Final Submission Boards

Brief 4 / Website Design

I'm creating a website to match in with the re-brand of Manchester craft and design centre, as their website at the moment is really messy.

There is so much information on it, and I want to combine the stuff I've learnt in the web sessions I've been doing with the designs I've been making for mcd.

First off, a website should have about 5 pages, where as this one seems to have hundreds, as well as loads of random images everywhere.

What stuff is actually needed?

A lot of the pages can be condensed on to just one page.

- Home

- About (+ getting here, details, company information)

- News (+ events and exhibitions)

- Studios (+ image gallery, information)

- Contact (+form, mailing list, social media links)

What is needed that isn't already there?

- Image gallery section

- Map

- Contact Form

Website Mock Ups

- A few quick mock-ups trying only to use the information which is needed.

Final Website:

Re-Written Final Briefs

Look at these posts to see the development of the briefs. As you can see the fourth brief has changed dramatically, and some are quite different to what I initially thought I would do. These decisions are explained on the relevant blog posts.

Brief Ideas 26/09/12
Briefs to discuss at tutorial 4/10/12
Briefs with Brief 1 added 12/11/12

Brief 1

Competition Brief + Type Skills Brief = Initial Written Brief
Tigerprint Brief
Final Brief

Brief 2

The Internet Initial Statement of Intent
Initial Statement of Intent
Brief Draft 2
Final Written Brief

Brief 3

Initial Statement of Intent
Final Written Brief

Brief 4

Graphic Design Museum Initial Statement of Intent
MGD Brief
Change of Direction
MCD: Final Written Brief 

Brief 5

Mini Brief

Final Briefs 5/12/12

Brief 4 / Final Written Brief

Brief 4 - Manchester Craft and Design Centre Branding

To create the re-brand for the existing Manchester Craft and Design Centre, and to apply this branding to a range of printed media to show both how the brand works as business stationery but also to show how the branding can work to help promote the centre. I will consider how the pieces would be distributed.

This will be a skills driven brief, allowing me to concentrate on improving my branding skills.

Background

Manchester Craft and Design centre contains two floors of contemporary studios of designers, with crafts to browse and buy. Areas of the arts covered by the studios include: paper craft, textiles, wood work, metal, painting, sculptures, ceramics, illustration, jewellery and clothing, furniture and more. Innovative craft and design exhibitions are also shown alongside the designers work. 

It has recently celebrated its 30th birthday, but the existing branding and website design does not reflect the high quality crafts on sale. It is also not very well advertised, with a lot of people not even knowing of its existence. 

Deliverables

• A new brand identity
• A new website design
• An invite to an exhibition night
• Posters to advertise opening night
• Business stationery: letterheads, envelope, business cards
• Shop packaging: bags and tags

Rationale
A skills driven investigation of branding and identity with a focus on printed promotional outcomes. 

Statement of Intent
I am going to create a re-brand for the Manchester Craft and Design centre, because I want to learn more about branding and identity, and to apply to this to a range of printed media.

Final Crit

Here are my boards at the stage of the final crit. Unfortunately I didn't give myself enough time as I needed to make these boards, so they are unfinished. But I still have questions that I want answering about my boards. These are:

1. Is the line under the logo needed?

2. Are the images too big or small?

3. Do I write about how the brief was before and include info about development or just final pieces?

4. Does anything seem a bit irrelevant?

5. What do you think about the overall layout style?

BRIEF 1

I didn't realise quite how long it would take to arrange the photos on to my boards. Some of my photos didn't work out as well as I thought they had as well so theres a few that I need to retake.

I also struggled to work out what should be bigger and what should be smaller in terms of images, but found it useful when I printed the boards out to size to work out what was what.

BRIEF 2

I think for this brief the actual icons are better than the final products, so I wanted to make a feature of these. It still needs a bit of tweaking but I have managed to organise the products well in terms of size. The collective group shot of the products didn't turn out so somehow I need to re photograph this.

BRIEF 3

I haven't yet finished, printed or photographed this brief. I am panicking a bit about this, but at least I will just be able to copy the format of the brief from the other boards.

BRIEF 4

These were the first boards I did, and I spent ages on the placement of the images so think they are working quite well, I just need to correct a few mistakes and finish adding the text.

BRIEF 5 

This is a mini brief that I only started the other day, so the boards won't need to be printed. There will probably only be one or two, which will be saved as a pdf on my blog, but these boards will be the same format as the others.

FEEDBACK

For this crit we looked around everyones work individually, then in groups looked round the other peoples work, considering: blog content, blog organisation, presentation boards content and organisation. I had my unfinished boards and all of my final products to get feedback on.

General

- MCD briefs - brilliant/relevant application of branding to promo - especially posters. Range utilised.

- Good photography. Clear range for all briefs. Clear presentation. Great use of stock and different applications to products.

- Really clear boards so far, everything looks really organised. Photos look really professional and clear, communicate well. Good use of different stock with final products - shows you have tried and tested different things to get the most from your briefs.

- The YCN brief is looking good. Internet brief is spot on. Good range of products - well photographed except one image which looks a little dark.

Person 1/

- Are you going to be adding more photos to the 2nd and 4th boards of the card brief? Too much space.

- Love all the imagery for the internet brief, looks amazing. Very well laid out and plenty of good images to show how everything fits together.

- Really clear information, everything so far that you have written is relevant. All work is explained well, with the brief on the boards.

Person 2/

- The lines on the board aren't needed

- You need a range of big and small images depending on what you are trying to communicate within the product shot. So use a variation, but make sure they work consistently across boards.

- Don't include development on boards

- Boards are clear and concise

- Good documentation of all. Design decisions and well evaluated each image posted.

- Well organised. Producing well informed design decisions.

- It is evident that you have clearly related your DC posts to your design practise

- Lots of imagery to convey the products now need to add text to explain the designs

- Think about how you are organising the images, line them up, spacing. 

- Have a vectored image also.

Person 3/

- Briefs are clearly labelled and very well documented.

- Evaluation is sometimes a little brief but is consistent throughout

- Seem to be on top of all your briefs

- Really good break downs on design context of how work relates to each brief

- Development of briefs is evident when scrolling through

- Good balance between image and type

- Maybe relate context blogging of processes to possible ambitions within your briefs

- Really concise descriptions - outlines each brief really well

- Consistent layout across boards

- Photographed really well

- Related header along bottom of page and given print specs

- Board for the branding of each brief?

- Could do with the brief titles on the boards.

- Possibly draw attention to the fact you've developed logos for each swell

- Boards are really easy to navigate and clear. Just finish descriptions and should be ready to print.

PLAN OF ACTION

- Pick up on points in feedback, including:

- Get rid of lines - not needed

- Add text, check grammar and spelling

- Retake a few of the lower quality images

- Add branding to all of boards, and box to put 3d products in to make it clear it is mine

Brief 4 / Printing on to Fabric

Unfortunately I didn't get a slot in time to include this in to my photo shoot, but I will re take the photos.

I have printed the cards I printed on to the recycled paper for inside the invite on to cotton. This is a process I haven't tried before so it was good to do this to continue to develop and think about the presentation of my final pieces, which was a target I wanted to improve with this brief.

You files have to be RGB to print on to the fabric, which has changed some of my colours a bit, but the difference isn't too dramatic. I think these look good, and just need cutting down and placing in the invite now.

Here are the fabric swatches cut down and placed in the invite. This is so different to anything I have done before, and I think the results are really exciting. I think the invite will achieve its intended purpose of being appealing and eye catching and make the recipient want to attend the event.

Brief 4 / Photo Shoot

Best Photos

Brief 4 / Business Stationery

Continuing on with applying the branding to different products, I have created a range of business stationery, to be printed alongside the invite and the posters. These are the things which I consider to be the main part of the brief, but I wanted to create other things to show how the branding can work across a range of products. This brief has changed from a exhibition signage brief to a branding one which is quite complicated but now reflects my design practice a lot better than the original brief.

I have kept most of these designs simple as they are to be used for other purposes, such as the letterhead would have writing on it. The examples may look a bit plain because I think what will make them stand out is the stock.

Stock

Throughout my designs to print I have used four stocks:
- 120gsm eco textured cream paper (120gsm from Footprinters)
- Eco cream textured Fedrigoni card (320gsm from Fedrigoni)
- Standard kraft roll paper  (70gsm from LCA library)
- Textured recycled kraft brown card (300gsm from Papermania)

And for the envelope:
- Textured recycled kraft brown envelope (120gsm from Papermania)

Letterheads

These are to be printed a4 on to 120gsm cream eco paper, sourced by Lisa Whitaker, from Footprinters Leeds. This paper has a texture to it that matched the fedrigoni card I have used for the invite, and fits in with the crafty, recycled texture theme.

Envelope

This is to be printed A3, to be folded down to A5, so that the letterhead paper fits in it when folded in half. This is to be printed on to standard kraft roll paper  (70gsm from LCA library)

                        Back                               Front

Business cards

These are to be printed double sided on to textured recycled kraft brown card (300gsm from Papermania)

Postcard

These are to be printed double sided on to eco textured cream paper (120gsm from Footprinters). The purpose of this postcard is as an advertisement, like the postcards I found for the first cut exhibition at Manchester art gallery, it isn't a postcard as in one you send through the post.

I didn't want the postcard to be another version of the mini cards which are inside the invite, or another version of the poster, so instead of just using one texture as a background, I've sampled loads of textures. I've arranged them in a way so its like a purpley pink one next to a brown one, but there were some textures I have had to colourize to make this work. Such as the paint splat and the leather.... but I don't think you can actually tell. The info on the back is the same as the poster but arranged in a different way. I did consider printing these on to thick gloss card so they looked more like real postcards but then realised that they just wouldn't match in with the theme or the rest of the products.

 

It took ages for me to get the back looking right as just copying the details from the poster wouldn't have worked for this arrangement. I considered different ways of displaying this information, such as having a background behind the text like on the posters, and different ways of positioning the text. Here are a few screenshots of some of the things I tried.

Shopping Bags

These are to be printed on to A2 standard kraft roll paper  (70gsm from LCA library), and folded to size, with the handles taken from an existing paper shopping bag.

Tags

These are to be printed on to textured recycled kraft brown card (300gsm from Papermania) and tied with raffia.

Brief 4 / Posters in Context

Selvedge

I've placed the poster on the advert page, because I thought the way the adverts are laid out would be the perfect size to place the poster. I've added drop shadows to both the poster and the actual page to try and make it look more realistic, as well as lowering the saturation of the image. This is because of the stock selvedge is printed on, which makes the images look quite a bit darker.

I've chosen to place it in Selvedge, as this is a magazine which is read by the target audience to the Manchester craft and design centre, which is those with an interest in professional, quality craft and design. Selvedge is one of the magazines that would be invited to the new year party launch I've designed the invitations for.

Before:

After: 

The poster would also be placed in the manchester evening news newspaper and around bus stops in the local area.

Brief 4 / Making the Invite

The invite is the most substantial part of the MCD branding brief. I've spent ages playing about with the shape, thinking about the stocks, and getting the design right, so now its time to actually ensemble the invite.

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Step 1. Envelope Textured recycled kraft brown envelope (120gsm from Papermania)

I decided not to actually foil the logo in gold on to the front as I originally decided I would do and did in my experiments, as it wouldn't be suitable or fit in with the theme. I also didn't really have a purpose for doing it apart from the fact I want to put foil on everything.

I have used a zig zag sewing machine stitch onto the recycled paper envelope to add to the craft and textiles theme. I was going to add a perforation to rip open the envelope but I think this would look messy, so you just have to rip it open. I'm not putting the invite in it as I don't want people to have to rip it open and ruin it.

I've used a white stitch as there is going to be a light and dark contrast theme going on through all these products.

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Step 2. Actual Ticket - Textured recycled kraft brown  card (300gsm from Papermania)

I made a stupid mistake here. I wasn't printing the ticket double sided, but sticking both sides together to make it quite as thick. But then I forgot to flip the back over! So the flap bit (the date) would be on the wrong side. So I've just had to cut the date off, which is probably a good thing, as it will make the ticket easier to fold, although the date was probably the most useful piece of info on there. Oh well all the info will be on the ticket holder.

 

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Step 3. Invite Card - Eco cream textured Fedrigoni card (320gsm from Fedrigoni)

Info on back of card:

This photograph doesn't really show how nice the texture is of this lovely fedrigoni card, but I'm really happy with the stock choices for this brief. It definitely works better than when I planned on just doing it all black and white.

Originally in my mock ups, the invite holder was going to have scalloped edges, but after receiving feedback suggesting this might not look professional, I couldn't decide whether it should be scalloped or not so had to ask others their opinions and the 90% said not too, so I've kept the edges straight. Well this saves it going wrong at least.

Front:

Back:

I've tried to tie a raffia ribbon in a neat bow to keep the pieces together. I haven't decided whether this should just be around the ticket and mini cards or the whole thing.

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Step 4. Cloth Cards

The plan is to print these on to cotton but I can't get a print slot til after I've got the photo studio booked, but I'm still going to do this afterwards for the hand in. I wanted to print them on to cotton as this would work really well with the theme of textures and textiles, and would be something different and interesting that I've never tried before.

So for the photo shoot, I'm going to print them on to the same textured paper I'll be printed the business stationery on to.

- 120gsm eco textured cream paper (120gsm from Footprinters)

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Step 5. Envelope Front

The envelope front has changed quite a bit from initial plans.

I needed someone to send the invite to, so I'm making this as if I am sending it to selvedge magazine, (a professional, high quality craft and design publication) to invite them to the event.

I was going to have this as the address printed in the same stock as the card that holds the invite, but I decided to change it to the design below, so I could make a stamp with my logo on.

I have done this because you can really get your own stamps made from Royal mail, called smilers. You have to put them next to a real stamp. They cost about £20 for a set so I'm obviously just going to make my own seen I'm not really posting this.

I tried the logo against all the mini texture rectangles I had created. [see textures] But this paint strip remains my favourite so I'm using this.

Next I needed to actually make it look like a stamp, I tried doing the scalloped edges but it looked childish, so I've just cut it really close to the edge but left a little border.

Now I'm ready for the photo shoot and to place this with the other products.

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