Module Evaluation

In this module I initially found it very difficult to adjust to working at home with no facilities and found that experimenting with hand-rendered processes was limited. Over time however this became easier and I adapted ways of working. This was mainly through using simple hand-rendered processes such as painting and doodling, and so the extent of experimentation didn't feel as successful. I managed to experiment in other ways, particularly through digital means, which was very different to my normal practice. This has helped me understand more how to work within the two mediums of hand made outcomes and digital outcomes. 

This project has also been very useful in showing me the importance in refining work at the end of the process. Normally there wouldn't be enough time reserved for this process, but having this time to do so has ensured the outcomes are all of a high standard. This was particularly true as there was not time reserved for production, as this was unavailable during lockdown and meant I simply printed most of the outcomes quickly on the home printer at the end. If this was of a bad quality there could be nothing done, and so there was extra time for refining. This project also showed me the importance of visual consistency. Throughout the development process, each day you work there is a different mind set and different ideas taking place. This influences the design. This meant it was easy for different sections in the publication to have a different aesthetic which would be inconsistent with the past and future designs. Learning to adapt these designs and recognise the visual direction was important in ensuring a consistent ethos within the overall package. Additionally, I was shown the importance of having my style as a designer prominent within the visual direction: while fulfilling a brief can be done easily, inputing an aesthetic as a designer makes it unique. 

PUBLICATION PDF + FINAL OUTCOMES

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uO2XqdNk2DmL-xA7BgRrZUtzwTg4oGM_/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AkalmA_bX99n70qldVVnVZX0s8tTR12y?usp=sharing

Printing + Production

= Edges would need to be cut off so that the design goes to the edge of the card 

= This means making sure the content is in the right place so that it doesn't get cut off 

= Text needs to be moved more towards the crease

= Cover needs to be moved more to the left 

= Sewing machine broken but doing this by hand is less neat 

= Borrow one? 

= Outside with the card and sleeve works really well together, and the function of the heart filling up also works well 

= Misprinted, shows how I need to orientate the document when printing 

TUTOR FEEDBACK 

= Card is much more in tune with surrounding aesthetic of other products in package 

= Look at the background colour of the card to make the design more successful  

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Publication Printing 

- Save As PDF for spreads which were exported low quality on the publication 

- Put spaces in spreads where the text or items are too close to the spine and would become illegible 

- Export needed to be in pages rather than spreads for it to work 

= Printing was really successful, as well as the binding 

= Thicker card for the cover had better printing quality than the thinner paper inside, on which the colour lost some of its vividness 

= All spreads look good within the final format, there could have been less pages on moving into your new space section, or at least a break within it to break it up

= Size of A5 also works well as a mini handbook and guide 

CARD DESIGN DEVELOPMENTS 

= Tutor suggestion for background colour works well as it brings the two 'mirrored' sides together into one cohesive design for a possible mini poster 

= Bringing in the additional elements of the smiley face has brought in that extra detail that was needed to create balance in the design 

= Due to the printing borders, an additional border was added to the design to ensure nothing gets cut off and all the spacing between the edge of the paper and the elements is balanced

= Problem following printing was that I had over prepared for the gaps in printing, and so with the spaces in the design and on the page it was placed to print it, trimming it to the prepared cut lines would have made the card too small for the sleeve, which would have affected the die cut of the heart and what appeared beneath it 

= If there was more time small changes such as this would be made, alongside small changes to the publication, in which some spreads have text that is illegible at the spine eg. things to do beach spread 

= other spreads have text that is too far from the spine in preparation for this problem, which could be moved slightly closer to the spine eg. Support Page Spread 1 

Card Design + Production of Stickers and Card

CARD DESIGNS 

= Don't want it to be too complicated, simple with the positive images and references to support and life with hand and plant and smiley face

= Would be better if I could ask the target audience what they would want 

= Feedback from the worker showed a lot of importance on inspiring quotes, so having this on the outside of the card may be appropriate 

CONCEPTS

= 1 Idea that if they wanted to the user could flatten the card and also place this up like a poster 

= 2 Idea that the user can turn the card any way they like to choose which side they look at (so two different styles on front and back) 

= Could be even more simple, with the back of the card simply a smiley face and a quote? 

Practise Cover Sewing 

= ends are messy 

= in order for them to not come undone each end needs to be gone over back and forth 

= this zig zag stitch uses two colours, which means I can incorporate two strong colours within the overall aesthetic of the package for a playful presentation 

= The two pieces of card need to be blue tacked together to prevent them from moving when being sewn into 

= It's around a cm on each edge that important elements of the design should not bleed into to allow space for the stitching 

INSIDE

= A handwritten message would feel more sincere, especially as the first interview showed that the target audience are given too many things (eg. advice) that feels like official government documents

= Message should be like the introduction at the start of the publication, supportive, relaxed, empathic and empowering. 

Hey!

You are on the next step of your journey - moving out - which can be both a terrifying and exciting time. I'm here to help you through this journey with a few things you can take with you. 

Everything given to you can be used as you like. Maybe you want to put the tapestry on a table, up on your wall, or as a comforter on your bed. You can flip through the book as you travel to your new home, rip out pages to stick on your wall or use it to find support numbers and websites. The options are limitless! 

You are a powerful, strong person and you have autonomy over your life. You can become the woman you have always known you are. It's exciting!

Lots of love x

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= Having the YOU ARE STRONG message inside next to the text makes more sense as it's almost like a pull quote and draws attention to that important point made in the card text 

= It was played around with colour but a black and white aesthetic inside made sense to keep it simple and not draw away too much attention from what is being said 

= Having the plant design as the die cut in the sleeve is problematic as it doesn't have a very large area for the design beneath to be seen clearly 

= I created the design for this idea anyway and made the faces smaller so that they may be clearer 

= I could just die cut the hand as this has a better area to cut, the weight of this cut would just feel off as it is a large item low on the page 

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Further Development 

= Need for larger surface area for faces beneath to be seen more easily when card is removed fro sleeve 

= Tried to use the 3d arrows 

= However die cutting these wouldn't look great as getting the whole form into the die cut is what works, whereas with these a section would have to be picked to allow the function of something filling up

= Need to simplify it even more and return to the original idea which works 

= Trying too hard to incorporate the visual motifs of the package visual language means the function gets lost 

= Could be seen as someone reaching for it which wouldn't feel comforting 

= also feels more like someone protecting their own rather than someone supporting it 

= Successfully reflects the idea of someone holding it up, therefore sense of support 

= Subtle pink gradient works better but it felt bland in colour compared to the visual language of the rest of the package with full bleed colours and lots of symbols and drawings 

= Want to keep the colours in the card to the items rather than printing the whole card, as this will keep printing costs low for when it would be mass produced, and as it would have more of a home made card feel if the card is white 

= Looking at which colour combinations would work, found that having the alternatives may be interesting for the front and back 

= This means they can still put it up on their wall spread flat like a mini poster if they choose 

= Colours work with the publication and tapestry and is simple and comforting 

PRINTING TEST 1

= Second spread for inside needs to be flipped to ensure it prints the right way round in relation to the outside of the card

= The folding of the paper despite being thin meant each section did not look central, but more towards the crease. Each area needs to be moved slightly further away from the centre to prevent this 

= Testing paper was thin so that the inside could be seen from the outside, but this shouldn't be a problem when printing with the thicker card 

PRINTING TEST 2

= More centralised, but front could be slightly more towards the spine by around a cm as the card is cut with 1 cm less than an A4 due to the ring bind edge that had to be cut off fro the sketchbook it came from 

= Still slightly transparent but not enough for it to be an issue 

= Inside is successful 

= Finger print marks on back cover from handling it too quickly, fold card after waiting 5 minutes to prevent this 

= With the heart on the front as already full rather than stroke, pulling the card out of the cover does not present the function of it filling up as well as it could because the viewer won't notice it as much 

= What if the heart was replaced by the smiley face on the card, but the die cut on the cover is of a heart above the face

 = This way the heart is not that obvious, and when the card is pulled out the heart fills up and is more obvious

= This also works better in correspondence with tutor feedback, in which the first designs with more elements were said to be more in line with the overall visual language of the package 

= Heart on the outside is better as it makes it larger 

= May also look strange as a heart smiley face, which isn't visually consistent 

= Back of card design can still be this heart but filled up, a reference to the way it will fill up with the function of the card and cover 

= This may help the viewer make this connection as well 

= TUTOR FEEDBACK 

= Heart needs to be symmetrical 

= Incorporate the 3D arrow? 

= Problem with adding arrow is I'm trying to work it around the design I have in mind for the function of the card and case 

= The larger the arrow the better in terms of not distracting away from each element and not making it look messy, but then the arrow head itself becomes too large and interacts too much with the smiley face

= The die cut heart should not show the arrow below, unless it was more like a window to the card rather than a focus on one shape on the card 

= As I'm already doing a heart die cut on a the smiley face this could work 

Tutor Feedback + Refinements

TUTOR FEEDBACK 

CHANGES TO COVER TYPE DESIGN 

= Although the fill works to make it more legible, recognising that this style of type is only present one other time in the publication means it is not consistent and therefore does not reflect the inside's aesthetic 

= This design works even better in terms of the layout as well as there is more equally balanced space between the different items 

CHANGES TO DOORWAY + MOVING OUT SPREADS 

= Needed there to be an additional layer to replace the drawn eyes 

= Tutor feedback on ensuring different elements that are used throughout publication are present consistently meant I felt I could apply this to these spreads

= Use of the smiley faces improves the tone completely in comparison to the sketched eyes from before

= This is heightened with the change in gradient in the background, which has been reduced in colour and made less prominent on the page 

= Illustrations with pink and blue tones stand out beside the yellow and orange tones of the gradient and smiley faces 

= Rather than using one quote as a central focus on the left page, this spread was a good opportunity to present lots of different quotes in a simple way 

= I think it works really well and is definitely an interesting way to present the text

= Is it visually consistent with the rest of the publication though?

= Other chunks of text are used in the swimming pool spread, but this needs to be changed = perhaps to feel more like this spread? 

= Or perhaps these chunks of text should be made more wavey? 

= Chunk of text look better as the lines are closer together 

= There is large amounts of space between each quote, and so having so much space within the actual quotes could make it look messy and make it difficult to find each quote and focus on them 

= Attempted a wavey quote where the lines are closer together by being the same type of curve, but this didn't work well either

= I could have extended the amount of words on each line, but having the small chunks of text rather than longer, wider ones would be a different choice of direction entirely 

= In order to ensure the consistency and involving the wave in some way, I played around with adding the repeated word 'self-love' across the spread using the wave 

= The first one was too prominent on the page and created a sense of divide in the middle 

= Second one works better as it provides hints of wavey text but does not take a prominent focus on the spread 

= This layout of text could be implemented onto the swimming pool spread, which needs developing to feel more visually consistent with the rest of the publication as well 

= Large space in the middle of the left page could use filling as it is too much of a focus point for the eye

CHANGES TO AMOUNT OF COLOUR IN MAKING NEW SPACE A HOME PAGES 

= Less colour does make it less intense as a section within the overall publication, and therefore doesn't stand out so much that it feels inconsistent with the rest 

= retained the colour on the one spread which can be pulled out as a colourful motivational poster 

CHANGES TO THINGS TO DO SPREADS 

= Took away the wireframe illustration of the pool ladder and other elements like the arrow

= These items and aesthetics were only present in these spreads and so to make way for more consistency they were removed 

= This allow the implementation of other repeated elements from the publication

= With the use of subtle gradients the colours are made consistent as well as they shift throughout eg. starts off with darker colours in blues and purples, and towards the end becomes light pinks and yellows

= Wavey text was placed on this lower spread to replicate the section on moving out which uses chunks of text and wavey writing 

CHANGES TO ENCOURAGING WORDS SPREADS 

= The main problem with these pages before were that they were made during experimentation and so had no real direction 

= Now that the title pages have been changed into encouraging words pages, this means I know their purpose and therefore function 

= Both spreads use the soft gradient to ensure the colours from sections before and after don't feel sudden and inconsistent 

= I spent more time thinking about how these pages are both pages in a book and possible posters, which means the text has to be readable with a spine at the centre, but that this should not affect the flow of the text or layout in a way that it is too obvious to the viewer 

= All of the gaps between words and chunks of the sentence are balanced so that the spine gap is not obvious, and large words are made big enough that the spine won't affect the legibility 

= Each spread uses imagery specific to its own section, but the 3D arrows and choice of type and layout are all consistent with each other 

= Both use colours the feel very positive and light, which is an important tone 

= It may need to be checked that the second one is readable in the order it's been placed eg not 'life very quickly' instead of 'life changes'

STICKER SHEET

A5 size (could be placed in the back of the publication as it is the same size = creates protection for the sheet without needing to use an additional plastic sleeve which is unnecessary extra plastic/packaging)

= Addition to package could be stickers, just a simple way they can add more images of positivity around their new space

= Having these in different places in their new space would also remind them of the publication and the positive, encouraging messages inside 

= Initially thought about adding wavey lines of text around these stickers for decoration but this made it look messy 

= Can print these on sticker paper, but it has sections and so some of the faces would be in half

= For presentation however this works well enough. If it were to be produced properly without the restrictions from lock down they would be printed as designed. 

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TO DO 

= Print sticker sheet

= Design Card + print 

= Apply changes to publication from target audience suggestions + print 

= Design Boards