End of module self evaluation

1) What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

·      My Photoshop skills have improved significantly since the start of this module due to the inductions and Photoshop brief but mainly because I was working with pantone and color matching was a large part of my project so I relied heavily on the pantone libraries in Photoshop.

·      Producing info graphs, I learnt how to research on a subject of my choice, collect, research and categorize information and then structure the masses of information in a interactive and interesting way.

·      Book binding, the introduction session helped me to get to know the resources and to bind my swatch book, without this session I would not of had any idea how to bind my book.

2) What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

After browsing for secondary research I would be able to establish what research is relevant and from there I would be able to focus my research and get as much primary research as possible.

3) What strengths can you identify in your work and how have you/will you capitalize on these?

My layout has gotten much better and for me it was strength in this project, being able to layout a lot of information in type and image in a simple format. In future I will look forward to playing round with layouts much more confidently. The ability to translate a lot of data into info graphics, initially I had problems producing info graphics but as the project went along I became much more confident and I would like to do more info graphics in future projects. My photography has improved especially after having to document a lot of graffiti.

4) What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

Some of the posters I produced were a bit too complicated for the general public and I needed to do simpler more engaging forms of them. Some of the work doesn’t fully promote the hair salon, instead it informs the public about its products and benefits, this made a lot of my work not very clear, in future I would try to promote more straight to the point. After I printed I found some type errors and slight layout problems in future I would do a full spell check and compare the grids on the software I am using before I spend money to print my work.

5) Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

·      Take step-by-step images of my work as I’m working on illustrator/Photoshop, the work I start off with is usually much different by the time I save the document.

·      Refer back to the brief more often, sometimes I found myself a bit lost and confused and referring back makes sure you aren’t trailing off the project.

·      Experiment with different types of stock more, plain white stock isn’t always the right answer.

·      Draw more in sketchbook, I find that I write descriptively in my sketchbook for my ideas more then to visually communicate them.

·      Decide on which idea’s to produce and then focus on them instead of doing loads of resolutions.

6)

Attendance – 5

Punctuality – 4

Motivation – 4

Commitment – 4

Quantity of work  - 4

Quality of work – 3

Contribution to the group – 4

rational

Rational:

Theme/subject:

Product & Promotion

My theme is hair, i started off looking at hairstyles and trends then started to focus on hair colour and what shades of colour are within each category of hair colour, for example finding out how many shades of brown could i find within brown hair. 

This body of research led me to start a branding campaign for a specialist hair salon which focuses on hair colour (a colourist). I started off producing statistical posters to show the general public that their are many more shades of hair colour to choose from then just the standard brown, black, blonde and auburn. I started to my branding campaign with the idea to attract people who really care about their hair colour and dont just want the cheapest dyeing option you could pick up in boots. I wanted to produce my promotional work but i also wanted to inform people at the same time about the differences in hair colour to show them that the Colour Company wasn't just a standard hair salon, i intended to do this by producing informative booklets which can be given out on the high street or pick up in the salon, business cards, informative posters and swatch booklets to see the variety of colours available.

Photoshop Brief

My photoshop skills have never been that great but after a few workshops i had gained enough knowledge to start getting on, i had to relay very heavily on photoshop in this project due to all the pantone colour matching. These workshops gave me that extra bit of knowledge i needed.

The processes i used during this brief were mainly rastorizing the images then turning due the saturation to close to 0, to get them black and white but still give a hint of colour to enhance the shadowing. I then used the marquee tools and shape tools to create a range of shapes. I used the colour tool and messed around with opticity's to so u could see through my shapes and not spoil the images. I also used a lot of vector masks. This project though me a lot about how the layering system works and how to avoid using destructive processes in photoshop.

moving image workshop

This is the first video i made with the stock photos we were provided with this session mainly covered getting use to setting a frame rate and other simple ways to get photos into a video.



This is the 2nd weeks video, this session was based using final cut express. The session covered putting text into the video and setting frame rates. I used some of my stop motion photos, but as i have used final cut pro a lot in the past this session was more of a refreshers. I did learn a few techniques i didn't know about previously.

Grids and Layout

I found that using Grids while trying to organise text is very helpful to make your spread look professional and to make it feel organised. 

The grids and layout workshops i found especially helpful in my current project as i was developing leaflets and flyers which i had to put a lot of text in. I applied what i learnt in these sessions in producing my layouts for my current project.

This is a practical example of some of the layout exercises we did on magazines, how you can rearrange information by using a simular grid system. 

These are some the double page spread layouts i did from my own choice of magazine, it has showed me that there has to be a balance between text and image. 

Book binding

I found the book binding sessions very interesting and fun, unfortunately i did not really need any of the skills i learnt in this workshop for my current project. 

I did find the book binding drop in sessions helpfull as i managed to get the advice on getting my swatch booklet bound properly.

Leaflet

I created a leaflet to help inform any costumers in store how the Colour Company can help them with specialist hair colouring, the leaflet tells the costumer a bit about the company and what its all about. I added some statistics and explained them and i also added some colour swatches.

After the feedback i got on the statistical posters about them being very confusing i decided to take a much simpler approach to this leaflet any statistics i put in the leaflet was very simple and explained. This leaflet can be put through peoples doors or handed out on the high street. 

Some initial design sheets to help me with some layout before i got onto photoshop/illustrator. These also helped me to work out exactly how much of what information to add into my flyer.

I like the layout of this flyer and the colours used but if i had more time i would of liked to experiment with potentially different stock choices the text feels a bit "harsh" against the white matt paper. If i had more time i would of like to create a website where i would be able to put the information i have on this flyer into its own sections making it much easier to understand.

Flyers

Back of flyers

These are 3 different variations for hand out flyers, on the front it has simple visuals and colours to illustrate what the colour company is about, on the back it explains that the colour company caters in specialised hair colouring. This is simple design and is intended for people who want to spend that extra bit to get quality hair treatment. The address, opening times are also on the back so locating the colour company is easy. 

The only problem with the flyers are that they dont tell you a lot about the hair salon i should of put some facts in about the salon to try and persuade the public to come to this salon instead of their normal one.

More statistical posters

These posters show the commonly found pantone. After producing these posters i realised that they are much more complicated and i realised that the public wouldn't be very interested in seeing them as they probably wouldn't understand them or its relevance. I therefore quickly gave up on producing any more statistical posters and went into a more simple "public friendly" approach into branding the hair salon. 

This is poster to show the wide variety of pantone available.

Statistical Posters

After working out and categorizing all the statistics i had collected i decided to produce a series of statistical posters which would show the frequency of specific  pantone. This would help show the costumers which are the most common pantone they could use this would help narrow down the vast collection of colours found in hair.

These are 4 different variations of the poster i experimented with, the simplicity of the pie chart shows what percentage of people have what hair colour then the text highlights how many different categories of pantone are found within each hair colour. 

After my final crit i had to come back to these posters and i had to change the font size as it had legibility issues with size. This was easily fixed but i would not of spotted these problems if someone else didn't point them out to me.

This is my final set of these statistical graphs printed out, i decided to print it out on tracing paper as it came out really well and it was much cheaper to print out for its size. 

These graphs came out really well but if i could the segments on the circles need to be cleaned up a bit the spacings between them aren't all the same and it makes the whole thing feel a bit unbalanced when looking at it closely.

Swatch booklet

I had the idea to create a little swatch book you could look at in store so you could choose between the range of colours available. I based my design around the statistics i collected, I basically put in the most relevant pantone from the 100 i found, the most common ones.

I created the document in illustrator then i had to put it into photoshop to colour match the pantone swatches. I also added some of the statistical data on the colours and labeled the pantone on the swatches so when you do choose a hair colour you will get the exact one you choose. 

                                        

This is the little mock up swatch booklet i made out of cheap stock and a drawing pin, i needed to go and find an alternative way to bind this booklet.

Some initial ideas for the swatch book, i wanted to keep it as simple as possible so there wasn't a lot of type or image confusing the colours. 

I really liked the final swatch book i made, it looked really well laid out but the one problem i found when i printed it out properly is the matt doesn't allow the booklet to flick through very well and to improve this i definitely need to print it on a different type of stock.

   

The Colour Company Business Cards

These are some of the business cards i didn't select but from them i made some further improvements and produced 3 sets of front and backs.

1

2

3

I decided to use the info graphics pie chart for the logo as it represents what the company is all about specialist colour. Most of the colours i used was that from the pantones i actually found in my surveys. The strongest visaul from these 3 is the top one number 1. This one just works really well back to front and the colours contrasts well against the white background.