End of Final Major Project Evaluation

One of the main aims in my original Statement of Intent was to drive my work towards a focused portfolio so that it matches my position statement: 'typography and layout for small scale publications and design for print with a focus on hand drawn type and photography.' I feel that the briefs I have chosen to produce work for have allowed me to do this and that by summing up my identity with a hand drawn logo ties it all together and the statement is reflected in what I have to show.

Another main goal was to improve on a lot of things that I picked up on towards the end of the last module, such as better time management and just going with a concept I like straight away instead of spending too much time thinking about it and writing down ideas. I think I improved on aspects of this, but I definitely feel that I haven't produced all four minimum briefs to being substantial briefs of the same standard. A major downfall in my final major project was becoming too interested in the two longer briefs that were supposed to be ongoing and running alongside the other shorter briefs. I really enjoyed the hand crafting that went into the Seasonal Range gift wrap brief and the experimentation of type with the Be-Ro Recipe Book and even though I am really happy with how these two briefs turned out, I really wish I had put as much effort into the other two briefs. I changed my concept and subject of the Rogerthorpe Manor brief and this led to me not having much time to play with multiple concepts resulting in me choosing to go with an idea that I do like, but feel could have been played around with and tested out further. The idea of exploiting all briefs has therefore not been carried out to as high a standard as I would have liked or know I could have produced. Another major alteration to the original aims was with the fourth brief, Retail Type, because I really wanted this to be a hands on crafty brief involving experiments with 3D type using various media and photographing it showing it in context of a wall display in the retail environment. I didn't complete this to anywhere near the level I wanted to and, as I mentioned earlier, this was definitely due to my head being buried into the first two briefs. I think I work better when I have deadlines set in stone instead of trying to work on all of them at the same time and thinking I have plenty of time to work on those that fall behind. However, to try and resolve this problem I altered the direction of the brief and chose to create a 2D typeface with a 3D playful feel as I hadn't left enough time to produce what I originally wanted to. This brief is definitely one that I want to continue in my spare time and practice with as all the research carried out for it, including that put together in my context book, have excited and inspired me to experiment with more interesting media and not just play it safe with simple 2D hand drawings.

The Tigerprint competition brief was a quick turnaround brief without having to produce a full range of concepts and products. It was straight to the point, clear to what I had to do and when, and I am really pleased with the designs I put together for this. This happened too late on in the module, however, for me to realise how I work best and to take the same approach with the other briefs.

However, the final major project has shown me that I still have a major passion for the hand drawn and photography aspect of design and I want to ensure that I use this enthusiasm as the basis of future projects and it will hopefully help to strengthen my current portfolio and show a style that flows throughout all my work that I can be proud of.

Final Statement of Intent

Contains all up-to-date short rationales for each brief:

All final pdfs of boards

1. Be-Ro Recipe Book

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

2. Seasonal Range

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

3. Rogerthorpe Manor

Open publication - Free publishing - More design boards

4. Retail Type

Open publication - Free publishing - More hand drawn

5. Tigerprint Competition

Open publication - Free publishing - More card

To do list crazy

Over the past few months I have not shown evidence of many action plans on my blog, which I regret, as in other modules I usually do put them up. In hindsight I know I should have posted regular to do lists to show better evidence of time management, but every day I seem to live my life through lists on paper and prefer to do daily and weekly action plans by hand to have in front of me while I work, and gradually they have built up and here's a shot of just some of my scribbly aims from over the Final Major Project. I will literally write on anything when I think of something else I need to do...there's even an envelope in there somewhere!

Final Be-Ro boards

Be-Ro in Context

Family gift set

It was suggested in my tutorial to also include the recipe books in some sort of set for the children to get excited and involved. With this in mind, I gathered together a small bowl, wooden spoon and mini whisk and wrapped it all together in clear cellophane gift wrap along with a mini flour bag and one of my recipe books.

Final recipe books

Here are the recipe books laminated, packaged in clear plastic sleeves and attached to the Be-Ro flour bags as they would be sold in the supermarkets and stores.

Recipe re-prints

The discussion about the Be-Ro brief within the crit was really helpful about what the next step was for the designs and I really appreciated fresh eyes on the detail to point out small changes that can be made. The recipe books themselves are concertina but if they were to open like a regular book, the matching photo and recipe didn't match up on the double pages along the front and the font size needed to be slightly smaller so I changed these and re-worked the layout before printing them out again. Another suggestion, which I had already considered, was to laminate the books so that they have a more wipeable, protected surface when in a potentially messy environment around the baking and ingredients in the kitchen. So here are the re-prints being corrected and laminated:

Crit feedback

Crit questions

As I haven't got to a resolved stage with the other two briefs yet, I want to focus the feedback I receive towards the 2 most developed briefs; the recipe book and seasonal gift range briefs.

Seasonal Range:

1. I am not happy with the quality of the cards and tags for this range - what can I do to make them look less flat and add quality?

2. There are gift wrap, bags, tags and cards - could I add any more gift stationery products to the range?


Be-Ro Recipe Book:

3. Do the mini recipe books need any changes?

4. Do the 2 digital fonts work with the playful but simple theme of the recipes aimed towards families?

5. Other than promotional posters for within supermarkets, etc, what other printed materials could I add to this brief to support the recipe books?

Poster ideas

These are not finished yet, but I just wanted to see how the chocolate sauce type could work with my photographs from the recipe books. I had to use the white space for the type, as it wasn't readable layed over the image, but it is lacking a finished look, so I will continue to play around with this instore promotional material and create a set that will work alongside the recipe books.

Poster designs

For now I have just designed posters that could be placed in context of where the Be-Ro flour and recipe books were on sale, such as in supermarkets, and kept the handcrafted chocolate sauce type as the running theme. I want to get feedback on what else I could add to broaden this collection.

I designed the type first and added the digital extras on afterwards to complete the same look that the recipe covers have:



Here is the first idea in context:


I still need to document the promotional posters instore near the Be-Ro flour section and also photograph the recipe books attached onto the flour bags as they would appear on sale to show how the whole project would look.

Printed resolutions

I am really pleased with how the finished mini recipe books look printed and folded. Each little bit of the design has taken time because it was so handcrafted and I thought it was important to photograph and use my own food images in it, which of course meant a lot of baking (and eating), but now I just need to print the promotional material to go with them and it will be complete.

Final layouts

Here are the four booklet designs, front and back, incorporating my chocolate sauce and icing type, the checked cover pattern and hand made icing border swirls to finish off the digital layout. The colours run through the whole concertina books with the photograph captions also highlighted. Now to get them printed!

Cover finals

Here are the four cover ideas with the same colour themes as the icing type within the booklet layout. I think they work nicely as a set and bring that extra bit of colour and completeness that seemed to be lacking from the layout before.