The Brief
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The greetings card industry is a very competitive market and UK Greetings is constantly looking for ways to stand out from the crowd, whether this be through an exciting card format, interesting use of finishes (emboss, foil, glitter, varnish, gems, googly eyes, printed card attachments, bespoke attachments, buttons etc), or simply stunning designs that stand out from the competition. This brief requires you to design a new concept and design for a target audience of 16 – 34 year olds. It is important to consider the situation you would be sending a card, why would you be sending it. What is the
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occasion? Target audience is important when designing and the aim of the card it to impress and convince and the design must fulfill this. The design itself can be for any occasion, as long as 4 designs working with concept are produced with the clear possibility of extending the range. The design for the inside of the cards, a range name and logo to be printed on the back page and considerations over the envelope colour and design. Past YCN brief, UK Greetings
Very Merry Christmas
Primary & Secondary Research
Board 2
The brief tstaed that they were looking at designs that had something dfferent as well as this they asked a designerof how they could er an idea of how this can then be applied over a range to create a self suffieicient themed capsule. Primary research was an important part of the brief as it allowed me to see the other competitiors available and what gap in the market I should be
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tailoring my designs towards. After conducting research my target audience were those in their early to late twenties to late thirties, usually female who were interested in high quality printed cards with the desire to purchase a card with personality. Past YCN brief, UK Greetings
Very Merry Christmas
Target Audience, Concept & Context
Board 3
UK Greetings are the UK’s market leading direct-to-retailer publisher, and manufacturer of greetings cards and supply card designs to big name retailers. UKG have several established sub-brands, each priding itself on delivering something unique, giving UK Greetings a distinctive edge and sound reputation for diverse and eclectic product. cards would be supplied to relatilers across the UK.
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After experimening with different initial thoughts I decided to create a range of card design absed around christmas. This was appropriate at the time of undertaking the brif and I felt that there was a lot of scpe to work with. Developing ym ideas based on the Primary reearch undertaken I developed the idea of ‘very merry greetings’ playing on the idea of enjoying the christmas cheer a little to much and wishing those around you a lsightly jumbled chrstmas greetings. This owuld be juxtaposed with the beautiful, intricate illustrations cntrasting the theme and making ot more noticeable. Past YCN brief, UK Greetings
Very Merry Christmas
Initial visuals, process and development
Board 4
The use of the hand rendered illustrative style was part of my concept based on the idea of creating something both comical and funny yet also beautiful. This would also be apporiate in creating an opposing visual style to the idea of drunken greetings. One being sloppy and unconsidered, the other being detailed and intricate. The images were created using wateroclour paint and the colours and indivudual elements altered so that they could then be moved to form different compositions. This was so each card carried a consistency to it they are all made of the same base of components. The colours themselves reference te traditional christmas tme colours yet are made more moern by the asdditonal of the pale and lime green, extra
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additions to the set colour palette. Once the initial illustrations had been created, foccusing on christmas associated objects and plants they were digitally refined using Photoshop to create a clean and considered aesthetic. Another important part of the development of the designs was creating the final logo which would be applied across the range. This went through various stages based loosely around the concept that athe letters look slightly skew to represent the ‘drunken’ nature of the greetings. Past YCN brief, UK Greetings
Very Merry Christmas
Pattern & Application to range
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The intial YCN brief stated only that the intial 4 card design fronts needs to created. however, a successful design would work over a range of greetings card based products to create a succinct and well rounded capsule collection. As I was happy with the initial visuals I developed the strongest colour cmbinations and selected a few visuals to turn into repeated patterns with varying levels of detail
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in their composition. Pattern design is an area of graphics I am interested in so this proved interesting to work with and is harder than it first appears. Based on the Primary research into successful greetings card ranges it was then appropriate to place this over relating products such as gift bags and tags.
Past YCN brief, UK Greetings
Very Merry Christmas
Product range
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The final ‘Very Merry Christmas’ Uk Greetings capsule collection reuslted in a wide rnge of products appropriate to the concept and requirements in the brief. Teh christmas cards themselves are supported by the addition of wrapping paper, envelopes, gift tags and a small and large giftbag size. The stock chosen to print on has retained the illustrations original qualities yet looks crisp, clean and modern.
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Past YCN brief, UK Greetings
Very Merry Christmas