Categories to consider
Publishing & Book Design
Publishing & Book Design
Editorial & Reportage
Character & Narrative
Product & Packaging
Children's Book & Education
Object & Environment
I have chose to look at Character and Narrative as this is the field I am most interested in; however I feel that I could apply myself to all of these so perhaps my choice will expand over a few categories.
I came up with a brainstorm of what work I was interested in and how this could be applied. I then just homed in on one area of interest of a product/format to which my work could be seen which was greetings cards.
STUDIO BRIEF 1
Visual Journal
The following 4 areas should be considered and visually explored and in your visual journal, as you research and make your practical investigation:
1: line, shape, texture
2: people, animals, places and objects
3: real, imagined, referenced
4: mood, meaning, method
CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH
Contextual Referencing of Greetings Cards
Illustrated tape
Interactive
Wrapping paper
Packaging
Wrapping paper
Humorous play on words
Envelopes
Composition
Animal humor
Other
OhhDeer.com
Illustrated Gifts
Greeting cards, wrapping paper, gift accessories
Curious pancake and more Ohdeer
Amy Walters
I like really bad jokes, bad puns, play on words I think they make for interesting cards. I searched for homonyms - words with multiple meanings
Homophones
- pale/pail
- ate/eight
- alter/altar
- band/banned
- buy/bye/by
- red/read
- blew/blue
- boar/bore
- canon/cannon
- coarse/course
- fair/fare
- genes/jeans
- foul/fowl
- grate/great
- in/inn
- hour/our
- knight/night
- no/know
- nose/knows
- maize/maze
- meddle/metal
- rain/reign
- sea/see
- role/roll
- their/there/theyre
- veil/vale
MORE CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH
Greeting cards that mock making greeting cards, and occasions, but still sell...
MORE CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH
Greeting cards that mock making greeting cards, and occasions, but still sell...
Chris Simpson's Artist
Mr Bingo's hate mail
Where can these humorous cards be sold? Online and...
Urban Outfitters
My ideas
Cards that are offensive being pulled from sale in wholesalers
What would I get away with?
More research into funny card companies
Brainbox Candy
These two designs I have seen stocked in Urban Outfitters, they must have got in touch with them to stock the designs.
The website itself is really quirky and funny. Seems aimed at the youth.
The professional side of things they don't take too seriously which I like.
CONTACTING COMPANIES
They claim they are 'well friendly' for people to get in touch so I sent them an email. I kept it really informal as I figured they would probably remember me more for this and want to reply.
Mothers day card ideas I liked that they had:
Who stocks their card designs?
Scribbler
I think maybe the problem I am having at the minute is that my ideas are too broad, maybe I need to stick to one occasion? Then run with that for design ideas
More ideas that would appeal to a larger audience. Looking at the elderly and animals for more of a 'friendly' humorous approach that would not be as offensive
IDEAS
I wasn't sure what caption to put for this, I wanted something about getting really old that you lose the plot
MORE RESEARCH INTO THE CARD INDUSTRY
I have a friend that works at Paperchase that mentioned their company would probably snap up my art work as it is bold and out there, pushing the boundaries. He told me to email them but when I looked on their website they mentioned they do not take design submissions, they work with design companies that they have built a relationship with. This has not stopped me from getting involved with them however; I want to know more about how the card company works, what sells, what I can get away with. I am visiting in store this weekend to ask more and ask about possible placements over the summer so I can get a better understanding of the card industry if this was something I'd wish to take further.
Redbubble
Can upload your designs to there, they produce the card and ship it. They have a base price for each product depending on size and product, then you add your price on top and that equals the retail price
£1.05 base price for a small card seems pretty reasonable. I looked on websites that sell cards and they go for around £2-4 for small cards. I was thinking £2.75-£3.00 retail price
Jolly Awesome - Another brand that produces work similar to myself. When I read up about them, it is one illustrator called Matt that set up the brand himself to produce this funny work.
This is exactly what I want to do so I decided to email him.
After a meeting with Eleanor about my work she felt I had to establish who my audience would be for the cards and seen as they include the elderly, maybe make them a little less offensive, more sensitive, and lose the text. She felt the images worked better on their own and that I should focus more on older people having fun, being youthful.
Presentation boards thus far
Feedback from Abby Glover
- How many cards will you be doing?
- What stock will it be printed on?
- Is there a specific colour scheme?
- Could this expand into something more eg a gift range/ different products to sell?
- How will they be packaged?
- What is the price?
- I think humorous is a good selling point, especially with cards! I like the uniqueness
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT - more drawing
I am focusing more on the elderly having fun, playing sports etc
Second lot of boards
MOCK UPS - Card templates
For the sake of printing rough so far I did these on Photoshop and just put a guide half way down the canvas at 14.8cm then rotated the image 180 degrees to add the information for the back of the card. As I am designing my own logo in Responsive, once this is finished I'll add that onto the card instead of the temporary one.
I laid out all of my designs and figured I had to make a decision on how many cards I was going to produce, with which designs.
I did quite like most of my designs, some just needed re-working or further developing.
I decided I am going to create 10 designs, of both men and women, landscape and portrait.
I began reworking my designs
This one I decided that I needed more imagery of men rather than women so I needed to change this into a man, I worked on the head and then elongated the shorts and changed the arms around
I was having a mental block day where I really couldn't draw arms!
I couldn't get the perspective right
I was having a mental block day where I really couldn't draw arms!
I couldn't get the perspective right
Drawing and re-drawing arms
The Final 10 ready for last bits of editing and colouring in Photoshop
The people in my tutorial thought that i should leave the characters as a single image in the middle of the page and reconsider the colour palette to being more fun, maybe pastel colours. Eleanor mentioned to cut my card range down to 6 as cards are usually sold to distributors in packs of 6. This is fine because there are a few that I am not particularly happy with anyway.
She also said to propose them as post cards and to just buy envelopes for them rather than making them myself.
After the group decided that my images worked best as stand alone images on a white background I began editing them
STILL RESEARCHING
One of my peers showed me this youtube video of a 96 year old yoga instructor. I loved it! This had the great fun vibe I was going for and the lady looks very happy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u76yQEdflVM
I screenshot some really funny poses I could sketch out from this
Colouring final 6 choices - pastel fun colours
I am not sure whether these colours really work, they look a little flat. I need to work on this more I think. I have a tutorial coming up so will ask then before carrying on any further
In terms of printing, the print room is booked up until mid May so it will be a case of using the drop in. I am going to use glossy card that I used for my last hand in of postcards as it was pretty sturdy and had a nice finish to it. The card costs £1 each, so if I were to sell these cards at £2.75 I would still make a pretty decent profit.
TUTORIAL
During my tutorial with Eleanor we spoke about how I could further my grade within this module by exploring range more. Eleanor felt that I needed to further another 3 possible concepts to follow on from the 'Still got it' range. For example the focus being on people of society, perhaps looking at social media and how it has taken over communication.
She felt that I should brand my card 'business' and then mock up a possible website for this.
In terms of the imagery, we spoke about how I could play more with texture and the way that I draw certain lines. She showed me this months Varoom magazine with Paul Davis as some contextual reference. These were all really helpful points and something I will definitely try to play around with from now onwards.
CONCEPTS TO EXPAND THE RANGE
Technology
- Old people using iphones
- Old people skypeing
- Getting a friend request from your grandma on Facebook
- Old people face timing
- Grandads on tinder
- An old person using a phone, making an error and trying to type it out
- Old people on the sofa both on their phones
I like the idea of sticking to old people because it shows how technology and communication has changed from years ago.
Trends
- Grandad Lad
- Hipster grandmas
- Old people with tattoo sleeves and piercings
I like to carry on looking at my subject matter because it keeps me interested and passionate about what I am doing and not get bogged down in the design process and formats etc. I learnt this from the last module in Context of Practice; constantly researching allowed me to stay interested and I think my work benefitted from this.
Off their rockers
These ideas got me thinking about a programme I had watched with my grandma who is late 80's now. It's about a bunch of old people playing pranks on youngsters by putting themselves in situations that we would not expect, acting young and saying things that are shocking.
I liked it I thought it was funny as did the rest of my family but my grandma was not impressed. She said it made her feel uneasy and that it was as though the programme was mocking the elderly rather than the elderly mocking youngsters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqehmFDMrQ8
MOCK UPS
Mock up cards for the mock up website
Using Avenir Next Condensed Regular in capitals I set out the layout of my website with icons along the left hand side of possible pages to show different ranges of cards and also for the title of the range
The logo was hand drawn on Photoshop. I used cargo collective templates for influence of how I could lay out the design and used my earlier research into humorous card businesses as to how to word the website and make it young and playful.
'Bow Down' would be the brand, which explores greetings cards as one avenue. Other avenues would be postcards, tshirts, wrapping paper, airfreshners etc. The 'You've still got it' card range highlights modern culture in a humorous light by using the elderly as characters. It is made up of 3 ranges; looking at the elderly playing sports and being playful, using technology and social media, and following trends of fashion and culture such as tattoos, piercings, hairstyles.
I took the logo and name of the card range and applied that to the back of the card
Techno
The range 'techno' will be a part of 'You've still got it' of the elderly but will explore how technology is expanding and how as a society today we are relying on technology as a passtime and a form of communication compared to years ago. I think the elderly will work great for this because it is something you would not expect to see, especially on a card. In terms of a greetings card once again I would like to leave the inside blank so that these cards can be used for any occasion. I see the technology one as more of a joke between couples or for a parent to their child to highlight 'this is how you will end up.'
The design below was an earlier one I had explored but have used this one as an example of where I could take this range. The idea of an elderly man playing the xbox ignoring his wife; something you would not expect to see but something most young boys today are hooked on.
I also liked the idea of showing an elderly woman tippexing out her mistakes on an iPhone or a mac to show that the elderly are still trying to get involved in technology but perhaps do not understand it. However, I chose not to run with that idea as it may appear to be mocking the elderly rather than celebrating them in a fun way.
Trendin'
I came up with the idea of the elderly conforming to recent social trends whether that be through their dress, their appearance, their skin, their hair, the way they act or places they go. I began to think of what the current trends are today and have been for a while enough to be recognisable. I think that tattoo's has became a huge trend along with piercings. I think also it would be humorous to explore HD eyebrows and false nails, the kind of false culture where girls are wearing fake hair, fake eyelashes, fake tan, fake everything.
Showing the elderly in this 'costume' would highlight how trends have changed over the years but also that the elderly can still act young should they wish to.
The design below is of an elderly woman drinking a cup of tea but she has piercings that are a modern trend at the minute with the septum ring and a tattoo sleeve. I left her ears quite baggy to show that they have once been stretched which was another trend.
I don't think this card would appeal to the elderly, but more the youth that might buy this for the older generation.
I think that is the beauty of these design ideas that just because they feature older characters does not mean to say that they will appeal to them. Kind of like cards of funny babies you see you would not give to a toddler.
Print checks
I done some rough print checks just to ensure that the information would not be lost once printed
EXPANDING THE RANGE
With 'Bow Down' as the brand, it gives me more room to explore other forms of design and communication. 'You've still got it' is just one form of card ranges that features elderly characters in situations we would not expect in order to comment on society today.
Moving on from this I could comment on politics, society and culture through other character designs that would feature as another range on the 'Bow Down' website.
Expanding further on greetings cards, I could take these designs and adapt them to postcards, tshirts, airfreshners, iPhone cases, zines, prints and other products that would be sold on the website.
These ideas got me thinking about a programme I had watched with my grandma who is late 80's now. It's about a bunch of old people playing pranks on youngsters by putting themselves in situations that we would not expect, acting young and saying things that are shocking.
I liked it I thought it was funny as did the rest of my family but my grandma was not impressed. She said it made her feel uneasy and that it was as though the programme was mocking the elderly rather than the elderly mocking youngsters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqehmFDMrQ8
MOCK UPS
Mock up cards for the mock up website
Using Avenir Next Condensed Regular in capitals I set out the layout of my website with icons along the left hand side of possible pages to show different ranges of cards and also for the title of the range
The logo was hand drawn on Photoshop. I used cargo collective templates for influence of how I could lay out the design and used my earlier research into humorous card businesses as to how to word the website and make it young and playful.
'Bow Down' would be the brand, which explores greetings cards as one avenue. Other avenues would be postcards, tshirts, wrapping paper, airfreshners etc. The 'You've still got it' card range highlights modern culture in a humorous light by using the elderly as characters. It is made up of 3 ranges; looking at the elderly playing sports and being playful, using technology and social media, and following trends of fashion and culture such as tattoos, piercings, hairstyles.
I took the logo and name of the card range and applied that to the back of the card
Another concept
As discussed in my tutorial with Eleanor I needed to expand the range further to develop the idea of the card business being a brand, with other ranges within it. I decided to explore the elderly further as my characters because I think that they are something that can be relatable and humorous to all ages and still get the message across about society today.
Techno
The range 'techno' will be a part of 'You've still got it' of the elderly but will explore how technology is expanding and how as a society today we are relying on technology as a passtime and a form of communication compared to years ago. I think the elderly will work great for this because it is something you would not expect to see, especially on a card. In terms of a greetings card once again I would like to leave the inside blank so that these cards can be used for any occasion. I see the technology one as more of a joke between couples or for a parent to their child to highlight 'this is how you will end up.'
The design below was an earlier one I had explored but have used this one as an example of where I could take this range. The idea of an elderly man playing the xbox ignoring his wife; something you would not expect to see but something most young boys today are hooked on.
I also liked the idea of showing an elderly woman tippexing out her mistakes on an iPhone or a mac to show that the elderly are still trying to get involved in technology but perhaps do not understand it. However, I chose not to run with that idea as it may appear to be mocking the elderly rather than celebrating them in a fun way.
Trendin'
I came up with the idea of the elderly conforming to recent social trends whether that be through their dress, their appearance, their skin, their hair, the way they act or places they go. I began to think of what the current trends are today and have been for a while enough to be recognisable. I think that tattoo's has became a huge trend along with piercings. I think also it would be humorous to explore HD eyebrows and false nails, the kind of false culture where girls are wearing fake hair, fake eyelashes, fake tan, fake everything.
Showing the elderly in this 'costume' would highlight how trends have changed over the years but also that the elderly can still act young should they wish to.
The design below is of an elderly woman drinking a cup of tea but she has piercings that are a modern trend at the minute with the septum ring and a tattoo sleeve. I left her ears quite baggy to show that they have once been stretched which was another trend.
I don't think this card would appeal to the elderly, but more the youth that might buy this for the older generation.
I think that is the beauty of these design ideas that just because they feature older characters does not mean to say that they will appeal to them. Kind of like cards of funny babies you see you would not give to a toddler.
Print checks
I done some rough print checks just to ensure that the information would not be lost once printed
EXPANDING THE RANGE
With 'Bow Down' as the brand, it gives me more room to explore other forms of design and communication. 'You've still got it' is just one form of card ranges that features elderly characters in situations we would not expect in order to comment on society today.
Moving on from this I could comment on politics, society and culture through other character designs that would feature as another range on the 'Bow Down' website.
Expanding further on greetings cards, I could take these designs and adapt them to postcards, tshirts, airfreshners, iPhone cases, zines, prints and other products that would be sold on the website.
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