Oh (Stolen) Christmas Tree...

After the final crit, in which our presentation boards were discussed, I photographed my presents and bags in context. I realise that it is December, but I was struggling to find a christmas tree, or christmas setting to photograph them in. I resorted to stealing/borrowing a plastic tree from the cafeteria in college and rearranging the decorations so that I could photograph my presents underneath it. These are the photographs that I put on my boards, and I feel that it does really help to give some idea of how appropriate they are.





(I did put the tree back!)

Gifts Galore...

I have finished producing the wrapping paper for my Occasions brief, finally!
It has taken a little while to produce them; partially because I had to do all the foiling which I needed to find time to do, partially because I had to organise putting the foiled designs through the printer to finish them, and partially because I was scared that it would all go horribly wrong! Anyway, here is a photo (taken on my desk) of 4 parcels wrapped in the paper. I am going to photograph the whole range together and individually so that I can present them on my boards really cleanly.



Overall I am quite pleased with the outcome; Unfortunately the print of the black once the metallic areas had been foiled has not lined up perfectly, but there isn't an awful lot I can do about it. So, I've decided that it will do for the photos and submission as it is mainly the concept and design rather than the finish I can achieve within college.

All wrapped up...

I have finalised my designs for the elements of the paper product range. I have changed the colour scheme - the options are now craft stock, black and silver or craft stock, black and gold. I feel that this is a much more manageable range (with 4 colourways and 4 designs the range would have incorporated 30+ products) and can be achieved in the time I have left to produce it for the module deadline. I do have the opportunity to design a different colourway after the deadline for the brief deadline next spring.

These are the final:

Card Designs:


Primary Wrap:


Secondary Wraps:


Gift Tags:


Primary Bags:


Secondary Bags:

50/50...

I have produced 50 of the christmas cards I have designed for a client. They chose two designs, and two colourways (as shown below). I printed the colour areas of the design digitally (inkjet) and then screen printed the gold metallic ink areas over the top. It was relatively time consuming to produce them, but I am really pleased with the outcome as I hit several walls in the course of production.

Gifts in bags...

This is my first mock up of the gift bag format. I have stuck to the size guidelines that we were given in the brief, and looked at an existing gift bag to determine the type of net I should use. This is a very small mock up, but the net has worked really well, and I think that with some reinforcement (because the brown paper is flimsy) it will look really good for my final mock ups.

I have to produce 4 types of bag - 1 small, 1 medium, 1 large and 1 wine. I am going to produce a different design for each size that uses the type baubles, and another set all using the same simple dot pattern design. This will create a set of 8 bags that all complement each other, along with the gift wrap and card designs.

All that glitters is not gold...

I have had many an issue with trying to print a certain part of my card designs in gold. I had to option of using gold foil or gold metallic ink.

The foil will stick to either; a screen printed glue or a carbon print (ie. laser print or photocopy)
I had tried using the carbon option before, but I have chosen to produce the cards on heavy watercolour paper* and the foil does not take well to it due to the texture. It does however take much better to the glue - as shown. The only problem is that the glue takes several pulls to make sure that it goes through the screen and as a result it bleeds a little. The letters are quite delicate shapes, and the bleeding shows, giving a rougher outline to the letters.



Screen printing the gold ink has worked quite well; shown below. The colour is not quite as bold or brassy as the foil, but the metallic element is still there, and it has quite a lovely glittery effect as well. The letters have come out quite cleanly (1 or 2 pulls works best).



I have to produce 50 cards this week for a client, and I have decided:
- Print the colour parts of the design onto watercolour paper using the laser printers
- Screen print the gold ink on to the cut down cards

* I am using watercolour paper because it is not actually white, which is warmer than stark white, and complements the colours and metallics better. It is also quite heavy and, when folded, stands up well. Overall it was the most suitable sort of stock I could find, and I think that it will work well for the cards.

Crit Feedback...

We had a crit on Wednesday, and I was able to get feedback on all 3 of the briefs I have started as well as the collaborative brief that I am doing with Sara. These are the basic notes that I made whist the feedback was being given;

Sustainable Packaging Brief...
- First hand research - go to Boots and look at what is on the shelf next to the products I am redesigning.
- Layout of the text - make it clearer
- Stock test - how will the stock/materials improve the personality of the products
- Might I include imagery?
- Find a happy medium with the type, not too overlapped or spaced out
- Plain bottles and simple colours works well
- Keep the design clear and clean
- Needs to feel more expert and crisp

Branding...
- Logo works well
- The colour palette is well chosen and hints at a retro-ish theme
- Use the logo within the doily shape, green circle with brown edge

Type & Product...
- Woodblock design with highlighted lyrics is the most popular
- Work with the order of the words on the digitally produced designs
- Lyric designs are less obviously christmas, less cliche
- Make the woodblock designs a little less distressed, not so gothic
- More white space - the design should not touch the edges of the cards
- Colour combinations are a good choice
- Gold/Silver accent will make the design pop, and not overpower with too much colour or glitter

I am going to devise an Action Plan that will relate to each of the points made in the crit, as well as the areas I feel I need to develop/ explore and design in. I also need to plan time around letterpress development and screen printing my outcomes.
The action plan will start on the first day back after the reading week (scheduled for next week).

Card Stock...

I have started to consider what kinds of paper stock I am going to use for the christmas cards and wrapping paper etc. Stock can be an integral part of the overall design and is really important to getting the tone of voice for a design right.

I am thinking that the cards should be printed onto some sort of heavy cartridge paper, possibly water colour, but definitely something with texture or grain in it. I think that this will add to the letterpress/woodblock design of the card, and enhance the hand made feel.

The wrapping paper could be of similar stock, probably thinner, but still using a textured/pulp paper, but I am also considering using brown paper. A couple of years ago I bought some beautiful christmas wrap that was basic brown paper with a repeat pattern of reindeer silhouettes printed on it in gold. The contrast between the 'cheap' brown paper and the expensive printed finish created a strange but beautiful design that made the paper feel really special. I think that this design worked because it wasn't too over the top with lots of metallics or glossy texture, but 2 very simple and contrasting elements. When I come to screen printing the paper I will try using brown paper, white paper and possibly some tissue paper, as well as more textured stock.

This is a digital mock up of how the brown paper might look with black and gold printing...

Card Mock-ups...

These are a few basic mock-ups that I have produced to get a feel of how the cards would be viewed. These have been digitally printed but the intention is that they will be screen printed, and the brown-ish colour will be gold.