Design for print// Good is: Final pieces..

These are the images for my final solution for the Good is brief. I decided to change my idea a few days before module submission which has made everything a bit hectic, but to be honest I wasnt happy at all with what I had previously produced, I feel that I could have done so much better so I have done something about it. My new idea is still based around the same concept and story, I have just changed the outcome. My new idea was one that I had written down at the beginning of the process, but I didnt feel that was enough. I did try and design a look book but I didnt gather enough material to create something decent and meaningful. This new outcome is a 'make your own polka dot pattern pack'. The pack contains 10 variations of polka dot pattern stencils, with a pot of black fabric paint, a roller and a small guide of how to use the pack.

This is the bag/ pack that holds all the mentioned items to help make polka dot patterns. The bag is slightly taller than an A4 page which means that the stencils fit snug inside. The front of the bag has my logo inspired pattern on it, which has also become part of my branding. I was going to 'diecut' all of the white circles but realised this would make the front very flimsey and it may not support the contents. So instead I decided to cut out the two circles beside the logo, which makes the logo feel more centralised and helps it stand out.

The sides of the bag are a little too short which meant that without the hole in the middle of the handles tieing it together, it would spread out wide. I think that this fault has worked to my advantage in a way because the bow meant that I could make a card tag with the logo on. The 'diecut' circles could maybe have accetate covering them so that nothing could fall out of the bag when it was being carried. I am proposing that the black on the front of the bag would be spot varnished, I think this would make it look more sophisticated. The stock I have used is white card, I think it is sturdy enough, but I would possibly need to use a stock with a slightly higher gsm so that when the middle bow was undone the bag wouldnt fall apart, but the length of the sides would also have to be higher.

The inside of the bag uses a repeated pattern of the logo, I thought that this would keep continuity between all of my designs and it also looks better than just white or black. I think it would look really cool if one or two of the inside logos were silver foil blocked. Its not very often that the inside of a bag has that much detail, but I just think it would be a nice touch.

These are my ten polka dot stencil variations. Each one goes up by a cm in terms of the circumference of the dot. Each stencil is an A4 size with rounded edges, I decided to make rounded edges because I felt that ridged ones wouldnt fit in with my curvacious theme.

Each polka dot stencil also has a specific name for it and an example of what context it can be used in and what it means. I have tried to keep the names humerous as polka dot lovers are often fun and a bit cheeky. The names are as follows:

- Itsy bitsy teenie weenie// 1cm

- Piggy in the middle// 2cm

- Mediocre// 3cm

- Foursome// 4cm

- High five// 5cm

- Sexy sixer// 6cm

- 007// 7cm

- Acceptable in the 80s// 8cm

- After eight// 9cm

- Larger than life// 10cm

Each stencil has white and black polka dots on it, and where possible, I have created a white dotted arrow which points to the name of the polka dot and its meaning. In an ideal world I would of liked to have had the white dots diecut and the black dots would have been perferated so that the 'customer' could have popped them out as and when they liked and used them to decorate things with polka dots.

Each stencil has the brand logo on the top left corner and along side that is the definition and name. The logo would be silver foiled on each stencil just so it makes it that bit more attractive.

The stencils would be kept together by polka dotted ribbon tied in a bow, this would then be placed within the designed polka dotted bag.

This is what the pack would include (there will also be a tshirt but I forgot to buy one). There is the 10 stencils, the pot of black fabric paint, a small roller and a hotdog book explaining how to use them all.

The fabric paint will last a long time if used correctly on the t shirt, by providing this it also means that the customer can apply the stencils to other fabricated items, including canvas bags etc.

The book is illustrated with simple images and clear instructions on how to use the pack.

The inside of the hotdog book has the same pattern as the polka dot bag.

This photo shows the design continuity between the hotdog book and bag a bit better.

Looking through a diecut hole onto the patterned inside.

This a slightly closer photo of my final collection of design outcomes. I also designed mailshots which can be seen leaning against the bag on the right hand side. These would be made of thick card, double sided, with foil blocking on the logo. These would be handed out in retail hotspots to fashionistas and of course anyone seen wearing polka dots. I say mailshots because they could also be sent to boutique shops that may be interested in coming to my big polka dot event.

This is probably the best shot I got of all my final solutions, you can clearly see all the outcomes and I think that it can be clearly understood what it is. This photo also shows how there is a visual consistency between all designs and how well they all work together.

This last design is part of the promotion for my event, it uses the logo and pattern to brand it. I want to slowly promote my event by designing a series of posters that lead up to this last poster that contains all the information needed to attend the event. I also have the pun 'be there or be square' which I think would work really well as a tag line for the event to get people interested.

Design for print// Good is: Make your own..

I decided to alter my final solution as I wasnt happy with what I was producing (look book).

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Packaging my good..

As part of the Good is brief, we were asked to create packaging for our good. We were given a series of four nets to design for. They were bottle packaging, an envelope, a CD case and a folded flyer. The nets were taken out of standard commercial net books. Our packaging had to reflect and represent our good, the task was to also link to our logo designs. We were told to be as creative as possible with the nets, which meant we could add and take away elements from the them. We were to use 2 colour plus stock. It would be useful for us to also experiment with stocks to see how this effects a design and what feel it gives. We had a week for this task.

This was one of the first designs that I ddid for this task, I found this net fairly easy to work with, there wasnt too much restriction and there was plenty you could do with it. I started off by using black and white (the stock would be white). If im being completely honest, I struggled a lot with this task as I have so much going on at the moment. My lack of time and levels of stress reflect in my work and I dont feel that my designs are the best that they could have been. With this above design I used the logo that was chosen for me last week, I reversed it out as I felt that the black worked better in the circle with the white text, the other side was then the inverted without the text. It almost feels as though the right hand side has been cut from the left hand side. I have then used the logo again on what would be the inside of this net.

This was the CD pocket net, the best element of this design in my opinion is the play on the logo. I have used a curved line to link to the 'o's in the words polka dot, to make a smiley face. Im not sure if the polka dotted space works well, I have designed it so it is uneven but it does actually look really wonky and just doesnt seem right. Again I used black and white, but I feel that it needs something else.

This packaging is one that works fairly well, its very simple though. The large circle spread across the majority of the design would cover more than one side, like wrapping. I then have the back as polka dots and the logo has been placed at the bottom and top of the bottle packaging.

I based this design on the one above with a few changes. I tried using more white within this design to try and balance it out, it would also make it seem less empty at the top. I have moved and edited the logo and placed it in the centre of the front bottom of the packaging. There is something about this logo that isnt really working for me.

This design again is a slightly edited version of the one above, I have added another bar of polkadots. I do think works well because it links the front and back of the packaging, whereas with the one above the polkadots look like they have just been stuck there for the sake of it.

I really like the polka dots in used in this design. I think that bigger polka dots like this look more fun than the smaller ones. This design also has more visual consistency. I think that if I were going to use this design in real life then I could use die cutting for remove some of the polkadot counters, maybe like the middle row across the net. I do feel like the top half needs something else, maybe continuing the polka dots inverted on the two black spaces.

I started to experiment with colour as the task restrictions was to use 2 colour plus stock. I decided to experiment with red because this is a colour that is often used in polka dot patterns (especially in fashion). I used a CMYK red and then a Pantone spot colour with what would be white stock. I used the logo as more of a pattern in this design, it is behind the envelope window which makes it look like a swirly illustration. I have then used the spot colour in polka dots on the outside flaps. This design and the one below remind me of an American diner, I think its because of the red and the white polkadots and also the logo.

I have then tried it reversed out, the red isnt really working for me, I dont think black and red work too well together. Because the Pantone red is a spot colour and it is from the metallic coated swatch book it looks dull on screen, whereas if it were printed for real it would have that metallic shimmer to it.

I then went back to using two colours to experiment with, I decided to carry on using the Pantone red to see if I could make it work without the black. I based the above design on a previous one but replaced the black with the Pantone red. I used my logo over the top of the polka dots so it cuts them up, I really like this effect because you can still make out what the word says.

I added my smiley logo to overlay one of the polkadots, this makes it a little clearer of my branding on the packaging. It also adds the second colour to the design (black).

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After being designing all of the above packaging, I was disappointed in myself that they werent that good at all. There was no visual consistency and the designs werent very well though out. If I am being honest with myself, I know I can do better! They were a lesson learnt and thats why I decided to re- do them all until I was happy.

This design was for the envelope, I have used circles to break down the black. Using the circle to cut one side works very well, it gives you a focus point. I have also made an informed decision about my logo, I dont feel that it relates well enough to my 'good' therefore I am going to start using a different logo which I feel represents my concept better. With this envelope design I have included both, having them together on the same design allows you to see which one works better and I do feel that it is the simpler logo within the circle.

This above design is for the inside of my envelope and bottle packaging. I have used my new logo repeatedly and then added a gradient overlay. I really love this logo as it is so simple, it communicates what it needs to and its not too fussy. I can imagine this working for all sorts of designs, things like the inside of shopping bags, notepads, pens, because it is so simple it can pretty much work on anything.

I still cant decide on whether or not this design works, I think that I have used to many overlaying circles on the top middle square, it just looks a bit messy. I think that the polka dot squares would work well for a background for text, it just adds that little something rather than it just being on white or something. This would look more complete if it had like information on it about my 'good', just so my target audience knew what it was for.

I dont know why but I found this net ^^ the most restricting to work with. I think this may be because it is in three sections but it looks like one piece. I didnt know whether to keep the three sections seperate from one another or have one image that spreads over two sections. The middel section is probably the one that doesnt work too well, it just looks like its been stuck there, but this might be because the two ends are black and the middle is white.

This was another polka dot design that I could use for the inside of shopping bags or envelopes.

With this design I tried to use the blue in a more creative way, so I used tints of the same blue to create this polka dot pattern. I have then overlaid it over black which adds another colur element to the design but still within the given restrictions of 2 colours plus stock. The shape of the envelope would tidy up the design, it would print out like this then I would cut around the net to finish off the final design. I have used a circle and my new logo at the top which would be the part of the envelope you open, again it adds another element to the net rather than it just being a standard envelope.

I applied the blue tinted polka dots to another net to see if it would work as well in the same way. I think that its one of those designs where you have to see it finished so fully appreciate or even know if it works well. The big blue circle in the bottom left hand corner is a guide for me, I would cut this out and fill with accetate so you would have a window to see what was indside the package.

This is the same design as above but I have changed the blue tints to black tints. I dont think it works as well as the blue tints, it seems to dull it all down. If it were just pure black and white it would be completely different.

I then tried it on this design, where I think it does work a lot better, this design is less complicated than one of my previous designs. The black tints work really well when they are overlaying the larger tinted circles. Using tints is a cheeky way of getting a better variation of colour within design whilst still sticking to the brief restrictions.

This is an example of what the above design would look like with a blue logo in the middle square. I think it needs that bit of blue to help the logo stand out.

This is the bottle packaging net, what I have done is used my design for the inside of the envelope and placed it over the whole net. I think it would make it a lot more interesting to look at, but I have to be careful not too add too much more incase it gets confusing.

I did however add a darker logo on the back side of the net just to make a point. Ive then got an example of what it would look like if I used the blue logo. The reason I used blue was because I felt that blue was a very uplifting colour, this particular shade reminds me of a sunny blue sky, it fits with the personality of the polka dot and its a very neutral shade, so would appeal to males and females.

This last design looks a bit weird without the net shape being cut out, but I wanted to try a design with large polka dots and try and keep it really simple.

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These are the nets made up, I am glad that I decided to re design my packaging. I feel that these designs represent my 'good' more appropriatly and I feel that they reflect on what I can achieve when I put my mind to it. These were printed on the laser printers in the mac suites as mock ups, but I do plan on getting them printed in the digital dungeon on suitable stock. I have been thinking about what stocks I could print onto and what would be suitable for the designs. I think that white card or cartridge paper would work well, they will enhance the colours and add a great finish to the designs. If I were to send these off to be professionally printed I would add some print finishings. It would be interesting to see the logo either spot varnished, embossed/ debossed or foiled, just to make it really stand out. This print module is so fascinating, I love how geeky I am becoming about paper, print and just Graphic Design :)