This is my summer project that I had created from a brief that I was given. I had chosen to explore the topic of giftware as to which I focused on three different case studies by gathering primary research from a temporary market, a independent business and a chain store in order to gather further information for demographics in order to prepare me for the initial topic that I was going to be focussing on for the following project. I feel that by doing this, i was able to expand my knowledge on the topic of giftware which is shown through the following project.
At the start of this project, i had decided it would be a good idea for me to define what a target market is, the definition of branding and examples of this and what an audience is. I felt that by doing this at the start of the project, i was able to refer back to this research so that my work was specific and relevant to the following topics.
The following slides show secondary research that I had created on 3 businesses in order to show what would make successful traits of giftware and what factors i needed to include when thinking about creating my final gift.I felt that by gathering this research it also gave me an outlook as to what specific types of giftware would work for me and stand out to me as a visual audience.
I had decided to focus on looking at surface pattern and researching in depth as to what it was and what i needed to think about when creating surface pattern designs to create a final gift wrap design. I had also decided to research 3 artists who's work i felt stood out to me and gave me inspiration for when creating my own work. The artists that i had chosen were all very much related to the theme of nature as this was one of the topics i had initially wanted to focus on.
In order to expand my ideas further, i had decided to create some observational drawings all of objects that i felt in my house were relevant to the theme of nature and i adapted my own drawing style and created the following drawings.
After gathering my research on repeat surface patterns, my idea was to create my own repeat pattern personal to my own ideas and drawings that i had created. I created this pattern physically and then used my digital skills on photoshop to create an overall pattern design for gift wrap.
I had also decided to create a digital repeat pattern design by using one of the observational drawings that i had created and used photoshop to create this pattern. I made sure to experiment with the different saturation and contrast of colours that were relevant to the colour theme of choice.
After creating the previous pieces of work, i decided to define my final demographic and theme of choice. I explored a variety of themes before choosing my final theme of nature and maps for this project. By researching different themes, i felt i was able to choose the right thee for my work.
I had experimented with different processes such as the letterpress so that i was able to try new styles for this project of typography and different textures that come from the letterpress.
i felt that typography was likely to be a big factor for me in this project therefore i had decided to research the different aspects of typography in order for me to understand the right terminology and characteristics of different font types. I also decided to experiment with digital and physical fonts by using particular aspects that i had learnt from the research i had gathered.
I made sure to create thumbnails for my final greeting card as it would give me an initial ideas as to what i wanted to create and how it would look like as a greeting card. The following thumbnails are very similar to each other as i knew that i had wanted to incorporate the map of Ripon into my design.
As well as gathering secondary research, i had also decided to gather primary research by visiting Liverpool and visiting multiple gift shops and the Tate museum to gather inspiration and new ideas for creating my final hanging decoration.
Once i had defined my target audience i made sure to identify my colour palette for this project. By doing this it meant any work i was going to create would be relevant to my palette which contained very much neutral and tonal shades.
Throughout the project, i was given lots of feedback both positive and improvements which i found extremely helpful as it helped me gather a new perspective of my work and gather new ideas relevant to my work.
In order to create my final card design, i had experimented digitally multiple times so that i was happy with my final outcome and how it would look.I changed the font, the colour of the font, the background colour, the texture of the background and the positioning of the map until i was happy with the final outcome.
I started by designing my hanging decorations by creating multiple designs of different shapes and ideas in order to expand my ideas further when it came to creating my final handing decoration design.
Another process that i had experimented with was the lino print, for this design i had used one of my observational drawings as i felt the overall design would be suitable for my theme of work.
For my final card design, the template had to be in InDesign, however i hadn't used this before, because of this i decided to research and expand my knowledge as to what i needed to do for my card design.
I experimented and developed one of the hanging decoration designs that i had created previously by using mixed media such as watercolours, ink, oil pastels and chalk. I wanted to experiment to see what the different media would look like and the different type of texture that would be created.
I gathered research on different packaging ideas and then used this research to create my own sketches for packaging that i would like to create for my hanging decoration. I decided to use a range of different shapes and boxes as i wasn't sure what i wanted my final product to be. I also sketched examples of a stall design to hypothetically show how i would present my ideas on a stall.
This page shows the new skills I had learnt when creating a DXF file for the laser cutter. I researched into depth what the exact process was for creating a DXF. By doing this it meant I was able to refer back to this throughout creating the file. This skill is easily transferable for future projects.
This was my initial ideas for the materials that I was planning on using towards the start of creating my hanging decoration. The materials I ended up using for my overall outcome are quite similar however I had decided to create a very minimalistic packaging because my hanging decoration itself is quite complex.
Here are the original sketches I had created ahead of deciding what the label for my packaging would look like. I experimented with multiple ideas so that I had an open idea as to what I was going to create. I had also decided to add typography onto a few of my labels in order to see what my initial ideas would look like directly on the label shapes.
The following label designs are experiments I had created digitally by developing my original ideas and adding particular details so that my label would look more professional and relevant to my audience demographic. I had decided to add the gold leaf in order to incorporate the theme of nature onto my packaging. I feel that by doing this I was able to see what colour backgrounds worked better contrasting with the leafs. I had also decided what words I wanted to add onto the label and the positioning of the words I was adding by thinking about visual hierarchy.
The following label experiments were focussed on me creating and experimenting with font designs and the layouts of how I would present them. I felt that by adding a calligraphic font my work would look more sophisticated and handmade which is the look I was hoping for when creating my outcomes. Although I didn't end up using these ideas I felt I expanded my ideas further so I had multiple options.
This is my final hanging decoration the I had created by experimenting with multiple ideas and new skills. Im really pleased with this outcomes feel that it really represents my theme and fits with my demographic to show at Ripon fair. he packaging I had created is a mix media outcome and I feel that it is very visually attractive and I'm very happy with it. The twine I had used as the initial hanging part of this works very well and adds a very handmade look to the final design.
This is my final card design I had created. This is also a mixed media outcome. I had made sure to incorporate different skills and textures when creating this outcome. I feel that the overall idea works very well for the brief provided and expresses my theme perfectly. My idea was for the card to be used multi functionally and I think it can be used exactly for this purpose. Hopefully this card will be successful and sell well at the craft fair.
