INTERIM CRITIQUE // PACKAGING.

I was quite worried about today, as I felt I didn't have a strong enough idea to put forward in the critique, and I was in the first group. Luckily I was one of the last to pitch my idea and along the way I had a few ideas pop in to my head which seemed to go down pretty well.

I still really need to consider materials, the design, and how it functions but so far my idea seems strong enough, I just need to push it further.

My idea is based on a small brown cardboard box I own which held a candle, and I thought this material would be really good to use as it is recyclable and eco-friendly.

Around the bottom of the box I will have my graphic/illustration, of the location of where an extreme sport is held, for example snowy mountains for snowboarders. It will be in black and white, which I think will have an interesting effect on the brown cardboard.

On the inside I will have a bright colour which will represent the bright blue skies/sunsets you find in most staged photographs of extreme sports. To make it more interesting I need to consider how the box opens, and possibly include some form of texture within the colour.

I am considering having a window somewhere on the box to give a taste of the watch and the colour inside. I felt a little more confident towards the end of the critique as the feedback was positive and my peers made some good suggestions.

I have spent most of the day sketching, and really trying to figure out how my illustration will work which has started to stress me out a little! Hopefully something will come to me soon, we have a week left before our final critique, which doesn't leave much time with the Ink Bar project on at the same time!

AND FINALLY I CAN FOCUS ON MY ANIMAL PACKAGING!

So after our meeting with Chloe, I feel a little more settled knowing I can finally do some work on my other work which I feel has been neglected for ages! [although it has only been a few days]

I was a bit shady on a solid ideas as  I had a few brewing round my head during the week. However I felt a lot better after talking to Neil and Claire only to find out other people in the class are in the same position as me, James, George, Vicky and Luke...and done nothing since our group presentations last week.

I just had a brief tutorial with Neil and I managed to get a basic idea to work on, I just need to build on them now. We have a critique tomorrow, where we need to produce a page of sketches of designs for our boxes.

For this I will focus on the size, shape and how it will function before even really considering the design to be printed on the outside.

I think, once my idea is underway I will feel a lot more positive about this whole thing!

I need to calm down.

TODAY WE MEET THEIR DESIGNER.

Today we got to meet the designer for West-beach, Aruba and The Print Room to talk about how we can all work together in order to produce all the printed media in time for the launch. George, Luke, James, Vicky and myself sat down with Chloe and James and had an ideas generation session on promotions names, and how we can all have a running theme between the website, invitations, menus, loyalty cards and Christmas flyers.

It was a successful day and helped a lot having them sat in front of us so we could get immediate feedback on our layouts. By 12 o'clock, we had a few final designs for the invitations as they needed to be completed ready to print by 5.30pm tonight. Tight deadline yet again!

We are still waiting to hear feedback on our invitations as to which got chosen, and considering it is 4.11pm it's pushing it if we need to make any changes!

Below are the three invitations I ended up putting forward:

I was happy with the fact Chloe had really positive things to say about my designs. She liked the fact that my design spread over to the back of the invitation which was good as that separated my designs from the ones that Vicky and James were producing. I used the text layout that Vicky made as it fitted together well and looked clean, crisp and professional.

Luke and George are still working on the website, it's looking good! All we need to do now is the Christmas flyer.

We have been told today that the bar officially opens on the 19th November, launch date on the 20th which means everything needs to be ready next week...Eek! The stress is on.

EEK!

Although we are succeeding in everything with the Ink Bar rebrand, I can't help but worry about the fact I feel as though I am slipping behind with the other projects I should be continuing with too.

ISTD: I still need to talk with Sally to confirm that my ideas are good enough to pursue. 

Animal Packaging: I didn't realise our critique was so soon! I need to crack on with this.

Other live briefs: Set by my dad for his company and my mum's.

I need to come up with a way to manage my time equally as I also have a part time job. It's hard and there never seems enough hours in the day! I can't remember the last time I just sat and chilled out, but there is so much to do in so little time! :/

THE INITIAL IDEAS TOWARDS OUR NEXT STEP TO NEW REBRAND.

Whilst George and Luke work on the new website for the Ink Bar, James, Vicky and myself are all beginning work for the printed media.

Without any text, and no exact colours to work from, we had to interpret our ideas on how we think the invitations should look and send them over to Chloe. It's a bit of trial and error with the whole thing until we get colours and text set in stone.

Here's what I came up with:

The ink drop on the background is just an example as we need to select imagery for the company to buy the licence in order to have permission to use it throughout. We are currently waiting on the feedback from Chloe's meeting with her boss today. Once we have heard, and got the blurb and colours sorted, we should be comfortably on our way.

RESULT! :)

What an achievement! I'm so happy all our hard work has paid off and our name and one of our logos got chosen to use in the new refurbished Ink Bar. 

During working on this we have been round and round in circles! We have managed to convince the owner of the Ink Bar that 'The Office' was a bad name, as soon as we were able to do that, the ball started rolling. From this the name has swapped between Ink Bar, Ink, Ink Dot Bar, Bar Ink, Ink Dot and Bar Dot Ink. There were problems in the name for trademark purposes as there was previously a bar up in Manchester called Ink Bar. It seems as though luck is on our side as they have recently refurbished and re-branded themselves as O-Bar meaning we can finally claim Ink Bar!

Now that we have a solid name, we are able to produce our merchandise and promotion material. The launch is still on the 20th November, which leaves 17 days until the big day! Eek! This is also the same day as all of our project work is due too. Going to be some tight deadlines I think.

Now we have the winning logo (shown below, Congratulations James!):

All we need to do now is design the website, menu, key fob, Christmas promotion flyers, loyalty cards, and invitations! In a few days. It's going to be tough, but if we stick together as a group I think we can do this! We are each going to take on a task to produce various bits so at the end we can all pull it together. This will look great in our portfolios!

We have been invited to the launch night, and Chloe also mentioned that her and Matt Desmier are trying to get some press coverage on the whole re-launch. Wow! First serious live brief and it's going public!

First thing we need to do is prioritise the invitations and Christmas flyers, Vicky, James and myself will work on these whilst George and Luke work on the website.

More updates soon.

INK DOT.

Ok so this live brief that me, George, James, Vicky and Luke have all been working on is constantly changing and starting to get a little frustrating now! It seems as though every group of ideas we send over is just coming straight back with a different name to the bar. I guess this is what it will be like in the working world, especially with the tight deadlines!

Chloe will be having a meeting with her boss today to give us feedback on our designs. Below are the designs I sent over, producing them last night with hours to spare before they were due!

Whilst I have been updating my blog, we have received a phone call to say one of our logos have been chosen!! Success! Just waiting on her arrival to find out more now :) InkBar it is!