OUGD603 - The Little Art Collection - Sketches

I started by sketching out objects related to some hobbies and interests that I quickly thought of using a brush pen. I liked the quirky style the brush created a really organic feel. I wanted my designs to appeal to both children and their parents so I must keep this in mind when I am designing them. Also I want them to look as friendly and approachable as possible.

 

OUGD603 - The Little Art Collection - Initial Ideas & Research

Because the theme is based on hobbies and interests I decided to brainstorm some rough ideas that I think would work well being unisex and as a pattern.

Hobbies & Interests:
- Baking
- Cooking
- Travel
- Cycling
- Camping
- Drawing & Painting

I quite like the idea of the first three interests because of the 'affluent' audience of the brand. But having read the brief again I found that you can include 10 images so technically I could do most of these ideas and show them in context to improve my chances of getting a design picked.

I started to look at some children's illustrations for some inspiration on what would suit the baby grows and blankets.

However, after looking at some of these illustrations I realised I shouldn't base my concepts solely around children's illustrations as I am designing to appeal to the parents and not the babies. Of course, there needs to be some playful aspect to the illustrations but it doesn't mean necessarily that they have to be catered to children. So I decided that it would be best to use my own stylings for this brief, not only so I can develop it further but also because I believe it appeals to the selected audience of affluent adults.

OUGD603 - The Little Art Collection - The Brief

THE BRIEF

The theme for our Spring/Summer 2017 collection is ‘Interests and Hobbies’ (music, sport, literature, dance, travel, etc.). This collection is about appealing to parents’ personal hobbies and interests and creating fun designs for them to enjoy with their babies. We’re looking for artists to create illustrations/paintings/drawings around our ‘Interests and Hobbies’ theme which can later be worked into repeat patterns for textile baby products such as blankets, bed linen, accessories, etc.

Almost all of our products are unisex so artists should consider this when choosing their ‘Interests and Hobbies’ subject matter. Our target audience are most likely to be affluent men and women aged 25-35 years and affluent women aged 55-65 years buying gifts for new parents.

They provided some illustrations which I imagine is the style they are looking for, however, I feel like I couldn't replicate this watercolour style digitally, but I am going to experiment with some different illustrations. Also they have mentioned that they are open to any technique so I may try my usual vector style. 

Hints & Tips:

- We’re looking for art that communicates e.g. passion, emotion, nostalgia, movement

- We’re open to any technique, from watercolour to graffiti!

- We like work with lots of colour (too much black can make patterns harsh)

- Keep it simple – lots of detail makes it hard to work images on a smaller scale

- A nice clear/well defined outline is important (watercolour, fine liner, etc.)

- You might prefer to submit a single illustration or to set a scene/number of scenes with your work

(conversational pieces are well suited to the market)

- We’re trying to move away from the typical baby print (but please don’t forget that babies will be

using and enjoying these products with their parents)

- We’re looking for art that works for both baby boys and baby girls (unisex)

- As a brand, our focus is on creating quality products for our customers

OUGD603 - Penguin - Adrian Mole Initial Designs

Even though there isn’t actually a description of Adrian Mole himself in the books I thought that I could do a typographic representation of a portrait of him. I could go off the TV adaptation of the character that does have glasses making it more distinct as the character a lot of people know and love.

I had an idea to recreate a messy bed as I feel this is often what is most associated with teenagers - a messy room. I plan to develop this design further by adding objects onto the bed that are relevant to the book and the time era that it was written in. I do like this composition however I do feel the type is a bit lacking, it needs to stand out more against the bed background. 

I played on the idea of creating an actual diary cover for the book. But I do think that this might not be that successful as I feel it would be a common design amongst the entries. Although I do really like the use of the hand rendered type here, it makes it lot more personal as if Adrian had written it himself.  

I tried paper cutting a design similar to my first idea of using his glasses and hair. I liked the simplicity of this design, however I am not sure about the use of typography. When I asked for feedback for this design they said that it looked too much like Harry Potter rather than Adrian Mole because of the messy hair and glasses. 

I also had this idea to create the type out of spot cream, because this is what I associate with teenage angst. I found a spot cream that was used in the 1980s and recreated it digitally. The main problem was when it came to the type however, I couldn't seem to get it to look 3D and when it looked 3D is was a bit illegible. I tried various types, drawing it out and using fonts but I don't think it works as well visually as I had hoped. 

If I had more time on this project I would try and actually create the type using some cream and then photographing it but I'm trying to complete the brief within 2 weeks. 

OUGD601 - CoP - Edible Packaging

Skipping Rocks Lab have created one of the world’s first edible water bottles made using seaweed to get rid of plastic bottles once and for all. Their reasoning according to their site is that the consumption of non-renewable resources for single use bottles and the amount of waste generated is profoundly unsustainable. The aim of Ooho is to provide the convenience of plastic bottles while limiting the environmental impact. Though still in the early stages of development this product is promising for the future of bottle water. The capsule is completely biodegradable and can be eaten whole too resulting in zero waste. The process for creating the blob of water is called sphereification and has been used in a range of edible products such as bubble tea.

This too shall pass
Is it reasonable that it takes several years for a milk carton to decompose naturally, when the milk goes sour after a week? This Too Shall Pass is a series of food packages where the packaging has the same short life span as the foods they contain. The package and its content are working in symbiosis
 
Oil package
A package made of caramelized sugar, coated with wax. To open it you crack it like an egg. When the material is cracked the wax do no longer protect the sugar and the package melts when it comes in contact with water. This package is made for oil-based food.
 
Smoothie package
Gel of the agar-agar seaweed and water are the only components used to make this package. To open it you pick the top. The package will wither at the same rate as it’s content. It is made for drinks that have a short life span and needs to be refrigerated, fresh juice, smoothies and cream for example.
 
Rice Package
Package made of biodegradable beeswax. To open it you peel it like a fruit. The package is designed to contain dry goods, for example grains and rice.

Tomorrow Machine is a Swedish design studio that creates food items with packaging comprised of caramelized sugar coated with wax, which melts when it is used or when it comes in contact with water. This clever method again allows the products created to be fully sustainable without leaving any waste behind.

They also created packaging for smoothies using agar jelly as the 'carton' which may not neccessarily be edible but is still 100% biodegradable. This is also able to be printed on which means that there will be still room for packaging designers even if the packaging becomes completely different. 

OUGD603 - Extended Practice Crit

Penguin

- Really liked the unmade bed idea, would look better with items on it related to the book.
- The cut out design looks too much like Harry Potter with the messy hair and glasses.
- The diary might be too stereotypical
- Talked about spot cream idea, they liked this and suggested I could try it with a tube of toothpaste or even papercut it.

Lifting Tower Projection

- Amber's personal opinion was that it the people looked like aliens being green

- Told to blog about the struggles with the brief changes. 

- Liked the simplicity, not much feedback to give other than the limited colour scheme. 

OUGD602 - PPP - Thinking about Employability

The first task was to think about the online presence that we have at the moment. Having worked on my portfolio site recently for applying to work experience, I feel like it is pretty polished at the moment.

Below is my feedback from my portfolio site, instagram and facebook page. I found all of this feedback really helpful because I don't often get feedback for my personal profiles, I just make them! So to hear things that I should improve or continue doing is really valuable.

I realised that I do neglect my facebook page so I do need to keep updating this with WIPs and keeping people looking. As I did get a job from this page before so it would be worthwhile keeping up with appearances.

Also, the consistency through all my profiles is a good point as I have different images of myself and haven't updated my branding on some of them.

Another task that we had to do was write down our anxieties about our work within a "stinky fish". This task was meant to surface our anxieties so that they didn't hold as much reverence being kept hidden.  Sharing these anxieties with everyone else I found that a lot of us had the same thoughts. I think I get this mental block with my own work and it made me feel a bit better getting things out in the open.