Leeds Library Promotional Campaign - Imagery Change

After a crit it was mentioned that the photos of text popping out of the books looked slightly flimsy and not very strong, and it was suggested that I cut into books instead. Below you can see examples of this. I think this effect is too bold and will take away from the information to be placed on the posters.






The experimentation above led to the development below, and these images were created by using the letters cut out of the books placed on paper/board ad photographed. I think these have a slightly more subtle and abstract look, which work well as imagery for a poster as it will make the typography and information more relevant and noticeable.

Leeds Library Promotional Campaign - Final Ideas For Council

Below you can see the final designs (not on the actual stock to be used) that I would present to the Library. After having another crit, it was mentioned that the colour choice for my designs was dull and unappealing (which I kept as it was the Libraries existing colours) So these designs would be as I would present to the Library and I will redesign them in my own style and taste.

Ikea Catalogue Promotion - Initial Magazine Advert & insert Layout

This is my initial digital design for the magazine advert, that will also be used as a small magazine insert. I decided to not use the photographs of the papercuts as I felt they were not that successful, plus after looking at other Ikea billboards and promotional material, they usually have something pretty minimal and simple. I have decided to use digital designs (that I would and could create papercuts of) as I think the papercuts, work well in concept and principal, but I don't feel they are needed and I feel as though this simple "line art" type design suits Ikea better, simple, no nonsense and bold.

Stationery Range Brief - Notepad Experiment

These first images are the notepads being glued together with a grey board backing. I chose to use a cream/light yellow colour as I felt this had a natural feeling to it and was less harsh than a plain, bright white paper stock.




The following images are of the papercut that cover the notepads above. I decided to start experimenting with a papercut that is confined to a small section on the cover, just to see the effect it has on the cover and the notepad.

Ikea Catalogue Promotion - Photos of Silhouette Development/Experimentation

Below you can see my papercut silhouette designs all in white, photographed, with added digital designs. I chose to use a light blue background as it would make the white papercuts stand out and would also fit with Ikea's brand colours of blue and yellow. I have decided to use the concept of adding page numbers of the catalogues products and the exact pages of where each item can be found, along with the phrase "Know what you wan? Know where to find it!" all the text and visual elements on the layouts are digital and only the furniture are papercuts. I eventually decided to use a folded over page type visual as I thought this was reminiscent of when you look through a catalogue or magazine and fold over a page that has something you like on it.

Stationery Range Brief - Initial Ideas

For my final brief I am proposing to create a range of paper based stationery, based on the theme of structures. I have chosen this theme as I am always interested in detailed, yet simple design, natural & man made objects that have a great deal of intricacy with a focus on paper based stationery products as this is something I want to create once I leave University.

I also want to get the research and initial ideas developed quickly (under two weeks) so I can have time to develop imagery and experiment with materials and processes, as this is important to my design practice.

To make my idea/concept clear I have broken it down into sections as follows -

IDEA
- Create a wide range of paper based stationery products with one theme as a focus and a proposal of other ranges that could be created.
- Focus on the concept of a range and the materials to be used are to be simple and effective with the design being the focus - like geometric cards
- stationery as this is what I will be doing as a job once I leave, freelance design will be work on the side

CONCEPT/THEME/RESEARCH - STRUCTURES
- patterns
- geometry
- typography
- structures in nature
- structures in architecture
- structures in book layout
- structures in grid systems of layouts
- structures in chemistry/science
- Japanese interiors and architecture
- people who create interior products
- people who create patterns
- simplicity in design (the book 'Simplicity' by Edward De Bono)
- structure of typography
- research into stationery products and what can be created
- photograph structures around the home, the city, food, objects

OUTCOMES/PRODUCTS
paper bags
note books
note pads
post its
calendars
diaries
wall planners
tape
labels
stickers
photo album
postcard sets
writing set
envelopes
card folders
jotters (cheap paper)
pen/pencil set
timetables
to do lists
greeting cards
gift vouchers
planner
gift tags

Final Project - A range of Stationery

The following images are my initial ideas for my stationery range brief and how they developed initially from thinking of how to create a range of products for within the home, which led to designing products for the home office then led onto stationery products. I want my designs to be focused on materials, processes, craft, papercuts and stationery, while using structures as a theme for creating my designs.






The images below are some of my initial designs for structural imagery that can be turned into papercuts and applied to paper products. These were inspired by stick and ball models from chemistry, chemical illustrations and Japanese architecture.

Ikea Catalogue Promotion - Slogan/Tagline

As I mentioned in this blog post here. I have taken a phrase from Ikea's catalogue and added my own words onto the end of it to create a tagline for the promotional material.

Ikea say -
"Know what you want?" - which is in the actual catalogue.

...and I added -
"Know where to get it" - I thought this was simple, succinct and effective as this promotes the actual catalogue with the idea of including page numbers to let people know where to find things. (which I experimented with in my digital and papercut designs earlier) therefore providing an easy call to action - the customers just have to find the page in the catalogue.

Final Project - A range of Stationery - Brief

Evaluation

So far in the third year I feel as though I have made a huge amount of progress in my personal and professional development, development of my skills and my approach to my design practice. In relation to PPD, I have contacted several places to stock my papercut designs and have been approached by shops in Australia wanting to buy my products at wholesale too. I have made a huge amount of effort to get my work out there and get seen, with an interview in DigitalArts magazine on line and having my work featured in the magazine too. I have taken on various commissions, with the most current being to create a wedding photo album with papercut illustrations within it and I am on the lookout to gain more work this way. I have also put a great deal of time and effort into my online presence, with my shop, personal blog and website. Through developing this online presence I have had the opportunity to work with animators in LA, been contacted by BBC 3 in relation to my book covers and had my work in two magazines (Digital Arts & iDN) I have also recently been recommended by the animators from LA I worked with, to a producer in New York who has commission me to create some papercut alphabets, if a job goes through.

With this personal workload, the amount of briefs I have taken on has been relatively small, but this is because I really want to focus my designs and ideas to the processes, materials and techniques that these briefs have used. I feel making my current briefs more detailed and professionally finished is of more importance than just taking on more briefs. The amount of personal briefs I have made some changes to one of my briefs - the lampshade packaging brief, which I will develop into a stationery range instead of random products. I feel this is more appropriate as all the products will be paper based, with papercutting being used as a technique and materials being a focus.

A number of my briefs have had a crossing over of ideas which has inspired my development which I feel is a more organic way to work. This has greatly developed my skills and areas of interest, of which have changed from working for a design company, to self employment and freelance design.Through all the development of my briefs I now know that I'm more interested in being mainly self employed, while working freelance on design projects when the opportunities arise, with my main interests being focused on processes, materials, techniques, products and creating a well established brand of paper based products that I can sell and have stocked in appropriate shops. The next step in my development of my professional practice is to arrange a meeting with a business link advisor and set up as a freelance designer.

Ikea Catalogue Promotion - Papercut Logo/Info

I designed a template in Illustrator that I could use to cut out the Ikea logo and catalogue information...below are those papercuts. The characters of I K E A , the oval and rectangle are are all individually cut out then placed together to create the logo. The catalogue info is cut out of a single piece of paper and placed on top of another piece of paper to create a cohesive look between the logo and the text.

Ikea Catalogue Promotion - Typography

I have experimented with several typefaces that I feel will work well with Ikea's branding and typeface. I have also thought about legibility and the uses the typography will have. As you can see below, I have looked mostly at sans serif typefaces as I feel they will be easier to read on billboards, signs and promotional material. For the moment I have chosen to experiment with Futura, Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, Arial and Gill sans.

Ikea Catalogue Promotion - Silhouette Designs

The first few images are my examples of the living room furniture silhouettes in a single colour of paper. I feel this does create a more solid image and has more of an impact as your eye is not confused as what to look at.




I then created the second furniture silhouettes with one colour of paper, which are for the bedroom and in the catalogue this section has a pink title page. I will now place these designs in more of a context - such as in a document that has the ratio of a billboard for example. I asked for peoples feedback on this and the concept of using the product silhouettes must work, as when I showed the image of the bed, someone recognised it and immediately saying it was their bed! so I'm glad its easily recognisable - either from the furniture silhouette, the product name or the combination of the two.