pear / issue 1 overview

Issue 1 has already been created in accordance to the existing brand guidelines. Looking at this issue again, I feel that it could be made more exciting and lively. The colour usage looks quite bland some of the illustrations could be improved upon. Although the aim of pear is to be gender neutral it doesn't mean that it can't be fun or lively, or that specific colours must be avoided.

Having a strict colour palette is quite limiting with children's design. Their attention needs to be kept with every turn of the page and if the pages all blend into one this might a disadvantage. Adding a few more colours and making a brighter publication with more illustrations will make it more attractive and fun magazine for my target audience.

the internets love of dogs / research - facebook

Facebook has a large array of dog meme pages. Some are quite 'normal' and some are more niche. Here I have gathered a range of pages that could be featured in my project. Some pages are dedicated to one specific dog, whereas others include a range of dogs and funny images.

Puppers UNLEASHED
Puppers UNLEASHED is a facebook page that posts dog memes that quite ironic in humour.

There is a trend for using a 'VHS' style of artwork amongst some meme pages, showing dogs in unrealistic/psychedelic scenes. Another trend is using words such as 'bork', 'pupper', 'doggo' and 'heck'. Dogs in silly situations or small dogs that look 'scary' are usually featured on Puppers UNLEASHED. The captions they use on the images are also a part of the meme, adding extra humour and context to the image.

 

Sausage Dog Central
This facebook page is dedicated to Sausage dogs rather than funny memes and takes images from lots of different places. It is a place for people who love sausage dogs and would like to see regular cute images of them. This facebook page also promotes products of sausage dogs, e.g. earrings and t-shirts.

Gabe the Dog

Gabe was an extremely popular dog who was edited into various videos where he would 'sing' different songs. Unfortunately Gabe passed away in early 2017, but his legacy still lives on through the internet. The origin and explanation of the Gabe meme is explained in this video: 

Shiba Inu Videos to the Intro to This Charming Man by The Smiths

This facebook meme page is very niche. It does what it says on the tin - posts videos of Shiba Inu's to the intro to This Charming Man by The Smiths. This page has over 35k likes so it's quite popular. Many fan videos are posted too. 

Dogecore
doge·core (dōjkôr, -kr)

adj.
1. Of or related to qt doges
2. Stubbornly resistant to cates
3. Having the spirit of the doge in YOU

Dogecore is another meme page that has over 100,000 likes. Many of the meme pages post similar content of related humour. 

the internets love of dogs / brief

Brief
Over the past few years dogs have become an internet sensation, much like cats were very popular around 7-10 years ago. Your brief is to research and compile the rise in popularity of dogs on the internet, looking at different media. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have pages dedicated to dogs of varying content.

Considerations
You need to consider the timescale and amount of research that needs to be undertaken. Meme preferences are very personal and vary greatly. Primary research should be undertaken to determine what kinds of memes people like, what platforms they prefer and what media they like to view them in. Different kinds of breeds have their own style of memes, so they should be considered in whatever you produce.

Timescale
Allowing time for significant primary research, the project should take 3-4 weeks to be completed and printed.

Mandatory Requirements
Blog posts documenting the design process of the project
Design boards

Deliverables
A compilation of research presented in an appropriate format.

pear / final plushies

After some back and forth discussion with Tina over etsy, we managed to come to a final design that I was happy with. As the price of the plushies was quite cheap compared to other places the quality may possibly suffer, though they can be touched up on photoshop if needed (e.g. the shape of the mouth).

I am pleased with the final design. These plushies can be professionally photographed with the updated magazines and used as an incentive to subscribe to the magazine. They will be displayed on the website which will be mentioned inside the magazine so young children are invited to come online and become more exposed to the brand.

dot - dot / brief

Dot-dot is a creative agency based in leeds that pairs up freelancers and clients for graphic design needs. The freelancers have a strict turn-around time of 10 days, and so they have set an initial brief to test whether freelance applicants have what it takes.

"Before we consider you for a position we need to see if you can cope working to a brief.

Your task is to design a poster and a logo idea for Dot-Dot!

You have 3 days to complete the task and we would like you to interpret this in your own style.

This challenge will test your speed, creativity, quality, and professionalism!

Please find attached brief and logo (for the poster)."

Analysis:

The brief is very open ended and aims to test how the designer copes under the pressure of timescale and good quality design. Dot-dot would like a poster and logo design that advertises their services to potential clients. This task is designed to get a feel for the freelancers style and what they can offer in a quick turnaround period.

penguin / mockups

To get a sense of what the finished cover would look like I applied them to a couple of mockups.

The spine definitely stands out on its own to grab the attention of the potential audience. The front cover is mysterious and will appeal to a unique type of reader that isn't looking for a 'traditional' murder novel. 

penguin / development

Once the front cover had a solid direction I started to focus on how the design would look with the spine and back.

The large amounts of type that needed to be on the back cover were quite difficult to place. The feedback on this design is that the typeface is too thin and quite illegible. Responding to that, I changed the typeface to white and used Gill Sans which is more pronounced and easier to read. 

The quote from the Sunday express is now placed along the wavy lines and the blurb is more integrated with the lines rather than just placing a black box underneath. At the moment the design looks quite clean. A texture including faint fingerprints and dust was added in the background to convey the real tangible evidence compared to the abstract flow of the composition. 

penguin / initial ideas

My initial idea for this project is to update the look of the cover to give it a more contemporary treatment. Many of the existing book covers are a representation of the time, but to appeal to a newer, wider audience I feel it is appropriate to modernise the cover to a more suitable design for the present.

These covers don't necessarily convey the brutal nature of the murders, nor the way Truman Capote spends many years unravelling the details and forming a rapport with the two criminals and their troubled past.

While looking for inspiration for the cover I came across a tutorial which uses the mesh tool on illustrator. I instantly knew I could adapt this technique to suit the book cover:

The tutorial shows how to create waves easily within a large amount of lines. I instantly thought that this could be adapted to represent the blood of the victims and also relate to the title of the novel.

The typeface for the display is bold and classical looking, but the outlines give it a more modern feel. The body copy on the cover is given a more traditional typeface to balance the design and still ensure it keeps the enduring, timeless look of some of the older cover designs.

pear / plushies

The first thing Tina needed were illustrations and dimensions for each plush. I sent her this image showing her what I'd like them to look like from the front and side. I also mentioned that I would like the plushies to sit down rather than stand up, so she is placing poly pellets to the bottom to keep them weighted.

Hopefully I will receive the plushies within the next few weeks. This is the first part of the brand I have decided to work on as it is out of my control and may take longer than expected.

penguin / research

To get the project underway I firstly looked into what the book was about. In Cold Blood follows the murders of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. Capote spent 6 years researching the quadruple murder before its publication in 1966.

Herbert Clutter had his throat slit, and the rest of the family members were shot dead by Perry Edward Smith when he and an accomplice, Richard Eugene Hickcock attempted a robbery of ten thousand dollars out of the family safe. The money, however was not in a safe Clutter's home as he carried out all his transactions by check. As they didn't want to leave any witnesses and their plan had already gone poorly, Smith killed the family after some short deliberation. They were later caught and sentenced to death 5 years later.

Capote spent a lot of time trying to understand the killers and what made them commit such a terrible crime. Their poor upbringing and time in prison where they met seems to have had an impact on this.

"Perry — his feelings of inadequacy, his ambiguous sexuality, and his anger at the world and at his family because of his bad childhood. Dick plays the role of true outlaw, but the impact of the killings weighs heavily on him, and his own role in the murders remains unexplained and unclear." - https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/i/in-cold-blood/book-summary

In Cold Blood is quite different to most true-crime novels. It specifically focusses on the effects on the community and the criminals themselves rather than the details of the crime/weapons used etc.

pear / plushie research

One of the first new deliverables that need to be considered due to the timescale is the plushies. These are small soft toys that will be used to represent the characters in Pear. The Budget is quite an issue for 4 bespoke plushies as many companies will only accept bulk orders or charge around £50 for a single design.

I have looked at various different suppliers to try and find the best deal:

FurryTails create high quality plush toys and have over 20 years experience, though only accept orders of 2,500 pieces. This is way over my budget and I only need 4 plush toys in total.

Cuddlies are a site that make children's drawings into real life plush toys. The quality is great and each plush is hand-made. Each plush starts at £50 and with 4 to make, that leaves me over budget.

Plushie.co.uk are another manufacturer that create high quality plushies but a minimum order is 1,200 pieces.

Many of the other larger manufacturers I looked into had similar requests and didn't do one-off plushies that fit my budget. I decided to look into etsy and find small businesses that would fit my project better. 

I found BrenOllie ran by Tina Winterborne. She creates small plushies and also does custom orders. I contacted her about a quote and she said she could do the plushies for £10 each with £5 postage. This was a great price that fit into my budget and left over half left for printing.

pear / audience

The audience of pear is young children between the ages of 4 and 7. This is a wide range in terms of cognitive development and skills they have, so the magazine needs to cover a variety of activities for specific skill levels.

Pear aims to be gender neutral within its design. This magazine is aimed at both boys and girls, so it's important to convey a sense of neutrality and a style that both boys and girls can enjoy. Previous research into the audience shows that boys have a larger range of favourite colours than girls, so it could be a challenge getting girls interested in a magazine that isn't completely pink.

The parents are also an important part of the overall audience, as they will most likely be purchasing the magazine for their children. Parent's need to be convinced that Pear is a magazine suitable for their children and worth their money.

pear / budget and timescale

As this brief has quite a wide range of deliverables, it's important to consider the budget and the timescale of the project. The content of at least 2 magazines will take at least 3-4 weeks to create and put together. The printing of these magazines will also take time if printed professionally. The time plan needs to consider the amount of time a professional printer will take to print, bind and deliver the magazines.

Other new additions to the brand such as plushies will take weeks to be created from scratch by an independent source. The time plan should take this into consideration and start this process early on in the project to ensure enough time to incorporate these aspects into the overall brand.

The website will take at least a week to create once all other deliverables have been fulfilled. Ensuring that everything is ready in time to allow at least 1 week for the creation of the website is extremely important.

The main costs of this brief will be in the printing and the plushies. A budget of £100 for this brief has been set to ensure costs are kept down over the range of deliverables.

The overall timescale for this brief is 2-3 months.

pear / background

To fully understand the brand and existing products of Pear, this post intends to give some background information on the project.

Currently, the magazine is 42 pages and includes various activities and educational games surrounding the theme on the cover. The magazine is staple bound and uses quite thin stock that doesn't show off the colours as well as it could. Issues 2 - 4 have not been completed, so this is also something that could be an addition.

The contents of issue 1 are fitting and suitable to the audience, though some pages could be improved and more pages could be included to make the magazine more of a keepsake. This would also fit in with the alteration of stock choice to something more expensive. As the magazine may be getting thicker, the binding choice might need to be considered as staples may not be suitable.

At present the only tangible part of the brand is the magazine, though this is looking to be improved as feedback from the project stated that children like incentives/free gifts when purchasing a magazine.  There is no way to purchase the magazine online, only in stores and there is no information of the magazine available on the internet.

The audience for the magazine is young boys and girls under the age of 5. The content of the magazine is suitable for this age range and invites parents to assist them.

pear / brief

The brief
Take the existing magazine Pear which was created for OUGD601 and develop it into a fully functioning brand. This can be done by creating new issues, improving upon the existing magazine, coming up with a subscription model and/or creating a website.

Considerations
As there is already a foundation for the brand and the guidelines have already been created, these do not need to be considered. However, content should be suitable for the audience and must still be appealing to children and parents. You should consider pricing for the magazine and subscription models. The website should be fully functioning and suitable for children and parents to use. What else can you create as an addition to the brand?

Timescale
As this is a substantial project a few months should be allocated to complete it. Work should be completed by the easter break, allowing extra time for printing and photographing of the deliverables.

Mandatory Requirements
Blog posts documenting the design process of the project.
Design boards.

Deliverables
Deliverables for the project could include, but are not limited to:
- printed and developed issues of the magazine
- a website
- other collateral such as: stickers, plushies, stationary

penguin / brief

Brief

The penguin briefs for 2017 include 3 books; To Kill a Mocking Bird, In Cold Blood and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged: 13 3/4.

Students may enter a maximum of one design in each of the categories.

We would like you to design a new and classic cover for this book. The trick here will be to come at it from a fresh perspective and to avoid repeating the obvious iconography from the many previous editions in print. If you can get your hands on a copy of the book in order to get a sense of the beautiful writing, this will only help to inspire your design. The cover should feel timeless and confident, and appeal to a whole new generation of readers.

We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work on screen for digital retailers such as Amazon.

The winning design will need to:

• have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
• be competently executed with strong use of typography
• appeal to a contemporary readership
• show a good understanding of the marketplace
• have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against

Analysis

A good response to this brief is something that brings a fresh new perspective to the cover, as there have been many redesigns over the years. The design needs to have a good concept, be well thought out and designed to a high standard. 

The book that stands out to be the most is In Cold Blood - the adult non-fiction book. Although I'm interested in children's design, at this point I don't feel like I would be able to design something suitable for this genre of book. I would like to push my design practice and style to something I wouldn't normally create, and this brief is a great opportunity to do that.

The timescale for this brief will be 2-3 weeks. 

PINK magazine / brief

Georgie McGowan is a media student looking for designers to help put together her magazine for her final year project. I contacted her about this brief enquiring for more details:

The brief is to design and curate the magazine with the given content. The magazine itself is aimed at young adults and aims to give a fresh perspective on the current market of publications. There is quite a lot of creative freedom as Georgie doesn't have a clear idea or guidelines for the magazine. Me and Lo will be working on this project as she has a strong interest in publication design.