Monday 25 June 2012

Paul Smith fragrance brief

This project was a live brief set by Paul Smith. It asked for the design of a new his & hers fragrance set for the mainline collection. Me and Rach decided to collaborate on this brief, which was the best decision we ever made as it involved a hell of a lot of work: creating a story & concept behind the fragrance, the packaging design, the bottle design, the name, the scent and point of sale and promotional ideas.

Plus, it was the best decision we ever made because... we won! Meaning we are off to meet Sir Paul himself to get feedback on our work and have won the prize of an internship with him - such an amazing opportunity, I still can't quite believe it.

Anyway, on to the work...






A selection of our research & mood boards which we established throughout the project:









The concept for our fragrance extends from our initial research in which we became interested in Paul's love of gathering objects - he famously does not call himself a "collector" as he knows little about the items he acquires. In this respect, we likened his character to that of the magpie - an inquisitive & creative bird, famous for picking up items which catch its eye, particularly shiny ones, which he uses to adorn his nest in an attempt to attract a mate.

We ran this idea throughout every aspect of our design - from the spring scent (the magpie's mating season), to the bottle designs, which magnetise towards each other, allowing for both attraction and collection.

Below are our final concept presentation boards, which were sent down to Paul Smith for his viewing, along with our mock-ups:


















Monday 4 June 2012

memoirs of a traveller - the unconventional postcard

So this self-negotiated brief was supposed to be 3 weeks long... that didn't happen. About six days were spent designing this set of 'unconventional postcards'. 

These postcards are inspired by the journals which I kept when I first went travelling as well as the textiles and patterns from the South East Asian culture. The illustrations tell the story of the experiences which you don't expect to have before you begin your travels, yet they seem to be some of the most memorable moments and the times you often laugh about when you've returned. 












self-promotion


Here's a little piece of me. I designed this little package in order to promote myself and get a placement. The concept is based on my surname 'Insch' and plays on the saying 'give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile'. I've flipped the expression to put a positive spin on my name 'Take and Insch and I'll give you a mile'.

The piece is held together with a tape measure displaying inches, which when unravelled exposes a short cover letter on the reverse of the tape measure holder. Below this is my CV which encases a small folded book of a preview of my design work. 

Landed one placement so far... and an interview for another one... fingers crossed.










Sunday 22 April 2012

tee-time.

Just a lil tee I made for a pressie.



Thursday 5 April 2012

penguin brief: one flew over the cuckoo's nest

This was a pretty quick supposed-to-be-two-week-but-done-quickly-in-a-week project. With the deadline coming up and everyone trying to get their competition briefs organised, the first week of this project was used elsewhere...

My concept for this brief was to show the underlying chaos which the seeming structure and routine of mental hospital creates. I also wanted to show that sometimes, much like the characters in the novel, somethings aren't as simple as they seem on the surface.

My book jacket involves three separate pages, the first, a white cover with a die-cut circle, through which the viewer can see the novel title and white bars, through a page of red acetate. When the red acetate is turned, the title becomes illegible, and another pattern from the hospital contrasts with the bars to create chaos out of two seemingly regimented patterns.

I took inspiration from Stefan Sagmeister's book 'Made you look' to work with green ink under red acetate to reveal something.













Thursday 8 March 2012

graze YCN brief

So finally, the deadline's passed & I can post this...

This was such a time-consumer and at times it made me want to throw my work out of the window, but in the end I'm happy with my outcome. YCN set this as one of their competition briefs, and while choosing which one to pick, I visited graze's website and became addicted. After their yummy food had me caught, it then got a hold over my flatmates and we ended up with about 8 graze boxes!

The brief asked for a new logo, a redesign of the graphic elements on the graze box, and a direct mail to catch the interest of potential new customers.

It was a lot of work, but once I had my concept of nature delivering to your door, it fell in to place. My box and logo design focus around the animals which deliver in nature, and my direct mail is in the form of a flick book. The flick book tells the story of an animal collecting something, then taking it past their home and delivering it to your door.

Now just gotta wait to see what the judges think...










a little bit of bookbinding


Me and rach signed up for a bookbinding workshop a couple of weeks ago, and this is one of the end products! It was unbelievably fun, and although we had loads of other work we needed to be getting on with, it was a nice, therapeutic day - we felt like a couple of those middle-aged mums who sign up for crafty evening classes. But now I feel an addiction developing and I keep trying to find excuses for something to make.





Friday 3 February 2012

illustrating Edward Lear's nonsense


When I'm given a selection of briefs to chose from, I always struggle to choose one, so this time, I took the plunge and went for an illustration brief - something I'm not that experienced in. The brief required us to illustrate a selection of our choice from The Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear. Most people opted to illustrate a handful of Lear's rhymes, but I chose to focus on his nonsense botany.

Taking the angle that my illustrations would form a gift set aimed at adults, I took another big step (for me) and decided I would screen print them - after my first (and only) previous and unsuccessful attempt at it, I was feeling a little anxious to say the least.

BUT, I think my decisions have paid off and I'm actually rather pleased with the outcome - particularly after telling my whole group that it was impossible for me to make a box of any sort.

So I have now found a love for screen printing, and even got a few sheets of make-shift newsprint wrapping paper to take away from it!