Final Project - Reflection
Coming up:
In this project, a rampant researcher comes across a porpoising printer and I go to the pub.
In this project, a rampant researcher comes across a porpoising printer and I go to the pub.
Reflection.
Yes that's right, this project is about reflection, a time for me to look back at everything that I have done over the module and for me to look back and see what I did well, or what I did bad. The majority of what I looked back on was from the 4D project and basically looked into how I did with my outcomes, development, research and then my experimentation skills. It is good to be able to look back and look at how well you did through a project and highlight points that you were good in and to look into areas that you could have improved in. This project will be all about our reflection and just to express how we changed throughout the module and what we could possibly improve on.
Yes that's right, this project is about reflection, a time for me to look back at everything that I have done over the module and for me to look back and see what I did well, or what I did bad. The majority of what I looked back on was from the 4D project and basically looked into how I did with my outcomes, development, research and then my experimentation skills. It is good to be able to look back and look at how well you did through a project and highlight points that you were good in and to look into areas that you could have improved in. This project will be all about our reflection and just to express how we changed throughout the module and what we could possibly improve on.
ITCHI.
I was looking back through some posts and cool things that I saved on Instagram and my photos from over the years, and this website was one of them. ITCHI was a website I came across as they do some really nice collage work by creating lots of digital collages. The thing that I notice the most about their work is the way they use quite dated images as they collaborate really well with collages, especially when they mix in different shapes, colours and other images to go alongside. There is just something really satisfying about their work to me and I think it is to do with the way everything sits nicely together with the composition.
I was looking back through some posts and cool things that I saved on Instagram and my photos from over the years, and this website was one of them. ITCHI was a website I came across as they do some really nice collage work by creating lots of digital collages. The thing that I notice the most about their work is the way they use quite dated images as they collaborate really well with collages, especially when they mix in different shapes, colours and other images to go alongside. There is just something really satisfying about their work to me and I think it is to do with the way everything sits nicely together with the composition.
Cristiana Couceiro.
Couceiro is another digital collage designer who I discovered a few years ago. They have a real skill for making their composition work really well combining images with block colour shapes. The main thing I've noticed through their work is really just the black and white images working alongside the red and it just allows them both to stand out really nicely.
Couceiro is another digital collage designer who I discovered a few years ago. They have a real skill for making their composition work really well combining images with block colour shapes. The main thing I've noticed through their work is really just the black and white images working alongside the red and it just allows them both to stand out really nicely.
Zeka Graphic Design.
These are a little more crazy in terms of their designs, but either way I feel like they work really well with the plain white background with working into the images with all of the different shapes and colours added into the images. They cut out parts of the images and really make them stand out by adding in little extra things like the lines and shape to make you look at them first and just really emphasising them to you. I really like how flowing all of their designs are to look at.
These are a little more crazy in terms of their designs, but either way I feel like they work really well with the plain white background with working into the images with all of the different shapes and colours added into the images. They cut out parts of the images and really make them stand out by adding in little extra things like the lines and shape to make you look at them first and just really emphasising them to you. I really like how flowing all of their designs are to look at.
Klawe Rzeczy.
Rzeczy is another pretty crazy one in terms of them always using a lot in each image, but they do it in a way that stands out really nicely and allows all of the images and separate shapes to work together. In all of these, there is a lot going on in them and it is just quite nice to sit and look around the designs as they are composed in a way to make you want to continue looking around and figuring out what else is in the design.
Rzeczy is another pretty crazy one in terms of them always using a lot in each image, but they do it in a way that stands out really nicely and allows all of the images and separate shapes to work together. In all of these, there is a lot going on in them and it is just quite nice to sit and look around the designs as they are composed in a way to make you want to continue looking around and figuring out what else is in the design.
El Lissitzky.
I found Lissitzky's work really satisfying to look at back in the first semester as they too are often very flowing and are able to grab your attention due to their composition. The work stands out nicely from the contrast of the the background to what he wants to grab your attention, then you are naturally brought around the rest of the art piece. I learnt a lot about composition from his work so I will need to try and bring that knowledge back into this project.
I found Lissitzky's work really satisfying to look at back in the first semester as they too are often very flowing and are able to grab your attention due to their composition. The work stands out nicely from the contrast of the the background to what he wants to grab your attention, then you are naturally brought around the rest of the art piece. I learnt a lot about composition from his work so I will need to try and bring that knowledge back into this project.
Limbo Mask.
This set is a little more raunchy, however they too work really well as collages. Unlike what you would normally see, this set have a dark background, meaning that the pieces on top of that need to be really light and able to take the main focus with them, which they have managed to do here by even adding in some really bright colours just to grab your attention even more. I like these as they are not the usual style of collage that we are so used to seeing, so something different stands out really well.
This set is a little more raunchy, however they too work really well as collages. Unlike what you would normally see, this set have a dark background, meaning that the pieces on top of that need to be really light and able to take the main focus with them, which they have managed to do here by even adding in some really bright colours just to grab your attention even more. I like these as they are not the usual style of collage that we are so used to seeing, so something different stands out really well.
Yash Tambe.
This is an Instagram account that I've been following for a few years now, and not one post has gone by where I've been left disappointed. Every single post is an animation which are mostly done by collaborating the text, a black and white image and a selection of shapes. They ten animate them to move very little in one direction or another with the shape or text moving in a contrasting way, usually both very slowly to make them all look ast aesthetically pleasing as possible.
This is an Instagram account that I've been following for a few years now, and not one post has gone by where I've been left disappointed. Every single post is an animation which are mostly done by collaborating the text, a black and white image and a selection of shapes. They ten animate them to move very little in one direction or another with the shape or text moving in a contrasting way, usually both very slowly to make them all look ast aesthetically pleasing as possible.
Karan Singh.
Karan Singh is another artist I have been following for a few years, but there is a very good reason for that. I mean just look at his work, it is all very unique as he tends to recreate an object or image by using completely different colours and patterns to make everything feel familiar yet very different. His work was also used as a pop up for when you open Illustrator so you might recognise a few bits of his work, but still, I think the way he uses colour is really affective and tends to work for everything.
Karan Singh is another artist I have been following for a few years, but there is a very good reason for that. I mean just look at his work, it is all very unique as he tends to recreate an object or image by using completely different colours and patterns to make everything feel familiar yet very different. His work was also used as a pop up for when you open Illustrator so you might recognise a few bits of his work, but still, I think the way he uses colour is really affective and tends to work for everything.
David Carson.
It would be rude not to mention David Carson as he is a bit of a legend of the industry, and I was fortunate enough to go to college where he came in and did a talk for us to find out how he works. He has a style that is very bold as he likes to work in a way that if you can read it clearly, then it is wrong. He thinks that it all has to be quite complicated and different to read or understand as it gets people interested and engaged with the designs. There is usually quite a lot going on in his designs, but he is able to make the point of them stand out quite clearly and engages the viewers to look at them. One of my favourites will always be the 'blue' in yellow next to a random photo of a man diving, as it makes no sense at all but it just works really well in my eyes.
It would be rude not to mention David Carson as he is a bit of a legend of the industry, and I was fortunate enough to go to college where he came in and did a talk for us to find out how he works. He has a style that is very bold as he likes to work in a way that if you can read it clearly, then it is wrong. He thinks that it all has to be quite complicated and different to read or understand as it gets people interested and engaged with the designs. There is usually quite a lot going on in his designs, but he is able to make the point of them stand out quite clearly and engages the viewers to look at them. One of my favourites will always be the 'blue' in yellow next to a random photo of a man diving, as it makes no sense at all but it just works really well in my eyes.
Terry Gilliam.
Gilliam became an instant inspiration from the last project so it would be rude not to mention him once again, but here we go then. His use of weird and whacky images cut apart and put into quite surreal animations and images just work really well, especially in Monty Python. There is always a hint of comedy in his work as they usually involve something like you wouldn't expect as you can see in the image above. If it comes to it, I will definitely have to give it another go with mixing up random images in the same style as Gilliam as you are always bound to have a laugh with it.
Gilliam became an instant inspiration from the last project so it would be rude not to mention him once again, but here we go then. His use of weird and whacky images cut apart and put into quite surreal animations and images just work really well, especially in Monty Python. There is always a hint of comedy in his work as they usually involve something like you wouldn't expect as you can see in the image above. If it comes to it, I will definitely have to give it another go with mixing up random images in the same style as Gilliam as you are always bound to have a laugh with it.
Incase you didn't realise from all of my research, I really liked the idea of creating a set of smart looking collages to contain all of my reflection from this project. This photo is of my little Field Notes sketchbook where I have started writing and sketching any ideas that go through my mind on this project along with things in my personal life just as a way to quickly note everything down before I eventually forget about them all. The notes I have in this photo are just rough ideas of what could go on each collage if I were to do 4. The four key stages are one for my outcomes, research, development and experimentation as they are the four areas that I went in and reflected myself in from looking back through my website at the past few projects.
After deciding to work digitally rather than on paper after printing out loads of images and materials as that would take up too much time away from this project, I have been working on the first design. The idea I had from looking at this image was delete the sky and put a shape behind it in a contrasting colour as that always looks cool in collages. I then went in and deleted some circles from myself to the edge of the photo so that it could kind of show a link from my mind to the space above as that is where I'm going to link the design to the reflection part of the project, and for this collage, it was going to be about research which is why you can see an early attempt at typography on the side where I was just messing about with the way the type sits with the blue line. You might also notice that in one of these screenshots, I have edited it to look like it is like a separate sheet of paper as it has a shadow effect underneath it, which I did by copying the image and pasted it onto a new layer below it, made it into one colour and added a blur effect to it so that when I lowered the opacity by a little, it would look like the image is sitting well above the actual sheet of paper to show a little depth to the design. One last thing to point out for this is my use of an off white sheet of paper in the background, and this is something in reference to the fact that every artist and designer that I researched actually used an off white paper for their collages to allow the designs on them to stand out more and to make them all feel a little more weathered which is a nice touch, hence why I have added it to my design too.
To be honest, I was getting a little stressed and lost with the collage designs so I took a little step away from Photoshop for half an hour to try playing around with Illustrator instead. I somehow turned away from the collage aspect for a little to try and create a certain style for my outcomes, which you can see in the images above. I quite liked this as a set style for my four designs, and the dark background with the light to add in the little bit of contrast to them. I especially liked the four with different colours on each as it shows a different branding for each poster and the idea would be to use those colours in each design so that they all link together but would be able to be seen as a collective group.
Brainwave ideas.
Well, I noticed that I got way too stuck on creating a style for my collage designs rather than actually thinking about what would go into the designs relating to the reflection part of the project. Going back to my sketchbook then, I have spent the past few hours just noting down different ideas and brainwaves to try and get a much better understanding of the project before I have another crack at creating my outcomes. Some key notes in this list were the ideas of creating a set of postcards, to have a set showing the stages of my improvements and developments as the year would have gone past. Creating a map showing off all of the places that I have improved and stuff, that one is hard to explain but it made sense in my head at the time! Of course I couldn't forget to mention some Terry Gilliam styled animations, one being of me joined to a Magpie as I really like to collect random crap, so I could have made me flying around collecting random objects of reflection. One last idea, and my favourite one by some margin, is to create a set of beer coasters. This would include creating a range of alcohol brands and some drinks coasters, then to add in my reflections on the back as if I were writing as a beer company, this will make more sense as the project goes on I promise.
Well, I noticed that I got way too stuck on creating a style for my collage designs rather than actually thinking about what would go into the designs relating to the reflection part of the project. Going back to my sketchbook then, I have spent the past few hours just noting down different ideas and brainwaves to try and get a much better understanding of the project before I have another crack at creating my outcomes. Some key notes in this list were the ideas of creating a set of postcards, to have a set showing the stages of my improvements and developments as the year would have gone past. Creating a map showing off all of the places that I have improved and stuff, that one is hard to explain but it made sense in my head at the time! Of course I couldn't forget to mention some Terry Gilliam styled animations, one being of me joined to a Magpie as I really like to collect random crap, so I could have made me flying around collecting random objects of reflection. One last idea, and my favourite one by some margin, is to create a set of beer coasters. This would include creating a range of alcohol brands and some drinks coasters, then to add in my reflections on the back as if I were writing as a beer company, this will make more sense as the project goes on I promise.
Thirsty's.
This is a website I found straight away when looking for beer mat designs and they basically are a printing company for beer mats, so if you were to start off a drinks company and you wanted some beer mats, then you'll probably have a good bet starting off with this website. They have a gallery page which I have linked above incase you wanted to take a look through them as they have worked with hundreds of companies and small businesses and they show a range images from all of the designs they have printed so I was able to get a wide range of inspiration from what have been made recently and what route they take. Also, they have an option to send off one sample design to you if were a small business, so if I were to create some really cool designs, I could go back and request a sample one of my design and I could actually have a beer mat which I have designed!
This is a website I found straight away when looking for beer mat designs and they basically are a printing company for beer mats, so if you were to start off a drinks company and you wanted some beer mats, then you'll probably have a good bet starting off with this website. They have a gallery page which I have linked above incase you wanted to take a look through them as they have worked with hundreds of companies and small businesses and they show a range images from all of the designs they have printed so I was able to get a wide range of inspiration from what have been made recently and what route they take. Also, they have an option to send off one sample design to you if were a small business, so if I were to create some really cool designs, I could go back and request a sample one of my design and I could actually have a beer mat which I have designed!
While these have been right under my nose for the past month or two, it is hard to believe that the thought of creating my own beer mat designs took so long to enter my brain, but anyway, here we are. These are all on my desk in our studio which surround me, and all of these have been collected from old junk shops and charity shops and stuff as I find all of the designs just quite cool to look at and they are able to give me a handy amount of inspiration with them set in my backdrop.
Further Reflection.
These are just some notes of my getting into more detail about how I reflected on my work over the past year, where things went well and most importantly, where things didn't go so well. I do think it is important that you are able to critique your won work and to be able to spot what could have gone better along with someone telling you their critiques as I find it really helpful and am then able to move forwards which a much clearer understanding of what to do. In terms of my work this year, the only key notes of what to improve on were more set to the amount of experimentation I got around to doing, so that is more aimed at the fact I tended to have an idea and just work with it to shape it into something better rather than having a little more fun with it to try and play around with different ideas in terms of the layout and positioning of those elements. I went into more detail for each of the main areas from each project above just so I am able to link the reflections into this project more directly.
These are just some notes of my getting into more detail about how I reflected on my work over the past year, where things went well and most importantly, where things didn't go so well. I do think it is important that you are able to critique your won work and to be able to spot what could have gone better along with someone telling you their critiques as I find it really helpful and am then able to move forwards which a much clearer understanding of what to do. In terms of my work this year, the only key notes of what to improve on were more set to the amount of experimentation I got around to doing, so that is more aimed at the fact I tended to have an idea and just work with it to shape it into something better rather than having a little more fun with it to try and play around with different ideas in terms of the layout and positioning of those elements. I went into more detail for each of the main areas from each project above just so I am able to link the reflections into this project more directly.
Sketches.
I suppose it's about time I get to work with this project considering we now have less than two weeks to get it all finished, so here is where I started off with some basic sketches of different ideas to follow the brand names that I came up with one evening. The majority of these are just a play on the words as that made the most sense for me as I was able to just chill out and form some ideas of where to go with the project.
I suppose it's about time I get to work with this project considering we now have less than two weeks to get it all finished, so here is where I started off with some basic sketches of different ideas to follow the brand names that I came up with one evening. The majority of these are just a play on the words as that made the most sense for me as I was able to just chill out and form some ideas of where to go with the project.
Let's get digital, digital...
Anyway, I have opened up Illustrator and Photoshop today to make a start with my first beer coaster, and as always, the first key detail is the branding. Now, obviously, I'm not going to create an entire brand guideline for all of these as the end results will just be one drinks coaster per brand, so I will be creating a logo and essentially a piece of eye candy to go with the logo and a set of writing to link them to m y reflection. Let's get cracking then shall we, with the first of my made up brands being 'Development Orchard'. This obviously links to the development side of my reflecting but is then linked to being a cider by adding 'orchard' to the end of it. Historically, with my logo designs, I have been quite restrictive with myself as I like to create more type based logos rather than an icon just as I am able to visualise these much better, so naturally I started off by finding a suitable font to match my new cider brand until I found one that did the job nicely with two dashes underneath the 'Development'. Now, I saw a tutorial online the other week showing you how to turn type in Photoshop from just a font to allowing it to actually have a sort of ink leakage on the sides to make it feel something like a stamped logo or one that has been printed on rough paper, and sadly the video had since been taken down but I remembered enough to be able to give it a go with this logo. I essentially managed to blend a couple of textures to the edges of the logo to make it feel quite rustic.
Anyway, I have opened up Illustrator and Photoshop today to make a start with my first beer coaster, and as always, the first key detail is the branding. Now, obviously, I'm not going to create an entire brand guideline for all of these as the end results will just be one drinks coaster per brand, so I will be creating a logo and essentially a piece of eye candy to go with the logo and a set of writing to link them to m y reflection. Let's get cracking then shall we, with the first of my made up brands being 'Development Orchard'. This obviously links to the development side of my reflecting but is then linked to being a cider by adding 'orchard' to the end of it. Historically, with my logo designs, I have been quite restrictive with myself as I like to create more type based logos rather than an icon just as I am able to visualise these much better, so naturally I started off by finding a suitable font to match my new cider brand until I found one that did the job nicely with two dashes underneath the 'Development'. Now, I saw a tutorial online the other week showing you how to turn type in Photoshop from just a font to allowing it to actually have a sort of ink leakage on the sides to make it feel something like a stamped logo or one that has been printed on rough paper, and sadly the video had since been taken down but I remembered enough to be able to give it a go with this logo. I essentially managed to blend a couple of textures to the edges of the logo to make it feel quite rustic.
The word 'Development' stood out to me really well when looking at the logo and for some reason I had the idea of adding in another layer of the same logo in a different colour so that I could move the other one around a little and make it just out of line to the other layer so that when I played around with the filter presets, it would shine through the other layer and make it feel some what 3D or as if it hadn't been developed properly, pun intended. While I did like how this came out a lot, I'm not sure that it shouts a cider brand, it now feels more like a dodgy printers shop, so I will have to find a way to link it back to the actual brand.
I will briefly go over how I made that inky leaked feel to the type as I do it with this rectangle that will go around the outside of the logo. I started off by adding a fairly small stroke to the object before turning it into a smart object. I then added a Gaussian Blur to make the edges fade away gently before adding an Outer Glow of those numbers. After I have done that, I hit the Distort / Displace button which allowed me to pick a downloaded texture which it would then add that texture to the edges in the same colour as your selected layer to make it look as if the ink had bled from it being printed and I think it just looks really smart and is a handy little technique that I have learnt from online tutorials.
Well, i mentioned that it didn't feel like a cider brand, and I also said that I didn't use icons very often in my logo design, so I thought I would hit two birds with one stone by adding in an apple into the logo. This makes it clear that it is a cider brand and links into the 'orchard' on the logo, and it is also quite a simplistic looking apple which could stand out really nicely.
Here we go then, I have added my new apple to the logo and it now looks like a crate holding apples and actually looks like a cider brand's logo. You may also notice that we have gone back to the black logo, this is simply because I think it looks much better than the other colours I tried. This style now that it is back in black feels like a stamp in my head so I had a thought about going in and removing parts of it on a really low opacity rubber tool in Photoshop to make it feel like it has been stamped with too little ink in the actual stamp which gives it a much more rustic feel to it which I think fits the typical cider brand really nicely.
I would say it is about time I actually crack on and start creating some beer mats, and since I liked the apple from the logo so much, I was wondering if it could work well as the main part of the coaster, so I just messed about with the layout for about half an hour, adding in some colour and then most importantly, I added in some textures to make it feel a lot more used as you would never see a beer mat without it feeling like it is very old and has had plenty of drinks spilt over it. You can also spot that I tried adding in some text, as it would be nice to have a little motto on it. "Develop the thirst" didn't really sit well with me as it felt too boring as it clearly linked to the brand name, so I googled some cider puns to see if there was a short one I could place on my designs, which is where "breathe a cider relief" came in. It is so simple but I felt like it did the trick perfectly.
The next step was to just mess around with the positioning of the text and trying different fonts to see what worked well, and this was my end result using a nice hand written font to make it feel more friendly, while putting it all at an angle with the 'cider' becoming the main point of focus when you look at it to get the point across very clearly.
It's been a while, but we are back once again with a digital mockup on Photoshop to show off this first design for a beer mat and I think it looks really cool if I may say so myself! The big and bold icon of the apple sits really nicely and with it layered up with textures, it could quite easily pass as a beer mat that you could see on the edge of the bar in the real world. I have also added in another one with some coffee stains on it, yes I know no one used beer mats with coffee, but this was just to visualise my designs with some dark coloured liquids layered over the top as there were now photos of beer stains that I could find.
Moving onto the back then, this time I will be writing about my development from over the module as if I were a cider brewery. Yeah, I know that sounds complicated, but I feel like it is quite a clever way to discuss my reflection while keeping the beer mats as realistic as possible, so I have spoke about myself as if I were Development Orchards. Another little detail I have added in was the little contact information and where to find their brewery which just so happens to be in Somerset as that is where the majority of cider is brewed.
Heres another mock up then, this time just of the back of my new coaster and I feel like this is looking very believable which is a good start to the project!
Next up on the drinks coaster side of things is the Porpoising Printer. This name was something I came up with when we were using the photocopier back in the 2D project as I felt like they were being used so much, especially by me that day, but I found the image of a printer porpoising quite funny so why not turn it into a brewery? I went in straight away to create a simplistic outline of a photocopier. I then went in with the warp tools to edit that twice, one being the printer looking like it was being squashed, then one being stretched just to have the three visualising the printer moving like a porpoise. While the middle one looked like a normal printer, I feel like it is too complex and not the easiest to recognise as a printer in all three of these so I will try something else.
Well, here we go then, I have made a much simpler icon of a printer, as the majority of people would visualise a printer being small rather than the big industrial ones that we have at uni. This one looks much more friendly too and can be much easily recognised as a printer.
Once again, I was trying to create the image of the printers porpoising by using the warp tools, but once again it just didn't sit right with me. While I was moving it around to see if anything else worked, I noticed that one of them looked a little bit like a face, so I started going in to see if I could create a friendly printer character for the brand, which somehow turned into me creating a porpoise out of a printer. So instead of me making a printer porpoise, I just combined the two to create an actual porpoise printer as a little character for this brand.
It is logo time once again then, this time typing out my brand in Illustrator and testing a range of different typefaces before I select a few to start playing around with. First of all, I wanted to try and create a nice and professional styled logo by using the bold font with black boxes to fill up the space as I think it looks really smart, but from playing around a little more I much preferred the idea of having all the letters moved around slightly, going up and down like a porpoise of course. These are just some screenshots of my design processes as I work through the logo ideas.
This was the chosen one after all of my efforts as I feel like it reads easily and stands out really well, especially in these new colours of white and blue.
Now I have my logo sorted, it is time to start work on the actual coaster for this brand, which I have just started by trying to use the printer porpoise character as the centre point as it was quite bold and would be able to grab your attention.
Once I had added in some textures over the top, I felt like it was too simple and was missing something so I started to play around with some typography to mix into the design. I felt like the text fills up the design quite nicely and stands out much better than without the text.
Here are the finishing touches then, going in and making the final adjustments before going in and adding in some textures over the top to make it feel nice and weathered once again. There is another mockup to show my beer mat design in too to show how smart it could look in the real world.
Here we are with the back of the design then, this time going back to the idea of using the porpoising printer as the main focus of the design. I have also added in this part of the writing talking about my experimentation with the printers as if I were the brewery again. To fill up the white space above the text, I went in and added in the brand's logo and a little section about visiting the brewery as a nice little business touch to the design.
No surprise here then as I have added in some more textures to make it feel much older and used, then placed it into the mockup to once again see how nice it would look in the real world.
Rampant Research is next then, and for this one, I really had no good ideas with creating its logo. I liked the idea of using an italic font for this one as quite a lot of my beer mats on my desk use italic fonts, so I tried to recreate some of them using a range of different fonts to see if I could create a smart looking one to make it feel quite aged. I was getting quite stressed with this brand as I wasn't satisfied with any of these experiments.
I was rearranging my desk and came across this World War 2 magazine and I really liked the front cover as it stands out really well, from the bold army typeface to the blacked out image coming through the red and yellow gradient in the background. This has given me an idea of something to do with this Rampant Research brand.
After being inspired by the war magazine, I download a similar army font and created a gradient in the background and then added in some textures over the top to make it feel really rough and I think it looks really smart.
To add in that something extra into the design, I have downloaded this image of a rowdy crowd, Thresholded it in Photoshop and then used the filter presets to let it blend into all of the different layers and to fill up some of that white space in the design. The logo now fits much better at the top with the 'whisky' now added below and it all feels very smart in my mind.
Here it is in the mockup then and I think it looks really smart. I have matched the typeface to the image and the textures to make it feel much more like a set.
For the back of the coaster, I have just written out this bit of text and then placed it underneath the logo with a bit of a darker background gradient to make it much easier to read with the textures. The writing talks about research and the history of this brand as if I were the brewery.
The next one is Simplistic Mess, which is in reference to me wanting to make my designs quite sleek and simplistic but they would usually turn out a bit vain and would actually turn out to be a bit of a mess, so I felt like it could become a good brand name for this project. I started out this one by getting an image of a spillage that I manipulated to become red so that it looks like a wine spillage, then tried out some different fonts for the brand logo. It being a wine brand, I thought the logo should be quite fancy, with a hint of a mess to link to the name. After some time of experimentation, I decided to stick to this quite slick looking font saying 'Simplistic Masterpiece' but then having a bright red scribble going through the 'masterpiece' to then have 'mess' scribbled on in its place as I feel like it worked really well.
Time to crack on with more of the actual layout of this design to see what I can come up with which started off from moving the image around and playing with the positioning of the logo and the new slogan that links in with the brand and is a pun on having a messy night out.
The last adjustments for this design were just making the text a little easier to read by letting it fit much better in the white space. After I had placed it into a mockup, I thought it looked really smart and I could picture this one being used in the real world.
With the back, I just went in and added in some text about my simplistic mess issues. Once again, this is worded out to be from the perspective of a brewery. I have also added in the visit the brewery information like I have put on all of them.
Here is the back of the coaster in a mockup and I still think it looks really smart. I am really happy with how it has turned out as it does look like one you could see on the side of a bar.
Looking back, the Rampant Research design really didn't sit well with me as it didn't feel like it was a part of a set, so I have decided to give it another go, which I have started by swapping the colours around, so now they will all have white backgrounds, the I liked the idea of having someone writing something down as that visually represents the act of researching, so that could be a nice touch into the designs. I made this hand holding a pen by using the Pen Tool in Illustrator which I then lined up with some hand written typefaces to make it feel as if they have just written out a note on the design. To then link it back to the army feel to it, I have added in this dashed circle and a type writer message telling you were to place your drink which was a nice idea in my head but it does feel a bit pointless looking at it when you first see it. Looking back at it now, while this is a step up from the previous design, I feel like there is plenty more ideas that I could come up with that could be better than this.
Cracking on with another attempt here then and this time I am focusing on the action of someone writing down some notes. I noticed that all of my drinks coasters on my desk work well because of the simplicity, so I have gone in and made the hand fill the majority of the space, then added in some overlays of the layer on a low opacity to make it look like they are writing really fast. The way the new logo sits in the corner fits really nicely and I feel like the composition for this design is much stronger than all of the others.
Can we go even simpler with the design? Yes. I went in and made the background black, the hand white and then the pencil red just so that it is now all as simple as it could be and it looks really smart if I do say so myself. This is such a step up from the last two designs and works much stronger because you don't need to think about it to understand it, it is just simply someone writing down. Once again, I think the composition for this design is really strong and is quite aesthetically pleasing to look at, as the mockup shows.
Here I have been working on the back of this coaster while trying to stick to the same style as the front. For this one, I have used the Pen Tool to try and make it look like the person is writing away. This also fills up a bit more white space and means that when the text is in, we have another really strong composition of a design as you would naturally look at the hand, which takes you along the red drawing mark, which leads you to the text and then to the logo. It is really well balanced in my opinion.
Here it is with the textures and in a mockup, and still, I think this works really well and is probably my favourite design so far.
Back onto the Simplistic Mess one now, as I felt like that one was now the weakest of the four. Here you can see I have been trying to play around with the writing a bit more showing that the writing is a little out of focus and harder to read as this is a play on how you would see things on a messy night out, so that is just trying to engage with the customers really. In terms of the layout for this one, it is cool and better than the previous ideas, but I think I can come up with some better ideas.
Well, I decided to flip the colours round to make it all sit much better, with the writing and the logo both being able to stand out much more clearly now. Let's see what else I can come up with though.
I wondered what it could look like if I introduced an icon of a pint for a change as icons often do well on beer mats, so I made this quick and easy shape of an average pint glass with a little bit of head spilling over the edge to make it clear it is a pint of beer, I then just played around with different shapes and textures until I came up with this design which I immediately came to love. The writing stands out well, the pint is the main point of focus and makes the message very clear while the logo now sits at the bottom on my attempt of a little table which makes the composition much better then the previous ideas.
With the back of the design, I wanted to create a spillage of the pint to play on the 'messy' idea, so I just made a very simplistic spillage and started to mess around with the positioning of it along with the text to make the perspective come across as it it is actually a spillage and not just some weird lines. The text is a little basic but it sits nicely. in the spillage and still does the job.
Here we are then, all four of my designs along with their mockups to show exactly where I'm at and I feel like they all work really well together and feel quite believable which is exactly what I'm going for with this project.
So, it is about time that we crack on and start making these into real beer mats. So, I went into town and bought four beer mats, all the same size, so that I was able to print them all off at the same size, use this sticky paper and stick them onto the actual beer mats. I was then able to go around with a craft knife and cut away at the edges until I had a complete beer mat with my design on it. I am really happy with how this was able to happen as I was beginning to worry about how I would make them in real life but they were much simpler that I expected them to be.
Here they all are then, and they couldn't have turned out better if I tried. The thing that really make them work well is the textures as they just make them feel quite old and used which is exactly how the majority of beer mats look in real life, so I am very happy with that.
Here they are as a group, and I am still very proud!
It was only fair that I took them out to the pub for them to be tried out in the real world by giving them a pint glass to hold. This was a very proud mum moment as they did weirdly look at home, and I mean if you ignore the Strongbow branding, they look as if you could actually see them in a pub.
Last but not least, I got the big camera out at home and gave them a little photo shoot in the garden while the sun was out just to get some more clear images of them in daylight and also with them holding a cider on them. I am very pleased with how they have all come out.