Initial Ideas
The park in autumn: trees, falling leaves, people walking dogs, kids playing conkers, people with takeaway hot drinks, warm clothes, nice coats, knitted jumpers, park benches, a pond or lake, wildlife, squirrels, ducks, bandstand, wellies...
Autumn in general: orange, leaves, conkers, acorns, pinecones, hot drink, dog walks, soup, mist, knitted things, fireworks, campfires, burning wood smell, blankets, cosiness, candles.
I intended to go with a kind of fantasy world idea combining the natural elements of autumn as platforms for characters to be doing autumnal activities. I sketched this idea onto paper so I had something to work to. I did some sketchbook work in gouache to develop the idea, looking at natural autumnal things but also how I could draw these small characters. I also wanted to use the blue and orange from the provided colour scheme in my final image.
Composition
I was going to use these gouache elements to test the composition digitally but then realised this was a waste of time. I used found images instead to get the basic composition sorted then I knew exactly what I needed to draw to make the plan a reality.
Colour
I added colour digitally and this is when I realised that the blue and orange wasn't working. I wanted to keep the inky line quality but when colour was added to this it appeared washed out and there wasn't as much clarity as I would have liked. I decided to keep the original black outlines and use the pink and orange instead to create a warm and vibrant image. I thought this linked to the kind of bright colours related to sugar/candy skulls and it also felt quite warm which I think is important for an autumn theme. I also played around with light, I tried adding highlights and detailing but I realised the colour application was best kept simple across the board.
I created six potential solutions using this scheme and asked for the opinions of my peers. The most popular were the three options on the left. I chose the bottom one because I thought having white in the design was important so the ghosts didn't contrast too much and I thought the top design was too light for the halloween theme.
Reflection
Blogging this a few days after completing the brief, I can now see so many downfalls in my final image. I suppose it's a good thing to see all these faults in your work so you can figure out how to keep improving. I don't think I will ever be totally satisfied with any of my work for long.
Weaknesses
- The quality of my lines, although scanned at 300dpi seemed pretty low when imported into Photoshop. I hadn't enlarged the images above their real size so i'm not really sure why this is. In future I will scan at a higher resolution to retain more detail and a crisp edge.
- I was a bit disappointed that the blue and orange colour scheme didn't work out. Looking back I am thinking that my chosen colours might be a little harsh for the brand tone of voice.
- I only thought about this afterwards but maybe I should have matched the ends of the design up as this is going to be wrapped around a cylindrical tin. It would have been nice to have a seamless image.
- The brief didn't provide any information about where the logo and information would go. I looked at old caddies and it was usually centralised but the formats varied. It would have been good to have a bit more information on this so I could plan my design accordingly.
Strengths
- I feel like I have done something a bit different with this brief. I tried to move away from just generic natural autumnal things and add another element to it which I think has worked well and it has made the design process a little more fun.
- Having the pattern in the background and the separate images in the foreground has given the image more depth. I often feel my work is quite flat but this has worked well to make more of a 'scene'.
- Working to an initial rough rather than just designing on screen has kept me on track. Obviously there has been changes and alterations but the basic idea was clear from the start.
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