'GOOD IS' - Photo Shoot.

As part of my range I'm planning on designing a DPS and cover for a magazine which features the band and their 'new album' the publication will be mostly image based and contain interviews with the band, band profiles, a review of the album, information on their genre of music and their instruments.

Other considerations are that the publication could contain adverts for he band merchandise and poster art advertising their gigs and tour dates.

The photo shoot took place in two locations using 4 different environments. The first location was my own house, I used my living room as the furniture, the carpet, the lights etc are all very victorian so it looks like a place where the chaps would live.

 The next part of the shoot took place in my cellar which is quite dark and looks like a derelict building from the inside. The reason I used this space is because the walls are covered in graffiti and by place the chaps in this environment it emphasises the contrast of their aesthetic and manor with the genre of their music, adding to the image and also the bizarre humour.

Afterwards I took the chaps outside to the garden to get them in them looking like their in the grounds of a manor house. There was little time to do this as we were racing against the sunlight but I got a few good photos.

 The last part was in the second location down the road from my house at the shop called Antique Boutique. They kindly let me photograph them without having asked prior to the shoot. The shop was difficult to shoot in as there were a lot of random lights placed everywhere and mirrors and other object lying around or getting in the way.
I took them to this location because it seemed like a good place to get them to walk around and look natural as if they were gentlemen out browsing the shop normally. It also provided a lot of opportunities for them to interact with props other than the ukuleles I provided for them.

Overall I'm pleased with the result of the shoot and I've got lots to work with from it. Now I need to edit the photos and start to apply them to my designs and design the layout for the publication that I've proposed.

'GOOD IS' - Product Names With Type.

These are the names and titles of the products that I am proposing to make. I've used the 2 typefaces I've selected to see which works best.

I personally prefer the middle column however some of the words become distorted as letter over lap e.g. 'Tea Bags'. Arguably I could solve this through editing the kerning.

The column on the left is more readable than the middle column however I find It to be less visually pleasing and engaging.

I will have to apply all three variations to the packaging and get someone other than myself to give me their opinion to really define which works best.

Which brings me to the next step which is getting on with the package designs and the illustrations and patterns to go with them.

'GOOD IS' - Colour

A lot of people in the crit hadn't been considering colour enough in their designs and developments and although I had looked into it already I though I should re address it and make some collections of colour samples applied to my illustrations and typefaces.

Some of my crit group suggested making mono prints of the illustrations for the T-shirts, I have come to the conclusion that I will print 3 shirts, 1 with type, 1 with image and one with type and image. When it comes to the hand in I will include variations of the designs to show a range of T-shirts that would be available to buy at the bands gigs and online. This also addresses the issue of peoples taste as having a variety allows people to be selective.

'GOOD IS' - Flea Logo

The Illustrated face designs are a great fun visual for the band but they work best as extra designs for things like T-shirt prints, album artwork, tea cup prints, stickers, badges etc. I have decided to make a more rounded logo to accompany the illustrations that will be printed across my entire range.

I've kept a consistency in aesthetic for the logo so that it wont clash with any of the illustrations. This was my first design which I vectored from the original drawing.

The typeface was crafted digitally using the line tool and shape tool which was a big mistake as it meant I couldn't manipulate the type as much as actual typeface. Furthermore, the letters are quite cramped together which makes readability an issue.

From here it was clear that I needed to find a suitable typeface to make it more readable and look more stable as a logo.

This is a more developed design with the colour on the ukulele finished and placed behind a layer of the monocle to give it a softer colour. The type face I used definitely gives a stronger impact and is far more readable than the custom one I was working with previously.

Just to be thorough, I duplicated the logo and applied the old typeface along with the two new typefaces that I have chosen so I can get a better comparison of which typeface works best.

From the crit I was advised to look into how the design would look with just black and whit and also grey, just to get an insight into whether using such amounts of colour is a reductive method of designing.

'GOOD IS' - FLEA-shirt designs.

Using a digital T-shirt template that i got from google and vectored over to modify it, I applied just the images of the three faces as band T-shirts or 'FLEA-shirts'.

When it comes to printing them I will only print a few as a set isn't necessary and it will be expensive but I will display multiple designs and variations to show the range of shirts that would be sold at the bands gigs or online or at festivals.

Added some colours. I really like the idea of using the three process colours Cyan, Magenta and Yellow because it makes the designs look funky and connotes the hip hop genre which the band follow. Also this emphasises the clash of the Chap style and the music genre.

However the three colours on the top right have a really nice subtlety to them. I think I will print a select few designs for the the hand in but propose a wider range of designs that would be produced on different coloured shirts. To narrow it down i'm going to work to a rule of three as there are three face illustrations and three band members, it create a nice consistency.

I'm not a fan of the plain black and white design on the bottom right nor the white shirt next to it, I think that the colour of the fabric in most cases compliments the printed content. From the crit it was made clear that the preferred designs were the faces standing singularly instead of together. This makes it a lot easier to decide which designs to select.

'GOOD IS' - Typeface options.

I went through the fonts that are already on Illustrator and searched for a few new ones from www.dafont.com and compile them all together the see which would work best against the illustration logo of the three faces.

Here I've arranged them so I can see how each one works individually with the image so I can compare them and pick out the ones which are working.

I narrowed it down to about ix typefaces then asked some people in the year which ones they preferred and these two came out on top. I see no reason not to use both type faces so long as I keep it consistent with where I use each one.

For example, I will use one on the packaging and maybe use both for the publication and the flyers.

These are both from www.dafont.com.

'GOOD IS' - Net Options

These are some net considerations for my packaging, I've labelled next the them what I think they would be best used for, however I wont be using all of these nets for the final printed range.

I need to consider how printing them double sided and having some sort of pattern or design on the interior of the packaging and also I need to experiment with composition of the designs and the information on the exterior.

My stock is still a mystery at this point, I plan to run a few print and folding tests on a selection of different stocks to see which suits it best in terms of weight, colour, saturation, structural integrity and foldability.