OUGD503: Responsive - Submitting to YCN

OUGD505: Design Practice 2 - Crit with Lorraine

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Today I had a crit with Lorraine on my Oscars research publication. I wanted to show her my design before I sent it to print so that if I had any spelling mistakes or layout issues she could tell me before it was too late. 

I found this crit very helpful and noticed a few mistakes with my design which I have managed to change before sending it to print. 

OUGD503: Responsive - Individual Practice (Christine Crossley)

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The brief:

Design logo and stationary for Christine Crossley.

Background:

Christine owns her own home-run book-keeping business in Todmorden. She has recently retired after 40 years at a popular firm in Todmorden and has decided that she would still like to keep some of her clients. She made the decision to set up a freelance business from her home as she only has a few clients. She approached me to design a logo and stationary for her to use. She wanted the design to be simple and monochrome as she would be printing the majority of the design on her home printer. 

Mandatories:

A mandatory requirement is that she wants the logo to say her name and book-keeping and accounting services. 

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I went to meet Christine to get some idea of exactly what she wanted from me. I asked her series of questions to help me to come up with a few ideas. 

Questions:

1. Describe yourself in 3 words

2. Do you prefer serif or sans serif fonts?

3. Are there any fonts you have in mind already?

4. Would you like the use of a secondary logo that could stand alone (image)?

5. What stationary do you require?

Answers:

1. Professional, friendly and trustworthy

2. Sans Serif

3. Calibri

4. Not really but I would be open to any ideas

5. Letterhead, business card and an invoice

These answers are going to be very helpful when it comes to designing the final outcomes. I want to make sure that I represent Christine as a person as she is running a local business which is not corporate, I think the typeface should represent her personality to her clients who already know and trust her. 

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Choosing a font:

I have been compiling a list of possible fonts that I could use for the brief. I know that Christine wants a sans serif font and I also want a font that reflects her. I think that a font with a selection of weights will be best as I can use the different weights to separate information with the logo. 

I have chosen the following fonts to present to Christine to choose her favourite. 

My personal favourite font is Kozuka Gothic Pro, simply because it offers the best options for me a designer. I think that using weights of a font is a good way to work with Type Hierarchy and information which is something I think I will need to do with this brief. I do also like Orator STD because I feel that it ties in very well with accounting as it looks like digital numbers on a calculator. The main problem with this font is that it only has one weight so type hierarchy is not as easily possible. 

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Having presented my font choices to Christine she has chosen Kozuka Gothic Pro and Calibri, she prefers calibri because she has it on her own computer at home and the font will be consistent on all printed material. I have explained to her that I can download the Kozuka font onto her computer to which she expressed more interest in. 

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Logo experiments:

Using Orator STD. 

I decided to look into logo variations with Orator STD to start as I can see if the font will work in the way I want it to. 

1. 

2.

3.

I am happy with these logos and I have managed to use type hierarchy by separating the information with a black line. I think my favourite out of the set is the 2nd variation as it looks more uniform to me and I think it will work well across a range of stationary. I have experimented with the use of an image on the 3rd variation by using the 2 C's to represent Christine Crossley, this would be used as a stand alone image on a business card for example. 

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Kozuka Gothic Pro:

Using Kozuka Gothic Pro and different weights:

1. and 2. 

3.

Now that I have experimented with this font I am sure that this is one for the logo. I played around the different weights that the typeface has to offer and I think that Regular and Light are the two which are more legible and work in harmony together. I have also been experimenting with the positioning of the strapline/job title under her name. I think that the top option is the best because it fits perfectly into the end of the Y.

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Choosing the logo:

I have presented the logo variations to Christine and she agrees with me that the Kozuka logo is the best fit. She did not like the Orator STD logos because she felt they were too heavy and the font was too imposing. 

The Final Logo for Christine Crossley:

Now that I have the logo finalised I can start to put together the stationary for the final response to this brief. Christine has further expressed that she would simply like a business card and a letterhead as she wants to lay out her invoice herself. 

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Designing the stationary:

Letterhead:

I created an A4 document and placed the logo into the top right hand corner, the client had expressed that she wanted the letterhead to be very simple with an easy layout if she were ever to reproduce the file. I added a thin black line to the bottom of the letter to create a specific place for the contact details to be. I am not sure where to place the address for Christine as of yet because the traditional letterhead would have it underneath the logo in the top right hand corner. I am unsure about whether the place the address with the contact details though, I am wary of negative space where it is not needed. 

I have decided to keep the traditional letterhead template because Christine has asked for the layout to be simple and easy to reproduce. 

Final Letterhead:

I have left a large amount of space for content on this page because it has a duel function of an invoice as well as a letter template. 

Business Card:

I want to create a business card that can be printed both double sided and single sided as Chrstine will be printing them herself to save on cost. She has expressed to me that she will be sending 100 to print and would like them to be double sided, but any further print runs will be done herself.

The business card has taken on the same aesthetic as the letterhead with the logo featuring on one side for impact. I have also kept the black line over the contact details for consistency. 

Final Stationary:

I have mocked up the stationary to be able to show Christine a more professional layout and allow her to see what her work will look like when printed.

Mock Up:

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Evaluation:

Having completed this brief I can now look back an evaluate it critically. 

Overall I have enjoyed this brief because it has had a quick turn around, it has taken me 7 days to come up with the logo and mock up the stationary. Both myself and Christine appreciated how short a time it has taken me to complete as she needed the designs within a few weeks of approaching me. The final mock up has added a very professional aesthetic to my work and Christine also appreciated seeing the designs in context. I have not had a lot of experience with branding and identity in the past so this brief was a great opportunity to experiment in this area. 

OUGD503: Responisive - Collaborative Practice (evaluation)

The collaborative practice aspect of this module has been an eye-opener and also a learning curve. I found it very difficult to find a partner at the beginning because I did not want to work with a friend due to personal interests and also the fact that I do not want to fall out with friends. I knew that I wanted to work on a web brief so I had to find someone in the class who wanted to do the same. As the selection of partners happened over a 2 week reading week it was very poorly timed as many people had to ask people over facebook and text. Due to this it happened that most people ended up working with their friends as it was an easy option. I asked many people who I knew from the 504 module enjoyed web design but all of them were working together.

When I finally found Adam was interested in web design and he wanted to work with me it was a feeling of relief. I had already looked at some of the competition briefs and identified a few that would lean towards a web resolution. Adam had also done the same and when we came together we decided to work on Redrow (YCN). We chose this brief because we thought it was the most detailed and gave us the creative freedom. As we began to brainstorm I came up with some concepts and Adam agreed with me on most of them. The final concept was a collaborative effort though it stemmed from one of my initial ideas. Adam knew that he was not as interested in UI and UX, which I am. I took the lead with layout and grid whilst Adam turned his attention to designing artwork for out website. We decided to create an illustration that detailed the three stages that a site goes through, in order to see this we visited a Redrow site at Steeton. Adam has photography skills which was very helpful on this day as he was able to gather primary research and also model his illustration on an actual site in production. Adam's illustrations were amazing and really pulled together the information that I had come up with. Though we might not have each spent the same amount of time on the project this was not to say that we did not produce the same amount of work. My input into the project was mainly preparation and organisation of files and also information. I was able to design the logos for each job which was something I enjoyed and also I put together the format of the website.

When it came to putting our proposal together Adam was more skilled on the software to do this, I took a more supervisory role in this aspect of the brief giving my opinion as Adam worked. This part of the brief was the most time consuming and it seemed that Adam started to loose interest in the brief. I do not think that this was necessarily his choice but the illustrations seemed to take so much time that he was beginning to resent the brief because of it. The last week before submission was a struggle as we were not agreeing on certain aspects of the design. In the end we had to come to a compromise and we did produce something that fit in with the current branding of the Redrow website.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this brief and I would be happy to work with Adam in the future. We now hope to win the brief as it is one of our favourite pieces of design we have both created. The time and effort that we put into the brief is reflected in our response and we hope that the judges can appreciate this.

OUGD503: Responsive - Individual Practice (femfresh Design Outcomes)

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Design Outcomes:

My response:

The final concept I have settled on is an informative mailshot and 7 day trial of femfresh Daily intimate wash. 

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Identifying the information for the concertina:

I looked over the brief again to identify some of the facts and figures that femfresh had given. I think I will use these facts to form the basis of my concertina as I am sure that these facts are correct and have come straight from femfresh. 

I want to include some vector illustrations to break up the information and make it more user friendly. Now I have identified the key information I need to mock up a concertina.

I think that four pages is a nice number and allows me to fit the design onto an A3 document and the point size will still be legible when printed. Though I do have enough information to warrant a few more pages I don't think the design would work at A3 scale. 

Concertina Illustrations:

Having looked through the information that I need to show on my concertina I have come up with the following illustrations to break up the large amount of text I will have. 

pH scale

Sachet

Women in the UK

Star Rating

Other Soaps

First, second and third

Doctor

Diary/Calendar

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Laying out the information:

Variation 1:

For the first crit on this brief I designed this version of the concertina. I did not include all of the illustrations because I didn't think they were needed. The publication detail some of the facts about the brand and also instructions for the trial. 

The front of the concertina has 2 pages taken up for the logo and title which left me with 2 pages without any information on it. I went to the femfresh website and found a 'tips for you' page. I thought this would be a good way to relate to the brand so I added it in. 

The crit on my work went well though people thought I needed more information about the brand and less tips as it was not necessary.

Variation 2:

Following on from my crit I have made a few changes to the layout of my concertina. I have added more illustrations to break up the new information and this has brought in more colour. 

Inside:

 Front:

Coming up with the logo imagery:

I have decided to use the female symbol on the cover of my publication because I think it has a serious tone and also looks very professional. I wanted to change the block colour symbol from variation 1 so I looked into to existing femfresh packaging for some inspiration to link to the brand. I have identified the 3 leaves on the femfresh Daily Intimate Wash and I think I could use it as a basis and create something to make the concertina more friendly. 

The leaf

Repeat pattern - one colour

Flower - 2 colour

3 flowers to mimic the 3 leaves on the bottle

Black line flower with centre

Coloured flowers incorporated with black line

Variation of the flowers

I have chosen to use the repeat pattern because, though flowers are more commonly associated with women, some women might not find flowers very appealing. 

Final logo:

Diary:

Along with the concertina I am also creating a small pocket diary to be used as the trial goes on. I brainstormed the main features that the diary has to have in order to work with the pack. These things are:

Now that I know what is needed I can start to design the contents of the diary. I know that each day the layout needs to be the same in order to stay simple and consistent. The women need to give the product a rating out of 10 each day and also measure their level of irritation I also want to add a section for notes as the diary will be sent back to femfresh to see the results of the trial and the tick box answers will not be massively helpful to them. 

The content of the diary:

Using the same repeat pattern from the logo I have created the template for the diary. The cover is simple and clear which is consistent with the concertina, the explanation of the diary is very clear and even repeats some key features of the trial incase the woman does not have her full pack to refer to. The actual recording area also has a simple aesthetic, I wanted to make the diary very easy to fill out each day because women will not want to sit everyday and fill in a diary that takes any longer 5 minutes. 

Back of diary:

I used a friendly tone of voice throughout all of my response because I think that a formal tone is intimidating to women. I have referenced the femfresh website on the back of my diary because this is the main way I want women to submit their reviews of the product, I did this mainly to link back to the femfresh site as much possible.

I think that this variation is much more appealing than the first outcome I came up with because it is more friendly and has more structure. I will be taking it along to the next crit and hopefully the feedback will be positive.

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Variation 2 Photographs:

Crit feedback:

Feedback from the crit was very positive and I am very happy with my outcome. I wanted to make sure that the physical design was on the right tracks before designing anything digital, as my digital response will mirror the print aspect. 

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The App:

I am creating an App to work as the diary for women who are on the move and cannot write in a diary every day. I want the design to mirror the print resolution as much as possible to keep the consistency.

I started out by brainstorming all of the features that the App needed to have, most of these were the same as the print diary apart from the chat aspect. From my primary research I have noticed that women like to talk to other women who are going through similar issues, not that I see the trial as an issue but I want to give women the option to chat to each other whilst they are taking part in the trial for comfort and tips. 

Rough planning:

Iconography:

I have created some small vector icons to use along the bottom of the app as a form of navigation. I think that this uses the same principle as the illustrations in the concertina, it makes the content less dry and serious. 

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First draft of the app:

Example of a profile

Showing the App in context:

By adding my artwork into a mock up of an iPhone I am able to see if the design looks professional or not. I think that the white background could be a little imposing but I am very happy with the layout otherwise. 

Website page mock up:

I am also creating an additional web page to go on the existing femfresh website. I want this page to be simple and to the point but it also has to fit in with the other web pages to ensure consistency.

I used a simple form format with a short question and answer series for women to answer. I wanted to make the page a quick and easy review, like the trial because women do not have time to spend a lot of time filling in a form. 

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Evaluating the work I have done so far:

Having almost completed my femfresh response I am not fully happy with the result. I plan to look over the work I have come up with and evaluate it critically as if I had not designed it. 

I think that the concertina is too clinical and none inviting, I think the title needs to be altered to be something more self explanatory such as 'How to use this pack'. I want the concertina to be the main aspect of the pack and at the moment women will be confused as to what they need to read first. 

I am also unhappy with the App as it looks rushed and the white background does not fit in with other App's on the same level. I think that my work needs some changes and luckily I have the time to make these changes before the deadline. 

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Final changes:

Working on a new cover:

I have decided that the symbol for the female is too clinical and not friendly enough for the trial. I also do not like the 3 flower leaf idea anymore either as it is not clear that the design is inspired by femfresh packaging. Staying with the theme of femfresh packaging I have found another bottle with an image of a flower bud opening and I want to experiment with a logo in this style.

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Logo experiments:

Using the same concept of the flower leaf I have created 4 variations of the bud opening to choose from. 2 of the designs are simple vector images and 2 others have a brush applied to them. 

Personally I prefer the third option as it is not too busy but it looks hand drawn and delicate. 

I also played around with creating one large flower out of the design but I think that this is too over powering and will only work for print purposes in the background of the diary and concertina. 

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The sachets:

I created a simple net for the sachets as I could not find any real sachets to buy on the internet. These are simply for photographing purposes and would be updated if my design were to be selected. 

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The envelope:

I know that my mailshot will need to be sent in an envelope but I am unsure whether this needs to be a heavy duty envelope or a standard DL enevelope. I have put together some net designs of a possible envelope for my pack to be contained within. 

I want the envelope to be a subtle as possible so to avoid any embarrassment from the target audience. This then means that I cannot have the femfresh logo printed onto my envelope. I need to think of another way to represent the brand without using the logo. 

Testing envelopes:

I made some rough mock ups of the envelopes I had drawn the nets for. 

I think that using a blue envelope will tie in nicely with the brand and will also be eye-catching in a pile of letters. 

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Revised Print Outcomes

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Final Diary designs:

Using the final logo to add a background to each page ensures that the friendly tone of voice is kept. I also want the design to relate to the target audience and not be too clinical. 

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Final App designs:

I haven't changed much on the final App design other than re-design some of the pages to fit in with the current IOS7 on an iPhone 5. I think that the circular buttons on the calendar page look much more professional and also work best for a phone instead of bulky squares. The circle is much more friendly than a harsh square also which reflects the tone of voice I want to achieve. 

Homepage:

 Profile page:

Information page 1

Information page 2

Information page 3

Calendar

Each day

Results

At ease page

Chat

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Final web page design:

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Final Products and Photography

App:

Website: