Augmented Reality, Research

Im interested in doing posters and leaflets etc with the viewer being hands on. Hand rendered type is all about doing it yourself rather than relying on the digital world. So I think my campaign should reflect this. These are a few examples of things I could do. 

Ideas

Heat sensitive paper - the viewer has to touch or press on the paper to reveal what the message is. I like this idea, but would have to work out how it is relevant for someone just to press on it, when its about type.

Scratch  - Like a scratch card, the person would have to scratch away to see the whole message. I think this is interesting but again not sure if its relevant.

Write it yourself -  Could have part of a message visible but then the person could write the missing word. This would interesting to create and see what people write. It also promotes hand rendered type well and would be cheap enough to create.

Different angles - I like the idea of either hidden messages or double message that are revealed. So I think it would be interesting to create a poster where at one side it says something, and the other says another. This could work well for bill boards and larger scale things.

The last two ideas could be workable together, with the same design look it would look like its part of the same campaign. This opens the brief up a bit.

Target audience 

Target audience is directed at creatives. They can be of all ages but would interested because of the typography.

Study Task 13 [ Print finishes ]

Print Finishes 

Varnishes 

Paper varnishes are applied to the stock to give it a smooth texture. This also seals the print and protects the material. It gives the publication or print a high quality element.

They can be gloss or matte which makes the pages robust and strong without adding extra weight. 

Lamination 

Lamination is good to add sturdyness to a piece of print. There is two types of lamination, high gloss, which is added to a sharp high quality print. The other is matt laminated which adds a subtle luxurious finish.

Spot UV varnish

This is a varnish that is applied to only certain parts of the print and the varnish is dried or hardened by UV light. It gives certain areas more presence over others.

Foil Stamping

Metallic material is applied to the print through heat and pressure.

It adds some reflective and luxurious elements to the print.

Embossing

Embossing is when the stock is raised on some parts, this adds shadow and depth to the print.

Letterpress

This is kind of the opposite to embossing and is sometimes called debossing, because it creates an indent into the print.

Study Task 12 [ Critical questions ]

What is the potential of interactivity in print?

The potential with interactivity in print is that whatever is being communicated, it has a higher chance of being successful. When someone has to be actively involved in something, it creates a lot more waves than if someone just saw a piece of print.

Can augmented design help draw people to your website?

I think definitely they can be more aware of my website, they can be excited by whats on offer. My website is all about hand rendered, physical forms, a print campaign only makes sense. They marry together very well and enforces my message.

Is it all just a bit gimmicky? or are there opportunities?

I think there is a lot of gimmicky sort of advertising. Just because there is room for an AR advert doesn't mean there has to be one. However, I'm not going down the digital AR route, mine is about the viewer doing it themselves, so it will be in physical form.

What kind of interactivity would be effective for my campaign?

For me, it has to be typographic and possibly a play on words. This really suits the idea of my website, that type is fun and interesting. So a physical form of interactivity, where the original message is changed or the person has to do something 

Study Task 11 [ Writing a project Rationale ]

The purpose of this campaign is to promote my website. I need people to be involved in this website because there is an element of audience participation. There is a submit page, where you can upload your own work and get it talked about by other people on the website. This interaction is important so that people know how to progress, which is an aim of the website. So the campaign must show there is something worth looking at on the website. The audience of the adverts will be the same as the website. Creatives, students and professionals, with an interest in hand rendered type. The advert will be communicating that hand rendered type is fun to be involved with and if you don't know much, you can learn about it at the website. The tone of voice is fun and informative, because the website is informing people where to get tools, how to learn this techniques and who to talk to. Type is fun to do and I want to show that. The format needs to be right so the whole message communicates well. For the format I want to do posters and flyers, so they can be put up in specific places to target a specific audience. There needs to be a web presence as well to link and work with my website well. Materials will be mostly paper and ink, and possibly some internet. The budget needs to be low so it can go out to further audience. Placement and distribution is important, they will be places in Uni's, bars, music places, galleries, cafes places creatives go and may see this. The time frame is two weeks to create all the artwork and have it printed. To promote it will need at least a month to see any interest. 

Do's
Use hand rendered type
Use colour 
Use interactivity to communicate the message
Have the website on paper advertisements 
Make it appeal to all creatives
Keep same style from website

Dont's
Settle for only OK type
Make the advert confusing

Study Task 10 [ Advertising Considerations ]

The design boards show some research into what kind of advert I want to create, the considerations and styles I think is important.

Feathr Responsive, Evaluation

Feathr Evaluation

I really enjoyed this brief because I didn’t take it very serious. I had an idea in my head while we got briefed and just went with it, which I think at times works best.  So this brief was more of a one day brief with some revision later.

I think I liked this brief a lot because it started with a very good briefing from Feathr. They explained what they were looking for and made it feel fun rather than a massive professional step forward. It was daunting at all to get involved with live work and compete against other artists. I think working on live work can be intimidating at times however a lot of professionals like to give help and the creative community isn’t that scary. This brief is good practice to be aware of what’s going on around the world

I worked quite well for this brief, I was always aware of it. I was inspired and excited when we were briefed so that fuelled me to do a lot on the first day. I didn’t just work on it for one day however, I was always aware that I still had to finish it. This brief for me was quite easy to remember to do but being doing other briefs along with it. It’s made me aware of my time management as well. I definitely still need to work on it but I think I’ve started to keep up a bit better. It helps when it’s good brief; it’s something I looked forward to working on.

I only really came across one problem over the design. That was the repeat, which probably a lot of people struggled with.  I drew the design the way I wanted it without considering if the repeat would work or not. At first it didn’t look like it would work. However, after speaking to Feathr they showed me some tips to attempt it. By this time they had added a few more drops meaning it did work out. So because the original design did work, but I had made a back up I submitted both.

I think this brief was a lot of fun. I was able to draw which was important because I don’t want to do so much digital work straight away. I think not taking it very seriously and not worrying about the prize made me do the idea I wanted. For this brief it was definitely the taking part that counts for me.

Feathr Responsive, Finals

The two designs are now online 

Feathr Responsive, Revision of design

I though that my repeat wasn't going to work when I submitted it. However it did but it made another problem. The drawing now was massive and would be big on the wall. So I decided to create another and submit that too.

To create another one that had an easier repeat, I made it so there was two silly fisherman. One fisherman casts his line and gets it caught on his mate. 
This was an easier solution to the sizing and repeat problem. It meant the drawing was now a lot smaller and less in your face if it was going on a wall.

I also changed the colour to more of a duller blue, this was so the wall wouldn't be too bright. I think this blue looks better and would suit a room.

I had a look at having the repeat with two sets of fisherman but decided that would be too busy and it would be better to look at with just the one set.

I think it looks a lot better with the drawing being smaller, it less messy and a bit more professional looking.

Feathr, Responsive, Digitising

I scanned my drawing in and edited with photoshop. I didn't want to live trace or draw over it with a pen, because I wanted it look like a human drawing. With scanning, it keeps a lot of texture in the image as well which I really liked. You can see the paper, the pencil and pen marks as well. I didn't want this to look digital.

From there I added blue to the background. I wanted a colour that would put him in context, fishing in water. I needed to chose a colour that wasn't going to be overpowering for wallpaper. I like this blue because it's quite popular at the minute, its calming and doesn't suggest one particular type of person.

When I uploaded the design, the drops actually worked. So I was quite that the idea of the repeat did work. However the drawing was massive and would be massive on the wall, so I still wanted to change it. I thought I might as well upload this and another.

The colouring mode had to be in CMYK, I designed in RGB but when I converted it it didn't change the colour much at all so I was still happy with it.

Feathr Responsive, Ideas

I only had one idea for this brief and I was happy with it, so I just went with it. 

I had the idea of this fisherman casting his line but because of the wallpaper repeat he gets caught on his own line.

I went ahead and sketched it up, because I want to do more stuff by hand rather than digital. I think it also suits the idea of a clumsy silly fisherman that the design has a human element. 

I drew up an initial sketch so I could understand the body shape. I then got Josiah to model for me so I could draw up a more precise sketch with some reference. 

The drawing had to be this way round because thats the way we read and I think the repeat goes.

Feathr Responsive, Research

I had a look at wallpaper designs I don't really like. I think they're is quite a lot of rubbish wallpaper designs, so this brief appealed to me quite a lot.

I think this will be a fun brief, and with an idea in mind already a quick one. 


I know that I don't really like flowers and that type of illustration for wallpapers. I think the floral earthy tones has been a lot over the years and is very normal to see. It would be more interesting to see something you don't see often. 
The traditional heavily detailed stuff like William Morris' work is beautiful but I think a lot of people will look to this for inspiration.

However there is wallpaper designs that are modern, different and fun. I'm more interested in making an image and it suiting a wall. This research helped me think that I want the image to be good to look at and the repeat be part of the story.

Digital Print Workshop

Setting up InDesign Document

Bleed should be set normally at 3mm but have a conversation with the printer, they will know better
Slug area is useful for fold marks

You have to type in the reference number of the colour you want to print in order to make sure it actually prints that colour.

Photoshop preparing an image

Actual size  - work at actual size so nothing is distorted. There becomes less pixels and lower the resolution. 

It needs to be 300dpi 

Images are in CMYK mode or greyscale 

Save files as Tif or psd No JPEG

Spot inks work in InDesign, from a saved image it will keep the inks

You can use a 'fake' duo tone image and add colour in that way by clicking onto the image and changing the fill colour

The separations panel allows you to see what inks are being used and where.

Separate the inks before you print, you should delete unused swatches so that ink is not printed. This saves money and ink

Responsive J20 Logo Development

After experimentign with the water colour I made my own for each flavour and scanned them in. I wanted to see what the frist design looked like if it was just placed on top. However I have to keep the logo the same shape etc so decieed to cut it down and have it just within the lines. 

Design Decisions - 

Clean it up

Too messy with the black lines and colour

Take off black lines

Add green

I've taken off the black lines and added the colour as a drop shadow.

I really don't want to see a lot of that green so only suggested it with the shadow.

I think the design looks a lot better, cleaner and natural

I'm unsure if I'm going to actually submit this because I don't think it really answers the brief. I like the design because it looks natural, there's nice colours and I think is better than the original, but I don't know whether I've really aimed it at a target audience.

Website Brief Evaluation

Website Brief Evaluation

This brief was the longest I’ve worked on at the College so I was looking forward to being able to really think about my designs and why I’m designing like that. Overall I happy with the way my website looks but there has a been few issues along the way.

I was really looking forward to learning how to code. I was a bit scared as well but I think it’s quite an interesting thing to learn or even know about. The first session I had with Simon made me really look forward to the next one. I understood what we were doing in the session, which encouraged me for the future ones. I was really disappointed with the fact we couldn’t carry on the coding sessions once Simon went on paternity leave. It’s a shame there wasn’t a back up plan to let the sessions carry on. With those sessions it made the brief feel a lot more real. Without them I lost interest quite a lot. I struggled to think about the brief a lot. At times other briefs took the forefront. However it was good having the crits because I did get help from peers. With my first design I thought I was very happy with it, but digitising it made me realise it didn’t work. So using the crit sessions I got a good idea to create a website with a blog look and use a lot more images. After I did that I was a lot happier.

I found it hard to use colour as well in this brief. This is because we had to make sure the colours were web safe. I had four categories to use colour with so had to find a set of four colours to use. After a while of experimenting Adobe Kuler helped me chose the final four.

  I wanted to practice my skill of hand rendered type in the brief and use the work I made. I think this was a clever idea because the headers are all my own work and it showed the viewer the style of type in each category. I think it looks quite good on the page as well. If this was meant to be a live website I would of course ask the artists I show their permission to use their artwork. However because its not I didn’t try to get my own photos or speak to the artists.

I was excited about this brief because it was something I had not done before, in terms of coding. Unfortunately because I didn’t code this website it made me get frustrated and bored. I have learned more about websites and the rules in which to design them, but I feel like I have just designed something can work outside a website setting.