l a u r a chop

Source: Laura Evans

I got stuck today but knew I wanted to use textures as one of my concepts/themes for the Unisex brand so I did with this to get myself started, for the brand “DermaColour.”

At first I was opposed to using the existing brand names but instead I thought I could use them to my advantage allowing the name to work in conjunction with the pack design to distinguish it from the rest of the products whilst still looking fancy.

My other themes are traditional apothecary and architecture which I am going to use as inspiration.

Also, I noticed in Boots that there are no current Unisex make up or skincare products that explicitly market themselves as such.. highlighting yet another gap for me to work to!

Absolution Cosmetics are a french Unisex organic cosmetics brand with an innovative method of product application.

The range is simple and consists of airless jars… users take one drop of solution and one drop of cream and mix in the palette provided depending on the skin’s condition.

“Absolution offers a new approach of beauty: a shorter range of products, more simplicity, highly organic skincare that are customizable to the different skin’s moods each day as it comes, for men and for women.”

I find the design to be slightly towards the female market, it reminds me of the new Topshop make up range, which uses hand drawn elements and monochromatic palette, however this combination of black and white adds masculinity, whilst the hand rendered imagery links in with the organic values of the brand.

These two images below show how the outer carton of the round cannister is innovative, it appears to be a roll up card with printed information on both sides.

The website is also important as I was considering offering this alongside the pharmacy point of sale as another outlet for the trusted NHS brands, which with raised awareness should be more popular. The website is non linear, it allows you to navigate in any order, and features a spider diagram type layout, where scrolling over enlarges the different areas. Again the hand drawn aspects continue here.

The Creative Spark Exhibition 2010 opened on the 28th of May, featuring examples of work from the design students of 2009/10 at Sheffield Institute of Arts.

I visited the Graphic Design exhibition in Sheaf Building where the first sign I noticed was above the entrance. It was very professional and made it clear that the exhibition was being held in said building, and to non students who were new to the campus, it would’ve given a good first impression.

On entering Sheaf, I was greeted by the exhibition staff who were handing out the Opening Night programme. To direct us to the Graphics exhibition was a banner placed in the entrance, giving us a clear guide to where each of the design specialisms where being held.

On arrival at room 4227, once again another very professional sign was above the door, making the area seem much more personal to the specialism rather than just another University room.

As I was walking around the exhibition, I began to feel slightly confused at the mixture/range of work- I noticed that each piece of work had a label and the name of the designer, which beneath stated either BA, Mdes or MA however I thought that signs or arrows to highlight these areas would have been helpful.

It was clear however, that the work was of a very high standard, and at many occasions I was in awe at the outcomes.

I began to wonder whether arrows to help direct visitors around the exhibition would have been helpful, but then thought that this may make it too regimented and the idea is to be able to choose which work you want to look at.

The works which I found worked best were pieces which included the brief, in order to give them more context. Those which were more interactive, and featured models were also my personal favourite, giving the 2D work extra meaning. This is probably because I am a strucutural designer and like to see the final design as something to hold. In all I was quite surprised at the lack of structural or packaging work and would’ve liked to have seen more!

Another extra which I found thoughtful and helpful was the contact cards - some were placed in more interesting ways than others. For example, one designer had placed a hand stitched pouch at eye level, fastened to the wall, which invited the viewer to take the cards. The keyrings from one designers I also thought added a very personal touch.

On the bigger pieces of print work, when standing close you could sometimes see the pixelation and thus lowered the perceived quality of the work. It may in fact not be the designers fault but more down to printing facilities. It made me consider how important it is to test large prints first to make sure you have the correct paper stock and size.

I noticed that the portfolios were placed in separate locations to the exhibited work. I thought it may have been helpful to have the portfolios on a table beneath the exhibited work as the 2 different locations seemed to disconnect the work from the designer meaning you had to look for the correct portfolio amongst the rest. For prospective employers who come to visit the show, this may help them pick out the portfolio with ease.

I found the animation exhibition in the separate room seemed very realistic and professional, it seemed a shame that not all moving image exhibits could have the same platform. Maybe an area designated to these pieces of work, to be displayed on a series of screens would make them seem less like an add on with no real home within the exhibition. Placing the briefs with the screens also helped to understand the work in more depth.

The Programme was very useful for providing information about the other shows within Creative Spark and the booklet which contained examples of the work looks to be helpful for prospective employers who wish to contact the designers themselves. The booklet to me brings the work to life and highlights how important presentation and photography of work is.

Overall, I left the exhibition feeling like I wanted to see more but I did enjoy the work that was there.

Vinyl Tap

As a design team, working on The Consumer brief, our research found there to be a market niche for a simple and easy to use music downloading site for the over 50s.

The name Vinyl Tap was decided upon after much deliberation. We thought it was humorous and explained who we were. We wanted Vinyl Tap to be a place where one could access all of the past memories and music that many music lovers cherished on vinyl records.

We had to be warm, inviting & friendly. This was the basis that was to form the rest of the design work.

Our USP was simplicity. We wanted to creat a Google type search function, where the main focus was delivering the results to the user without any of the fuss seen on existing online music retailers.

Our colour pallette consisted of brown yellow and orange. We aimed for a retro 70s theme.

These are some of my logo designs which were based around the Vinyl theme. I think their strengths are that they instantly say retro and music. For me, the C shaped logo flows from the centre, and this is the idea I wanted to exploit when I came to look at the simple search page. My logos weren’t chosen in the end, however the logo in the bottom right was an effort to try and combine 2 ideas.

These are some examples of the search pages I made after the logos. I wanted to use the bar of the circular logo to extend into the shape of the search bar. I thought this would give a seamless and clean line and would reduce the number of components on the page.

Further into the process we split up the designs jobs for the project. I shared the final webpage design. These are some examples of the final pages. We tried to keep the retro theme throughout whilst still keeping the website simple. To give it character and personal feel we used my hand drawn wallpaper background. Initially we used a block colour, but found this to look too corporate and clinical.