Virgin Media Communication Box Brief

After reading through the brief and considering the public setting I was drawn to the idea of trompe l’oeil which is artwork that deceives the eye into thinking something is there that isn’t. These influenced some of my rough ideas but I was also trying to think of things relevant to Leeds, hence the rhino and owl, but decided this was quite an obvious idea. I thought the shelving idea was working so I played around with contents and decided to go with plants because I enjoy drawing these and it would give me the chance to add lots of colour if I chose an unrealistic scheme. 

I chose to draw with a fine felt tip pen because I wanted a very simple line. If my design is chosen it will probably be hand painted so the quality of line will change anyway through this process. At this point I just needed a solid outline. 

The shelves weren’t working too well and I felt like I was moving away from the trompe l'oeil idea as it still looked like a picture on a surface. I edited this on photoshop to make the frame of the box into the actual shelving unit and drawing some plants from a birds eye view as this is how they would be seen on the top of the box. 

I originally wanted the background of the image to stay that dark green colour that the boxes are painted so it looks like the shelving was an addition to the existing box. This looked too dark though and the brief did specify that lots of bright colours would be good. Establishing a colour scheme was going to be key for finishing off my imagery. I found some images that I liked the colours of, put them through adobe kuler and made some decisions about what would be most appropriate for my audience and the outdoor environment. I didn’t want anything that would steer towards a certain age group or gender. 

The colour scheme I chose had some earthy tones to blend in to the environment but also some bright pops of colour which was important. I altered the tone and lightness of some of the colours to make them less dull and dark. After playing round with colours I asked for some feedback between the blue and orange backgrounds. The blue background came out as a clear favourite which I do understand as the foreground colours seem to stand out better against it. The positive comments about the orange background is that it felt autumnal, which is nice but this will be seen all year round so it can’t just be specific to one season. 

I applied the same colour scheme to all panels and mocked them up onto a photograph. I kept my presentation board simple with only a few pieces of text saying how I would execute the artwork in real life and stating my flexibility with colour depending on what paint they had available. 

What went well?

Choosing a concise colour scheme was really helpful for me because it meant I wasn't distracted by loads of different options and I could stay focussed. 

My efficiency with time - this brief only took me two days to complete which meant I wasn't dragging it out unnecessarily. I was making decisions and progressing with it at a good pace. 
Keeping the design simple was definitely the best thing to do here, especially because it will need to be executed by hand if chosen. 

What would I do differently?

I would have spent more time drawing plants before just using the drawings I had in the final design. 
Spent more time on the digital mockup making it look more realistic. Also, the brief specified that the kings cannot be painted so I probably should have made it clear in the mockup that this has been taken into account. 
Maybe stopping and asking for feedback from my peers more often would have been beneficial. It was very helpful when I was torn between background colours.