Module Evaluation OUGD403

Message and Delivery Part 3

From the ideas that i experimented with briefly I decided to make my mailshot unfold and have all the information printed on the inside of the envelope. The measurements we had to use are that of a DL envelope, 22cmx11cm.

For some of these design ideas I reverted back to ideas I didn't get to use for the posters, for example printing the outside of the envelope with a securely locked door when the flap is down, and when it came up to be an image of an unlocked door underneath, folding out to show the stats and precautions that should be taken to keep the house safe.

I briefly toyed with the idea of the envelope folding out to reveal a page with the image of a door, on one side locked up with the stats of breaking in to a safely locked house, and having the page turn over to show and unlocked door and compare the stats on each side with each other.

I decided to keep the window image as the second idea I had would be quite difficult and complicated to make neatly. As well as this I wanted to keep the mailshot consisted with the posters, using the same type and maybe using the same image.

I wanted the mailshot to be an extension of the posters, holding more information, pointers and actions to be taken. The posters were very simple and in some cases didn't give away much about what they were made for.

I pretty much jumped right in with designing the envelope, making a template on illustrator with the dimensions of the envelope. I used the same window image I used for the posters and referred back to my original research to include some stats on home security and it's relation to burglary. I wanted to include some infographics as a basic image of the information is more likely to draw in a viewer than the type, hopefully prompting them to read further.

I found some suitable information based on what part of the house burglars break into most and went on Excel to make a simple spreadsheet so I could make a pie chart showing the stats.

I used the same colours that were in the posters as I was going to keep the jungle theme. I used part of the background behind the window frame to design the bottom part of the envelope to exaggerate the theme from the posters. I came up with some simple tips to include in the hope that some sort of action would be take from this, and to make the whole thing more practical.

I had to make a lot of amends to this, as a lot of colour was being used. I decided against putting any of the information on the inside flaps as there was just too much going on.

I simplified it by taking out a lot of the colour, i changed the background to just be plain white, added the green colours to the pie chart in place of the colours used. I got rid of the information on the left side and made all the text a dark colour, since having it white proved pretty difficult to read.

I wanted to keep the three main slogans I had from the posters but there was something very off about how everything was positioned on this. However this was a problem I had to do deal with after the crit as I was having a big problem with the dimensions of the envelope, so i spent a long time trying to amend the dimensions.

Despite not being able to get my mailshot properly printed in time for the crit, it was still helpful and did reiterate a lot of the issues I already had with the first version I did of the mailshot. I gathered from it that I needed to limit the colours, make the point of it more obvious and amend the envelope dimensions to fit the brief.
I accidentally put two versions of my posters with the mailshot which led people to believe that they were the contents which was not the case.

With these in mind I simplified the whole thing greatly and finally managed to sort out the dimensions at the end I simply included the window image, type and pie chart on a simple white background, still managing to include all of the slogans I wanted in it.

For my mailing list i though about where in Leeds would be best for the mailshot to be sent, and decided to send it to places in which someone would take notice of that sort of thing. For example someone visiting a police station, maybe reporting some other crime would become aware of something to do with security and safety after going through something like that and may pay attention to something like this.

I kept the same colour scheme as that used for the mailshot and posters, and abandoned the window to us the shape i used for the picture frame in my first poster, to maintain a level of consistency throughout the whole project.

When I had finally sorted out all the problems I had with the dimensions and was able to print my mailshot, I was much happier with the end product than I had felt about the first version. I would have loved to explore the idea of the envelope being a door but I wouldn't have had the time to finish it. I am pleased with the content, the small example of infographics and the end layout, although the printing was slightly uneven on some parts of it. Other than that I am pleased with what i managed to do in the time I had.

Alphabet Soup - Illustrator Typeface

For my illustrator type face, I though it was best I chose one of the more simple designs since a couple of mine were pretty complicated, and I wouldn't know where to begin with doing the whole alphabet. I chose my adaptation of shattered glass:

I had a pretty clear idea of how I was going to do this, despite not often using illustrator. I used Tahoma 140pt for a simple but adaptable typeface to manipulate. I used a simple uppercase letter and used the line tool to create a spectrum of lines from the bottom left hand corner across the rest of the letter, breaking it up into segments.

 I changed the colour of the letter and lines to a light grey so that I could use them as a template. Using the pen tool in black I outlined each segment and moved them in a random fashion along the line that segmented it, adjusting the size accordingly.

It took quite a while to make sure that every segment was perfectly aligned with the template, and the adjustments made to the size sometimes made them fall out of line. I tried to keep them as aligned with each other as possible and made some adjustments when the whole letter had been done.

When I deleted the template I was left with warped and fragmented version of each letter. With some of the more simple letters I tried to incorporate more fragments than others, to keep them dynamic and not appear less intricate than some of the more complicated shapes.

I had in my mind that I was going to keep the shapes white with a black outline, but since some of fragmented parts were very difficult to keep in line with each other I looked at making the outline black with a white outline. This immediately changed my mind as they were already seemed to have more impact than the white version.

While I was happy with this outcome, the less complicated letters still looked quite bland and uninteresting. Luckily, by accident I drew a white line across the V, and then tried scattering white lines all across the letter.

I added white lines randomly to each letter and found that they became so much more dynamic and interesting. It also exaggerated that it was meant to appear shattered, and when all put together, the typeface as a whole appeared smashed a broken down.

I am pretty pleased with the outcome of my typeface, although I would have loved to have been able to try one of the more complicated 

Message and Delivery Part 2

After deciding to make the outside scene a jungle, a drew a rough idea of how I wanted the window to look, before scanning it in and adapting it on illustrator. When I saw it on a computer I thought it could do with being simplified, a lot of what I drew wasn't really necessary. I used brown for the window frame and two shades of green for the jungle. I used the pen tool to define and straighten the edges of the window and just made some make shift shapes on another layer to fit behind the window frame.

For the first poster I filled the background the same lighter shade of green, and on the second I used Impact pt 120 with the slogan 'It's a jungle out there.' and written underneath was 'Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent.' which I oddly remember being told when a policeman came to talk to my class in year 3. I chose the typeface based on headlines and titles, what you would read before delving into something.

I thought upon seeing these versions that while I wanted to go for simplicity these just seemed too simple and a little dull. I thought of a second slogan for the type poster to explain how easy and simple it is to lock up your house. I tried to play with the phrase 'It's as easy as ABC' and soon came up with A.B.C. standing for Always Be Careful.

To make the image poster a little more dynamic I decided to split the window and put it at each side, putting a picture frame in the middle. To make it all a little more unsettling, I used the pen tool to create a crack in the middle of the picture frame. While I was doing this I realised that there was too much colour with the green background so i replaced it with a white stock.

However, I was still unhappy with the lack of impact made by the type poster so I changed it around, leaving only the 'ABC' slogan. I blew up ABC and put the words 'always be careful' within them. Annoyingly since I had only a couple of days to complete this brief I was running out of time and moved onto the final poster.

This was kept very simple, using only the window and the original slogan from the type poster. I just placed one next to the other, and played around with highlighting some elements of the type.

Final three posters:

I wasn't too happy with the type or the type and image poster and would have liked to have the chance to spend more time on them, I may go back to them when I have the time and try and change them to a version i'd be happier with. I feel like the type poster looks like it's trying to have some sort of impact but it isn't really having much.

Message and Delivery Part 3 Research

After the last brief I tried to explore how I could make a mailshot dynamic, since the point of my poster designs was for the viewer to take action, prompting a receiver to take greater notice of it. Making the contents of the envelope a poster that someone would want to keep would leave a message in their household for as long as they keep it up. I decided I wanted to keep it informal, maybe including a task. I looked at folding out the envelope to reveal the contents printing on the reverse side.

I found a great example of an envelope which showed off the same idea effectively.

The idea of 'Mapenvelop' was that printed on the inside of the envelope was a Google Maps image of where the letter was sent from. This was the exact idea I had in mind in that I wanted someone to take notice of the envelope as the design as oppose to the contents.

I looked at some other designs for specially designed envelopes, and despite most of these being hand drawn illustrations, I found some great designs on creativereview.co.uk in an article for the Mail Me Art: Medium Without A Message exhibition at the Red Gate gallery in South London.

Message and Delivery Part 2 Initial ideas

After doing a little research into designs for posters promoting security of homes, basically everything i came across was based on information and network security. I found a couple that related to security of the home and property theft:

After looking at these I thought that none of them were really scary or shocking enough provoke some kind of reaction from a viewer.

I wanted to include something to show outside the house as scary and dangerous, and with inside the home being a safe place that no one would want tainted by the idea of a break in. I tried some examples featuring a view from inside to outside and showing outside as intimidating and unsafe. I looked at the ideas of making the outside of a window or door a scene from a warzone, jungle or riot, each of these exaggerating that someone needs to be safe in their own home.

I had some ideas involving a view from inside a window to out (to show the dangerous scene), but I also looked at showing a door with all the locks, bolts and chains to keep a house safe not being used.

After thinking about each option, I found that using a warzone or riot scene might mislead a viewer in understanding the point of the poster, as each of these are issues for Britain in their own right, whereas using a jungle scene isn't something the average British person would be confronted with. I also decided that looking out of a window would be better to show the dangers of outside over using an unlocked door.

Message and Delivery Part 2 Research

I tried to look into how theft and burglary awareness is already being broadcasted and found limited options, some exaples of which are below:

Most of the results were for things other than security within the home, and more looking after your car and possessions while you're out of the house. Nothing I found was very helpful at informing people of the facts or of precautions that they should be taking, and some were just trying to advise presumable pre-existing burglars to stop stealing.