competition entry

Competition Brief

ADGP??? Tutors | Kamal Gohil, Brian Johnson Created by | Danni Perkins

ContentsIntroductionCompetition BriefResearch: Primary Mind Maps Existing Design Solutions Secondary Blogspot

Introduction

For this module I had to select a Live Competition Brief & submit a final outcome. I will support my design entry with a sketchbook showing my design

process throughout...

Competition Brief

Request for designs and artwork for greetings cards

Background

Artquirk is a new greetings card publishing business that intends to license its images primarily from students currently studying visual arts subjects and possibly from recent graduates. Whilst hoping to succeed as a business in its own right, artquirk also aims to provide students with the opportunity to be involved in the industry, to get their work into print and receive fair payment for it.

Brief

Artquirk is asking for ideas and artwork for the front of its greetings cards (blank inside) that adhere to the specifications listed.

What is required

Ideally…

o Rough ideas for images that can form a set of greetings cards of a similar theme (minimum of 3 designs) o finished artwork for one of the themed images o initial thumbnails/progress roughs leading up to the design for which you have produced artwork

or the bare minimum…

o finished artwork for single image/s o initial thumbnails/progress roughs leading up to the design/s for which you have produced artwork

Target markets Artquirk wishes to supply cards to independent retailers and Student Union shops initially. The cards are to be suitable for…

1. Young people (particularly students) of both sexes ranging from age18-30. The choice of subject for the images is yours, but designs depicting aspects of student life would be particularly desirable.

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Artquirk | Greeting Card Designs

2. Male adults of all ages

Please note that women buy most of the cards given to men, therefore the designs have to fit women’s opinion of what they think men will like!

Style

Artquirk’s style aims to be clean, quirky, uncluttered, current, eye-catching, tasteful and original (please take care not to copy any one else’s design)

Designs can include writing on the front if necessary (no bad language though please!)

Artwork guide

The size of the printed cards will be 125mmx178mm. Image size and format can be flexible within these measurements, as borders will be used. It is merely a rough guide for you to plan the size of original artwork, which should be approximately one third up on the printed size.

Any flat medium may be used (no 3D designs or stuck-on bits please!)

Deadline

Artquirk would welcome earlier submissions of artwork and accompanying designs but the last day is Friday 11 February 2011. Unfortunately, artquirk is unable to consider any designs arriving later than 11 February 2011.

How and where to send the artwork

o Please send your submissions via email to [email protected] and attach your artwork as PDF files. o Original artwork should be scanned at 300dpi and no file should be bigger than 5mb o Roughs can be scanned at a low resolution o In the email please state # your name, contact address and telephone number # name of the University/College you are attending # year and name of the course you are on # the medium/media used to create the artwork

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What happens next

After 11 February 2011 Artquirk will select images for use as part of their first range of cards and hopes to reply to you within a month of that date.

Payment

There will be a payment of £30 upfront for each design licensed to ‘artquirk’, which will be set against future royalties on a percentage of the sales of each card. The licensor (creator and owner of the artwork) will be credited on the back of the card.

Please feel free to email me if you have any queries [email protected]. I hope to hear from you soon and look forward to seeing the designs that will help us to successfully launch our first range of stunning cards.

Good luck and best wishes,

Nicky Guest

A selection of screen shots from emails I have recieved from Artquirk on behalf of Moodle; indicating the project brief & submisson requirements.

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Mind Mapping

Initial Thoughts...Referring back to the Artquirk brief, I created a mind map of my possible student themes

HolidaysChristmasEasterSummerStudy BreaksRevisonReading WeekStudy LeaveStudent LifeMoving OutFlat warmingHouse warmingGatheringsPartiesMoving Back HomeWelcome BackHomecomingFinanceRichPoorSkintBillsRentFood MoneyDrinking MoneyNew FriendsFlat matesCourse matesSocial EventsIniciationsPromsGigs

Theme NightsTogasABCHalloweenBeach PartySmurfsRag DollsLegoArmy Foam PartyPopcorn PartyExamsResultsCongradulationsEmotionsGood LuckSuccess | FailureStudent FirstsHomemade MealMonth AwayFood ShopHangoverAll Nighter

Young Students Mature Students

Illustration StyleGender Neutral ColoursOrangeGreenWhite

PurpleBlueBlack & Gold2 Colour LimitT AudienceAgeLikes | DislikesPrice RangeErasArt Styles

I can now begin my research,

infusing lots ofideas from my

mind map.

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Research

printpattern.blogspot.com

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Left: A screen shot of one of my favourite illustration blogs. I recieved the print and pattern book as a gift. The blog is constantly updated with new illustrations and applications from cards and mugs to wallpaper and fabric prints. Created by Bowie Styles there are also links to other illustrators, where I discovered Rosie Mattocks. I have collated some examples of work produced by Bowie to try and influence my illustration style...

Right: Illustrations for christmas cards by Galia Bernstein. I like the stencil style of design and the colour scheme. I think this card style is elegant and sophisticated but would still attract males to purchase it.

Left: These designs were created by Lucy Joy Oldfield. I like how she has used one colour palette to create multiple designs. I would like to incorporate this colour style into my illustrations.

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Left: These illustrations were created by Rosie Mattocks

I really like her choice of colour as they almost look child like. Rosie adapts parts of her illustrations to create a repetitive pattern.This is another element I could introduce to my work.

Right: Series of illustrations created by Christelle Lardinois. They were printed onto fabrics and accessories, the theme fairytales. I like the neutral colour, used for the background.

Leftt: A really feminine design illustrating afternoon tea. I like the use of mixed media and over laying of textures. It makes the final outcome look handmade and unique.

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Above: A collection of childrens illustrations were created by Jayne Schofield. She experiments with contemporary collage and digital techniques to enhance her designs. I think they are very simular to Rosie Mattocks illustrations, but more basic and simple

Left: I really like this style of design by stawberry and company. Its basic, eye catching and could appeal to both genders. This style could be incorporated using various design themes too.

Above: Designs created by Lucy Neal. Another illustrator who focus’ on repetitive design outcomes. She also uses neutral colours. As I am required to submit 3 designs, one could be femine, one masculine and the other could be gender friendly...

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Left: This feminine floral pattern was designed by my sugar cube. They recreate these patterns on material using sewing and stiching techniques.

Left: A collection of cards published byLagom. They areavailable in Scribbler, a card store. The design style is very basicand doesn’t gointo much detail.

Above: A series of cards aimed at different cultures. This series of designs links back to my mind map freckleface.

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katiesillustrationblog.blogspot.comA collection of work taken from my friends illustration blog...

Katie is an Art teacher who enjoys watercolour painting in her spare time. She updates her blog regularly and is fascinated my birds. From looking at her previous work I only came across 4 card designs, but I really liked her method of making visuals through sketching and watercolouring. She also high lights her sketches with a white pencil, with I really liked against brown paper. Here is a collection of her work, that I will use to help inspire me...

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katiesillustrationblog.blogspot.com

Above: Illustrating the phrase Tomorrow is another day

Above: Illustration of three birds representing Katies three sisters and their job roles. They are each A5 in size and were given as gifts in photo frames.

Before & After | Tea and a Chat

I would like to experiment with this technique when creating my card designs

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A collection of exisiting cards from online store Scribbler. Features Good Luck & Moving Out

A series of card designs, compiled mostly of illustrative text. These are some of the weakest designs I have discovered whilst carrying out my research however they would be gender friendly and could be purchased by male or female customers...

These card designs are catergorised for Moving House. Something that is relevant to student life. I really like the bon voyage collection as they look handmade. They have been put together using mixed medias, in a 2D form...

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I visited my local Scribber and took some photos of existing cards.

I have analysed these existing card designs to enhance & strengthen my own...

There is a huge variety of greetings cards available on the market. While some are targeted at the annual holidays & birthdays, many others are based on humour.For example sorry for your man flu, keep calm you’re 60 and keep calm you’re not that old.Many cards come as part of a series and can be parodies of recent popular art. Amongst others that are designed purely typographically. From the selection I chose, I really like the Sorry you have

man flu design, because of the way it has been created out of newspaper clippings. Its a medium that alot of people have access too and constantly recycle. It is also a cheap resource that students come across. I also discovered alot of cards illustrated by another era. More of a classic design that would attract a different target audience. By collating this research I have found out that colour is needed to help the card stand out on the shelf, a successful card can be illustrated or created typographically too.

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Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas

Step 1: For those of us whose artistic talents extend no further than painting our faces, lino cutting is the perfect craft. I’ve chosen what I hope will be a simple design - a red snowflake. The first step is to draw the design in pencil onto the lino.

Step 2: Using cutters, the design is formed by gouging out small trenches in the lino’s surface. The ink won’t stick to the cut out parts, so when it’s printed, they will appear white on the card.

Step 3: Next, cut the shape out and ink it, using a roller.

Step 4: Put your lino shape onto your card and transfer it to the press, which pushes the ink evenly onto the paper. If you don’t have a press, rubbing the back of the spoon over the paper will work just as well.

The Finished Cards: The very first Christmas card was designed by a Devonshire artist in 1843 and pictured a family, children included, enjoying a festive tipple. My little snowflake is a much more sober image but I’m glad that I’ve played my part in bringing this wonderful tradition back home.

A Lino printing technique used to create homemade christmas cards

Although I have to submit a digital entry, I create a stamper, scan it in & edit it

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A collection of exisiting cards from Paperchase. I collated examples of Thank You’s

Congrad cards. I like the Gold & Black colour scheme, something I thought of in my Mind Map...

Thank You Cards. This selection is very feminine and girly. I like the use of pale colours and basic illustrative style of Kawaii. These cards are generally cute and are intended for females to purchase.

A few examples of Moving Home & Thank You cards. I really like the use of brown paper, it makes the card stand out more than just a bright colour or white card. By carrying out this research I have discovered various qualities of card design and illustration that I would like to incorporate into my own style. For example: ∙ The use of brown paper ∙ Experimenting with mixed media & collage ∙ Hand rendering Illustrations ∙ Repetitive Patterns ∙ Neutral Colours ∙ Artistic StylesThese are all design techniques areas that I would like to experiment with during this module.

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bluemountain.comUsing a search engine I entered key words : student & greeting cards...

I uncovered this very basic card design company, that cheaply prints and distibutes personalised cards aimed at students. I think these cards are very inpersonal and child like. Although they use bright colours, there is no particular colour scheme and they are more of an eye sore. However, I do like the meaningful phrases and thoughts illustrated. For example bee positive and sending a little hi; a thoughtful comment that would be appreciated by a student who has just moved out for the first time. By conducting research from this source I have discovered strengths and weakness’. I will now look at other printing companies...

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Vistaprint.comVista Print : A printing company that caters for small & large business’

To develop my research further, I decided to look at card designs produced by large printing companies. There was a running theme this year, of owls. The characters were then quickly manipulated and changed slightly to fit different clients. Vista print incorporate a photo which is choosen by the client for a more personal touch at no extra cost. I am now going to create some owl designs myself...

Initial Idea

Kawaii Illustrations...

I used the circle tool in illustrator to create a simple owl design. I then added to to show adaptation of my progress...

I used repetition to complete myowl pattern. I illustration was influenced by Kawaii. I selected pastel colours to render the illustration, although overall the final outcome is very feminine. I would like to develop this further...

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Kawaii Illustrations...Building upon my previous illustrations, I decided to try and create a birthday cake...

Utilising the circle tool, that I use to create my Kawaii designs, I began experimenting with line shapes and weight. I used the pen tool aswell to create curved free-hand lines. To develop the shape of the cake further I also tried placing the developing characteristics into a rounded square shape.I really like hand made graphics, so I explored criss cross lines which ended up looking like stitches...Instead of using heavy lines, I arranged the linesinto a square todevise the shapeof a cake...

To the right you can see I have started to render my designs. I’m really happy with how they are turning out so I will continue this...

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Kawaii Illustrations...As I have decided to on my style of design, I am now going to create a background...

I will develop my cake illustrations to go alongside this background design.

I used a pale blue to white gradient and arranged white vector circles to look like clouds. I also experimented with placement and opacity to soften the clouds.

To create trees I used square and circle shapes in illustrator. Above you can see, that I have highlighted the individual shapes which come together to make a unique vector shape. I also used 2 different shades of green to show variation of the trees...

Idea One

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Kawaii Illustrations...I am now going to explore the use of typography in my card design, using Porky’s

Happy Birthday Happy Birthday to you...

Starting off with Porky’s in black, I then added some colour. I prefer the top design made up of lighter colours, yet neither design is gender biased, which wil work well on a card.

I developed this idea by adding a light/darkgradient. This makes the design look more rounded and suggests light bouncing onto letters. I really like this colour scheme applied this way.

Another way I can make the typeface appear rounded is to apply a white gradient. This works well and its quicker to apply, than carefully selecting a light & dark colour. However when it is applied to the pale colours it makes the letters appear less visible and almost look like they are disappearing...

At this early stage of development, I was intrigued to see how my background would look against the typography. I think the colour scheme compliments itself really well.I am now going to go back and finalise my cake characters.

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I have started developing a balloon character that may be added to my happy birthday card. I think this character could work really well as part of a repetitive pattern too. I created the balloon shape in illustrator using the circle & pen tool. Initially I have rendered the balloons in pink, but they may change as a colour scheme finalises...

Party hats are often found at a birthday party, so I decided to have a go at creating my own. By creating a basic outline in Illustrator, it will be quick and easy process to add colour and texture in Photoshop...

Above are some of my kawaii birthday cakes in development. I am going to explore different colours and designs, to make sure I create the strongest outcome...

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Above are some designs I have put together for my second card design. I arranged my kawaii illustrations into a symetrical pattern. To the right I have highlighted the elements that make up the design in Illustrator. I now need to progress and add rendering...

Repetitive patterns are commonly found on birthday cards, so I decided to create my own...

Idea Two

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This repetitve pattern has been slightly modified from the draft in black and white one opposite. Individually I really like the colours, but placed altogether, the balloons and party hats are too bold. I aim to develop the colour scheme and add text to complete the greetings card... Through my development and putting this design pattern together I used illustrator. To enhance my patterns and perhaps create something different I am going to create and exploreanother pattern, using the same illustrations...

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d__and__photoshop/create_a_seam-less_pattern

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Kawaii Illustrations...Developing upon the pattern I have created I am going to follow a tutorial to try and enhance it...

Using the black and white vectors I created a 10cm x 10cm square and arranged my illustrations inside. I took care in splitting an images to enhance the fluidity of the overall pattern when its duplicated. I also chose to explore line weight briefly, as this was suggested in a tutorial of my last project. The stroke I applied is 6px & black. I think it definately compliments the illustrations and I will experiment with this technique more...

Above you can see a screen shot, duplicating & connect-ing the pattern... To the right you can see the complete pattern with a stroke of 4px...

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On a larger scale you can see the pattern I have designed. I prefer this design to the previous one as its more fluid and looks more professional. I am still exploring line weights and the use of colour, which is an element I will need to render in next.I am also going to experiment adding text to see whether this strengthens or weakens my repetitive design...

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I have explored placing text around my illustrations, to suggest a more literal theme. I like Birthday Girl but it maybe not meet the brief completely. Otherwise I was thinking about adding a song lyric, but again if this card design was published there maybe implications with copyright. If I chose to add to text to my final design I will follow the colour scheme that I created for my first initial idea, as it is bright, colourful and gender friendly. To develop my thought process further I could create a mind map, however I have chosen to focus on implimenting the rendering of the pattern first...

Exploring the use of text within my illustration...

Kawaii Illustrations...Exploring the use of text within my illustration...

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I set about adding colour to my kawaii birthday pattern, using the colour schemes I had explored previously. This wourked well until I placed in the party hat. The purple and pink were too over powering in contrast to the pastel colours. I chose to render the party hats with the two colours of blue used in the candles. This visually worked alot better and com-plimented the final card design well.To the left is a symetreical pattern, duplicated four times, forming a perfect square. As the actual greeting card is actually 125mm x 175mm it may alter the final perception of the design.

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I also tried out two other designs, focusing mainly on text. I used the same typeface and colour scheme. The design on the left uses bright colours set onto a pale background, whereas the design above is all about escaping pastel colours!!! Out of both designs I prefer the design on the left, as it has the back-ground is pastel, yet placed in a card shop I think the design above would stand out more. I am going to try out some different phrases/words...


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Exploring the use of text within my illustration...

I also tried developing my owl illustrations that I created earlier in this module. I thought that the colour scheme worked well against the repetitive illustration. And I would be most happiest sending this sort of design style to support my final entry. To incorporate text into this design I chose to use a play on words, adding a humour element. I also used this technique in the previous module and it worked well. I used a simple rounded typeface Porky’s and rendered the typeface using pastel colours used on the owls. This contrasts well against the white background. At the top I experimented with gradients placed over rasterized letters. This technique added depth and made my letters look 3D...

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I really liked the design style I was developing, and I am keen to broaden this perhaps into a small series or collection...

I put the pale polka dot pattern background against my ‘owl dear’ design. The owls stand out really well, yet the colour of the typeface looks weak when applied to a coloured background. To improve this I could adapt the colour of the text and use a darker render...


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I made some final changes to my designs and these 3 are the entries I will submit...

I modified the colour of the hats, and re-arranged the layout a little bit. I will submit this card design under the catergory of Birthdays. I think it meets the brief well too.

Gree

tings

Car

d En

try

One

...

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Kawaii Illustrations...I made some final changes to my designs and these 3 are the entries I will submit...

When I looked at my collection of designs, it felt like the language used on this card could be improved. I chose to change lots and lots to hoots and hoots instead. I think this makes the card more humerous too.

Gree

tings

Car

d En

try

Two.

..


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I made some final changes to my designs and these 3 are the entries I will submit...

Owl dear maybe next time!!! would be targeted at students who have perhaps failed a module, driving test, an exam etc etc. I like the word play alot as it is supported by the illustrations!!!

Gree

tings

Car

d En

try

Thre

e...

Initial Idea

Typographic Design Idea...

one vodkatwo vodkathree vodkaFLOOR!!!

Throughout my research I noticed that Typography is used alot on greetings cards. It is heavily illustrated and hand rendered. With this as a heavy influence, I chose a phrase related to alcohol (linked to students) and adapted a typeface called Lobster 1.4, to reveal a polka dot pattern. I had used this particular template for polka dots before but I thought it may work well if I combined it with a typeface. Putting these techniques into practise, the polka dots are too big against the scale of the lettering and make it illegible. Perhaps if they were alot smaller the outcome would be different. I really like the typeface but combined with the polka dots it becomes too complex. I will know move on to creating another possible idea...

competition entry

Documents

artwork o

designs o

o original artwork

size of original artwork

accompanying designs

elses design designs

earlier submissions

artquirk greeting card