Therefore in order to gain some contextual knowledge of what existed in the field and inform my practice in terms of what works and what doesn't I looked at prints available from independent gift shops such as Utility and Not on the High Street.
A common trait in the prints in which I collected was to use hand-rendered imagery within the design, which is something I personally find more engaging and interactive design than say something which had been produced solely on digital software therefore these is techniques are something I decided to use within my prints when writing the original brief.
Perhaps using hand-rendered techniques which would perhaps achieve a different result each time would be favoured over digital techniques which can be reproduced easily as they have a more unique and one-of-kind feel to them.
In order to demonstrate this hand-rendered feel within my own prints I decided the most effective method would be to hand draw my illustrations which I would then put into Illustrator and use the 'image trace' tool, the meant the the illustration felt hand-drawn with the various stroke width but it would be easier for me to experiment with the most effective layout for my prints.
However after trying a range of sans-serif fonts in both uppercase and lowercase I leaning towards the lowercase which had a softer feel to it which I personally felt suited the choice of words for the print 'Jelly and Custard'. The tone of voice I set when writing the original brief was 'light-hearted' and 'tongue-in-cheek' and therefore I believe the uppercase might feel too 'authoritative'.
The final typeface I chose was Futura.
When bringing together the type and the image, I paid particular attention to the hierarchy of information in order to give a effective, structured layout. I felt the Cockney rhyming slang was the most important piece of information and therefore this is the placed near the top of the design in order to be this first piece of information the viewer would look at.
However after taking the guides off the document it didn't seem as structured, the information and illustration didn't seem to work as one design.
In these designs which I collected during the research stage of the brief, the imagery incorporated within the design has informed the type and layout, creating an over all design which is aesthetically pleasing. I particularly like how in the second piece the designer has aligned all the type into a column in alignment with the illustration giving a sense of cohesion to the piece.
I attempted to achieve this sense of cohesion within my own design work by using my illustration as reference when placing the type. For example, in this piece the words 'custard and jelly' lines up in the crook of the illustration.
Although most of the existing prints which I collected as research were portrait, I like the idea of creating something a little more unique and bespoke, therefore I experimented with a landscape orientations
I have decided the final specifications for my prints would be a series of A4 landscape prints, although originally I considered producing A3 prints, I believe A4 prints would be more appropriate for the bespoke feel I wanted and would be something that would perhaps be hung up in a child's bedroom. As I planned to produce several prints in response to this brief, producing them in A4 would be more cost and time effective.
Final Prints:
Overall, I am pleased with these outcomes in response to the brief, not only was I able to produce something with a hand-rendered feel which was one of the aims of the brief, I was also able to use these techniques in conjunction with digital software by scanning in my illustrations and using the 'image trace' tool thereby improving my software skills.
I plan to develop these designs further but using the screen-printing facilities available at the college in order to give the one off, bespoke feel like the existing prints I collected during the research process.
One vital consideration which I outlined when writing the original brief was how I would make each of the individually prints overall feel like part of a series and give a sense of continuity. Similarly to the examples I have collected here, I have used the same typeface and illustration style to convey the feeling of a series. I also like how the designer has allocated different colour within each of the pieces, the colours chosen compliment each other, I can imagine these three prints hung up together on a wall, this is something I would like to achieve within my prints.
Although my primary aim when writing the original brief was to produce a range of prints I also looked at other printed ephemera such as greetings cards, postcards etc. as a possible means of creating something with more of a purpose.
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