To be honest my experience with OUIL503 has been somewhat rocky and unsteady. I have enjoyed many parts and picked my briefs to suit what i would enjoy, but some parts have been extremely difficult. The hardest thing i have found about it, was that it is the least structured out of all of the modules and it is really easy to fall behind in it. I understand that the point of the module is managing your own time independently and briefs by yourself but its taught me that i really need some help on these things.
I found that my time organising skills work best when i work on a collaborative brief as i don't want to be the one holding back so i always make sure to be prepared and have my work ready, which is probably why i actually enjoyed the collaborative brief, despite the disagreements. Thats another thing that was really difficult with this module, we had a clash of personalities, style and opinions with our collaborative brief, which at the time was very difficult but looking back, i think i have learnt a lot from the experience. I had the opportunity to speak up, when things hit rock bottom and i became really confident in my work and in directing the group, which i really enjoyed. In the collaborative brief, i also got the chance to practise my photoshop skills, which i have gained so much confidence in since the module started. I have a lot to learn yet but i have purchased the programme now so i can do it at home as this brief motivated me to want to learn more as i saw the outcomes you can make. Overall, i do think our final deliverables to the brief looked very professional and even with all the adversity, i think we did create a really good brand that i am proud of.
My substantial brief has also been an absolute disaster since the beginning, I've been loyal to the author and the brief as i think it has plenty of potential but the whole ordeal since the beginning has been very stressful. I will definitely learn from this situation to not agree to anything until everything is set in stone and not have to rely on people so much. My illustrations i have made so far, although few, do excite me to finish the brief for the deadline as i really like them, but it has now dragged on for such a long time that i am worried that i will get bored before i finish and loose enthusiasm. I would have liked to do colourful children's illustrations but the restriction is beneficial as it gives me more of a challenge that i could face in the professional world.
My illustration brief i am pleased with, well individually i am happy, maybe not so as a set. I really enjoyed doing quick briefs, it kept me excited with the weekly themes, but i think they would look better all together if i had done them similarly. Although, i did enjoying using different mediums and techniques for the different themes.
I quite enjoyed the brief box brief as i thought it was quick and fun to do. with more time and more digital skills, i think i could improve it drastically but i am happy with the initial designs.
Overall, i have learnt a lot from this module. I have learnt how to work well within a collaboration and that by speaking up helped me a lot and it worked well. I have also learnt that time management and organisation is key and i think if i had done it better my outcomes would have been a lot better, which was proven in the collaborative brief. I am happy with what i have produced so far and with my upcoming deadline in june i think i will be very pleased with my substantial brief.
Wednesday 13 April 2016
Book Illustration - First final designs
Ive finally been able to start creating the illustrations for the book design, the author has decided not to publish so i can use the monopoly board within the designs if i want too.
Ive gone for a wuite simplistic approach to these illustrations, i thought that if i couldn't use paints, that line drawings that are detailed could be a bit stiff for children's books. So I've gone for a simplistic style with greys scale artist brush pens to add hints of shadow to create depth, whilst keeping the background to a minimum so it is quite contemporary and not too fussy.
I actually really like these designs and i am enjoying doing them now i have been able to start them, and as the deadline isn't till june, i have plenty of time to get them all done with style.
Illustration Friday - Wisdom
For this entry i tried to keep it simple again, still practising my character design and i really like this illustration, although simple, i have tried to improve my line quality, which i think I've achieved very well.
Beauty Brand - Final Submission Boards
These our final submission boards for D&AD, the process of putting them all together was really tedious. I think disagreements in the group made it especially difficult and i ended up having to take control over the situation. I am normally quite laid back in group work, not with the work but i am not as confident as others so i don't mind people taking charge, but i found that i had to speak up and get people to work together to get it all finished.
I actually think it was really beneficial to me to speak up, i really enjoyed it, i was choosing the work and ideas from all three of us and organising it so it would look good for our final boards. i feel like i have learnt a lot of design from the graphic designer and i am quite enjoying it. i was also going over what we should say so we were short and precise. I felt like i was in my element and although it took a good few hours, i was really proud with the outcome.
There were disagreements and awkward moments between all of us but i think the experience really taught me how to collaborate with people and give and take in situations like these and i am happy with what we have produced as a group.
I think our work does look professional and like an actual brand, so i think there is potential there. There are things i would do differently if i was doing this by myself but only minor changes and i don't think it would have been as good a brief if there wasn't three of us with ideas.
I wouldn't rush into another collaboration with Graphic Design, its not personal but i found the timetable differences really difficult with having the deadlines and school trips at awkward times. But i have learnt a lot from working with another course.
Illustration Friday - Childhood
This entry to Illustration Friday is quite simplistic, i wanted to work with some inktense pencils so i decided for a simple drawing with bold, bright elements. I quite like how simple this is and the primary colours remind me a lot of being a child.
The only thing I'm not as pleased with is the shadowing, i found it hard to touch up round it in photoshop so it ended up looking unprofessional. I think i need to carry on practising the skills on photoshop, although i have gotten a lot more confident in it since I've started this module, little tricks and tools would help my work drastically.
The only thing I'm not as pleased with is the shadowing, i found it hard to touch up round it in photoshop so it ended up looking unprofessional. I think i need to carry on practising the skills on photoshop, although i have gotten a lot more confident in it since I've started this module, little tricks and tools would help my work drastically.
Illustration Friday - Shelter
Although this was a quick entry to Illustration Friday, this is my favourite so far, even though its really simple, i like the character design.
I think i might go into character development more in my work as i progress, as i am starting to really enjoy it as i have found it quite difficult before.
I think i could improve on shape and anatomy, i might see about taking some life drawing classes as i haven't done it since my foundation course and i think it would come in handy to practise it again.
Beauty Brand - Advertising
After i finished the packaging, i wanted to have something else to do and thought doing some advertising mock ups to show what the brand would look like in context would be good to add to the boards. So after our meeting i walked into leeds and got a few photos of possible places your could promote the brand.
Book Illustration
I am now really concerned as the makers of monopoly haven't yet got back in touch about the copyright issues so i feel like I'm in a bit of a rut and don't know what i should do whilst I'm waiting. Also the author has ended up doubling the amount of chapters there was supposed to be initially. It was originally 12 chapters and it's now 25. He has said that he is going to postpone the deadline due to the workload and the wait on the copyright matter.
Beauty Brand - Packaging
Once i finalised my designs for the packaging, we printed it onto nets of the boxes and then assembled them so we can show that we have made prototypes.
I then photographed it so we can use it in our boards, i think they look good but its a shame that you can see that they are nets and don't stay closed at the top. But i am really happy with our effort and i hope the judges see that we have put effort into it.
The photography i did at home with my DSLR but the lighting wasn't good at all so we've had to edit them on photoshop, but i think they still look quite good, if we had more time i would definitely go to the photography department with the correct equipment and lighting to make them look more professional.
Beauty Brand - Bottle Designs
Vedika has now finished the new bottle designs with Sol's illustrations on them.
I am really happy with how they look, i think they look like a more contemporary version of apothecary bottles and the illustrations look really good, especially being opaque as they don't look garish, but blend in nicely with the bottle.
We also decided to use colourful tops to distinguish each flavour. There was discussion on the colours as some thought it wasn't gender neutral, which i can see why they would think that but the point of the brief is that we should break gender stereotypes, so my opinion is why should colour be stereotypes to a specific gender? can boys not like orange?
I really like the design and i have asked for feedback from family and friends and they think the different colours are really good as you would be able to easily spot your favourite product when going in to the shop.
Beauty Brand - My new role
After speaking to the girls about my concern of not doing as much work as i would like since changing our idea, we decided that i should do some illustrations for the packaging.
We want to keep the style minimalistic to go with the design of the brand so far, so i am going to do simple line drawings, that will go with Sol's illustrations but will be totally different.
I definitely feel a lot happier now i have a good role to do so far in the brief.
We want to keep the style minimalistic to go with the design of the brand so far, so i am going to do simple line drawings, that will go with Sol's illustrations but will be totally different.
I definitely feel a lot happier now i have a good role to do so far in the brief.
Illustration Friday - Smart
I have finished my next illustration Friday entry, the theme being 'smart'. I struggled at first to think of anything to do with the topic. So as a last resort and something fun for me to do, i did an illustration of a pug wearing a tie.
I seem to see pugs everywhere at the moment so it just came to me and i thought it could be quite funny. I also wanted to try a stippling affect. It ended up taking a lot longer than i had expected but i thought it looked alright. When i uploaded it into photoshop and after touching up, i thought it definitely looked better on paper than it did on screen, but for the amount of time it had taken, i wasn't as happy with it as i had expected.
I seem to see pugs everywhere at the moment so it just came to me and i thought it could be quite funny. I also wanted to try a stippling affect. It ended up taking a lot longer than i had expected but i thought it looked alright. When i uploaded it into photoshop and after touching up, i thought it definitely looked better on paper than it did on screen, but for the amount of time it had taken, i wasn't as happy with it as i had expected.
I think if i tried to do this again i would maybe try and do it even more detailed, it would probably give a better effect to it.
Beauty Brand - New ideas
Our group has had another meeting and after going away to think on what we should do, we have come up with some new ideas for the brand.
Firstly, we had to think of a new name for the brand, i really like Sol's idea of 'Me' still, but i think in english it just sounds too literal. So i came up with 'moi' instead, which everyone agreed was a better solution. It still means the same but its short and simple but in french, people might understand the meaning a bit more than 'jeg'.
Vedika is looking at new bottle designs she thinks would work better instead of apothecary bottles.
Sol did start some illustrations of herbs and natural ingredients for the products which we are still going to use in the new ideas.
For now i am pretty stuck on what i should be doing as it seems to be going down a more graphic design route, being very simplistic and as we are using Sol's illustrations for the bottles, i don't know where i could be of use at the moment, which is worrying to me as we all get marked individually.
Im going to speak to the girls about it as i would like to take on a bit more work load as i feel like it isn't been spread out evenly.
Firstly, we had to think of a new name for the brand, i really like Sol's idea of 'Me' still, but i think in english it just sounds too literal. So i came up with 'moi' instead, which everyone agreed was a better solution. It still means the same but its short and simple but in french, people might understand the meaning a bit more than 'jeg'.
Vedika is looking at new bottle designs she thinks would work better instead of apothecary bottles.
Sol did start some illustrations of herbs and natural ingredients for the products which we are still going to use in the new ideas.
For now i am pretty stuck on what i should be doing as it seems to be going down a more graphic design route, being very simplistic and as we are using Sol's illustrations for the bottles, i don't know where i could be of use at the moment, which is worrying to me as we all get marked individually.
Im going to speak to the girls about it as i would like to take on a bit more work load as i feel like it isn't been spread out evenly.
Book Brief - Copyright issues
The author of the Children's book i am doing has just got in touch with me and told me that he is now going to try and publish the book.
The main storyline of the book is that Hannah and Alistair (brother and sister) get knocked out at a rugby match and whilst unconscious they fall into a monopoly board, were they have to travel round the board so they can go home.
This means that he is going to have to get in touch with the makers of monopoly and ask for copyright privilages.
This means at the moment i will only be able to develop the characters for now as there could be a chance that the monopoly factor won't be allowed in the illustrations.
At the moment this isn't much of a set back as i can still develop the characters and do that until i hear more.
The main storyline of the book is that Hannah and Alistair (brother and sister) get knocked out at a rugby match and whilst unconscious they fall into a monopoly board, were they have to travel round the board so they can go home.
This means that he is going to have to get in touch with the makers of monopoly and ask for copyright privilages.
This means at the moment i will only be able to develop the characters for now as there could be a chance that the monopoly factor won't be allowed in the illustrations.
At the moment this isn't much of a set back as i can still develop the characters and do that until i hear more.
Briefbox - Coffee & Company
Today i did my brief box brief for Coffee & Company. I chose this brief instead of the others on brief box as it seems fun and it would be quick to do.
I only spent a day on doing this brief as it is only small and i was trying to fit it around other work.
I am quite happy with what i achieved, i created everyday characters that i think would go and buy the coffee. I have incorporated bits to link each one together.
I used watercolours before i put them into photoshop to touch up and then put them onto some mock up takeaway cups i found on the internet.
I think my overall look is good, i would definitely change parts if i did it again or had more time to spend on it. My work on photoshop isn't very good which makes them look less professional. I think if i learnt some more skills i.e. painting digitally, then it would help it to look a lot more polished.
Illustration Friday - Moon
I have done my first Illustration Friday entry for this module, the theme this week was 'Moon'. I really didn't want to just draw a moon, so the first thing i thought about was the old jaffa cake advert, which inspired me to illustrate that. I wanted to use colic markers as i havnt use them in a long time.
It only took an hour or two to complete and although its really simple, i really like it.
I had a practise with the pens first, to see how i could blend them and if i could get the right look before i started.
Im very happy with the outcome, it reminds me of when i was younger and i had a lot of fun doing it.
Beauty Brief - Changes from feedback
In our meeting Vedika (graphic design), informed us that in a tutorial with her tutor, she received some negative feedback about our concept.
Her tutor said that the idea of apothecary bottles isn't really gender neutral. I would strongly disagree, both my mam and dad own apothecary bottles, i think it is the way you design the labels which would make it gender neutral, not the actual bottles themselves.
She also told us that people have said they don't like the name 'Jeg'.
This is all quite disheartening as i thought we were getting somewhere with the brief but now we will have to literally start from the beginning.
I guess we should take feedback seriously though, as it would be stupid not to take it into consideration, but it does feel like we have hit a wall.
Her tutor said that the idea of apothecary bottles isn't really gender neutral. I would strongly disagree, both my mam and dad own apothecary bottles, i think it is the way you design the labels which would make it gender neutral, not the actual bottles themselves.
She also told us that people have said they don't like the name 'Jeg'.
This is all quite disheartening as i thought we were getting somewhere with the brief but now we will have to literally start from the beginning.
I guess we should take feedback seriously though, as it would be stupid not to take it into consideration, but it does feel like we have hit a wall.
Children's Book - Substantial Brief
I have now received the brief from the Author who is writing the children's book that i am going to illustrate for this module.
I am really excited to start this project, it has been a while since i have done children's illustrations, which i quite enjoy doing.
Although i am excited to start this brief, i think it would be better if the illustrations could be in colour as it would appeal to children a lot more, but i think this would be a really good challenge for me as these are the types of restrictions that you could face as a professional illustrator.
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