This project I was responsible for creating a range of giftware to sell at the Ripon Cathedral Market. I started by creating a mind map (for my initial ideas), identifying what an audience, target demographic and branding was (which I referenced a lot though my project) as well as gathering lots of research- secondary images and four different artists.

My mind map- the page i started with to generate some ideas- was semi-successful. It's because of this page I put a great emphasis on birthdays and holidays throughout this project, but i believe if i had spent more time fully fledging it out i would have had even more to work and experiment with. 

After this first page i decided to define a few ideas created by my mind map. These were: audience, target market and branding. I referenced these throughout the project- especially on my 'Audience Demographic' page. 

My researched artists- Safely Endangered, Mei Støyva, Liz Harry and Wonderlust Paper Co- were important inspiration in my work. I really loved their cute cartoony styles and their unique and simple colour pallets. Mei Støyva, especially, used dynamic poses and a very stylised character design in her cards- something I aimed to recreate in my outcomes. 

At the start of this project I wasn't sure what type of giftware I wanted to focus on. Because of this, I decided to make some observational drawings. I used a range of techniques like: negative space, continuous line and more. 

I really like my bonsai tree drawing. The simple shapes used along with the bold colours really compliment each other well and makes the whole design feel very abstract. However, my favourite drawing is the negative space teddy bear one. I was focused on using some sort of character for one of my outcomes- inspired by my chosen artists- and because of this, this is the design i chose to experiment with later on. 

Before experimenting with surface pattern, I chose to collect some secondary images- to get a good idea of what I wanted to make. This is something I would continue to do with each final outcome because I found it inspiring. 

This is my first attempt creating a surface pattern for a gift wrap. I chose my favourite observational drawing to go forward with and redesigned it to be more frog like. I then digitalised it and arranged it in a flipped (both vertically and horizontally) type of pattern. 

This resulted in a digital surface pattern, my favourite out of the two below. I love the monochrome pallet and the sharp angles and shapes used. It feels very professional rather than my handmade surface pattern which feels sketchy and low quality.

My more traditional outcome of this surface wrap is very rough, and I found it very difficult to actually make. Despite this, I like it. I like the bold colours and the use of shapes and lines. Looking forward, it would have worked for my final outcomes but, compared to my digital mockup, it just doesn't have that type of quality I was looking for. 

After my surface pattern mock-ups I chose to make my audience demographic page. I outlined who I was targeting my final outcomes at (and what type of products I would actually make) as well as what I was looking to complete next after that page. I would reference this page a lot throughout the rest of my project because I found it important to stay as close as possible to my target market and create effective products. 

In my 'Audience Demographic' page I said I would look and collect secondary images for card ideas as well as play around with media and colour pallets. Because of this I chose to start by collecting some card secondary images. One thing I noticed when studying them is a lot of early years birthday cards contain cute characters, or mascots, in a simple pose. This is something I would focus on later when creating some creating characters to go on cards. I also noticed a lot of cards used a simple and limited colour pallets as well as bold and aesthetically pleasing fonts- I would focus on these ideas soon after this page.

I created a mind map showing off four chosen card layouts. 

-The first, traditional cards, are the most simple type of card you can make. Folded directly in half, they are the type of cards you could find anywhere and allow for a range of different designs. 

-Secondly, there are also postcards which are mainly used for holidays and are very location based. Because of this they are very limited in design and don't offer a lot of variation.

-Third are 3D cards. There are a few different ways to do this like: origami, different raised patterns or different cut out layers. I would have liked to experiment with this but it would have taken way too long and I wouldn't have had any time to focus on anything else.

-Finally was my fourth idea, a card folded three ways. These, quite often, are used to contain things like gift cards or cash. They offer a range of design styles but are often quite simple.

After looking at everything I chose to focus on a traditional card because my audience are quite young and I wanted to make something cute- focusing more on the design rather than the cards shape.

Different types of cards would require different types of fonts- some would have more kerning and height whilst some might be smaller with no serif- feeling simple. That's why, after looking at types of cards I chose to look at typography. I used this page a lot later on when creating and collecting different fonts.

Finally, I decided to experiment with letterpress because- as noted in my 'Audience Demographic' page I wanted to experiment with different media. I made sure to write down my process and write my opinions on it. I never ended up using using it however because not only did it not fit my target audience but it didn't really fit my chosen theme. 

I created a page on colour theory because I wanted to experiment with colour pallets. I started by creating a 12 part colour wheel and labelling it, specifically what: primary, secondary and tertiary colours were as well as an example of a cold and warm colour. I then described different colouring techniques- harmonious and complimentary- as well as what CMYK and RGB was and how they worked. Finally I explained what a hue, shade, tint and tone was. I did this all because, when creating a final colour pallet, I want it to be effective not only compared to my target audience but also making it unique and stylish. 

After this I started looking at my pallet options. I created two each using warm colours, cold colours and mix colours. I loved each pallet, and I think each looked good- especially my warm options- but my favourite is my last mixed colour pallet. I ended up choosing it as my final pallet and I did this because I felt it would work best with my target audience and would allow me to create a really cute design. I don't regret this decision as I think I chose well. But if I had more time I would love to made even more pallet ideas.

I decided I would make a peer group critique page after every milestone of work- so I knew if my work was effective or not. This first 'Group Crit' page reminded me to mention my audience throughout my work- which is something I definitely improved on- and it also gave me some ideas on what to work on next,  like my fonts page which I proceeded to work on next. I think this page worked out well.

I created these pages because I wanted to have a cute character on the front of my card- inspired by my secondary images pages. I created nine different designs- each relating close to my chosen theme. I had a couple of favourites, like the fox creature and bunny, but the one that really caught my eye was the hippo- which I chose to continue to develop. Looking back I think I chose very well. He's very cute, unique and very round and happy. 

After choosing my hippo design, I decided to play around with colour combos, tints and more. I ended up choosing a pale pink for the skin and two different purple tones for the hat and present- which later turned into a blue. If I had more time I would have played a lot more with these colours. I believe that what I ended up with was amazing and worked really well but it would have been very beneficial to experiment more.

After getting a good idea of the types of colours I wanted to use in my final card design I made four different card layout ideas. I chose the third one as I believe the design was very central- keeping my character as the main focus. Looking back, I should have come up with at least a couple more ideas- it could have been good to experiment with different poses and facial expressions.

I made a page of different fonts- using my typography research. I think they all turned out well- very effective and fun. I also collected some digital fonts from dafont.com. The font I liked the most was 'Happy Smile Regular', one of my digital fonts. Its simple, no serif with round and smooth linework. Because of this I used it a lot moving forward.

I wanted to experiment with more processes so, before finalising a card design, I chose to print my character using lino. This process was extremely fun and I would have loved to experiment with it even more throughout my work but I found the outcomes quite messy. With an older target audience, this could work amazing and could be effective. However, with my current target audience I thought it would be best to focus on more digital outcomes. 

My second group crit page basically told me what I was doing was good. I had acted on my previous comments and I intended to follow up on these ones too. If I had more time, I would have liked to reflect more on these comments though and really examine them as I believe I could have taken more from them than I did. 

After my second group crit page I chose to finalise a design for my card. I experimented with fonts- initially choosing one of my hand made fonts. As cute as the font was I wanted something more simple, not to take away from the centre design so I took a look at my digital fonts. ‘Happy Smile Regular’ is the font I chose to use. It’s simple but bouncy and I felt like it really fit the design well.

 

Moreover, origionlly I wanted my hippo character to be much more purple in colour which I ended up changing to be much more pink. The purple was nice but looking back, this was a good change as it feels more lively and bright. I also made the hat and present blue, which gave a high contrast compared to the pink. 

 

In the end I’m very happy with my final card design. I fell it’s very effective and it looks professional. But if I had more time I would have liked to play around with fonts more as well as different shading. It could have added to the design but all in all it’s still achieved what I set out to create. 

Early on I played around with creating surface pattern- which made it a lot more easier when it came to creating a wrapping paper design here. I went with digital because, compared to a traditional method, I felt it was a lot more effective when creating the outcome I wanted. I started by mocking up four different designs. I made sure each design fit my chosen theme of birthdays- which I think I did well. But I feel like I should have spent more time on creating even more designs than settling with the four I mocked up. I ended up choosing my fourth design- my cake pattern. I felt it was the most effective, simple and cute. I think I choose well looking back.

 

Next I played around with colour combinations. I started with ones that fit my chosen colour pallet (pink and blue) then expanded into different ideas. In the end I ended up choosing a combination of both my pink and blue colours with a very high tint- almost pastel. I chose to give the cakes a pink outline as it made the cakes pop. I love this chosen pallet- not only does it fit my theme but I believe it’s something my audience would love. 

I ended up finalising my design with slight shadows to each cake and a blue triangle pattern in the background- which gave it depth. I really like this outcome. I think it's something my audience would really like and I love how the outcome matches my chosen colour pallet and theme. Looking back, it would have been a good idea to experiment more before finalising (like mentioned later on) but despite this, I wouldn't change the outcome I created. 

This is my third group crit page. One thing I was told I could improve on is my rush to finalise designs- with little to no experimentation. This is something I aimed to change later on- and I think I improved on. Other than this, I gained praise for my colour combos and annotation, something I continued to utilise later in my work. This page was, overall, a success. 

Along with secondary images I also thought it'd be important if I collected some primary images. Because of this I ended up looking around the Tate Museum i Liverpool- at the giftware. This was a place I wanted to visit, inspired by my first initial mind map. I took a lot away from this trip but one thing that took my attention the most was the branding. A lot of the cards contained the museum's logo. This later inspired me to to create a label to go along with my hanging decoration. Another thing I noticed were the bright colours and bold fonts used. They really drew the eye and helped to make each product really effective- I tried to recreate this with my later outcomes (using brighter colours rather than pastels like I had been doing before). Overall, this page was successful and really helped me to create a great final hanging decoration.

After my primary images I started to focus on my hanging decoration. I started this by collecting a range of secondary images. I quickly realised a lot of these types of decor were simple shapes accompanied with ribbon and text. I really liked this one image of a round wooden oval with bits hanging off it. The design looked very professional and the wooden finish made the whole design feel homely. Looking back, this was one of my biggest inspirations for my final design along with the star decorations with ribbon tied and hanging off the bottom. 

I created eight initial ideas for my hanging decoration. I originally tried to connect both my card and decoration by utilising the hippo character I created. This was a really good idea but I realised that the design may not translate well on a laser cutter so, inspired by my secondary images, I decided to choose a more simple design. I ended up going for a balloon design- quickly making a symmetrical and digital outline (much straighter than the original sketch). This is the base that I moved forward with. 

After choosing the balloon base i decided to play around with a few different designs using: bows, string and ribbon. the design I chose has a bow around the bottom of it with pieces of ribbon hanging down. I felt, as a design, it fit my theme well of birthdays- it felt very youthful and cute which is what I was aiming for. I think I chose well and I don't regret my decision all. 

When playing with colour i decided I would keep the base wooden- and not colour it. Not only would it take a lot of time to paint each one but I was also really inspired by my secondary images to keep a wooden finish. This was a good decision and, in retrospective, made the colours I did use pop. I chose a combination of a couple ideas, pink bow with a darker pink for the handle and blue and white hanging off the bottom along with he different toned pinks. This was the best decision I could have made because it ensured my design would fit with the rest of my outcomes and it just looked good. 

I translated this design into Adobe Illustrator- to make the design vector scale. In order for the design to be cut out by the laser cutter I exported the file as 'Autodesk RealDWG gxf'. I also made sure the parts I wanted cutting out used a black line whilst the parts I wanted burning into the design used a red line. I noted down that I wanted the object to be 10 cm on the file then sent it to cut. After it was cut I started to put each part together. 

The design turned out really cute- exactly what I imagined. It's very effective and definitely feels like my theme of 'baby's first birthday'. I think if I could go back though, I would've played around with different fonts instead of using my own handwriting. Theres nothing wrong with how it turned out, and I could argue it adds to the design, but it could've been really beneficial. After this I decided to look at branding. 

I created three different secondary images pages because I wanted to involve branding in at least one of my products. I focused on: envelopes, gift bags (or boxes) and Labels. The one that I chose to develop was labels as, with the small amount of time I had to complete this project, I believed I could create something effective, personal and professional. 

A lot of the labels, like the hanging decorations, were very simply shaped but were very beautifully styled. This is something i tried to recreate. I also noticed some of the more personal ones had names on, which is why I ended up putting 'to' and 'from' on my finished labels. 

I started with nine initial ideas for my label- each relating to my chosen theme. I tried a few complicated designs but landed on a more simple shape- influenced by my secondary images page. I like this design because, like my card, its very simple and straight to the point. I don't want to draw attention away from my hanging decoration but I also want my audience to know exactly what I'm selling them. 

After this, I played around with a few fonts- some that I collected digitally from 'dafont.com', some I made myself and a couple just because I thought they looked nice. Some, however, felt very lifeless so I decided to play around with a banner. I loved this banner and felt like it really added to the design. Because of this I used it along with my chosen font- 'Happy Smile Regular' from my digital collection (I also used it for my 'to' and 'from').

Finally I played around with colour- pinks blues and purples inspired by my chosen colour pallet. I ended up choosing a pink to go along with my hanging decoration.  I then looked at using different tones in the background of my label to really make it stand out and add depth. 

This is my final label outcome. I used a blue for the boarder and pinks for the background. Overall, its very effective. It matches every outcome I've developed and, against my hanging decoration, it does its job perfectly. It's very personal and it tells you exactly what it is. If I could change anything I would have played around with pattern for the pink- maybe looked at different media like mark making or printing for the letters. Despite this, it's exactly what I wanted. 

These are all of my outcomes on one page. I decided to do this to see how each product compared against each other and I believe I have done very well. One thing I've noticed is a lot of my outcomes are very digital based, which isn't a bad thing, but next project I would like to play around with this much more. 

The last thing I did in this project was make one final group crit page. I did this because I wanted to overview my work- see if my outcomes really did meet expectations. I gained a lot of praise from this page, which I'm very pleased with and it showed me what I created was up to standards like I wanted. The critique I did receive are points that I have already touched on so, moving forward, I already know exactly what I need to and will improve on in my next projects. 

For my project I focused on giftware and gift wrap for birthdays. I chose this theme because I felt it’d fit best for my target audience- Ripon Cathedral Market. I came to this conclusion on my ‘Audience Demographic’ page. This led me to choose a card, hanging decoration and digital surface pattern for my final outcomes. I used Adobe Illustrator, printmaking and other media to create these outcomes, however, I didn’t utilise these techniques as much as I wanted to. 

Aesthetically, I wanted to utilise a cartoony style and target a young audience. I did this by using a bright but simple colour pallet, gentle fonts and a unique art style. I enjoyed creating outcomes like this and it showed in the quality of the products made and the fun vibe it has. 

During this project, I went to the Tate Museum in Liverpool to collect some primary image. I used the pictures to influence my final hanging decoration- I realised I wanted my products to be branded leading me to create a label. This enhanced my outcome. Moreover, I also collected a wide range of research: secondary images (around seven pages) as well four artist research pages- Safely Endangered, Mei Støyva, Liz Harry and the company Wonderlust Paper Co. These pages helped me when it came to creating and finalising different outcomes. 

During this project I used different processes and practical skills like: 

-Painting with watercolour: 

I used this once when it came to playing around with colour for my card design. I think it was pretty and could’ve been effective if I experimented more with it. 

-Lino: 

I experimented with lino for the front of my card design. It was really fun but I ultimately felt it didn’t fit my chosen theme. 

-Observational Drawing: 

I collected a few images for my observational drawings. They helped me when it came to narrowing down what I wanted in my final card designs. 

-Digital processes: 

Digital work was very prevalent in this project. I ended up using it for all my outcomes in some way. I mainly used Adobe Illustrator but also utilised Photoshop for some of my digital sketch work. 

-Laser cutting: 

I used this process for my final hanging decoration. I think it worked really well.

If I had more time during this project, I would have experimented with mark making, collage, more processes and additional printing methods. This would have allowed me to enhance and develop skills. I would have been interesting to play with paint for my cards background instead of it being fully digital. This is something I will aim to experiment with next project. 

The research I collected influenced my initial ideas which I developed and adapted to fit my pathway and theme. I used research of a twelve part colour wheel to create an effective and appropriate colour pallet. I mostly used blues and pinks because I wanted my final designs to feel youthful and bright- which I feel I did well. I also used a typography research page to create and collect fun fonts to mach my theme. 

Because of my peer feedback (from my three initial group crit pages), I focused on developing my soft cartoony style to fit my desired product. I got a lot of praise for my cartoon sketches, but I did receive some criticism for rushing into finalising the design with not a lot of experimentation or preparation. This is something I feel I improved on towards the end of my project and it's something I wish to focus on enhancing in my next projects. 

If I could redo my project, I would spend more time playing around with fonts and different processes, gathering more research and experimenting- as this would have led me to outcomes that I could have been certain were perfect, however (with the time I was given) I believe I did a very good job.