Final overall evaluation

Final overall evaluation 

As this was the first module back and the start of a new year I was keen to get on to a good start, the briefs set were a chance for me to fully explore design production methods. Rather than just doing a design and digital printing it the briefs allowed me to explore the use of materials, process's and construction methods.

Some of the most successful production methods were the Laser cut key rings for the Augmented advertising campaign (Brief 4), I had the most positive results with this brief and the use of laser cutter and after speaking to the guy down in the workshop I think il make more use of the facilities down there to create more physical work that takes consideration of construction on board rather than just design. Combining construction and design will give me further opportunity to create successful and conceptually relevant outcomes.

Conceptually I think I have been very successfully overall, I have really considered concepts when it comes to ideas and how I visualize these concepts has come on a great deal since the first year. The first brief I incorporated folding techniques and use of paper stocks evaluating its suitability when it came to color and texture and physical quality to help enhance concepts and ideas.

The logo brief made me think how history and heritage can be brought into design ideas to enhance a companies image which in turn helps appeal to certain target markets.

The website and augmented advertising campaign allowed me to fully explore conceptual ideas, be it subtle through the use of inspired grid systems in iconography production, use of color paper stocks to work along side current color schemes associated with a brand image, considering concepts through the use of material and how this strengthens ideas.

Target markets and persona's where another important thing I learnt over the module, learning about meeting the needs of the audience helped me produce more focused work that had a more specific purpose. It will also prepare me well for when I do external work for clients understanding what the audience wants is just as important ad understanding clients needs. Its not about what you like its what they like and want.

Designing for screen based output was something new to me, it was very daunting at first knowing I had to go and code a website with zero knowledge on the subject. Unfortunately we never got round to coding but I learnt all the basics of preparing design work for web and the use of web safe colors and fonts and a familiarity with coding language in CSS and HTML will give me good ground works for self learning as its a skill that is needed in this digital age. 

Learning about preparing files for print was something again that is a skill I need and will continue to use in college and externally, preparing color pallets for cross format use within the adobe suite, preparing in design into a package with all the needed files into one neat folder for the printer to use were the most beneficial. 

I learnt alot more about physical print techniques, both digitally and traditional. Alot of mistakes where made but it was all a learning process, my especial favorite was the happy accident of the UV varnish effect I achieved through running uncoated stock through the laser printer. A nice cheap alternative, one thing I do want to develop on is the making of stamps. I failed in the production but I feel a stamp is a good medium for any brand collateral as its versatile in its uses and allows a touch of traditionally where appropriate. I liked that I had the opportunity to explore more analogue techniques through the augmented brief where I simulated augmentation (the adding to an existing element) through the use of watercolor painting, a technique I used to enjoy using and the concept idea I had for the design allowed the use of this method. 

I continued to push my use of grid systems, after learning about them in design principles I see them as a staple to my practice now, both on screen off screen and for image and animation design they came in handy and they help strengthen concepts a great deal. As i mentioned in the leaflet brief its not all about what you see from the outset, its about the things that went on behind the scene that really make a project successful and properly informed. Something I think I began to understand and carry out. 

I made great use of scamps and thumbnails something Simon and Fred taught us last year to get out a great number of ideas out quickly. This rough way of working is a thing I use alot in my design process, I think it comes from my initial drawing background I see it was a quick way of adding and subtracting elements from each scamp or thumbnail to give me a rough idea how somethings going to work before spending more time developing on it. 

I have seen the benefits of using books as a more informed source of inspiration and learning, teaching me about construction techniques and screen based delivery's as well as how to create a good brand image. All details that will be used in later projects to enhance final outcomes.

Time planning though is still a problem for me, I seem to be motivated for the first half of the design process, analyzing the problem and figuring out what needs to be done and beginning to gather research and arrive at initial ideas but I seem to slow down from there and accept that I'm at a stable point. Only then when it comes to the end of the brief do I realize that that design idea is still in infancy and it needs developing on. 

A final thing I want to touch on is realizing who realistic a design project is in the external world, commercial producing a project is one of the most important factor when making work for input into the public, so realizing the cost and if the business can afford or justify such costs is an important factor. Also figuring out how and where to get certain things done like print finishes, different printing techniques and how things are constructed theres always going to be a company out there that can do the job for you and it all needs to be taken into account. 

I have learnt alot about print finishes mostly and now understand how to prepare most files and design work for commercial production. Where lucky enough to have amazing technicians and facilities to help us do almost anything so I need to remember to take advantage of this while I can before it becomes less realistic and I don't have the opportunity to use these methods due to the clients needs, wants, budget and there target audiences. 

Overall I enjoyed the module though, the improvements I need to make next time are better time management though and push the design past its infancy idea stage and fully develop and exhaust and idea before finalizing it. 

Augmented advertising campaign finals, concept & evaluation - Tsukuba Motorsport

Augmented advertising campaign finals - Tsukuba Motorsport

Concept

The intention of this advertising campaign was to extend on an existing website I created in an interactive way. An automotive blog influenced by Japanese motor sport & cars and focusing on high quality imagery with little textual distraction. Eye candy for automotive fans. I took forward elements of structure, minimalism, accuracy and movement from the website along with familiar aesthetics to keep things consistent across the brand image.

From this I created a physical advertising campaign taking supporting influence from the website with additional consideration to use of materials and process's to emulate Japanese engineering and traditional Japanese craft, from this I reproduced a refreshing line of promotional products and merchandise that sways away from the usual garish and tacky automative campaigns. 

Photobook.
This photo-book emulates traditional Japanese craft and Japanese engineering through its bolt bind and Japanese stab bind with a hand painted water-colour logotype on the front cover. The use of stock and ink is influenced from the existing website colour scheme wich takes influence from Japanese heritage through red and white stock and ink and is supported by coloured stock and ink inspired by mechanical elements through the use of greys. The layout maintains structure extending from that seen in the website, with a feeling of motion as the images rotate around a clock face guideline which is influenced by the iconic motor sport Time Attack. A race event where drivers race against the clock. 

Theres an option for the photo book to be supplied in an interactive kit, allowing the end user to construct the book to there tastes creating a unique outcome personalised to them. This has obvious links back to mechanics and construction. 

Stickers.
Sticker sets allow external placement of the brand image reaching out to wider audiences. 


Advertising poster and photographic prints.
Advertising posters for placment in Garages, shops, showrooms and car events to help establish external off page recognition aiming at wider audiences. 

Photographic prints extend on the websites focus on high end imagery offering end users the opportunity to purchase there favourite prints. 

Perforated tear out leaflet book.
A perforated book for holding leaflets for easy distribution of the leaflets at car shows and race events.  
 

Laser cut acrylic key rings. 
A gimmicky merchandise item that strongly appeals to the target persona, the use of a laser cutting machine emulates the accuracy and engineering seen in Japanese mechanics, engineering and car parts.

Triplex stock business cards
I tied together various elements seen across the website and brand collateral in these business cards, the main one been the use of motion within the Japanese glyphs and the incorporation of the coloured card stocks in various triplex combinations. 

Laser printing simulates spot UV varnish for glossy typography. 

 

Detail shots.

Augmented reality interactive app

This app meets the requirements of the persona that wants to find out more detail about there favourite cars, simply hover the phone over the image you want to find out about to discover interaction points and vital overall statistics. 

Or play around with the interactive home page and follow the icon links to the Tsukuba Motorsport website. 

Track & Car signage

More external recognition for the website situated on race cars and track signage.  

Evaluation

Quality of outcome

I am extremely happy with the outcome of the Tsukuba Motorsport advertising campaign, from a conceptual point of view I feel I created content well influenced by aspects of Japanese Motorsport, engineering and Japanese craft through the use of relevant materials, process's, layout, aesthetics and print finishes. 

The purpose of the campaign was to promote and support my current website, considering the target audience throughout in terms of target persona's wants and need and promotional and marketing techniques. The collateral I produced took into account marketing and promotional aspects taking into consideration placement and how each item can reach out to potential audiences. Combined all the items offer opportunity to reach out to a vast array of target audiences.

The focus of the site was a high focus on imagery with very little distraction the content that included imagery here emulated this perfectly showing support for the websites current concept, but the material that didn't offered promotion to bring new target audiences into the website. 

The interactivity was successful as well, through the augmented reality app that interacts with the physical printed photographs with a supporting interactive homepage. It also meets the needs of the target persona that wants to learn more about the images presented. 

Build quality

The physical construction of some of the items could have gone better, I wanted absolute accuracy throughout to emulate japanese engineering. Things like the stamp production didn't go so well due to the use of wrong inks and trouble with the laser cutting (See development)

I feel I emulated triplex printing quite well too when it came to the business card production, it was quite an accurate reproduction but obviously it would have been better if I had purchased professionally produced triplex printed paper from someone like GF smith.  

The quality of the photo book outcome was my strongest outcome, the quality of the Japanese stab bind and the bolt bind worked perfect both ergonomically, aesthetically and conceptually for emulating Japanese engineering and Japanese craft. 

Materials

I feel through the use of nuts and bolts I emulated Japanese engineering perfectly, combine this with the red stitching on the Japanese bind that carry through the brand image through use of colour and influence of Japanese craft which was obvious in the website but was expanded on in the advertising campaign. 

The use of coloured paper stocks helped maintain a high end overall finish and helped carry through the colour scheme in a more physical tactile way.

The use of acrylic worked perfect for the purpose of key rings and allowed me to use the laser cut machine to emulate Japanese engineering and extend on the accuracy seen in the website. Acrylic worked amazing with the laser cut giving a very high quality outcome. 

Processes

Physical print process for the material I used digital print, this offered high detail for the photography, all the photos I took myself on a Nikon d5100 DSR so I wanted the quality to shine through so digital print was an expensive option but the focus was high quality imagery so it was required. 

More physical techniques like water-colour painting added a tactile feel and hand made quality to the book, customers appreciate hand built things. Especially automotive fans, for example they see hand built cars as high quality so emulating this quality while combining Japanese craft benefits the overall concepts I wanted to include.

Laser printing onto the uncoated stock simulated UV varnish, a more cost effective solution for creating a high end finish. 

Time limitations and time keeping

I managed my time reasonably well when it came to researching, idea generation and visual development, but when it came to producing the digital files ready for production and print I messed up a little, I had to rush my production of everything luckily I didn't ruin anything but I wanted to create two versions of the photo book. A hand made version and a photo book kit they could assemble there selves to strengthen the idea of mechanics. 

Improvements

Better time management to enhance quality outcomes and fully meet my plans of action. 

Learn how to properly use the laser cut machine, I messed up with the stamp quality due to having to JPEG the file. Learning how to set up files for raster and learning how Ethos software works properly would benefit this if I redid a stamp. 

I could have benefited with more print process experimentation. screen printing may have benefited some of the collateral to increase the tactile feel but luckily the laser printer simulated a UV varnish effect so this worked to my advantage. 

Commercial consideration

I have individually analysed the commercial considerations for each item, most things are realistic for reasonable external printing, posters, photographic prints, business cards would be the most cost effective.

Laser cutting would be required for the key rings, the materials are not expensive just the use of the machinery, but its an item Tsukuba Motorsport could sell so this wouldn't be a major problem.

Same with the photo book, this would be a purchase too so the costs that add up from hand binding wouldn't be so much of a bad thing if people are willing to pay. The pages would be digitally printed or litho printed by an external printer, the holes could be drilled by an outsource engineer or a table top drill could be purchased. 

The leaflet could be adapted to single sheets without the japanese bind so this would be commercially viable allowing it to be printed digitally or litho printed.

The paper stock wasn't too expensive either so this wouldn't be a problem and it was a cost effective solution to achieving a high end finish. 

Applying "Whiskey Elements" logo across brand collateral

Applying "Whiskey Elements" logo across brand collateral 

Physical application of logos & why
I carried out an extension of the brief and placed my logos onto some physical items relevant to the whiskey industry and that could be used within the brand collateral of "Whiskey Elements" products. This is also a reaction & adaptation to some points I made in my evaluation & brand proposal, I mentioned I wanted to create physical outcomes using the logo to create collateral for the brand image. 

The logo system was applied over a few different items to show how versatile its application could be, applying it on stamps, business cards and whiskey stone bag was the successful physical outcomes. The stock choice on the business card was influenced by wood (brown) and the cream was influenced by classic top shelf whiskey branding. The idea of the product was to make low end whiskey taste like top shelf whiskey so this influence is relevant to the product. 

The use of bronze edging on the business card adds a touch of class and luxury to the brands image, something again relevant to the enhancement concept of the business. 

The stamps came in two sizes, a 5.5cm radios and a 4cm radius so the stamp could be applied across future collateral, the initial logo was influenced by Portland Organs historic stamp/seal. So applying this logo to a traditional stamp seemed quite relevant to giving the modern logo a feeling of traditionality and heritage. Something that was the focus of the logo throughout the development. 

Outcomes that actually worked!
In the end the only successful outcomes I ended up with where the business cards, the initial plan was to:
Laser cut the logo into a bottle
Create a stamp to stamp up the whiskey stone bag and business card.
Laser cut into the whiskey stones.
But numerous problems came up!

Development & production.

Setting up a simple business card set up, its a shame I didn't have time to develop a more thought out range of stationary and brand collateral but Im happy with this outcome non the less. 

To keep structure and balance I split the business card up into two halves with a number of horizontal divides which allowed me to position the typography and balance it with the position and spacial allowance of the logo. 

 

I tried out both logos the black and the outline, I prefer the outcome off the outline, its more subtle and balanced where as the black logo seems out of balance in relationship with the Typography. Balance and use of space is important within business cards as type is so small legibility and readability needs to be maintained through lots of fine tuning.
  

This structure was maintained for the typography at the back of the card. Im happy with how this turned out its very balanced and structured within the space. I also added an interactive element for the end user, a competition opportunity for them if they rate the taste of the whiskey element they used. A nice little interaction and pleasant user experience, everyone likes competitions.

 

Played around with some paper stock, I wanted to duplex print the business card so I knew the typography side would be a light stock to maintain readability & legibility through tonal contrast.

The front cover needed to take influence from past whiskey branding, wood, and the idea of traditionally with a modern twist so I settled on an uncoated dark brown stock that took on the ink well and left a subtle visual aesthetic when it came to contrast of tone for the content at the front of the card. I wasn't wanting it to be too loud so this subtly worked perfect. 

I tried out the stamp on a business card without a logo, the idea here was to mix traditional and modern together through traditional and modern print techniques. The bronze adds a touch of class and luxury as mentioned previous, It did fail though when it came to printing the logo. More on the outcome of the logo later.

A happy accident so to speak came about when I pressed the side of the cards to achieve a copper foiling like effect, something that is commonly used in commercial printing to add a touch of class and luxury to brand collateral. So this simulation was a cost effective way at achieving a similar effect although it didn't come out as neat as I would have liked. If this was reproduced commercially copper foiling could be carried out as a print finish although for a starter company like these it may not be cost effective. 

Lots of fails and very little success! 

Measuring up the whiskey stones, 6cm x 6cm.

Applying the logo to the template, again showing the versatility of this logo system allowing unique combinations for each whiskey stone.

Making sure everything was square on the laser bed, I didn't get an after photo but the end result was very disappointing after running the laser over the stones at full power it didn't even scratch the surface, if I was to do this again I would use the CNC machine in the wood workshop. After speaking to the guy down there I see a lot of future potential in this machine. 

I also had trouble with laser cutting the stamp, I couldn't work out how to get the laser to raster (color in an enclosed shape) from my illustrator file so I had to convert it to a JPEG, this resulted in a large quality loss and a very pixelated stamp. The lino material used worked amazing though, It could have done with been lasered twice too as it didn't cut deep enough.  

 

Playing about with reversing out the type for the handle, I prefer the standard version and was happy with how the balsa wood reacted with the laser treatment, for commercial production balsa and lino is quite cheap so making the stamp handle & stamp out of these materials would be cost effective. Laser cutting services however are quite expensive but fortunately the company "Time & Oak" reached more than there allowance on kick-starter wich was to fund a new laser cutting machine so this wouldn't be a problem.

 

Smoothing off the stamp once glued together to get rid of the burn to make it look professionally made.

The ink didn't transfer over onto the fabric very well, I think this is because the stamp ink was made more for general paper use, something acrylic based would have worked better. Screen printing would have been ideal if I managed time better.

I mentioned I wanted to etch into a bottle, well I tried that with the laser machine and something went wrong with the software and it didn't read the lines/paths I input through the illustrator file and just rastered (colored in) the whole bottle leaving a sharp & rough surface. Plan ruined!

Example of how I set my files up in illustrator so I knew what settings to apply later on in the Ethos software.