Geek Table; brief one.

http://www.behance.net

Ellie King - Graphic Designer based in the USA.

I really like this piece because its fun, bright and colourful. Although I make no direct connection with what the work is supposed to represent, I think this is why I like it most, because it can just be enjoyed. This is what makes me connect it to inspiration for my Geek Table brief because a lot of the work I plan to produce for that isn't really going to have a purpose as such and will be made to be enjoyed. This is also a good example of how something can be digital but still have a hand rendered element about it and how a unique style can be showcased. 

Emily Ward branding; illustrative typeface.

http://www.behance.net

Robert Missen - designer based in Kent. 

Due to the fact we are looking at the idea of using Emily's own hand writing for her design I felt this piece of work was quite relevent because if she decided to go down a different route, should consider making her own unique typeface inspired by her practice so that it still has relevence to her work like the signature does but is something completely different. This particular typeface is really interesting because although the letters aren't whole, the style chosen by the designer means they can still be read easily. 

YCN UK Greetings; ideas.

As a starting point for this brief I decided to sit down and list the various ocassions greetings cards and purchased for as well as thinking about some obscure ideas where they aren't really incase I could come up with something really creative. I decided on the theme of animals because everyone can appreciate them in some way and tends to have a favourite animal so this creates a vast target audience. There is also so much I can do with a theme like this so it'll give me a real chance to experiment and develop my hand rendering/drawing skills. Once I had decided the theme I wrote down various different animals I could illustrate and then chose my favourites from the list with the help of my friends. The YCN brief requires at least 4 cards but I've decided to go a little further and choose 5 different animals. The chosen animals are listed on the right hand side in the image. 

Robot Food brand design studio.

http://www.robot-food.com

Robot Food are a brand building agency based in Leeds. I was drawn to their work because they have some really visually interesting projects and they've had some very big clients which I've heard of. Their portfolio is so diverse which made it exciting to look through. 

The company did all the branding for the recent Jammie Dodgers packaging and campaign which looks bright, bold and eyecatching. I really like this packaging because they have shown the designs can work across a range of different types of packaging even though it's not the simplest of designs. The different elements they have utilised within the design give the overall look a lot of depth and quite a fun aspect to it which is something consumers are sure to relate to a product like this. 

With this product, I really like the lables that are hanging around the neck of the bottle because this is something that I haven't really seen before. In terms of my own designs I am wondering if I could utilise a similar sort of approach but for the jars of sauce. This tag would be instead of having the lable on the actual jar and because this space would be freed up, I could have some kind of illustrative design on the jar instead. 

Studio h.

http://www.studioh.co.uk

Studio H is a branding identity and packaging design studio based in London. I was drawn to their work because they have done a range of packaging designs but each appears very different from the others and some of the designs are unique to others I've seen previously. 

Initially I was fooled by this packaging design because due to the stock I thought it was a metal case containing the tea but upon closer inspection it's actually made from a metallic looking card. I really like the fact they have mixed up the range by using a couple of different shapes for their different products because this appears more interesting and it shows the effectiveness of the branding because it works together. This has made me consider that I could come up with a completely unique piece of packaging that could be part of my products brand essence. I've also looked at the bags they did as part of this project to see how branding can be applied effectively as this is another thing I will need to consider. 

This packaging is similar to something I have looked at previously within my research but I chose it because of the use of simple, bright, bold block colouring. Applied to specific areas, this way of adding colour is successful because its subtle. I think the fact there is so much other information on this packaging makes this even more successful because this needs a way of standing out and it does so on this block colour. 

KS design studio.

http://www.ksdesign.com.au/

KS designs is an Austrailian based branding studio. I was drawn to their work for the fact they have simple yet effective solutions throughout some of the packaging briefs they have worked on. It was also a good opportunity to see what is generally going on elsewhere in the world in terms of design because usually I'm so focused on UK based design studios. 

I've found a few examples of this kind of packaging style with the cut out section but thought I'd add this one in too because it's really effective and adds depth to a really simple packaging design. I was also drawn to this for colour scheme inspiration because if quite nutral colours are used then the design is in no way being aimed at males or females seperately. The use of shape seems to work quite well on packaging design too instead of being really obvious and using images of the product inside. 

Again, looking at the idea of having a cut out section in order to showcase the product inside this is another really effective example. With my own packaging I was considering having two different sizes depending on how much of the product the consumer was purchasing and this example shows me that if the concept for the packaging is kept really simple, it's something that can easily be scaled up and down depending on the requirements. 

Looking at the idea of how the lables within a product range can link to the rest of the packaging so that when photographed together, all the products compliment each other. If a simple colour pallet is chosen, this also shows that different products can utilise these colours in unique ways so that everything looks similar but not exactly the same. 

I really liked this confectionary packaging for the fact everything is colour coded based on the product inside. Although this wouldn't really be as effective with my product as some are so similar it makes me consider how the colour choices could again effect the range. From a personal point of view, If the products utilise completely different products they may not be able to linked to the same range as much. 

Geek Table; brief one.

For this brief we all had to go away and design something using our 'geeky' skill to represent the skill. For me I had to represent my hand rendering design skill so I decided to hand render the things that I use to hand render my work. The idea of these briefs is that they are very quick and an opportunity to do what we love so not much development is involved. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the outcome so far but I definitely feel that I want to develop it further because it looks a bit too simple at the moment and there are a lot of things I could do to enhance this. The fact that the drawings of the tools aren't completely perfect is definitely my favourite element about this piece because realistically hand rendered work is never perfect anyway. The colours are based on the actual tools too and the fact they are all constrating has been a bonus because it makes the piece look overall more visually interesting and exciting. I did two pieces to take to the crit, one of the tools alone and another a repeat pattern using the same drawing to see what people think works best. I think my personal favourite is the piece of the tools alone because I like the fact it's very minimal and would be able to work on a range of different scales.