APP: Proposal - Words

Liz Owen
Graphic Design BA (Hons)
Advanced Professional Project

Background Information
Tea and coffee seem to be rising in popularity; it isn’t unusual to see a person stumbling into work or class with a mug of coffee or tea in hand to wake them up. It is also an easy way to relax with friends after a hard day of work. We often look upon inspirational quotes to boost our motivation to get us through the week long of reports or essays we have in our workplace and yet they can even go to the lengths of providing us with the courage to pursue our life long dreams.

Twinings is a British-based company that specialises in tea, and due to their interest in the environment they would like to have a travel mug that would appeal to students. Their aim is to help students cut down from continuously buying paper cups and save money by using their own tea bags. The student could always have a part of home with them in their travel mug, even when they’re far away from it.

The Brief
You are to design the outer design of a travel mug using inspirational words integrating illustration where possible. To reach a wider audience you may design an appropriate unisex design, as the company (Twinings) that would be supplying this product could maximise the potential to sell. You should associate this project with the idea of “Words” theme that is outlined in the learning outcomes.

Research and Methodology
I’ll be looking into existing designs of both travel mugs and ‘normal’ mugs, and as the inspirational quote/illustration will be the main theme of the mug I’ll also be looking at hand lettering tutorials and books. Here are some websites and books I’ll be looking at:

“Hand Job: A Catalogue of Type” by Michael Perry
The Association of Illustrators - http://www.theaoi.com/
Behance – http://behance.net/
Hand Lettering by Sean Wes - https://seanwes.com/
Linzie Hunter - http://www.linziehunter.co.uk/

By researching into existing designs will give me a general idea on how much space is on the coffee mug – so the dimensions of that and the wrapping – and would also help me figure out what people are looking for in a mug. Do they want it to be incredibly decorative, or simple?

I haven’t yet dabbled in hand lettering and hand type so it would be good if I could practice and gain inspiration from people who are experienced in this field. By looking at books like “Hand Job” will help me out with this as well as being a source of inspiration.

I could also talk to my fellow classmates to see what they are looking for in coffee mug designs so that I could do some primary research on it. This is quite important because they will be my target market.

Reflection, Testing and Learning Outcomes
At the end of each research stage I would draw up conclusions to see if they contribute to my designing process. This would also ensure that the research is relevant because even if it doesn’t appear to be at the beginning I would still include it in my sketchpad just in case it helped me out in future. In my conclusions I could also mention how they are relevant to the project, for example: Does this help me understand hand lettering? About the current trends in illustration? Even during my sketching stage I could write annotations of where I got my inspiration.

As seen in a previous post, I have analysed each learning outcome to ensure that I fully understand it. For example, one of my learning outcomes is: “Develop skills of independent study, resource utilisation, problem solving and decision taking”. To cover this learning outcome I could make continuous analysis of everything I had done and draw up conclusions to show how I have solved each ‘problem’.

Experimentation
I would test my product by showing it to the majority of students that I know of and – as I have mentioned above – to my classmates as they are a part of my target market. I could also talk to those who aren’t necessarily students but in full-time work and around that age (so up to their mid-twenties). I know that A Level students would require the same inspiration, so I’ll be testing them as well.

Another sort of experimentation I would like to carry out is doing lots of hand lettering sketches and illustrations so that I could expand my knowledge in combining them. This project will be a bit challenging for me as I haven’t done it before which gives me more reason to do lots of experiments and research on it.

Professional Practice
After I have done all of my research, sketches, and final design I would like to actually make the coffee mug wrap by purchasing a plain travel mug and some paper to wrap around it, or find websites where I could customize travel mugs. This means that I have to plan ahead to ensure that I have all of the materials in time in a couple of weeks before the deadline date.

Production and Contingency Planning
Here I have drafted out a timetable to cover all of my APP projects as I aim to handle each one the same. I had already displayed this on a previous post but here it is on it’s own:

I shall stick to this schedule because if it might cause some complications for me in future if I keep putting a particular project, especially because I’ll be working alongside my dissertation. I can do this by writing up daily to-do lists to keep at a calm pace.

N.B Please note that this is a university project, meaning that this isn't a brief provided by Twinings. I am just using them as a potential client. 

APP Home (AOI): Evaluation

The Final Piece
My aim for this piece was to show a different perspective on the city of London, having been inspired by the work of Jan Pienkowski and storyboard techniques. I wanted to produce that magical appearance to portray London as being ‘Wonderland’ and the home to many little stories that are silently significant to the development of it as a city.
By using purples and blues I have set London in a surreal night time scene and also created connotations of magic. Purple is a colour heavily associated with this as it’s incorporated into all things Halloween as well as being used in fantasy art.

Most of my learning outcomes mention being able to undertake a project in a professional manner and produce an effective piece. I believe that my illustration is effective and is a perfect amalgamation of known and unknown methods; I was able to explore into the territory of digital painting, and yet I could also rely on my knowledge of watercolour and inking.

Drawing the Buildings - Perspective and Composition
In regards to my project as I whole I found drawing the buildings and perspective most challenging. I haven’t really drawn buildings before so I had to look carefully at my references to make sure that they were done accurately. I wasn’t able to do all of the tiny details in great detail, but I had managed to draw the general outline.

I explored with the perspective and used what information I had gathered from my research to achieve this. I would like to experiment with perspective in my other projects because it’s a really handy tool and I quite enjoyed creating an unusual composition. Even though my experiment with my second perspective wasn’t as effective as the first I learnt that larger objects leads the eye, so I should’ve drawn the Big Ben at the bottom and shifted the bus to the side. I did try this out in Photoshop (as shown in my experiment) but it didn’t turn out so well. This is because each of the buildings were drawn for the first perspective so when everything was shifted around, the perspective had to shift, which was quite hard to do even with the warp tool. Maybe next time I'll draw the Big Ben and the Bus at the bottom of the page so that it was bottom-heavy, but as I've already mentioned this was my first time I explored with an unusual perspective. At least I'll know for next time!

Poster Sizes
I have created two versions of my poster, one fit for A3 so that I may include it in my portfolio, and one in Double Royal.
The Double Royal poster design was more effective with the type placed beneath the image so that I could show the full illustration, and although the A3 version doesn't obscure any objects of the illustration I just find that the type sits more comfortably in the Double Royal. Unfortunately when I tried to carry this composition across to A3 the text would've been at a very, very small size, and I would have to cut it down so that it was actually smaller than A3 as the illustration wouldn't fit otherwise. This is why I thought it best to have two versions and present my Double Royal poster as a mockup.

Research
Initially, it was quite difficult to research into London folklore until I found one of the books done by Helen East. If it weren’t for this book then I’d still be stuck trying to figure out stories to portray and would’ve gone for the ‘obvious’ ones such as The Portrait of Dorian Gray or Sherlock Holmes. By looking more into the lesser-known narratives I was able to widen my knowledge and learn more about London.

Experimenting with Different Materials
As it was a purely illustrative piece it pushed my boundaries as an illustrator. I have played with aspects I wasn’t experienced in, experimented with watercolour, and managed to mix both traditional and digital media effectively. It has shown me that even though digital painting is difficult it all pays off in the end, and the methods of experimenting with colours are endless.
I have also found my ‘signature style’, which was something that relied on detailed line drawing and also watercolour painting. I would’ve like to do something entirely watercolour-based but wasn’t able to with this drawing as I hadn’t converted it onto watercolour paper. Next time I hope to try it out with watercolour!

I found experimenting with watercolour most enjoyable, because not only did it make me use unusual materials that I wouldn’t normally even think of, it made me realise that unsuccessful results were okay (the rock salt was perhaps the only method that worked). It was all part of the learning process.  Now it only makes me want to try more experiments!

Update - 14.12.13
I'm glad that I left my adjustments a couple of days after I had produced my design because I was able to look at it with fresh eyes. Even though I haven't managed to find the time to tackle a new composition I was able to change the layout of my poster so that it resembled the Double Royal poster but in A3 size. I preferred this text layout, and it was more consistent with previous AOI and Serco Prize Poster designs.

APP Home (AOI): Unveiling Wonderland

Update: To see my updated version, please click here

As I've mentioned in my previous post, I am going to produce two designs for submission; one as an A3 poster, and another as a mockup of what the Double Royal would look like. I'll also submit my illustration as a standalone.

This illustration was... Challenging. I haven't really ventured into digital painting that much so there were some parts where I struggled but I'm very pleased with the results nevertheless. It's really nice to see that it is possible to mix traditional and digital media without looking too 'artificial'.

A3 Poster Version

APP Home (AOI): Further Experimentation, Take Two

I decided to give my experimentation another try after looking at the newer perspective I created (which somehow didn't seem that 'comfortable' in my opinion). I'm going to try just shifting the bus around as that might be the reason why the newer perspective was a bit 'uncomfortable' for me as well as the other elements so that they cover one side of the illustration, leaving plenty of space for the silhouettes.

I first started by duplicating the most recent file because I didn't want to lose any adjustments I had made previously, and then I used the lasso tool to draw around the bus. I only selected the line layer first that's what I wanted to focus on. I duplicated this to a new layer "Bus on own". I then moved this layer to sit in front of the Big Ben and the other building as well as the coloured bus layer. Duplicating this Big Ben layer ("BB Edited") I erased the areas where it overlapped with the bus.

I used the same method for the bridge although had to make some more changes: I shifted the end of the bridge to the place just before the original bus, then erased this bus. After this I moved the layer and turned it, placing it behind the Big Ben. I erased any overlapping areas.

APP Home (AOI): Further Experimentation - A New Perspective

Following the crit I had with my classmates and lecturers I have decided to try out a new perspective where the Big Ben would be at the bottom and the bus at the side, so I'm shifting everything once over (if that makes sense). 

The first thing I did then was open up my original painting file and then duplicate it, placing it under the name 'New Composition'. I then deleted all of the unnecessary layers and created two groups: one for the line art (which was done previously) and one for the colour. I made the background layer grey and hid all of the coloured layers. 

Using the lasso tool I went around each building and duplicated the selection onto a new layer, making sure that everything was separate so that it'll be easier for me to move, and then I moved and 'transformed' them so that they fit in their new space.

APP Home (AOI): Double Royal Size Screenshots

I was curious to see how the poster would look at a larger size, so I picked one of the dimensions provided in the brief and created a new document in InDesign. Then I went along and placed all of my text and illustration (leaving the logo until the very end) and I noticed just how large the pt size of the text had to be. Out of curiosity I went to see how big it actually was: it was bigger than A1!

Here’s me copying and pasting my Double Crown version onto the A3 document, just look at the difference in sizes!
Another problem I found as well as the differences in sizes was that the illustration had to be reduced so that it was very thin in order for everything to fit on the page, meaning that it would actually be smaller than A3 in width. So it might be better to just print out the Double Crown version as a mock up to show what it would look like when printed larger, and then have my A3 version.

Conclusion:
This made me come to the conclusion that I’ll have two designs: one for the ‘real’ poster (the Double Crown) and another for my portfolio (the A3 version). Unfortunately my type and illustration arrangement that I did in my Double Crown couldn’t be carried across on A3, and I will explain this in my evaluation.

APP Home (AOI): Developing the Illustration into a Poster

Even though the competition asks for just the illustration I have decided to take it that step further and incorporate it into a poster design, much like the ones that will were shown around London. I looked at past designs done for the same competition (as this is their third year doing it) as well as a few more, and all of these are shown on my Pinterest board ‘posters’: http://www.pinterest.com/lizjowen/posters/ 

Sketches 

With these ideas in mind I jotted down some notes on what I wanted to include in the poster and roughly sketched out some initial ideas. I found myself to be quite limited because of the nature of my illustration: the border and dimensions of my poster made it difficult to work with. It would work fine if it was printed at a standard poster size but I stuck with A3 in order to be able to present it in my portfolio.

Working on InDesign

After laying out all of my ideas on the page I decided to carry them across to InDesign, creating an A3 sized file and then placing my illustration onto it. I had a bit of play with layout, as I just wanted to see what the illustration would actually look like with each idea. 

APP Home (AOI): 'Unveiling Wonderland Screenshots' Contin.

After doing a test print on A3 I was able to pick up on some of the things I could develop, so I went back into Photoshop to develop it further.

Refining the Glow

One of the things I picked up on was that the glow surrounding the Big Ben weren’t refined enough, as the line art was too visible. I created a layer named ‘light fixes’ and with the soft brush in a very light blue (slightly lighter than the glow that was already there), I went around the Big Ben and Westminster Palace again. I made sure that the brush was very small so that it was more obvious. I also went around the bus and the bridge. 

Deepening the Shadows

Due to the fact that the glow was much brighter meant that I had to deepen the shadows, and so I started to add in darker shadows on the areas where it was closest to the glow. I also noticed that I hadn’t shaded the windows, so I also added shadows there as well. I made a new layer for all of these dark shadows called ‘Shadow Adjustments’, and for the light on the windows I had to create a new layer. I used a low opacity soft brush to do the reflection, as I didn’t want it to be too distracting.

Cleaning the Lineart

There were some areas where the pen had blotted on the page, so I tidied this up as best I could by using both the lasso tool and deleting it, and the eraser tool.

Blurred Watercolour Background

One aspect that was quite worrying was the slight blurriness of the watercolour layer, so I tried to resolve this by sharpening the layer. 

This, however, didn’t seem to make much of a difference so instead I just scanned the painting again.

I realised that the painting was just a little bit bigger on A4 so where it went over the scanner it blurred slightly; I put two and two together and realised that this was the cause of my problem. I scanned in two versions: one where the top went over the edge, and the other the bottom.

I brought up these two versions in Photoshop and decided that the one where the bottom went over the edge was better, so I placed the one with the top over the edge on the upper layer. Then I erased the areas around the top so I could keep its “bottom”, as it were. This solved my problem! I had the perfect top, and perfect bottom, which was a combination of these two scans.  

The result

Conclusion:

By printing out my painting I was able to look at all of the adjustments that I needed to make a lot more clearly. This is because I could see how it would look when up on the wall, and it was at a larger scale so I could have a closer look at it.

Luckily I didn’t print out on ‘proper paper’, or I would’ve realised my mistakes all too late! This has shown me the importance of test printing. 

APP Home (AOI): 'Unveiling Wonderland' Screenshots

With my final sketch now complete I could move onto drawing it accurately so that I could ink it (with biro pen) and then work on it digitally.

Transferring the Sketch to the Final Drawing

My first step was to transfer the sketch to the final drawing, and I did this by tracing it with Layout paper. Layout paper is very much like tracing paper, yet it is ‘whiter’ and has that appearance of ‘normal’ paper when laid flat. 

I noticed that the witch and girl were running away from the scene, and I wanted them to run towards the centre so copying it onto a piece of paper I then lay it beneath the layout pad (erasing the original) and then re-traced it.

I then went over the pencil with biro pen. This took an incredibly long time as I wanted to get it as detailed as possible (especially the buildings!)

With that done, I move onto the watercolour background. 

APP Home (AOI): Final Sketch

After doing all of my compositions I settled on the idea of the road going around the border of the image, with the Big Ben, Westminster Bridge and the London Eye in the corners and running alongside it.
I start by drawing lots of little lines leading off the dot in the centre, just so that I could lie out my perspective. Then I drew my buildings according to these lines and drew an outline of my characters.

Conclusion:
Now that this is done and all of the character's are in place I can take it to the final drawing, which I hope to do in more detail so that I could scan it in and work on painting it digitally. This is because I want to create an amalgamation of both digital and traditional media.