Don't Panic Competition

          

Poster design for the Don't Panic poster competition for the film Norwegian Wood, due to be released on 11th March.  I used a simple but strong image to illustrate the quiet beauty within the film.

Vote for the poster here.

D&AD Final Designs

These are the final designs for a contemporary range of packaging for The Body Shop, designed to unite their brand values with the premium nature of the products.

We felt that it was very important for the packing to be earth friendly and sustainable.  After in depth research we decided that the best direction to take would be to create containers that could be used again, either for cosmetics or around the house as general purpose containers.

The clear, recycled glass gives a fresh and clean look to the product, whilst the designs are delicate and light in appealing colours. The font we have used is 'Opera-Lyrics-Smooth' a font that is reminiscent of the letterpress technique and gives a traditional, rustic look.

The containers would be kept indefinitely and often displayed around the home so we felt it was important to make The Body Shop logo obvious and non-removable.  Using glass embossing the logo and pattern relevant for each fragrance would be created as a permanent feature within the container using organic inks to create the colour.

For the White Musk, Tea Tree and Body Butter products a small round label, inspired by the shape of The Body Shop logo, will be attached to the neck of the container by a hemp string.  The attached label is made from recycled brown paper to reflect The Body Shop's brand values and uses double sided printing to include all the necessary information.

Body Butter

Sweet Lemon

The Body Butter jars are inspired by preserving jars.  Because these jars are designed to keep food fresh for long periods of time we know they will keep the product fresh.  This shape will stack well on shelves and will show what the product is from a side angle, something the current Body Butter pot does not show.  The attached label shows all information needed, including ingredients, The Body Shops' details and that they are against animal testing.  the other side of the label shows the product name and fluid measurement.

For this product and other products that use the preserving jar shape there is a possibility for a refilling scheme, allowing a customer to bring in their empty container for either a discount on another item or to fill with the same product for a reduced price.

White Musk

Eau De Toilette

This product required a pump spray fitting so we opted for a soft shaped glass bottle with an attached spray and plastic lid.  There is a label attached containing information.  The blue flowers circling the bottle are permanently on the glass and are inspired by the White Musk Flowers.

Tea Tree

Face Mask

The Tea Tree Face Mask uses the same preserving jar packaging as the Body Butter and follows the same conventions, however this jar is slightly smaller, to fit 100ml.  For all Tea Tree products there would be a green leaf pattern encircling the bottom of the product.

Foundation

Oil Free Balancing Foundation SPF15

The foundation was designed slightly differently, we have kept the recycled glass container but felt that an attached label would not suit this product, therefore we have used a simple design on the front of the bottle and have used pressure sensitive labels to achieve a subtle 'no label' look for the rest of the information.

Research Summary

   

This is the poster I created to demonstrate what research I have done for my Professional Project and what this research has shown me.

I have looked into different books aimed at many different audiences, including poetry books, adults illustrated books, children's expressive typography books and pop-up books.  These have shown me what is possible, what has been done and what has not.  I have looked into other studies uniting poetry and expressive typography and how illustrations can effect people's reading experience.

I have analysed the results I have received from my questionnaires and looked into the way the poem made people feel and their relationship with the language.

I will now use this research to work on a solution that allows me to create in illustrated book that integrates text and image helping the reader gain more understanding and enjoyment from reading 'The Lady of Shalott'.

Edge of the Forest

Le Petit Nicolas

The lovely French inspired title sequence for this 2009 film adaption of a vintage children's book 'Le Petit Nicolas' has brought to life the original drawings by the illustrator Jean-Jaques Sempe to give it a 1950s aesthetic. As they realised they could not replicate his drawings they adapt it into a clever 3D pop-up book. Amazing.
Found via Drawn.

Rotunda Theatre Poster

Professional Project Reasearch

Above is a video of Marion  Bataille's book, 'ABC 3D'.  This is an amazing book full of cleverly constructed pop-ups to aid learning.  

I have spent my time researching into interesting books, books relating to poetry and books that experiment with text and image.

Whilst researching I came across an exhibition looking at the ways poetry and book arts interact and connect, their shared context, and their potentially conflicting functions; materials on display explore questions of verbal and visual metaphor making, emphasizing the roles of creative and collaborative processes involved in uniting image, verse, and print.  there is more about the exhibition here: Metaphor Taking Shape

I have also been watching 'The Beauty of Books' a new BBC4 series, part of the 'Free Your Imagination' season about books.  The program concentrates on the history of books, more information is on their blog here.

Questionnaires

As research for my Professional Project I have created several questionnaires to learn more about the area I looking into.  The first questionnaire I kept short to encourage people to answer the questions and circulated this primarily through the university emails.  This questionnaire asked 6 short questions, gaining information about the person responding, (age and sex), and then questions about their poetry reading habit.  I had 80 responses to this survey, unfortunately they were from a very specific age range and the majority of responses were female, however, they did show me that not many people were reading poetry or buying poetry books.  This supported my theory that poetry books were not aimed to this age group and that they viewed poetry as inaccessible.  I also asked about specific poets and if people had heard of them or read them, the poets I mentioned ranged from historically famous poets, like John Keats, to modern, award winning poets like the current poet laureate Carol Duffy.  Surprisingly few people had read Alfred, Lord Tennyson which encourages me to use the poem 'The Lady of Shalott' to create an illustrated book to make his word more available and visually enjoyable for a larger audience.

The second questionnaire I created asked people to write a written response to 'The Lady of Shalott', sharing their initial response, the way the poem made them feel and what it made them think of.  They were also encouraged to say what language in the poem effected their reading and the way they visualised it.

As well as continue my research into books and typography, my next step will be to take recordings of people reading the poem aloud so that I can listen to the way they read, for example, where they emphasise certain words and pause.

Valentines

Sweater - Illustration Friday

Professional Project Learning Agreement

With the introduction of kindles, iPads and other electronic innovations books are becoming less popular, particularly to teenagers and young adults.  I would like to combine my interest in language with that of illustration by exploring the relationship between text and images to make the book visually more appealing and collectable.  Text is often uniform and visually uninteresting in poetry books, to over come this I will discover a technique to combine the text with the image whilst being influenced by the flow of language, meter, cadences, emphasis and emotion to dictate how the text is presented visually.  Whilst this will make the text visually more interesting, it will also help the reader maintain interest and understand the way the text is meant to be read.

   I have looked at Sam Winston's work with language, in particular his dictionary storybook in which he questions our understanding of language both as carriers of messages and information itself.   I have also looked into pop-up books and books that change or develop the relationship between text and image.  In particular, children's book illustrators, Lauren Child who used language creatively in 'That Pesky Rat', and Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith who wrote and illustrated 'The Stinky Cheeseman', have successfully integrated text and image. These books work because they interact with the reader, as they have to turn the book to read the text as they follow it across the page.  This is an excitement that is lost as the reader matures and books become more visually uninteresting. Most books for adult readers use text simply to present the narrative through words as code rather than using the visual appearance of the words and letters themselves to enhance the meaning and add to the pleasure.  I will need to make sure the book does not look too juvenile, appealing to the wrong age group. I can do this by keeping the text small and readable and the images mature yet stylized.    

< Included in the references I will use for my combined typography and images are; ‘New Ornamental Type: Decorative Lettering in the Digital Age’ by Steve Heller and Gail Anderson, and ‘Hand Job: A Catalogue of Type’ by Michael Perry, both concentrating particularly on hand drawn typography.  I will also look into Lesley Barnes’ illustrations that combine poetry and words, and Rob Ryan’s books collaborating with Carol Duffy in which the poem is found within his paper cuttings.  I will also look at various books and magazines that concentrate on contemporary illustrations.  I will also look into historical art references relating to the time the poem was written. I will research into other books that experiment with the way images and text relate to each other.  I will also look at different illustrators, those who illustrate books and those who create images appealing to my particular audience.

I will research into who reads poetry, and where there is an audience whose needs are not being addressed. I will also question people as to their reaction to the poem, how it makes them feel and what images it brings to mind.  I will listen to various people read the poem aloud so that I can see where patterns occur and how people perceive the language.

Many poems have visual language creating instant images in the reader’s mind. Whilst I will take these into consideration, I will also look beyond the obvious imagery, and research deeper into the language discovering previously hidden ideas.

will need to look into paper stock, book binding and print techniques that would enhance my book, as well as consider pop-ups, pull outs and other ways to experiment with the way the page is presented.

Once I have decided on my text I will need to look into the size of my book, the way the text will be split and how many pages and illustrations I will need.

Reverse - Illustration Friday

Learning Agreement Presentation

Today we had our presentations for our learning agreement, this gave us an opportunity to gain feedback and ideas from tutors and other students and also the first chance to hear everyone else's ideas.  There was a  very wide range of ideas and some interesting ideas.

I had prepared a presentation with images to support my ideas.  I had considered my brief to be strong and thought through however several concerns were raised which has made me doubt the strength of my idea.  I was able to justify my reasons but it did plant doubts in my head.  I plan to have a tutorial tomorrow to make sure I know exactly what I would like to have in my learning agreement as once it is handed in it cannot be changed.