Packaging Design.

This is the design on my Packaging for my DM.
I didn’t think that an envelope would work for this as I feel it needs to have something that is more easy access so I have designed a kind of of case that is open at one end so you can easily slide out the card and that can have the address can be printed upon it.

Example below is the net design for it, it is pretty simple with the main design being on the back. This features a union jack background and the BME logo. I didn’t want to put anything with the union jack on the front of the card as though it is a symbol of patriotism, there are some groups that give the symbol a bad reputation, and I didn’t want to give a bad first impression.

This was created very simply just by gathering measurements and placing the images upon the template In Photoshop.      

The beatles Design.

Oringial Album Artwork.

My idea was to use only part of the image and extend the zebra crossing downwards on the page (example Below) I used the retangular shape tool to do this. To achive the slanted look of the top zebra crossing i used the 'warp' transform option.

I the used the lasso tool to cut out the shapes of the band on that layer making empty silhouettes of the them. On the layer beneath I added an edited photo – using the photofilter ‘cutout’ to create a pop art style- of the band to fill the gaps. I then added typography using a typeface I downloaded that replicated the Beatles logo typestyle.




Silhouettes of band.

Final Design.

I went through many different colour schemes before settling for the red-ish pink colour. I went for this colour as it reminded me of the bright pop-art of Andy Warhol but also the ‘psychedelic’ colours featured in many 60’s posters and fashion, because of these connections I thought it would help to cement the decade more.
Other colour scheme examples below.

 

Sex pistols Design.

This page is going to feature the question ‘ Which band were dropped from their record label after a controversial appearance on the ‘today show’ in 1976? ‘ in a ransom note type face with a defaced union jack background.

When developing my design I started with the back ground and tried a few different ways of creating it.

This method was to paint a union jack in water colours and smudge it as I go along and also to add black ink to it. This didn’t seem clear enough and also was a little boring so I then moved to use a different method and also chose to distress the outcome more.    

One way I tried was by using pastels on paper to draw a union jack, throwing ink onto and then rip it up so it was more distressed then my previous attempt. I didn’t like the way this turned out I seemed a little bit childish and didn’t get across the sense of aggression that the sex pistols used. And it was this point that I decided that to create artwork like the sex pistols had I would have to use the same method.







To do this I bought a union jack flag and began to throw paint and ink onto it and then took a photograph and out this into Photoshop. Once I had it arranged in the position that I wanted it looked a little too bright and happy so I used the filter ‘Dark Strokes’ to make the image darker and also to give it a more graphic artwork feel to it rather than just a photograph.

Before photograph.

Process

After Editing.

I then downloaded a few different ransom note typefaces and alternated them while writing out my question. 

Final Design.

The typographic style and image were kind of dictated by the band I was using to base the question around as I wanted to try to create my own a version of Jamie Reid’s artwork. The reason why I chose to use a grey typography colour is because it stands out from the background images and contrasts well.

Part Two: Layout and Typography.

I added the logo and font using the lasso tool to cut around each element.

I tried a few different layouts using the logo and typography of the . Examples Below.

 

I decided at this point to turn my design into a Horizontal design as this way I would be able to fit the logo ect onto the DM in a different way. Using a horizontal page I could fit the logo and name side by side which is a more aesthetically pleasing way. Also this is how BME layout the logo themselves and it helps to cement a direct link to their brand.      

Final Design for back of DM

 This is my final design for the back of my DM. I have moved the typography ’ Find answers at’ to the bottom of the page and it looked slightly odd at the top as there was no other similar type. Also at the bottom of the page it helps to draw the eye down to the website and phone number. By adding these to my design it shows the decoder a direct way of communicating with BME offering a platform for feedback and leaving the ball in the potential customers court.
I choses a san serif font as it helps to give a vibe that though BME is essentially a museum it isn’t in a traditional sense, Also it helps to tie together the logo and contact information as they are both then san serifs style fonts. Though I want the typography to flow together I did want there to be a distinction so that is why I used the font colour black rather than blue. The images behind the type work anchor that the advertisement is for a music based service, without overpowers the text or making it illegible. 

Designing the Back of my Direct Mail. Part one.

I began designing the back of the Direct mail (DM) first at it is going to be the same on each of my designs.

When I stated this process I had the idea of creating the border of the DM using a range of CD’s Vinyl and tapes (See Below) and having the British music experience logo in the centre with the typography reading ‘Find Answers at:’ with a link to the website.
I decided to take photographs of the vinyl records ect that I have and then put them into Photoshop and extract the image from the background using the lasso tool. I used this process and began layering the back ground. Though I originally liked this idea when I saw it coming together on the page I didn’t think it worked well. The images began to distract away from the typography dominating the page. At this point I decided to change the design alltogether.

When taking the shots of the records I also took shots of the artworks as I found that the album artwork worked really well in expressing different decades of music. I extracted these images using the quick selection tool and also corrected some common faults I found in them such as noise.

Screen cap of reducing Noise.  

I began layering these images on top of each, using different size images to highlight iconic artwork.
When finished I didn’t think that the outcome looked professional enough. Some of the ‘cutting out’ was a little rough and the lighting wasn’t great on some of the images. (right)
To correct this I took new images. Instead of taking individual image of each piece of artwork and editing them in Photoshop, I overlapped the artwork discs and vinyl before I took the photo (see left) This meant that each photo had the same lighting and quality throughout and looked allround more professional.

When putting this into Photoshop I arranged the image to fit my A5 page in a way I wanted. I did find that it was too predominant on the page and the typography would not so up. To fix this I added another plain white layer behind it and changed the photo’s layer style to ‘overlay’. I then changed the bottom layers opacity to make the photo layer slightly muted.       

Development begins - Ideas.

For this project I have decided upon creating an advertising campaign for the British music experience and I have a few ideas of what it could be,

Idea one - Poster campaign.

This idea came when I was listening to the song ‘That’s Entertainment’ by the jam.
There would be a series of posters and the idea would be to have the phrase that’s entertainment at the top of the poster and underneath it , iconography from the different eras. So in total I would create 4 posters, one for each decade I have researched.
This idea came from the way in which generations argue over what is music and therefore entertainment, arguments that usually end with ‘That’s not music, it’s just noise’


Idea two – a direct mail.

This idea is came from the idea of exams papers, and at first I wanted to create something that looked like an actual exam paper., But when I thought about it I thought it was a little bit dry and boring. So I then changed the idea to be more just a question and answer sheet, with the question taking up the front of the page with iconography if the movement behind the typography. Then on the reverse of the page the ‘answer’ would read “find out at the British music experience”.

This is the idea that I am going to be producing and I have mocked up a basic idea of a design to test how they would look. (Below)

I feel that this test worked well and i will be continuing this idea.
The tyography i used here is a computer generated one and although it is a little bit more uniform and perfect - which isn't in line with punk ideologys-  then what you would get out of handgenerated means i feel that it works well as it looks proffesional and high quaility and therefore more fit for purpose. The colour i used is a light grey and i used this mainly for legibillity purposes and though id o like the way it stands out of the page i may change this in my later development.

Mock up of direct mail design idea.

You know what i mean?

A lot of the 90’s brit pop artwork begins to focus more upon clear and clean cut photography than anysort of graphic elements. Some of the main players in Brit-pop Blur and Oasis depitict this trend.

The album cover it’s self in pretty simple. Using only a photo and a little type. Though no one has really come to a conclusion about the imagery used on this cover, or what the term ‘Parklife’ means the main consusnus is that it is a comentary upon the class and unemployment. The image used of a dog track is something that is seen as quite seedy and has the assosication with the lower classes.
The typography used is minimal and uses the contrast between the rounded san serif font of their logo and the more traditional serif font of the album title.