Design practice continues here...

This blog continues at : http://j-packham08112-dp.blogspot.com/

- Due to storage space for images being full. Thanks!

tweaked mailer from developmental documentation

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Look book development

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Mailer

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Design directions and experiments for a look book & a promotional mailer

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A change to my position statement

my position statement was:

Designer/ Illustrator for commercial & creative industries, driven by print &publication


I want to adapt that to:

Designer/ Illustrator for commercial & creative industries driven by print, mixed media &publication.


The rationale behind this is that after completing the mural I realised I am good at executing my visual approach well across a range of different media, for example I have now put illustration across book design, posters, business cards, a range of materials and also the painting I was doing last week. I can see myself being prepared to do a project like that again in the future so it seems only right to add this to my position statement.

Front cover ideas for a look book for rebel pin up.

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Ive come to the realisation that the covers with photography on them arent neccessarily working as well as the vector works. Perspective shots specifically dont work just because of the visual distortion it creates, which isnt appropriate for the target audience and could be seen as too "creative". At the moment, I am most happy with the vector artwork cover with the black bars across minus the PSS hands logos.

Mural evaluation & Documentation

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Progress with Ollies type

Here is the type Ollie produced at its resolved level, I think he has utilised the space well, and putting the emphasis on the word love was a nice touch in my opinion. We have discussed producing a Mucha style border for this image, as it stands Ollie has opted to do that. One more step and this poster will be ready to print.

A self negotiated collaboration brief with oli

Me and Ollie decided we wanted to be involved in the next book fair, and discussed using that as a change to produce something which has technical print driving it. We decided we wanted to print a run of 6 colour screen prints, and as I have alot of illustration at the moment we decided it would be good to use some of it within this project as well as my more comprehensive brief for paper scissors stone.

I started by colouring this image using 6 colours. I went with warm tones in the end, but it would make it possible to turn this image into the feature for a 6 colour screen print. Both me and Ollie decided we wanted to use the side profile image as its a stronger image, and Ollie is currently applying a hand drawn type treatment and a border to the image, to frame it off and make it feel more wholistic as a poster, and hopefully more desirable when it comes to selling them at the book fair. At the moment the format we are thinking about using here is A1. We are both gearing this whole thing around challenging ourselves when it comes to print.

Here is what Ollie is proposing.

Ollie has started to work this up digitally, this is his current progress with the type, currently we have printed out greyscale proofs to discuss.

This is working quite well, but We have both agreed that Ollie can take the type resolve a bit further in therms of the form of the characters and in the way Ollie utilises the space on the page. I think its looking like a strong visual at the moment, and with finishing touches around the corner this will be ready to print, and no doubt printed, long before the book fair in March.

assets produced for rebel pin up across a variety of treatments

One of the first composition ideas I had, a one colour background for the wall with a striking image in the centre. Ive incorporated the PSS logo into her hair, centralising the scissors putting an emphasis on the fact that rebel pin up is a salon within PSS. This idea started in an effort the "bring the salon in line with the shop" which is what I was initially briefed to do.

I then thought that the wall itsself should be more engaging as this would be a feature wall where all the viewer's attention would be. I used lighter colours to keep the image looking overall feminine because another thing that steve said he wanted the imagery to appeal to women more than men because it is a salon predominantly aimed at women.

A similar idea for the background but using the PSS logos. This looks really boyish and i think it would appeal most to a more juvinile audience which isnt appropriate for the context it is supposed to be in, it's also not working as well as it could because the background isnt precise enough in terms of symettry. I also tried extending the afro into the corner of the wall, but i think it ends up conflicting visually because it demands too much attention, it is too bold.

I tried the PSS logos again, this time in their original colours, its far too busy as an image.

I went back to the floral pattern, because i think that is working well and makes the image more appealing overall. It was at this point that i made the decision that I couldnt use the PSS logos as a pattern for this image because as I said before it is too busy.

Different colour of floral, mainly to give steve a few different options against the chosen colour scheme. (The orange colour is supposed to be gold.)

I added in the lovebird and got rid of the PSS logos, it reminds me of pirates which is not appropriate, but the overall image is working here, it looks more successfully framed than the others have been.

This ended up looking like a joke, so I dont think this is a winner.

Simplified right down, getting rid of excess clutter , made me realise that this image works when it is simple without excess imagery all over it.

the floral pattern has been made brighter, which is working really well and ive now got the actual PSS logo icons from Steve, so I've applied them here. ill post them all up in another post which shows all the assets i will be using seperately.

I dont like this at all, it looks very unifinished and a bit bare as an image. On a wall it would probably come over as quite impressive but on screen it looks a bit lost as an image. I put the emphasis on the scissors to exxagerate the salon theme. (the same applied to the image below.)

I used the assets i produced ahead of the first meeting with steve here. I think this would look great on the wall, but the imagery might get a little lost and hard to appreciate, as there will be shelves put onto the wall, and it is also quite a small space.

At this point in time, the image below is in my opinion the most appropriate and most successful looking compostion I have produced at the moment. At this point in time, a decision I made was that I need to include the rebel pin up logo on this image, probably on the scroll, but i will work that through in a sequencial process like I have here. I did have other compositions to post up, but I have temporarily ran out of storage space on blogger. Which is an annoying and serious problem which I need to adress.

 

I have produced a range of design directions using assets i created based onwhat was discussed with steve at paper scissors stone last week. The themes and ideas I was given to create imagery for were:

•  Pin ups and classic imagery
• Floral, feminine, brocade patterns
• "boudoir" / "period" colour scheme
• Tattoo style approach & Visuals
• incorporate the Rebel pin up and paper scissors stone logos within the illustration / design.

Me and Steve also discussed doing something which puts more of my visual approach across and talked about iconic imagery such as a woman with an afro, scrolls, sugar skulls and flowers.

As soon as I have sorted out my storage problem, I will post up all the other design directions and feedback regarding the meeting i have with steve about these directions.

initial sketches based on research and dialogue with client.

 

These are the initial sketches I have produced based on some buzzwords steve at Paper Scissors stone game me in terms of visuals. These buzzwords were; Pinup, tattoo macabre, edgy, fresh. I have already been in once with some work ups based on these sketches but i will post them up afterwards. These two sketches show two design directions which were discussed by me and steve. 

• 1 approach based on tattoo art which conveys macabre and edgy appeal
• The other approach has the same idea behind it, except with a character (afro clad woman) which I discussed in store with steve as an idea to do something a bit more exciting and challenging the more typical tattoo illustration approach.

Steve also wanted some stencils making for a floral background to the feature wall, which i drew and cut out here.

I have worked all these sketches up digitally, my rationale behind this is that all the assets I am working with have to be fully scalable and versatile enough to spread across different applications to the wall such as:

Projection, vinyl stickers and wall paper (at a last resort).

First Brief of Module OUGD301 evaluation

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Final newsletter & evaluation

The Final fron and back of my newsletter. It is A5 fold out to A2 and uses Helvetica 8pt medium with the headers being Century Gothic bold italic at 18pt. The title on the cover is at approx 30pt to help give the design an immidiate look. I aimed to reflect a broadsheet look with my fold out;

To achieve a broadsheet look I used wide columns making sure i incorporated my images into the grid alongside the type. I made the layout in such a way that as you fold the newsletter out you get a continuous strem of information that culminates in the viewer finding out when the open times are on the back poster.

I did shock myself with how quickly I managed to conceptualise this brief and also turn it around for print successfully. Its definately made me see what is possible in terms of completing something that has a tight deadline and I definately will be doing more mini briefs like this alongside my larger more comprehensive briefs. I looked at the Don't panic website last night to see if there is anything to do, but at the moment there isnt. but as soon as there is Im going to start turning round their competition briefs everytime there is one as well as submitting illustrations to the Juice Magazine and Designer violence.

Design Directions For LCA Newsletter

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This was the first direction i took on, where i broke the grid. I changed this quickly because the amount of type of both sides didnt feel balanced enough and the overall look felt too sporadic. The headers on the article arent working here either, they arent uniform and the design rules arent working well enough on this direction.

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This direction felt much more realised after I had done my development design sheets. After folding this up I realised it didnt work as I said in my previous post.

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 I had amended a few things such as the placement of the sub info type on the cover and changing around the logo in position. At this point the layout still wasnt working comfortably and after a feedback session with Jane I decided I needed to move assets around to make for a totally uniform visual look that runs all the way through the newsletter.

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This was the final layout. I think for the purpose the newsletter needs to serve, my resolve works. An initial worry I had pre crit was that the colourway i chose for my final design direction wasnt appropriate because It was too dark and possibly dingy, but the feedback I got was that it works well and is appropriate, so I'm going to keep it the same. I'm happy with the layout except for the fact that the columns and large headings conflict a little and two colums seem to nearly merge visually.


I will go into more depth about this in the next post.

Short turnaround brief: LCA College Newsletter developments

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 Also See design developments & finals post for more information about this two day turnaround brief.

Crit Session wednesday 20th October

This session was really useful to get some feedback on a zoomed out view of my overall professional practise of this module so far. The feedback I got was really positive and I recived alot of constructive feedback which has in a way blown my pressurised recovery brief wide open and given me a few things to consider in terms of my blog and the newsletter amendments.

Pressurised recovery:

Develop a few more design directions that lend themselves totally to either type, or image.

• Images don't suit the typestyle and form of bookdesign i am using
• The colour of the front cover dosnt lend itsself well to the idea of deep water. Use a darker stock

Newsletter:

Layout and fold method work, but the direction of the unfolding process needs clarifying, possibly some sort of signification to the viewer as to which direction to unfold from.

Blog :

PR, There is alot of research about the context of my book, but I need to document what I have been looking at in terms of design - for example how other designers are handling drawing fish in a contemporary illustrative approach.

This feedback will be tackled over the course of a few posts both my design practise and context blogs.

Conversation with Peter Wilkes @ Quality colours London

I have been looking around on the internet for glow in the dark ink, but the process of ordering online seemed like it would be lengthy and costly. I had a conversation with Gareth in the print room at Blenheim and he pointed me towards a company that the college outsources inks and printing mediums from, called Quality Colours London, I started a Dialogue by leaving Peter a message, and accompanied that with an email.

500g of Minerlux glow Laquer will cost me £24.91 including Post and packaging and to get hold of the ink i Need to send a Check to Quality colours london, and specify where I want mine sending.

Quality Colours Ltd
Mr. Peter Wilkes
Unit 13 Gemini Business Estate Landmann Way  
LONDON SE14 5RL.

I am ordering it to:

Printroom
Leeds College of Art
Blenheim Walk
LS2 9AQ

I will be making an order for two lots of 500g, because Becca L needs to get hold of some too. This will cost me £44.82 including post & packaging on top of VAT (17.5%) We're going to split the cost afterwards. Ideally I would like to get hold of this ink to use on the cover of my pressurised recovery book because I made the decision to abandon outsourcing stock becuase it was too expensive, which gave me a bit more money to play with when it came to the print processes.

Mock up, "Pressurised Recovery"

I thought it necessary at this point to produce a mock up that was as close to final as possible. A few inconsistencies need adressing with the production of this mock up which were:

• Image on page to does not line up with the way i cropped the page, this needs to be adressed.
• theres a few inconsistencies in how i've numbered the pages
• I was a bit inaccurate with the stapler
• I need a bleed on the document
• I need to make sure When i pull the glue on the screenprint, it has to be perfect to avoid the foil looking "rustic" I want it too look clean and crisp.

I have some questions to take with the book for the crit next week which are:

• Is the text on the back neccessary?
• Is the squid on the Front in gloss a good idea?
• Does the square format of the book itsself bother you?
• IS the visual approach mimmmicking an encyclopedia in terms of book design? Why?/Whynot?
• Do the stock variations work?
• Any ammendments you can see with the type?

The next one ready for print run should be perfect :) Im confident that these will actually sell.