End of module rationale

Feelgood drinks.
This brief is still ongoing; the competition deadline is in Febuary. I chose to do a competition brief because I thought it would be good for me to do I quick turn around brief, that had to be practical and understood.
Originally I wanted to photograph people holding up props, a lot like the pixelgarten images up on my research blog. My photography skills are not good enough to use my photograph as the final image, so I decided to turn the photo into an image adding text to it. I am pleased with the images now, I need to consider the brightness of the image and perhaps the stock it is printed on, as it doesn’t present the idea of feelgoodness. The posters also don’t relate to the drink enough, this is something that I have started to consider; I need the brands logo on my work and an image of a bottle so people relate the images to the drink. I have started ideas on re-branding the company, as their logo didn’t fit with my work. I have done rough logo ideas and photographed them on the bottle. I will continue with the re-branding of the company and add this to my image so hopefully it will fulfill the brief requirements.

Back to the old.
This brief was about the process of screen-printing. It stemmed from my dissertation subject, about wartime propaganda, so I started looking at a lot of 1920 – 40s design. It was also interesting to see how much modern design is still influenced by this era. I wanted to recreate this feeling of considered design and preciousness through logos. I purposely chose logos that had history, and wanted to restore their heritage.
All the logos are screen-print through four color separation, which took quite a bit of time, but I am glad I chose this process as it is appropriate to the brief. Perhaps considering using modern day logos and converting them back to the old would have been a good idea, perhaps people would have then understood what I was trying to achieve better. I would have also liked to develop this brief further by turning the images into posters and perhaps redesign the product packaging est.; I think this would have bound together the brief, giving it more of a complete finish.

Making text visual.
This brief was supposed to be a series of quick turnovers, picking an article a week and creating an illustration. It turned out that along with my other work and the pace that I work at I found this to difficult, so I set the target of creating six illustrations, I have managed to do five, and decided to do multiple prints for certain illustrations, such as the illustrations about the Greek riots. Although I didn’t reach my target I have probably learnt the most by doing this brief, I realized that I was able to produce work quickly and still be pleased with it. Although not all the images are good, i.e. the article about deforestation is not my best piece and probably wont go in my portfolio, I think I have produced some work that reflects what it is I like doing, and it has given me some good idea for my final project, and the way in which I would like to work.

Overall, I am pleased with this body of work, its not stacks, but I have more development work than in previous hand ins and I have produced work that I would happily put in my portfolio, I have learnt that working fast isn’t a bad thing, and I have also improved my skills in print, becoming independent in the print room, and not relying on tutors help, something which I outlined in my rationale.

Greek riots

My latest article for the magazine brief is the greek riots.I wanted to do something really simple just using bold type, im going to screenprint the image and letterpress the bold type.

Screen prints

The final prints for the article on america running out of food, im really pleased with them,but for the next three images for the guardian brief i am going to try and digital print them to save time and so my portfolio is varied.

Making text visual

The article is about the food shortage in america, people not having enough tokens for food yet they are still celebrating thanksgiving as if there is nothing wrong, so i decided to use the lines from oliver where he asks for more food.These images will be screenprinted so the look of them will change.

Update on the feelgood drinks

I thought i had finished the posters, but i dont think they relate enough to the drinks, i dont know if it needs an image of a bottle, maybe this is too obvious, and i have put the website on and the the company moto, but i think it needs something something to bring it together.I was thinking that i could redesign their logo and put this with the posters.
The other option is to change the brief slightly and make it about generating a campaigne to spread some feelgoodness.
Or i could reshoot my images to make it more appropriate for the brief, but i dont really want to do this, as i might just end up gong round in circles.
I also need to think about the colour, maybe the colours are too dull and dont convey spreading feelgoodness because they are abit depressing, in my tutorial i was told to brighten up the image of the smiley face to make it seem more happy.

Keep calm gallery

I have been in touch with the people who run the keep calm gallery, they host a website that host freelance designers work, and place it up for sale, i am not quite sure if they design them selves also, but i have emailed them asking if i could go visit in easter when i return to K2 screen, and they said i could go over and ask them any questions about setting up as a freelancer.

Posters for feelgood brief

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These are the image that i think i am going to use for my final posters.I need to get them printed onto the right stock first tho to see if they are appropriate and i may play around with doing a fold out poster also, screenprinting the phrase " Spread some feelgoodness" on the back of them.

update on the feelgood drinks

Well, i started to struggle abit with the brief but then realised i was over complicating it, so ive decided to use the existing images that i already have, i took them just as development images, but i quite like them to use as my final pieces, there not perfect but i quite like the way that they are abit snapshot, so irl get them printed on an appropriate stock and see how they look.

Bad day

This would be the first of a series of posters for feelgood drinks the idea is that somebodys having a bad day and the feelgood drink will cheer them up, so the next poster will show a bottle of the feelgood juice.

Tears

The idea for the tears is for the first poster for the feelgood drinks, somebody feels sad so they drink some feel good juice and feel better, i dont think the tears quite work tho, i want to keep the humour in it but still get the point across.

card type

Im going to cut out the text from card, using bright colours, these are just mock ups but i intend to make the text really large and photograph people holding it up.

Feel good drinks

The idea behind the feel good brief, is about spreading good feeling, i want to generate large smiley faces for people to wear, and large bottle and type props for people to hold up,photograph them and generate posters and flyers out of them to promote the drinks.

old logos

letter press

To archive the look of something looking old i decided to print my logos using letterpress, it takes forever but somehow it gives the type a feeling of quality, ive started setting up a screen to put black lines around the logo and form shapes of colour.

Rationale,feedback and evaluations

EVALUATION OF THE FEELGOOD DRINKS BRIEF:
I started of with the initial idea of photographing people with props, i changed it slightly by taking images of people from magazines i creating images to go with them. I have looked at the book tactile allot and have taken some ideas from there, cutting all my type out of card and generating images from bright coloured card as this suits the theme of the feelgood drinks website.I feel that i am moving to slowly with it, this week i need to print of my mock ups for each poster and finnish the designs on them so that next week, i can focus on all the other elements of it, and the final print production.


EVALUATION OF MAGAZINE BRIEF:
The magazine brief was meant to be a brief that was ongoing but ran quite thin, doing quick illustrations for the magazine layouts, but i got to involved with my other projects and it got pushed to the side. After filling out my timetable of hour by hour, i set myself the target of completing the magazine layout in a day, using each article as a one day brief, i managed to do one in a day today so hopefully doing it this way i should be able to generate enough work.The problem with doing it so quick is that am not doing enough research and development, I'm getting straight on the computer and making it, perhaps i should force myself to plan and draw it out first so that i generate enough work for my brief.


EVALUATION OF LOGO BRIEF:

I am pleased with the outcomes for my logos, it was a very time consuming project, i was printing each logo as a four colour separation, but i think it was necessary as they are meant to convey the feeling of preciousness so it was suited to the brief.I got allot of feedback in the crits, some people said that i should pick modern day logos such as facebook and make them look more old fashioned, this was something i considered in my research and development but i made the decision to go with the old fashioned logo.Perhaps i could develop this brief, i would enjoy developing them into actual product packaging or design posters that have the nostalgic feel to them, this is maybe something to consider for my final major project.


1. RATIONALE: -
In my third year want to focus more on illustration and process. I want to further my skills in screenprint and put to practice the tips I learnt on work placement. I want to make more use of illustrator for my initial designs before being printed this way my images will print clearer and look more professional. I don’t want to do commercial design as such, maybe design for one of pieces, and carry on with what I learnt in visual language by taking everyday articles and objects and illustrating them.

2. CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH / CASE STUDIES
- Adrian Johnson, Christine berrie – Illustration
- ‘ I want design’, design for articles, posters and music covers
- Studio Mik Mik, illustration, layout and design.
3. PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT:-

Skills to develop:
- Illustrator
- Drawing skills
- Screenprint
- Letter press

Improve my skills at presenting and documenting my work, making it looks more professional. Be more confident with my work, being able to talk about it in depth and be happy with it. Be more precise about decision making and idea generating, meaning my practical development will be faster and I can generate more ideas. Learn to take a step back from my work so I cans see the direction I am going?

4. DOCUMENTATION / EVALUATION: - what methods will you use to document & evaluate your work, when will you use them and what do you expect to achieve from this?
Blog – Make use of the third year page I have set up, by critically analysing my work and other designer’s work. Also use it for documentation.
Last year I started timetabling my weeks, I have my diary but start making week to week timetables so that I now how long I have to complete projects, so hopefully it wont be a rush at the deadline.
I will keep my tutorial and crit feedbacks forms so that I can look back and see how I have progressed, also so that I don’t forget the advice given to me, and I can respond to peoples opinions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY / SECONDARY SOURCES:- List proposed sources of secondary research that will support the development of your work.
Books:
- “The fundamentals of Illustration”- Lawrence Zeegan
- “The picture book” – Angus Hyland
Magazine articles:
- Grafik
- Creative review
- Design week
- Illustration and type magazines
WEB SITES:
www.computorlove.co.uk
www.madethought.co.uk
www.iwantdesign.co.uk
www.k2screen.co.uk
www.helloven.co.uk


PROJECT PLAN:- Provide a detailed timetable of how you will use your time over the next five weeks?
Possible work placement – wk beginning the 27th.

4 briefs –
Drawing and magazine articles ongoing up until Christmas
Back to the old brief, 3/ 4 wks.

Dissertation-
Ongoing up until Christmas, hopefully have a rough draft before leave for the holidays.

Back the old

The back to the old brief is about generating that feeling of nostalgia, im taking old style logos and posters and taking there style to turn modern day logos into considered precious design.

illustrations from magazines

Last yaer i started doing illustrations onto magazine articles, it something i want to continue this year.I found the artsist Sija Goetz, who does things slightly similar.

Tactile

I looked at a book called tactile before i started he magazine article and its all about making objects out of card so i thought i would try it with a spilt cup of tea, it doesnt really work but it might be usefull idea for my next project.

Magazine ilustrations

For one of my briefs i have decided to take newspaper articles or pieces of text and make them visual, this particular article was about the origins of tea, so i decided to put it into context and make it into the guardian guide.
I wanted to get across the idea o traditional English breakfast so i chose a traditional teacup and a modern day tea cup and pot to show the idea that people still drink tea in the traditional way.