End of year show

Tuesday 2nd briefing
Paint team 3rd and 4th june at 9:30

A4 piece of paper with 6 images on :

3 images hung on wall hung at A5
3 images u have existing at A2

Proposal form

SB3 End of module evaluation

Adele Pierce

OUIl505 Applied Illustration

End of module Evaluation

I started off looking into character and narrative as my field; but this progressed across into product and packaging due to my drive to want to produce finished final outcomes, which I have not previously explored in other modules. I wanted to get my head around creating products ready to sell, as this is something I wish to carry on after university. I decided to home in on the card industry after speaking about how easy it is to make money off of greetings cards in PPP. Cards are such a great avenue to explore because you can take one design and put it across multiple formats or events; or take one occasion and explore it with multiple designs, in multiple sizes. I chose greetings cards because usually they are rather mundane and stereotypical and I wanted to turn this on its head; create a range of cards that you would not expect to buy.

I began my contextual research by looking online at cards that could not be sold in store because they are too offensive or explicit. This really influenced me to start thinking outside of the box in terms of my concept. I came across some great companies such as Brainbox Candy and Jolly Awesome that feature their cards on distribution sites such as Paperchase and Scribbler as well as selling in stores such as Urban Outfitters. This was the avenue I wanted to go down. I looked into distribution and costs and thought about perhaps giving my designs to an online distributor that would print the cards for me and ship them to save me doing it myself. They give you a base price to which you add your profit on top of. However, I felt I was not ready to submit any designs at this stage and perhaps this will be something I will explore next year when I feel more confident in my drawing skills.

I decided to propose myself as an online business, a website that sold the greetings cards amongst other products. My initial ideas were quite offensive, I got too carried away with the notion of cards that you would not expect and cards that you would not sell with influence from Mr. Bingo and Chris Simpson’s Artist. However, there is a fine line between being funny and being offensive and I had to figure out how I could draw funny. How I could make my characters and the line work speak for itself rather than adding text and putting across the wrong message. I looked at illustrators such as Paul Davis that influenced me to be more sensitive with my approach. I decided to re-evaluate my audience and to focus on the elderly. I watched programmes such as ‘Off their rockers’ and YouTube clips of older generation acting youthful to inspire me. I came up with the concept of a card range that would be sold to youngsters to give to the elderly as a confidence boost to assure them they were still young.

In order to design my characters for this I looked at extreme sports and situations that youngsters are in; but replaced their bodies with that of the elderly. This deemed pretty frustrating at times when it was hard to imagine the older person in a certain pose. I got to grips with how their skin might fold, sag, or wrinkle but sometimes had a mental block of their proportions. To overcome this I would take my drawing with a light box and re draw it until it was correct. Some designs did not work, the facial expressions were not right they did not seem like they were having fun but rather grimacing. Eventually I had ten designs which I took to a group crit. The group told me to narrow it down to six, as that is usually the standard for greetings cards. This worked well for me because there were certain designs still that were not summing up my concept well enough. I had also experimented with colour previously, which the group felt was too dark and needed to be more vibrant. I then took my designs and re worked them until they were correct, deleting the backgrounds to just have one stand alone image. I coloured them with a pastel colour palette to give it more of a fun aesthetic.

Once mocked up and printed for the final crit I had further feedback to change the format to square in order for the cards to work better as a set. I was also told to expand my range with wrapping paper and gift tags. I had previously explored products such as iPhone cases and t-shirts but the gift ideas seemed more relevant to the cards so I was pleased with this advice.

I mocked up wrapping paper, which if I had more time I would have printed properly and priced appropriately. I printed gift tags on a glossy card stock with string and priced. I created a website mock up of where my products would be sold alongside an expansion on the concept. I decided to take my idea further by adding two more concepts to the ‘You’ve still got it’ range. My company was to be called Bow Down which would sell this card range amongst others, and products to support them. I got quite passionate about this because this is something that I would like to achieve when I leave university. I mocked the idea up on Photoshop but if I had more time I would create the website for real. Next year I am hoping to achieve this; I hope by the time I leave University that I fully understand printing my illustrations onto products ready to sell. I would like to further explore marketing my products on websites and social media.

Overall, I am pleased with this module because I finally have created finished products that could possibly sell and this is something I am proud of. I have moved away from being offensive, and used my character, line work and choice of colour to portray humour rather than word. I initially had text on my images which I later discovered was unnecessary and I should let the images speak for themselves. In terms of time management, I feel that I have used every day wisely with this module and I don’t feel that there are any areas I have missed a great deal out of, I feel that my whole process has been consistent throughout. Unlike other modules, sometimes my work is too research heavy and the final outcomes are left until last minute. I feel the difference here is that I knew from the onset I wanted to create greetings cards and they were to be the final outcome, so everything leading up to that was a process thoroughly explored. I wanted to become an expert at greetings cards, and I must say I feel I am now and understand the industry pretty well. It has influenced me to consider speaking to these companies and perhaps look at an internship in the summer. I feel like my digital skills have come a long way in this module, which has been commented on in peer feedback sessions. I do feel that in terms of experimentation I have perhaps been limited with my play and could have explored texture and collage further within the clothing of the characters and patterns. However, I spent too much time drawing and re-drawing that in the end I got fixated on colour palettes rather than texture.

The cards push the boundaries in comparison to the stereotypical occasion cards; they are left blank to be open for any occasion. They are sensitive enough for the elderly to receive them, but funny enough to be sold to a younger audience too, which I feel quite proud of achieving as a balance. I was constantly aware of creating cards that could also be sold in store as they are not too explicit or offensive; often having to change my designs to suit this. An example of this was an elderly lady doing the splits with saggy breasts, I had to reign that in by covering up her cleavage as this could be seen as offensive. Finally, I feel my final products are well presented and executed, but I perhaps could have photographed them more professionally for my blog and featured those photographs on a mock up of the website if I had more time. I have really enjoyed the module and stayed interested in it and I feel this is due to using a humorous concept that has allowed me to be playful with my character designs.

SB3 Presentation boards

SB3 Project Report

SB2 Final outcomes

PACKAGING

Cards

I had to buy envelopes for the final cards as my strengths don't really lie in net making and glueing things together, I'd of ended up glueing my fingers together and it would have all got very messy!
Square format was much easier for purchasing envelopes too.

Gift Tags

I placed the cards in a plastic wallet for the submission but if I had more time I would mock them up as part of the website for sale with a price of £0.75 each or a pack of all 6 for £3.00. Based on research into other card stores prices I think this would be reasonable.

SB2 Wrapping paper and gift tags

ADDITIONAL MOCK UPS - gift tags

I am not happy with the string for this one but as it was a rough mock up I just wanted to get a general idea. Obviously I would print these onto card and use a better string.

Wrapping paper

I would price these wrapping papers at £1.75 a sheet based on research into card companies pricing.

I really like how these came out they have still kept their detail as well as working well as a pattern. Not all of the designs would tessellate as successfully as these as they are stand alone images whereas some of the others fit the page. This would be something to consider within the brand and the range of cards; creating all of the designs with the idea in mind that they need to be taken across onto other products. I am not sure if these images on wrapping paper make much sense; but they support the greetings cards.
I guess what I mean is I can't really see an audience buying these designs as wrapping paper alone.

SB1 Redesigning

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF SCALE AND FORMAT

Looking back at square designs and the dimensions they would need to be

I decided on 170mm height and 150mm width as researching into card companies such as 'Clinton Cards' this seemed to be the standard size of square cards.

After speaking to Eleanor she told me to scale down the image in the centre, but after my group crit people were half and half as to whether they liked the image smaller or bigger so I have been trying it out in the square composition.

Not all of them worked so I decided to make some of them bigger to ensure they work as a series

This meant I then had to edit the back of the card to the same square format

Put them both together with a 300mm width 170mm height

FINAL MOCK UP PRINT

I had to place the design onto A3 in order to fit it in and this would mean I could print without the crop marks showing at the sides. As the card is white against white I filled the background grey so that I knew where to cut

I feel that the square is a much better format and works well for all designs. It means that the designs work more as a set too.

SB1 Final designs

SCALE AND FORMAT

Coloured and scaled to A5, then added to a card layout

FINAL CRIT

To expand on my range I have mocked up the idea of a website which I have printed for the crit.  

Webpage mock-up

Presentation Boards

As I have explored initial ideas and contextual references in earlier boards I decided just to show my final designs on my presentation board for the crit alongside my website mock-up, printed cards and printed final designs. I have also included a board for how I can expand the range further

Designs printed for final crit

Just printed onto paper for the crit because I want final feedback before printing them on card. I can already see that some of the scales need altering such as the weightlifter one perhaps needs to be bigger, or not sure if the rest need scaling down. I will ask tomorrow. I also need to ask if people think I need to add more information to the back of the cards

Envelopes

I found it quite difficult to find envelopes that are scaled to A5 as most were square; for the crit I have used some I bought in store but I think for submission I will order some online as these envelopes are too big for the cards

FINAL CRIT FEEDBACK

A few obvious pointers raised that I expected in terms of printing on better stock despite commenting on my blog that I hadn't printed it properly yet, that is my plan for Monday. I explained that I printed on paper initially to get feedback about the scale of the cards.

There were a couple of comments about perhaps printing on squared card and having square envelopes as these are more associated with card formats. I will definitely experiment with this as this could solve the problem about them working more as a series and not having certain images floating and certain ones fitting the page. It will also mean that envelopes are more accessible to buy at this scale rather than portrait A5. A positive comment was that they loved the use of negative space in the background which was nice to hear as this was something I'd took on board as advice from the last peer review session. 

Also a comment about some of the designs not being scaled to fit the page and having crop marks; I mentioned that when I printed I pressed scale to fit media at 100% and they told me that the only way of getting rid of this would be to print on A3 and cut the cards down to A5 rather than printing on A4 which was really helpful.

There was a comment made about perhaps using different brushes on Photoshop to add more texture which would relate to feedback from Eleanor earlier on about perhaps adding more texture or collaging pattern but I do feel I have ran out of time to play around with the final designs. I would rather invest more time printing quality products and ensuring the scale was right. 

Looking around at other people's work I felt I could perhaps explore more of where the designs could be seen on other products. After mocking up ideas of iPhone cases and T-shirts I feel I need to explore more products relevant to cards such as gift tags and wrapping paper. I mentioned this in the crit as I was unsure whether my designs would be suitable for wrapping paper but the group seemed to think it could work. Again this is something I will consider mocking up.