PROGRESSION AND REFLECTION

wow....

the last to years have been a good laugh but extremely tough what with all the family issues i have really struggled to sort college and family and keep them seperate. however i done it and im now at the end of the 2year course of BTEC Graphic Design.
it hasnt been easy and the work ive found hard but by trying to keep to deadlines and complete everthing to a high standard has been the hardest thing but i know it will help in life.
a big thankyou goes to Babs Jossi, Rob Black and Neil Brown for the support ive needed and the kick up the arse needed when i thought things couldnt get worse but also for the encouragement and faith in me!!
MANY THANKS!!

So.....

off to HND Graphic Design now for another few years of annoying another tutor ;) and maybe a few visits back to wind up Babs and fill her in on the life story of myself :)

looking forward to it but also nervous at the same time.... not quite sure what to be expecting but whatever it is ill face it and make sure i overcome it to the best of my abilities!!

x

End of College

END OF YEAR SHOW PREPERATION

these are a number of photos showing the hard work gone into the final end of year show for year 2 BTEC Graphic Design students... x

Final Narrative Images

These are the final images i used for my narrative project....

This is a little late uploading and has now slotted in between my FMP work.... however i need to add these to round off the first blog i created on here about it....

Collages created and edited on Photoshop

 These are my collages that i created for my Punk style swatch watches for my FMP....

i used images from old magazines, and photos of the internet aswell as old 'punk' books. overall i think that they convey the style of punk very well.

 these top three collages are the originals.... the ones below are the ones that i edited on photoshop to make the colours more vibrant and create more of a punk look.

  i snapped these images on to the basic shape of my swatch watches. i used one collage for the bangle watch and another for the original watch.

 I liked this collage the best out of them all due to the colours but when placed onto the watch the colours were too dark and there was not enough contrast between the blacks and the colours to make the watch stand out.

i had to ensure that the colours were both 'attractive' to men and women as the watches were created to be unisex.

 THIS COLLAGE WAS USED FOR MY BANGLE WATCH

THIS COLLAGE WAS USED FOR MY ORIGINAL SWATCH WATCH

evaluation of FMP

EVALUATION OF FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

My final major project was to produce a final piece of work that included a new Swatch collection(s), advertising posters for the new collection as well as packaging for the product. All the swatches were to be designed based on a certain era such as psychedelia, Bauhaus and punk. Each art era will have two watches for it; one bangle watch and one in the traditional shape of a swatch watch as well as generic packaging box for all watches just different information applied on them with also a poster for each individual watch whether ‘bangle’ or ‘original’. The steps I took making the ‘swatches’ and posters as well as the packaging was mainly all iMac based making the pieces and my final pieces digital artworks. Overall I think that I have fulfilled my brief and completed the project to a high standard and quality.

When starting the project I created and designed my own brief and aims that I was too complete certain parts of the project by certain dates and therefore was able to complete this project on time but also ensured me that I had everything in the project that was needed. I also kept a weekly log of my objectives and what I completed on each day as well as class crits and tutor reviews of my work on a regular basis.

I started the project off by instantly emailing swatch and asking for any information they could give me on their company as well as products already on the market. I was pleasantly pleased when I received an email with a powerpoint attachment giving me many facts about the company and their products. I also visited swatch retailers and was given original swatch packaging, which I have taken photos of and used some of my old packaging from my own swatch watch to help research into packaging ideas for my own swatch collections. I have researched into and evaluated other watch companies and there watch designs and looked into what styles of watch people seem to like and buy also as more background information on watches and more research to my project so I can refer back to interesting pieces. 

I have also collected a lot of research about the different art eras and artists as well as their work to help decide on watch thumbnails and design ideas for my watch collections as well as poster ideas and thumbnails. I have researched into the artists I said I would in my brief such as for

·      Bauhaus – Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandisky etc

·      Punk – Legs McNeail and Jamie Read etc

·      Psychedelic – Wes Wilson and Martin Sharp etc

As well as researching into Swatch artists that create some of the watches that swatch have on the market at the moment such as Ivan Navarro, Manish Arora and Cassette Playa.  I researched into these too be able to get a understanding of the styles that swatch produce and market and also research into what sort of styles I could create that may appeal to the target audience which is swatch collectors and anyone aged between 16-30.

I also visited numerous galleries and museums in London on specific days out with the college such as the National portrait museum where I found a psychedelia piece of digital artwork by Michael Craig Martin and places such as the SkyLark Gallery at the Oxo Tower on Southbank, London where Michelle Elwell’s artwork was being shown all of whom I have come back and researched into. Also any photos of the day that I took such as of places as the graffiti skatepark on Southbank London and other photos associated either with my artwork or watches are all included on contact sheets in my project with further research into certain parts.

The designing part of the project when producing thumbnail ideas and collecting feedback I found one of the most enjoyable parts of the project as I got to listen and take into account other peoples views on my watches and ‘make’ them to feedback from my target audience as such.

Also to create the final designs on the iMacs I had to create some MTP pieces of work such as collages for my punk designs and ideas aswell as working up poster ideas using watercolours inks and pens. I also used photography for my main image for the posters as through my research into swatch and there marketing posters it became apparent that the majority of the posters advertising for swatch use the figure or face of a woman to promote the brand and collections. By using photography on my posters and using the ‘woman’ I feel that my swatch posters now fit the criteria for a swatch poster better than if I hadn’t researched into swatch posters and analysed them.

I also created three different punk collages that I then scanned into the iMacs to then Photoshop and play with the brightness/contrast and hue/saturation of the images that allows the images to have the colours digitally altered to make them brighter or darker with different colours taking places of the original colours. I was then able to use these images to clip onto the outline of a watch drawn on the iMacs, which allowed a neat and final finish to the watch designs for printing.

Other Swatch MTP was created also especially with the name of the brand and the different names of the art eras using inks, watercolours and crayon and inks.  Although I did not use any of these these experiments gave me some of the ideas for the swatch thumbnail ideas and therefore my final ideas and designs.

Working my designs up onto the iMacs was the most difficult part as I came across problems with clipping masks especially when layers attached themselves to one another and made the document unable to respond to commands. This was soon overcome by making sure before I done anything to the documents that the correct layer was selected everytime and checking that none had attached themselves to one another on a frequent basis. Overall the problems I encountered were all fixable with either more attention needing to be paid or a simple quick fix was available to solve the problems.

My final swatch designs the actual watches, the posters and the packaging for the watches all have a definitive link as in they all use the same images and names as the rest. Such as the punk era have a punk woman on the packaging and poster advertising one of the ‘collage’ style watches which the collage is also printed on the packaging box so there is a link between each part of the item and designs.

I think that my brief has been completed to the highest standard I could possibly complete too and all my ideas, research and final thoughts have been logged and evaluated. The overall project includes 6 watch designs (3 bangles, 3 originals), 6 posters (3 bangle, 3 originals) and 3 different packaging boxes that can house and protect both bangle watch and an original watch.  In the time that I had to complete this project I think that these final designs and ideas are the best that I could possibly create and the feedback I have had about them have been positive with only small negative feedback comparison.  My work is bright and bold like I hoped which is eye-catching and original in design like I hoped also. The designs and posters are suitable for all ages so if publically in view there will be no issues with images or information and definitely fit the target audience criteria of swatch enthusiasts as well as 16-30 year olds.

The only thing that I wish I had had time for is to visit printers to find out about printing costs and different finishes that I could use to produce my final designs to a higher professional quality.

However I am very pleased with my final outcomes and would not wish to do anything again differently apart from not have as many problems with iMac and layers next time so I can complete my final work a bit quicker and more neatly!

(((PHOTOS TO BE UPLOADED SOON)))