Peer Assessment

I was given the task to peer assess another publishing student's FMP. Abbie Nelson has created animal themed art prints and photography to sell on a website, the money will all be donated to wildlife charity's. Abbie sent me a link to her FMP blog so I had the chance to look through her progress throughout the project. I was impressed by the detailed posts, she has reflected on her own work and has written up about the areas she can improve on before actively perfected her errors. Abbie has looked at the brief all the students were given and she has completed each critia to the best of her ability, I can tell that she has put in a lot of effort. I know Abbie well so I know how much she loves animals and I believe one of the reasons she has done so well is because she is passionate about the topic. The website that Abbie has created looks proffessional and polished, the colour scheme compliments her personal brand as well as the animal theme, the home page of her site includes photos that she has taken and also photos that she will be selling which is great because the customers will be able to get a taste of what Abbie is selling as soon as they click on the website.

End Of Year Show

The end of year show allows us students to show off our work to teachers, peers, friends, family and people from the industry. Personally, the main project I will be presenting will be my theoretical brand through the package design, this includes the shoebox and the drawstring bag. The show will be at Komedia in Bath on 16th June, both the publishing and moving image students will have time slots to present their projects.

The night will be perfect for us students to show our progress throughout the last couple of years, we will be able to reflect on each piece of work which will allow us to assess our strengths and weaknesses. In my showcase, although the main project I will be presenting will be my final year FMP, I will also be showing the work I have completed throughout the last couple of years if I am particularly proud of it.

Ideas for presenting the work:

• Displaying my work through a 'pop up' store for my brand, including the packages, example trainers and the prices.  I have a vision of a desk that is set up with my products lined up neatly, a poster of my logo will be shown in the background so it will be the first thing people will see when they come over to my stool.
• A large banner with my logo and a description of what my products are, why I decided to focus on this for my FMP and finally, an explanation of my practical journey. I would include a stool with my products shown.
• A stool with dressed up mannequin surrounded in my products, the mannequin will demonstrate how to wear the bag with the shoebox inside. I will also consider ways of making the guests interact with my products whilst still sticking to the theme of fitness, for example, sharing leaflets and posters to a local sporting even.

Our class visited the Komedia to get a good idea of the size of the venue so we can then consider where we are going to individually set up our stands and how much room we will take up. Now that I know that I could potentially be low on space, I will have to consider creating a guest list so I am aware of how many people will be attending the showcase; in terms of my final year FMP,  I only have a few packages that I will be presenting so I don't want to have a crowded desk because that could cause guests to be impatient and agitated and I wouldn't want to cause them an unpleasant experience.

Who can I invite?

As well as inviting friends and family, we have been giving the opportunity to think of companies that we would like to take a look at our work.

Running Bath is a specialist running store based in Bath. With a background in sports therapy, personal training and excellent use of the footscan gait analysis system, the professional staff are happy to help and assist their customers find their perfect trainers. As well as a wide range of footwear, Running Bath also offer technical running apparel, accessories and nutritional products. I would like to invite the company to the showcase because I would love to receive some professional branding advice from a retailer that has been running since 2004. Their website includes their email address and telephone number so it won't be difficult for me to get hold of them.

Osborne Pike is a company based in Bath, they helps clients to build their brands. The company focus on translating the consumers insights into the right design signals for their brand and packaging. Osborne Pike have a professional background in branding and packaging therefore it will be perfect for me to show them my work, listen to their feedback and constructive criticism. Similarly, Osborne Pike have also included their email address and telephone number on the website therefore getting hold of them to invite them to the showcase won't be a problem.

Sketches

I needed to be able to roughly visualise where I was planing to place the logo on both the shoebox and the bag therefore I drew out a couple of quick sketches to demonstrate that the logo will be centre of both packages. After sketching, I moved onto illustrator, designed the net and placed the logo according to the drawings. I printed the net on an A4 piece of paper, cut it out with scissors and started folding it into place. I then assessed the shape of the box to see if the dimensions were correct; as well as using the prototype to test out the dimensions, it was also helpful to experiment with the placement of my branded logo. Once I was happy with how my personal logo looked on the box, I was able to imagine what the final product will look like.

Making prototypes is hugely important for me throughout the next few weeks because I will need to be experimenting with different dimensions and designs so the final product will be created to the best of my ability.

 

After continuosly experimenting with and updating my net, I have designed and put together a couple more prototypes. As well as putting the shoebox together using paper, I have practised spray mounting the paper onto cardboard and fixing it together so I will be more prepared and aware of the obsticles I may face when creating my final package. I have noticed that the dimensions of the prototypes aren't completely accurate therefore a lecturer and I sketched an updated net and wrote down all the correct dimensions, once I was completely happy with the net on paper, I made the correct changes to my illustrater file. Finally, I printed off the net and made my last perfected prototype.

 

Brand Colours

All those months ago, right at the beginning of the project, I knew I wanted to finish with a mint coloured shoebox. The slightly washed out colour creates a clean, fresh and neat appearance. I also wanted to relate the colours on the box to the theme of my product; considering I am branding theoretical fitness trainers, I have used the green and grey to symbolise gravel and grass, colours of running paths.
 

The colours I have used for my fitness brand are convenient for the target audience because I believe they are gender neutral, I also wanted to keep it subtle as well as being pleasing to the eye. The two different shades of green compliment each other, sometimes when two shades of the same colour are layered, they can contrast slightly too much or the human eye can blend them together however the darker shade of green on the logo looks vibrant and noticeable. I have also included grey in the logo because although the green stands out more, I like the way the two colours look side by side because they contrast slightly which causes them to draw in more attention.

 
When placing my logo on the bag I wanted to experiment with the order of the colours therefore I designed one logo with all green letters, one with two grey and one green and finally, one logo with two green and one grey. I liked how the bags turned out because it demonstrates that Ava is a diverse brand and it allows the customer to choose the colours they prefer.

Marketing

I have created a Twitter account for Ava with the idea of promoting the brand. Twitter falls into the microblogging category and it allows you to use up to 140 characters to share a unique message to your followers.  Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter gives you the opportunity to promote a business and build meaningful connections with a relevant and engaged audience whether that would be a niche or a popular category. Twitter can use all elements of the profile such as, the photo, header image, bio and pinned tweet, to reflect the buisness and show the world who you are and what you do.

I searched for Nike's Twitter account as it is a good example of a fast selling, world renowned brand, the account gave me inspiration for my branded Ava twitter page. I noticed that the majority of accounts that Nike follow are famous sporting legends personal pages which is useful for the company if they want the accounts to promote the brand. Nike also tweet short and concise messages to create an impact, I have noticed that they also inlude a link to a blog post or webite to show the longer message. Twitter is known for their hashtags and they can be extremly powerful, Nike use hashtags to focus on keywords that are relevent to their business.

To make the Ava twitter page successful, I have looked into expert companies and social media pages that have influenced me, so that I can use the Twitter page to be able to interact with them on a regular basis in the hope that the number of consumers will increase. To do this, I used the Twitter search to find customers, like-minded prospects and influences by the media. I then followed these different accounts and I plan to interact with them as much possible, this can demonstrate to the consumers that I am willing to share tips and advice from other sources.

After looking for inspiration, I optimised my Twitter bio to make sure that the company's identity and voice are branded well. It includes a link in my bio to a personal account so that it configures a consistent tone so that people are able to clearly understand the brand and what the company does. Adding a human element to my tweets will also build personality around the business and avoid a faceless organisation. I also plan to post about non-business related tweets to widen to target audience.

I believe that Tweeting regularly is a sign of an active profile, so I have aimed to post daily and engage with Twitter consistently. One way to make sure this happens even when I'm busy is using a service which sets up pre-scheduled tweets for particular times in the future. There are several sites that allow this to happen, for example Hoot Suite. In order to engage with Twitter, I have retweeted related Tweets as this will help to link me and cement my own thought leadership within my brand. Following trends and hashtags will help me to find a way to a make a relevant connection to my brand.

Risk Assessment

When making my branded bags, I used the iron on technique. Throughout the process I was extremely careful because I was aware that the iron was at the maximum temperature so I could have easily burnt myself. I also made sure that the surrounding area was clear because if I were to trip over anything, including the iron wire, I could have caused myself an injury. I also made sure that I carried out the process on my own therefore if I hurt myself it would have been my own fault and if I let someone help me out and they got burnt or if they were involved in another injury, I would have felt partly responsible.

When cutting out the net for my shoebox, I used an extremely sharp scalpel that I could have easily cut myself with if I used it incorrectly. I held the scalpel securely like a pen and gently cut along side of a ruler, I made sure that I didn't press down too hard because I didn't want to make the scalpel loose track and slide off the paper because that could have caused a dangerous cut. As well as potentially causing harm to myself, if I didn't use a board underneath the card, I would have made cuts and dents on the desk at College and I wouldn't want to be responsible for that damage, especially because it isn't my personal property.

Making The Product

Once I was completely happy with the design of the shoebox net, I downloaded the Illustrator file onto a USB and took it over to Digiprint where it was printed onto what I thought was A1 thick paper. I took the sheet back to College and noticed that it was actually slightly wider than A1 which was originally an issue because the card that I was going to place the paper on was only A1. After a while of panicking, a helpful lecturer suggested cutting another sheet of card and spray mounting it onto each end of the original card.

I used spray mount to spray the back of the print, waited about 30 seconds for the glue to dry, then placed it onto the card neatly. I waited a further 15 minutes before cutting along the outline because the glue was still quite slippery and I wanted to make sure the paper wouldn't slide off the card.

Once the 15 minutes was up, I used a scalpel to carefully cut around the net, this was quite a long process because the card was thick and harder to cut through therefore I went over each line a couple of times with the scalpel. When the shape of the net was completely cut out, I gently used the scalpel to make a slight dent on the folds to make the box a lot easier to fold together, this technique also makes the box look neat because the cardboard hasn't creased on the folds. As well as folding the box together, I used the spray mount to stick the flaps together; this process was slow because I had to wait for the adhesive to dry completely on each flap before moving onto the next one. Eventually everything was glued together and the shoebox was complete.

I am pleased that the dimensions that I entered onto illustrator were accurate because the size of the box is ideal. Originally I was slightly nervous that the cardboard wouldn't be thick enough for the box, I had an image in my head of the middle of the lid falling through however luckily that hasn't happened and the package is secure and sturdy. 

Unfortunately, the shoebox isn't perfect and I have noticed a couple of errors. Firstly, although the lid does fit over the base, it is slightly tight and I found myself forcing it over which is a shame because I thought that I had perfected the size of the lid after updating the size of the width on Illustrator after I previously made my prototypes and found the same problem but it seems I didn't increase the size enough. I also noticed that the tops of the logos on each side of the box are cut off when the lid is down which is another error that I made on Illustrator, I should have calculated how much white space should have been left at the top of the sides however overall, I am extremely happy with how the package has turned out, throughout the last few weeks I have experimented with a range of ways of putting the shoebox together and most of them were unsuccessful so I am pleased that I finally found a way around it because I have ended up with the product that I set out to create all those months ago, right at the beginning of the project. 

How Will I Print My Package?

I visited Digiprint to see if they were able to print onto A1 cardboard or thick paper, unfortunately the paper wasn’t thick enough for my proposed box however the customer adviser gave me an example of the thickest paper they could print on but the biggest size they could do was only A3. If I were to print my design onto A3 then the box would be a similar size to my prototypes and I wouldn’t have a finished design.


Throughout my next lesson at College, I discussed with a lecturer other possible printing ideas. We spoke about how I could section off the net and print each of the sections onto A3 card then put them together to make the box a realistic size; this process sounds quite difficult but I am willing to give it a go because I am determined to end up with the package that I set out to complete.


I began to section off parts of the net by using the Artboard tool on illustrator, I split the net roughly into 11, once I had split the net into various sections, I opened up the document in Adobe Acrobat and that allowed me to look at each section close up as well as letting me manipulate parts of the file in order to make it easier for me to print.

After printing off the 11 pages onto A3 paper, I attempted to put the sections together however they didn't quite fit which resulted in me finding it near enough impossible to create a final product using this technique. I erased the smaller artboards then created a large artboard that covered the entire net, after this I came to the conclusion that I was going to put the box together by using spray mount glue to place the paper onto the cardboard which is a more convenient alternative to finding a way of printing directly onto cardboard. Before making my final box, I made another prototype by printing the net onto A3 paper and using the spray mount to stick the paper down. Once the paper was neatly stuck down to the cardboard, I began to cut around the outline of the net using a scalpel and ruler. The blade was extremely sharp which could have resulted in a dangerous incident if I didn't take care when cutting.

Once I had the outline of the net, I folded it into place and used glue to secure the flaps together. Throughout this process, a lecturer and I noticed that the dimensions of the net weren't as accurate as they could have been therefore we designed a rough sketch of the updated net with the correct dimensions. I opened up my original net on illustrator and began to alter it according to the sketch.

I perfected the dimensions and changed the outline colour to make the net look clean and neat before sending off the final design. It was time to design my final prototype therefore I sent the net to the printer on A4 paper and folded it together to make sure it was accurate; luckily the net was the perfect fit. It was then time to get my professional print, I downloaded the file onto a USB and took it over to Digiprint where the design was printed onto A1 thick paper.

Iron On Design Process

Iron On Design is a website that allows you to personalise premium iron on transfer paper by uploading your own image and/or text to the website. I used the website to upload different colour variations of my branded logo to individual pieces of transfer paper. The website also gives you the option to choose the transfer type, this means that you need to think about whether you will be ironing the image/text onto a dark or light cotton. Personally I selected the light cotton because I ironed onto a light beige colour. I ordered two A5 transfers and one A4 transfer because I wanted to experiment with the size of the logo on different bags. 

The company delivered instructions, personalised transfer paper, free fixing paper and a free sample tester to experiment with. The process was simple and easy, I started by turning on the iron and setting it to the highest temperature, I then waited a couple of minutes for it to reach the maximum heat. Once the iron was hot enough, I placed the cotton bag onto a flat surface, then I rested the transfer paper onto the centre of the cotton bag with the logo faced down. After, I began to iron over the paper in circular motions, making sure the iron didn't spray any water because that could've left burn marks on the bag and there would have been a chance that the logo wouldn't have transferred onto the cotton as well. I stopped ironing after 1 minutes 30 seconds and left the transfer to cool completely before gently peeling it off. Once I had peeled off the transfer, I then placed the fixing paper over the logo and ironed for a further 30 seconds, unlike the transfer paper, I peeled the fixing paper off whilst it was still hot. 

Overall, I am pleased with the finished products. The transfer paper worked wonders and it was such a simple process which is why I am so happy I found the Iron On Design website. Unfortunately I have found myself being pedantic; personally I think the logo on the bigger bag (40CM X 50CM) looks slightly too small for the bag, compared to the smaller bags. I wish I ordered a larger piece of transfer paper for the bigger bag because it doesn't quite compliment the smaller bags. Luckily, when I put an example shoebox in the bag (as shown in the last image), I thought the look came together because the box made the surface of the bag appear smaller which made the logo more prominent.

Current Update and Reflection

In my previous blog post I spoke about my printing plan, I highlighted that the laser cutter in College isn't big enough to cut out a standard size shoebox. Originally I said that I will be printing out prototypes of the package and put those on display at the end of year show; since having the idea of smaller packages, I have been thinking of possible ways around this so I can stick to my idea of a life sized shoebox and I am now considering looking around to see if I can get the box printed on A1 thick paper/cardboard, once I have the net printed I can then cut it out and fit the box together free hand.

Package Net

First of all, I opened up Illustrator and changed the size of the page to A1. I researched the size of a typical shoebox and decided that the package will have an area of 30cm x 18cm with a height of 13cm therefore I entered these measurements into Illustrator and began to put the net together. 

I designed the flaps on iIllustrater so I could fold them into each other to fit the box together, I found this process quite difficult because I didn't have specific measurements for them meaning I had to estimate the sizes. I was pleased with the finished net because after a few trial and error sessions of fitting the box together, it finally worked out and I was happy with how the box looked.

I printed the net on an A4 piece of paper, cut it out with scissors and started folding it into place. The shape of the box was how I was hoping it was going to turn out and I can now imagine what the finished product will look like. As well as using the prototype to test out the dimensions, it is also helpful to experiment with the placement of my branded logo and the snapchat logo. I am happy with how my personal logo looks on the box however the snapchat logo looks too big for the box, I can only imagine how much bigger it will look on the larger box therefore I will shrink it down before printing off my final copy.

Experimentation has been such an important part of my project so far, if I didn't play around with different methods then I wouldn't have been able to improve my work. I have considered a different way of putting the net together, I simplified the net so it will be easier for me to cut out on the final cardboard. Instead of fitting the net together with flaps, I have welcomed the idea of using glue to put it together, this is likely to make the finished product look neat and it will be less complicated for me to put together. As you also may be able to notice on the images below, I have made the outline a light grey colour because I didn't want to make the finished package look messy with prominent dark lines around the folds of the box.

 

Throughout criteria 3.1 and 3.2, I have been able to experiment with a range of techniques and analyis what has gone wrong so I can activley alter my project to improve it. I think that this criteria has been the most useful in terms of making progress to the project because I've been continiously making updates and I now have a clear idea of what I have to do to complete it to the best of my ability. Before starting the criteria I was struggling a lot because I thought that it was going to be near enough impossible for me to make a realistic shoebox because as I have also mentioned in previous blog posts, I don't have any experience with package design and I was unsure that I was able to budget the production however after assessing what has gone wrong for me, I have realised that it is possible for me find a way around the errors and eventually end the College year with a product that I am proud of.

Criteria 4.1 was the last section of work to complete before creating and submitting my final product so it was my last chance to plan how I was going to carry out the production, firstly I made a production schedule to create a structured visual plan for myself, it also allows the lecturers to get a good understanding of what tasks I will be carrying out each week, up until the deadline. After making the schedule, I then designed my branded logos, I started this process by drawing a bunch of sketches to get a good idea of the style I was after, using Illustrator, I then designed a range of logos using different fonts and sizes until I was finally happy with a design. When I had a final logo design I was able to picture how I wanted my packages to look like. 4.1 has been a vital part of my project the criteria has forced me to plan, design and publish the key ideas for my project.