Evaluation

Evaluation – Unit 18 and 4

As part of units 18 and 4 I have done research into the advertising industry and how using digital graphics are used to create and manage a series of printed promotional products of my own choice. After carrying out my research into this I felt that I understood what I needed to do for my company project, I decided to create an alternative sweet company named Amber Sweets, the company sells confectionary but with an alternative twist to it, throughout my design work I tried to make my products both elegant, sweet and grungy. Keeping this in mind, I was able to create my three products of a packaging design, promotional posters and a loyalty voucher. Overall I felt my production went very well throughout this unit.

The basic idea of my created company is to create a confectionary line with an alternative twists. I thought this was a very different and unique idea and I felt I could be really creative with this as I could produce anything I liked. This helped me keep creative throughout production and gave me the freedom to add my own style to my designs.
During production it was important to keep the theme of the company; I found this would be a key essential when wanting to sell to my target audience. Though my intended target audience is aimed at both males and females, I see that in my designs have a lot of feminine qualities in which my products would have a wide range of a female audience. A suitable age range would be between young teens to people in their late twenties, I thought this would be suitable as it has a youthful theme but not a children’s theme. I think this does reflect on my products as it has a “teenage” like theme, with the use of neon colours, grey scale and certain brushes which fitted with the theme of the products.

As I was creating a confectionary company I had to do research into packaging designs and look into what colours and styles are used for an alternative theme. I also did previous research into different logo’s and looked at what colours and fonts made them easily recognisable, this helped me when designing my company logo. I found that when designing my logo using stripes would be suitable as stripes are normally associated with sweet shops. However I used black and “hot” pink colours along with a gothic styled font to fit in with the theme of the company. As you can see in figure 1 I demonstrated my intentions.

                                                                                          Figure 1

After I had finished my final logo design I was then able to create my products. I used various different techniques when designing my products. I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 for all of my products, but for my promotional posters and voucher, I had done some photography as well. I wanted to use photography as I wanted to include more techniques in my production work; I also have been covering photography in other units. Keeping this in mind I found that my skills in photography would be beneficial for my design work.
 Though I have used Photoshop before, I feel that I have been able to create my own imagery rather than editing images which I could not do before.  I have developed better skills in Photoshop with uses of brushes and contrasts of colours. I also have gained a better understanding into print products and what types I needed to do for my products. For example, for my packaging I printed on card, where as I printed my other products on glossy paper.
The skills I have obtained during these units will benefit me in future as my design, Photoshop, photography and printing skills have improved greatly whilst working on my units.

I think the production process went very well for me; I was able to get the correct materials, such as the right template for my packaging, as you can see in figure 2, I felt that this template was cute, elegant and easily related to its intentions for being a cupcake box. I also coped very well to deadlines and was sure to attend every lesson in order to get my work in on time; I added extra work in as well as I needed to stay behind late to take photographs for my promotional poster and voucher.  I thought my photographs took very well with a good quality and exaggerated the theme of the company.  For my final printed products, I thought they turned out very well and looked how I intended them; there were no issues with printing which I was very glad about.

Figure 2

I thought my strengths where very strong as a graphic designer and a developer, as I was in control of my production and knew what I need to do, I do not recall any weaknesses during production, I however had a few minor setbacks due to computers not working and not being able to get the materials I needed such as Fonts.

Following a guidance sheet which was issued on Moodle, I created a PowerPoint presentation to explain the idea of my company and the products and type of print I intend to create and design. I thought when doing my presentation I did very well as I am normally not confident when doing presentations on my own in front of people. Though I coped very well I also received positive feedback, as people said it was “original” and “creative”. I did not get asked many questions, I believe this is due to that all the information people would need was within my presentation. #

In conclusion I have enjoyed working on my production work and enjoyed the different techniques I have used to create my products. I thought my final printed products had the exact look and theme I was looking for and I was able to get the alternative edge to my chosen company. I felt I have been able to be very creative during these units and have expanded my techniques and sense of design greatly.