The inside of the outline is to be white so that this can be coloured in without affecting the colours, whereas the outside of this is to be filled with colour to make the spread appear more appealing than just a simple outline. The title 'design your own' will frame the spread. I plan for this page to be simplistic so that the reader can take control. 

As I was creating these sketches - I came up with the idea to use acetate as the stock for my cover. I could potentially have the front page type on this and a pattern underneath. I fell that this could have a really funky effect that would encourage more people to pick it up. I am unsure at this moment in time how I will use this to make the back page interesting. 

As I was testing colours and type, I thought of the idea to use silhouettes of Liverpool's landmarks in my spread. I feel that this would really represent Liverpool and its culture and help readers make the link between the sculptures and the city. As I have seen in my research, I plan to use this at different shades and transparencies to create an engaging effect. 

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 04 - Final Development, Branding & Evaluation

CLICK HERE FOR ISSUU BOOKLET



After my critique yesterday I decided to continue in the direction I was going. I kept my 3 part coffee cup design and the coloured cups. After comments from the crit, I altered the coffee sleeve to a cardboard coloured sleeve with only the main logo on. 
My process was slowed down after one of my illustrator files would not open. I did eventually recover most of my designs, however this set me back time wise. I decided it was best to display the designs I currently had. As a result of this, I did not have the time to include the milkshake cups - however this could be an element of the branding to be added in the future. 
I decided to include 4 different styles of wrap, yellow, blue, filled and outlines. I feel that by having variation this is a nicer touch for the customer when buying a coffee and a cake. The cup and wrapping they get is a surprise each time. As I felt that the patterned paper bag was too complicated, I created a  paper bag with just the main logo on. I used a white paper bag as I felt this made the logo stand out the best. Also, this is a large size so it is clear to potential customers in the street. If I had had more time I would have developed this design further, such as designing the other size or even the inside of the bag. I had to live trace a lot of the photos I was using due to issues with missing images with the broken file - I did not want the same to happen again. I was also careful to save all the files and photos within one folder incase I lost an image. 
My final branded item was the logo. I had originally thought this was too simple, however my crit group felt the design was fine how it was. I did improve the banana stamp by live tracing a photograph. This achieved a much better shape than my sketches. I reduced the opacity of this as if it had really been stamped on to the card. 
For my design board, I marked each section with a label so it is clear what each of my designs are. 

I used a second board to display the collectable cup designs. I am pleased with how all the colours of the designs pop against the cups. This will therefore promote the sculptures and make them more appealing. 

I did decide to develop a quick advert, or a board that would be presented in the cafe. Both crit groups had suggested the TATE cafe as my market. So I placed the TATE logo in the bottom corner for authenticity, as well as the Super Coffee logo on the alternative corner to represent the brand. I decided to use 3 cups to represent the 3 flavour ideas I had. To improve this, I would develop a more thorough and thought out menu. One problem I encountered was the overlapping of white backgrounds on the images I had used for the coffee cups. To resolve this, I live traced the images and deleted the white background. I do not like the simplicity of the cups, however this ties in with the arty feel of the Superlambananas. This then allowed me to overlap the 3 cups. I put these at angles to represent the movement and excitement of the brand. I selected the two favourite sculptures for the cups as well as a design that I felt would appeal to a wider audience.
I used the caption 'Why not try Super Coffee' to invite the customer in. I curved the text to resemble the curve of the banana and the quirkiness of the artwork. I felt it was appropriate to explain where the cups came from as the aim of my design is to promote the Superlambananas. I feel that the two hyphens centre the sentence and make the design appear neater.
I placed the 3 flavours by a cup each. However, I feel that this is misleading as the customer may assume that is the cup you receive with each flavour - I feel that I should have communicated that there are more designs to collect and that the cup you receive is random.
I placed a couple of final touches including the "collect us all" slogan which came directly off one of the cups. This achieves a consistency in the design. It also appears to round the design off in relation to the headings at the top of the poster. I placed a yellow filled in version of the logo on top of the word super coffee, this was to make the design feel less empty, the yellow contrasts further with the blue type. I felt that I needed to keep the balance between blue and yellow so that one colour did not overwhelm the poster. I selected Futura for the branding of my coffee as this had been voted as a favourite for my SLB theme for studio brief 03. I liked how the two projects link in to each other design wise. Futura is also a highly legible typeface, and since my aim was to inform as many people as possible about the SLBs it was very important that the type was quick and easy to read and the message could be understood.
To improve the advertisement overall I would have used a grid to organise the information in a more professional way.

I compiled all these designs on to an issuu document as I felt this would make the designs appear in a professional way. I plan to use this for my presentation. Below is what I plan to explain for each page. 

Front cover- I had researched Superlambanana sculptures for my research brief. These are a series of sculpures scattered across Liverpool which are a cross between a lamb and a banana. The problem I encountered in my research was that not many people had heard of the SLBs outside of the Liverpool area. So, I came up with the idea to create a coffee branding to promote the sculptures. Millions of people drink coffee everyday so it seemed like the most appropriate format. I came up with the brand name Super Coffee, which brings Superlambananas into the coffee brand. This is the logo that I created for the design. To do this , I created an illustration of a SLB in a more square style which allowed the text to fit snugly within this. The brand is designed to be sold in art galleries and museums, where customers interested in sculpture are likely to be. 

First spread- This is the full branding I created. I decided to stick to a 2 colour scheme. Yellow, to represent the original sculpture, and blue to represent the docks that Liverpool is known for. The coffee cups consist of 3 sections. One with the logo, one with information about Superlambananas and the final with an illustration of a superlamabanana with its individual name. The idea is that there is a different superlambanana on each cup, which the customer is encourage to collect. This should get customers excited about the sculptures and give them a desire to go and see them. Within the branding I also created a coffee sleeve which simply displays the logo. Engraved on the lid of the coffee cup is a warning for hot contents for legal reasons. I also created a series of wraps and a paper bag for cake takeaways. This promotes the brand further and adds a nice touch to make the customer feel special. Finally, I designed a simple loyalty card whereby the customer earns a 'banana' stamp for each beverage purchased. The bananas tie in with the design of the sculptures. The customer is rewarded with a free beverage after the purchase of 6. 

Second Spread-Here are the collectable cup designs. As you can see there is a different sculpture design for each cup. Each tells you its name. On one of the cups I  decided to give customers the opportunity to create their own Superlambanana. I feel that this interactive cup will make the customers interested and excited. 

Advert- Finally, I created an advert that would be displayed either in the coffee shop itself or in public. The coffee is to be sold in museum and art gallery cafes such as the TATE cafe, which is why the logo is featured in the advert. The coffees are also available in 3 flavours that I feel represent the sculptures and Liverpool - Banana, banoffee and Salted Caramel. To expand the brand I would create a wider menu with a choice of hot chocolates and milkshakes. 

EVALUATION - STUDIO BRIEF 04

I enjoyed this brief as it was one of the first opportunities we have had to create whatever we wanted. There were not many limitations for the brief so I enjoyed having free reign over my designs. I was however challenged with the fact that my product/packaging had to solve a problem with my research. Luckily, a strong idea came to me with good time. I was pleased with my creative thinking as  I feel many of my previous projects have lacked originality and creativity. 

I was pleased with my idea and enjoyed my first attempt at a branding brief. I have learnt a lot about what branding involves and how it is best to display a branding solution. I have enjoyed trying to make logos as this is something I haven't really attempted before. With each project, I am pleased with how my illustrator skills are developing. In fact my skills and understanding of the adobe software is improving with every project. I would like to learn how to professionally place branding on to products for the future. I am pleased with my planning skills for this project. I have been organised with my time, regularly created to do lists and kept to my own personal deadlines. This is a process I want to maintain throughout future projects.

However, there were many areas in which I could improve. Firstly, I could have carried out more primary research such as going into coffee shops themselves and experiencing their branding first hand. I am a regular coffee shop visitor so I have good knowledge about this already, however I could have documented a visit for my research.  I would have also used grids in my designs and layouts for the branding. This is an area of professionalism that I really need to develop in.  

I feel that I still have a weak understanding of grids and need to improve this further. If I had had the time I would have done some more design development. I feel that I only really had 3 finished logos to select, reject and develop. I could have experimented more with positioning, colour and design and asked for feedback on these. I could have also tried more traditional techniques, such as paint and ink rather than approaching it with sketches and through illustrator. I feel that I do not use these as often as I could due to lack of resources. I also feel that I could have documented my ideas and development more. There were a lot of notes and sketches that I failed to blog about because it is tedious getting these on to the computer. 

The main problem I encountered during this project was the illustrator file which contained hours worth of work. To solve this problem I sought out the help of technicians and tutors. Thankfully most of my work was recovered. This set my work back but fortunately I was able to recover most of my designs. Now I am very cautious with my files, making backups, saving regularly and ensuring I follow the important rules of the software. There is a minor issue with the text 'Wrapping' on the Issuu version. I can't seem to work out where this is coming from. Had this been for a client, I would have spent time trying to resolve this but time meant it was not urgent enough. 

 If I had had more time I would have developed some more products as a part of my branding, such as a menu, a coffee cup holder, stickers and more. I feel that I could have also strengthened my brand identity to a more professional standard.
This has been the brief I have enjoyed the most in terms of design. I want to improve my design in terms of professionalism and I also want to be more adventurous in the next brief.

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 04 - Critique

This morning myself and a few others organised a Crit to help finalise and direct our Studio brief 04 designs. I myself was happy with my current designs but felt that some tweaking and improving could be done.
The general feedback I got was that my designs were good and that I have achieved a good branding style. In particular to group liked how I had altered the shape of the SLB for the logo into a more square to fit in the text.
I was unsure about how I had styled my illustrations but the group felt that they had an arty feel which tied in with the sculptures, like they had been painted. They said they didn't look too photographic which is what I wanted to achieve and it was said that they looked good quality which is a bonus.
I asked about the "Help I'm stuck" sleeve, as this created two speech bubbles. The group expressed that the sleeve is a disposable item and that just the main logo should be on this. One group member felt that the colours I had used for these were too bright and that I should use the basic cardboard instead, or experiment with my patterns.
I asked for opinions on the colours of the cups and they all agreed the yellow lid and white cup looked the best. They felt the yellow was more cheerful and consistent with the banana theme.
I also felt that my coffee loyalty card was a bit boring, however the group felt that it was consistent with my theme, and that most loyalty cards are very basic anyway.
Finally, it was suggested that I make mock up designs, this should help me measure text sizes. This will be quite difficult due to the unusual shape of coffee cups and creating yellow lids, however I will see what I can create if I have the time.
My next step is to finalise my designs and create the full branding with the final products.

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 04 - Design Development

Today I began by creating the Superlambanana illustrations that are to be placed on the cups. I was unsure how I was going to do this at first, but since I was planning on creating up to 10, I needed to find a quick solution. I began by trying to create Mandy the Superlambanana as she sold for the most money at auction.  Because Mandy has a complicated tile design, I decided by best option was to live trace a photograph on illustrator. I felt that this kind of vector would blend well with the rest of my design. 

Unfortunately, as I began to live trace and experiment with different numbers of colours, the results were not as I had planned. This was due to the lack of good photos, and the detail in the design. I did not want the cups to have photographs on as cartoon style drawings come across as more playful and exciting. As you can see from the screenshot below, Mandy's face is too dark and the tiles are lost and look odd as a result of the live tracing. 

I then considered sketching the designs and scanning these into illustrator to be coloured. I began my sketches of Mandy however my sketches did not compliment the sculptures. I feel that if I had more time I could create some good hand drawn illustrations. So therefore I decided to scrap Mandy from the cups.

I then began to go through the list of Superlambananas I had selected as potentials for the cups.  Some of these had issues such as bad photos which meant I was unable to live trace them to a good standard. 

My process involved, selecting one of my own photos or a photo I found from my research and placing this into photoshop. I would then use a variety of selection tools appropriate for the photograph and deleted as much background as I could. I then copied and pasted this into illustrator to live trace. I tried to select a live trace option that did not look too photographic but detailed enough to be recognisable. 

I replaced any SLBs I could not create with others that I thought were the most visually interesting.  I also decided to include an outline of a SLB to encourage customers to design own. 

Below are my results plus their names - 

After creating these I began to place these onto cups. I had tested my first live trace on a cup, so that if it didn't work I did not spend time illustrating all 10 SLBs. 

Because I had felt the cup sample I was using was a bit boring, I used the hue tool on photoshop to colour the lid yellow. consistent with my theme. I feel that this pop of colour made the cups more appealing and attractive. The cups would be far more noticeable from a distance, and hopefully people would be more eager to try them. 

I choose my favourite logo from the previous experiments to test my Superlambananas as this is most likely to end up as my final logo. I placed a SLB illustration on another cup as if it is on the other side. I then added a speech bubble which explains what the name of the SLB is. I feel this was important to clarify to the customer what the image actually is. I am really pleased with how the green, yellow and blue work with each other. The colours are only basic, but appealing. I am pleased with how I have managed to place my logos onto cups to really get a feel for what the brand would look like - this is something I haven't attempted before. 

I later realised that if the speech bubble is on a white cup it will become invisible, so I used the paintbrush tool to draw a line - defining its shape. I personally think that the lowercase Futura works really well inside the speech bubbles as it as a friendly, comic book feel.  There is a mistake in the point of the speech bubble, where it is quite sketchy. I decided to keep this because it gives a nice arty feel which links in with the sculptures. I did have some issues fitting some words into the speech bubble, as I wanted to keep them a similar size for consistency but the names for the SLBS are very long. To resolve this I broke the names down into the words that they are typically made out of. 

One way I considered to help visualise my designs was to lay the elements of the cup out in a strip which would be wrapped round the cup. I plan to have 3 sections which include the main logo - the SLB and informational sentences. However, I find it difficult to visualise these on the product in this setting. Although it did make me question the positioning of "COLLECT US ALL". I need to communicate that the cups can be collected but I do not want to make my cups too busy as to get a message across quickly. I will consider this later in the design process. 

Below I placed the sections onto sides of the cup, I found this easier to visualise. I am happy with the sections within the black square because they are simple yet effective. The informational section needs improving. I did add a small yellow vector of the logo as I feel the text needs to be paired up with something else to make it more interesting. I like this effect at the moment and plan to keep it. 

My next step was to try developing the cup sleeves. I originally tested this with the standard brown cardboard style look. I thought it would be good to include the main logo on the sleeve so the packaging works as a set. I would still like to keep the speech bubble "Help! I'm Stuck!" as this adds an original touch. I first tried placing both of these together on one side of the sleeve. This looked too crowded and did not work with my minimalistic theme. I also felt that the cardboard colour ruined the effect of the bright colours. So I decided to get more adventurous and try my bright blue on the sleeve. This really pops against the bright yellow lid the yellow lines bring the lid and sleeve together. I am however questioning whether to use a white colour for the lines against this blue so the design isn't too bright. I plan to get feedback as to which looks best. I also experimented with the lid, trying it in blue instead. I prefer the blue lid as I feel it is more striking, however I feel the yellow sleeve isn't as appealing. I plan to get feedback for this also.

Coffee sleeve experiments 

Many coffee shops serve milkshakes and not everyone likes coffee, so to spread the word about Superlambananas as much as possible, I think I should include packaging for this. To do this I (very badly) coloured a milkshake image to make it look yellow - this could be a banana/banoffee flavour which would tie in with my theme. The issue I have is that I want the drink to be visible but the designs for my cups are quite long. So the design will have to be slightly smaller to fit in, I think once printed this would be large enough to understand.

Another item I started experiments with is loyalty cards. These are common in coffee shops and I feel that by having one of these, customers would be more likely to buy more and collect them. The design is very simplistic at the moment, it needs to be minimalistic to keep in with my theme, however I need to find a way to make it appear more appealing. I decided to use banana stamps as this ties in with the sculptures and is more comical and interesting then simply using a logo or otherwise. I liked the idea of having contrasting blue and white sides and colours as this is eye-catching. The bananas will especially stand out against this. As this is only the first design, it still needs development, which I will continue tomorrow.

Below are my final illustrations with speech bubbled placed onto cups. I used  temporary line to match all the SLBs up to the same position. I altered some of the speech bubbles by reflecting and rotating so that the speech looks as if it is coming from the mouth of the lamb. When smaller the illustrations begin to look more like photographs which is what I didn't want, so I may reduce the detail in these further. However, passing feedback suggested that the cups look good. Some thought that I had curved my images to the cups - which I hadn't. I was glad to receive this feedback as I was unsure how to curve the illustrations to the cup and make the overall look professional and realistic. I may be able to just place the illustrations on top for my presentation. 

My next steps include developing more items such as the loyalty card and cake wrap. I am considering a simple form of advertising if possible too. Tomorrow I will organise a critique to find out what elements of my designs I should take forward or change.