APP Words: Evaluation

General Thoughts - Research etc

I am pleased to say that this was one of my most enjoyable projects I've done throughout this year and both of the HND years. I am so glad that I went along with the idea of trying out hand-lettering, or I would've never have known how much I enjoyed it.

I think that it was enjoyable because I was able to mix together both typography through hand-lettering and illustration without feeling that it was 'too' illustrative. I had to take composition into account, but it was much easier to do than my London piece. 

Another thing was that I could embrace my 'inner-child' as I returned to doing little doodles no matter how anatomically incorrect things were, because it was acceptable. I came to terms with my imperfect drawings instead of being bogged down trying to make them before, producing a series of fun and quirky illustrations. 

This was inspired by the likes of Steve Simpson and Linzie Hunter, both of whose works I continuously looked over at. They have shown my that making mistakes or including a certain sketchiness isn't altogether bad. However I wish I did try more type styles such as Blackletter, but as I wanted to aim for that 'fun' appearance I didn't think it was appropriate. Maybe next time!

I think that this was the first time where I didn't force myself to analyse so many illustrators and illustrations, only analysing what I found inspirational. This is because everything I found interesting was placed on my Pinterest boards, and it was a great way to create mood boards. I could easily go there from my phone and just flick through my collection. I cannot explain how good Pinterest is! I'll definitely use it a lot more in future projects. 

I can't actually think of what made this project un-enjoyable because even the printing process - which is normally my downfall - went well as well as prototyping. By opening my eyes and using the resources around me I was able to produce a sufficient template almost immediately.

Speaking of resources, I have to say that in this project I asked for opinions on my designs and listened to them, trying to figure out why my target market liked one thing more than another. I was able to use that information to make my own decisions and chose what would be best for both my 'client' and for my target market. After all, they would be the ones I'll be 'selling' my designs to, so it is important that I pleased both parties.

I found it easier to base my design around an existing company, and I'm hoping to send them my designs once I've done taking photos in a studio. 

I spent a lot of time during this project having a look at videos, and I've discovered that there are the perfect way to get inspiration. By watching people actually doing some hand-lettering shows me that anyone could do it with practice, so I didn't feel too upset when I didn't get perfect results on my first try. Even though I didn't analyse videos in great detail I still found them inspirational and included them within my blog. 

My Final Design

My final design was... Unexpected. From the very start of my project I knew that I'd do hand-lettering but I thought I'd go down the calligraphy route, not the funky sans serif one, and I'm actually quite glad I did in the end. If I had used calligraphy then the design would appear all too feminine - an aspect that my audience had also pointed out - and I wouldn't be able to portray the light and funny side of tea. Tea could grant the student that energy they need, but is also good for calming down, so I aimed to create a design that reflects that.

I did this by choosing a colour palette that would link with those emotions. Green is known to represent harmony and tranquility, and I've chosen a shade relatively close to blue to emphasise the 'calm' emotion, and orange provides that burst of happiness with the cream to bring the boldness down a notch. 

I made sure that the forms were as smooth as possible to reflect the smooth flow of tea from a teapot as well as that soothing effect it could have. My main focus was on the banner so I included more shading and lighting to it to bring it out.

My illustration was mainly formed on Illustrator, and this in itself is surprising. I've always told myself to avoid Illustrator at all costs because of my lack of experience with it, but this project has made me come to terms with it and I can say that I'll happily work with vectors again. I have learnt so many functions and techniques, which made the process much easier later on when I had to repeat certain things over again. Repetition really is the best way to learn. 

My illustration as a whole is successful in that there is a clear relation to tea, and to Twinings. I wanted to make my Twinings label more 3D and 'realistic' than the others as if it was the real deal, and I referenced from one of their existing designs to emphasise this. Of course, I couldn't be photo-realistic, but the vector was good enough.

"Never Give In and Never Give Up" was the perfect quote choice (if I must say so myself) because it's short. This means that it was much easier to work with because I didn't have to think of the style of lots of letters, and it'll be easier to read at a glance. I didn't include any credits of the author because it wasn't a very popular one, although I'll be sure to credit them when I upload my final design onto all of my online profiles and Behance.

I chose to do a teapot and cup because it was extremely 'British' and provided a strong connection between that and Twinings, an age-old British tea company. I had originally wanted to put a watercolour paper texture to the design but as I mentioned in my last post it didn't print as well as the non-textured version, so I used matte paper to provide that slightly textured, well, texture.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a company to print this design off properly onto the travel mug, and those that I did find only provided a small square for my illustration. This is the reason why I've printed it off on paper and attached it onto the travel mug, but I do hope to find a company to do it for me one day. I think I fancy having this design myself, haha!

Conclusion

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this project for the fact that I wasn't trying to cram as much research into it, focusing more on my doodles and idea generation. I only researched on what I thought was appropriate for this project, doing it whenever I felt inspired and had to write it down. My final outcome was much better than I had original anticipated... So trying out new things isn't really a bad thing at all!


Update 17.01.14
I tweeted Steve Simpson and Linzie Hunter - the key inspirations for this project - and they both got back to me!

I am really happy to have gotten some feedback from two of my most inspirational designers, and it gives me more confidence in my design. I hope to continue down this path in future because I really enjoyed doing hand-lettering.