[NEW UNIT - WEB DESIGN]

Finally just handed in everything for Visual Communication in Context 2 which is a huge relief. But no sooner as I get some weight off my shoulders I have something new jumping on. Today we were also given our brief for Screen Based Communication 2. I have been looking forward to this brief for absolutely ages, after seeing the then second years working on it last year. The main aim of the brief is for us to produce a web portfolio, which will house our work, acting as an online portfolio and curriculum vitae.

I really want to do well in this unit. I previously did ICT at A-Level and gained experience in Dreamweaver then, as well as taking part in the ABC Dreamweaver course (which I need to complete and hand in!). This unit isn't just about learning a new program and getting a grade, it is something that will be integral in getting my name out there and getting work.

There are lots of things to consider in this unit. The first point of call is for me to produce an identity for myself. Something that people can look at and get an idea of who I am and what my work is. Do I see myself as a graphic designer or as an illustrator, or both? Will I go under my alias 'Buda' or my name? I also need to think of what I want on my site, and how my site is to be navigated through. I need for my website to be unique and simple, something that people will enjoy looking through, and keep coming back to, to see what's new. This is all going to take a lot of research and hard work but I can't wait!
Was set our new brief today. The outcome is to be an online portfolio website that is easy to navigate and that represents us. I've been looking forward to this brief since I saw last years 2nd years building theirs. It feel that this is the first project to be of 'proper' use to get a name for ourselves, as we are presenting all our work that we have done so far, and showing off our web design skills on the way.

[ANIMAL WATCH PACKAGING FINAL PIECE]

Here is my final watch packaging made to a 50% scale. Made with greyboard and complete with shredded newspaper protective insides -


Really happy with how it turned out. The package itself is really sturdy, proving that I picked a good net to work with. The illustrations stand out really well against the colour of the packaging.

[ANIMAL WATCH PACKAGING FINAL CRITIQUE]

Just had the final crit for the packaging project. Due to having a lot on with the whole Ink Bar live brief, I have been given an extension for this unit. I therefore didn't have a final piece to show in the crit.

I did have my final net complete with illustrations though -


My design went down well, and I received positive feedback. I discussed with everyone how this was to be made out of grey-board, and have shredded newspaper to protect the product. The idea of completely recyclable and simple packaging was well received and everyone seemed to be excited to see the final piece.

One thing that I did take out of the critique was that the final piece didn't have to be full size. This will make it easier for me to source the grey-board, as it now doesn't have to be so big. I'm thinking a 1:2 scale.

[FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS]

Here are the scans of the illustrations that are to be placed on the net of the design. Each panel represents a different aspect of design. Whether it is snowboard tricks interpreted with type, to a hand illustration of the product inside the box, it all links to together with a certain amount of movement and fluidity.

I have based this packaging on the Snowboard side of things, but it would be easily transferable to another sport that Animal is linked with, simply by chasing the snowflake symbols to a more related symbol, and changing the tricks to tricks related to the sport.

These simple changes would mean that all the different sports ranges of the watch packaging, would all link together and could be displayed as a set within a shop.

[FINAL NET]

This is the final net of my packaging complete with accurate measurements in mm.

[PACKAGING DESIGN CHOSEN]

After lots of experimentation I finally found the perfect template for my packaging. Tuck and tongue with gusset flap uses the bare minimum material, without the use of glue, meaning that it is very eco-friendly. This mixed with the Greyboard material choice make it a strong design, and meets my aims of it being recycable as well.

it is of simple design, and is also strong and sturdy. To protect the watch inside and to keep with the whole recycable and eco-friendly side of things I have decided on shredded newspaper. This is a good source of protection as well as being very cheap, and also links in I feel with the hand rendered type of the outside of the packaging, due to the contrast of digital type on the paper. The whole package is very durable, so links in well with the durability of my chosen watch range Mega Sport.

[MATERIAL CHOSEN]

Throughout this packaging project one of my primary aims was to make the packaging eco friendly and recycable. The main factor in achieving this will be the materials used.

After reading extensively into different materials that can be used for packaging, two really stood out for me. Them being Corrugated board and Greyboard.

My illustration graphics would either be printed onto the material directly, or onto brown paper that would then be wrapped around the material (like a parcel).

After experimenting with greyboard, and knowing its values and background, it became the obvious choice. The illustrations printed onto it look excellent, and has left me with the hard choice of whether to make it more parcel like, with having the graphic printed onto brown paper instead. However this would lead to a waste of materials, as in hindsight it isn’t actually needed.

[EXISTING ANIMAL WATCH PACKAGING]

A vital part of the research is to look at the existing Animal watch packaging. I visited the Animal shop and had a hands on feel of the packaging. The photos taken on my camera phone didn’t come out too well!

However whilst with one of my peers, he emailed Animal asking them if it was possible for them to send us examples of the packaging. Through the post about a week later they arrived, and better photos were able to be taken.

The packaging I feel isn’t in keeping with their brand at all. Yes it is nice packaging, but if the logo wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be able to tell who it was done for. The box itself was rather complex, with it containing three pieces. The lid, the main tray (housing the watch stand) and the bottom tray (containing the instructions).

I did like the fact that both the male and female packaging was the same (apart from the colours and logos).

[FELT TIP GRAFIK EXHIBITION]

Below is a selection of images from the Felt Tip Grafik exhibition. It was an exhibition of original artwork done by 30 graphic designers. They were literally given a blank piece of paper and pens and left to come up with whatever they wanted. The variation of all the work is amazing, and there are some really strong pieces.

I feel this exhibition links in with my idea of hand rendered type on parcel shape packaging, and I like the idea of just taking a pen and coming up with ideas on the spot, rather than careful planning. I feel this spontaneous act will be clear in the packaging, and will also reflect the spontaneous nature of extreme sports.

[DON'T PANIC ENVELOPES]

Whilst researching into the travel side of things, and how there would be a lot of parcels going back and forth, I stumbled across an illustrated FedEx parcel. The style I feel is very unique and looks great. The black pen on brown paper works very well, as it stands out and is eye catching. The use of different hand rendered type works really well also and is something that I can see myself looking into further for this project.

The black pen on brown paper reminded me of Don’t Panic packs which are available in London. The pack themselves contain club flyers, but I feel that the illustrations on all of them are excellent. They run a monthly competition on their website where the general public submit their designs, and the winner has theirs chosen.

Looking back at the FedEx parcel, it shows that the packaging itself doesn’t have to be overly complicated. It doesn’t need to be a crazy shape or have a special opening mechanism for it to stand out from the crowd. The design on the packaging I feel is what makes it stand out from others, and I feel I’m going to go down the direction of having simple packaging with an artistic design.

[PACKAGING IDEAS]

During our 1 day brief with our groups, I came across an ammo box which had been modified by the graffiti group Flying Fortress. I felt that the boldness of the illustrations on the box made it a really eye catching piece.

However the materials used in making the packaging, aren’t the most eco friendly and are not recycable, so therefore strays away from my concept.

I feel I can however take inspiration from the simple design, and the durability of the packaging.

[BILLIE JEAN]

I was given reference to a Creative Review that was a couple of years old that had a feature on a Ballpoint exhibition. After much delving through the back issues of Creative Review in the library I eventually found it.
After flicking through the magazine, I was drawn to one artist in particular, who coincedentally also designed the front cover of the issue to advertise the exhibition. Billie Jeans’ work I beleive is a breath of fresh air. Biro whether drawn on paper or a desk, works as a great medium. Even though I still feel that I am going to go down the route of using a pen rather than a biro, it has given me the idea of using thinner pens as well as thick.
One piece that I particularly like of Billie Jeans’ is the 30 years of Nike basketball shoes, that has a picture of a Nike Vandal trainer. I own this trainer and so can connect with the piece more. I also feel this sort of illustrative style in this piece could be put to good use maybe for a similar piece for an Animal watch campaign.

[HAND DRAWN RESEARCH CONTINUED]

As well as researching through books, I also conducted some research on the internet. From the greeting cards project I came across a website - ffffound.com. I can find myself literally sitting in front of my Mac for hours wading through page after page of design work, constantly gaining inspiration.
I stumbled across a lot of hand rendered type on the website. Ranging form graffiti on a wall, to carefully drawn vintage type on a napkin, to random words scribbled onto paper. All of it I find is very eye catching and effective for whatever use is intended.

[HAND DRAWN TYPE AND ILLUSTRATION RESEARCH]

I was pointed towards the book Handwritten by Steven Heller & Mirko Ilie, to research into different types of hand rendered type. I had a flick through this and came across these images that I particularly like and filled me with inspiration -


I think the scrawled aspect of the type shown in these images is really effective. It raw and untidy aspects make it appealing to the eye, as at a glance it may just look like a scribble, but it draws you in revealing more.
The amount of text used is also a key factor to it’s effectiveness, and is something that I’m going to have to take into consideration for my designs.


The Nike ACG campaign posters can be related to the extreme sports side of things with the Animal brand. The use of scratchy hand rendered type on the photographs is very effective, and something that I could push forward with on the P.O.S side of things.
The scratchy aspect of the type on this page, also links in with the injuries sustained in extreme sports. The scrapes and cuts can be seen in the text, as well as on the body.


Adding shadow to the type gives it an extra dimension. It makes it stand out and almost monumental compared to the rest of the type. This can be used with type that possibly contains more important information that the rest of the text on the packaging.
There are so many variation of hand rendered type. With a pen you can draw anything, and it’s my responsibility to keep a fluidity to the whole work, without losing the appeal of it being spontaneous.


I felt that a lot of the hand rendered type that I had come across had a sort of a graffiti feel to it, so I decided to have a flick through Street Sketchbook. The following few images are scans from the book. I not only looked at type, but also tried to look for pieces which had a lot going on.
Will Barras’s work is very fluid, full of movement, atmosphere and energy. His sketches whether it is biro or marker look like they have developed into stories. I like this aspect of this work and maybe I could implement something similar in my packaging to make it more exciting, and so the viewer can interact.
Bfree starts off without any idea of what he is doing; the first couple of lines determine the end result. I feel this spontaneity is clearly evident in his work, and is something that I want to try and implement into mine, as it makes the work more exciting.
Blu like Bfree draws without much conscious planning. He often starts by coming up with an anatomical idea or viewpoint to explore, sometimes with a visual pun or message in mind. The idea of using visual puns, i feel could add a humorous twist to my work.
Ekta in his own words: ‘I don’t like knowing too much about what I’m drawing till I’ve drawn it’. Although I can’t completely take that attitude, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this research
i feel it does have a certain meaning to
it.


Elph’s drawings have a fluidity and spontaneity to them, which I’m strongly realising is a key aspect to a successful illustrative piece. I don’t think I can plan too much as in to what I’m drawing as it will take a certain element away from the final piece.
All of Wayne Horse’s pieces reveal a sense of humour and an awareness of the absurd side of popular culture. I feel that I need to get to know Animal as a brand and my target audience before I sit down and start illustrating; as my awareness will become evident in my work.
Guy McKinley beleives that, ‘If your image is hard to make and looks difficult, I think you can drown a piece’. This is something I need to keep in mind. Even though I want to have a lot going on in my work, I need to be careful that I don’t have too much going on.


Turbo likes to contrast the old with the new. I feel that using old style hand rendered tyoe with new will work well as there will be a big contrast between it all, but will still keep a certain amount of fluidity.
Ponk takes the essentials of graffiti letterforms, such as outlines, shading and highlights and adds his own fresh twist. Even though I want to try and steer a bit away from graffiti, I feel that it is going to be necessary to have a certain element of it within the work as the hand drawn and freestyle aspect of it will bring out my own personal style.
Remed sketches from a library of thoughts and shapes. He usually mixes several sketches and shapes and keeps an element of freestyle when he paints and draws. His ideas develop as words, icons, colours or shapes that begin to form a dialogue as they gradualy build up on the page. This gradual building and layering I feel is going to be needed to produce a successful piece.
Zetka states ‘For graphic design there are no limits and you can work in a more detailed way and take your time designing’. I need to produce a balance of how much I treat my packaging as a piece of graphic design, and a piece of spontaneity.
As with most of the previous artists, Luke Ramseys’ work is full of movement and still has a fluidity to it. He goes onto say, ‘I seldom sketch out my idea before applying the paint. I just let the paint stroke take me where it wants to’.

[ANIMAL PACKAGING INITIAL IDEAS]

From the group presentation and research day I have come out with several ideas.

I want my packaging to -
- eco friendly and recycable
- for the Animal sports range watches
- to fit in their branding of hand drawn illustrations and type
- to be quite simple and inexpensive

From these ideas I am going to research into hand drawn illustrations, animal as a brand, recyclable materials and unique packaging ideas.

[ANIMAL WATCH PACKAGING NEW BRIEF]

So yesterday we were briefed on the next part of the unit. As part of a Live Brief we are to produce watch packaging for Animal. To get us started and to get us right in the deep end we were set a one day group activity. We were split into groups of around 6 and were to spend the whole day researching and brain storming ideas and concepts. By the end of the day we had to produce a presentation to show Neil and Claire, which would show our ideas and concepts for the packaging. Below is my groups presentation (click on each image to make larger) -








We decided to target 16-24 year old males that have particular interests in extreme sports. More specifically the sports that Animal currently have an association with. We split this up into four elements - water, snow, wind and dirt. We then researched into Animals main competitors in this range of market. Picking out Fat Face, Oakley and Quicksilver as the strongest competitors. We specifically researched into their watch ranges. We also researched into the range of watches that Animal currently has to offer. We found them to be quite different from their competitors. As well as the buckled and steel straps found in other brands, Animal use a velcro strap for extra strength, (especially during extreme sports) that they invented. Their watches are known for their sturdyness as well as being water resistant. They have very reasonable prices ranging from £60-£100 for their main range. However they also offer a flagship range.



We then produced a colour scheme that would be associated with the four elements (water, snow, wind and dirt). We particularly looked into the dirt range. Using Adobe’s Kuler, we were able to come up with combinations of colours that complimented each other well. We added the CMYK colours at the bottom to show how they still could be used with bright colours. We also briefly researched into the events that Animal run for extreme sports, and how we could maybe associate the packaging with a particular event, or Worldwide Freeride (the name given for the collection of events).

We then collected examples of illustrations from the Animal website, and compared them to example that we had collected throughout the day which kept in with the brand. We also looked at photography, as well as typefaces which we found to be a mixture of bold sans serif and hand rendered.

As a group we felt that an important part of the industry today is to produce eco friendly and recyable packaging. We mainly researched into easily obtainable recycable materials such as newspaper. But also looked into materials such as tyre, that could be linked in with sports such as Mountain Biking and Motocross. Whilst researching into this we found a purse featuring imagery to do with travel, that we felt could be strongly linked with the nature of having to travel far and wide to partake in extreme sport activities.

As our a concept we produced a rough mockup of how newspaper could be formed into a cube box and used to hold the watch either within the main packaging, or even just on itself. Now we are to push our ideas forward, taking ideas from todays group session or even branching away completely.

[GREETING CARDS]

Just been set our new brief for this unit. Our task is to produce a series of six innovative greetings cards; all of which must be part of a set and must be clearly indicative of one particular target audience.

During the Placement unit last year, one of the live briefs was to produce a couple of Christmas greeting cards for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. I found that I struggled quite a bit with it. But I'm determined to continue my good start to the year and produce a successful set.

We've got a new lecturer called Claire, who works in the greeting cards industry. She has cards present in shops such as Clintons, WH Smith and Asda. It was interesting listening to how this part of design works, and was also really helpful to see how she went from mood boards to her final design. She has given us a list of websites to have a look through to generate ideas, so I better get researching!

[EXPERIMENTATION WITH FINAL DESIGN]

I thought I'd have a quick bash with one of the suggestions from the crit. This was having the pharmacy logo 'stamping' out the cigarette. Below is no where near a finished article with this suggestion but gives a good idea of the final design.


When I have a bit more time I will come back to some of the suggestions from the crit for the poster, so I have a professional finished article for the final hand in date.

[LOOK AGAIN / THINK AGAIN FINAL CRIT]

The first critique of the new academic year. Overall it was very good feedback. Neil felt it was a good campaign, with a good, strong and simple design; which is easily understandable. It was felt though that it could do with a bit of playing around to make it the finished article. Improvements suggested were that - 

• Need more clarification from the bottom text, maybe explain the campaign a bit further?
• Could treat it as if the law has come into effect and it is a general public info advertisement.

Not major changes and merely suggestions, which is always a sign of a good piece of design. The general feeling was that it was nearly there, just needed wording slightly different. Was also suggested that the green crosses could be seen as looking positive, but I didn't agree with this as the Pharmacy symbol is world renowned. Another suggestion was to have the pharmacy symbol defeating and stamping out the cigarette, and I will look into this further. Overall I am really happy with the feedback from my first unit of the 2nd year.

[STUDENT CRIT & FINAL DESIGN]

We arranged a small critique between a group of about 8 of us. It was good to see how well everyones ideas had come forward and there was some really strong designs. I used my time in front of everyone to gain a general opinion on what they thought was a stronger poster, with or without a frame. A clear winner with 7 votes to 2 was the poster with the frame, and this is the poster I will take forward with me tomorrow to the final critique. One small suggestion was to make the warning label text slightly smaller to give a bit more white space. My final design is below -


Everyone really liked my design and this filled me with confidence ahead of tomorrow.