Final Task

My final brief was based on a client needs just like in the real life. I get a chance to work for the real artist who is willing to give young people a chance to develop their skills and produce the product which is on the professional level. When I met Andy Mallen he told me about his music and the album he recorded and would like to promote on the music market. I got a chance to listen two of his singles; Stoney Broke and I am not A. He described his music as a mixture of different styles appealing to wide range of audience. His music was about social and political issues like increasing the student fees or decreases the pensions. However it is not only about the money it is also about feeling and citizen’s statuses.

So when I already had enough information I was ready to do some audience research. I did it through the questionnaire which results than I used to create the digipack for the artist which will be than sold successfully.

After gathering the information about the audiences I start to plan the ideas for the character. As my client wanted to have the character which people could connect to when listening to his music. The album name is Video Boy therefore the genre of the character is male. I did the spider diagram to have the better clarity in my thoughts. I chose to do the first design with the pieces of paper to create the collage to express the character through various male features connected together. This idea could represent the different aspects of life and many issues at once. When I finished my first idea I found that it is not as effective looking as I would like it to be. The character was too abstract without its own style, so it didn’t represented the Andy’s music well enough.

Then I chosen another option this time I didn’t chosen the manual work, art but I decided to relay on the computer design. However to do the editing on the computer to make my work copyright free, firstly I drawn my characters on a piece of paper and then I scanned it to the computer. Due to the technology I was able to make the outlines of the drawing thicker to create the computer look. However with outlines on the plain background it looked too empty and because I really liked this idea I decided to develop it a bit more. I thought to use Photoshop software in order to put the colours into the areas in character’s body, but it had to many disadvantages; the design might look not professional and too simple not meeting my client’s needs.  So the next idea came to my head, I was inspired by my previous design and decided to add the textures to my characters. I did it with a help of Photoshop, I downloaded copyright free images with textures, then I selected the right areas in character body with magic wind and I paste the images inside the areas at the end I adjusted the pictures to the areas. The outcomes were amazing I was really happy with results, I liked my idea a lot but I still wanted to complete another idea to have a variety to choose from. So again I had an opportunity to practice the manual, art skills and two of the older printing techniques. The practice was based around the idea of Video Boy. First technique was extremely simple, it is called Mono Print. For Mono Print I needed to have an acrylic paints, piece of paper, pencil or something to write with and rolling equipment. The way I did my mono print; I simple putted the small amount of paint on the table I used the rolling equipment to get the paint spread evenly, next I placed the paper on top of the paint I start to draw my design. When I it was ready I took my paper and I left it to dry. The effect I got was the white outlines with a nice surfaced background. To develop my idea I repeated this process once again this time the creation I did was much better.

 Afterward I get a chance to dry another technique commonly used in 18^th centaury to produce Bibles and other important books like this. The technique is called dry point and it is made by gravure the design on top of the plastic plate with a help of sharp equipment. This type of print is time consuming and with comparison to Mono print it is made with ink not with paint. When my design was ready I get the ball looking tool with a little handle and I soaked it with ink. Then by doing round movements with my waist I placed the ink in the gravure spaces and in the plate. Next I putted the plate into the machine and then the paper on the top of it. By turning the wheel the machine started to work, squeezing the plate and paper together by big roll and leaving the print on the paper. The results were in my opinion better than when using Mono Print. Even though it is taking more time it had a nice old looking, faded effect at the end.

After finishing with my experimenting and my third idea, I ask my peers which of the ideas will match and will satisfy my client’s requirements for sure. The majority answered that the second design is really good and should be used in my final design. When people asked, what I should develop in my design they found that one of my character haven’t got the eyes and they suggested to add the eyes in as it will even more be connected with the audience and the society around. Once I have agreed on my final character I was ready to create the digipack. Beforehand I researched the legal requirements to be prepared for every problem I might have and avoid them.

I decided to have the black background as this colour is representing the music well and it is very universal and unisexual. Next I tried different positions of my character; I chosen the simple lay out with the title and character being at the central point of CD cover.  I thought this solution would be the best as it will have a character at the very front so that people will refer to the album through the character as it is really easy to remember. After completing my CD cover i asked people from different age group about their opinions. They all liked my idea but they didn’t like the font of the title. They thought it is too futuristic, so I changed it to have written style with nice texture and the feedback were very positive people thought this design was better than previous one.

One I had my perfect CD cover I started to design the inside; lyrics page and cd holder, however I faced a huge problem and I could get my design from my usb stick and I lost all the data stored there. I even went to the IT store but they couldn’t help me. However the lyrics page was made with the same font like a front title, but in the holes of letters I placed the yellow colour to get the design a little bit lighter and looking more lively. I also added few yellow pictures representing the Video Boy which were; a cassette, CD, computer screen, headphones and pc itself. I added the eroded effect to the pictures to represent the music even better and to create this feeling of suspension. In addition the damaged effect it is representing the male part of society well as boys are tend to get into some fights or be not very tidy and clean. Back cover was just a black background with the logos of the producers and recording companies at the right corner. Also with the title going across the page from the angle as well as the small name of the artist appearing next to the logos as he don’t want to be recognized  by the name but by the character.

Overall I am really proud of my development work I think the whole process teach me how to deal with the clients and how to produce the real life products. Although I have a  better understanding of the nature of printing and product design  I also learned about the language which need to be used to persuade and colours and things which will attract the given audience. In my opinion I completed the task successfully without any major issues.