When I first read the brief, I thought that it would be interesting to hand make cards as with our other tasks we haven’t done something like that, it’s all been on the computer. One of my very first thoughts when looking at this was that I wanted to make one of the cards into a pop-up, this was because at GCSE I made a pop-up book for coursework so I knew some skills when making them, and I thought it was fun to do so I wanted to bring that into this project. The part of the brief that I enjoyed the most was making the final products, although the experiments were fun because it was about messing around with different materials and seeing what works and what didn’t, when it came to making the final pieces I knew exactly what I wanted to do and to see the final product with a mixture of material was the best bit for me.
Researching all 4 of the card themes was important because this gave me an insight to the typical card that is produced, for example; the colours that are used; the materials that are used; images and layout on the card. I looked at a few different cards for each theme to help me with this, what I learnt was that for a more uplift and energetic card theme like Birthday or New Born there was a lot of bright strong colours (blues, reds, yellows, purples, greens etc) used – due to the being eye-catching and enjoyable, for a more memorable and caring card theme like Sympathy or Valentine’s there was only a couple of solid colours (blacks and whites, whites and reds, reds and pinks etc) used. The materials used in each theme varied a lot as well, I commonly found the use of pop-ups used in Valentine’s cards – this is probably because pop-ups are normally handmade so there has been effort put in to make the card, card is common when using pop-ups because it is easy to cut, stick and fold. Softer and more interactive materials were commonly seen for the New Born theme in my case, so for example: felt, lace, cotton wool, buttons etc. This is due to children enjoy touching things, so if they are even soft or interactive then the child would get excitement from that.
When it came to making experiments and then my final outcomes I used a wide range of materials and medias. The first experiment I did I used ink and bleach for the Sympathy theme, this is because the black ink and bleach worked well with the stereotypical colour scheme of a Sympathy card, throughout my experiments for other themes I used paint, tissue paper, card, buttons, cotton wool, string, pens and pencils, pop-ups, cutting into the card to create shapes and using the computer. When using ink and bleach it is important to wear gloves and goggles, this is because if the bleach gets on your skin it can be irritant, if it did I would make sure to run water over my hands to remove the bleach. When using card and making pop-ups or cutting into the card to create shapes I used a craft knife, it is important to use a cutting matt underneath your work so you don’t cut through into the table, use a sharp knife so that it cuts through the card easily and if the knife does cut you it will be a clean cut so it will be easier to treat, cut away from you to prevent cutting yourself, and when walking around the classroom make sure to put the plastic cover back over the blade to prevent cutting anyone else. When using paint, it is important to have a jug of water at the table to make your brush pointed to avoid using your mouth, wash your hands after painting to remove any paint – even use gloves to make it easier for you, keep paint pots in the middle or the table not near the edge in case someone walks past they are less likely to knock it over, and don’t put paint down the sink as it could clog the pipes and cause a leak – water it down or if it’s still a solid colour put it back in the pot to save paint. The material that I enjoyed using the most was card, this was because I enjoyed making the pop-ups in my experiments and for my final outcome. Card is easy to cut, stick and fold so it was generally easy to use – cutting out shapes into the card was fun because this meant that I could put another material behind it, like tissue paper or felt. The material that I didn’t enjoy using so much was the ink and bleach, this was because it was difficult to get a clean outcome. Looking at my experiments, when I used a thicker black ink and then added bleach the bleach would bleed a lot and wouldn’t create straight lines, however when I used a more watered down black ink it wouldn’t bleed as much and would create some straight lines. It was difficult to create a good image when using the ink for a gradient because there would be both thick and thin ink being used – although with the ink and bleach I did like that you could add other materials over the top, like adding pens or paints.
Out of my experiments I came up with a few creative ways of using material to create a successful design. For example, an experiment for my Valentine’s card was a couple of pop-ups, making a pop-up out of card makes the image or text turn 3-dimensional – in my case I turned the word “Love” into a pop-up and made a bed 3-dimensional. This adds depth to the card and if it can close properly then the customer will be surprised when they open the card to see this image ‘come to life’. I experimented to see how I could make the pop-ups look as professional as possible, I think I achieved this by making it look like it was all one piece of paper (so you couldn’t see the tabs) and this was done by cutting slits through the card and then sticking the tabs on the underside – sticking another piece of card over that would seem to ‘remove’ them completely. Another example, was painting a small family for my New Born card with my fingers. Small children like to do finger painting so I experimented ways I could create a successful design with my hands. I also used googly eyes for each family member to make it more interactive, like I mentioned before, childlike interactive material as it keeps them interested and it is enjoyable. Changing the colour of the new born child made it easy to distinguish the new born and a new member to the family – also being slightly small than its parents, I thought that this was an effective and creative way to show off a new member to the family instead of using stereotypical images like prams or clothing. Another example, although this wasn’t my favourite material to use was probably the ink and bleach experiments. I think this was a creative way to come up with ideas for a Sympathy theme because when I researched into these cards there were a lot of patterns most of the time, with the bleach you could easily create patterns with a brush on the black inked background. Images such as flowers or just swirls could be made and relate to my research effectively.
For my Sympathy card, I chose to use the computer to refine my bird images as it would make them look a lot more professional and clean, putting these out onto the card works better than printing them out and cutting them out then sticking them down on the page. Although I painted on the text, I used the computer to print out the typeface and then use that as a stencil so create the text on the card, I used paint to make the text because the acrylic creates a small texture to the card and it works well with the painted background behind it. I cut out shapes into the card so that I could add more materials into my design, cutting out shapes meant that I could include more images – I made flower petals out of the card which I found was a relevant image when it came to sympathy. I chose to use the old-fashioned tissue paper behind the cut-out petals because that was the style of card I wanted to go for. For my Birthday card, I chose to use magazine articles and tissue paper to create a background because we experiment with this style from a famous artist and I thought it was creative and unique, especially as you can choose a topic that is spoken about in the magazine, in my case I chose cars as this was what I wanted to aim to my audience. I chose to use card as the balloons because as I have mentioned before it is easy to cut and stick, as well as it comes in a multiple range of colours so that the design can stay colourful and interesting. The computer was used to create the detailed car on the car as this was the best way for me to do it, when printed out on the card it came out professional and as the card was based around cars this is what I wanted. When making my experiments for the Birthday card I used thin rope as the strings to attach the balloon together, this was difficult to do as they were hard to stick down and it got fairly thick when a bunch of them were together – I chose to use thread in my final design because this is a lot thinner and with this I didn’t have to stick anything down. I just threaded it underneath the card so that it was kept clean and when they all met at the car they all went through the same hole so that they weren’t bunched up together. For my Valentine’s card, I mainly used card for the material. This was because as I mentioned before my Valentine’s card was a pop-up, so card is the most suitable material – as it can cut, stick and fold easily out of every other material, I could’ve used paper as this is easy to cut however card is stronger, so it keeps its shape better when opened. I technique I used to make it look professional was to cut slits into the card so I could hide the tabs, this made it look like one whole piece of paper. I said for my experiments I would stick another piece of card over the top to hide the tabs on the outer-side, I did this and it made it look very clean, as well as keeping the colour scheme looking professional (Reds and whites). As the main image is inside the card it left the front cover blank, so I needed to add some materials to the front – I decided to keep it simple so it kept the inside the main attraction to this card, if the front was all creative and bold then it would’ve taken away the effect of the pop-up inside. For the front, similarly to my Sympathy card where I printed out text from the computer and used that as a stencil for me to paint my font I did this with the words “Open Me”, the choice of these words makes the customer curious as to what’s inside. I decided to use the same technique as I had done with the Sympathy card as I thought that it worked very well for that with the added texture. An image from one of my experiments was added with the use of paper and a button – the paper folded easily into the shape of a present and the button is there to hold it all together, this isn’t a normal use for a button so it is creative and interesting. And finally, for my New Born card, I chose to use objects from both of my experiments for my final outcome. I thought that the painted family worked really well in one of my experiments, and the use of rope and card to create a hanging banner also worked well. I decided to change the painted family and use an actual brush as in my experiment I thought they were a little too thin and small, not as bold as they are in my final outcome – I still chose to use this material as I thought it works well as the colour change helps to distinguish which is the new member to the family which is what I wanted. Pen was still a good idea to keep as it’s adds character to each of the family members – you can clearly see which is the mum, dad and sister. Although this could’ve been done with the computer to include the use of a computer in the card – if I was to improve on this design that is what I would do. The googly eyes are interactive and it makes each other the family members seem more real as the eyes can move, I think this is a more creative way of producing a person rather than just drawing on the eye with a pen. With the banner at the top, rope was a good material to use as it was strong enough to wrap the individual pieces of card around – and card was a suitable material to use as it could be easily wrapped around the rope and I can write out “Welcome New Born”. I think that all the materials that I used help me to convey the messages that I wanted to, as these were the most suitable that I had to hand and using a couple of materials per card kept it looking clean and not too messy.
Although on a lot of my cards the insides are left blank, like on my Valentine’s card it is just the word “Love” and on my Sympathy card the inside is completely blank I think it works well and is successful, because when it comes to a special occasion like Valentine’s Day or when you need to send a Sympathy card you want to write an important personal message yourself, therefore the negative space is good. However, in terms of the materials used, I think that the hand-written paint work is the most successful designs in all of my cards (as it is done on two of them). I think this because it took a lot of time and effort to do and I think they are easy to read and it is a creative way of producing text. Something that could’ve been improved throughout my designs could be the variety of materials used, there was a lot of card used as this is the most suitable due to its diversity, as it comes in a wide range of colours, and it is easily accessible. I could’ve used other materials similar to card more like cardboard or sheets of felt which would’ve improved the texture on each card.
Out of my examples, I came up with a few successful ways of conveying certain messages and meanings. For example, for my Sympathy card I used images such as birds and flowers. When these are seen, you resemble them to someone that is caring as that is a common gesture when giving flowers and the birds are delicate which can also resemble a soft warm emotion – which is needed for someone that may be grieving. Another example that I thought helped convey the correct emotions was the use of colour within my Birthday experiment and final outcome. When you think of a birthday you think of excited, joy, fun, and general happiness – so this all needed to be conveyed through my card. I did this with the wide range of colours, all bright and strong so that they were eye-catching and pleasing to look at. As the main colour scheme of the card was red, due to the red car and the red tissue paper I wanted to not use red on the balloons so they didn’t blend in with the background and ‘popped out’ against it – I think that this successful conveyed the emotion as it worked well. For my final example, I think that the present on the outside of my Valentine’s card helps to convey the emotion of love and romance as a present is something that you give to someone special to you and that has meaning in your life. It’s a gift – and in this case it is a gift of their love. I think that it is successful because it is kept simple with it only being one on the page and it looks well made as it is hand-made, which shows effort has been put in which is caring and loving.
When I was planning designs for my final outcomes I looked at what materials I’d use, what colours I’d use and what imagery and text I’d use. I chose a specific audience e.g. cars for the Birthday card and then researched imagery and materials around that, so magazine spreads were the easiest way to find words related to cars and cars are usually used when the theme is cars. I did the same for the other themes, so an old style for Sympathy and a family for New born – then looked into what images and colours etc I could use.
I think that I have learnt a lot from this project. I have realised that it is fun to create something with your hands and to see the final product look clean and professional is a good feeling. Also, the use of research to find out what works well with each theme and how you can use that to aim towards you own audience. It is also good to have a good clear plan on how you want your final outcome to look, so planning what materials I was going to use, what colours I was going to use, and imagery and text I was going to use. this made it a lot easier when I came to making my final outcomes as I already knew what I roughly wanted to do.
Ryan Thornton Graphic Design 