OUGD202 Production Digital

Silent Movie

My three words chosen from the randomiser are: 

Flip, Explode & Dissolve

Evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I have learnt a great deal within this module through workshops and taught sessions which has led me to understand the technicalities of Graphic Design.  I am a lot more aware of how to design, the specifications such as file formats, colour and what .... The taught sessions with Lorenzo along with the trip to Team Impression really opened my eyes to the world of print and helped me to understand and identify the differences in processes and finishes available. It was so helpful seeing a working print room to understand the logistics of designing for print. I have definately investigated further into different formats, stocks and print processes aswell as print finishes. I have tried to apply some of the print finishes to my own work such as foiling and embossing, these added a higher quality to my work and i now understand how they are used within print production, also how quick and simple the processes can be. I have been a lot more aware of colour, creating suitable colour palettes, matching colours using pantone charts and creating my own swatch palettes which i applied to my design work. Developing ideas for packaging allowed me to investigate and be creative with packaging design, although i occurred mistakes along the way i have created a good understand of what is/ what is not possible to design. Applying my knowledge of designing for print production is more effectively seen by creating the pdf's, the correct artwork to be sent to print, here I had to take into account what I have learnt from the taught sessions and apply it to my own designs. I feel like i have developed my skills in Indesign and illustrator a lot more in this project, creating nets and the final boards really helped me to push my knowledge of the programme, although at first i felt like i had jumped in at the deep end and was quite baffled by all the information i had learn but by re-reading notes and asking for help when needed now i feel a lot more confident within using these programmes and also using the programmes with each other. I have found note taking so important this module as there has been so much to learn, also for quick design ideas, i have jotted ideas down as soon as they have come to me which has helped with developing designs.   

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

The research collected has had huge effects on my design development, i have thoroughly enjoyed researching print from all printed pieces to more specified works to parallel and inform my own project. As i now understand more about print processes when looking at works i was able to see how they had been made, how possible it is to use similar processes within my own work and has allowed me to make evaluations of work. Collecting research on my subject i found a little harder, they was a lot of secondary research available yet i struggled when investigating primary data. I also tried to get in touch with the right people through email but unfortunately had no replies so important information needed was lost.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think my strengths have shown to be concepts and idea generation unfortunately I find it difficult to go through with designs due to lack of knowledge of software skills which i have developed a better understanding of throughout this project and know that i could apply these a lot better now to future projects. I think my strengths lie in research in particular investigating other designers work, i have loved exploring what is out there in the design world today and my new found knowledge of print processes has allowed me to understand how they have been produced.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I felt like a struggled a lot with this project when it came to actually designing and really let myself down, now reaching the end of the project i can see all the design possibilities and problems within my concept and i would love to be able to re do this project with all the skills and knowledge i have now developed.

The crafting of my final pieces are extremely weak and mainly handmade, this is due to bad time management. I did too much thinking, running round in circles and over complicating things which people mentioned in my crits. The overall poor quality of the designed pieces was due to not investigating key things when it came to stocks, although i investigated printing onto the stock i didn't investigate what stocks i could use for certain packaging and this created a lot of problems.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

I already feel that if i had to re do the project i know exactly where i went wrong and how i would do it differently.

I over complicated my actually concept making it too specific and difficult to design for, instead of doing 'engaging with music' designs for Fever Ray i would just create work for 'engaging with music' making it so much broader already opens doors to more design possibilites and the ability to create branding and a range.

Use my knowledge that i have developed for print processes more effectively, actually digitally print more, i feel like screen printing took over and was almost a way to avoid digitally printing.

Collect more primary research would have enabled me to design more specific for the audience.

I think i thought about product to much and not the actual designs, i need to remember i am a graphic designer and not a product designer or art director. 

Keeping upto date with my blog, unleashing a list of problems in my time management but i think this was mainly due to being confused with my project. Yet instead of writing down all my problems day to day i only put up work that i had actually done/ designed. It sounds sillly but i started this project confidently and week by week lost confidence in myself as a designer and doubted my abilities and position on this course, all of a sudden it hit me that this is the real thing, it scared me and stopped me from designing I got stressed very easily and this affected my work. There is nothing i can do now but reflect on this project and rebuild my confidence, i can't wait to start a fresh having learnt more skills and a greater understanding and develop some amazing work.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance: 5

My attendance for this year is very high i think i have only missed one session and this was due to illness

Punctuality: 4

Motivation: 3

I have struggled with motivation as i found myself getting confused a lot with my ideas

Commitment: 3

Due to confusing myself with ideas.

Quantity of Work Produced: 3

I feel like i have designed quite a lot, maybe too many final resolutions which in turn made each one a lower quality

Quality of Work Produced: 2

I think the quality of work produced is quite poor due to the packaging solutions going wrong

Contribution to the Group: 5
I think i shine when it comes to crits and helping others with ideas, i always try to input ideas or design work i have seen that applies to their project.

Incense Pack PDF

Henna Pack PDF

Henna Booklet PDF

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Incense packaging PDF

Interactive candle PDF

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

PDF for Main packaging

Open publication - Free publishing - More net

Open publication - Free publishing - More net

Photography- Final Pieces

....

I had an idea in mind for the board where i put the designs into context yet was unable to go ahead with this photography as i ran out of time, instead i showed the items working.

Problems with packaging

The packaging i have constructed really does not do my work any justice at all, I encountered a lot of problems with the material on the smaller items and the pieces look low quality. This is due to not investigating the material properly.

If i had time to re do the packaged pieces i would use the screen printed fabric for the main net only, i don't want to loose the tactile qualities of it and i think it works well for the outer packaging. For the smaller packages inside i will print the fabric samples on the actual net to create a background for the smaller pieces i think this would still look good and connect with the rest of the packaging and will be alot more durable and neater.

I have made the PDF's to show how i would want the packaging to look exactly!

Constructing Packaging

I tried to document the constructing process as i made the packaging, also thinking about ways the packaging could be photographed. Unfortunately after changing my main packaging net so that it constructed a 3d packaging instead of just a sleeve my screen printed nets did not match the card constructed net so this meant i had to cut the panels and fix each one individually... which will not give the desired outcome.

I could design a quick range of candles with the logo and different patterns on?

Screen printing material for packaging

So today was the big day!
I've fallen back in love with the print room, it always seems a lot more process in my head but i managed to prepare my screen so quickly with the help of wendy. i've never printed onto material before so she helped me to prepare my screen and it was ready in no time.
Mixing the colour was SO confusing as i was working from an image of a material on screen that would have printed out a different colour digitally so after a lot of questions to the mac guys i decided to mix a colour that best represented the one on the photo then work backwards... match the screen printed colour with a pantone swatch then apply this to my designs.

Mixing colours

Testing on fabric



FINALLY!

Screen prints for outer packaging, incense and henna... also created the tags.

Next was the foiling onto the fabric, i was advised to iron my fabric first to seal the paint if not the foil could stick to everything and that would be pretty darn disastrous. I tried a few samples that worked well then crossed my fingers and went for it... and yes of course they were right it worked yey!

Had a bit of difficulty with the glue used for foiling as it dried so quickly on my screen i had to re wash it after every print that took quite a bit of time.

WHY

do i come up with a whirl of great ideas NOW...
i've spent the majority of this project running round in circles, complicating things for myself and thinking way too much. i'm really unhappy with my final products but the concept is good.

Making the packaging

I'm a little later than i wanted to be to actual make my mock up nets... i can't screen print until thursday so i'm just gonna do a tester of how the material will actual stick to the card net.

Problems, oh dear!

1. material makes the small package to thick and bulky to construct

2. material frays and looks a bit messy

3.  don't think the incense packaging will look good at all!

Solve.

1. test with thinner card preferably similar blue like what i'm screen printing

2. becareful when cutting material hide the cut within the packaging

3. re-design incense, make it more of an actual package!

images of first mock up below....

Boards for Final Crit

Foiling

The foiling was really easy, i didn't realise how quick the process of heat transferring was, i printed out a phew samples of my brand along with a selection of fonts to see which worked best. I also tried both holographic and silver foil. I used both 12pt and 14pt font as these were more readable and the foiling worked really well with these sizes i think the thinner fonts worked better as it was easier to tell where the foil has missed on a thicker typeface. .. what i need to take into account is that unless it is on an laserprinter it will not stick to the ink, if i want it on any other stock or print then i will have to screenprint the glue first before foiling.

Sketch of layout and images for boards.

Message

Hi,
I want to thank everybody who has come to our performances during the last 18 months. It has been a fantastic adventure for me and an interesting time experimenting with the show illusion. I also want to thank the people who have made it possible, my band and my crew who have been extremely thorough, hard working, amazingly committed and most important; fun to hang out with. Also my management for bringing us out to see the world. I try not to mention any names but I have to say Andreas Nilsson, thank you for sharing your ideas, patience, humour and your enthusiasm. I could never imagine all this could happen when I started this project a few years ago.
Now it may sound like I’m dying or quitting but I’m not. I just don’t want to tour anymore at the moment. I have built a new studio and have work to do. Olof and I have started playing together again and I will also write music for a theatre play, “The Hour Of The Wolf” by Ingmar Bergman, which will premiere next year at Dramaten (The Royal Dramatic Theatre) in Stockholm. And spend some time in the hammock too.
So long for now!
Karin

The message

I don't want the message just to come on a poster of booklet, what about packaging a live Fever Ray cd with it and have the message inside the sleeve.. possible nets to use for cd package below

It is important to keep the theme, colour, patterns, stock and logo running through into this item as this pulls all the pack together.

layout ideas

Message

The message inside the pack is probably the most important part as it contains the information and the connection from the band to the fans, in this i will need to include images of Karin from Fever Ray, in particular the image that i am basing the packaging on so it ties together the whole pack. Also the message from her to the fans and also a brief description of the pack and how to use it. The colour should already match the colours used in the packaging design and i would like to include the branding on the front.

Below are a few quick designs for the front cover.

Using one pantone for the full image

The last few designs use duo tone using the chosen colour and black so that the image continues the packaging designs along.