Planning for Project Report

I used the brief for the project report to make this sheet for myself, I then went through my work for this module and filled it in. This helped me to pick out the information that I needed to include in my project report.

Orchard Pig - Evaluation

This process has taught me the value of making a plan and sticking to it and I think this is even more important than usual when working in a team. When other people are relying on you and you are relying on other people in order to complete a project, it is essential that everyone pulls their weight and is adhering to the same time plan. For me, knowing that someone is relying on me to have something completed is a real drive for me to get it done on time, I hate feeling like I have let someone down or have caused others to fall behind which is why I tried to avoid this. I think a fundamental issue that led us to complete things quite last minute was the waiting around to see if we could hire a pig at the very beginning. Looking back, this seems a bit ridiculous. Obviously we wanted to aim high with this brief but honestly I don't think it would have worked as I wouldn't know where to start when it came to filming and I didn't get the impression that my teammates were confident with this either. If we had spent this time working on the outcomes we did manage to produce, they might have been of better quality and we might have had more work to show. 

In all honesty, I don't feel our outcomes are at the standard that they should be for a response to a live brief. I feel the animation was lacking in professionalism and craft which is probably because we didn't have the skills to complete this to a high standard. This was probably the main downfall of this project because the results from the animation were then spread across a range of products. At some points I felt like I didn't really understand the 'lo-fi' approach we were going for. I understand the idea of something being produced at a low standard for humour purposes but this is harder to achieve than initially thought. 

This collaborative experience has definitely been a learning curve for me. I thought I was going to really enjoy this brief because of its fun tone of voice and a product that was relevant to my own age group. However, although this project did have its highlights, the whole process wasn't as enjoyable as I expected and I actually found it quite stressful and frustrating at times. I respect my teammates as peers and practitioners and we all had our own strengths and weaknesses. I feel we could have steered this project in a more appropriate direction to suit our strengths but that is just my opinion. 

Orchard Pig - Submission to YCN

This was the pdf file submitted to YCN. We had planned to produce this as a team and have it submitted before we went home for Easter. However, the graphic design element of the project wasn't completed by this time so it had to be submitted by one person alone after two of us had gone home for Easter. Obviously this wasn't ideal and it would have been best for us all to have had an input on the final presentation of our work, but these things happen so we sent our work across to one team member to compile into this presentation when her parts were complete too. The first time I actually saw the final outcomes of my teammates was when I was sent this pdf after the submission date. The presentation works well to showcase our final outcomes but maybe a bit more explanation of our process would have been good to include, however it is possible that this may have been included on the submission form.

Fever Tree - Evaluation

What went well?

I felt I had made a good start to this brief with my initial sketches and ideas, I felt I was building up a strong concept linking the tonic water to the treatments for malaria. Technically, I think my initial drawings were strong but then developed into something else throughout the creative process.

I had a strong body of research into the Fever Tree brand, the Malaria No More UK charity and mood boards based around the product itself. This set me up for a good start and I felt well informed about the topics I was working with.

I think my final outcomes work well as a set, they clearly follow the same process of making and they look like they belong together. Colour is usually a weak point of mine but I think I have done better with this project. My initial sketches were all monochrome and I thought this might be the direction I would go in but I am glad I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to work in a different way. I think it has paid off, the colours work on each individual bottle but I also as a set, they don't seem to clash.

I think I have done well to avoid the malaria clichés (mosquitos, for example) and managed to keep the design decorative but still with an underlying concept. I think a lot of people will have gone for the typical malaria imagery so I moved away from that and followed a more general theme of nature.

I think the presentation of my final submission to YCN was a strong point, I felt it looked professional and sophisticated and fitted with their brand identity which is important. I have never had to do this before so it has been a good insight for me to learn how to present my work.

What didn't go well?

I was very confused by what the brief was actually asking be to do, I understood the concept but the physical requirements seemed unclear to me. I probably should have spend more time clarifying this at the beginning rather than finding out about it half way through, however at the beginning I did feel that I had understood it correctly.

I have to admit my time management for this brief totally fell apart which is not like me at all. I left a lot of the work until the last minute and the prospect of a looming deadline wasn't encouraging me to be more productive like it usually does. It is probably an issue to do with motivation, but then again, I was excited by this brief at the beginning and really wanted to get stuck into making something I could be proud of. 

I think the crafting of my final designs could have been more sophisticated. Especially because this was a key word used in the requirements of the brief. Again, this was probably down to lack of motivation and leaving this to the last minute and not having enough time to spend on them. Looking back it does seem ridiculous that I didn't stick to my time plan because I had plenty of time to work with, I am disappointed that I didn't make more of an effort because it's not like me to treat a brief like this. 

Responding to feedback is a low point for me in this project, on one hand I don't feel the feedback I received was that inspiring but on the other hand, I should have seeked out my own feedback, asking direct and relevant questions to people. I also think I should have worked harder to have had more work to show for this brief at the final crit, I feel it was a wasted opportunity. 

What would I have done differently?

I would set this as my priority brief for this module. It should have been my priority but the smaller briefs I was working on interested me a lot more and the collaborative brief probably took up more of my time than it should have done. 

I should have tried harder to stick to my time plan because this would have kept me out of the mess of leaving things to the last minute. 

I should have had time for reflection mid-brief because I feel I lost sight of my original ideas. If I had taken the time to review what I had done so far, I think I might have had a clearer concept coming through in my final designs. 

I should have been more organised! This isn't like me at all and I don't like that my organisation is slipping. Working under pressure normally makes me work harder but for some reason I really struggled to stay motivated, even towards the end. I thought that working to a brief from a real company would have made me work with a certain level of professionalism but it hasn't. I need to change that. 

Have I fulfilled the requirements of the brief?

I think my designs could have been more sophisticated by simplifying them or maybe making the process more labour intensive and well crafted. I think I have successfully produced designs that work as a set and represent each country, although I don't think they would be easily recognisable at a first glance. To be honest though, without the research I have done for this brief, I wouldn't know anything about these countries and wouldn't have been able to identify them from images. 

I think I have promoted the concept of 'all natural' well and I have stuck to the technical requirements of all of the information on the label remaining the same. I don't know whether I have matched the target market as well as I could have done but again, this is down to the fact that I could have made it more sophisticated. I think my design works for attracting new customers though, maybe people slightly younger than the given 35-65 years age range. It will also be eye-catching on the shelf so more people might notice it or even buy it on a whim. 

Fever Tree - Submission to YCN

Things to include in pdf:

• My name and the brief I have worked on. 
• Clarification of the countries chosen and the area category they fit into. 
• Specific inspirations for each country's design. 
• A large visual of each pattern. 
• Mock up of all bottles together. 
• Closeup of the neck area of the bottle - this is relevant because they are going to be adding a neck tag and I want them to see that this wouldn't interfere with anything crucial on the design. 
• Appropriate font (use the ones specified in project pack to be in-keeping with the brand). 

Things not to include in pdf:

• Reference to cinchona bark as this is no longer relevant to the final designs. 
• Why I chose the brief. 
• My initial research. 
• Initial drawings and sketchbook development.
• A lot of writing. 

I made these lists because I wanted to keep the final presentation of my work professional and to the point. There is no need to go into detail about my creative process when they are only interested in the final outcome and whether it would be suitable. I want to keep text to a minimum because they might lose interest, the images need to speak for themselves and hold their attention. I am pleased with how this presentation looks, I think it appears professional and easy to understand. 

Submission Form

Here, I was able to explain what I didn't want to put in my pdf, but I was glad I did get to explain some of the thinking behind my outcomes. 

'Please explain why you chose this brief, and how your view of the brand has changed 

since you began working on it.'

I chose this brief because I wanted to work with something that allowed for primarily visual outcomes rather than a concept for a promotional campaign. The fact that the work is promoting and raising money for a charity also made this brief appealing to me as I like my illustration work to contribute to something positive. I knew very little about the Fever Tree brand before this brief so I did a lot of preliminary research. I really respect the ethos of the brand and the fact that they use real natural ingredients to create honest, quality products.

'Please give a short description of your work, and the thinking behind it.'

The starting point of this creative process was the cinchona bark which was a strong connecting feature between malaria treatments and tonic water. I knew I wanted to avoid the malaria clichés and I wanted to stick to the theme of natural forms so I researched related natural objects and products which had links to my four chosen countries. From the brand description of Fever Tree I could see that their natural ingredients were a strong selling point and repeat pattern is something I am working on within my own practice, so this explains the path I followed for this brief to reach my final outcomes.  

Proof of Submission

Making Patterns and Bottle Mock-ups

Using the images I have made, I am now creating squares/rectangles of elements on photoshop and using the 'define pattern' tool to repeat it. I only have basic skills of pattern on photoshop so I try to balance out the objects as best as I can, trying to imagine in my head what it would look like when repeated. Considering how close each object is to the edge of the square is particularly difficult because this is where most of the spacing mistakes are made.

Ecuador

The initial pattern square I made fro this consists of two copies of each selected image, one slightly smaller than the other. When repeated, the pattern is quite dense and full of colour, I then went back to my pattern square and made each element smaller so there was more white space between each element. When I repeated this I noticed something wasn't quite right about it, the red and yellow plant seemed too horizontal and it emphasised that the pattern was based on a square format. I tilted this and the last below it to alter the flow of the pattern and I think it blends better as a result.

I thought the best way to see whether these designs would truly work would be to put them on to the bottle image that was provided in the project pack. The first bottle is the large pattern and the second one is the pattern with smaller elements. The third one is something I came across by accident when playing around with layers but I like how it shows the transparency of the bottle wrap and how it would look in real life. It is made from the big pattern being full opacity and the smaller pattern being around 30% opacity so it looks like the pattern on the reverse of the bottle can be seen through the front. At the moment I am leaning towards the larger pattern because I think the one with smaller elements looks a bit sparse and has less impact. I will have to see how the other patterns for the other countries work before I make a decision on this though.

I think this pattern for this country works successfully, it is bright and colourful, suggests a tropical climate and shows biodiversity through the unique shapes of the plants shown.

Bolivia

Similar to before, I had some spacing issues with my first attempt so had to slightly shift the lower map down to even out the gaps. It is only a slight change but very noticeable when you see the pattern repeated a lot of times. When I made each element smaller, it all looked evenly spaced on my first try so there was no issues here.

I did my mockups in the same order as previously done with the Ecuador pattern. Repeating the same process for each is working well for me because it means I am staying on track to making them work as a set.

One concern for me with this pattern is that the colours might be a bit pale but I will have to see how they work alongside the other patterns before I make any changes. I need to see whether this stands out as an obvious problem.

Colombia

The large pattern square for this consists of two or three copies of three different emeralds, plus the maps. I found organising these shapes difficult because they are very uniformed so it makes it harder for the pattern to appear randomly scattered but evenly spaced. This is why I had to add in some smaller pieces which hasn't been done with the other designs. When I made the smaller pattern I deleted a couple of the emeralds because there was no need for them now the design was more sparse.

I knew there was something not quite right with this pattern and when I got to the mockup stage I realised that the colours were reminding me of a dollar bill - they were too dull and didn't represent the high shine of a gemstone. I went back to my photoshop file and edited the levels to make the green lighter and brighter. As a result the pattern seems uplifted and I think it fits better against the other designs too.

After this change I felt better about this pattern although it is still probably the one I am least sure about. This might be because I am trying to base these pattern around natural themes and although emeralds are naturally occurring, the state I have shown them in is very structured and angular.

Guyana

When making my first pattern square, I found that the leaf and feather in the top left appeared too parallel when repeated. To change this I rotated the feather in an attempt to break this connection between the two elements and make the pattern seem more balanced and less rigid. I then rotated the whole design to try and lose the formal grid that I was starting to notice when I stared at it for too long. This is something I have been doing when applying my designs to the bottles and it works because there is not clear vertical or horizontal lines to follow with your eyes, the pattern seems more fluid. It was more difficult to evenly space these elements because they are longer and thinner so don't fit together as easily without looking uniformed.

I think the mockups look really good for this pattern, this is definitely my personal favourite, probably because these colours really appeal to me. I have been trying to keep the blue tones in this to represent water and the green to show the thriving life that exists in the rainforest. I had previously said I might need to alter the colours but I actually think they are working well as they are. If they became brighter or darker, they would lose their softness.

Which ones to use?

I have decided to use the pattern with larger components because the design looks more dense and has a stronger visual impact. In my document for submission, these are the patterns I will include but for the mockups, I will use the bottles on the right hand side of these slides to show the transparency of the bottle wrap. I was planning on putting my design onto a full range of their products including the smaller bottles, the can and the packaged set of four bottles but after re-reading the brief, they have specifically asked for the designs to be shown on the 500ml bottle so there is no need for me to do this. 

Fever Tree - Maps

Following on from my early sketchbook work looking into cinchona bark and making maps, I tried putting this into action with the same process that I had done for my other gouache and dip pen imagery.

I used a light box to sketch out the lines of these maps before using my dip pen. I thought this was necessary as this needed to be accurate for the country to be at all recognisable, its not as if they are countries with an easily distinguishable shape. Although I wanted them to be accurate, I tried not to be too controlled with my line work, I wanted them to look hand crafted and not as if they had been done on a computer. Also, the results you get with dip pens look better when you loosen up a bit. I also used the light box to map out the areas within the map so I could make some ink textures that could be layered underneath the line drawings. I tried to create bark like textures but also tried to make it in-keeping with the broad gouache strokes I had been using previously. The results were textural but didn't resemble bark at all in my opinion.

I selected the best line drawing for each country which seemed to be the one with the greatest variation of line weight and then Photoshopped this onto both ink washes to chose the best one. I briefly played around with colour on Photoshop but realised that brown wouldn't fit with all my designs and might tone down the brightness of my colours too much. I am losing the concept of this being based on cinchona bark anyway so there is no real reason for this to be brown anymore. I decided to keep these maps greyscale for a number of reasons...

- Grey scale images will work with all of the colours I am currently using, there will be no clashes.

- They will allow the bright colours to stand out more.

- They will most likely be noticed secondary to the other visual elements which will make people question why there are maps on it and then search to understand why, therefore finding out about the links to Malaria No More UK.

- Having these greyscale maps on all of the bottles will link them together as a set.

Unlike the other images I have made, I cleaned up the edges of all of these maps so there was a clean cut edge all the way around the country's border. I think this makes them look more graphic and clean cut. Also because they might be at a very small scale when they are in the pattern, I don't want any confusion about what is actually the outline of this shape. I thought about adding on the name of each country to the maps in the traditional way but once these images are part of a pattern, they will be a lot smaller and the text would be unreadable.

Fever Tree - Media Testing

Continuing from my previous frustration with my sketchbook, I started loosening up and using gouache to paint some shapes which I could overlay paper cuts onto, I used my reference imagery and more images from the internet to find these shapes and colours. This exercise allowed me to relax a bit and gave me time to think and get some ideas flowing, I started thinking about the potential to layer other media on top of these shapes and also the possibilities available to me on Photoshop. 

I used a dip pen and ink to draw the spines and some details of some feathers of tropical birds which I could layer on top of these coloured shapes I had painted. I scanned my imagery into photoshop and pieced them together and was actually really pleased with the way it looked. I liked the freedom of the paintwork but it worked well with the controlled line work to create a balanced image. I quite enjoyed this process and there was scope to play round with it digitally, colour for example was easily edited with the hue/saturation levels which would be useful if I want to repeat the same image with different colours in my patterns. 

Stemming from this, I experimented with other processes of layering things over colour. I tried fine liners but the result looked quite clumsy and not as well crafted as the dip pens. I also cut into the feathers I had painted to add detail, I thought this looked quite clean and sophisticated when layered over black but I didn't think the qualities of a paper cut would translate well onto a digitally printed design. So far the dip pens have been the most successful in my opinion so I produced more drawings in this way for all of the imagery I had selected. 

I added colour to most of my drawings, even if I didn't think they were particularly successful in the hope that with a completed image, I could make a more informed decision about which ones were good enough to work with. 

Colombia (emeralds) 

I like how there are white patches left on some of them because it suggests a shine. With the feathers I liked how the paint and the lines didn't match up perfectly but for the emeralds, the edges might need cleaning up a bit. I think the colour of the emeralds might need some enhancement later on to make them a bit brighter. I put my paper cut over the colour as well as I had initially planned but it didn't have the effect I was hoping for and I don't think it would work against a transparent background which is what I have in my mind at the moment. 

Ecuador (flowers)

I think the more obscure and exotic looking plants will work best because I want this pattern to show the rich biodiversity of Ecuador as well as its flower exports. It shows something unusual and unique rather than typical flower shapes we have all seen before. 

Guyana (rainforest leaves)

I think the colours of these will need to be enhanced because the green gouache paints I have used look a bit washed out. I was trying to get a watery texture to the paint work because Guyana is known as 'the land of many waters' so I want this to come through in my images but not in an obvious way. I am also going to be using some feathers from my previous test because of the biodiversity within the rainforest. I am going to make the feathers blue to bring the whole design into a blue/green colour scheme making it seem more associated with water. 

Bolivia (salt and ametrine)

The salt flats are a major feature of Bolivia but they just don't translate well into a floating spot image. I tried to draw salt crystals and they do resemble the images I worked from but they just wouldn't be immediately recognised as this, personally I think they look like ice which would be very misleading. Instead I am going to use the images of ametrine which is a gem stone that is exclusively mined in Bolivia. I think the fluidity and bleeding of the gouache works well here as it shows the interesting way that the purple and yellow colourings blend. 

Things seem to be going a bit better now I have a clearer idea of what I am doing. I am pleased that I have some useable elements for each of my countries and I am confident that the common process of making these images will ensure that they work as a set. My next steps are to select my best individual floating spots and make some repeatable pattern squares on Photoshop which I can play around with. I am aiming to work with a transparent background so the tonic water level can be seen through the bottle wrap. I think it will make the bottle look more sophisticated and clean because it shouldn't be too overwhelming and the clarity of the drink inside can be seen easily.

Fever Tree - Change of Direction and Countries Research

After seeing other people's work at the last crit and speaking to a few people doing the same brief, I realised that I might have got the wrong end of the stick when reading the brief. I chose to read the brief throughly again and see whether they are asking for their label to be redesigned or for the whole bottle to be decorated because I don't think it is explained very clearly. 

'You should work to a ‘wrap’ design that adheres to the current footprint of the 500ml Tonic bottle — and that inspiringly embellishes it, but keeping the information on the label the same.'

After searching what a bottle 'wrap' is, I now think that they want the full bottle to be decorated with the current labels remaining untouched. I am still not one hundred percent certain that this is the right thing to do but it does make sense a bit more now and gives more scope for some different designs. Because of this realisation quite late on into my project, I am having to adapt my idea. I am not planning on working with the cinchona bark idea I had previously but combining this with natural things from each country to make a pattern which can be used on the bottle wrap.  I did a few quick scamps to help decide whether these pattern elements should be spaced evenly or whether they should be more dense at the top or bottom. I think an evenly repeated pattern would work well in this format because it will cover all aspects of the bottle giving it high visual impact.

I did some research into each of my chosen countries to find out what natural products, features and exports are related to them and then used the internet to build up a bank of imagery to work from. 

After this I went back into my sketchbook and started drawing. This didn't last long before I realised it wasn't going well, I was getting really frustrated with the brief and in all honesty, was losing motivation. I felt that what I was doing in my sketchbook was aimless and I thought I needed to change things a bit so instead of drawing, I picked up a scalpel and started paper cutting. I hoped that this would make me think a bit differently and spark some new ideas and different routes to explore. It did lead me to the idea of maybe layering my paper cuts over some textures and colours to see what images I could create. 

Responsive - Final Crit

Main Points

• Fever Tree work is going well, good concept and development work, well considered and good initial drawings. 
• Maybe explore colour more for Fever Tree. 
• Some of the layouts of the boards are a little confusing (illustration friday)
• More information about the brief could be included. 
• Minimal brushwork is good on the record sleeves.
• Presentation is kept clean and simple. 
• My contribution to the collaborative brief is consistent. 
• Boards for SB2 are organised neatly showing a clear journey. 

My Response

• I am pleased that my peers thought that the Fever Tree project was off to a good start, this is going to be the primary focus for me to complete after this crit. I agree that exploring colour would be a good idea, I feel confident when working in monochrome so it might be good to push myself out of this. 
• I agree that the Illustration Friday board has very little explanation or structure. I think it would be best to spread this over two boards and adding in some information about the brief and a summary of my approach to it each week. 
• I think I need to have a short paragraph for each project explaining the brief. It will make things clear from the very beginning. 
• I don't think I need to do much more to my collaborative boards apart from taking out unnecessary pieces of writing and being more concise with the information. A lot of my sketchbook work does most of the explaining so this won't need much text to go with it. 
• There was a comment saying that I could get away with a bigger font but seeing as these are meant to be A2 sized boards, I think a bigger font would look strange if it was printed at full scale. 

Next Steps

• Finish the Fever Tree Brief and submit. 
• Wait for a team member to finish their share of the work for Orchard Pig so we can submit. 
• Make alterations to presentation boards and start some from scratch. 
• Ensure all presentation boards follow the same basic theme to keep things consistent and simple. 

Festival Cups

My job was to mock up some paper cup designs for festivals. After looking back at my initial design sketches and consulting with my peers, we decided to go along with the idea of having the snout on the base of the cup. This is a novelty addition to the cup which could provide a photo opportunity for people at a festival as when they have finished their drink or even while they are drinking, the base of the cup can cover their nose and mouth and look like a snout. If photos of this happening were to be shared on social media, the word of Orchard Pig would be spreading. It also captures the fun that the brief is looking for. 

I did some more sketches looking at what information needs to be included, I thought about a panel explaining the #snoutselfie but then thought this might not be necessary. I didn't know exactly what my teammates were doing with the products they were making but I don't think they are using much type and were sticking to using the images from the animation. 

To fit in with the rest of the products I did this too, the explanation probably isn't necessary anyway. I mocked up some paper cups using photos but wasn't happy with them entirely so I spent some time arranging individual components (tractors) from my set of illustrations for the set, onto the background. This meant I could alter the composition to fit the format of the cup rather than trying to force existing photos onto it. 

I briefly played around with colour, looking at a more psychedelic colour scheme for the tractors which might be more appropriate for the festival theme. However, I didn't want the design to stand out form my teammate' work so I kept the initial colours. 

I used some textures from the orchard pig website to layer over the snout shape until I was happy with the overall texture. I really struggled to find a good quality image of an upside down paper cup which explains the poor quality of the mockup, it gets across the concept though. 

Group Tutorial

This was one of the most useful and constructive crits I have had in a while. It gave me a lot of confidence to continue with what I am doing and also gave me some other avenues to explore. 

Colour is a weakness of mine and when I was asked whether I had considered it yet, I raised it as an issue of mine. It was suggested that I look at Pantone swatches for inspiration and maybe explore colour psychology to link in the idea of calmness and combatting stress. 

Now I have started looking at small publication designs for the information booklet, I think I need to do some research into this field. I might take a trip to village books in Leeds and look at some of the more unconventional designs. 

Teresa clarified some things for me and it reminded me to stay on the track of this being an illustration based project. It is about making imagery to go in a certain context. This made me think of the home environment which is where I am aiming for more natural things to exist. This could mean that my imagery could spread into murals, prints, textiles, furnishings and products found in the home. This doesn't directly encourage people to buy a plant but it pushes them towards the idea of it and living in surroundings with strong natural influences.

Next steps
- Publication research. 
- Try to make a plan of what can go in the pack (although this can, and probably will, change). 
- Get a bigger sketchbook, make some looser work. 
- List everything I can think of that could potentially be an outcome for this brief. 
- DRAW MORE. 

Orchard Pig - Final Animation

YCN - Orchard Pig - Final Animation from Naomi Smith on Vimeo.

Finalising Animation

I found out today that one of my teammates is not going to be here on Tuesday and Wednesday so considering that the final crit is on Thursday, we need to get the animation completed today. 

I had been looking at the free music archive for potential music for our animation. We wanted something upbeat that sounded summery and festival themed. I searched through themes like pop, country, indie pop and folk, I thought indie pop was the most appropriate and when I messaged my teammates to make sure we were on the same page, they agreed. I was finding it really hard to find a song that was just right so after narrowing down a search term, I left it until I could meet my teammates in the studio so we could decide on which one to use. There was only a limited list and very few of them were appropriate. We did find one called 'Kiss' which had no lyrics and was upbeat and summery after a short intro which we could easily crop out. 

We added this to our animation and then moved onto adding some pig snorting noises. We wanted some snuffling sounds to play at the point where the pig is sniffing at the different parts of the scene. I knew that the sounds on the British Library website were royalty free but I did not realise you need an account to access them, we didn't have time to go through the process of setting one up so we used a different website instead. The results we found were similar so this didn't matter too much. 

We had a few issues with the rendering of our animation. We had to get someone from technical support to help is with this because the file wouldn't play the same as we had viewed it on aftereffects. It was something to do with our two sound files being different formats, it has a similar effect to having two clashing frame rates. 

We finally got it complete. I think the outcome is ok, it gets the idea of the campaign across but I can't say I'm happy with the execution of the animation as a whole. The framing of the image seems very bottom heavy, the models themselves are not high quality and the overall look of it doesn't seem professional. The idea was that we would use some stills or aspects from the animation on our other products alongside some graphic design elements and drawings where necessary. I feel reluctant to use the images from the animation in the rest of the things we are making but I feel we now have to if the product range is all going to work together and this is what my teammates are doing with their share of the work.

Myself - Festival Cup

Sophie - Beer Mats

Emma - Posters, festival pack.   

Product Designing

These were some packaging designs I did to get me started on thinking about what could exist in the starter pack and what it would all be contained in. The seed packet designs are quite generic but I feel I could play around with shape more to make them more interesting and stand out on a shop shelf. I liked the idea of packaging a plant pot but then thought that it would be more efficient to use the plant pot as the packaging. I think the glass jar idea could be good and I could make a label for it to make it consistent with the other products inside. I like my concertina book design on the last page, it is in the shape of a plant so when it is closed it looked like a healthy plant but when you open it, you can see the process of the plant growing from a seed into its fully grown state. 

Illustrator Workshop

Making nets for packaging on Illustrator. 

Increase the size of the art board to fit the size of the net you want to use. 

Artboard tool - makes the art board resizable. You can drag, choose a preset or type in measurements at the top. 

Command+R - Show rulers. 

Right click on a ruler to change the unit of measurement.

Use art board tool to align the page to 0,0.

Guides - pull down or across from ruler to drag a guide into place. Or, double click on the ruler where you want the guide and it will create one. 

Holding shift whilst moving a guide means it will snap to the measurements on the ruler. 

Drag a box over the guide to select - drag it to move it or press backspace to delete it. 

View -> Guides -> Hide guides, lock guides or clear guides. 

View -> Guides -> Make guides (allows you to make a guide from an existing shape. 

Shape tool -> left click -> Input measurements for a more accurate shape

Click A for direct selection tool, drag over the points you want to make rounded and then pull the corners in. 

When making a box, you don't want black lines where all the folds are, also if you're cutting it not he laser cutter, it would cut the whole net up into small pieces. 

Select the whole net, copy it, lock the layer and hide it. 

Create new layer. 

Edit -> Paste in Place (this will paste it in the same place on the art board that you copied it from. 

Shape builder tool, the net must be already selected to use this tool. 

 When you hover over the shapes, they look filled in. If you drag from one shape to the next then it merges the shapes. So now there are no internal lines. 

Select a shape or line, click on the orange 'Stroke' at the top. You can alter the line to make it dashed, change the weight of the line and change the opacity to make them less noticeable. 

Add fold marks outside of the outline of the net so they won't be printed but you can use them as a guide for scoring and folding. 

Command+; - hide/show guides. 

Create new layer and place it below the net, this means your content will be separate to the outline of you net. Theres no problem with going outside the border, it will be cut down and its good to allow for imperfect cutting. 

Attempting a more complex net…

Add guides along relevant lines. Use guides to create shapes.

Delete the internal lines, just leaving the lines that need to be cut and the external marks to show where the fold lines should be. 

I feel more confident with Illustrator now, I think I just needed a refresher of the functions of the tools and I think I would now be able to use it to create a net confidently. I think I would move over to Photoshop to add the artwork onto the box because I have more confidence with this and I use Photoshop a lot to edit my analogue imagery. I think packaging will play a part in my final outcomes for this brief so this is a good skill to know. I now feel that even if it is only a simple shape that needs packaging, I can use a more interesting and complex net to make something more exciting than just a square box.