UK Greetings, Typeface - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

Below are some typefaces used on cards with a similar hand rendered or more upmarket designs. The block san-serif type is something that could work with the character design on the cards as something more digital looking or old analogue type would compliment the robot.

UK Greetings, Pricing - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

Looking at the different cards on the market there are lots of variations in prices. This could be due to; design, materials used, production or the name/brand.

The card above used a what seems like a cheaper, basic card stock. The colours are quite garish and the type seems to be all over the place, this would suggest why it is in the lower price range. The design overall isn't bad it could just use a bit more care and attention if it was that the card needed to go up in price.

This card is more of a mid range price and you can see the design has come along from the first example used meaning the extra pricing is supported. Looking at the design there isn't much that could be worked on more the fact that the card feels mass produced in the way it has been printed.

On this particular card the pricing may seem a bit steep but it is almost evidenced by the production method, the stock choice as well as the design. - £2.25

 


Looking into brands and different target audiences it is clear that certain brands can ask a price that is almost regulated across all their cards. Some brands even if they are considered as named brands don't charge as high just for their name because it is almost a piece of merchandise and not actually their main area of business.
Age range is really considered on pricing because most children's cards are cheaper than adults as the target audience age goes up so does the price, as well as design becoming less wild.

UK Greetings, Card Design Ideas - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

The brief specifies 4 greetings card designs so the idea came around to sketch out different designs for holidays and general greetings cards. These sketches will then be taken to be coloured in different styles to find out what the most appropriate method would be.

Penguin Random House, Submission - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

The work was submitted to the competition and is now awaiting judging.

Penguin Random House, Digital Development - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

After scanning in the image filters were applied to bring out some details within the final design. A background was added to bring out the illustration and fill out the white space to make the whole piece feel softer. The type placement and typeface was decided based on past publications and the style used throughout other Penguin publications. The spine was made to be yellow to match the ribbon on the book and separate it from the rest of the background. 

Just before submission the piece had to be reduced to below 5mb, made into a PDF and put into a CMYK format so the colours were drained slightly but the idea behind the piece was to have a slightly older hand rendered look. 

UK Greetings, Further Character Development - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

From the feedback received the problem with including a mouth on the character was looked into. The mouth was removed to exclude even more emotion from the character which, although it makes him even less relatable it somehow makes you want to know more about him. A neck was added in one of the sketches but after a quick survey around the class it was decided that the less human features the better. Detail was also taken out of the design to simplify it and help in the production. The eyes were made circular after another survey to create a small element of familiarity because although humans like to associated with fantasy they also don't like different so it is harder to look into the elongated eyes and see a character alive. 

Evaluation - OUGD504

Studio Brief 01 -

As a whole the project introduced some new problems and problems that had been visited in the past. Binding books is not something new but taking all the aspects used for the project including foiling and printing and putting them all together was definitely a new challenge. Overall the goals set out were achieved to the standard that could be completed within the budget but, with commercial backing the project could have been pushed further. If more money was involved a better stock would have been used to print the writing onto, the binding would have been made so that the pages could fold flat and the book cloth would be of a higher standard so that it would stay stuck to the hardcover and the foil would show through more clearly. The original rationale stated that the book should shed a positive light onto the idea that Preston has the unhealthiest high street in Britain, the book should be funny and it's design should juxtapose the content. Colour, binding and stock choices were all taken into account when designing the publication; Blue cover with gold foil blocking to show wealth and luxury, Japanese Stab Stitch bind to show off hand made production to become more wanted after, textured paper stock to show costs with timeless serif typeface printed throughout to give a sense of class. The content featured obvious comedy to show 'the bright side' of bad reviews. Feedback given for the publication showed that the points above followed the rationale from the start and the comedy value was very much appreciated, the look and feel of the publication was said to be of a high 'luxury' standard with opposing comedy aspects inside that wouldn't exactly make you want to visit the takeaways feature to eat there but definitely just to see them as almost a piece of tourism.


Studio Brief 02 -

UI/UX design has never been something to interest me, the start of the project was slow until Only Studio visited. Only manage to make me excited about this brief, just after their talk production was incredibly fast, ideas seem to keep flying. After finding the software Adobe XD it was very easy to create a fully navigable app. The first ideas seem to look into problems that weren't necessarily there or weren't too close to me that I could create an entire project from them. Music was the idea finally settled on or more to the point film soundtracks would be what the project was focused on. An app was produced to solve the problem that there was no easy way to search and playback your favourite film and TV soundtracks. Existing applications such as IMDb and Spotify allow you to search and in some cases playback soundtracks but they may not always be the correct version of the song, often the process is long and tedious. The app would be aimed a 20-40 year olds or film buffs that wanted a way to playback their favourite soundtracks easily and simply. Designing the app gave full control of all the features, one of the suggestions was that sometimes you may not be able to search the song by the name or lyric as it is a soundtrack with no words only an instrumental track, this lead to using the idea of being able to search audibly. Other inspirations came from existing applications such as Spotify and Netflix including the features such as playlists and browsing suggestions. Inspirations for the design came from apps like Instagram, taking inspiration from their recent interface design update removing colour from the main design and leaving the colour to be focused on the content as to not be distracted. If the app were to be created for a market commercially then the design would stay pretty similar, a few new features of being able to scroll sideways on some pages and the search function would be fully working using audio and being able to type to reveal the large database of songs. The general feedback on the app showed that people felt if created fully then the application could work strongly as a stand alone app and wouldn't have a problem breaking into the market it was designed for. Although apps already exist similar to this none are actually dedicated to providing a database with playable film soundtracks. Overall the app created is able to work as it should and provide the market it is aimed at with what they want, the design shows off the content first whilst providing a helpful familiar interface that is easy to navigate.

UK Greetings, Secondary Feedback - OUGD503 Studio Brief 01

After showing the initial character mockup there were a few points of feedback to consider:

• Try different character designs shapes sizes etc.
• Simplify the design to work in different areas and to make it easier to produce.
• Often hand rendered methods are seen to be more desirable as people associate it with more time being put into the work. 
• Water colour would definitely work as a means of hand rendered production. The look is seen as fine or dainty and would be desirable, it would also give a softer look to the designs. 
• Digital would seem also mass produced stick to hand rendered design.
• Screen printing could work really well but can be quite time consuming if multiple colours are used so this would have to be considered.
• Using the letterpress in conjunction with other methods could produce some very interesting ideas.
• The mouth shows off emotion although not actually in any sort of expressive shape this could be something to look into if emotions aren't meant to be shown.

Penguin Random House, Final Feedback- OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

Taking the final design back to peers for a critique just before completely finishing off the design meant I could check that all considerations were met. It was said that the design still completely fit the childlike aesthetic I was going for, the design was not too complicated and the the colours managed to really bring it alive. A background is needed to add to the final cover design to take away the white paper.

Penguin Random House, Final development - OUGD503, Studio Brief 01

The design was taken through to a final hand rendered stage. I painted the design with watercolour paints and sketched out in pencil line which I then went over in fine liner. The aesthetic was to show off the cover as if it had been drawn out by a child but could still be legible so that information was clear to view. The design is nothing too complicated and just shows off the diary as that is the main focus, the ribbon around the diary gives an element of playfulness to the cover.