End of Module Evaluation

Throughout the course of this year i have definitely learnt a lot about the way in which i work, and what doe and doesn't work for my self as a designer. I'm aware that my best work is created when i am passionate about the subject, or engaged with the research; such as the typographic poster, which not only provided me with the opportunity to explore a new area of graphic design, through typography design, but also allowed me to create a piece of work with strong contextual links. Throughout the whole module my time keeping was vital, as I've been running a business alongside my studies, it's sometimes hard to find a balance however through creating a time plan i was able to clearly see what needed doing, ensuring i stuck to the plan. I feel as if i have grown throughout this module, from my first very collaboration with Tom in February, to finishing the module with another collaboration about to be released, i have not only learnt the value in collaboration with other designers but i now also understand the importance of setting a theme whilst collaborating, in order to maintain the visual cohesion of the designs. This module has really allow me to explore subjects that i am passionate about, and that i plan to continue to voice throughout my career, such as female sexuality, feminism and objectification culture, i intend to continue reading journals and books around these subjects in order to inform my contextual work in the future.
Although i feel apprehensive about finishing the degree, i feel confident that the skills i have learnt, and the contacts within my class will allow me to continue working hard, sticking to deadlines and creating work that hopes to make some kind of social wave.

Statement of Intent

Throughout the course of my three years at university, i have developed not only a clear set plan for my future as a designer, but also a strong interest in current social issues that effect myself, and many women i know. My work outside of university consists of running my growing unisex clothing brand The Prawn Shop, inspired by female equality, sexuality, diversity and consent, this year i want to continue to push my beliefs through visually interesting and vibrant designs. The work i create will comment, challenge and raise questions about issues which women face within today's society, whilst developing my personal style through a number of different contexts. I intend to continue to push and challenge my self as a designer and a business owner, accepting and creating new opportunities in order to gain new voices and opinions around the work i create.
Throughout the module i intend to create a clear time plan and stick to it, i believe setting a clear time and end date will provide a realistic time frame for m to complete the work within.
I intend to utilise my brands Instagram page to collect primary research throughout briefs where necessary, as i currently have customers across 37 countries, the varied amount of potential responses i could collect would be very valuable in terms of making an informed piece of work.

The Prawn Shop Branding Evaluation

Through designing a series of branding for my brand The Prawn Shop, it has allowed me to feel a lot more professional and organised in terms of taking the brand full time after graduation. As i was effectively the client for this brief, i understood the personality of the brand and the target audience very well, however it was a slight learning curve understanding that a business card per-say, is not always going to be given to someone who is comfortable with the nudity which the brand often features, and so it made me think about my brand from not only the perspective of my customers, but also potential business partners or stockists of the future. Through using a very familiar colour pallet to the brand, the branding effectively captures the vibrant, bold, playful personality of The Prawn Shop across all relevant platforms.

Terms Of Terror Evaluation

I really enjoyed approaching a project from research initially and then developing a brief, i believe that through utilising social media i was able to collect a really wide variety of responses for the research questions i put out, which effectively resulted in the comic cover being produced. It was really interesting to push my self in terms of the illustration style, i believe that the comic book style was effectively portrayed within the Terms of Terror cover, with the typography looking particularly appropriate. The idea generation for this project did take some time, in retrospect i would have really liked to of produced a comic strip to go along side the cover in order to really push the narrative, however my time planning should have been kept more closely. This brief has also been really insightful in gaining the opinions of my brands followers, seeing their experiences and hearing their opinions on subjects i am passionate about, i think hat this will definitely be something a i do more often; gaining the opinions of my audience and creating work inspire by them. Overall i do think the outcome to this brief is very effective at both communicating the overall message and pushing myself as a designer to step out of my comfort zone. As i am predominately a visual designer, it was really interesting to base work around language, this may be a new feature to future work that i create.

Graduate Collection Evaluation

After having a positive experience collaborating within my brand The Prawn Shop with Nasal Warts earlier in the year, i took the opportunity to collaborate with Jay and Amin, who's work i ahve admired over the 3 years of working alongside them both. This experience ran a lot smoother than the previous, which i believe is due to the fact that i had gained experience from my earlier collaboration with Tom. Working with both Jay and Amin was very exciting, as ideas would constantly be bounced around which made the whole experience a lot more engaging. I also feel that my vision for the rband has gotten stronger throughout this brief, as we chose not to rush to try and get the collection shot in time for the deadline, rather we were realistic about what we wanted to achieve and weren't going to settle for something sub par to that, and so a test shoot was conducted for the purpose of the hand in, and also to have an understanding of who we want the shoot to work, ensuring that everything runs as smooth as possible. I believe that having a clear them for the designs really worked for this collaboration, as it gave Jay and Amin the opportunity to work on their designs alone, however i do wish that the designing process would of been more collaborative in terms on working on the designs directly with them both, however the final pieces are very appropriate for The Prawn Shop and the whole concept for The Graduate Collection. I believe collaborating with other creatives is a very good thing for The Prawn Shop, it can sometimes feel quite exhausting to stay inspired, working on your business alone, however through occasionally working with other people, new ideas are made and other perspectives and opinions are shared.

Typographic Poster Evaluation

Overall this brief has been very insightful as it’s the first time I’ve really experimented with typography, manipulating an existing type in order to create a visually new piece of work. Basing this project on passages from Promiscuities was definitely a really good way of maintaining focus in relation to the progression of the design, looking back over passages to find subtle visual links that could be worked in to the design.
The colour pallet and print stock really help to both represent modern society, and the past through the glossy, vibrant colours which is both reminiscent of today, and over the late 60’s period.
In hindsight I do feel that creating a full typography alphabet would have been more useful as it would of provided the opportunity for more typographic experiments and deliverables, however the final piece I believe really meets the criteria of communicating an effective message about todays society, inspired by the past.
I am definitely now more confident in terms of experimenting with typography in the future, it was a very good experience to spend time on small details of a much larger piece, I also believe that my knowledge of composition and balance has definitely been heightened by this experience.

Durex Evaluation

I believe the final Durex design is very effective in communicating the everyday mentality the brand wanted to achieve. From placing the condom illustrations in plain sight, and designing the people using the shapes of the condoms the brand was effectively communicated in an everyday sense. The actual design of the piece is very appropriate due to the varying amount of couples, single people and a variety of others, all presented as equal. The lack of distinct lines within the piece really helps to subtly communicate the latex element of the condoms. The colour pallet too is very appropriate due to the subtle links to romance through the red and pink tones, whilst also being appropriate for the young target audience. Through printing the design on to gloss it also helps to push the materialistic aspect of what Durex produces, and due to the fact that the design was created and then transformed in to a vector piece, the size of the design can be changed dependant on the platform it would be used upon.

Emma's Rectangle Commission Evaluation

Working on the commission from Emma’s Rectangle was definitely a learning experience. I found it difficult at first to always work the designs to her exact ideas, as I had personal beliefs about the designs. However I’ve now learnt that due to this being a paid commission, the client’s needs should be met, I believe I found a good balance between ensuring Emma’s expectations and desires were met, whilst still ensuring the designs are visually pleasing, and something I wouldn’t object to putting in my portfolio. I didn’t feel any particular pressure with the time, because there was a clear deadline I knew that the word had to be ready for that date, not matter what. I actually quite enjoyed setting a clear short deadline for  brief, I feel it allowed me to make the appropriate design decisions from the beginning, constantly working on the designs in order to meet to clients needs, and the deadlines.

Time Plan

Above is the time plan I've used through the completion of these projects, the tones sued within the plan represent the completion of the briefs (green) and whether the briefs have taken longer than expected (orange). Creating the time plan really helped clear my mind of some of the stress surrounding the work, it allowed me to see a clear plan and appropriate main deadlines within the brief.

TPS X NW evaluation

Having the opportunity to work along side another creative has definable been a learning experience in terms of understanding how to work within my brand with another person. I believe this experience has defiantly made me aware of understanding my target audience through the art direction role i took within this brief, through the concepts of the clothing and the overall curation of the event. The event was a success, over 150 people attended and around half of them stayed until the very end, the interactive elements were particular popular, this experience has really informed my knowledge of how to curate an event, if i happen to do another in the future. Understanding how to transform a space with limited materials was also a very valuable lesson as it provided limitations both through time and materials, which really allowed my self and Tom to quickly generate ideas and solutions. I believe collaborating is a really good thing for The Prawn Shop and my practice, it allows me to step outside of my comfort zone and hear the opinions and direction of other people, whilst introducing a new audience to my brand, i definitely plan on collaborating more in the near future.
Although Gabby did participate in some aspects of setting up the event, such as blowing up balloons and finding furniture, i believe she could of been more involved in the curation side as she is familiar with the space.

The Event Film Pictures

Above are images taken on film cameras throughout the night, the cameras were scattered across the rooms free for people to take natural pictures as they chose. This was a really nice element to include as it not only engages people with the exhibition, but also shows people enjoying the evening. 

TPS X NW research

After being contacted by the events organiser from The Old Red Bus Station, Tom Clague was contacted for a collaboration, as it seemed like the perfect time to both collaborate for the first time on clothing, and also curate and host an event. Figure 1 shows Tom’s illustration style, with figure 2 showing The Prawn Shop’s, Tom’s  line quality is very similar to the brands and so the collaboration had the potential to work very cohesively, ensuring the designs would still attract the attention of the prawn shop’s 18-24 predominantly female audience.

After agreeing it collaborate, the event space was looked at in order to see what was possible. The exhibition space was on the top  floor of the building, with two sets of stairs leading up to a short hallway with a door at each side-leading to two rooms which were both available for use.
The first room (on the left) was very open, with exposed brick walls and windows. Gabby informed us that we could hang anything on all but one wall, with the freedom to rearrange the rooms however we like.
The second room was much darker than the first, with it normally being used for club nights with coloured lights throughout this room.

After visiting the space a  floor plan was drawn up as can be seen in figure 3, this was used to plan out what would be in each room and also to understand what was needed to be produced.
The concept was decided on creating two separate environments in the two rooms, with the lighter room on the left being used as an exhibition space, a place for photo opportunities and a stall selling prints.
The other, much darker room, was to be used as more of an interactive space, with art work on the walls, places for people to mingle and relax and much louder music than in the other room.

The venue, which is usually used as a club space was quite dirty, as can be seen in figure 4 there were marks on the ceiling and so the decision was made to attempt to cover these during the exhibition.

TPS X NW EVENT CURATION

The event curation began a day before the opening night, due to the space normally being used as a nightclub, a lot of cleaning took place before the curation could take place., with the mould like stains on the ceiling were covered with balloons and sheets.
The space was set up by both collaborators and Gaby, furniture was collected from throughout the venue in order to provide enough sating to entice people to relax and stay, there was a consistent colour pallet of pink, red and yellow used throughout the night, through the balloons, tykvec   flooring, drawings and more, in order to relate to the brands signature colour pallet.
Within the left room, a stall selling prints was set up, along with the backdrop from the shoot, tables for guests to sit at and prints exhibited along the walls, this space was curated with the intention of it being a quieter room where people could browse, relax and possibly buy something.
The right room on the over hand was more buys, with interactive elements such as a tattoo stand, an interactive drawing (see figure 3) ,  drawings on the wall, the new collection hung up on the walls, music and projections of the collection and illustrations covering another wall.

Figure 4 shows film photographs taken throughout the night, the launch was a very big success, with over 150 people attending. Over 70 raffle tickets were sold, with figure 5 showing the crowd during the raffle  being drawn. Many people commented on how well thought out the event was, with the tattoos running out within the first hour. 

Curating interactive elements was definitely a smart decision as it ensured that people weren’t just looking at things, they were rather creating things and helping in part to curate the exhibition. 

The photography backdrop really worked well in gaining social media coverage, as can be seen in figure 6 many people were photographing the evening, and getting photos in-front of the backdrop. 

In hindsight it would of been smart to employ someone for the evening to man the print stall, as due to the fact that one of the collaborators would have to be behind the stall at all times, it reduced the opportunity to mingle and talk and experience the event with other people as much as possible. However this is a learning curve, and will definitely inform future events. 

Overall i believe we did as much as we could in terms of making the space look as good as we could, with a small budget and a day to set up. we utilised props within the venue typically used for club nights such as an almost assault course style vine rope which we used to hide part of the room in order to make the space look smaller, and less empty. 

TPS X NW clothing design and production

Around a week before the exhibition, the samples arrived. All designs were to the standard that the brand offers, apart from one. The collaborative square illustration titled gone home wasn’t suitable once embroidered, due to the detail of the design the stitches were very thin and hard to distinguish the design, however this design was also ordered as a printed piece on a black t-shirt as can be seen in figure 2, as well as on tote bags (see figure 3). Figure 1 shows the sundown design, the quality and positioning of the designs was felt to be appropriate however the prints on the sleeves seemed to get lost within the vibrancy of the design.
The use of vibrant colours was thought to be really appropriate for the brands audience however when it came to releasing the collection, stock of the gold t-shirts was unavailable and so it couldn’t be released to the public.

The 1512 design as can be seen in figure 4 was believed t o be the most successful and thought out piece of the whole collection. The detail of the embroidery was to a very high standard, and the colour pallet was new to the brand but worked very well.
The final pieces, titled orbit can be seen in figure 5, this design was the cheapest to produce and so the most low priced piece within the collection, the collaborative logo was thought to be slightly too big however due to the impending launch, there wasn't time for it to be altered.

The shoot took place within the university, with Level 6 student Georgia Richards photographing the collection. The backdrop worked really well within the shoot, as it helped to separate the collection from previous ones, and push the collaborative aspect further.
Although the images came out well in the end, both myself and Tom had to edit them as she was unable to complete the images in time.

Initial Ideas (TPS X NW)

The collaborative collection was going to be available for one month only and so we thought a 4 piece collection would be the right quantity. Due to the space i currently have, i'm unable to keep stock and so we weren't going to be selling the new collection at the launch party, rather we would provide everyone who came a first look at the collection, a 10% discount code to use online and a raffle to win the new collection, with tickets being available to purchase on the night, of course this wasn't enough to throw a event for and so we came up with other ideas of things to exhibit to increase the amount of people attending and make those who do, want to stay. 

Due to the low cost of producing prints and tote bags we thought that it would be a good idea to create prints and tote bags to sell on the night, we also planned to exhibit the prints around the room in order to fill some of the space within the two rooms. We then began to think of interactive elements as a way to utilise the space in the second room, we decided to create an interactive drawing sized A0 or bigger, in which people could illustrate straight on to it, this was thought to be a good idea due to the fact that we'll be advertising the event to not only my Leeds based customers, but also throughout our creative university. We also came up with the idea of having a temporary tattoo station, where people could get temporary prawn shop x nasalwarts tattoos, in addition to this, we planned to create a face cut out board and a photo station, where people could pose in front of a painted photo backdrop in the hopes of people taking photos with it and tagging the brand on instagram to raise customer engagement towards the collection. 

Myself and Tom devised a list of everything that needed to be done in the month before the exhibition.

• logo 
• 4 x pieces of clothing 
• prints to sell / exhibit 
• interactive drawing 
• banner for entrance 
• posters to advertise 
• 10% off vouchers 
• face cut out photo board 
• temporary tattoos 
• tote bags 
• props 
• playlist 
• photoshoot 
• raffle poster 
• photobackdrop 

Mug Production

The client responded really well to the final designs and she was happy to send them off to print, however there was a slight issue when it came to explaining that the colours would be duller once printed than they are on screen, in hindsight it’s clear that all of the designs should have been designed from the start in CMYK colour mode, to avoid any confusion or potential disappointment. However this wasn’t a major issue and as can be seen above , the final mugs were still vibrant once printed.

Mug designs development

After several emails back and fourth with Emma, I presented her with these final

The initial designs were sent over to the client and feedback (as can be seen opposite) was provided.
Based on the feedback, the I’m a mug design was adjusted with a thicker hand drawn type being presented in the 70s aesthetic the client wanted. After the adjustments were made, the design did look a lot fuller than the previous, with the thicker type allowing more space to be filled, which meets the clients intentions of there being as little white space as possible, see figures 1-3 for variations.

The feedback for the hot beverage of choice mug was really useful as it solved the issue of where to put the type, after being informed that she wanted the text to be the feature, it allowed the composition to appear more balanced and again, full, as can be seen in figure 4.

Although it was personally thought that the more typography based mug of positivity design was the most appropriate, the client did not, although she did prefer the typography of the preferred design and so the two were combined to create figure 5.

Terms of Terror production

Whilst deciding on the printing method for the terms of terror cover I was informed by a member of the print staff that a glossy stock would be the most appropriate for an authentic comic cover & so the cover was printed on to glossy stock.

Durex production

Although the Durex design can be used on screens, the design was printed in order to add to the overall communication of the message and also to allow people to view it in the way it’s intended.  The design has been printed on to glossy stock, gloss was chosen in order to communicate the material of latex condoms to add to the overall theme of the design. The Durex logo has been added to the end of the poster, with the idea of people viewing it from left to right, whilst stood in a queue,. whilst they’re looking at ithe design they will probably not notice the condoms, or the shapes on the clothing, however once they see the Durex logo as they reach the end of both the poster queue and their own, it will make sense and add to the idea that condoms are a normal everyday thing that young people should carry about, that ythey shouldn’t think twice about carrying.

Test Shoot

In order to ensure that when we do the actual shoot, it runs as smoothly as possible, we decided to do a test shoot, in which we create a studio set up within one of our own studios.
We took this opportunity to ensure that both the clothes are to the standard that we want them to be, and also to understand what does and doesn't work in terms of posing, lighting, props and more.

After receiving the samples of the clothing, we were happy with almost all of them. Amins orange design didn't print as well as we would of hoped, and the combination of the t-shirt colour and design colour just wasn't working, and so we decided to not use that tee. This was the same case for one of my designs, in which the design wasn't printed as well as others. We also, as a group felt that these two t-shirts didn't reflect the same quality as the rest of the collection.

During the test shoot, i laid down the laminate flooring previously bought, the velvet backdrop was duck taped to the studio wall, and various plants and books which were laying around were utilised. As this was just a test shoot, we didn't organise a group of models specifically, rather we asked people in and around the uni to model for us, which worked well and we ended up with a varied selection; some of whom have been asked to model again in the actual shoot.

As a whole the shoot went really well, we experimented with presenting a narrative of school picture day, through the use of forced smiles, awkward posing and books as props, although i believe this was communicated, it defiantly will be once it comes to the actual shoot where each model has their own high school character, however for the purpose of this shoot we just wanted to capture the essence of the narrative.





In order to achieve the 90's aesthetic we hope to communicate within the real shoot, i edited some of the images that were captured by 2nd year photography student Bronte carter, as can be seen below. I experimented with the brightness and vibrancy, and added some grain textures in order to achieve the vintage look, Bronte also captured some images on a film camera, however the film hasn't been developed at this point.
Below are images I've edited of a selection of the items within the Graduate Collection.

At first we weren't sure about the blue backdrop as we thought in person it was a lot lighter than we had anticipated, however once the images were taken, the backdrop really works well in allowing the t-shirts to stand out, as there were no items of clothing in a similar colour pallet.

The test shoot was shot on both film and digital, both of the mediums we'll be using within the actual shoot. The film images as can be seen below, really give the images an authentic 90's look, which really helps to push the aesthetic of the collection.

The Prawn Shop Branding Production

Here are images showing the completed prawn shop branding.
The business cards have been printed on to 300gsm orlin regular card, which gives them a slight shine & ensures they're durable.

The stickers came out really well, printed on a matte stock, due to the straight structure of the stickers, cutting them out via the guillotine was very straight forward and will be useful for once i finish university, and i need to prepare more stickers to go along with orders.

The discount cards were printed on a 200gsm card stock, however i feel that due to the fact that these slips will be going in with every order, it isn't very cost effective to print them on card and so when it comes to printing more for going in with orders, i believe that printer paper will be appropriate.

I've taken images of the branding in the context that the customers will use/receive them, along with one of the items available on the prawn shop, when comparing these elements along with the website, everything is really visually cohesive, which was the main aim of the whole branding.