OUIL505 - Logo Development

Although I had tried out a few simple logo ideas already when I was making the texture designs, I wanted to spend time making more well crafted logos and thinking how they look in context when on the packaging. I like the idea of combining text into a shape or line to make the type more of an image. I liked the way these were going but I thought they looked a bit too long, so I simplified it by starting to use the initials of the brand, Y&C

OUIL505 - Logo Development

I made a few quick logo sketches using the initials Y, C, I found that it was much easier to make a logo using the shapes of the letters rather than using the whole word, but I enjoyed trying different ways of creating soft, flowing hand written type.

OUIL505 - More Patterns

Another idea I had was to illustrate the place of origin of each of the scents, I started by looking at Pontefract castle, for the Liquorice scent, but it didn't really excite me, so I wanted to go back to looking at using the imagery of the scent to make the background image

OUIL505 - More Patterns

Although I thought that I had made my final designs, after speaking to a few people about my project I felt like it would be best to develop my ideas a bit further, as it felt like using just the gestural marks as a pattern was a bit plain, so I wanted to go back to using the shape of the scent to create a background, and also try and come up with some new ideas.

In the image above I tried to follow the general shape of Pontefract Cakes, but using more abstract blocks of colour. I quite liked the bold, flat colours, but I wasn't really feeling it the more I went on.

I wanted to try something a little bit different by combining texture and detailed drawing, I thought that this particular drawing worked but I didn't think that this style would work well with the other scents because they didn't have as recognisable shape.

This was one of my favourite patterns, mainly because of the mixture of colour and texture. I think this was a good combination of the previous patterns I had made which I had improved upon.

OUIL505 - Group Tutorial

I found this tutorial useful in helping my get my mindset back onto 505, as I had been mainly working on Context of Practice and Responsive up until this point. The tutorial raised a few questions, whether or not I should change the name, as the products I intend to produce aren't exactly cosmetics, or whether I should just propose a range of cosmetics to fit in with the range I have already designed. It confirmed in my mind exactly what I need to do and I wrote down a list:

• Finalise designs for soap, hand cream and moisturiser. 
• Write out dimensions of all the packaging.
• Create design for the gift box/bag
• Make a net for the gift box/bag
• Create contextual images for other proposed products.
• Buy flannel material
• Print logo onto flannel material
• Create promotional poster/material

I need to have all the design work of this done by Wednesday the 6th as this is the date I have my print slot booked. 

OUIL503 - Summative Evaluation

Throughout this module I feel like I have developed many skills, mainly time management. Because we had to juggle so many individual briefs at the same time I learnt how to spread my time evenly and decide what most needed my attention at that point in time, because each brief had different requirements, so obviously required a different amount of work to be completed. I have developed my brief analysis skills, pinpointing what needs to be done to meet the criteria of what is being asked and to how best appeal to the desired target audience.

Because these were the first live briefs I had ever submitted to, I found the process quite different to anything I had done before, it was quite stressful making sure that I had included everything and that all my work met the submission requirements, but because I had a strict deadline to work towards, I felt that this pressure helped me apply my skills well and finish everything to a high standard and get it submitted properly. I found that applying my work to different contexts, like wrapping paper and t-shirts was definitely a useful skill to develop, as it made me think about the different directions I could take my work in to help further professionalise my practice.

I found that I enjoyed the short, fast briefs more than the two YCN and D&AD briefs, because they were often something I had chosen to do myself and were completely open to our own interpretation, like the Qwertee t-shirt design brief. I found it easier to incorporate things I loved and enjoyed doing into these type of briefs. I found working collaboratively to be a very unique and stressful experience. Although the initial idea building stage was fun, it was nice to share ideas with someone and gain a different perspective on a brief, it was also very difficult to make our ideas work together to create a piece of work that I was proud of. I found that the briefs with longer deadlines were much easier to forget about and put to the back of my mind, making it harder for me to complete a high standard of work when it came closer to the deadline, I think this was definitely the case with my YCN brief. I think my most successful brief was the Thought Bubble convention, because although the work I created wasn't my best, it was a new experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and can't wait to do again. It gave me real insight into what people actually want to buy, and how to keep my expectations of myself and how much I can create, realistic.

One of my main strengths within this module would definitely have to be my commitment. I feel that I have created a lot of work for this module and put a lot of effort in, especially during the collaborative brief, where both our efforts to be on time and committed to the work made for a really successful brief, perhaps not visually, but definitely concept wise. I think I have gone out of my creative comfort zone, which has really benefited my work, I've taken on briefs and created things that I've never done before, like re-inventing a brand, and although it didn't all go to plan, I've learnt things that I can apply the next time I take on similar briefs, this is a definite strength of mine.

I definitely need to improve more on my motivation though out briefs, as I found that, especially with briefs that I wasn't fully invested in, after a while, I began to feel as if it was a task to complete them. I feel like this was mainly due to the long deadlines, so in future I intend to set my own shorter deadlines, even if the real deadline isn't till much further away, this will keep things fresh in my mind and help me to create work that I'm proud of. I need to step further out of my comfort zone and do more narrative work. The Off Life brief showed me that although I find it hard to combine illustration and narrative, they seem to be popular, so I should carry on pushing myself, which I feel like I had failed to do in some of the briefs.

During the remaining modules I intend to:
- Push myself out of  my comfort zone, especially in PPP.
- Set myself shorter deadlines to keep me motivated.
- Remember to think about things in different contexts.
- Keep exhausting ideas until I come up with the perfect solution.
- Keep putting my work online and try to create a larger presence on different websites.

OUIL503 - Project Report

OUIL503 - Individual Collaborative Boards

Here are the boards for my individual work for the John Lewis collaborative brief, I found it difficult to make these as mine and Paul's work was kind of mixed in to on another on the actual box mock ups.

OUIL503 - Individual practice boards

OUIL503 - Studio Brief 1 Boards

OUIL503 - Film Doo

I designed two posters for the Film Doo competition. There were no design limitations other than the dimensions, you could create a poster for any film that you wanted.

I chose two of my favourite films, Grave of the Fireflies and Amelie, both because they have very recognisable imagery that could be turned into a poster.

My favourite of the two was definitely the Grave of the Fireflies poster, mainly because of the colour scheme, I used a new brush pack for Photoshop that I had downloaded and it's really stepped up the quality of my digital work. I was also quite proud of the composition of these two pieces, because working to a set dimension definitely made me consider how I could fit everything in that needed to be there, but also how to stop the image looking cluttered, so I could create a definite focal point.

I want to carry on doing film posters because I'm really interested in Film and TV, so it's easy to do designs that I'm happy with when it's about something that I enjoy.

OUIL503 - Off Life comic

Off Life website asked for comic artists to submit comics, which could be based on anything but they were looking for comics that commented on modern life, like problems with social equality for example. I had a few comic ideas but had always wanted to make one based on bad/annoying things that happen to me at work. I think I’m quite good at making funny work but I’m not really used to creating narrative within my work, so I was really happy with how this turned out to say this was one of my first proper comics I will definitely carry on making comics and submitting them as I think it really helped broaden my practice.

OUIL503 - Easter break

I made this plan before the Easter holiday to help give me a guideline of what I should do. Rather than writing out an hour by hour plan, I find writing a list of everything I need to do and when I need to do it, much more useful.
I didn't stick to the plan exactly but I finished everything in time so that's what matters.

OUIL503 - Thought Bubble Postcard

A few of us were asked to create a design for a postcard, which would be used to promote the college at the Thought Bubble 2014 convention. The brief was pretty open to interpretation, it was just suggested that the postcards be themed around character and narrative. I enjoyed creating this, it was only a small brief as I completed it in an afternoon, but I enjoyed playing around with colours and bold shapes.

Although my design didn't get chosen it was fun to create something with a different "style" than what I would normally use.

I created this when I first started using bright shapes and colour, and I think you can definitely see these working through into my more recent work.

OUIL503 - Qwertee Designs

This is the last Qwertee design I made, again I didn't end up submitting this one because it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to be. I wanted to add more detail to the background but I'd already spent a lot of time doing the portrait, so I just decided to leave it as it was. I realised that the designs that worked the best were quick and simple ones, that have a large fan base. A lot of the designs on Qwertee that had the most votes didn't look as time consuming, but were really recognisable and bold. 

OUIL503 - Qwertee Designs

This was an X-Files design that I didn't end up submitting to Qwertee, I finished it off but didn't want to submit it because I didn't like it as much as the other ones, I thought it was a bit crap. Still, I didn't want to waste the design, and I like how bold it is and that it's the only monochrome design that I did. 

OUIL503 - Qwertee Designs

I also submitted this Dr Who/Spongebob design to my Qwertee profile.

This so far, has turned out to be the most popular design out of the 3 I have submitted. Probably because Dr Who and Spongebob have the biggest fan base, and the imagery is the most recognisable. 

I really liked the font in this one, I spent a while hand drawing it, but replicating some of the letters to save time, and I think it also makes it look a bit more professional. 

OUIL503 - Stray Weather

I did a few more designs that we intend to print on to t-shirts, and to use as a logo. I did a few designs because Mikey didn't like some of the designs that I did, but the ones that he did like, I didn't. So I did a few variations so we could decide on one that we both like, because I wouldn't want someone to use something to brand themselves that I had designed, if I didn't like it myself. I really enjoy branding, especially for bands and musicians, I like trying to capture the atmosphere of their music within a design.

OUIL503 - John Lewis submission

Here are the project boards we submitted for the John Lewis brief. I found the D&AD submission process really confusing, we spent quite a long time figuring out how to submit to the correct brief because there were so many different options. It ws a lot more complicated than the YCN submission.

OUIL503 - Qwertee Designs

For my next Qwertee design, I wanted to again focus on TV shows that I love, so I wouldn't end up getting bored of spending ages on a portrait. I did a re-design of an iconic character from another of my favourite shows, Fringe. I really really like the way this turned out, I think the colours work well together and make it quite feminine, I want my designs to be targeted more towards a female audience.

OUIL503 - Qwertee Designs

Qwertee is a website where people can submit designs which may be put onto the website, where people can vote for designs they like, which then have the chance to be sold on the site as t-shirts.

Creating designs for Qwertee was something I had wanted to do for aggess but never found the time, so I was excited that I could use the work for a brief. 

The designs that you usually see on Qwertee are something to do with popular culture, like films or TV shows. One of my huge loves is Netflix, and I had recently watched The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, so I created a shirt design based on the main character. I know this design will be popular because the show is fairly new so it's still fresh in people's minds. I've submitted the design to Qwertee and just need to wait for it to be accepted, and then it will be on the website for people to vote for!

OUIL503 - Stray Weather - What If

I was asked to help create some merchandise for musician and poet Stray Weather (Mikey) to help promote and go alongside his new EP. The first piece of work I created was a comic for a song called What If, I illustrated some of the lyrics and created a hot dog comic, which will be printed and sold when the EP is released. The idea behind creating the comic was to create a USP for the EP and make it more desirable to listeners, to give them something physical and collectable to go alongside the music. I really enjoyed visualising words, it's something I've always wanted to do, but haven't been able to do it myself because I'm not very good at writing and creating narratives. As for the colour scheme and style of the comic, I wanted to keep it quite simple and bold, and it was a challenge summing up a sentence in one small image. I wanted to communicate a dreamy atmosphere, so I used colours that I thought looked quite calm and warm.

OUIL503 - Wrapped Co

I created these patterns for the Wrapped Co competition. Creating patterns is another thing that I'm really interested in, because of all the things that it can be applied to, so I found doing this brief really fun and was always motivated whilst doing it. I didn't really have a running theme throughout the patterns, just anything that came to mind. One of the two designs that I submitted I had already made for another module, but I wanted to submit it regardless.

Even though I only submitted two, I wanted to carry on creating patterns to put onto my Society6 page. Society 6 is a site that prints artist's work onto things like canvas, phone cases and t-shirts, so I want to focus a lot of my practice onto websites that this and Etsy throughout now and summer so I can maybe start making some more money from my work.