Emma's Rectangle Merchandise Designs

I was recently contacted through my brand The Prawn Shop, by the talent agency of youtuber 'Emma's Rectangle' for a paid commission for 3 merchandise designs.
After looking in to who Emma is, and the type of videos she creates, i found that Emma is a plus sized life style blogger, i felt that this brief would be appropriate for the type of designs i like to create as my work centres around women and body diversity.

I responded to the email the next day, after deciding on a price for my designs; i assumed the merchandise would be t-shirts and hoodies as that is what i produce on The Prawn Shop & so i set my price at £200 per design, i came up with this price after using my knowledge of selling clothing;  i evaluated the average printing cost of a t-shirt (£6) the average sale price (£15) and calculating how many sales it would take Emma to make profit after the cost of the designs (66 t-shirts sold before profit). I assumed that it wouldn't take long for Emma to sell 66 t-shirts due to her 200,000 subscribers.
After not receiving a response after 3 days i emailed again, asking if my price was too high, they then responded and informed me that the designs would be for mugs and so they asked if i would be able to create three designs for £300, i negotiated and the price of £450 was agreed for the three mug designs.

After agreeing to the commission, i wrote up a contract and sent it over to Emma's talent agency (as seen below), after countless ppp sessions warning us about clients not paying designers, i wrote in the contract that i would need half of the total payment before designing anything, and then the second half upon completion, i also wrote in to the contract that if Emma chooses to pull out of the commission then i would be paid for the work that i've completed.
The contract was signed and sent back to me, and the first payment had gone through, it was then time to find out exactly what Emma would like designing.

We arranged to have a phone call, which then turned in to a facetime call which actually worked out better as i could see the personality of Emma and see small details about her such as the jewellery she wears, which would later inform the designs.
I wrote up a list of questions to ask Emma, however once the call began Emma was answering the questions before i even asked, telling me that she wanted bright rainbow colours and the type of design she wanted for each mug, what was quite useful was the fact that she was showing me examples of my own work (taken from The Prawn Shop instagram page) and the elements she really liked from different designs.
Emma had a clear vision of how she wanted each mug to look, which is great for me as their is no confusion about the design concept, colours to use or anything.
Below i have written up a a brief description of each of the designs.
(note to self: next time i talk to a client over facetime/phone call, record the audio as it's quite difficult to try and keep up taking notes)

Durex Condom Research

Below shows research in to Durex and the condoms they make, this feels appropriate as the findings could work in to the campaign design. I looked in to the characteristics of the most popular Durex condoms, the findings show the variety that the brand offers and how they can enhance sexual experience which is something people have the preconception of the opposite. I also looked in to the packaging of the condoms to see what colours and imagery they use.

Durex 'Thin Feel'-

• natural feel 
• feel nothing 
• packaging is red and features a feather 

Durex 'Excite Me'- 

• dotted for extra stimulation 
• a focus on 'excitement' 
• packaging is orange with dots 

Durex 'Extended Pleasure' 

• special lubricant that delays climax 
• ribbed and dotted 
• packaging is grey with an infinity symbol 

Durex 'Taste Me' Apple, Strawberry, Banana etc

• flavoured condom 
• designed for oral sex 
• condom coloured to the complementary flavour
• the packaging is the colour of what every flavour the condom is  

From the research in the the most popular Durex variations and looking at what the brief is asking me to do i had the idea of my campaign featuring 4 posters with each one depicting a narrative which explores everyday situations with condoms present eg in peoples luggage, i think this concept is appropriate as the brief is aiming to make condoms a normal everyday thing to carry about, making them part of young peoples everyday routine. 

I think it would be interesting to utilise elements of the 4 condoms researched above within the designs, with each narrative linking to one of the 4 most popular Durex varieties, for example basing the colour pallet on the colour of the condom box. As the brief states that the campaign should be visually based, i think that the text on each poster should be minimal, apart from small elements in the background/on items when appropriate. 

I also think that it is essential to show different sexual orientations within the campaign, to communicate the fact that Durex doesn't judge, and wants people to have the sex that they want. 

Durex Research

In 2017 Durex and Public Health England released a campaign to encourage young people to use condoms in order to protect against STIs click here for the video campaign, unlike the D&AD brief set by Durex, their previous campaign went down the route of trying to scare 16-24 year olds in to wearing condoms by showing people who have STIs talking about their experiences, with their faces replaced by emojis in order to hide their identities and 'relate to young people' although im not sure this is as effective as they thought it was going to be, due to the fact that the D&AD brief states that the campaign shouldn't 'bully or scaremonger'.

screenshot taken from the 2017 Durex campaign

After looking at the previous campaign i decided to begin research looking in to why young people aren't wearing condoms, through an online article by the independent, it was suggested that the most common reasons young people aren't wearing condoms is due to:

• the perceived impact on sexual pleasure and intimacy. 
• the fact that young people are 'not scared' of contracting STIs anymore. This has been linked to the idea that they don't think the consequences are as severe as they used to be; this does have some truth, due to the fact that people with HIV are expected to live 20 years longer than people with HIV did in 2000. 
• A lack of discussion between the people having sex, or the lack of discussion between friends about STIs (56% of men and 43% of women have said that it's difficult to talk about STIs with friends (statistics taken from ukgov))
• 'the heat of the moment' 

From the above research i believe that my visually led campaign should focus on proving the preconception that condoms have a negative impact on sexual pleasure and intimacy wrong, whilst also showing condoms as being a normal thing to carry and that safe sex is good sex. i want to stay away from facts and figures about STI rates amongst young people, as the campaign has said to liberate not dictate i feel it's vital not to focus on the negative risks of not wearing a condom, but rather the positives of wearing one. I also think that it's key to try and break conventions about sex, showing more than just a man and a woman who are in a monogamous relationship; highlighting the real, honest, open and fun attitudes Durex as a brand have towards sex. 

I think taking an 'always be prepared' angle to the campaign might work well, rather than showing condoms being used whilst having sex, show young people of all enthinicites and sexualities carrying a condom always, as you cant really predict when you're going to have sex. A study by Emory University found that carrying a condom/using a condom can be 'seen as a sign of sexual promiscuity' i think it's appropriate to the Durex's brand ethos to break down this stigma, communicating the message of the brand that good sex is a human right, liberating people to have the sex they want on their own terms. I think it's also important to show women carrying condoms breaking down the sexual convention that men should carry condoms, showing women taking charge of their sexual health and pleasure. 

Within the campaign i also think i should (after research) show the variety of Durex condoms, by showing thinner designs and new materials they use such as graphene, it will help to show how condoms don't have the negative impact on sexual pleasure and intimacy people believe they do, the types of condoms could also impact design decisions such as the colour pallet of the design' 

D&AD New Blood Awards - Durex

Left is a brief set by the D&AD New Blood Awards. The brief is to create a campaign which encourages people across the world aged 16-24 to make carrying and using a condom the norm & part of their everyday habit.

Below i have began to brainstorm ideas for this brief; documenting initial ideas based on aspects from the brief.

end of module evaluation

This module has been really rewarding in terms of being able to explore my individual practice within my work, the micro music genre was really interesting and allowed me to push myself to produce something that i previously had no knowledge of constructing. The research for both projects really influenced all of the design decisions, this is something which i have been working on improving this academic year, as i feel last year i was too stuck in my head when it came to the design but throughout the briefs this year, particularly these two I've began to understand more and more that the research, if done correctly will open your eyes to ideas that have never been considered before. Working on both of these briefs has really affirmed my previous thoughts in terms of the type of design i like to do, which is design that can be held, worn, touched and experienced in person rather than on screen, this is something i'm excited to develop next year.
Product, Range and distribution was a brief i was excited to do as i felt it would be a good way to utilise my preexisting knowledge in terms of making and distributing clothing, i also feel like this is the reason that i was able to gather such in depth, personal research due to the fact that The Prawn Shop has a following of people who buy the t-shirts due to the fact they can relate to the themes and topics the designs address.
I feel as if the amount of type we had to complete the briefs was very generous, i was able to fully develop my ideas through a range of primary and secondary research, resulting in the production of some of the most considered and well thought out i believe i have produced throughout the course.

final images (sb2)

I began to experiment with adding type (as seen above) to the images, i felt that adding type was appropriate in order to give the customer extra details of each t-shirt. I experimented with adding digital illustrations throughout the images however this felt too busy and as if it was taking the attention away from the t-shirt design, i also experimented with adding colour to the type and trying to replicate the wavy use of type in the actual designs, however again this just felt too busy. The type i found to work the most was the white almost hand written type, it was felt that this was most appropriate due to the fact that it's easy to read, the tone of the type meant that whilst it's still visible and legible, it doesn't grab your attention straight away. I also feel that the hand writing style goes well with the overall influence of the designs coming from real women, it adds another personal touch to the overall collection. On each image i've added the quote and the name of the woman who inspired the design/the item name, in addition to this, i've called the collection 'together' which can be seen directly above, this will be the first image that people see and so i think that it's necessary to give a little idea of what the collection is about before they scroll through the images or read the product description.

production & shoot (sb2)

The t-shirts arrived, the printing quality and balance of colours on most of the t-shirts were perfect

However the balance of colours on the 'Lily' t-shirt meant that it could not be used, as you can see on the image below, the background tone is too dark resulting in the type not being legible. 

However this doesn't really change anything about the project, the other 4 t-shirts are all up to the quality of all of The Prawn Shop t-shirts, the number of t-shirts that was going to be made was never released online and so there now being four t-shirts rather than 5 isn't the end of the world.

I understand where i went wrong with choosing the colour placement for this design, i don't think i factored in the fact that each colour would decrease in vibrancy and get darker due to the fact that the design in printed on a coloured t-shirt rather than a white one, and so the tones will adapt to the fabric colour. However, the 4 designs which did print well, look really bold and have a sense of impact on the t-shirts, and the mixture of (dark) purple tones, against the sky blue really work in harmony together. 

I sourced a lilac table cloth big enough for group shots, from a charity shop. The tone was thought to really compliment the purple tones on the t-shirt, and was also light enough that the focus would be on the designs, and the tone of the t-shirt could easily be seen. 

I asked 4 girls to model for the shoot, i tried to use a diverse mix of women as diversity is one of the brands main messages. I gave direction throughout the shoot, whilst also taking the photos, to instruct the models to try and communicate a sense of strength, whilst also showing a community and friendship between themselves in order to reenforce the message that if you have been affected by sexual harassment/abuse, you're not alone, similar to the MeToo movement. 

The shoot went really well and i feel like the models really communicated the sense of togetherness i was hoping to achieve. I tried to capture as many candid shots as i could in order to make the shoot look more natural and easy going. 

Only having 4 t-shirts rather than 5 has actually turned out for the better, due to the fact that the website which The Prawn Shop store is hosted from, only allows 5 images per product and as i was planning to list all of these t-shirts together, as a collection, this means that i will now be able to use a group shot and also individual product images, so that it's easier for the customer to understand which design is which, rather than just using group shots and having to distinguish each t-shirt from each other. 

Above are the best shots from the shoot. All of the images have been edited the same, slightly increasing the brightness and contrast, and adjusting the colour balance so theres more purple tones throughout the images, however i've insured not to edit the colour of the t-shirt/it's design, so that the customers are aware of what they're buying. 

The next step is to add text to the images, detailing the quote on the t-shirt and the name of the t-shirt, i'm doing this as on some shots the text is slightly covered up in certain places, also to make it easy for customers to choose the right t-shirt. 

final (sb1)

Below are the final catalogue pages i created using the images from the shoot, influence has been taken from the layout of 80's catalogue pages previously looked at, particularly the use of positioning smaller images amongst larger ones and slightly overlapping them, in addition to this i've also taken influence from the ay 80's catalogues boarder the images, with the boarder colours been taken from tones within the actual images. 

I chose to use a bold, italic Airal typeface, taking influence from the use of block text within 80's advertising, i also spaced each character out, so the type could run across the page.

I decided to call the range of ties 'The Office Romantic' playing on the target audience being office workers and the new romantic genre which inspired designs. 

In The exhibition, the ties will be hung up on a wall (pre-tied in to the tie shape) with the corresponding catalogue pages positioned next to them, the catalogue pages have been printed on to thin glossy paper to replicate the type of paper typically found in catalogues. 

shoot (sb1)

I was aiming to communicate the story of an 80s office worker through this shoot, giving the audience a sort of narrative through the images. I chose a small office room within the university to take the images, using props such as book, paper, pens and plants i believe i was able to effectively communicate a humorous yet realistic scenario, showcasing the ties by someone who would of worn them, and in a reminiscent of the 80s.

Above are some of my favourite images from the shoot, each edited in order to look like the image was taken on a film camera in the 80's. The model followed my direction really well, he was able to get in to character and show the ties and also provide a humorous side to the shoot, which is what i set out to achieve. I gave some direction during the shoot of the type of emotion he should try and present, as i was trying to communicate the many different emotions an office worker may have during a working week.
The first set of 5 images are trying to communicate Tom as being stressed, the images have been made a lot warmer in order to compliment the warm tones of the tie.
The second set of images is trying to show Tom as if he's presenting a presentation to colleagues, showing him feeling confident. And the final images show Tom taking a break at the offices water fountain, joking to co workers and thinking about what club he's going to go to later tonight.

production continued (sb1)

I then began the construction of the ties, which turned out to be a lot simpler than i initially thought. 

I laid the tie fabric design faced down and placed the pattern i took from the ties i deconstructed on to the tie fabric, to act as a body for the tie, giving it shape. 

Using wonder web/hemming tape and an iron, i cut out sections of tape and applied them to the inside of the tie, ironing a crease in to the tie fabric to establish wear the material should be secured, i then used the iron to melt to hemming tape in to the fabric.

The overall construction of the ties was very straight forward and i'm looking forward to shooting images of the ties.