Design practice 2 - Evaluation

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

I believe I have improved on the practical side of things a little, for example the ability to construct packaging well from a simple drawing to a three dimensional object, as maths isn't my strongest subject I think I have done quite well in designing and building designs. I am sure I have improved in the way I need to document my work throughly on my blog, I annotate and analytically comment about my work in an informative way, so I suppose this is a skill I am developing. I feel I have the ability to explore a variety of ideas before designing, previously I used to stick with one idea and create from there resulting in dead end designs. 

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

In terms of approaches to creating designs I believe my best asset is researching thoroughly, primary and secondary information helps a lot before beginning a design, it sets a foundation for what exactly I am going to create. For example in the what is good brief, my  'good' was Marc Jacobs perfumes, I gathered a wide range of information and found a lot of useful imagery to enable me to develop my own brand of perfume in sired by the research I had found.  

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

Unfortunately when I observe my work I don't see many strengths in terms of designs, I feel quite disappointed with myself when evaluating the work as I believe I could have produce a better quality and quantity of work in the time that I had, and I believe the amount of research I had gathered for the brief shows what I could have produced product wise. Although this is a negative answer I do believe my ability to develop a good concept has improved in comparison to previous briefs. 

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

What is good was the one brief of the year that I thought I would enjoy and get most out of initially, regrettably I produced the least work for it due to bad organisation and time management throughout other briefs, which inevitably has been reflected in my work for this module. I can identify weaknesses in the quality of my work due to the stocks I used in final products and the formats I chose to apply. If I could do things differently with the 'What is good' brief I would develop a wider range of products such as perfume lotions, sprays etc as well as create the actual perfume bottle for the range. I would also produce more informative products, applying information about the range of fragrances I had produced. 

5. Identify 5 things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Manage my time more effectively and be a more organised designer so that my work doesn't lack in quality or quantity.
Begin designing sooner to show a stronger development in ideas and to gain a more satisfied outcome when the products are finished. 
Experiment a lot more with processes and finishes to show a better collective of work.
Work more on creating good concepts and fulfilling all work that I want to achieve as a brief. 
Don't be lazy when designing, do all the things I set out to do not just the easiest/ last minute option. 

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance: 4
Punctuality: 3
Motivation: 3
Commitment: 4
Quantity of work produced: 3
Quality of work produced: 3
Contribution to the group: 5

What is good - Presentation boards

What is good - Final products

Overall i'm happy with the concept I chose to develop work from and the range of products I have produced I believe there is a clear link between the two, however I think I could have pushed myself to achieve better designs and better outcomes throughout this brief and all in all better quality of work.

What is good - Printing and processes

I decided to experiment with foil on a few different stocks to see what the outcome would be as it takes to papers differently, I also test printed on cartridge paper first however the colours weren't great and the foils didn't take well. 

The cartridge paper made the colours look dull and the foil wasn't apparent. 

Instead I used white card for the packaging and sample nets.

Assembling the nets wasn't too difficult however the card was slightly too thick and creases in the paper were visible at on the folds. 

What is good - Nets designs and promotional mock ups

I produced the nets for the perfume packaging from a net of an existing product I had deconstructed along with the written content. To develop scent for each of the perfumes I gathered my favourite perfumes and wrote down the scents that the fragrance reminded me of to develop a scent palette for each of the 1960 perfumes. I wanted the packaging to be colour co-ordinated and have subtle sixties influences in the designs such as the circular shapes used throughout and the icons women portrayed on the designs. 

Perfume packaging

1960 - London 

1960 - Paris

1960 - Milan 

1960 - New York

Sample packaging

The samples are designs which were relevant as they are what a customer would spray a perfume on before purchasing a chosen scent. I wanted to keep them quite simple yet still have a consistent style throughout. 

Magazine advert/ Poster 

Design development:

I started off with a simple illustrative design.

To combining imagery from from two of the fragrances , London and Paris. I think the colours on the poster complement each other and the composition of imagery works well. 

Final design:

I opted for a surreal looking composition, the poster promotes a new collection of fragrances called 1960, showing a variety of names, London, paris, Milan and New York. All of which can be seen on the website given and can be accessed through the qr code. 

Website

What is good - Design development

I created some colour palettes which were inspired by the tones often used in sixties clothing and advertising, I didn't want use an actual colour palette from the sixties as I didn't want the products to look from that time, instead I wanted a more contemporary yet retro style to them. 

I then edited some imagery on photoshop using the matching pantones from my colour palette. 

As my products were based on the sixties I thought it was only appropriate to brand the product range '1960'.

Here are a few initial digital designs for the front of the perfume box - London.

Packaging cover designs for 1960 - London fragrance.