BOX Apparel Live Brief - Final Design

When I was developing my final design, I wanted to recap 'what makes effective packaging design' to make sure I was on the right track:

• Protect the product -sturdy box protects the contents
• Communicate with the target audience - friendly tone of voice communicates with the consumer
• Promote the brand - BOX branding is consistent throughout packaging using the brand colours and logo
• Be functional for the consumer - standard box which is easy to open
• Be visually attractive - packaging is eye-catching and trendy with a bold design and bold colours

 

Things to consider:

• Identity - is my packaging promoting the brand? - bold design has a strong identity for the BOX brand with consistent use of colour and type as well as icongraphics used on the BOX website
• Protect - will the products be protected by the packaging during transit? - material I will be using is thick stock and sturdy.
• Audience - is my packaging specified towards my target audience? Is it engaging? Does it communicate? - modern and trendy design which I think targets young males. Bold and masculine that the target audience will find attractive. Strong BOX branding
• Materials - what materials will I use for this packaging to be cost effective, yet on point with the brand voice and stylish? - part of the brief was to reflect the brands key values ‘ low cost, value for money, good quality and well designed’. The design (including the outer sleeve) is trendy and quality. The material I will use is mount board which is thick stock and cheap to supply.

On my order form I included a discount code as an incentive to bring back repeated custom.

Final order form designs

 

Final packaging net design

3D visual

IKEA Placement

I had my interview for the graphics communication internship with IKEA this week and . . . I got it! I'm so pleased and think this will be a great platform to get some industry experience working as part of an in-house design team for, let's face it, a HUGE company that's well known all across the globe.

I'll be starting in the new year, working one day a week until May 2014. From the internship I'm hoping to get a better understanding of the industry (which will hopefully give me an indication of where I want to be in the future) and produce some quality work that I can add to my portfolio. I can't wait to get started and hopefully learn a lot from the team.

Inspiration - Eiko Ojala

I came across graphic designer and illustrator, Eiko Ojala and was instantly drawn to his experimental design work. Within his work, Eiko studies the forms of shapes and works closely with light and shadow. His illustrations are minimal and well-advised.

 

 

Design Bent

I found a really cool design website which has copious amounts of inspiration, tutorials AND free downloads, take a look: http://designbent.com/

Definitely going to be my tool kit for second year!

Inspiration - Jessica Durrant

Today I came across freelance illustrator, Jessica Durrant, who specialises in fashion, travel and lifestyle illustration. I was intrigued by her work so I 'gave her a google' and found her blog. She'd answered some of her fans questions and I loved her answer to 'What inspires you?'

"Well I think the question is, what doesn’t inspire me? haha. Seriously though, I try to keep an open mind to whatever may hit me as inspiration. I love music, it puts visuals into my imagination. So often when I am creating…I am listening to music. I am also inspired by other artists-really when I see other peoples work…it just makes me want to create. I am inspired by people, nature, fashion, architecture, Japanese illustration, traveling and my life itself.  Creating art is like writing in your journal. My life has been changing a lot recently and some of my artwork has reflected lots of different emotions that I feel."

Her work has been featured in publications worldwide, including;  Target, One Kings Lane, QVC.com, Glamour.com, Westfield Malls, Country Living Magazine, Rue Magazine, UK's Livingetc Magazine, Matchbook Magazine, 30 Days of Fashion & Beauty New Zealand, The Little Green Notebook, ELLE Brazil, The Glamourai, IN London magazine, SHOP til you drop magazine Australia.

I love how she incorporates landscape into her fashion illustrations, it seems to add a 'haunted' feel to beautiful and elegant watercolour illustrations.

BOX Apparel Live Brief

This week we received a live brief from men's fashion brand, BOX Apparel, as part of our packaging module. Box Apparel is a brand new clothing range which sells socks and underwear for the urban modern man online. Considerations of the brief: reflect the brand ethos, must fit through a letter box, must be cost effective, must protect the product, increase customer loyalty and awareness for the BOX brand.

I've been looking forward to getting stuck into a packaging brief as this is something I'm interested in. This module will give me the chance to explore packaging design further and really get to understand what makes effective packaging design.

I have completed a SWOT analysis for this module:
Strengths: I feel like I will be able to stay focused on this module as packaging design is something that interests me.
Weaknesses: I have no experience in creating 3D visuals, which is a requirement for the final outcome.
Opportunities: This module will give me the chance to explore packaging design, as well as learning about packaging nets and 3D mock ups.
Threats: The target audience! BOX Apparel has asked for a design aimed at the 'urban modern man'. I think this will be a challenge, however I am confident that I will be able to adapt my research and development in order to meet the clients requirements.

My Creative CV

I have chosen to create a CV that is simple and easy to follow. I didn't want it to be over complicated and off-putting for potential employers. I chose a soft font that supports the friendly tone of my writing and added a little bit of design to the left hand side of the page. Here is what I came up with:

 

Now that my CV is done I can get cracking and find a placement! There is currently an opportunity with IKEA Gateshead which I will be applying for. It's a 5 month internship at one day per week working alongside the graphics communication team. I think this could be a great opportunity to see how designers work within huge companies as well as gaining industry experience. Wish me luck!

2013 / 2014 Action Plan

Now that I'm back at college for the 2nd year of my foundation degree I need to think about setting some realistic targets for the year ahead. It's time to start thinking about where I want to be in the future and deciding what aspect of graphic design to focus on.



My first goal is continuing to develop myself as a designer:

What is it I want to achieve? - I want develop my design skills further and discover what path of graphics interests me the most.

Where - I can achieve this within the college year, completing research tasks in my own time.

Achievable? - Developing myself as a designer will be achievable within college as I will have studio sessions throughout the year that will help to develop my digital skills, continue to help me understands and actively complete the design process as well as being set tasks and live briefs that will require final outcomes.

 

Relevant - Completely relevant to my practice.

 

Time - This goal will be on-going throughout my whole college year.

 My second goal is finding a work placement:

What is it I want to achieve? - I want to secure a work placement, either a long term internship or short term placement so that I can gain industry experience and understand how graphic design works in the 'real world'.

Where - Ideally a local agency that has a wide variety of clients and briefs

Achievable? - I'm confident that I can achieve this before the end of the academic year as I have a years worth of work for my portfolio and a keen interest in achieving this.

 

Relevant - Completely relevant to my course. Securing a placement will aid me in my personal professional development as well as my work based learning. Securing a placement will also hopefully allow me to build on my portfolio of work, completing live briefs for live clients.

 

Time - I will focus on this goal in the new year and will hopefully secure a placement that will run alongside my college hours.

 

 

 

My third goal is to continue my education after I've completed my foundation degree:

 

What is it I want to achieve? - I want to continue my education and gain a full degree in graphic design

Where - Ideally I would like to continue with Newcastle College - it's closest to home and I feel like I will have an advantage having already studied with Newcastle College.

Achievable? - I feel like this is achievable as I have built up a strong portfolio of work and I have an advantage having already studied with Newcastle College.

 

Relevant - Relevant to my practice as continuing onto the thirs year will allow me to focus on the aspect of graphic design I want to pursue in the future and plan a whole project around this interest.

 

Time - I will need to meet UCAS deadlines, ensuring that I have a strong personal statement. I will need to create a portfolio of work to present at my interview.

 

 

My long term goal (within the next 5 years):

 

What is it I want to achieve? - I want to secure employment within fashion as either an editorial designer or visual merchandiser. I would love to work as an editorial designer for a company that has no restrictions in terms of design guidelines, giving me free reign to be creative. Alongside this I would also love to design my own t-shirt range as a freelance project.

Where - Ideally here in the North East, however I would love to spend a few years down in London gaining experience in a fast paced city.

Achievable? - This will be achievable if I work hard and continue to stay committed. I will need to get some fashion based work into my portfolio.

 

Relevant - Relevant to my interests within design.

 

Time - I will focus on my next year of education first but will start looking at employment opportunities towards the end of 2014 / beginning of 2015.

 

 

 

Packaging Inspiration: What Makes Effective Packaging Design

As part of my packaging module I have researched packaging design across various sectors. These are some of my favourites :

 

Above: The brief was to create a product design for 'an unexpected blend that brings together a Sauvignon Blanc and Absolut Vodka.' The bottle features a white sleeve that tears away to reveal an intricate and elegant gold pattern which aims at expressing the unique experience of drinking Absolut Tune. Glamorous and extravagant with a strong shelf presence that encourages the audience to buy.

Aove: Beautiful packaging for Zen Tea with a deeper meaning for the product. Outer sleeve is minimalistic with a subtle texture representing a zen garden and the body packaging has an intricate pattern of leaves and blossoms to represent the flavour of the product itself. Pastel colour palette gives a calm and peaceful feel that designer Konrad Sibiski wanted to portray. Minimalistic and elegant, represents the product perfectly.

 

Above: Family run business Go Macro has clear values of a living food that is vegan, organic, non-GMO (genetically modified) and from sustainable sources. The clean and authentic designs represent this, each flavour with its own icon mosaic. Credible, friendly and modern packaging which communicates the brand identity well.

Above: The brief for this product was to design an affordable package where you could see, and smell the product. The product is wrapped in a wax coated paper with an oval cut out where the product can be seen and smelt. The packaging has an authentic and approachable look which can relate the product.

 

 

Above: Extremely innovative packaging design for restaurant quality tea; The Art of Tea Collection. The idea behind this was to create a new concept and liven up the hospitality industry’s ‘boring world of tea-drinking’. Inspired by watercolour paintings, the packaging does just that. The packaging not only acts as a visual, protecting the product, but also unfolds into a disposable tray for the used teabag. Beautiful, unique and extremely well presented.

 

Above: Really simple packaging design, yet represents the product really well. Almost the illusion of the illustrations fusing into the product. Clever marketing which will grab the attention of the audience.

Above: A minimalist approach which looks slick and modern yet still appealing. A good example of clear and simple working really well. The simplicity of the packaging will engage the consumer and draw them in, encouraging them to purchase. Heavily photography based.

 

 

From my research, I have concluded that effective packaging design must:

• Protect the product
• Communicate with the target audience
• Promote the brand
• Be functional for the consumer
• Be visually attractive

Creative CV Inspiration

Its time to design my creative CV! Second year is all about building on your skills and gaining valuable experience by (hopefully) securing an industry placement. This week I have been getting some inspiration by looking at other students creative CV designs. A lot of the CVs I looked at seemed to be too 'try hard' to be different. Personally I much preferred the more stripped back versions that didn't bombard the reader with information about how great you are. These CVs were also so much easier to follow in terms of reading the information. I want my CV to portray me as a designer (which I think!) is pretty simplistic and laid back.

These are some of my favourite CV designs from my research:

All three of these designs look well thought out, clean and contemporary. Each one portrays the personality of the designer using a friendly tone throughout. I want this to come across from my design when I get round to it.

Instant Print Live Brief - Final Design

For my final design I decided to create a classic and elegant stationary set to represent small, cosy cafes. Initially I planned on creating this design in black against an organic textured background. After more thoughts on this, I decided to play around with splashes of watercolour effect behind each leaf, using natural colours to reflect tea leaves.

 

To execute this design, I placed my scanned drawing into Illustrator and used the pen and swirl tool to trace the outline. I then experimented with the stroke weight and brush definition to create my desired effect. I was undecided on how to execute my mug, whether to create a flat illustration or a 3D illustration. In the end I decided to go ahead and create a 3D mug, including black tones of shading to add a depth to my design. I chose to use a mix of both classic and contemporary fonts to mix 'old and new'.

Overall I am pleased with my final design, however if I was to revisit this module, I would make the design look hand drawn by creating a custom brush in Illustrator.

 

Developing Digital Skills

Its our final week of digital skills studio sessions and we ended it in InDesign, learning how to create paragraph styles and interlink artwork between all three adobe programmes using the links panel. This was a really handy session for me as I always seem to have a missing link in my InDesign files. From now on I will be able to fix the problem efficiently.

Our task was to create a Starbucks menu:

Developing Digital Skills

This week we've been creating vector images in Illustrator where we had to create a Walls ice-cream ad. We were shown the effects panel which is a super easy way to create really interesting shapes and patterns. I was also introduced to the 3D effects tool in Illustrator.

Developing Digital Skills

We've been back in Photoshop this week! I'm finding these studio sessions extremely useful as I've always shied away from Photoshop in the past.

So far I have expanded on my Photoshop skills and broadened my digital skills which will definitely benefit me in future projects. When it comes to developing an idea on the computer I will find it easier to decide how best to tackle the design and which programme and tools to use.

This week our set task was to create a sports poster for Adidas. Our studio session taught us how to utilise layers in Photoshop, create layer masks to 'fade' an image and adding textures.

Instantprint Live Brief - Research

I wanted to gain some inspiration from other business stationary designs, here are a few of my favourites:

 This design combines photography and digital illustrations to create a quirky look. The splash of colour over the black and white image looks eye catching. I think this could be a really effective way to advertise the 'culinary delights' of the food and beverage industry, for example create a bright plate of food against a black and white photographed table setting.

 

This business card is a great example of simplistic design that works. Really easy to execute aswell.

This montage looks contemporary. The visual created by small angular shapes using various shades of green is a really quirky way of catching the viewers attention. I also love the added background texture which gives the design a depth. This idea could work perfectly aimed at the Food and Beverage industry. 

This business card set is a lot softer than the examples above. I feel that these designs would represent quality and expense as they have an extravagant feel. The watercolour texture gives a luxurious feel to the design.

Another example of minimalistic design that looks professional and expensive. The illustrations have a hand rendered feel that adds a personal touch.

Developing Digital Skills

This week our task was to recreate an Absolut Vodka ad. I got the chance to learn about clipping masks and creating custom brushes, both which will be really useful for future projects.

The blueberries in the background are my custom made scatter brush.
This was my final outcome:

 

 



Future Progression

Now that I'm in my second year of Graphics it's time to start thinking about where I want to be this time next year, whether I continue with my education or head straight into employment.

I've looked into the Graphics top up course which sounds really interesting. The course will give me the opportunity to really focus on the aspect of design I'm interested in. At this point in time I would love to spend a year on editorial design or t-shirt design. Their are a few universities around the country that offer this course however I'm not interested in moving away from the North East (I love it here) so my best option would be to continue the third year with Newcastle College. In preparation for this I will need to meet the UCAS deadlines for student finance and college applications as well as prepare my portfolio of work to present at my interviews.

For me personally continuing with my education while I'm still young and without commitments is the best option. I'm eager to get into work however I still feel like I'm finding myself as a designer, what I'm interested in and what career path I want to take. Continuing into the third year will give me time to get these thoughts together and hopefully the opportunity to complete various work placements so I can find out what I really enjoy.

Developing Digital Skills

As part of my digital skills module I have been attending studio workshops to build on my skills within Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Keeping up to date with the latest and current skills and software is all part of developing as a designer.

This week we have been image styling in Photoshop. Image styling can be a great way to change up a photograph, whether it be playing around with levels and curves, or adding a blending mode.

 

 

Instant Print Live Brief

This week we received a live brief from online print company; Instantprint. For those who don't know, Instantprint are an online web to print company who provide excellent quality design templates for people and small business's without any in depth knowledge of the design process.

The brief asks for a set of design templates that can be used their website. I have chosen to target the food and beverage industry, more specifically small cafes.

I have written a SWOT analysis for this module:
Strengths: I am confident with InDesign, so putting together my final stationary set will be easy.
Weaknesses: My Photoshop skills aren't too good, so I'm concerned that this could hinder my final design, not being able to execute it properly.
Opportunities: This module will give me the chance to attend studio tutorials where I will develop various digital skills within Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
Threats: Time. Unfortunately there's been a mix up with work days and college days recently, so at the moment I'm missing out on one college day per week. Until I've sorted this out I'm going to have to work hard to keep up to date with what I've been missing at college.