Final Greeting cards

These are my final greetings card designs that I feel are finally looking complete. I used the feedback that I received from the final critique to make the finishing touches to my designs, to complete the designs I used the images that I created of the landmarks, I tried using various colours to apply to the landmarks and found that the colour grey worked best so I decided to use this for my final designs. I then thought about how I could include the colours of the flags for each country in my designs, I tried filling the whole of the background with the different colours but I didn't feel that this particular technique was working well, so I tried some other techniques using different media and found that simply using a brush to apply a stroke of watercolour worked perfect. I am pleased with the final outcomes of my designs and feel that they work well as a set, and think that all the work I have done for this project has finally paid off. Although I spent along time working on the stencils I created as Sally said in my critique sometimes you can spend along time working on designs and your client won't like them and other times you spend little time on designs and they do like them, thats just the way it goes.

Final critique

I showed my pattern designs in this critique and was told that the designs that I created before were much stronger for who I was aiming them at. I then showed my stencil and digital designs to both Sally and Neil who agreed that the digital designs with the outline of the landmark and the flag in the background was the ones I should of stuck with and developed. So I now intend to go back to the my original designs and develop them to create a set of six strong postcard designs. 

Pattern designs

From the feedback I received about my greetings card designs I took all of the comments into consideration and thought how I could use these to create stronger designs. So I thought how can I still use the images of the landmarks without having the image of the flags in the background of the designs, but still use the colours of the flags somehow in the designs. So I started by using the outline of the landmark and then simply using the colours of the flags to apply to the background of each design. I didn't like the look of the outcomes so I thought of other ways of how I could still use these processes to complete my designs. This is when I thought of using a pattern design to create my cards, although this has completely changed my designs I have still used the landmarks and just the colours of the flags for each design. To create the pattern I repeated the images of the landmarks and placed them in different positions around the page, I then filled them in using the colours of the flag for each particular design.

Critique

I feel that I got some very strong feedback on my designs both positive and negative, the positive feedback that I got was that the way that I have positioned the landmark onto the card. It looks strong because I haven't just placed the whole landmark onto the card, I have taken part of the landmark and used it by bleeding of the page and also enlarging the landmark which made it stand out, also using the colour black to fill in the landmark makes the landmark look bold and strong as an image. 

Things I could improve

• Remove the flag from behind the landmark and just use the colours of the flag 
• The designs carries to many connotations, using spray paint doesn't work with who I am aiming my cards at so think about using different media
• Try printing onto different papers to create different effects

I feel that the critique went well and now understand what I need to do to complete my greetings card designs.

Final stencils

These are my final stencil designs for my greetings card project, it took me a few times to get the position of the colours correct but now that they are looking at the best I could get them I feel that the final presentation of them look strong. I think that the spray paint worked well as a media as the shapes of the landmarks and the flags look strong and bold. Its hard for me to chose which designs I think look best between these stencils and the digital ones I made earlier, so I intend to take them to the critique to get other peoples opinions. 

Stencils

 To make sure that I could get all the colours in my design I had to cut each part of the design out separately so I could then spray the colours onto the design separately so that the colours do not overlay. Although this took me along time to do I think that it will be worth the while, as I feel my greetings cards will look strong with this choice of media. 

Digital outcomes

Getting closer to my final designs now, these are my digital outcomes that are ready for the critique. Although I am creating stencils for my greetings cards I also wanted to have some digital outcomes so I can then decide which ones I feel work best. 

Developing stencil

In this stencil design I incorporated the shape of the country in this case (France). Whilst I was searching for the country's on a may I was looking at the shape of them and thought that it would work well in my designs. So I traced the around the shape of the country's and then also thought about applying the flag into the shape of the country. I had to create this stencil by cutting out parts of it bit by bit, other wise I would of kept spraying over each part with a different colour, so it was a bit of a fiddly process. Overall I am pleased with this outcome and think that these cards could look strong as a set. 

After looking at Banksy's work I started to create my own stencils for my greetings card designs, firstly I traced the image of the Eiffel tower onto a piece of card and then cut out the design using a craft knife. This then gave me a cut out shape of the tower which I could then use as a stencil. I thought about the composition of the landmark, the choice of colours and also how I was going to apply this to my design. In this image I used spray paint to apply the colours of the french flag to my design, I think that this gives a strong impact on the viewer and so I intend to develop this idea further. 

Banksy

Today has been a very practical day for me, as I planned to use stencils to produce some of my greeting card designs I started of the day by looking at artists who use stencils to create there work, guess who came to mind 'Banksy'. These are some of his latest images made in America that I found very inspiring to say the least, the thought process behind his images are incredible. As you can see he will look at what is on the wall before has even started his work to see what he can make from what is already there.  

18th October

This has been what I think my most productive day so far. I started of the day by going out and taking photographs of different urban materials and textures to use in my images. Whilst I was out and about I decided to pick up an international newspaper from boarders called USA Today. The reason I got this particular newspaper was because I intend to use newspaper to create my statue of liberty design, and so I thought what better newspaper to use than an American one. 

 As I plan to experiment with different materials I also picked up some spry paint whilst I was out because i plan to create some stencils of the landmarks and see which techniques I like best, and then choose when it comes to handing in my final six greeting cards. 

 These are the images that I produced today from the photographs that I took. 

17th October

Today was a really positive day, I really feel that I am going somewhere with the greetings card project. To start of the day I had a critique with Clare and Neil, we discussed my concept and went through the ideas that I have thought of and received some really positive feedback and found the advice I received really helpful, this made me feel a lot more confident about my idea. I was basically told to carry on with what I am doing and develop my images even further. 

So after the critique I started drawing my images bigger and bolder and then thinking about the composition and the materials/textures and also techniques I will be using to create my final designs. 

16th October

Today I had a critique with Sally about my poster which I felt went very well and gained some helpful feedback. Although there were a few problems with my poster that needed addressing I was pleased that I received positive feedback about the idea behind my poster, So I can now act upon the feedback that I received to improve my design to a professional standard. 

  

14th October

Today a did a bit of both, by that I mean I did some work on the greetings card project and also the Look Again/Think Again project. I really wanted to get the poster finished so I could just concentrate on the greeting cards I started with that, I thought about what I could do with the photographs I had taken of the vinyl collection. then an idea came to mind, I thought about tracing over the photograph with a black marker so that all is showing is the outline of the vinyl and the figure. So I traced over the photograph and scanned the image in to photoshop, so far I thought that this is going to look a lot stronger that just a photograph. Although all I had was an outline of the image I could still add colour to the parts of the image, so I did and I was pleased with the outcome so far, now I really know what im doing. 

  Now that I felt comfortable with what I was doing for the Look Again/Think Again project I then started working on the Greetings Card project, mainly thinking of what materials I will be using to create my designs, what style etc. I also started drawing some characters  and deciding on which ones I will be using in my designs. I thought about creating one character and using it in each design, but have a design for each theme so one for a birthday, one for christmas etc.

13th October

Today I decided to take on board the information I received from the critique about the LookAgain/Think Again project and start making the changes to my design that are needed. So the first thing I did was to go and find a vinyl shop, once I had found the vinyl shop I then took the photographs of the boxes of vinyl, which gives the look of a large collection. I then took a few photographs of someone flicking through the vinyl, as I thought that the image would look a lot stronger with a figure in it rather than just a box of vinyl. After taking the photographs I went home and started playing around with the composition of them and also started applying some text. Overall I was pleased with the way these photographs were taken and now feel that I am progressing with this design, so this day has been really productive.

12th October

Today helped me out a lot with this new project as I looked at various different illustrators work to get an idea of what type of illustrations and material I could use in my designs. I found the work of Anne Wilson very inspiring as I liked the materials and textures she uses to create her designs, I feel that I could use the same techniques to create my own designs. I could do this by taking a piece of material and scanning it in to apply to my design which may be imagery or even a piece of type. I also looked at a illustrators magazine called vfoom, where I found a lot of strong illustrations produced by professional designers in which is one of the most talked about illustrator magazines . Here are some illustrations that I that I found most inspiring during this day of research.

10th October

Greetings cards brief with clare

Today was the start of a new project, we had an illustrator come inn  and talk to us about her work, which is greeting card designs. I found this talk very useful as we were able to look through her designs and ideas which helped me think of how to produce my own greeting cards. After the talk I was given a list of websites to look at other artists work, this gave me some inspiration of what to include in my greeting card designs. I am looking foward to starting this new project as I will be able to experimenting with different materials and media as shown by clare's greeting card designs.

9th October

Overall I think this critique went really well as I didn't feel as I was under pressure because we were split into small groups. This made it easier for us to talk about each others work and give our advice or opinion. 

Things I should consider to improve my design

• Make the strap line shorter
  
• Make the vinyl more noticeable 
• Put some colour in the image so it stands out 
• Play around with the position of the type

8th october

Day before the critique, I feel that I should of researched into what I was trying to say before I started creating digital outcomes then I would of been able to focus on one idea rather than thinking of lots of ideas and not knowing which one to chose. Anyway I went back and had another look through my research that I gathered about why people collect vinyl.

From this research I came up with a tag line, this then helped me plan out some images to use for my poster. After sketching some ideas out onto paper I began to construct my final outcome ready for the critique tomorrow.

7th october

From the talk I had with Neil yesterday I started to research into why people collect vinyl and also why vinyl sounds better than CD. This helped me get an idea of what tag line and image to use in my poster. After the researched I gathered I had to chose one of them to base my design on. I found that I created better ideas and tag lines from the research I got of collecting vinyl rather than the research I got from the sound quality of vinyl. So I now know that I will be basing my final outcome on collecting vinyl.

6th October

Today I began by sketching more tag lines and ideas onto paper, but this was not helping me. So I went to library and searched for a book on advertising. I went to look at other peoples designs because this because I felt this would inspire to think of an idea to use in my own design. 

Talk with Neil

It is good that I have researched into other adverts and designs but what I need to do is to think of what I am trying to say in my poster, and then research into that. e.g sound quality of vinyl is better than CD. Then I should get ideas from this research.

3rd October

Today I began to think of more advantages of purchasing a vinyl. Which helped me think of tag lines I could use in my poster. I also gained some information about a campaign  called 'stop the war on vinyl'. This is a campaign for all the vinyl lovers out there who would rather use a vinyl than a CD or MP3.

After the critique  I started to think of more ideas using the feedback that I received. I created a few rough images by taking some photographs of my vinyl in different positions to use in my poster.

Crite

Things to take into consideration 

• Sound quality of vinyl is better than an mp3/cd
• Vinyl is collection item
• Retro
• Record sleeves

Visual Communiction in context 2

2nd october 2008

Firstly received the brief and gathered a basic understanding of what we have been asked to produce by briefly talking to neil about the first part of the brief "Look again/Think again". 

I then went off with a few members of the class to create some initial ideas of what we could use to create our poster. I found this a good way of brainstorming ideas as we could bounce ideas of one another and ask each other for there opinions on our thoughts. As I was thinking of ideas of what to use to create my poster I decided to choose something personal to me as I thought that this would help motivate me and help me produce a stronger outcome. As I was going through my personal objects I came across my vinyl, this object means the most to me and I think that I could produce a strong outcome from using this personal object. So I decided that I would use my vinyl to create a campaign which would persuade the public to purchase a vinyl instead of an mp3/cd. 

Outline syllabus

• Personal and career planning 
• Contemporary critical and theoretical issues within specialist subject
• Portfolio preparation
• Critical evaluation of your achievements of the unit learning outcomes, and your learning on the course overall
• Time management
• transferable skills
• Documentation of the development of your Professional Project from initial ideas to completion, including creative and logistical problems confronted and overcome.

Aims

• To consolidate skills in planning and time management.
  
• To encourage critical reflection and self-evaluation.
• To contextualize your learning in preparation for employment.

Intoduction

As a part of my second year of studying Visual Communications at the Arts institute at Bournemouth, I have been required to keep a record of what I have been doing during the study of this course. The title given for this project is PPRD (personal planning, reflection and development). I feel that this will help me progress throughout the second year as I will be organized and also be able to reflect on my own work on a day to day bases. The second year means a fresh start to me and I am looking forward to the projects that I will be receiving and hope to push myself to the best of my ability.