OUGD503 - Stratford Literacy Festival Book Jacket: Evidence of Submission

OUGD503 - Collaborative Practice: The Grown Up Chocolate Company: Packaging Assembly

I was tasked to re-create the physical chocolate packaging box so it would help us understand how big it is and so that I can use later on for mock ups. The exact measurements used were found within the brief pack pack so I used that as my guide.

OUGD503 - TWBA Papyrus: Evidence of Submission

OUGD505 - Product Range Distribution: Presenting Research

Possible issues - ongoing issues in society as it is a massive thing and constantly spoken about/in the news

• LGBT (social and political) - Hate crime, violence, verbal abuse, neglect, segregated, employment discrimination, poverty, homelessness, lack of healthcare, marriage equality. Gay men cannot donate blood - break stigma
• Gender equality/Womens march (social and political) - Abortion, women's rights, harassment 
• Mental illness - Mental illness should be treated as a physical illness, discrimination and stigma 
• Racism - Black Lives Matter, how people use racism to sell - Beyonce

After talking to a fellow student, all these problems are just as important as each other and should be addressed. The one I personally feel affected by and that affects me is mental health wellbeing. Last year for the 'Speaking from experience' brief, I had created a mini booklet for how to deal with anxiety. In the Responsive module, I chose the Papyrus brief which is to create a design for their colouring book to help the prevention of suicide in young people cause my mental health problems. Mental health wellbeing is something I feel strongly about and I would like to produce something for it to educate people about how real the issue is.

OUGD505 - Product, Range and Distribution: Mental Health Research

Mental health problems are divided into two groups, one called 'neurotics' and the other, 'psychotic'. 'Neurotics' is known as the common types of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, OCD, bulimia and anorexia wheres, 'psychotic' affects a persons view of reality which is hallucinations such as seeing, hearing, smelling or feelings that can make them behave in a different way than others. Mental heath issues can be a temporary setback but 1 in 4 people do suffer with lifelong common mental health problems. Between 1 and 2 of 100 people experience severe mental health problems such as schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder which makes them loose touch with reality.

A good mental health is vital for everyone and is very important. Mental well-being can affect everyone different to how they perceive the world, themselves and other people. People that have mental health problems cannot help feeling a certain way, its not a quick, easy cure, it is as difficult as healing a broken leg - it takes time. Trying to cope with mental health is more difficult for the sufferer as they may not realise they have mental health problems and some even don't want to acknowledge their feelings as it has become part of them. People that suffer with mental health problems don't immediately want to accept help because they think that they are fine and 'normal' but really they have been suffering from it for too long and it begins to feel normal even though it isn't. People do begin to cope with the negative feelings which can make it worse than asking for help. Suffering with mental health problems can feel like you are a ghost of your former self.

The difference between mental and physical health is that mental heath cannot be seen however, physical health can. Mental wellbeing isn't taken as seriously as physical wellbeing. It can be difficult to make people understand the way you've been feeling because you have to describe how you are feeling as there is no evidence physically. Physical wellbeing can only help your body but not your mind even though some try to use it as a way to cope, others can't stand the thought of it since they simply do not want to do anything. People disregard mental health as an important thing because it seen as easily changeable, you control how you feel and that is where discrimination and stigmatisation comes from. People that discriminate simply do not understand the impact their naivety can cause to others with mental health issues.

The sufferer knows that there is something wrong but for someone to shut them down, makes them question themselves and that other people do not trust them. Trust is a huge part that the sufferer requires as the people that they tell their problems to are expected to believe them and to be sincere so that they know that they are still accepted and will be treated the same and as everyone else. People with mental health problems find it difficult to open to others as they may think that they are 'crazy', 'unstable' or that they are 'going though a phase', 'just hormones' and be totally dismissive rather than be compassionate and show empathy. Discrimination and stigmatisation is more harmful than people realise since others do not ask for help because they don't want to admit to others that they are not feeling right which makes them have to cope with it themselves or bottle it up which can cause further problems in the future. Some people may not be friendly or want to talk to people who have mental health issues as they may see them as vulnerable or weird which will make the sufferer isolated and feel even worse about themselves.

Mental well-being is just as important to talk about as tedious physical wellbeing problems such as stubbing your toe. The 'smallest' things should even be acknowledged in order to help cope with it in the long run.

50% of lifelong mental health issues are realised at secondary school age (by aged 14). 1 in 10 young people suffer from mental heath problems but are afraid to tell their friends or family because of how they may react.

OUGD503 - Collaborative Practice: The Grown Up Chocolate Company: First Initial Ideas

The second meeting we had, everyone showed up to discuss ideas. We discussed what each of out job roles are. As Siobhan is an Illustrator, she is going to do the illustrations of the design - experimenting with. Hannah and I are going to doing the packaging/webpage - I am going to re-create the physical packaging so we have an idea of the size then I'm going to do the mock ups of the designs onto the packaging, Hannah is going to create the landing page for the 

e-commerce webpage. Even though we have our own roles, we're still going to be equally involved in each others roles as we are our own, giving each other feedback and discussing layouts and ideas between each other.

Looking back on the brief again, we had discussed that although they say that they want their chocolate to appear to all genders, their packaging and website has a bright pink heavily involved as one of their main colours which makes it look more feminine than unisex.

Their slogan which is 'Nice try his, but it's not for you!' and their current individual chocolate bar packaging has a picture of a child is a little too obvious so using child-like features may be too easy and certain.

Ideas

• Patterns and solid colours are trendy at the moment and will fit the target audience of young professionals
• Hand painted repeated patterns
• Screen printing - reinforce the message 'Made with love in the UK'/handmade feel
• Humorous - Puns
• Creating pattern design from the flavours they offer
• Foiling (gold) - luxury, elegance
• Look at how chocolate is made and maybe incorporate it onto the design
• Make it more gender neural by using stereotypical gender colours or by using natural colours
• Cocoa bean pattern - it is what all the chocolate bars have in common even if they are all different flavours
• Make it more humours with amusing/childish messages inside the tray
• Add hidden messages inside the tray

Inspiration 

OUGD505 - Leeds Public Spaces: Marks & Spencer Archive

The idea is to create a traditional print inspired by Marks & Spencer - reminiscing on how it first started and how they used to advertise. The University of Leeds holds the Marks & Spencer Archive in the Michael Marks building. From visiting the archive, it was uplifting to see how such a small stall in Leeds Kirkgate market has become something of a huge British department shop.

Marks and Spencer's famous slogan during their days at the stall was 'Don't ask the price it's a penny' and this was back when it was it was called 'Mark's Penny Bazaar', before Tom Spencer's influence on the business.

In the beginning, Marks & Spencer used to advertised in newspapers, Grand Annuals and on their window display until the 1950s where they were advertise on cinema screens.

OUGD505 - Leeds Public Spaces: Idea Generation

Mandela Gardens - Millennium Square

• Mandela Gardens was rededicated to Nelson Mandela in support of South Africa's struggle for equality. He wanted to pay tribute to Britain's role in the help of equality in South Africa.
• Mandela Gardens opened in 1983 in honour of Nelson Mandela and received the 'Freedom of the City' alongside Winston Churchill, Henry Moore, Denis Healy, Clement Attlee and Lord Merlyn-Rees.
• Nelson Mandela visited in 2001 to celebrate the 7th year of the end of the apartheid.
• A free two-hour concert was held during Mandela's appearance. Mandela danced to the South African group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
• Lucas Radebe, captain of Leeds United and the South African national team at the time, was there and proud of the occasion. 
• Susan Pitter, the mayoress was congratulated by Mandela for being the first black lady mayoress of Leeds.

Marks & Spencer

• It was a Penny Bazaar where everything was sold for 1p each.
• Opened in 1884 in Kirkgate Market by Michael Marks.
• Tom Spencer later joined.
• Michael Marks was a Polish-Jew.
• Tom Spencer was from Skipton.
• The Marks & Spencer archive is located in The Leeds University building.

Maurice Paynel was the Lord of the Manor

• He made plans for Briggate and surrounding areas in 1208
• He turned a village into somewhere people can do business

The idea that sounds the most intriguing and inspiring is the Marks & Spencer stall as it was set up by one immigrant in 1884 and is now seen as a valuable British store. Marks and Spencer holds a lot of history in Leeds and have an archive of the business timeline from the beginning to present.

OUGD503 - Collaborative Practice: The Grown Up Chocolate Company: Research

The history of The Grown Up Chocolate Company
September 2011 - The company was born
May 2012 - Their chocolate bars seem to be especially popular in Norway
August 2012 - They produced 25,000 bars in 5 days
September 2012 - They introduced the Salted Peanut Bar and it was their 1 year anniversary
October 2012 - Their bars go global
November 2012 - After popular demand, they produced a Dark Chocolate flavour
December 2012 - Their chocolate bars were recommended by Vogue
January 2013 - Introduced 3 new flavours
February 2013 - Introduced the 'Tasting Club'
June 2013 - Introduced 4 new flavours

The idea of the company is that they reminisce of the bar they used to eat as children but as Grown Ups.

The feel of their website has a lively personality due to the colours and also their tone of voice, especially on the 'Meet the team' page, they tone is playful, humorous and care-free as Grown Up kids.

Stockists (as well as their own website)

• Ocado
• Booths
• BP
• Virgin Atlantic

Competitors (With similar price range)

• Thorntons 
• Hotel Chocolat

The packaging design that Thorntons use are very minimal where they really only feature their logo, collection and images. Their packaging seems like it would appeal to older people since it just looks outdated and boring. 

Hotel Chocolat

Hotel Chocolat packaging is also minimal but elegant at the same time. They use the right colours that work together that makes it look elegant. Their designs only feature their logo and the collection too but it looks effortless and sophisticated. When they use colours, they use muted tones so that it appears softer and luxurious. The packaging would appeal to people aged 19-50.

OUGD503 - Stratford Literacy Festival Book Jacket: Evaluation

The final design of the book jacket is simple and minimalistic as I wanted to mainly focus the attention on Shakespeare's Birthplace and Anne Hathaway's Cottage. The simplistic design makes the book jacket clearer for the audience to see. The book jacket design is clearly aimed around 

Stratford-upon-Avon as it uses clear tributing factors from the buildings and the locations on the sign posts. The medieval theme of the preserved buildings and typeface of the book title as its brush-like stokes and the exaggerated serifs make it appear more outdated but also readable.

Having more knowledge and understand of the Festival and Stratford-upon-Avon would've helped with coming up with more ideas and potential designs on the book jacket.

OUGD505 - Visiting Professional - Footprint

James and Claire are two of a small group that work at Footprint. James studied and graduated at Leeds College of Art in 2010 and has been working at Footprint since 2012.

Footprint was first set up in the 90s by activists that used the printing facility to print posters for protests and demos.

Footprint originally used a Heidelberger which is an offset lithograph but was not as efficient and  ethical as they believed they wanted to be perceived.

They took the opportunity to invent in a Riso which is what they print 90% of work on. Riso is a digital screen print where it prints one colour at a time but they have two drums so it allows them to print two colours at the same time. Riso is much more environmentally friendly as it requires less electricity. With their beliefs of being environmentally friendly, they use 100% post consumer waste/recycled paper. They will only ship within the UK to reduce their carbon footprint.

Footprint have a partnership with Bradford Wastepaper so they recycle all their materials efficiently. The also recycle their Riso ink and cartridges. Riso ink is made of soya oil and pigment mixed together and the masters (plates/paper) are made from banana leaf which reduces waste but is from Japan.

Footprint is part of a Co-Op which allows them to work ethically and sustainably. They do not have a boss or a higher person that instructs them in what to do, they all work together as they are all equal shareholders. They do however, elect an owner/management committee but they are still workers like the rest of the employees. All decisions are made on a consensual basis such as not printing work they do not believe in or if it upsets them so they will turn work away. They print things because they know it's right rather than for the money.

The profit they make, they will donate 1% turnover to tree companies to give back to the environment.

They will offer 10% discount to the remembers of a Co-Op. Their ethos is to be affordable for everyone.

They have regular customers which are Co-Ops, political campaigners, small companies, artists and self-publishers.

They have printed publications for Leeds Zine fairs, Leeds No Boarders, Leeds Trans Health, Black Lives Matter etc... They produce work for nice people.

They also host websites aside from printing.

They use social media such as Facebook to set events and promote Leeds Zine fair, Instagram to show the work they have printed and Twitter. This is how they also get customers.

OUGD503 - Stratford Literacy Festival Book Jacket: Final Crit

 
Feedback

• I love the illustrations but I can't help but think there's something missing...
• The illustrations are so detailed and thorough that you can tell what buildings they are.
• The back cover looks plain
• Have you tried different background colours than white?
• It looks simple yet informative. You can tell by the typeface of the title that it is a medieval style theme. 
• The simplicity of the designs make it cordial as it seems so nonchalant.
• The title looks slightly too low... Great design however!
• I like the illustrations and the minimal use of colours because it makes it look clean.
• I really like the designs! Especially the red building - it looks really detailed but also minimal at the same time.
• The idea of including different part of Stratford is a good idea since it is a touristy town due to it's old-town presence. The book will be a good souvenir.

Gathering all the feedback, the designs seem to be quite a hit since there are positive comments about the style and the colours chosen. The informative direction signs shows that it is a touristy town and would be a good souvenir if it got chosen for the book jacket design. There are a few comments about the design looking too minimal which is understandable but I liked the simplicity and straightforwardness of the design.

OUGD503 - Collaborative Practice: Collaborative Contract

OUGD503 - Collaborative Practice: The Grown Up Chocolate Company: First Meeting

Collaborators: Hannah Johns and Siobhan Spencer.

The first initial meeting we had, unfortunately one of our team members couldn't attend due to illness.  Myself and another team member decided to look more into the brief and discuss what the brief wanted us to produce and what kind of theme they wanted to relay on to the consumers. 

Key words from the brief 

• Sophisticated
• Original and inventive
• Humour
• Young professional of any gender
• Allure to the mystery of what is inside the packaging

They would like us to produce a design for their box and outer sleeve for their new personalised chocolate bars and show mock ups. They would also like us to produce a cohesive e-commerce landing page to advertise their new product.

We discussed that we should look into competitors at the same price point and how they package their products. We thought it was best to come up with ideas as a whole instead of just the two of us.

OUGD503 - Collaborative Practice: The Grown Up Chocolate Company: Brief Interpretation

The Grown Up Chocolate Company are launching a new product that will allow them customers to customise their own chocolate bars from a list 100 ingredients. This will only be available to do on their website as not only can they customise their flavours, they can also customise the design on the wrapper where they can upload images onto.

The brief is to create the design of the outer sleeve that the chocolate bar will be presented in (fits 3 100g bars). The design could be anything we want as long as it reflects the company and would make their product stand out.

We’re open to ideas, and are seeking original, surprising designs that use the simple box and outer wrapper format in an inventive, creative way.

They want the packaging to appear elegant and mysterious and allude to the mystery of what might be inside. The packaging should be playful so it shows their personality. The audience is for young professionals of any gender. The packaging should be design to make their company stand out. 

Along with the packaging, they want a landing page designed so that the product will be presented to customers when they click through their site to explore the customised product. The webpage design should reference the packaging to create a cohesive image for the new concept.

Mandatory requirements
Take into account the brand guidelines which are included in the Project Pack.

Our logo and strapline, ‘Nice try kids but it’s not for you’, must feature on both the box and the outer sleeve.

Designs must follow the at templates for the box and outer sleeve provided in the Project Pack. They must wrap around the entire box and entire outer sleeve, and you might consider how graphics, images or text might be used in unusual parts of the packaging.

A panel of dimensions 8cm x 4cm should be set aside and left blank on the box, to allow us to incorporate ingredient and nutritional information. 

OUGD503 - Collaborative Practice

Key elements of collaboration

• Motivation
• Communication
• Diversity
• Sharing
• Support
• Problem Solving

Define what is your motivation for undertaking collaboration

• To be able to communicate with the other team members and listening to each other
• Collectively agreeing/disagreeing on ideas
• Knowing that creating something with other people is exciting

What methods of communications will you use and how often will you meet

• Instant messenger
• Video call
• Face to face 
• Contact each other a few times a week using either method

What skillset does each member of collaborative practice bring

• Being able to generate ideas
• Open-minded
• Being as motivated as each other

OUGD503 - Stratford Literary Festival Book Jacket: Final Design

The title has been moved to the top with the sub-title being at the bottom. Agreeably, this does look better as it helps guide the eyes from the top to the bottom of the book design. The illustrations on the book design are made to look minimal, only featuring key parts of the designs so that the audience would easily recognise what it is. The original idea was to use the colour of the Stratford Literacy Festival so that it shows a clear and strong link to the Sharing Stories book and the festival itself. The illustrated designs gives it personality and character, just like the contents the books hold. The red colour was used on Shakespeare's Birthplace to add more colour range and was chosen particularly because it works well with the orange. Orange and red are both warm colours so they would compliment each other. The idea to have the direction signs on the design is so that it also celebrates and features key parts that are well know in Stratford.

The portrait of Shakespeare on the reverse cover is to celebrate him/his life and how important he is to English Literature as he is one of the most famous storytellers of all time.