My Envelope

Having researched and drafted what qualities i am after in an envelope and what would best suit my work, i have had a couple of outcomes. The first is my initial thoughts and mock up ideas:

The inside of the envelope is lined with my logo, something that adds an extra desirable quality.

The front of the envelope also holds my logo, but in the style of an old postal stamp. This intentionally sits below the address.

Naturally this needed developing. For example, the folding flap barely met, there were gaps in both bottom corners from the rear view, and the lines all seemed a bit too straight.

So with that in mind, here are my developed outcomes as a result:

I have flared out the rear of the envelope, rounded the corners on the side folds, and lengthened both the folding flap and the rear of the envelope.

With this development i have also taken away the fold lines on the front of the envelope so that i don't have to worry about lining up perfectly, it just counts on where the chimney stamp goes.

Again, this needed developing, but this time i really think that the flap needed to have rounded corners to sit flush with the rest of the design. So here it is. (The front design has stayed the same.):

Development After Presentation

Following my very enjoyable presentation (i genuinely enjoyed myself) where everybody gathered round the computer screen to take a closer look at my work and give even more positive feedback, i have been given a few pointers to take away with me. These are as follows:

• Firstly, put the final images on the templates that i have created the correct way around. (Very embarrassing, but glad that the tutor pointed it out). The rear of the card was placed on the right hand side, and the front was on the left...

• Secondly, it was suggested that i try using different paper qualities and experiment with weight and texture. For example, just choose 4 different qualities of paper and print your design onto them. With this suggestion, i am planning to print each design once onto different paper, so i will end up with four outcomes on different types of paper.

• Following this it was also said that i should loose the inside cover image of the postcard. I needed to be told this because i wouldn't have seen how much it doesn't tie in with the style and line qualities of the rest of the work on the card. So with this and the previous point in mind, i will now be able to hand print each inside message. This will be particularly useful in my experiments with paper quality.

Overall i was extremely pleased with my presentation and how i portrayed not only my practice, but also myself

Development Of Imagery Part 3 - Old Postcards

Because the theme i have chosen to pursue is 'I Wish You Were Here' i have taken the time to find some very old postcards that featured old fashion handwriting, amongst the whole aesthetic mix of nostalgia. It seems that the vintage item, whether it be clothing, books or novelty goods, seem to be the 'in' thing at the moment and would therefore better my card range by rooting it as contemporary.
Here are my finds:

I find that the top half of this card is far more expressive that the writing itself; It's so dark and intense, especially with the red stamp.  

This was bought purely for the writing alone. In fact, this is the best outcome i could have hoped for on the rear of an old postcard; the writing is old fashioned; it's not conventionally set out on the space given; and it's all written in French so no one can get too distracted with what it says.

My aim for these cards are simply that the opacity is dropped on them as i did in the experiment before in the post titled 'Background Development' so that they are still visible, but not dominating, and that they serve either a backdrop or a fill... Most likely a backdrop.

This works well and is pleasing to the eye because of the symmetry of the stamp box and the address guide lines. I also quite like how the central parting runs up through the sofa; its like i have just printed my design onto an old postcard - exactly.

As nice as the dark intensity was when the opacity was original at 100%, it's lost its appeal now and although still effective, it just doesn't work for me here i don't think. I also do not like that the dominating word that you are immediately drawn too is 'LEICESTER'. This may be a problem when i come to add my text at about that height over the top.

I really enjoy how this piece sits as an image, but it seems very swamped by old fashioned french handwriting. However, the positioning of the postcard i think is spot on using the magpie in the stamp box as a guide and a novelty piece. I may use this on one of the inside pages, it doesn't seem effective on the front page, it's too dominating.

I have decided to show the background used with a different image. However the background again comes across as too busy. I like the infiltration of the red stamp, but again the text of 'LEICESTER' showing and this time 'REMEMBER'. This doesn't work for me.

Development Of Imagery Part 2 - Water Colour

Moving on from Silhouettes, whilst at the stage of developing and experimenting using materials for each image, i decided that once the desired piece was drawn out i would outline it in fine liner pen and, taking on a technique i taught myself from the last project, i quickly dragged a wet paintbrush over and inside the lines causing the pen to run and create a great 'one off' effect that instantly adds character and colour tones.
Here is an example:

I feel that this is often good enough as an image to use straight away, however, i wanted to run it through Adobe Illustrator to see what would happen at the right tracing resolution and see what effects it would come out with. I tried this with each image.

I feel that this outcome is by far the greatest of any other so far. I find these pieces contemporary and fresh to look at and think that they will suit a card range exceedingly well as they have become very stylized.

This also reflects the type of text i have chosen to pursue as it is hand printed and is therefore not perfectly neat and tidy, just like these images now; they have become  unpredictable. 

I will take these further as images for the front of the cards.

Development Of Imagery Part 1 - Silhouettes

I have been playing around with developing my images from just standard line drawings to something a little more substantial, but still simple.
I had planned on producing the images as Silhouettes with what had been previously red left in white just to see how they looked and felt in context. However, i found that when i came to convert my Adobe files into images, Preview left a striking outline throughout my pieces of work. This led me to develop further and pursue an end to silhouette making. I'll show you what i mean by starting with my initial developed images:

You see, it's left a faint white outline that just made me want to fill it in fully with white to give a hint of boldness and class.
Here are my further outcomes:

I now plan on taking this forwards again and reemerging the feature parts that i had left blank / white in the first part of this experiment:

Very elegant and fresh feeling. I will look into developing other ideas further to see if i can better this outcome.

Don't Think I Haven't Forgotten The Text

The text of course plays a big part in any card range, whether it be inside or outside, the text can make or break a card range.
I have opted to stick to a handmade theme, not only to fit in with the current market, but if i do end up producing these to sell myself at any fairs they can be easily reproduced at my own cost.
I am planning to use my hand stamper that, once again, i have used in previous successful projects, so i am confident in producing work with it.

I plan on the text for the front of the cards to be 'I Wish You Were Here...' after much experimenting and developing within my sketchbook, using various sized stencils and stamping letters. The '...' leads nicely into the inside message which i will come onto later.

Here are my front letters in context:

From what i have hear i then tried to blend in to give a cleaner feel (Live Traced in Adobe Illustrator), and by doing so feel that i have ruined the aesthetic handmade quality that the letters held. Although bolder, i think that they are harsh:

I plan on using this earlier, crisp, hand-stamped text for the covers of my card range. The inside text size and style will continue in this fashion to please the eye of the beholder.

I have encountered one major problem during the experimentation of title placement, and that was how high or low on the card. Now, i can obviously have the text relatively low and sit it comfortably just above the centre of the page when it's shown with the Sofa or Coffee Table, but with the burner and the chimney it needs to be raised. So i have had to compromise and produce the text high enough to exceed the stacks, but low enough to please the eye.

Background Develpoment

Moving forwards and looking back at my reflection focused on the development of the background;

"Upon reflection i think that i is a bit too much to coat the whole page in the colour, and so perhaps i could take inspiration from previous students and wash just the base around the image as this seems to be contemporary at the moment, and therefore a greater selling point with my brief in mind." - Imagery background

I am planning to pursue a simple, yet effective water colour swell at the bottom of my image for it to stand on and stand out from the blank white page, adding depth and interest into my work. Here are my initial outcomes:

 

 

This is the first of two similar yet different swirls i plan on voting for. I have kept this colour style as it is warm and reflecting of previous projects which i think is important for portfolio outcomes. 

This is the 2nd swirl outcome:

 Although this one appears to have more texture and is clearly darker, i don't think that it suits on the grounds of it being too bold in colour and therefore colder.

So, in conclusion on the background front, i plan to continue the use of the first water colour swell for now unless anything more exciting comes along.

On a miscellaneous note, i have experimented by putting the first water colour swell through the Live Trace function in Adobe Illustrator. It has given a very strange, yet interesting effect ... Following this i have added an old blank postcard in the back ground with the opacity way down at 25%:

This is the original postcard used in this experiment.

Using the 159 x 159 as the template, you can see my experimental outcome. Unfortunately both time the tediousness of this avenue at this stage would not allow me to pursue this. However i will bare in mind this process and outcome.

Red Ties

As i have mentioned earlier, i was looking for something that ties all of my imagery together within this set of four cards. Initially i thought about a bold red as that shows warmth. I mentioned this in an earlier post:

"Having drawn various items of furniture from a variety of Habitat magazines and books i have been thinking of tying the cards together with a theme, for example a simple colour featured on one cushion or chimney etc... I have chosen to use a red as an example as this is a warm colour and something bold that will attract attention to the card."  - Outcomes So Far

Here are my outcomes from this little venture shown with what is currently draft imagery on a draft background:

 So you get the idea of tying my images together with a theme. I do however think that this idea is a little too bold perhaps for now. I need to experiment with other forms of media and background work (which can equally be the tie that binds).

Background Imagery

I realise that the image needs to stand out from the rest of the page, and initially i had planned on using the background from a previous project which was a water colour wash for a book cover.

I have used it here to show how my images would appear with this wash.

Upon reflection i think that i is a bit too much to coat the whole page in the colour, and so perhaps i could take inspiration from previous students and wash just the base around the image as this seems to be contemporary at the moment, and therefore a greater selling point with my brief in mind.

Chimney Stack

As i have taken the chimney stack further, i have tackled the ways to show the vents in the focal flue. Eventually my outcome is shown below, it's simple and basic, which is what i am after for my design.