This is my summer project, in which I explored the topic of giftware. I gathered primary research on: an independent business, a chain store and a temporary market. I did this research so that I could prepare for the following project. The information I have gathered was useful throughout the project.

I before my project began, I decided to share and gather my ideas with the rest of my class. This helped me narrow down relevant work to do for my topics.

I decided to write up a page on the meaning of these three terms so that I could look back when creating work linked to them. This helped me to stay on topic throughout the project.

By creating a page on themes and choosing one from my favourites, I was able to choose what I thought to be the best theme for me. With the information Infront of me, I eliminated the ones I thought I would struggle to create work on. It also helped me to keep on topic.

The previous three pages consist of research I have done. This research on giftware brands helped me to determine what I liked and disliked about their pages. It helped me to pick the style of gift wear I thought I would enjoy following.

These previous three pages are also research I did. This research was on repeat pattern artists. I did this research because I had plans on designing my own repeat pattern by hand.

To gather more research, I did some primary research in Liverpool in both the Tate and in gift shops around the area. I would refer back to this for both artistic as well as practical inspiration.

I also decided to do some gift wrap research after doing repeat pattern research. This is because I had the idea to use a repeat pattern as a gift wrap since the project was on gift ware.

Hanging decorations seemed the most fitting giftware, this is because the time of my project was near Christmas and I presumed that hanging decorations would sell the best at Ripon faire.

These were the repeat pattern designs that I had made which I am very proud of. I decided to digitally adapt them and give myself a variety to choose one whilst allowing myself to pick the one best suited for my theme for wrapping paper.

The repeat pattern I picked ended up being the blue one; This is because it fitted my theme well with aquatic nature. I also decided to mock up the gift wrap by wrapping up a book. This gave me solid visual evidence of how my gift wrap would look in use.

More research I decided to conduct was research on cards. This is because I also planned on making a card due to the basis of my project.

I wanted to slim down my audience for my work so that I would be more likely to sell my work at the Ripon faire. Creating a page on my audience and target market helped to set some guidelines for me to follow and refer back to.

These are more repeat patterns I created to give myself options to chose from. I decided on the previous design because of the complexity of it which was more appealing to me. I created these designs with reference to observational drawings I did of an owl, I slimmed down the design to a more simple one so that I could create a better digital adaption.

I drew up a few designs that I thought would work well on a card, I wanted to challenge myself more and try to steer clear of the easy choice of doing a Christmas card. The final design on the left came out quite well.

After illustrating the frog for my card design, I decided that I wanted to use it for more. At the same time i was struggling for ideas for a hanging decoration. During a group crit session I asked for ideas on what I should do for my decoration and I was suggested this, which I stuck with. I am now really happy with the final design and I believe that it came out very well

This page is the process of how to send a file to be laser cut. I did this before I cut my hanging decoration so that I had steps to refer back to. I also really like the background design I made. 

I was planning on using vinyl but decided otherwise. I still ended up creating a page on the process before changing my mind on using it. 

These pages show both the initial designs as well as the rubber print and the final designs, I am extremely happy with the outcomes I made as I used my mistakes in my previous project to enhance my work in this one.

These letter presses were an experiment I made, I had the idea to use these on my final card designs. I decided against using them however, this is because I wasn't sure on the limited font choices I had.

These two pages show my thought process on packaging and the outcome I ended up with. I thought that a simple tag would work the best with a hanging decoration since it is a small gift.

This research I did on typography was to help my finalise my card design. On top of this I went though lots of different fonts before ultimately designing my own.