OUIL505 - Peer Progress Crit - 26/03/2015

Comment on the content of the work. To what extent has the selected content been informed by a range of approaches to research into appropriate themes, subjects, audiences and contexts?

The content of the work focuses on the selling point of Yorkshire which gives the range of cosmetics a unique selling point, maybe some research/short blog post into why this is significant, maybe look at other Yorkshire brands e.g. Leeds Brewery to see why they use Leeds as their USP and whether this is a help or hindrance to your overall marketability across the UK? The visual work is strong and lives up to your concept.

Comment on the practical and conceptual development of the project. Does the work presented or proposed represent a significant investigation of individual creative concerns in relation to appropriate applications of illustration to professional contexts.

The investigation from the concept of a cosmetic packaging is clear and consistent, I can tell you had a tone of voice in mind from the beginning and used drawing as a way of finding your direction. Your new direction of colour and brush strokes gives the product the higher end feeling you mentioned, where will your product be sold? The patterns (rhubarb) give a more quirky design element, perhaps a product that is more independently produced than the large market appeal of your colour and brush stroke design, what area is your intention?

Comment on the clarity with which the product range and methods of distribution have been stated including the decisions regarding what will be produced and what will be proposed.

Cosmetic packaging for a range of products, will you be including the containers/bottles or will you just focus on the outside packaging?

What do they need to do?

Action - Some research into your target audience

Reason - To maximise appeal and interest in your product

Action- Finalise what the range will be, will promo stuff be included?

Reason- Clarity

Action - Check out The Printed Peanut if you haven't already, maybe a blog post on how they could be your competition

Comment on the content of the work. To what extent has the selected content been informed by a range of approaches to research into appropriate themes, subjects, audiences and contexts?

Reducing the project to a purely Yorkshire-centric theme is a really good idea and I think the work has benefited from it. I think the work you've done in sketchbook 2 is really strong, but I think you need to develop it further, since you've only developed 2 concepts after deciding to take it down the Yorkshire route.

Comment on the practical and conceptual development of the project. Does the work presented or proposed represent a significant investigation of individual creative concerns in relation to appropriate applications of illustration to professional contexts.

The idea is really strong - I think you could do with looking at physical packaging examples, as I think it will give you an idea of more what you could do with yours - Not just pattern makers.

Comment on the clarity with which the product range and methods of distribution have been stated including the decisions regarding what will be produced and what will be proposed.

You've clearly got a good plan for the products - I would pay more attention to the actual packaging and production - nets? What material will it be printed on? Stay away from traditional print techniques and look how you can replicate them in a commercially suitable manner. 

Comment on the extent to which the planning of time and resources has been effectively considered in order to enable the production of the proposed work in the time available.

You haven't got a planner or anything but it seems like you're on it? I would spend easter exploring more stuff to avoid narrowing everything down too early. 


After the progress crit I created a list of things that I need to consider when developing my work over the Easter break.
Context - Where is my product seen?
Make my work context specific
-Dimensions
-Specific production methods
-Scale
-Commerical print?
-Create nets of the packaging

How would I print onto textiles commercially?
Should my products be more bespoke? Quality over quantity
I need to mock up my range
How can I be more ambitious and extend my range?
- Maybe haircare
- Different things about Yorkshire
I need to think about distribution
I could have a mini comic about Yorkshire facts, things specific to Yorkshire.
I should do more development with the logo
Also need to research into audience and the themes of my product range.

OUIL505 - Yorkshire Cosmetics 2

Moving away from the patterns idea, I started using gestural marks using the colours of the food in order to represent them, rather than creating an actual tangible image. I much prefered this, as it was easier to create a flowing series of images that were obviously a set. Alongside the packaging I intend to create tags to go on each product, which explain a bit of history about each scent and how it relates to Yorkshire, in order to create more of a reason to purchase my product range. I want to also create a small image to go inside these tags, and turn it into a fold out pamphlet.

OUIL505 - Yorkshire Cosmetics

After doing some research into foods that come from or are synonymous with Yorkshire, I decided to focus my product range on three things, rhubarb, ginger parkin and liquorice. I kept looking on Pinterest for inspiration and knew that I wanted my work to have a handmade feel, but still look up market and high range. I began playing with the selection tool and some new brushes that I downloaded on Photoshop to create textures by layering and changing the opacity of the brushes. I first tried to make patterns but then thought that I wanted to make the packaging work more as a single image rather than a collection of smaller ones.

OUIL505 - Feedback peer review - 17/03/2015

Becky
Cosmetics
2 or 3 colour palette - Decide on these!
Digitally mock up all 3 designs - take one to print.
Will your design have the same colour logo for each one?

Yorkshire cosmetics
-Formats/measurements need to be specified
-How will the different product ranges work together as a set?
-What processes should be used? Do they need to be screen-printed to fit with the handmade feel or will digital do?
-Does Yorkshire Cosmetics need to be branded (logo etc) or is it an existing company?
-Colours- What colours will fit best to these products? Limited colour?

I found this peer feedback session quite interesting and useful, it gave me a lot to think about after discussions about the context of my work. I decided that I would need to hand print some of the work, most likely mono print or lino cut so I can try something new out.

OUIL505 - Aroma

“For this project the client asked me to create an affordable package where you could see, and smell the product. It also needed to be easy to package by hand and original.

In the small town in Mexico where I grew up, people would buy soap in bulk which was delivered wrapped in paper. I used this as inspiration and created a square, waxed paper wrapper. An oval die cut was added to allow the consumer to see and smell the product.”

I was thinking of taking this sort of approach with my packaging, and trying to focus on the logo of the brand, using that as a focal point, because I enjoy creating hand drawn type and logos. 

OUIL505 - Bakewell Soap Company

http://www.bakewellsoap.co.uk/

“This is a concept redesign of the soap packaging for The Bakewell Soap Company who produce, amongst other things, beautifully coloured blocks of handmade soap specially blended for different skin types. Sadly the existing packaging doesn’t live up to the quality of the product with a poor design and cheap printing.

The DZINE MAFIA packaging has brightened the pack giving a more solid brand feel, including a new simpler, more classic logo working alongside a slab-serif font in a handprinted finish. Bespoke illustrations sit top and bottom to help differentiate each variety, resulting in a gift or luxury treat with a more artisan and individual feel.”

I found this to be most relevant to my project, as they are quite unique scents, illustrated using a unifying style. These illustrations are quite life like, which is something I kind of want to move away from to make my designs a bit more unqiue, but I like the combination of texture and colour in these designs. 

OUIL505 - Spinster Sisters Co

“Inspired by vintage soap packaging, Spinster Sisters Co. approached me to design a unique, tactile box with a handcrafted feel that would allow the product to be seen, and the scent experienced. These small batch handmade soaps are produced with the finest natural ingredients. Rich with essential oils and botanicals, the products are gentle, sulfate free, pthalate free, and hypoallergenic.”

The boxes were deeply letterpress printed in one color on a heavyweight, rough uncoated stock. Boxes were die-cut and assembled, and color coded scent tags are easily added to the box front when the soaps are packaged.

The carbon footprint of the soap production facility is reduced significantly by a 3.3 kW solar photovoltaic system and passive solar construction. Every effort is used to ensure that the packaging will not end up clogging landfills by specifying recycled, recyclable or compostable packaging.”

Rather than using colour and pattern, this company focuses on text to create eye catching packaging. I really like the cut out to show the colour of the soap, I think this adds a more unique feel along with the ornate decorations. 

OUIL505 - Ren Skincare

“Hart D’Lacey have designed REN Skincare’s 2014 Christmas Gift Packaging using vibrant illustrations of cranes, a symbol of longevity and good fortune throughout Asia.

Hart D’Lacey realised the symbolism of the Crane would provide a strong concept for this range of skincare Christmas gifts, representing happiness and good luck in the coming year for the gift recipient.

The imagery utilises REN’s established bold colour palette to give the gift boxes an increased prominence in a retail environment.

I think this packaging would be successful because of the bright, contrasting colour palette, easily standing out from the competition. I may use pops of bright colour to draw attention to my products, but I want to keep the overall palette quite calm.

OUIL505 - Corinne Cosmetics

“Corinne is a lyric poet from Tanagra in Beotia, modern in appearance and perceptions, independent, liberal, social, deep thinking. She loved reading, occultism and astrology.

Corinne’s mission is to create the most effective and high quality skin care, hand and naturally made, products using the most efficacious active ingredients around the world. Our inspiration is the nature and its precious treasures, which combined with passion, love, knowledge and responsibility, create natural, effective and innovative beauty and wellness products.”

These products appealed to me because of their simple pattern design, which put the focus more on the brand name rather than any illustrative decoration. I think that how simple my designs are is something I need to think about carefully, because it gives off different vibes about the products.  

OUIl505 - Gazelli Cosmetics

Because we believe that beauty comes first from within, and because we love the cultural heritage of our country, we decided to craft the name of our brand from the word ‘Ghazel’.

Ghazel is a form of lyrical poetry that praises beauty, youth and love. These short poems speak of the untouchable, mysterious beauty of women, whose silk dresses and strands of rubies haunt the days and nights of men enraptured by love.

We illustrated our packaging with drawings conjuring up local tapestry and fabric patterns with scenes of rural life. We wish it to be an extension of hospitality in our poetic land of beauty.”

Even though the aesthetic of these products wasn't really what I was going for, I liked the story behind the design and that the name stood for what the products were trying to convey to customers. 

OUIL505 - MAC Illustrated

MAC cosmetics released a new collection of Illustrated makeup bags in order to 'transform M·A·C makeup bags into mini-masterpieces' giving them more of a collectable factor. I think in order to expand my range and make it stand out more, I should design a product to go alongside the range that has more than one functional use. 

OUIL505 - Printed Peanut

The Printed Peanut produce handmade soap in Yorkshire, if I were to produce my Yorkshire Cosmetics they would be my main competition. As well as appealing to an audience who want to buy Yorkshire specific products, they also appeal to an environmentally conscious audience as their soap is Vegan, not tested on animals and is packaged in 100% recycled paper. Although my USP is slightly different to The Printed Peanut, as my products are based on specific aspects or Yorkshire heritage, I also intend on researching eco friendly printing methods and materials in order to appeal to this audience. 

OUIL505 - Packaging research

Follow Becky's board Soap/Cosmetics Packaging on Pinterest.

I started my research by looking at existing packaging on Pinterest, which is the place I get most of my design inspiration from. I was mainly looking for interesting design routes to go down, because I didn't want to go for the obvious solution of just drawing the scent.

OUIL503 - John Lewis tropical box.

After a very very long intense day of being sat at the computer, I (nearly) finished these designs for the tropical narrative box. The time theme for this one was autumn/winter, so I tried to show that through the colour palette in the first two sides, then transitioning into more of a purpley red palette for the last two panels.

Even though I found this brief to be really time consuming, I actually really enjoyed making these images, as I have been wanting to create work that is more time consuming and detailed. 

 

OUIL503 - John Lewis - Box Lids

Each box had a different theme, mainly based around the time of day, which changed the colours that I would use, however all of them were themed around travel, hence why birds are a recurring theme in this work. 

To make the images quite dynamic we looked a lot at different perspectives and angles, and how we could create depth using tone and texture. 

I think that we ended up creating too much work for ourselves, and the amount of detail I included in my work made it very time consuming, although I am very pleased with these outcomes. The colour schemes were especially fun to work with, as we had to make theme similar on each box, but different enough to convey the narrative. 

I loved spending ages doing each little bird drawing, I found it therapeutic if a little repetitive. I don't often do much realistic work and it was nice to spend some time doing one single image, because they make quite a visual impact.  

OUIL503 - Responsive - John Lewis Patterns

Initially, it was decided that we would create a pattern that would be used on the inside of each delivery box, and I would be in charge of creating these. After a while, when we had finalised our initial sketches for the boxes I realised that I wouldn't have time to create a final pattern design, and they would probably make the boxes look too crowded and messy.

OUIL503 - Responsive - Box Mock Ups + Crit

These are some initial sketches that helped us decide on the size of each box and how the design would fit around it and also how we could create a flowing narrative.

Following the crit we realised we may have given ourselves too much work to do, but if we work hard enough I think we can definitely finish all the work to a high enough standard. 

The feedback we received in the crit said that we had definitely fulfilled our brief, and created a clear narrative within the boxes, and the bird character creates a strong brand image that is recognisable. 

OUIL505 - Progress Tutorial

After my progress tutorial I decided that I would base my product range around Yorkshire, I decided that I wouldn't end up creating the beauty range, and would instead research things that originated and are native to Yorkshire, and then make a decision on what product range would be best for the context.

WHAT COMES FROM YORKSHIRE?

- Rhubarb
-Yorkshire puddings
- Parkin ginger cake
- Ginger beer
- Liquorice sweets
- Wensleydale cheese

- THE BRONTE SISTERS

Rhubarb, Liquorice and Ginger scented beauty range?

OUIL503 - Responsive - Box Lid initial ideas.

This is the progression that I went through to create the first final box lid. Paul helped add some final imagery to the last image, and overall I am pleased with how it turned out. The clouds were my main struggle, as I haven't really done much realistic looking digital painting.

I'm still a bit worried about how this image with fit with the rest of the box imagery, as me and Paul didn't create these while we were together, so they might end up looking a little different and may not work well together. 

OUIL505 - Soap box ideas

I've been trying out ideas of how to package my soap, I either want to create some form of keepsake box with the illustration on top, or a thinner paper to wrap around the soap with the illustration printed onto there.

OUIL505 - Yorkshire Research

As I have decided to theme my products around Yorkshire and its countryside, I found some photos that I took when I visited different places in Yorkshire. I intend to use these, along with some second hand research, to create landscape patterns that I will reproduce through the etching process.

OUIL503 - Responsive - First hand research

We went into shops that are considered to be John Lewis's main competitors to see their range of products and any aesthetic themes that we could see.

Paul then went to a John Lewis store and took more reference imagery.

A lot of the colour these stores use, especially John Lewis, are earth tones or pastels, with hints of bright colours as a focal point.

OUIL505 - Product development

With my visual development I started out by just sketching flowers and imagery for potential scents, but I didn't feel like these made my product very unique, as most cosmetic products use this sort of imagery. So I started thinking of how I could make my product range have more context, to fit the applied illustration brief better. I came up with the idea to market my products relating to a place, specifically Yorkshire, as I feel like this would have the most potential for creating a large audience, as place specific merchandise is often popular.