My Design Progress Chart

I have decided to create a flow chart for the design process... Using " Design Thinking " by Gavin Amboss and Paul Harris along with lecture notes i have put together this piece of work.

I started by liking the colour scheme of this piece:

I thought it looked really good and was easy to follow. So moving on from this i set up my illustrator document and got to work which left me with this:

I was happy with it, it may not have the perfect layout or the colours may not please everyone, but for me this will help a great deal to have as a poster and refer too...

My only issue was that it didnt look complete. Trying to create something like the original image meant i needed some texture. I went and found some paper samples.

After importing them to photoshop and using two paper samples ontop of each other with different transparencies and a linear burn meant the end product looked more like the starting point than what i had previously made:

This was my final design which i was happy with. I feel the paper texture has added tot he retro feeling colours and given the piece a sense of age and knowledge.

Alphabet Soup - Illustration Design

We where asked to use Illustrator as a tool to create 26 final alterations of a single letter form. 

I first decided to try out some ideas before putting together my final set.

I liked the look of some but others i felt didn't work as well. This helped me decide upon my final 26.

After choosing i came through with these. I used warps, shadowing, direct alterations and effects to create my panel.

Colour Theory Part 2

We where informed that we would need out items we started with for the first part of this project as we where going to learn about the way colour reacts when used alongside other shade, tones and variations of the same colour and its complimentary.

We where put into groups and mixed with people who owned the complimentary colour to orange ( blue ) and we began taking images.

No News Is Good News Mail Shot. Update

So the mail has arrived and i find myself looking at a whole new level of re-design with the postal service damaging the item quite heavily and having to include their own sticker to make sure it didn't damage anymore.. . .

 As you can see from the above the design has faded, ripped and genuinely been made to look shabby.
This in my opinion is a big fault as if the mail-shot doesn't stand and look good how can the viewer at all think the message inside is worth listening too...

In conclusion i again stick with the being able to use more than one substrate would have been beneficial to me to enforce my design and make a clearer item.

No News is Good News Mail Shot.

We where given an extra part to this project being that we would produce a mail shot to correspond with our posters. The goal was to create something which again used only 2 colours including stock but make it sendable and have ten people to send it to which it would be effective.

My concept stayed the same. I was informing people about the actual failures of the police in response to 999 calls.

I strarted the ideate stage witht he knowledge i had researched from the previous task.

I wanted to make people think about whats going on in the police and try to subtly shatter the image they have of them.

My first idea took the form of a 6ft typical robber vector. I would print it off and fold it up in such a way that the stripey jumper would look like bars showing through the envelope. When the viewer unfolds this large item the criminal would stand there holding a sign saying " There going to be an hour. What shall we do? " ...

This would be an actual 6ft image.

The problem i thought up with this idea was that if i sent it to anyone abit too small to hold up something 6ft the actual feel of the piece would be lost. This meant i had to re think my ideas and quite quickly.

Secondly i thought up of following from my poster and creating something which looked really official.. something which many Leeds people had seen and are used to seeing. Create a Form which would be presented and seen as a parking ticket.

This would mean the anger which people feel from receiving one would pick up before they had even had time to open the letter. 

apon opening the form you would notice it says " 999 request form " at the top and then corresponding details to the viewer to be placed below. at the foot of the letter " please allow upto an hour to receive a response to this application". 

I felt this would be a really good idea but something i had already created in the past task and wanted something abit more tricky. 

Thirdly i decided to create a die cut image of a blood bag. I imagined most people are familiar with the shape and function of a blood bag so if i left the middle section cut away it should still have the same message.

I started with an image of the blood bag and vectorised it. removing the section which contained the blood and replacing it with a sort of greece proof paper looked fantastic. It gave the piece a sense of plastic and made me feel it was achieving the goal whilst still sticking to the brief. 

A sticker officially labelled would be placed ontop of the greece proof paper to look like a description to what blood was inside. This would be used to write the address of the receiver onto.

The red paper would have the information written onto it so as you pull out the item it looks likes the blood is being drained.

So after presenting these to the group via a crit. It was an obvious vote towards the blood bag idea.

My problem was that i could mix stock. Which made me have to rethink the design. After afew tweaks i came up with having the sticker part of the uncut part of the bag. This worked well but after putting it together i cant help but feel disappointed with the design as it doesn't quite look as professional as i like to set myself.

They look quite dull and im unsure if they really communicate the message.

The back of the red looks like this:

The typeface is kept the same as the posters to show a link between them both.

 I have grew to think these look nice but i just wish i could produce them with photographic qualities so that they really look something special.

It came to think about who will be receiving this mail shot and why. So i created a quick illustrator document with a list of people who i think would benefit from this.

1. Neighbourhood watch HQ

I decided to include this because if it could be forwarded to areas which they know are not protected by the help of others in their own neighbourhood then it would help push the message.

2. Police HQ

This was an obvious place to forward in my opinion as its a fact that the police need to see and something needs to be done.

3. Mr + Mrs Smith

Through Research These take responsibility for checking up on residential homes and homes of the elderly within a section of Leeds.

4. Leeds City Hall

The city hall has a very used notice board which many people would look at. If this mail shot could be left near or anywhere within the hall people could respond to it and the message would have been delivered.

5. NHS

I thought that this would be a good place to send it too as if any injuries where taken to hospital it would be them whom have to sort it out.

6.Tourist Center

I would send it to here yet i feel it would be better if it was taken in secretly and placed as it would paint a bad image of the police and leave anyone who reads it questioning the professionalism of the Police.

7. Opal One

8. Liberty

9. Sky Plaza

i figured it would be right to send this to the student halls as many students forget that people could easilye nter the building and take or steal things and if confronted they could use violence. So i believe it would be an effective way to try and make people think.

10.Welsh Police Office

I thought i would send one to the Welsh police near the home of the girl who was killed and how this project and story was based upon. I think it would let them know people are still thinking about it.

In conclusion to this:

I havent really enjoyed this side of the project as much as i thought i would have. Alot of my ideas where stopped by limitations stated by the brief. I think i need to start taking in the requirements more before rushing to note down ideas as it leads to things not looking professional or to a standard i would like it too. 

My end product i feel has a strong way of communicating the message but was faulted by a bad visual design which wasnt upto scratch.

As mentioned before I feel that if i could have used as many colours as i would have liked the image would have been photorealistic and would have looked alot nicer. 

Colour Theory

We where asked to bring in ten items of a certain colour. My group had been given the colour Orange.

When we arrived we where instructed to place our items into a colour wheel. 

We where told to use the pantone swatches we had found that matched our items and create a diagram showing the corresponding colour match created through illustrator.