I feel that this time I have been very specific with my research as I only researched on the existing designs for inspiration, inspirational illustrators, and some tutorials to help me along my way. Because of this I was able to have more time for experimentation and design and still had plenty of time before the deadline to go back and conclude all of my research.
So my time management was very efficient because I made sure that from the first day that I was doing something. Whether it was just a little bit of research and mood-board gathering it still helped me along my way.
Client Relationship
I was in frequent contact with my client as I wanted to make sure that they were perfectly satisfied with the direction I was going with my designs. If I wasn't sure about something I would call them or drop them an email, and patiently waited for their reply. I always juggled doing some research, sketching and designing equally so for example, when I was waiting for their reply I was doing a bit of sketching just to generate some ideas.
So I feel that I had done my best when it comes to working with my client. However I think that I have now learnt that I should ask loads of questions at the start rather than keep contacting them.
Album Cover Design
I went straight onto both the album cover and the logo first as I regarded these as the most important designs because they contain the elements that could be carried across to the business card.
I did sketches for this design by referring back to my research and to the needs of the client although I feel that I should've explored a bit more in different ideas (because I stuck to my first of using a forest). Although this might mean that I am spending more time sketching than designing, at least I would have a varied amount of sketches to present to my client. However I am satisfied with my design as I picked up on all of the research that was given to me: I did the lines like the ones off the Metallica design, the forest like the client wanted in the first place (he wanted something gloomy like a forest at night), and I also drew inspiration from the Intohimo album cover.
I experimented with different medias (like watercolour and biro) but I feel that I could've experimented a bit more.
My overall designing process went relatively quickly, and this meant that I had plenty of time to go onto my other designs. This was because of my illustration; I made it look as accurately as it would do as possible so that I could present it to my client and make sure that they were happy with it. Even though I started with a jewel case design I realised earlier on the advantages of having a sleeve.
Initially the printing turned out perfectly; the Lustre paper I used really brings out the dark black and creates a high contrast between that and the while background. However when I printed it out on the other side - so the inside of the cover - the ink was really runny and bled out a little. Luckily it didn't bleed on the other side!
So I printed it onto another lustre paper and stuck them both together with mount spray. This had made the paper really thick but at least the ink isn't too wet. This also caused problems when sticking down as the tabs wouldn't stay put and after a while the two sheets of paper were slowly "opening" at the folds.
It was not only the ink and the paper that I had problems with, but with the logo. The lines came out rather jagged and a reason for this could be that the file was an ai. and not a vector. I shall convert it next time and see if that has made any difference for my portfolio.
Because of my printing and logo problems, I decided to test out on different kinds of paper, and in the end settled with gloss and abandoned the idea of printing out a design for the inside of the album cover. This is because of the problems I mentioned above; the ink just didn't like to be printed on the other side of the paper, and when done separately the paper was just too thick to bend and stick down.
I had to abandon the idea of using spray mount as well because it slowly peeled off after a week. Instead, I used some double-sided tape!
Logo Design
I feel that the logo design was a bit of a mess-up purely because I didn't experiment with many logo designs, but I'm very happy with the result. My glass-shattered effect not only links in with the album name "Unbroken" (a bit of a contradiction) but it reflects the nature of the band; their genre is post-hardcore but they are also a mixture of rock, metal and all alternative styles so I wanted to show their rebellious side (because post-hardcore is basically music where they would "blow off steam" and went outside the strict hardcore realm of "loud fast rules") as well as a design that could reflect all of these genres.
I went along and did it all on Illustrator and have learnt many new functions, especially those connected with the Object tool. I now know how to break up words, the easy way!
Business Card
This process was extremely quick because the client knew exactly what they wanted, so I didn't do many sketches nor research for this. I am glad that I did some research though to get a general idea of the layout of the type even if I was just following their specifications.
I was originally going to print it out on Matte paper but when I did the black really sunk in so it was more of a grey than a deep black. So I went along and did it on Lustre.
Then there was another problem; the lines in the logo were rather jagged - although this was quite hard to tell - but when I had printed it out on a "normal" printer on "normal" paper it was absolutely fine. Strange!
CD Label
The paper that I had used for the label had a bit of a Matte texture, and because of this the ink really sunk in to produce an offset-grey. In March I shall go ahead and by some labels but in Lustre to bring out the black a bit more.
Apart from that, the alignment was perfect so everything was printed out exactly where I wanted it to be on the label.
Typeface Choice
I am very happy with my typefaces - most notably Bebas Neue - because I feel that they really match the genre of the band. Bebas Neue is bold, tall, striking, and could be easily distorted into something new and its charm would still remain.
However I'm just worried because I created a shattered glass effect on Bebas Neue, although this was the license agreement attached to the file that I had downloaded from dafont:
However I did find this on the typeface designer's website (http://dharmatype.com/eula.html):
E3 – MODIFICATIONS
You may import characters from the font as graphical objects into a drawing program and modify such graphical objects. You may modify the font solely for your own use. The modified font will be covered by the terms of this agreement. You may convert the font to other font format such as TTF and PS solely for your own use. The converted font will be covered by the terms of this agreement. The modified or converted font may not be sold or distributed. Under no circumstances will Dharma Type be responsible to any end user, whether licensed, authorized or not, for the performance of any user modified or converted font nor will Dharma Type support any user modified or converted font. Converting to web font format such as WOFF and EOT or using TTF with @font-face linking is not allowed. You may purchase web font license and can be provided web font service from most of distributors.
I'm quite confused because this hadn't been mentioned on the typeface. Maybe this is a license to all of the fonts that they had created, although with Bebas Neue it is free? On DaFont it said that the license was "free" so I'm guessing that I'm able to do this as I'm doing it to each letter individually.
Just to make sure I went up on Google and search Sil Open Font License (OFL) and found this from (http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL#2c029872):
The SIL Open Font License (OFL) is a free and open source license specifically designed for fonts and related software based on our experience in font design and linguistic software engineering.
The main purpose is to enable a true open typographic community to spring up and grow. The OFL provides a legal framework and infrastructure for worldwide development, sharing and improvement of fonts and related software in a collaborative manner. It enables font authors to release their work under a common license that allows bundling, modification and redistribution. It encourages shared value, is not limited to any specific computing platform or environment, and can be used by other organisations or individuals.
The OFL meets the specific needs of typographic design and engineering as well as the gold standards of the FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) community, namely the cultural values and guidelines from the FSF 1, the Debian Free Software Guidelines2, as well as the Open Source Definition3. It draws inspiration from some concepts and elements found in other free and open licenses, but we believe our improvements in the specific area of fonts will make the licensing model work better than other models currently in use.
SIL International is a worldwide development and educational organisation. By facilitating language-based development, we serve the peoples of the world through research, translation, and literacy. We have been thinking about more open and participative models for a while, especially with recent partnerships with UNESCO (Initiative B@bel) and our work on the Gentium typeface.
We want to:
- enable others to participate in our projects
- enable others to cater to needs for which we don't have the resources
- share our wealth of knowledge and experience in the area of writing systems and pass on our tools
- equip the community to meet its font needs
This ensures that I am able to modify it.
Overall
Overall I feel that I had done well in this problem because of my regular contact with my client as well as dedicating most of my time to the designing stage. I feel that I should've experimented a bit more and shall be sure to do a lot more sketches next time.
Another thing I would like to add was that during my sketching process I made sure that each sketch related to the nature of the band as well as their interests. This made my design successful because it was exactly what my client wanted.
No comments:
Post a Comment