Conceptual thumbnailing for final outcomes

In response to the peer feedback I got in the mega crit before Easter I have continued to develop my designs using more conceptual ideas - using visual metaphors, symbolism and negative space. I have also better defined the individual themes for each of my designs -

1. Deforestation - burning trees, tree stumps, swinging orangutan, vine - negative space to represent disappearing habitat. 

2. Wildlife Zoos with poor conditions & animal cruelty - orangutan moving from bars to vines/jungle (possible slogan - 'Help WWF trade bars for vines')

3. Illegal Orangutan boxing - hanging boxing gloves, Orangutan in jungle/on tree, (possible  slogan 'Help WWF hang up those gloves'), patterns giving feeling of theme parks where this takes place - contrast between this and 'the wild'. 

4. Illegal Pet trade - mother being shot and baby taken away, symbolism of pet - collars, confinement, domestication? shooting of mother - bullet, ominous figure, absent mother...use of negative space?

5. Palm Oil Plantations - working together for sustainability, education of workers, vastness of plantations in contrast to preserved jungle habitat, palm oil fruit - split in half to refer to 50% of packaged goods in supermarkets containing palm oil. 

6. General campaign poster for 'Save the King of the Swingers'. 

To develop these thumbnails into my final designs I think I will create shapes on illustrator based on these drawings and then cut them out of my monoprint textures on photoshop - to create my a kind of print media, textured and colourful aesthetic.

Megacrit for presentation boards

Here are the boards I had done so far and presented in the crit. Overall in reference to my feedback and looking at other peoples boards I feel I am going in the right direction with keeping a cohesive layout throughout and the content demonstrating my progress through each brief. I just maybe need to cut down the writing down (a lot) and give the images a bit more space to breath. 

Interim megacrit

The feedback from this crit was v positive and so I am v. happy! People seemed to like the direction in which I am taking my designs - complimenting the use of bold colours, shape and composition in my gouache paintings. I think this is definitely how I will continue to progress my designs - and these two ones could possible be the basis for two of my finals? I like the idea of using monoprint, however, to make my final outcomes - adding more obvious texture, other than that of gouache, to these designs could make them more eye-catching and interesting. 

How to progress forward :

• Continue thumbnailing for other themes in style of gouache paintings. 
• Experiment with processes of using monoprint textures to create final designs. 

The Corner Shop, Easter Cards

With request from the corner shop I have printed another series of cards to be sold over Easter, tweeking one of my designs to suit the holiday!

Gouache Paintings

After my chat with Ben and in light of the final megacrit for this term - I really wanted to do some more finalised designs that represented this new direction of my project...so I did some gouache paintings. I think these are generally quite successful and much more suitable to my current practice. I really like how I have started to use negative space and more abstract/graphic compositions to communicate these ideas and themes. They will have to be amended or done on a bigger scale, however, as small details like the facial features have been lost. Also I feel that the bright colours in the left design are a bit too jarring and if less saturated would be more appealing.

Monoprinting textures

I went and made a load of monoprint textures in a range of colours - mainly blues, oranges and greens to make the orangutans and foliage for the background of my designs. I really wanted to use some form of print media to make my practical outcomes for this module - this first was ideally to be screenprint, however realistically in relation to other module deadlines I will working towards next term and the time left until Easter this no longer really feels like a viable option. To incorporate this feel however maybe I could use these textures to create cut-paper designs or cut shapes out of them digitally to arrange on photoshop - using the multiply tool and overlay to make it feel more print media based and not digital.  

Collaborative : Final Products

WHAT I AM HAPPY WITH :

• I think our concept works well with the current branding of GUCC, as well as, in reference of our market research, is both innovative and original. 
• I really like the patterns I made in contribution of the final designs. I think they again captured what I was trying to achieve and were eye-catching. 
• I think the final landing page design and packaging are cohesive, working well together. 

WHAT I AM NOT HAPPY WITH :

• I think the puzzle layout was not used to its full potential in the design of the packaging slip. 
• I wish we had also included designs for the chocolate bars and other components in the pitch of our final design - although this is not part of the deliverables I think this would have made it a lot more engaging as a submission. 

REFLECTIONS ON COLLABORATION :

• I think overall it has been a successful collaboration. We worked well together as a group - organising meetings and delegating tasks. 
• Setting up the group chat on facebook and shared google drive proved vital in keeping up communication, especially in these final stages.
• As a creative, I sometimes found it difficult not having autonomy over a project - not being able to work at my own pace and considering others creative interests as well as my own. 
• Despite this, I now appreciate the advantages of collaboration - sharing creative skills and ideas, balancing a larger workload and learning how to work effectively together with others. 

Collaborative : Final Development

Through our group chat we have been giving each other feedback and the graphic designer's providing updates on the final development of the designs.

• They divided the labour equally between them - one doing the landing page and the other the final packaging design. 
• Both I and the other illustrator have also been making ourselves available to help in any we can...
• A design for the final packaging was uploaded to the google drive and the group were asked for their feedback. 
• I feel that the puzzle layout could look more dynamic on a larger scale but with the rest of the group happy with this final design it seems unreasonable to push my opinions. 

>image of Rosie final packaging design<

YCN, UK Greetings : Final Submission

OUIL505 : Chat with Ben

I had a very useful chat with Ben today about how to progress forward with my OUIL505 project. He hit the nail on the head saying that the thumbnails I have done so far do not reflect my practice and what I enjoy about image-making. I am shaping myself to the content of this project instead of making something that aligns with my own current practice - that focuses on simple composition, abstract motifs and shape based imagery. 

He showed me the work of Mathew Richardson, who has both a fine art and illustration/design practice. He uses a lot of found imagery to produce collages based on conceptual ideas (probably due to his fine art influences), and is actually very successful in a range of design-based contexts such as editorial, book publishing etc. 

This made me realise that I was perhaps underestimating the intelligence of my audience with producing very narrative, scenic images for this brief - especially that I am targeting this towards an age group of around 18-25 yr olds. I now think that, as long as my work has figurative motifs, I can apply a more abstract and conceptual approach to these images whilst still maintaining a successful level of communication. 

OUIL505 : Peer crit

My feedback was generally positive. They liked how my characters had been developing - particularly the combination of the blue and orange for the orang-utan - as well as what I am intending to communicate through this campaign. 

SUGGESTIONS OF HOW TO PROGRESS:

• Keep thumb-nailing and simplifying your compositions to make it align more appropriately with your practice. 
• Start testing colour and media to get feedback for next weeks megacrit. 

Thumbnailing for poster designs

I needed to start thumb nailing for some final designs so have decided to use the parameters of creating 6 illustrations suitable for an A4 poster design. These illustrations could then manipulated to be applicable for a poster campaign, commercial advertising campaign, print campaign, social media (being appropriate for my target audience) and even merchandise like tote bags or t-shirts. 

I made the thumbnails within a square - so when applied to A4 they could be surrounding by text, WWF logo etc. Overall I am happy with how the themes for each of my illustrations are evolving - defining each illustration by a problem that confronts Orangutans and then the final sixth poster being a general image for the slogan 'Save the King of the Swingers'. 

I am struggling, however, with developing a meaningful but non-gruesome and un-obvious way to communicate these difficult subjects - because I still want the overall feel to be positive and focus on what WWF is doing to help, encouraging other people to become involved. 

Collaborative meeting : developing final design

In our meeting today it was important that we made quite a bit of progress - with the deadline looming.

Important points :

• Rosie did not like Joe's initial mock-ups of the packaging, and so based on this we decided to change some aspects of the design. 
• I had the idea of perhaps animating aspects of the landing page - to make it more interesting? Everyone liked this idea but it is a matter of time as to whether we would be able to achieve this...

I think at this point in the project the graphic designers will play the primary role in developing and designing the final product. We will keep up contact - using the facebook chat, shared google drive, as well as hopefully meeting a couple more times to refine and finalise everything before submission. 

Making the puzzle layout and feedback

Jenny and I worked together to put our patterns into the puzzle layout, editing the colour palettes of each of our designs to make them work cohesively together. We ended up featuring the patterns very zoomed in and bold within the pattern pieces, so as to not make the final design too busy and overwhelming. At first I was a bit sceptical of this because being so happy with my patterns, I did not feel like they were being featured as I initially envisioned; however this is the best way to do it for the overall design and I think Im just being too attached to my own work. 

I think this development really shows the benefit of collaboration because having other people to bounce off helps you to see the images you produce in a different way and provides outcomes that you would not necessarily think of working on your own. 

Similarly, showing the final design to Joe, was equally really useful to have some fresh eyes and get a different creative perspective. He just thought that the white and block colour puzzle pieces needed to be changed slightly to get a more balanced composition - which when we did so made it look a lot better. Here is the first and final (rejigged) designs:

Patterns for collaborative - final edit

Today I scanned all my painted patterns in, cleaned them up on photoshop and then added coloured backgrounds, with a little bit of noise to even out the contrast between the handmade elements and digital colour. I am actually really happy with these final patterns - I think their child-like, playful but still look professional and well crafted. I also really like how colourful they are and think will look really effective when added to some simple type. 

The next step is then to pair these with Jenny's patterns to make the puzzle layout, for the final slip design. 

OUIL505 Group tutorial

I found the group tutorial today really useful and it has given me a new perspective on how I could develop my project further, particularly regarding my final 6 illustrations. 

Most recently I have been struggling with how to communicate the threats to Orangutans within my illustrations, whilst still making them light-hearted and pleasing to the eye so they then can be applied to merchandise - like T-shirts, pins, stickers etc. 

Proposed ideas within the crit:

• First of all think of what emotion you want to convey through this campaign - positivity for the future (there is a solution), get people to emphasise with orangutans or shock people into helping. 
• I really liked Steven's idea of focusing on the solution. This being a WWF campaign I could turn this into why people should help - what are WWF going to with this money that would be so great?
• There was also a general consensus that if I were to include these threats, it should be done subtlety e.g. an ominous shadow in the background, outlines of orangutans - to show they are disappearing or not there, leaves/rainforest changing colour or disappearing...
• Bronte suggested the idea of making 6 primary illustrations, for example six posters, and then selecting certain elements to then go on the merchandise. I think this would work really well and give me increased flexibility as to how I could apply my final illustrations. 
• Introducing slogans to my illustrations to aid my communication was also an idea - I would like to do this, especially after looking at Anna Kovecses work. 
• Giving the Orangutan an identity e.g. Otis the Orangutan. I think this could work quite well, but on the other hand, I debate whether this is appropriate to my target audience of 18-25 year olds. Also character is not really my thing, so I don't want to delve too deep into this side of the project. 
• On the other hand giving an identity to something does make it easier for people to relate and emphasise with it? 

Pattern making for collaborative

Today I made a load of patterns for my collaborative brief - the aim being for them to be inspired by the ingredients within the chocolate bars, but also have a childish and playful tone of voice to reflect the company's branding. 

In order to achieve this child-like aesthetic, as well as add a little bit of texture, I choose to finger-paint certain components of the patterns. I think this worked really well, and to be honest I had a lot of fun doing it - there's something to be said for just sitting down and experimenting with making stuff! I think the shapes within the patterns mimic the ingredients quite well, but the colour palette - taken from their existing branding - being so limited, it means the final results are also quite abstract and non-representational (which I do like, because this aligns with my practice quite well). 

In preparation for our collaborative meeting tomorrow I am going to scan these in and add some block colour backgrounds digitally - as I think if they are going to be in a puzzle layout, they each need to have solid colour so each piece can be differentiated from the other. 

Hunting and the Illegal Pet trade

https://www.orangutanrepublik.org/become-aware/issues/orangutans-a-wildlife/the-illegal-trade-in-orangutans

I been researching a little more into other factors that cause the endangerment of oranguatans as a species, other than the destruction of their habitat. 

• The hunting of orangutans is still a threat - where this occurs depends on tribal and village identity. As this is an indigenous tradition, it has been hard to counter this problem without becoming culturally insensitive and causing offence. They are hunted for a number of different purposes:
• meat 
• perceived medicinal benefits by consuming certain body parts (alike to rhino horn)
• The illegal pet trade : there is an international and domestic market to keep orangutans as pets, again for a number of different reasons:
• Kept by families (as we would keep cats or dogs in western society)
• Status symbols - kept by local politicians, senior military and police staff. 
• In order to obtain a baby orangutan, they need to shoot the mother. 
• At a young age organutans are docile and sweet, but soon grow to have the strength of an adult human and can become increasingly aggressive. 
• Orangutans are also poached to be kept in zoos or wildlife parks, often in appalling conditions. 
• They are also poached to be used for entertainment purposes e.g. thai boxing. 

Palm Oil - sustainability is the solution

I watched this video on the WWF website, explaining how we solve the environmental destruction caused by Palm Oil plantations. 


Sustainable Palm oil production from WWF on Vimeo.

• Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil, and as a result they are losing their rainforests at an alarming rate - often by slash and burn techniques. 
• 50% of packaged products in our supermarkets contain palm oil. 
• However; 45% of the palm oil in Indonesia is produced by smallholders (farmers that cultivate under 50 hectares of land) who rely on this income to lift them out of poverty. 
• The solution is to therefore work towards sustainable palm oil - RSPO certification. 
• This means reductions in the use of chemicals and farming methods that produce higher yields, therefore preventing these plantations expanding further into the rainforest. 
• WWF funds the education of these smallholder farmers so they can gain RSPO certification, and therefore protect the Orangutangs habitat. 
• RSPO certification, however, will only work if consumers support it, this why people need to only buy sustainable palm oil products. 

Study task 2 : 5 inspiring illustrators

Gathering these 5 illustrators as inspiration for this project, and through doing so consciously thinking about how and where I would like to apply my own illustrations within a professional context, has been a really useful and thought-provoking exercise. 

I think something that all these illustrators have in common is that they mostly work in shape, using bold colour and texture, to make really graphic images that rely on thoughtful composition and layout. They almost all work regularly with handmade process', some making this more central to their practice than others. Its interesting for me to see that these core aspects of what I love about illustration - shape, texture, colour, handmade process - can produce such different images and most importantly exist across so many different contexts within the creative industries. 

Looking at the work of Anna Kovecses and Geoff Mcfetridge has made me realise that I would really like invest some more time into expanding both my graphic design and animation skills. I think being a multi-disciplinary practitioner can only be an advantage, and makes your career ultimately more interesting as it opens yourself up to work on a whole range of different projects. Kovecses, in particular, has made me interested in experimenting with type in relation to image and this is something I may start playing around with during OUIL505. 

Leading on from my conversation with Ben, looking at these five illustrators has also given me some ideas as to how I could apply my OUIL505 illustrations.

• For example if I were to make this project into promotion for an event, to decorate the event space I could apply my illustrations like : 
• Zebu's 'Huge London' offices murals, different surfaces -> increased interaction. 
• Charlene Man's flamingo bunting for the V&A. 
• Or even look into creating some kind of tactile space or object ppl can interact with and learn complicated ideas from like play-o-logy's giant digestive system. 
• Atelier Bingo's posters, Anna Kovecses playful typography and Geoff Mcfetridge's work has given me ideas as to how I could create a number of posters ... using type as well as image, and graphic symbols. 
• I have also seen how I could apply my illustrations really nicely to make some illustrative products or clothing - like Zebu & Charlene Man have done so successfully. 

Progress Tutorial

I found the progress tutorial I had with Ben today so useful - it has made me feel a little less overwhelmed in terms how to balance our current heavy workload and given me lots of ideas of how to progress forward with a lot of my current projects. 

OUIL505

• Need to focus on making 6 illustrations first of all, and then consider how these could be best applied according to the brief I have outlined ... 
• First application - making posters, set myself dimensions? 
• Target audience 18 -25, idea of social media campaign is very appropriate - making gifs or posters. 
• Maybe the core idea of my project could be putting on an event, for 'Save the King of the Swingers' campaign :
• Tickets could be the donation to WWF, to help fund the protection of Oranguatans. 
• Event promotion : gifs on social media, posters. 
• Event decoration : murals, banners, 3D objects ...
• Things to sell, distribute at the event : info flyers, stickers, enamel pins, t-shirts, prints etc.
• (Swing dancing themed :)

Collaboration meeting and crit

Today we had a collaborative meeting, followed by a crit. Jenny and I presented our idea of making 10 patterns inspired by the chocolate bar ingredients, and then putting this in a puzzle layout. Joe and Rosie agreed that this worked with the company's branding concept well, and so we're aiming to finish these pattern designs for next week. 

Joe also has been thinking about how they can do the type - using either emobossing or foiling, I think is the direction he is looking into... I like this idea as I think it will make the final design look really simple and professional. Also with the amount of colour and pattern we are going to have on the design I think keeping the type as minimal as possible is a good idea. 

We also had a crit. I think this was a bit of a wake up call for us, because in comparison to other groups we had very little work to present. This has made me a little more mindful of the looming deadline and the fact that we should probably get moving on the work. 

However I think the reason for this is also partially due to the limiting nature of the brief - other people have a lot more opportunity to play around with concepts and the final deliverables, which I think helps a lot with engaging more with project through idea generation and the final product being more personalised to you as a group of creatives. 

GUCC emailed back :)

GUCC have replied in response to email I sent yesterday - which is great that they got back to us so quickly! They have given us some information with regards to their branding and an ingredient list for their chocolate bars. 

I have emailed this information on to the whole collaborative group. Now knowing the full list of ingredients, I feel like Jenny and I can get moving on generating some really good ideas for our pattern designs. The branding pdf may also prove useful to Joe and Rosie to get a better understanding of the companies pre-existing branding - in terms of type and layout. 

The owner of GUCC, however, in this email has said that they do not necessarily want their environmental policy to become a focus in their branding. Personally I think this is a mistake, but as the client, and ultimately a target audience, we should take this into consideration and so I don't think we should develop this idea any further during the project. 

Collaboration meeting with Jenny :)

Being the two illustrators within the team, Jenny and I decided to meet today to brainstorm some visual ideas for the packaging to then pitch to the graphic designers, hopefully tomorrow.

This is what Jenny and I decided on in relation to the illustrative aspect of the design:

• Both being interested in simple repeat pattern, which is a current trend within food packaging, we decided to keep this central to our illustrative designs. 
• On their website GUCC offers a mission statement describing their brand - 'Reminiscent of the bars we ate as children, but reimagined for grown ups only'.
• In order to represent this in our design, we plan to use handmade media such as gouache etc. to give the patterns a naive, playful and hopefully charming aesthetic. 
• For the slip, we were debating using a grid like layout - to mimic the shape of chocolate (so as to give a nod as to what was inside). Expanding on this idea Jenny thought of transforming this into a puzzle, which I think works really well with providing a child-like nostalgia to the packaging. 
• We still plan to focus on the flavours of the chocolate for the patterns, but will be taking inspiration from the different textures these ingredients provide, instead of using them as a colour palettes. 
• We also discussed my research into GUCC's strong emphasis on an environmentally policy and sustainability in the production of their chocolate bars.
• In response to this I think I am going to do some market research into other packaging for handmade and environmentally friendly products. This will hopefully give me a better idea of how we can effectively represent this side of the GUCC company, which I think makes them more appealing and justifiable as a luxury brand. 
• Jenny and I also thought that having a greater idea of how and where GUCC sources their ingredients would give greater inspiration for the making of our patterns - so I sent them an email inquiring as to this, as well as welcoming any further advice...

PLAN OF ACTION 

• Produce 10 patterns each, based on the ideas we spoke about, for next Wednesday. 
• If this works we will then bring the best ones together to make the jigsaw pattern layout. 
• In order to make sure they are cohesive, we have decided on a colour palette derived from GUCC's chocolate bars (we have chosen to do this so that we can also be in keeping with their branding)

Chocolate bars we choose for colour palette restrictions : 

Penguin Random House Submission

Out of my two designs, I decided to submit my cover for 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 133/4' for the Children's award. I selected this cover because I felt it was the best attempt out of the two and most appropriately reflects my current practice.

My cards in shop

The corner shop sent me a picture of my cards on the shelves - Im so happy to be selling something!

Adrian Mole final cover design and mock-up

WHAT I LIKE :

• I think overall this design is an improvement on my first attempt for the non-fiction book cover. 
• I like the sense of print media and hand-craft. I think the playful and naive aesthetic of monoprint really suits the tone of the book. 
• I like the concept of making the cover reflect that of a diary. Although this has been done before I think I have managed to do it in a different and more contemporary way. 

WHAT I DON'T LIKE :

• I think my lack of graphic design skills has again limited me in the design of a book cover - the layout and typography could probably be executed to a much better standard. 

REFLECTIONS & THOUGHTS :

• I think I would like to continue to explore publishing as an avenue for my practice, as I really enjoy researching and designing concepts related to stories. 
• On the other hand, I think too often I have adapted my work in order to suit certain contexts, which may have happened in this brief, rather than capitalising on my strengths as a creative. 
• I do not think illustrating for younger audience really suits my practice, as I like using more complex and abstract concepts in my work. 

GUCC idea generation

I have been struggling with generating ideas for my collaborative project, and I think this is caused by the nature of the brief itself. So far in college, I have not really had to produce images that have to align with any pre-existing branding or concepts. I'm finding this way of working very limiting and frustrating - especially since I don't like the company's branding in the first place. 

Collaboration is also proving to be reasonably difficult, not in terms of my partners, but just in the scheduling and productivity of the project. I am used to having complete control over when and where I work on a brief, and am finding it a bit stressful losing some of this control through collaboration. Its also been difficult to navigate around our varying timetables as to when to meet up, with graphics being away for a week in Berlin and having different crits, tutorials, lectures ect. everyday...But I'm sure as we get closer to the deadline, finishing up will become a priority and we will start to meet more regularly. 

Penguin Random House : Adrian mole monoprints

I decided to take the design ideas and motifs I drew in my thumbnails into mono-print, as I really want handmade processes, such as print media, to remain central in my practice. I also thought that the naive effect of monotype drawing could add a real charming and playful aesthetic to my design, appropriate to the tone of the novel and children's book publishing as a marketplace. 

I struggled slightly in creating these monoprints, as I have never attempted to make something so figurative before using this process. But I am really happy with the final results. I think the prints are very charming and will look really effective on the cover with the cohesive colour palette and similar textures. 

I did not, however, manage to make some handmade type using monotype. Having to write backwards makes it very difficult, especially as I am not very comfortable in the area of creating my own or even using type anyhow. To some extent this is why I choose this project, however I think it would be best if I use a digital type that has a sense of the handmade to it, in order to achieve something more effective and professional.