Work Based Learning: Final

Here is my final design for The Fostering Company. I am extremely pleased with how this module came out, considering the time scale, and I feel I met all the clients needs, one of which was to create a positive identity in something that due to media coverage is viewed quite negatively. With the use of bright colours and lack of sharp lines, I think I've taken away the threatening quality. 

Practice Enrichment: Final

Editorial Design: Final

I took some photographs of my finished final and wanted to share them: though I am awful at mounting them, often leaving glue marks and rarely keeping them straight, I think they look quite nice side by side.

I'm glad I managed to incorporate sharp lines into the page which contrast the soft, roundness of the circles which manage to show everything I want them to show of the photo. Despite this, a few of the black line joins were off centre, though hardly noticeably.

I should have been much more careful with the page numbers, as when it was printed, many were cut off. I placed them too far towards the edge, but feel I have now learnt and will be more wary of this next time. I'm thankful that none of the content was cut off.

After my last module, I checked the resolution of all images used, and google searched large files, alongside downloading original size files from flickr, to make sure none were blurred or skewed. Again, learning from my past mistakes.

I think I could see this in a magazine, and feel I hit my target audience well. I feel I've made the pages flow well together and look on part with each other, and therefore am extremely happy with how it came out.

Editorial Design: Final

I really enjoyed this module and feel it has strengthened my hope of specialising in the area. I must admit that I am quite pleased with the way my spread looks, and though I was only asked for two, I created 8. I think this was necessary as I wanted the spread to be complete, and feel had I stuck to the two I was required to create, a lot of aspects would have been missed out.

I think the front cover looks quite smart. After all of the development I produced, I finally settled on a very simple horizontal black line growing across the page, and the headline being on top of the number, in white. I felt this drew interest to the place and the number, without being conventional and boring. I also used an arial image of the London skyline, as I felt it was quite beautiful: with the blue of the number matching the blue of the Thames. 

The second page again incorporates the blue amongst black lines: the image spans across three quarters of the page, with the rest of the page being black. I wrote an introductory paragraph for the article, and placed this half way in the black background part of the page. The writing was left white. 

On the first page of the actual content, I decided to have the images in circles as I felt this was quirky and matched the modern style of the spreads. I also decided to keep the black lines as a recurring theme throughout the article, tying all the pages together. 

Similar to the first page of the article, I used the exact layout but this time flipped horizontally: I also used a different image of an iconic piece of London. 

Instead of using diagonal lines, for the middle page I used the same layout as the cover spread, a horizontal line. I think the circles being bigger than the line is quite quirky, and I also added a pull quote to disrupt the blank white space. 

In keeping with the rest of the spread I added another page to interrupt the article. Whilst researching for the article, I found many tips and hints, alongside apps for travellers to use to have a similar experience of a local and felt it would be quite a nice touch to add them. On this page, I wrote down certain apps and their qualities, such as AirBnB. 

Finally, if you count the amount of places I used, it was in fact 12. I didn't want the page to be too empty, and I also wanted to use the same layout style, so therefore added two extra places from the content research. I added the line of "two more for good luck." but feel I could have chosen something more in keeping and wittier now in hindsight. This page was laid out similar to the first page of content.

On the last page, I added the conclusion of the article. I wanted it to signify the last page of the spread, but I also feel this wasn't necessarily needed. In looking at most other spreads, conclusions are scarcely used especially in this context, but I felt it important to have something to break up the article and the next in the magazine.

For my first Editorial, though there are a lot of things I would change and do differently, I feel quite confident in what I produced. I think the next time I produce something of this nature I want to experiment more strongly with typography and contemporary designs, but I began this module wanting to create a modern article that would appeal to my target audience, and I feel I achieved that.

Illustration and Digital Skills: Final

My final piece: I was actually quite pleased with this. I think there are various details that I should have changed, such as the sharp line between the flowers and the background image, which should have possibly curved and blended better, or the flags acting as curtain being too blurry. That being said, I felt I included a variety of different skills and learnt a lot during this module, which is exactly what I set out to produce. I had a huge issue when creating this as I hadn't set up the page size correctly, and the resolution was terrible. I was shown to create the image into a smart object and resize it onto the correct page size that way, but I lost a lot of the crispness and it was no longer as sharp and strong. I think it was good for something like this to happen as I didn't really pay much care or attention to resolution and page sizes before, especially not on photoshop, always thinking I could just resize it: now I've learnt my lesson!
I like that there is no type in the image, nothing to describe exactly what is going on as I feel it does speak for itself. I also find incorporating the Suffragette's theme colours in this way, with three flags coming from one person, allows that person to embody all the women who fought and represent them, whilst not crowding the page. I wanted it to be simple, and adding them all to one person keeps the story without forcing it or making it look too intense.
The floral road was a suggestion from my tutor, and I must admit he was quite right. The image was plain and quite boring before hand, and I feel the flowers are interesting and represent femininity without being too aggressive. I also feel I really took on my research well and you can see a lot of inspiration from what I was drawn to in others work, in mine.

I guess I am pleased with the way this has turned out. It looked a lot better on the computer than printed due to the resolution, but that was a human error and one I have learnt from. I like that you can't tell that the image was a photograph anymore, and the way the sky looks with the subtle paper texture: but I also feel the image is far too busy. I wish I had simplified it more, and am thinking I might continue to develop this into something more. Now my main goal is to continue expanding my knowledge of the programs, and practice the skills I have learnt. 

Branding and Cooperate Image: Final.

In completing my brand identity, I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. I wanted to incorporate the actual loft logo, which I recreated using illustrator, and added lights surrounding it: creating a similar effect to flashing lights. When I thought of events, I thought of high end, paparazzi, red carpet style launches and wanted to replicate this in the logo. I used light colours to highlight against a black background, such as a light blue, white and grey.

The touchpoints I decided to create were a letterhead, a business card, a brochure and a compliment slip alongside a balloon to place inside the slip. I felt the compliment slip was my weakest: though inkeeping with the style and still using the logo, I felt the blue was washed out with the grey and white, and should have been on black card and embossed. I wanted the letter head to be extremely simplistic and felt I achieved this. 

 I chose to use two simple fonts to compliment one another in the brochure and logo: Ever After, and F37 Bella in Stencil. Though going against what I said earlier, with Stencils being a very current trend, I felt it is something that will never go out of style and the font face of F37 Bella with it's curves and sans serif, really added a difference and stood out.

Again, showing the colours I chose: a pale blue, a teal, and black. My brand drivers were Creative, Focused, Ambitious, Sophisticated, Open and Bespoke. 

I also really like the way the business card came out: originally using just the logo similarly to the letter head, I added some of the effect that was behind the image in the logo, but this time on top, creating quite a nice dynamic on the page. 

Apologies for the quality of these photos: I created the brochure using In Design. I wanted the brochure to feel quite up market, but also to attract all clients, using imagery provided on the website, alongside images of the place it is situated in. I used both typefaces mentioned earlier, and included the logo stretching half the page for the front. 

Finally, I was required to create a mood board summing up my development work from my sketchbook. I used colours I wanted to work with, research into different events companies, and my research into branding and touchpoints. It's difficult to sum up your research and development without using words, but moodboards are a really effective method of collating all of your research into something extremely simple and undestandable.

Overall, for a first module I feel I've accomplished a lot: though I want to work on my photoshop and illustrator skills in more depth, as I've never truly used them in this way before.