THE INK BAR.

After having very little time to put anything together for this brief I think our group did pretty well in producing the work that we did. 

My group; George Russell, Luke Bonner, James McMorrow, Vicky Martin and myself; decided to completely step away from 'The Office' and run with the idea of the Ink Bar. So since Monday we have come up with a short presentation of a few pdf slides which we showed Chloe Parmiter today. As we knew it wasn't to the level of design that we could achieve with more time, we were a bit hasty to present what we had, however to our surprise the feedback was really positive and she loved our ideas!

Through talking to her for about an hour after that we pretty much convinced her that 'The Office' was rubbish and that they definitely need to go with a different name, and broaden their target audience beyond office workers. Below demonstrates our presentation which we showed Chloe:

With her now on our side all we need her to do is convince the 'big boss' that we are right! She has taken our presentation and other work and brainstorming to back up our pitched ideas.

We all now have her contact details which we can keep for future reference for other work, and to have direct updates on how our ideas are working out. 

All in all, really successful and I found it really useful to see how the working world works with tight ever-changing deadlines and sketchy briefs. It was challenging and hard work but we pulled through as a group and all worked really well together.

RESULT! :)

I found my old work from last year for my work experience and PPRD! Thought I had lost it :(

Just had a quick flick through, and can really use my old PPRD as a guidance for this year.

Every little helps!

Still need to decide on an ISTD brief to do and start working on it, time goes faster than you think!

MY INITIAL IDEAS FOR THE OFFICE/THE INK BAR.

I worked with James for an hour to produce a few ideas for 'The Office' logo:

And below are some quick ideas for the Ink Bar which I produced today:

This is just a starting point, now that we have joined together as a group, the ideas will pour in!

INK BAR PROGRESSION.

We had a meeting with Matt Desmier today about the Ink Bar brief and have been told to continue with any initial ideas we had previously. Through the meeting with Chloe about the whole brief, I feel we were all left confused about what they actually wanted. 

We split into smaller groups and began work on a few ideas for names and designs for logos, later to be e-mailed and informed that 'The Office' has been approved as a name, and they have ideas for the logo (but still not yet e-mailed them through so we can work on). As a group, we didn't feel as though this name worked and preferred names such as:

-Bar Ink

-The Ink Room

-The Ink Bar

-Just Off The Square

-Ink

Each of these names have so much scope to work on. Plus why would anyone want to leave the office...to go to The Office?

Luke, James, James, Vix, George and myself have had our own meeting now and decided we are going to take 'The Ink Bar' forward and produce some decent portfolio work, which will hopefully convince Andy Price that his ideas won't work!

We have decided our theme will be ink dropped in water, as shown below:

We need to produce a type sheet and a selection of images which will compliment each other together and individually.

Once this has been approached, we then need to put our designs in to perspective through:

-Business Cards

-Intranet Advertisements

-Flyers

-Menus

-Window Graphics

-Beer Mats/Coasters. etc.

We will present as a group, all of our ideas as we have come together to strengthen just one final idea.

Deadline is tight, we have until Wednesday!

FINAL CRITIQUE FOR GREETING CARDS.

A bit like yesterday, I didn't really receive a lot of criticised feedback for my card designs. I don't know whether this was because all I was doing now was extra work towards my collection, or because I had hit every target I needed. So I took this as a good thing. There is always room for improvement, I just don't quite know where that is yet.

My cards were originally aimed at kids, however witnessing the feedback I had received, they appeal to our age group too. This is good as immediately my target audience is broadened and a result, is more likely to sell. Due to the simplicity and the size of the designs, the production costs would be low, therefore making it easier to mass produce.

I showed my design sheets, original characters, finished product, and elements of my sketchbook in my critique, all of which really helped to explain my work and gave everyone else a much better understanding of where my idea came from.

Comments made at the critique by my peers are:

- "I prefer seeing the whole character on the front, unless you show a bit more on the cropped cards."

- "I like the fact you can only see a bit of the monster as it would encourage you to buy the wrapping paper as well."

- "They appeal to me, and I'm not a kid."

- "Despite the simplicity, they hold a lot of character."

- "I can see this working as a much bigger collection than what you have made."

- "This would look good as a badge."

I took these as positive comments and may adjust the cards slightly, however I am extremely happy with the work I have produced :)

On top of this I need to produce some print specs and consider paper stock, although the card that I have used, works well especially as it is aimed towards kids.

Overall I am really happy with my feedback and results. 

QUICK GROUP CRITIQUE.

Quick feedback from everyone today in my critique was basically to think up a personality and name for my monsters. Also to produce a set with writing and without. So basically I have done all I need to according to the brief. :)

Plenty of ideas to push these characters further, for example, a kids party theme on plates and cups, right through to magnets, postcards, notebooks, cups, and so on.

I would love to see if this range would sell!

MONSTERS!

I have mocked up 6 blank cards and 3 with text on the front...

Check out the wrapping paper on the right of this picture too :)

Gift bags to follow... could use this everywhere such as plasters, paper cups, plates. I love it!