OUGD504 EVALUATION

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

During the course of '504' I have learnt many different skills. To start with we looked at packaging, this is something that I have not had much experience in. We had to brand a series of different sized packages. From this brief I learnt about net design and how different nets slot together differently when built. There are different designs depending on the product. I learnt how to apply a brand across a series of different products.

The print book brief was a big learning curve for me, I experimented with several different printing processes in order to produce my book. First of all I looked at laser cutting, during this module have created several products on the laser cutter, experimenting with wood, acrylic and paper. I also went down to vernon street to do some embossing and de-bossing which I used in my book. I also used foiling and screen printing in the design book as I wanted to show a wide range of processes. To top it off I decided to bind my book myself, I ended up japanese stitching the book and used a hard back cover which I backed myself.

I think I have developed loads of skills this module and it has resulted in some really nicely finished products. I managed to double side screen print a truck load of products for the ISTD brief and am really happy with the professional finish.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?  

Research has helped me allot through this module, particularly the library. During the print book brief I took out a few books which really helped me along the way. The production manual was very useful teaching me all about the different printing methods used in commercial print. This book helped me with all the content I needed to finish my print manual.

Contacting paper and print companies helped to inform my decisions throughout the module. I learnt about different stock types and weights. This allowed me to test out printing and cutting different media. Trial and error screen printing helped to get my final products right. I learnt the hard way by exposing an image that was too big for the screen. This set me back some time but I won't do it again.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?  

Over the course of the module I feel I have found something I am good at. Screen printing has been a very fun part of the briefs. And I think all the hard work I put into the print studio has really shone through into the final products. I think the branding for the ISTD restaurant has been produced to a high quality. The products have a professional finish and have been laid out and presented in eye catching way.

I think another strength has been my willingness to experiment with different processes. I pretty much carried out everyone you could do at uni. I have tried to use these processes to the best of my ability. I am allot more comfortable at carrying these out on my own now and will be able to do them comfortably next time. 

I believe this module I have really pushed myself on every brief, covering a wide range of deliverables with each brief. I am getting used to the heavy workload now and feel better about pushing the boundaries.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?  

I think one of my weaknesses would be my amount of research, Although I think my products are well informed I think I could of looked at more peoples work for inspiration  It would of also helped with the final outcomes of my products as maybe I would of come up with something differently.

Although for this module my time management has been pretty good. I feel like It could be improved as these past few weeks have been a bit of a rush. I hope to designate days to specific briefs in future. That way I will be able to plan out my week and get hoepfully get more done.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?  

1. I will make sure I get the sizing right next time I expose my screens. This meant that the cutting mats I printed out weren't up to scratch. By getting the size right It will allow for finer prints.
2. I think I could of done more research for this module. I think thats whats letting me down If i had researched more I would have a more well informed direction.
3. Experiment more with different stock. Although I researched into it allot and used various ones I think I could of pushed it further.
4. Time plan - I think designation specific days to specific projects will help to stay on top of things.
5. More Design sheets - I feel like I did allot more designing on the mac than I did my hand. Drawing stuff out us a better way of getting out all your ideas.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas: 

Attendance = 5

Punctuality = 4

Motivation = 4

Commitment =4

Quantity of work produced = 4

Quality of work produced = 5

WEBSITE REGGAE

To create my reggae website I took a slightly different approach to what we learnt in class. Using the Illustrator I designed all the necessary pages. With alternate Rollover versions. Once I had created all the relevant parts I opened them up in Photoshop. It was then possible to split the image up into 9 Separate Jpegs

Sections of Web Page 

Sizes of Panels (pixels)

1 - 255px x 129px

2 - 517px x 129px

3 - 242px x 129px

4 - 255px x 511px

5 - 517px x 511px

6 - 252px x 511px

7 - 517px x128px

8 - 517px x 128px

9 - 252px x 128px

Here are the necessary Images needed to Create the site 

including the roll over images. I kept everything in the root folder.

In order to put the site together I coded in each pannel. I started with the Index page Obviously.

 I inserted all the correct values into the code so that all the jpegs sat in the 1024 x 768 container 

CSS File I made sure that all the rollover functions worked

For the other pages I just re-saved the index file into the necessary pages.


LEGENDS PAGE

The middle panels - as the middle pannel needed to change on all of the pages it wasn't too difficult to go into the pages and change the Image for each however for the Legends page it was a bit more difficult. To do this researched into adding extra buttons which would allow the middle image to change on just that page.

To do this I had to activate the J query Library, this allowed me to create 3 extra buttons, that allowed me to switch through the middle panels.

You have to load the jquery library before any scripts that need it so best practice is to always put it first

J query short code 

J quiry Library In Dreamweaver

References for J query

http://api.jquery.com/hide/
http://api.jquery.com/show/
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_display_visibility.asp

The buttons were made in illustrator then saved as 
.png files to allow for transparency

Here you can see the 3 center panels in the div class = images legend 5

this allows the buttons to call these different functions 

Links don't have to go to another page, if you use JavaScript: it just does that on click

JavaScript: aFunction();

And functions always have a () after, inside which you can send variables and parameters to the function but that's not needed here

Eg aFunction($aVariable);

 J query coding for extra buttons

CSS Buttons were placed in 40px x 40px squares

CSS leg buttons 

 When you click a button it links to "JavaScript: buttonOne();" which is a function defined in the script. When you execute a function you say you "called" that function

The script then hides the other 2 images if they are up and shows the one you clicked

CSS middle pannel code

Music

The music was quite difficult. Originally I was gonna have that page linking to a music player but this ended up going horribly wrong. So in order to get the music working I hooked up the button to a youtube video that  is inside a div that is 1px by 1px with overflow:hidden. Unfortunately it does not work as a play or pause button nd there is only one song. But this isnt bad to start with.

I edited the code I found online on jsfiddle and inserted onto every page.

References

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11651454/play-youtube-video-on-click-custom-button

http://jsfiddle.net/g6P5H/

REGGAE WEBSITE CONCEPT BOARDS

Here are the concept boards for my Roots Reggae Website.


I think I have successfully created a well designed and eye catching web site, that captures the essence of reggae. The problem I found with reggae websites, was that they were all poorly designed. They had probably been made my training web design fans just like me really but they had no sense of colour schemes or layout. i think I have communicated well covering a various avenues. If I had more time I would include allot more content but for the mean time the concept is down. The website is aimed at reggae fans, and people that might be interested in it. I have tried to capture the attention of the viewer by using a simple but colourful design, with easy to use navigation. Overall I think I have done a much better job designing a website than the existing ones I feel. It is simple yet eye catching and definitely captures that reggae roots feel. The natural colour scheme ties in with the song themes.

Improvements

If I were to improve the site I would sort out the buttons on the legends page as they seem a bit pixelate round the edges. I am unsure why this is so as I saved them as .png files which should support transparency.

Fonts used

Tiza - Rough and Natural, Similar to some Reggae Artists.
Chalkboard - kind of hand written more natural 

Colour Scheme

I used the obvious red 'gold' and green, and then decided to use browns to keep with the natural theme.

ISTD FINAL BOARDS FOR PRESENTATION

Here are my final presentation boards for my ISTD brief.

In order to make the restaurant appeal to everyone I thought about how I could make the restaurant an exciting environment to be in. I thought about Anamorphic typography and how this could be used around the restaurant. I feel it would be nice to have the restaurant like a converted letterpress workshop, this would give the customers a feel of what it would be like to be in a design studio.

I thought it would be a nice touch to have typography furnishings to its extents. They are a nice touch I feel. Staying with the light hearted feel to the restaurant I thought it would be funny to have urinals with the most hated typefaces on so you can show your appreciation. For the web side of things I mocked up a website to show how it would work across different media. This allows the customers to look at the menu and the restaurant. It also has information on the where abouts and also the history of the restaurant.

Final Products

HISTORY OF REGGAE - PAGES UPDATE

After getting my home page sorted I worked on the other sub pages. I created each seperate page on Illustrator to start with them brought them into Photshop in order to cut them up into 9 seperate jpegs.

By splitting the image up into these separate files I can build the website from these boxes

This will allow each box to act as a button the four corners will have a roll over feature

linking to the correct page.

Roll Over Feature

Legends Links

Toots and the Maytals

Bob Marley and The Wailers

Lee Scratch Perry

History of Reggae

Events Page

ISTD PRODUCT RE - PRINT

After my crit I went away and changed the colour scheme in order to make it easier to screen print. I got rid of the orange/yellow and just went with red and white. Once I had prepared all my screens I started printing. To start with I printed my place mats. 

I realised afterwards that I had used a small screen which made it had to print.

 The first lot were unsuccesful and I chose the wrong colour completely turning the mats pink.

I set up my screens on the bed - next time I will use bigger screens

in order to make printing easier.

I mixed different paints to try get the perfect colour.

In order to double side print I had to draw the registration marks on 

the opposite side with a light box.

After a full day in the print workshop I spent the evening 

cutting everything down to size.

The only problem I had was with the beer mats, I hadn't prepared the 

document correctly so the registration didn't line up, but this worked

out in my favour. When I such them together it increased the thickness

to that of an actual beer mat anyway.

Letter press draw - debating wether to paint or varnish.

Products all together - I need to add ribbon underneath to make

it easier to get the products out.

Smooth easy slide draw

Receipt / Order Pad

Business Cards

Menu

I am extremely happy with the outcome of the products. They are very high quality prints with little errors. The products look much more profesional like this. The colours are consistant and you the blemishes from the screen printing add to the quality and represent the strong authentic print methods that the restaurant represents.

I used quite thick water colour stock which meant all the prints stayed flat. There are few additions I need to make to the set to make it perfect.

MUTTON QUAD - RE-DESIGN

After the crit the other day it was made apparent that my branding needed a tweak. Although everybody really loved the concept and branding they thought it should just be 2 colours rather than three. It was also mentioned that It would be nice to screen print the products as this would be much more relevant to the nature of print, and also give it that personal touch that a printer cannot do.

So after the crit I went away and I looked at changing the colour scheme. I got rid of the orangey yellow and just went for the dark red and white. This was a bit of an issue as I had to change my logo completely it would not work with just red ad white the way it was. Here is what I came up with.

     AFTER                                  BEFORE 

I Changed the Steak House style typeface as this was sending out the wrong impression

I decided to Just stick with Rockwell. To solve the colour overlap problem I decided to put

the Title in a banner underneath this Looks much better now and I think the reduced colour

scheme definitely helps to give a classier image.

Menu Outside and In - 1 Colour Print Much easier to Read

Represents the restaurant perfectly.

Type Terminology Menu Outside and In

Place Mats / Cutting Mats

Beer mats - 2 Sans Serif, 2 Serif

If I had the time I would produce a larger set of beer mats with different fonts. 

Front

In order to screen print all my products I have prepared the images in illustrator ready to be

exposed. Once this is done I will carefully try and double side print my products.

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