Christmas Card boards

Evaluation

This brief came at the right point in this module, I had just spent a long time focused on two large briefs and I needed a break from them and something new. It really helped get my creative juices flowing again introducing something new and fast moving. Aside from that it was really nice to work one something that way type and image, giving me the chance to work towards a new goal I had set my self at the beginning of 3rd year.

The Christmas brief has positively influenced me in that I no longer feel afraid to approach a brief which uses type, I have learnt that if I look and use type as an image itself my work take a much more positive spin that separating the two. As this was quite a fast moving brief, it gave me the chance to enjoy myself and not feel so restricted to stages I felt were necessary with larger briefs.

The negatives from this were that I didn't have the opportunity to experiment with stock or print techniques as much as I would have liked. I initially printed the whole set on a watercolour stock, which failed terribly the card snapped and the foil didn't print properly due to the texture. However I worked through this and printed on some new card which foiled perfectly but wasn't the best at folding. These types of problems I feel are always going to arise when doing a fast brief. I have learn from this however to pay more attention to the stock and print choices I am going to use and not just assume it will work, sometimes a little experimentation is necessary.

Finished christmas cards

Illustration and type for cards

Im really happy with the finished image for the Christmas brief, it has worked much more successfully than I thought. Initially I was going to foil the cards in relation to the Modern/Religious theme but as I am printing though a black and white laser printer and foiling on top I think it will be much more consisted though design and foil blocking to do it all one colour.

Type and Illustration for Cards

Card Type

I have chosen all the lyrics I will be using for the set of 6 christmas cards, half are Christmas songs and half are Christmas carols following the briefs deliverables. The type is laid out to fit the shape of a bauble and be surrounded by the images.

Song: White Christmas

Song: The Christmas song

Carol: Noel

Carol : Silent Night

Carol: O Holy Night

Illustrations

Based on my card design choice I have drawn small illustrations for each song which is stated below.

Song: Noel

Song: Silent Night

Song: Mistletoe and Wine

Song: The Christmas Song.

Card Ideas

At this point I have decided I need to choose a print technique and use this when designing the cards, as this is a fast moving brief I don't really have to time to experiment, instead I have used my past experiments to decided what will work best for this brief. As the brief states that cards are to be hand made but still look expensive I am going to use foil, I think this is the quickest and most expensive look I can achieve.

The first design is based on the black area printed as foil, unfortunately when i started this idea I didn't quite think about the size of the snowflakes, they are much too small so you don't completely get the idea, aside from that I really like the idea behind this, but it doesn't grab my attention as christmassy, I feel this is perhaps the circular shape, if the shape related to Christmas this may work much better. The type face works really well and is clear, I mentioned above the snow flakes were too small but with this type I feel if they were any larger they would take over the design and merge in with the type.

I have developed this second design based on my evaluation on the above design, this is a very similar style to the above apart from the type and image is shaped in a bauble which relates to Christmas and the black and white is the opposite. I really like this idea and have had some really positive feed back from it. I have also increased the size of the snow flakes and changed the type face the combination and layout of these works really well, I feel I am starting to achieve an almost professional design standard.

This final design is much more traditional than this first two, although its not yet in foil so I cant get the true perception of it, I don't like it was much as the first two, it doesn't just out at me or flow through type and illustration as smoothly as I would like.

Snow Flakes

Rather than illustrating all the cards in different styles I have picked one song lyric to illustrate, I have chosen the image based on the song lyric so the type and image link together and this way all the cards will be different.

Type Faces

I have been looking at different Christmas designs that i like, which include quite a lot of type but still hold image, i struggle when it comes to type so i feel something which relates to the images and theme would really help. Many of the designs i have found have calligraphy style type to it, which is quite swirly and fancy I much prefer to work with this style of type with image that plain type as I feel its more of an image that a type face.

I felt using ink would give the type a nice touch and look slightly freer that if i were to use a pen. I really like this first type face it works really well and is very traditional, its easy to read which is necessary as the type will be surrounded by image in some way.

The second type I really liked as i was drawing it but from a distance its not as legible as the first, I think this is perhaps because the lines are quiet thin in caparison to the first. This type of type would work really well with limited image as it is very decorative, at this point im not sure what level of illustration I want to use or if the focus will be on the type.

This final type, is not as traditional as the first 2 however I do still really like it, the thick line makes it stand out and its too decorative, which is probably the style I will need for when I introduce image. But I wont really be able to judge any of the styles until I start illustrating.

Christmas Songs

After looking at the Christmas brief, I have decided with the time left I have to design and print, my best option is to choose to develop my cards from the 'songs' option. This will also give me the chance for the first time this module to properly look at type and image working together, which was one of the aims I originally set out to achieve. As well as this I feel I need a light hearted brief that I can have fun with and move fastly as I seem to have got myself into a bit of a rut.

I have started with looking at different Christmas songs and carols that are most popular and that i am familiar with, I really want this brief to have a handmade feel to it whilst still looking really Christmassy. I think they best option for me is to look at different types i could use.

Christmas Carols

Christmas Songs

Christmas Brief

Brief ideas