OUGD301 Evaluation

My original rationale was- An image driven investigation into branding and identity with a focus on print retail. After finishing the module my rationale has now changed to- A type and image based investigation into packaging with a focus on print and retail.  I found this changed a lot as originally I wanted to focus on image more but found myself creating typefaces based on the themes of the briefs and combining image into the font. I also found that I did not really focus on branding and identity apart from applying the typeface as the brand.  The typefaces I created did include image in them and ended up being quite decorative which is what I intended in the start as I wanted the typeface to be used in shop windows and generally on large-scale design.

I wanted to use foiling for two different briefs but to give different effects on each one. For the Christmas brief I wanted to use foiling or foil blocking to give a ‘Christmassy’ look using silver and gold foils on a range on different colourful stocks. For my H Samuel brief I used foiling, as I wanted my packaging to look expensive and luxurious. I did this by foiling silver foil onto black paper. The theme of my H Samuel brief was to do with fame and the image used was the walk of fame stars in the sidewalks in Hollywood.  I have difficulties with printing the image on the black card I originally brought, as I couldn’t screen print the star, as it was too detailed. My first attempt was printing the black onto white card with the star, which didn’t look nice at all. I tried printing onto the black card in digital print but the stock could not be detected. I then resorted to printing onto black paper on the laser printers and foiling onto that and using the laminator, then I printed the star image onto stickers and stuck that onto the black card. This actually worked really well and when photographed professionally they looked really good. With the Christmas brief I had digitally printed the design as the stock used was too thick for the laser printers. I therefore had to foil onto it by exposing a screen and screen-printing the design onto the stock using a glue type liquid and then using the heat press to foil onto it. I found this didn’t work as well as I had hoped and preferred the laminator process. A lot of my briefs were focussed on designing for retail, which I didn’t necessarily do on purpose. Some briefs I enjoyed designing for retail more than others but overall my favourite brief was the Christmas one.

Time management for this module  was really good towards the end  but at the start I found it hard to get ideas going. I also felt I probably spent too much time on some briefs more than others for example I spent less time on the M&S Picnic brief  than I hoped to and feel I could have done a lot more work.