OUGD603 - Print Fest Jessy Lanza - The Brief

Today Amber briefed us on a poster design for the Leeds Print Fest. It was to create a piece of print to visually represent one of Jessy Lanza's songs as she would be performing at the closing ceremony of the festival. It has to be 23x23cm on GF Smith Pristine White Stock.

There is no limit to what design you produce as long is it is a visual representation of the song "Oh No" by Jessy Lanza and that it is printed using a traditional print method such as screen printing or lino cut.

After being briefed we listened to and watched the music video for the song, which has a very visual style to it, with lots of bright lights and reflective materials.

Music Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaNZbUENKjk

Here are some screenshots from the bits that I liked in the video:

OUGD603 - Starpack Collab - Research

Me and Laura decided to find some inspiration in the form of current vodka bottle designs. We were looking for contemporary looking yet luxury designs.  

We really liked the simplicity of this bottle. The use of the matte black contrasted with the gold creates an effortless sense of sophistication. The paired back label makes you focus on the illustration and name of the brand rather than any of the extra information. Also, the fact that most of the bottle is covered by this black gives a sense of mystery, intriguing the consumer. 

We also found this range of flavoured vodkas and spirits by Good Bones Studio. We really liked the use of storytelling within the illustrations on the labels, relating to the name of the flavours. Also this minimal, limited colour palette really compliments the Scandinavian vibe that they have created.  

What we really liked about this bottle design was how the design is printed straight onto the glass of the bottle so that the illustrations interact with the contents of the bottle. Also, this gives it a really sophisticated finish paired with the matte glass. Additionally, the use of coloured line art like this adds colour without overpowering the simplicity of the bottle.  

In a contrast to the illustrative design we looked at before we found this dipped bottle design. This very minimalist design puts the emphasis on the craft of the bottle and the spirit. Even the labels are very paired back perhaps to let the product itself shine over the design. I do really like the organic lines that the act of dipping the bottles has created, they almost look like landscapes. 

I found this packaging design that I really liked. Even though it isn't anything to do with vodka, I was just struck by the playfulness of the patterns. The use of the geometric pops of colour contrasting against the super realistic botanical illustrations creates a very quirky finish. It also creates a really nice visual representation of the flavours that each of the truffles are. However they have used the same illustrations on all of their designs and just changed the colour ways to match the colour of the flavour. For our designs we could use the correct illustrations for each flavour.  

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Final Presentation & Evaluation

Below is our final presentation pitch for you+. I am feeling very confident about our pitch as I feel like we have gone above and beyond the brief with the use of the extra materials like the notebooks and community forums. Though we have had an extension due to unseen circumstances as a group we feel that we have done enough with this brief and any more time on it would be pointless.

Strengths & What I liked

I really enjoy creating packaging and to try my hand at something other than food packaging was very interesting for me. Also, I thought that the patterns that I created were not only very contemporary and up to date, but unique too. I think without the patterns our designs would have looked a bit boring.



Weaknesses & What I didn’t like

At points, I did struggle to work in a group because some of my peers didn't do as much work as I would have liked them to. I felt like I had to lead them in order to get any work done. But we overcame this and still finished all of our collateral ideas.




Time Management
As a group I think that we managed our time well as we had everything completed before the initial presentation date. Because of this we decided to not work on it any further when the presentations were rescheduled as we felt we had done all we could with the brief.


Team Work

I feel that as a group we worked quite well together although some of the time I felt like I was having to lead what we needed to do. The designs for the packaging were pretty much a group effort as I did the initial designs and then we all worked on it from then on. If I was to do this brief again I think I would prefer to do it by myself as even though as a team you work faster I would have liked to develop some things further. But I suppose part of being in a group project is about compromising.


Final Outcome

The final packaging looks very professional and I feel that our designs really stand out from other Nootropics on the market. I am really pleased with our outcome and think that it makes for a great portfolio piece. It was a really good experience getting the feedback from professionals in the industry too, as I feel their feedback is much more valid than any other feedback that we had recieved throughout the project.

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Final Sleeves

I created some tests for our final sleeves to see if the sizing of the text was right. I created a fake pill packet to mock up what it might look like as a finished product, placing the tablets in the shape of a plus for a bit of added playfulness.  Also because we wanted to include more information we created a little card that you could find inside the sleeve for more information about the you+ community. 

Overall I think that they work really well. They are just the right size to fit into a wallet or into someone's pocket, perfectly matching our concept of fitting around our consumer's lifestyle. Also I feel like the design itself is really clear and easy to understand. Overall I think that this design would really stand out on a pharmacy shelf. 

OUGD603 - Penguin - Adrian Mole Cover Development

I digitised my sock idea, trying to create as much texture as possible in the sock so that it didn’t end up looking flat and boring. I really like how the red pops off the page at you.

I also tried out the design without the socks in it and just as a typographic piece. I do like the simplicity of this but I prefer the context of the sock, it also makes it look a lot more visually interesting.

After some feedback people said that the socks looked a little flat and too stylised. I was asked to look at pictures of socks to get the right shapes. Someone also suggested that the socks could be hanging off the washing line. So I tried the washing line idea and really liked how it made the design flow down. The only downside of this is that I have had to hyphenate the authors name to fit it all onto the sock.

I also tried to have the cover mirror on the back like with George's Marvelous medicine cover that I looked at previously. However, unless I aligned the text like with the cover down the socks it makes the blurb a bit hard to read. 

For the back of the book, I thought it would be a more interesting idea to use the exerpt from the book to be handwritten on some lined paper to give it a bit of context. I found this graph paper, which reminded me of school so I thought it would be a perfect, nostalgic fit. The rest of the blurb I kept really simple in a quite quirky font to represent the humour of the book.

OUGD602 - PPP - Portfolio

After emailing studios I thought it would be a good idea to create a portfolio that I could send instead of sending a link to my website, this way I could control what the studio sees, for example I could tailor my portfolio for just branding or just packaging design depending on the studio.

So I started looking through my briefs that I have done this year as well as ones that I was proud of from previous years. I asked John and Amber with help on which briefs to choose as I felt slightly biased towards the ones I liked and didn't like.

I wanted to build my portfolio around branding and packaging because this is the area that I have chosen to specialise in this year as well as the area which I want to work in when in industry. So this meant that some of the projects that I have completed aren't really relevant in my portfolio, for example some of the more editorial book design pieces I did last year.

OUGD603 - YCN GUCC - Sleeve development

The sleeves will be the outer most part of the packaging so they are the most important visually. I started by mocking up the ideas that we had sketched out in our meeting together. I tried to add little hints of humour through the use of phrases to reflect the brand. These designs were just like initial ideas however because I would want Polly to do the hand rendered text to make it look more personal.

After meeting Polly again and going through these initial ideas we decided that perhaps it didn’t match the brand guidelines that well, as I only hinted at the brand through the colour scheme. We decided to change the type to match all the current packaging to the bolder typeface. Keeping the colour scheme to brown and pink I tried out some of the stickers on the sleeve template. To reflect the postal theme I used a kraft paper background as if the box had been wrapped in brown paper. I do like this idea but I feel that it is a bit too dark as printing on it would make all the colours darker.

Polly also went away and did a sleeve using her illustrations. She based hers heavily around the postal aesthetic and using her hand rendered type it has a lot more character. However, She has added some things that don’t need to be on the sleeve like the ingredients and it’s unclear what occasion this sleeve could be. We decided to make everything as clear as possible by adding the occasion line big in the middle in the bold font from the original packaging. Then the customer could customise it by adding the stickers around it. I think that this is much easier to understand as your eye is drawn to the main message and then it jumps to all of the other little personal elements implemented by the stickers. The use of the handwriting and friendly tone of voice here combines perfectly to create the look that we wanted. I really like the little touches like “open up for something tasty” going across the sides of sleeves, prompting the receiver to interact with the product.

To keep with the postal aesthetic, most of the sleeves will have stamps on and all of them will have the envelope on the back of the design, with information about the company as well as the customer’s custom message. All we need to do now is implement this layout style onto all 6 of our chosen occasions, using the headline in the middle to keep a consistent design.

OUGD602 - PPP - Endangered Animal a Day

I have decided in order to boost my social media presence and to force me to post more on them that I will create an illustration a day. I thought that I should promote a good cause so I decided to create portraits of all of the animals on the endangered species list. Through this I hope to improve my illustrations and vectoring skills and gain more followers!

I'm posting them to my twitter and instagram accounts as I believe these are the ones I need to promote the most.

My first illustration is of the Amur Leopard, of which there are sadly only 60 left in the wild.

OUGD602 - PPP - FutureRising Talk

Yesterday I attended the FutureRising talk which featured talks from different creatives about their experiences and careers so far. FutureRising itself is a careers network to help graduates start their careers in the industry.

The first talk was by a previous alumni of LCA graphic design which was really interesting to see how he progressed after graduating. Working from an art worker, to a junior designer to a brand consultant. It's really inspiring to see that in your early career you can still develop through the industry and find yourself through your experiences.

After a delay the rest of the speakers arrived (thanks storm Doris!). The biggest piece of advice that they had to offer was to think about your focus - the industry sector you want to go into, the job role you would like, the company size and the location you want to be in. I think that I have a good idea already of what I want my focus to be. I know I want to design packaging and branding and stay within Leeds or generally the north of England.

The next talk was from iris an advertising agency based in London. They are quite a successful company having worked with lots big companies like Barclays, adidas and nectar. It was really nspiring to see them explaining the concepts for some of their adverts because of how passionate they were about it. They also showed us a snapchat campaign adidas did to promote a new range. It was a really creative use of social media and interaction between the customer and company.

They also said that in order to succeed in branding and advertising you must first create a successful brand for yourself. (Because you are a brand). They provided 5 points to remember:
1. Be yourself!
2. Get social - use all the social media. LinkedIn and twitter especially.
3. Get to know the internet - know what's trending or even memes
4. Get your work online!
5. No team? No problem. You don't need a partnership to be hired (for advertising)

They also recommended for the portfolio that less is more - just let companies know what the idea is and the insight behind it.
With advertising now they suggested that you need to think about what your target audience would look. Use the internet to practicipate with the consumers rather than just doing more print ads. Generally there was so much more advice on placements and finding a job which was really helpful when I am currently looking for another placement but at a design studio.

I found these talks overall really inspiring and it has definitely made me want to go away and work on my portfolio. Also it was interesting to have an insight into advertising rather than purely graphic design.

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Animation

Because of the types of patterns that we had created I felt it would be really interesting to have them move as an enter page to the website. This would play on the more playful and casual side of the brand as well as making the website more interactive rather than just being static.

So using my knowledge of After effects I used shapes from each of the 'flavour' patterns and combined them into one animation, letting the shapes move and rotate across the screen.

Considering I don't have that much experience with after effects I was really pleased with the result of this. Although, it is just using simple movements I think this works well. It will show the sort of feel we want for the rest of the website as well not to be static. 

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Website

I was tasked with taking the branding through onto the website to create the community forum that we had talked about previously. I started with quite a minimal design to reflect the logo and let everything else stand out. 

However when I took this to my group they suggested that I brought the patterns through into the website as well to make it look less static. Though they did like the simple layout of the site in general, especially the forum part. 

I started by adding the patterns onto the top bar and making the background match the base colour of the pattern. I think that this immediately ties in better with the packaging designs that we have created, making the brand more cohesive. 

When I asked my group for feedback, Emily suggested that I bring down elements of the patterns into the background. This helps with making it look less static and it was suggested that these elements of the patterns could move as you scroll through the site. Also the aesthetic of it is a lot more flexible and less rigid than the patterns being cut off. 

I decided to add extra elements that overlap the text boxes, again with the plan that these elements would move as you interact with the website making it more tactile and less static. I think that this design has greatly improved and fits a lot better with the rest of the collateral that we have created. Though I am not usually a fan of website design I feel that the outcome is really successful. 

OUGD603 - Starpack Collab - Initial Ideas

To help with our initial ideas we mind mapped possible vodka flavours. We thought that if we chose flavours to create then it would help us come up with a brand.

After brainstorming these flavour ideas it was clear that we needed to decide on our target audience before choosing any to move forward. This is because flavours like bubblegum or toffee may appeal to a younger target audience where as flavours like elderflower or vanilla would appeal to an older more sophisticated audience.

So we decided to do a task to create a member of a target audience who we believe would drink up-market vodkas. 

We each drew a person who we believed should buy our proposed product to be. I imagined a sophisticated business woman, Samantha, who believes in quality products and brands. She would spend her spare time hosting dinner parties and going our for cocktails with her girlfriends. I believe that a person like this would look for a luxury vodka to treat her friends or herself. Because of the metal materials used the price of the product would be quite high so she would have to earn quite a bit to be able to splurge every now and then. 

Laura came up with Jeremy, a travelling young business man who also believes in good quality products that reflect his lifestyle. He likes to treat his girlfriend to the best products out there and after business trips he would often buy her a gift from duty free. Again he has a high salary to accommodate for his lifestyle.  

I think that based on these profiles that we created our target audience should be professionals aged 25-40 years old. Our target audience has a taste for quality and are willing to spend more for a luxury product or brand. It is targeted towards men and women with a female bias as flavoured vodka is mostly drank by women. 

OUGD603 - Starpack Collab - Luxury Vodka Brief

Bartenders are increasingly recognising vodka for its wide scope in developing a broad flavour spectrum. Subsequently, vodka is shaking off its ‘flavourless’ label and is being enjoyed as a quality drink. In the UK we drink over 58.5 million bottles of vodka each year. In total the spirits industry is worth over £3.8 billion to the retail sector and a sizeable portion of sales come from quality bottled spirits, such as champagne, brandy and whisky, often bought as gifts. Lining the shelves in spectacularly designed secondary packs, these spirits are both eye-catching and make a handsome present.

The Brief 
This brief is to develop a new and exciting pack for a fictitious vodka brand targeting the quality retail gift sector, including retail outlets spanning duty free areas at airports and high end, high street stores. You will need to develop the name, bottle label, bottle closure using aluminium and secondary metal pack made from tinplate.

Points to consider
• Marriageability with one of the two supplied vodka bottle specifications.
• Metal offers great scope for creative design using different finishes including:
   -  print finishes
   -  varnishes – high gloss, matte, crackle finish
   -  use of colour
   -  bare metal
   -  embossing and debossing

• Reusability and storage of the secondary pack.
• Shelf impact.
• Marriageability with other components – bottle closure and labelling.
• Scope to tell a story.

Materials to be used 
The secondary pack must use tinplate and the closure aluminium as the core elements, but models can be made of any appropriate material to represent the metal components. All secondary pack and closure designs must be compatible with either the specifications supplied for Bottle A or Bottle B. (Please choose either Bottle A or Bottle B for design)

Bottle A

Bottle B

For this brief I will be collaborating with one of my peers, Laura Taylor. We both really appreciate good packaging design and felt that working together would make this brief a lot quicker as well as being able to produce more designs. This brief is really exciting, and I am looking forward to coming up with ideas. 

From reading the brief I can ascertain that they would like a flavoured vodka as it mentions that they are increasing in popularity. After discussing with Laura we decided we could do a small range of different flavours of vodka. Also with the mention of buying vodka as gifts we want to make the packaging as luxurious and unique as possible so that it can look like a gift rather than a bog standard bottle of vodka. The main challenge for this brief will be to come up with the secondary packaging (the box) which will have to be made out of tinplate. This will certainly provide some interesting design elements.