OUGD502 PPP 02 Brief 02 Taking care of Business Studio Manifesto

-We are not afraid to try new things to produce uniquely crafted work.
-People are the most important part of our practice, both in terms of one another in the studio and our clients. We know that working well together is what makes great work, that is why constant collaboration is our aim as a studio.
- We are always open to new challenges and are constantly seeking to increase our knowledge, experience and skills through unusual projects, so ask us anything and we will give it a go!
- Creativity can be wild and unexpected at times, so we do our best to make an organised environment in which creativity can be used to its greatest advantage.
- Here at Bracket we are not held back by trends and styles, but make each project with a strong foundation of conceptual understanding, so that your message is communicated as effectively as possible.
- We work with our clients, rather than for them, with a focus on close communication from the start, to create work that both the client and their audience love.
-We foster this relationship between ourselves and our clients through creative exercises and art therapy, so that our clients understand the work that we do and what they are getting for their money.
-We are a relatively small studio so we like to focus on a few projects at any one time, so that our ideals of quality not quantity pass through into our work.
-We sweat the details so you don't have to: we care about the small things so that the big things work.
-We consider the consequences of each of our designs and use ethical consideration to try and improve the world with our work, and not simply feed a consumer beast.

We are Bracket, and we want to support your creative venture, no matter how big or how small. We want to foster collaboration, communication and creativity. so, let's make this work.

OUGD502 PPP 02 Brief 02 Self Branding More Sketching

Despite the amount of sketching I have already done, I am still not set on a brand for my self. The next set of sketches are shown below.

I wanted to achieve the traditional base of the letter structures and then augment them with more organic flourishes.

The reason for this was to create the suggestion of my hands on approach. I also had a go at making the letterforms appear painted as a different alternative to the augmented aspect of the design.I like this but perhaps this creates a more graffiti ish look than I was originally going for.

I like the added drop shadow on the earlier design but I also think that it is a bit reminiscent of beer labels or pub signage, which is not a link I wish to have. I feel like I have hit a bit of a dead end and need a crit for further direction. I will do this on the coming wednesday and see where it takes me.

I also tried a completely different approach with greater embellishments and fluidity but I am unsure of the legibility of this, so I will also bring this along to a crit and get some solid feed back for a definite direction in this project.

OUGD502 PPP Brief 02 Taking Care of Business Second Meeting

We had a meeting of most of the group to re group and really get a comprehensive plan on how we were going to set up our studio. We started by making a list of all the areas we knew we needed to tackle. One of these was appointing a manager of sorts, to take responsibiliyty for organising these meetings and getting everyone together. It was decided tat Ashley would fill this roll.

We then moved on to creating our manifesto as a studio. Thos resulted in the mind map you can see below. It is my task to take this away and write it up properly in full sentences.

                                               

Another area that we tackled was that of the terms and conditions of the studio. I found an example of a studio's terms and conditions to get us thinking about the right things. we then took a page each and condensed the points down into what we felt was relevant to us. This we then save to be used in the presentation later. 

 Then, using the list/agenda we made at the beginning of the meeting we decided up the tasks (mine was as mentioned above) and then wen our separate ways. I will also sow everyone one in the team the manifesto once it is written up, so that we make sure we have covered everything and everyone agrees.


http://www.cuckooo.co.uk/terms.php

OUGD502 Dana Tanamachi

I have been interested in lettering and hand drawn type for a while and I just discovered a letterer in New York that is incredible. She uses combinations of vintage fonts to create letter art. Below is one of my favourite of her pieces. 



FLOURISH from Dana Tanamachi on Vimeo.

This has got me thinking about what I would want to gain from my work experience and I want to look into some independent letterers as well as studios because the skills I could learn could be so useful.

OUGD502 PPP 02 Brief 02 Taking Care of Business Research

After our first meeting as a group we each went away with tasks to do before we met. Mine was to look into the legalities of the different types of companies and which might be the best one for us.

You must choose a structure for your business. This structure will define your legal responsibilities, like:

• the paperwork you must fill in to get started
• the taxes you’ll have to manage and pay
• how you can personally take the profit your business makes
• your personal responsibilities if your business makes a loss

You can change your business structure after you’ve started up if you find a new structure suits you better.

This seems relevant to us because of the possibility of later growth and change in the structure of the studio. So when looking at a company type I should bare in mind the fact that it doesn't have to fit for the entirety of the studios hypothetical life span.

Types Of Company

2. Sole trader

If you start working for yourself, you’re classed as a self-employedsole trader - even if you’ve not yet told HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

As a sole trader, you run your own business as an individual. You can keep all your business’s profits after you’ve paid tax on them.

You can employ staff. ‘Sole trader’ means you’re responsible for the business, not that you have to work alone.

You’re personally responsible for any losses your business makes.

(This doesn't seem to take into consideration any joint ownership or responsibility, possibly it is specific to companies with one 'owner' only)

3. Limited company

A limited company is an organisation that you can set up to run your business - it’s responsible in its own right for everything it does and its finances are separate to your personal finances.

Any profit it makes is owned by the company, after it pays Corporation Tax. The company can then share its profits.

Ownership

Every limited company has ‘members’ - the people or organisations who own shares in the company.

Directors are responsible for running the company. Directors often own shares, but they don’t have to.

Legal responsibilities

There are many legal responsibilities involved with being a director and running a limited company.

Types of company

Limited by shares

Most limited companies are ‘limited by shares’. This means that the shareholders’ responsibilities for the company’s financial liabilities are limited to the value of shares that they own but haven’t paid for.

Company directors aren’t personally responsible for debts the business can’t pay if it goes wrong, as long as they haven’t broken the law.

https://www.gov.uk/business-legal-structures/business-partnership

(This seems more in the ball park of what we would want. However, the introduction of shares to a studio company seems a tad strange and if we were to select this option then we would need to ascertain how we would approach the organisation of shares and directors.)

Partnership (not limited to two 'partners')

Partnerships can be created orally but partners often draw up an agreement in writing called Articles of Partnership, Partnership Agreement or Partnership Deed. This sets down how the partnership is to work and also the rights and obligations of each partner. The agreement can be changed at any time if all the partners agree to do so. 

Unlike a limited company (e.g. Marks and Spencer PLC) where shareholders' liabilities are limited to the fully paid-up value of their shares, partners are jointly and severally liable for the full value of any partnership debts. 

Another difference is that partnerships have no separate legal existence of their own, the firm's name is merely that, it is not a legal entity: e.g. when suing a limited company, you sue the company itself, not the directors or staff. But when you sue a partnership you sue the partners themselves. 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/ihtmanual/ihtm25091.htm

Something that did attract my attention was the difference between a partnership in Scotland. In this situation a scottish partnership has an existence beyond the people who own in, which could be beneficial if someone wanted to leave. However, there is the draw back that ownership is in the form of credit, not necessarily specific agreed items.

5. Limited partnership and limited liability partnership

Your liability for business debt differs depending on whether you’re a limited partnership or limited liability partnership (LLP).

You can share all the business’s profits between the partners. Each partner pays tax on their share of the profits.

Limited partnerships

The liability for debts that can’t be paid in a limited partnership is split among partners.

Partners’ responsibilities differ as:

• ‘general’ partners can be personally liable for all the partnerships’ debts
• ‘limited’ partners are only liable up to the amount they initially invest in the business

General partners are also responsible for managing the business.

Limited liability partnerships (LLPs)

The partners in an LLP aren’t personally liable for debts the business can’t pay - their liability is limited to the amount of money they invest in the business.

Partners’ responsibilities and share of the profits are set out in an LLPagreement. ‘Designated members’ have extra responsibilities.

(from chatting about this on the day we got the brief and by comparing the information from the different types of company this limited liability company seems the most flexible format for our company, because of the possibilities of equal multiple owners without the necessity of shareholders and all the complexity of that legal situation that implies.) I did some extra research into the decisions we would need to make were we to set up a limited liability partnership or company.

4. Members' responsibilities

You must have at least 2 ‘designated members’ at all times - they have more responsibilities, eg keeping company accounts. You can have any number of ordinary members.

Making the LLP agreement

You should make a limited liability partnership (LLP) agreement with any other members as part of setting up your LLP. This document sets out how the LLP will be run, including:

• how profits are shared among members
• who needs to agree decisions
• members’ responsibilities
• how members can join or leave the LLP

A solicitor can help you prepare an agreement or you can write your own.

Responsibilities of all members

Members must carry out their duties and meet their legal responsibilities set out in the LLP agreement.

Every member must register for Self Assessment with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Responsibilities of designated members

Designated members have more responsibilities than ordinary members and must:

• register the partnership for Self Assessment with HMRC
• register the partnership for VAT if you expect your business’s sales to be more than £81,000 a year
• appoint an auditor if needed
• keep accounting records
• prepare, sign and send annual accounts to Companies House
• send an annual return to Companies House

Designated members must also:

• tell Companies House about any changes, eg to the registered name or address, or members
• act for the LLP if it’s wound up and dissolved

https://www.gov.uk/set-up-and-run-limited-liability-partnership/members-responsibilities

With a little more research specifically into limited liability partnerships I found a more understandable break down of what we need to do.

LLPs are Britain’s newest business vehicle especially suited to professional services companies. They may be seen as a hybrid between limited liability companies and traditional partnerships, in that they offer the limited liability available to limited company shareholders combined with the tax regime and flexibility available to partnerships. The number of partners is not limited but at least two have to be ‘designated members’ responsible for filing annual accounts.

Just as with a limited company the LLP model protects its members’ assets, limiting their liability to however much they have invested in the business and any personal guarantees they may have given when raising loans. But it doesn’t give you the same tax advantage.

As in an ordinary partnership, the members’ share of profit is taxed as income – each member has to register with HMRC as self-employed. LLPs also have to register at Companies House and there should be a members’ agreement stating what share of the profit each member should receive.

If the business you are starting is in the financial services space, for example, and you are hoping to grow it by attracting other professionals to join you it may be worth considering an LLP from the outset. It has been adopted with enthusiasm by some of the largest accountancy and law practices in the UK.

http://startups.co.uk/choosing-the-right-business-structure/

I am going to take what I have learned back to the rest of the group and then once we have made a collective decision I will do some more thorough research and decision making about what roles we would legally play within the company, as touched on above.

OUGD502 Looking at Studios

I already know that the best way I work is with other people, so as part of looking for work experience I have started looking at the kinds of studios it might be beneficial for me to get work experience from.

What appeals to me about this studio is the variety of work they seem to do which is appealing because it may well let me get the best out of potential work experience. Indeed I found out about this studio through a friend that had done some work experience there and really enjoyed it. The only problem with this would be the distance from home, or anywhere I could stay. However, I can cross that bridge when and if I come to it. I continued searching according to location this time and found some interesting studios.

Unit studio Is a studio that I have been aware of for a while and although they are not the most illustartive studio out there, they have that aspect to them. This makes me feel that I could bring something to there studio and really feel useful when doing work experience.

http://u-n-i-t.tumblr.com/ (blog)

Catalogue Leeds is probably the least applicable studio to my own practice . However, there work is interesting and it could be beneficial for both parties to start a dialog with them.

OUGD502 Looking For Work Experience

Following a workshop with Dalton Maag type foundry I talked to Danny about the possibility f some work experience in a type specific sense. I know that I like typography and lettering a lot but I am uncertain if it is this discipline specifically that I want to pursue in a professional sense. So, work experience seems like the perfect way to test the water. 

Amazingly Danny emailed Dalton Maag for me, which I was not expecting, and they say that although there is a lot of international competition for these placements they are very enriching. They said that they would like to see a type specific portfolio and how it sits within my work. I thought this was a great idea and I instantly thought of the font books you get showing the different ways a font can work in size and context. I had the idea of producing a book of my type work, even printing on tracing paper all the sketches that came before the finished piece to communicate my hands on process. 

I think this could be a great thing to do to hep me apply for work experience anywhere, so I need to sit down and look through my work and see how I want to approach this project and the work i want to include. My branding for the first PPP breif could play into this as well.

Image source: http://designyoutrust.com/2012/08/little-black-font-book/

OUGD502 and OUGD503 Responsive Feathr Brief Evaluation

I am fairly happy with the way this brief worked out. However, there are many things I would change about the way I approached it. More than anything I wish I could have enacted the plans I had for the water colour and ink colouring of the illustration. I spent a large portion of the early stages of the brief working this out, only to have too little time at the end to do it. On the bright side, I do feel that the design still has the dark scratchy appeal that  wanted to achieve. 

When I set out to address this brief I knew I wanted to create a pattern that was interlocking and a completely different creature to the tiled and basic repeat that I saw a lot of in the submissions. This repeat was a nightmare to achieve. No matter the planning and work I put into drawing it correctly, there was always a discrepancy that would show up when the pattern was put together. In the end there was no other way but to digitally edit the pattern, which was an equally long winded process. Despite these set backs I think that the repeat is quite impressive. It does do what I set out to.

One thing that I would change about it would be the square shape of the repeat. I would probably have to contact feather and ask about a more amebic shape for the repeat because it was a requirement for the submission file. The problem with this is that, through the little experience I have creating repeats, the eye is much more likely to be tricked by a repeat that is not a regular shape, and a square is the most regular of shapes and I can definitely see the seem of the repeat. However, this could just be the perfectionist in me, possibly others cannot see this.

Another set back would be the ratings the wallpaper has received so far. Ah well! I am content that I have produced a wallpaper that I would want on my wall and I had fun doing it, what more can you ask for?

OUGD502 Personal and Professional Practice Studio Brief 02 Taking Care of Business Briefing and Starting out Ideas

We got the second part of the PPP module for this year was briefed today and is detailed below.

We had previously sorted out our groupings and I am really happy with the way it worked out. Including myself we have six members: Billie, Josiah, James Ashley and Declan. This is a real mix of styles and creative processes and I think this could either go really well or really wrong. One thing that is comforting is the fact that we are all equally hard workers, so there shouldn't be too much discord on that front.

We simply started by talking about what kind of designers we wanted to be and we all agreed that we didn't like to be pigeon holed into one discipline even though there might be things that we are better at than others. We knew we wanted to be interdisciplinary so we looked at a few studios that might be in the same field of practice. Josiah suggested This Is Studio because they dabble in a number of areas including curation and other creative fields that we all want a chance to experience.

This is really exciting and exactly what I had in mind when I consider the brief because design for me is all about experiencing new things and meeting new people.

We then went through a number of name ideas and unique selling points like With Us, stemming from the idea that we want to design in collaboration with our clients to produce what they want and to create something innovative. We came up with the tag line 'design with clients not just for them'. We also looked at other options like Bracket,  Badj (our initials and Kaizen which means constant improvement in Japanese. We agreed not to settle on one just yet and to set up a Facebook page and skype one another regularly over the holidays. WE set each other tasks to do before we got together again and my task was to research the types of company and their suitability for our purposes. I think it might also be worth looking up more studios in a similar ball park to our selves to ask for advice and further information on setting up our business. 

OUGD504 and OUGD502 Dalton Maag Visit

We had a great workshop with a designer from the type foundry Dalton Maag. I had always thought that digital type and the less hand drawn type was less about instinct and more about measurements. In fact it was about instincts and what looked right. I found it fascinating looking at the over hang of parts of the letters and why some looked right in ratio to others.

This workshop got me thinking about type foundries as a possible job option. I know there would be a lot of work involved and I am far off the skill levee required but this is something that I am really interested in and want to continue working on. It is not the be all and end all of what I want to do but it is an option.

I also found a great video on their blog about the transition from letterpress to digital typography and typography in general.

Dalton Maag x Method present Typography in the Digital Landscape. LDF2014 from Dalton Maag on Vimeo.

OUGD504 and OUGD502 Studio Brief 03 A Brief History Of... Evaluation

I am really pleased with the way the exterior gallery has worked out. I had been struggling for some time with how to make some aspect or another interactive or allow some feedback from people who have gone on the walks. Pinterest is perfect for this because people can add to the search tag and even the board its self. This creates a community sense to the venture that generally makes the whole brans more likeable and accessible. It also means that people can get to the website through pinterest as well as the usual search engines. 

The transfer of the design to a mobile format website went really well and the simple icon usage really seems to be fitted to this function because they are just the right size to be tapped by a finger accurately. Once again the connection to pinterest  works in the mobile website context because the app for pinterest is particularly visually effective. 

I am happy with the general look of my website and quite surprised that I managed to keep it simple and clean and get the balance of earthy warmth that the subject matter deserves. I do feel that perhaps the hand rendered type could have been done a bit better but this is always the nature of hand rendered type, especially when I am still learning. The layout seems simple but when I started looking into coding I found that I would actually need a responsive design coded so that the thirds of the screen could shrink and grow and still remain proportionally correct. This would also be the case for the icon strands, they would always need to be in proportional thirds. This is imperative because the images need to be full bleed to have the impact that I desire.

General layout- like it but fully responsive coding would have to be used to do this properly (full bleed images)

The use of lower opacities rather than translucent overlays of colour or even flat colour saves me from using web safe colours which I am very thankful for as I have not found one yet that I really like. The differences in opacity are easily achieved through the use of PNG files, as introduced in our one and only coding workshop, so this aesthetic is achievable and functional.

One problem that I did encounter was the way the lightness of the sky sometimes got in the way of the icons being fully recognisable. I got around this problem by inverting translucent squares of a dark blue with a soft gradient down to transparency where the sky connects with the land. By putting tis bend the icon string it brings the white into contrast and makes them much more noticeable. This can be seen more clearly in the gifs below.

-sky has proved difficult

using all images communicate the beauty of the landscape.

Something that was mentioned in the earlier crits was the fact tat images of a place make you want to visit it and are important in convincing people to go there. I have acted on this idea by using photos as the lynch pin of the entire website and I think this has worked quite well. Apart from the obvious difficulties that full bleed images on a responsibly coded website, this is a website that would definitely make me want to visit these places.

At the beginning of this brief I decided that I wanted the feel of this website to be warm and welcoming, have the raw earthy feel of the places being referenced and be quite clean and minimal, so as to appeal to a yuppie sensibility. I think this has worked surprisingly well. The white type could have been too cold and clean but the usage of hand drawn type mediates this, making it ever so slightly imperfect in a very human way. The neat way that the information is tucked away mean that the first screen you see is very appealing without and clutter and the information in each page is accessible and useful. I have had a good look around at websites that do similar things and they just do not bring all of the resources into one place the way mine does, there is definitely a gap in the market.

The opacity of the squares framing the text is the only thing that was brought up in the final crit and I have experimented with increasing the opacity but just found that this felt too blocky and heavy on the page. Although at first glance it may interrupt the readability of the text, the light and airy effect of the reduced opacity is worth this slight compromise.

Overall I am happy with what I have managed to design. I have enjoyed the process of transferring my very tactile and illustrative style into a fully digital format and I think that it has worked really well. However, if there was one thing I would have changed, it would have been to do more coding and push what I could have made real. Of course this was predominantly because the tutor that specialises in coding was away on maternity leave but I do think that I should have made the effort to start coding sooner. Then again I also feel what made this design good is the way that it is not very aware of the limitations of coding and that these thoughts did not inter fear in the design process. So, it is both something i would and wouldn't change if I were to do tis brief again.

http://b-taylor1316-dp.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Studio%20Brief%2003%20A%20Brief%20History%20Of...

OUGD504 and OUGD502 Brief 01 My Design Process Evaluation

Overall I am pleased with the finished result of this project but If I were to do it again there are lots of things I would change. My decision to use cartridge paper as I did was completely warranted because all the experimentation I did proved that it was best suited out of what was available. However, if I had had more time I would have like to research paper with completely different qualities on either side. This way I could have had a smooth almost photographic finish on the outside and the watercolour paper texture I liked so much on the inside. I am uncertain if this is possible but I would have liked to see if it was. I am really happy with the fold I used. If anything I would have gone with something more complex and tat dictated the content more, but in the end I think the simplicity of this fold makes it work ergonomically in a way that a more complex one would not. The thickness of the paper and the definiteness of the folds means that when you go to fold it back up it knows where it needs to go, side stepping a problem tat a lot of people in the class wrangled with. If I had had extra time I would have liked to have looked at etching for the reproduction of this print. I know very little about tis process and would have used this project to expand on my knowledge but I do think that the mistakes and errors of such a hands on process would have added to the scruffy essence of the illustration in a complimentary way. The time limit on this brief was restrictive in that it allowed a limited amount of experimentation time, meaning that deciding which direction to go in with it was dusting because you have not got a chance to go back and change direction. However, for me I think the was useful because it stopped me from procrastinating and motivated me to try and make the direction I had gone in work. One ting I would definitely change would be the way I have scanned it. I thought it was a fairly straight foreword process but I found that the light emitted by the scanner reflected off the ink splotches leaving some of them looking like they had apparently faded when it came to printing. I talked to James in the digital print suit and he suggested using the scanners in there because they used two light sources rather than one, allowing greater detail to be picked up and less reflection to occur. I would also have liked to have the time to make the final product neater in its finish because I feel that it is just not good enough for a second year submission. however, at this stage all I can do is say I am aware of this and improve on this in the next brief. I would have really liked to have made more inventive use of the belly band format on a three dimensional object; as was pointed out by a friend they read all the way around from numerous points. I would have liked to have made a more inventive use of this than i have. It also means that the title doesn't always read well, this is something i would remedy had I a chance to go back. At a commercial level the production would be straight foreword, making it quite a feasible product. Simple high resolution digital printing or even litho printing would be used for the main graphic and the belly band and the folds would be achieved by the use of a custom made dye cutter, all things readily available in the commercial printing world. Although there are many rings I would change about this product, I am glad I took risks on this brief and really learnt about my abilities as an illustrative designer and i am most proud of how different mine looks compared to others in the class (not that it's better) but I always think it is good to strive to differentiate from the road and strive to be different.

OUGD504 and OUGD502 Brief 02 Evaluation

I am really happy that I have changed the logo. It is so much more legible, which is so important for a brand that is just starting out. The striping back of the logo like this is something that I think I should do every time I have a branding brief, so that I can asses what is actually needed in a design. So, I suppose you could say that I am most pleased with the design process that I have followed during this brief, I really feel that I have learned a lot, both about branding and the expressiveness of simple shape and colour. The colour is something that I am particularly pleased with, simply because it is something that I have really struggled with before. My summer work has really proved useful in this respect by helping me to look at colours collectively as well as separately. In the end I quite heavily reduced the opacity of the colours, changing their nature quite a lot but using colours from plant colour schemes seems to be a really productive method. Especially when you consider that I was trying to convey the idea of something gender neutral-I used a lichen colour scheme, which is quite a gender neutral plant, unlike a rose or a daisy. The hand drawn type was quite a challenge because getting it to be legible was so difficult. It is shaped around my had writing, which was perhaps my first mistake. However, with much shaping and editing I think I got it to work. I really like the flexibility of this logo, provided particularly by the parallel lines. This shape is so simple that there are very few situations where it looks out of place, as shown by the web and twitter mock ups. Also the way it can be broken down into component parts, yet both can be a reference to the brand in a concise and effective way. One thing I would have changed would be printing it out much sooner, because everything looks different when printed. No paper can be as purely white as a screen as the opacity of the logo isn't quite as well registered on paper. However, I will go on to experiment a bit more with stock options to see if I can get the aesthetic I am looking for. The last thing I would change would be working around people more. I just work so much better when I can talk to people about what I am doing. To be honest this couldn't be helped so much because half of this brief stretched over the weekend but as soon as I got back into the studio things started to fall into place as i got feedback from everyone. Overall though I am pretty happy with what I have managed to do in a week.

http://b-taylor1316-dp.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Brief%2002%20Kickstarter

OUGD504 and OUGD502 Studio Brief 04 Evaluation

I found this brief quite difficult, both because I fell ill in the middle of it and the Christmas holidays sat directly over the end of the brief. This meant that I had to step away from the brief for a while, and when I returned to it, I was back at home, isolated from all the resources of college. You can say this is bad planning but when you are really ill you are incapable of thinking about these things. Considering these problems I am pretty happy with what I have managed to produce both in the restricted time frame and in these circumstances. Originally I had planned to do the salt lettering on the table sticker with the help of a laser cut acetate stencil but due to illness I missed my laser cut slot. So, when it came to producing the salt lettering for photographing I had to get a bit creative. I wish I could have really got it right and legible just by hand in the sugar granules, but I would have needed to produce it very large and then comes the problem of the ratio of scale between the granules and the letter forms; it may not have been recognisable but it wouldn't look right for the granules to be tiny in comparison with the letters, which is what would have happened had I done the design larger. This meant that I had to make considerable use of digital tools instead. It was difficult to find the balance between the legibility of the design and the texture of the granules but I think I just about managed it. The three dimensional look of the lettering is really interesting and creates the impression of spilled salt, just as I wanted it to. This is predominantly down to the photography and the decision to photograph on a neutral grey rather than black, this allowed me to maintain the shadows of the grains in later digital production. Photography is normally something that I really struggle with but this time the pinning down of exactly what I was using the photograph for and how I wanted it to look like really helped me to achieve it, rather than stabbing in the dark for something that might do. however the salt lettering is still something that I feel I could have done better with a bit of extra time and practice, I hope to pursue food lettering a skill later on.

Compared to this the other two print outcomes didn't pose as much a problem. However, the functionality of the magazine insert was quite difficult to achieve and could only be done through lots of trial and error and mock ups. Working out things such as the orientation of text and the order in which information is communicated proved to be most difficult to negotiate. In the end I think this is an interesting format choice because, rather than deciding the format and shaping the content around it. I think this produced something that performs its purpose in an interesting way, which contributes to its effectiveness as an advert. When it came to the coaster designs the main problem I encountered was a way to fit in the augmented reality design that was intrinsic to the overall purpose of the design, without it being a pointless gimmick relying on the technology to wow. I simultaneously considered augmented reality design for the other two print outcomes but felt that it just seemed to forced with them. Where as, with the coasters, the location of delivery (bars and cafes) meant that people would be more likely to have a moment to kill and the wifi to make a good use of the interactive element. I used an idea that had come up in a crit during the web design brief, which was that images of beautiful places make you want to visit them. So creating a location gallery that you view through the knot hole in the coaster seemed not only to have the best chance of getting people out on walks but also more engaging and informative than a pointless video or similar. 

The visuals of the interactive element are also a strong link to the original website design. This link between the advertising campaign and the website design is something I set out to achieve from the very beginning. I am confident I have achieved this because I had to use a number of visuals, such as the logo and some of the landscape images. However, there is a tangible evolution of the aesthetic from web design to the printed format. Although I have brought over the visual theme of white vector graphics over images, I have brought in the close up image of the untreated wood. This addition of an image that has a much closer field of focus than the landscape image creates a greater sense of depth to each of the designs, creating a distinction between the digital design of the website and the tangible grounding in the physical that print inherently has.

The delivery format for each outcome was considerably limited by the location specificity of the website subject matter. In many ways I found that very useful because it really made me think about how the target audience would interact with my designs and where those young professionals would actually have a chance to interact with my interactive print. The instant two answers to this are: when they are socialising (cafes and bars) and when they are at home. What cemented these locations was the discovery that applications such as Layar needed good wifi to work at all. This in turn gave rise to each of the format choices. 

As well as the augmented reality interaction the magazine insert has physical interactivity. The clear injection of thought into this aspect of the design instantly makes the insert more desirable. I also think it fits completely with the conceptual content of both the website and the other print outcomes. The way it gets readers to really do something physically, is exactly what the website is trying to achieve at a larger scale. 

The commercial print possibilities of these outcomes are high, mostly because of the small numbers that would be needed to enact the campaign in real life. This means that digital print is feasible for all the outcomes. The only slight hitch would be the necessity of paying for the inserts to go into magazines and for cafes and bars to use the coasters and the table stickers  which is hard to predict without actually having to do. 

Overall I am pleased with the outcomes for this brief, but do feel that little irritating errors such as typos could have been avoided if I had been at college for the duration of the brief and had the time to be really careful by printing tests and similar.