Kirsty Hardingham OUGD303 Final Major Project
End of Module Self Evaluation
At the beginning of this module I had a clear sense of what I wanted to achieve and what I wanted to get out of it. I started the module off knowing that I wanted to explore Branding and Identity and Packaging Design and many of my briefs focus mainly on these areas. I have started to gain a keen interest in packaging design since the last module OUGD301, after designing the chocolate packaging in this module I finally found something that I felt I was good at. I received good feedback from some studios on this brief which motivated me to design more packaging throughout FMP. I think that also have a particular design approach in my work which includes working for a target audience between teens and middle aged adults, I also like my work to be quite bold and colourful. The fives briefs I have written to work on are:
Baked Frui Treatment Swatch Surface Pattern and Printed Textiles Yearbook YCN UK Greetings
I changed my mind so many times about the briefs I was going to complete and submit. I think all in all I had 11 briefs that I had written throughout the module, the reason I kept changing my mind is because I wasn’t sure if I was going to get out of them what I had wanted at the beginning of the module. I did start some research for briefs and initial ideas, but stopped knowing that I wasn’t actually enjoying them. These briefs above are the final briefs of which I have really enjoyed doing, I feel like I have gained so much from them and they have helped define me as a designer. Baked is one of the first briefs I completed, it is a Branding and Packaging brief that was written by me. The brief was to design an identity for a new cake shop that would be based on the high street and online. I named the cake shop Baked, with a tag line ‘How you like cakes’, the concept behind the brand name and tag line was to communicate the range of cakes the shop made, so different flavoured muffins, the tag line represented the brands online shop where customers could mix and match muffin flavours to create their own how they like cakes. I also created packaging for the cakes, which included muffin boxes. The concept behind the box design was to make them look like little ovens; they had a clear
window at the front so the cake could be seen through it, with the logo printed into the acetate. I wanted everything to use the concept of the oven and being baked. I feel like I learnt a lot during this brief, especially about designing a logo, it took me a while to design the logo because I had so many ideas and didn’t have a clue which one worked best. I got feedback from my peers and a studio who designed brand identities for food brands. After knowing which one worked best I started to apply it to my product range. Frui Treatment is another brand and packaging brief where I have created a brand for a high end hair care product range. The brand was named Frui Treatment because the products were made using natural ingredients like fresh fruits. I used the concept of fresh fruits throughout my designs which have made the brand identity very colourful but simple. I designed a range of packaging for the hair care products as well as promotional material, gift bags and other products that would be used in a shop environment. I think this brief helped me to think of the bigger picture when designing packaging for a product, like how would the customer take the product home, what information needed to be on the packaging and little details like the receipt. This brief was one of my favourite during FMP because I think the brand works really well and many people have said they could see this product in the shops. The Swatch brief seemed to have lasted forever; I have never been so indecisive about a brief, ever! I started this brief at the beginning of the module and finished just a few weeks before submission. I had so many ideas for it that I confused myself; I knew that I wanted to create a range of Limited Edition Swatch watches but I needed to decide on a concept for them. In the end I decided on a concept of doodling as I felt this would give me a lot of scope. I designed three Limited Edition watches and their packaging, as well as notebooks to doodle in and promotional material. I also designed a website page for designing your own Swatch Doodle watch and a mock up retail space for how the products would be presented and sold in the shop. I feel like I learnt more about time management and decision making in this brief than the actual packaging and branding, it got to the point where I just had to make decisions and get on with it. When I eventually finished the brief I was very happy with the outcomes. A brief that I feel I have struggled a little with was the Surface Pattern and Printed Textiles Year Book. This brief was a collaboration, which I sometimes find difficult in itself. The team were friends which included Kirsty A, Claudia and Sophie, we had said a while back that we would like to work with each other. We came across a few problems during the brief which is what I struggled with. We were all given specific tasks to do throughout the module to ensure that everyone participated. Claudia was in charge of the body copy, so laying it out within a set grid and making changes, Kirsty A edited the photos and placed them in the document, I was in charge of the front cover design and Sophie helped to edit. There was confusion when it came to blogging and people were blogging things that weren’t theirs but claiming it was, this caused some upset and was resolved in a professional
way, by me. Everything else went really well throughout the brief and Duncan was very pleased with the final design. Initially I wasn’t going to have this as a main brief, but was advised to do so as I had done quite a bit of work for it, I have extended the brief from the front cover design that I did, into invites and banners for the end of year show. I did enjoy this brief and working with the girls, I just wish we didn’t have the problems we did as it did affect the atmosphere within the group. My last substantial brief was a YCN brief for UK Greetings, the brief was to design a range of greetings cards based on any theme. I decided to use the concept of cheesy love puns for mine as it was something I could relate to. I extended this brief into a product range including gift bags, gift wrap and gift boxes, to gain more from the brief. With this brief I wanted to focus more on my illustrations than packaging or branding as I really enjoy drawing. The cards came out really well and worked well with the other products. I also designed POS for the range which pushed the brief that little bit more. I thoroughly enjoyed this brief and it was something that I learnt a lot from and also something I could do when I didn’t want to work on the other briefs. Those are my five substantial briefs that I will be submitting, I have one other brief which is an additional and that was a collaboration with The Geek Table. This brief was to design for short, mini briefs to develop skills in paper crafting and packaging. Again, I enjoyed this brief and definitely developed skills whilst working on it. Overall I would say that I have worked very hard throughout this module and for the first time in three years I felt I have managed my time effectively and managed to get a lot done. I am very proud of myself and what I have achieved this module, I have become more skilled and professional and I know this shows in my work. I know there is no next time and I am glad I took this last opportunity to try my hardest and be the best that I could be!