OUIL505 - Project Report

These are my project report boards, including my written evaluation

OUIL505 - Presentation Boards

Here are my final presentation boards.

OUIL505 - Final Designs/Product

Because I had a strict printing deadline I had to finalise my designs pretty quickly. I decided that I wanted to incorporate both colour and shape, but to make it more interesting I tried to make a pattern out of the shapes. I chose the most simple logo design which was bold and stood out and combined them with textured colour. To link the designs together and create a set, I used the same texture and layout throughout.

At first I didn't really take into consideration the size of my products and whether this would affect the size of the design. After I had found a net for the packaging I realised I would have to make the design on the actual products simpler, so that I could make it big enough to see the detail. I printed onto tracing paper so that some of the package colour could be seen through the design, this didn't work very well with the black paper, and I think the tracing paper was too thick, as the printer wouldn't work using really thin tracing paper. I wasn't very pleased with the printed products, because I wanted to actually make the nets for the other product packages, but I didn't have time. I also intended to print onto fabric another product to the range, but again, I really didn't have time. If I had some extra time, I'd print onto larger products and create a tote bag design to expand the range.

OUIL505 - Product Distribution

Having thought about where my product would exist, rather than having it sold in large department stores like I originally intended, I think my product would work much better in smaller, boutique type shops.

The Yorkshire Soap Co is based in Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, and specialises in unique soap creations, like wedding cakes sculpted from soap. There are 3 shops, in York, Leeds and Hebden Bridge.

The Butterfly Rooms is a gift shop in Shipley that sells a wide range of gifts including cosmetics. I think my products would appeal mostly to a gift buying audience, because of the illustrated packaging. 

Burgins Perfumery is found in York, although not specifically cosmetics, this would also be the sort of boutique shop my product could be found in, I think that making a perfume range to go alongside my cosmetics would be a good addition to the range.

OUIL505 - Product Range

To go alongside the product range, there would be printed tote bags which would have the design corresponding to which ever scent the customer purchased. I also thought about having plain black and white logos for when someone buys more than one product. I originally intended to lino print onto fabric to include this with my range, but due to time constraints I couldn't do this in the end, there was also the problem of testing whether the printing method worked well on fabric, or whether the texture would affect the print quality.

I started to think about other promotional products that could be made to sell alongside the main range. I thought about including badges in with the packs, as a promotional tool when the range is first sold in stores.

Although I didn't have time to actually print and make them, if the products were sold seperately they would be packaged in individual boxes, I tried to show through a mock up what they would possibly look like, although I think the design would look better printed onto tracing paper, wrapped around texture paper.

One thing that was discussed in the group tutorials we had was why the brand was called Yorkshire Cosmetics, when soap and lotion weren't really cosmetics products. To solve this problem I would propose to expand the range into cosmetics products like:

• Foundation
• Lipstick
• Blusher
• Mascara

That would possibly link to the colours of the scents rather than the actual smell. These would be promoted with an illustrated makeup bag to go along with the products.

To help add a bit of context to my work, I would include these little tags, which explain a bit about the backstory behind each scent, which would hopefully help make the products appeal more to an audience interested in Yorkshire heritage and culture.

OUIL505 - Final Designs

After my final tutorial with Eleanor, I realised that I wanted to focus the design on an illustrated logo, so that all the attention was drawn to the brand name rather than an intricate background. I had a very strict deadline to work to as I booked my print slot to be a week before the actual deadline, which didn't give me much time to develop my final design, but I was generally quite happy with what I came up with.

OUIL505 - Manipulating photos

I wanted to try a completely different idea to my previous ones, and I remembered that I had taken some reference photos in the Yorkshire countryside to help me draw it. I decided I would play around with manipulating the colour of these and use them as a background for the logo. I thought these looked really good, especially in the grey pastel shades, but I didn't really know what I could use them for because it was hard to get a good enough colour to match the scents I was trying to illustrate. I also tried cutting up the images and using different parts of it as a collage pattern, again I liked the outcome of this, but I don't think it really fulfilled what I wanted for the packaging.

OUIL505 - Progress Tutorial

Issues discussed at the tutorial:
Extensive research and investigation.
1: Use research to simplify designs.
2: Focus on drawing skills/concept/beautifully crafted drawing
3: Construct your 3 drawings with logo, using white space rather than wrap around
4: Once designs complete, expand a range

Tutor Action:
Discussed blog, research and work - Advised a direction

Student Action:
See above points 1-4 and address