AIDAN NEEDHAM

AIDAN NEEDHAM

DO NOT OPENEric Marincovich

Erik Marincovich is a letterer and designer based in San Francisco. Do Not Open was a personal project of Marinovich’s that he decided to do to bring back the sensation of receiving a hand written letter in the post. 

I originally started this project by taking inspiration from Marinovich’s designs and creating my own hand written design with my name and address. After doing this I quickly realized that I didn't like the design because of its lack of colour and comic book style theme that didn't follow on from most of Marinovich’s designs.

After this I decided to do more research on type designs and found customized airline tickets by an unknown artist on Pinterest. I really liked these because of their modern look and vibrant colour schemes. The tickets had a consistent typography which varied from a light to bold font. As well as this all the designs maintained the same theme but still managed to look completely different. This allowed me to take multiple ideas from different designs and merge them into one. I have shown two examples of these images on my inspiration page. 

In my design I took the low opacity number in the background and made that the focus of the image even though it is deliberately hard to see. I finished the design in four colours however used red on the envelope design as this was my favorite. The fonts in my design are all the same however they vary in weight. The font I used was Bebas Neue as this is a good modern looking font which stands out on almost any design.

By taking this design and developing it into the form of an address and then adding it to an envelope I believe I have merged the ideas of two artists and am very happy with the result.

Envelope Analysis

Vector FaceJulian Opie

Julian Opie

Julian Opie is British Artist famous for creating work with minimal detail. The vector faces I created are an example of this and were inspired from when Opie was commissioned by the British band Blur to make an album cover.

To recreate one of Opie’s designs I took a picture of my face and drew around it in illustrator to make a simple outline of the main features of my face. The trickiest part of this was recreating my hair. As you can see in the above image, the hair needed something to fill it however this proved difficult to get right as there were so many individual lines to get in the right place. Eventually I felt I recreated the hair in a way that didn't make it look out of place.

I tried my best to keep the detail to a minimum on this piece of work as I wanted to stick to Opie’s theme of simple designs. After I had finished the actual vector face, I imported the image to Photoshop to add colour, you can see the final designs on the previous page.

Double exposureDan Mountford

Dan Mountford

When researching artists I found that Dan Montford likes to add geometric patterns to his art. I really liked this idea as I

thought it gave the images more graphical value so I decided to make this vector image above in illustrator to resemble the smoke that normally is coming out of the

chimneys of the power station I photographed.

Image EvaluationDan Mountford started a personal project in mid 2010 to create images using a technique known as double exposure. This involves

blending two photographs together to create one and in some cases adding some vector graphics. I decided to take inspiration from mountford as I liked his idea to add vector images to photographs.

During this task I found it very hard to get images as we were restricted to a small area around Pontefract. I took advantage of the close by power station as I had the idea to create geometric smoke coming from the chimneys. The problem I had however was finding a suitable image to blend with the power station. I eventually found one a photo of myself sitting on a gate which blended

relatively well against the first image and gave it a very dark and smoggy feel which is what I wanted to convey to anyone looking. The idea of the picture is to show that we are polluting the planet and people are happy to sit by and watch without doing anything about it.

Overall I'm not very happy with how this image turned out. The vector overlaid onto it made the image better however I still feel like there needed to be a more relevant image which blended better with the power station to give it a better effect.

After creating a double exposure picture from my own pictures, I decided to do an edit of two pictures from the internet, as this

allowed me to be a lot more flexible with what I created.

I did this by creating an image mask over the portrait and then blended the street into the mask and lowered the opacity.

Secondary Image Edit

Image analysisViktor Hertz

The image although simple says a lot of about the film it is made for. Hertz has done a wonderful job of taking one of the key points of Inception and putting it into one of his very simple graphical vector images. The poster tells the viewer the creator of the film and the main cast of the film.

The poster has a rough texture to it, which gives it quite an aged effect. This is a constant theme throughout the majority of Hertz work. The meaning of the poster is to showcase the film Inception and for people who haven't seen the film already will want to know why the person is falling off the chair. The only colour in this image is black which makes it look like a normal vector icon. All the edges of the image its self are curved so there are no right angles which gives it a nice effect. The image is central to the poster and although it is a still image anyone looking at the image will clearly see a person falling off a chair and be able to visualize the movement in this. The thick black lines contrast greatly against the background which is quite light. There is a lot of negative space in this as it is a very simple image.

Viktor Hertz Image Analysis

TypographyText Analysis

T

Crossbar

Shoulder

Serif

Bowl

Axis

Ear

StemLoop orLobe

Link orNeck

Sans Serif

Terminal

ItalicLeading

Baseline

Kerning

Type Size{ {X Height

Descender Bracket

Counter

Photo Montage

Branding ProjectYorkshire Tea

Yorkshire Tea Logo

Yorkshire Tea Research

Background - Britain is famous for its heavy consumption of tea but in recent years the number of black tea drinkers has begun to decline and the market has a took a heavy hit from the increasing amount of coffee drinkers. The mainstream teabag market is made up of around 4 major companies which include PG Tips, Yorkshire Tea, Tetley and Twinings. Within these companies Yorkshire Tea is the fastest growing major tea brand with it catering to what the British people really want... A “Proper Brew”.

Target Market - The target market for Yorkshire Tea is broad but the core consumers are 35+ adults, with roughly a 50/50 split between male and females. The audience range from the main group of 35-54 year olds who make up the majority of the market through to 55+ year olds who are big fans of Yorkshire Tea who have always drunk it. The 18-35 year old market is very small when it comes to black tea drinkers which is where I plan to aim my rebrand at to broaden the market even more.

About the brand - The whole point of Yorkshire Tea is that its aimed at proper British Tea drinkers with its famous tag line of “Proper Brew”. The marketing around Yorkshire Tea is its unique taste, the teabag is said to be stronger than other teabags which makes it popular with avid tea drinkers who like a good proper strong brew. The unique selling point of Yorkshire Tea is the fact its all based around Yorkshire. No other competitors do this so when someone comes to buy a box of tea bags, in theory they're going to trust Yorkshire Tea more as it looks like its a honest British company, not some transnational humongous tea company who only care about making bare dolla.

Rival Brands

These are the three main rival brands that compete with Yorkshire Tea. Out of all of them, the PG tips packaging is definitely the best in my opinion. It looks far better than the old one as it scraps the old complicated box and instead features a new plain white box with a nice red, green, white and black colour scheme. The logo is big and the box clearly gets across what the product is, mainly because PG tips are such a known brand here in the UK. Although I haven't started my product design yet I think it will most resemble the look and feel of the new PG tips packaging rather than Tetley’s or Twining’s.

The Tetley packaging is the worst out of the three in my opinion. The box features green tea leaves swirling round the actual text, which only makes me think they're in something like a toilet. The logo is old and over uses the image of a tea leaf. The packaging looks dated and I don't think it looks enough like it is a box of tea bags.

The Twining’s packaging looks the most expensive out of the three probably due to its gold colour scheme, when people see gold they often associate it with money and wealth. The packaging is nice and looks very premium however its not what I’m aiming for in my design. The background is a little complex where I’m aiming for quite a simple design.

Existing Designs

Tealicious Packaging

Existing tea packaging generally looks quite dated and is very cluttered. I chose to talk about this packaging as it is the opposite of most tea packaging. It features a minimal design with ultra thin text and a simple circle which changes colour depending on what variety of tea you’re buying. I love the

minimal style of this packaging and would like to transform Yorkshire Tea’s identity to something like this while still keeping it recognizable as one of the leading tea brands. I also like the way the mockups have

been presented with a long shadow and plain background. I aim to use this style in my final mockup design.

Initial Logo Sketches

In this logo I decided to take a typical Yorkshire landmark and add it to the logo. This logo features a viaduct and the scenery that surrounds it however I feel it may be a little too complicated for a logo as a logo may sometimes be presented very small and this is too detailed to be okay when it is small.

I tried to make this as simple as possible. A cup of tea with Yorkshire Tea written on it. It may be too simple however and lacking originality as well as not having a solid link with previous branding done by Yorkshire Tea.

Again with this design I tried to make it simple but much like the cup of tea it maybe lacking originality. With some refinement this may suit Yorkshire Tea however in this state it is simply too basic

For this design I drew a tea leaf and added the brand name below. I like this logo but I don't think it gets the message across enough and it doesn't really link to the U.S.P of **Yorkshire** tea.

Initial Logo Sketches

- YORKSHIRE TEA -

- YORKSHIRE TEA -

Development

These three images show my development of this logo. I originally sketched a circle design with a viaduct, I chose to add the viaduct as I feel it resembles Yorkshire very well. After I had drawn it I vectorized it and imported it into Illustrator.

The second stage of this was taking the original design and drawing out again but this time digitally. I decided to make the circle into a oval as I thought it better as you could see more of the viaduct. I roughly drew a viaduct and added Yorkshire Tea above it.

For the third development I started the design again and decided to draw it out more precisely and add some more detail. This is my final design of this idea, I like it but I’m not sure if it will fit with my other packaging ideas as its a little complicated and I wanted to simplify the Yorkshire Tea packaging more as I feel its a little crowded.

Development

This design is one of my favorites. It is a simple vector logo that gets the message across to the audience. I like the simplicity of this and the fact it works well with

different colours as you can see on the next page. The font I have used may not be final as I feel another font may work better. As well as this the fact the logo doesn't

link to Yorkshire isn't very good as the U.S.P of Yorkshire Tea is based around Yorkshire however I don't think this is a major issue.

Development

For this design I wanted to take a more modern approach. I like the design however

I don't feel it fits the brand very well. this type of design would probably be more

suited to a clothes company or something along those lines. I also don't like the lines I

added and I couldn't find a font that worked. I don't really like this design very much for

this company and for that reason I wont be using it.

Development

This design originally started out as a simple circle surrounding a tea bag, but when I started to work on it digitally I saw that the circle could actually resemble a mug with a tea bag inside. To make it look more like a mug I added a handle on the

side. I liked the idea of this so I decided to make a colored version of it to accompany the black and white version. After asking a few people however it

became apparent that it wasn't as recognizable as I wanted the design to be and people were struggling to distinguish what it was.

Colour Psychology

Colour Psychology relates to the mental and emotional effects different colours have on people. Although elements of colour psychology have been proven, it is still going to effect different cultures around the world in varied ways. For

example, the colour red is often associated with excitement, and being bold and youthful. Whereas the colour green is associated with peacefulness, being healthy, calm and often is seen as a sign of growth and life, this makes it a really good companion to present my packaging in, as I want my packaging to be seen as a healthy, relaxing and

honest product.

EXCITMENT

FRIENDLY

PEACEFUL

OPTIMISM

TRUST

CREATIVE

BALANCE

Mockup Design 1

Mockup Design 1 Analysis

This is my first design mockup of the packaging for my newly designed brand of Yorkshire Tea. For my first design I thought I would attempt to make a serious package for Yorkshire Tea as the current packaging doesn't have this. The packaging is simple and quite effective but I don't quite like the way it looks. The icons I designed to go with the packaging don’t really suit the serious design and would probably work better with less formal packaging.

On the side there isn't enough information but instead too many diagrams and logos. I like the white border around the outside however and think this maybe something to keep in my next design. The white box which houses the logo contrasts nicely against the deep red and gives the packaging the formal look I was hoping to achieve.

I will keep some things from this design but I feel in my next design I will take a slightly different direction and assess which one works better.

Mockup Design 2

Mockup Design 2 Analysis

This is my second design. Its very much like the original but with some key differences. The most noticeable of these is the colour change. I went with green as I felt this related more to tea. As well as this I removed the cup icon, I felt this degraded the serious design a lot and looked a lot better without it. In addition to this I added some text onto the design to make it look a little more genuine and shrunk the instructions as they were far too large on the previous design.

Although I haven't changed much from the previous mockup (which I didn't like) I surprisingly like this design. Although there isn't much on it, I feel there is just enough to inform you about the product while still maintaining the minimalistic and serious look I wanted to achieve.

T

EVALUATION

During the course of the unit I've worked with some new ways of creating work. The biggest one was using cameras and applying photography into my designs. As I've never done this before it was a big change and I found it hard to actually make my photos look good in my designs. The next change although not new was the use of illustrator in my designs. Although I've used it before I've never used it to the extent that I have in this new course.

The project I've enjoyed the most during the course, although I found the most difficult was the branding project. I really enjoyed the creative freedom I was allowed and the flexibility to create pretty much whatever I wanted, provided it kept to the confines of Yorkshire Tea. I went with a serious and quite a formal design as I wanted to shift Yorkshire Tea to the more premium end of the market.

During the next unit of work I would like to bring more photography into my work as I feel this can have a massive effect on a design like a web page for example, as long as you take the right photo. bringing photography into graphics is something Ive done before but only for a short time and during that time I was limited because of the basic camera equipment I was using. With the freedom of a proper DSLR and the knowledge of how to take a good photo I feel it will impact my work massively.

My branding work was presented digitally. This was done for a number of reasons. The main reason was simply that it allowed me to keep changing my design until I got it right, a physical box is more difficult to do this as you have to print, cut and stick the net together if there is anything you don't like. The next reason is that a digital mockup follows the theme of my book more as I have presented everything Ive done digitally.

Overall Ive come to like my final design. I really struggled towards the end of the project as I completely ran out of ideas but Im relatively happy with this design. I wanted to keep it simple but still informative and I also wanted to give it a premium look. I think I achieved this in my design. I was limited to how much I could show as I only had two sides of the box to work with as finding a mockup for tea bags is quite hard. I feel the green works better than the red but I feel it would work with a whole range of colours; perhaps for different variations of tea. If I had more time I would create these different colours for the different varieties of tea but unfortunately I didn't have time in this project.

I really like the design and structure of my portfolio, I went with a very simple flat design, block colour approach and I think it worked quite well. Each project I did had a different colour which you'll be able to see a hint of on every page in the book, whether it be in a title or a shape. In addition to this at the start of every project I added a icon which somehow linked to that project. The main goal in the design of my portfolio is that I wanted to keep it consistent. This was more difficult to do in some projects than others but I feel I achieved this goal in the end.

If I was to do this again I would try and do more research into projects before I start them. I feel I didn't do enough on my projects and that led me to run out of ideas half way through my projects, mainly the branding project.