Zine Research

I needed some major inspiration for my zine, to get my idea in order and help me think about the best way to achieve it, seen as I forgot to take photos of the zines we saw in the workshop.

Final Packaging

So today I got my 1:1 scale net printed twice (accidentally) so I used one to practice for making the final, this turned out like a very good idea as I got used to the thick material and where to cut to/ score the paper. Here are some pictures of the first one:

 As you can tell it doesn't look very good especially when you can blatantly see my net lines so clearly, it all fit together just how I wanted it to though which was a relief.

Then my second attempt (with net lines set to around 20% opacity) which turned out way better, with more precise cutting and using super glue instead of normal pritt stick.

 

 The only problem I have with the final version is my net lines, I could have totally removed them but it would have taken all day to get the cuts all right and score the proper lines so I had to compromise. 

Another issue was the prints came out slightly darker than intended, I'd get them printed again but it's expensive and these show what I was aiming for fine.

Colour Choices

There is a lot of thought that gets put into the colour schemes we see in every day life, as there is a lot of underlying psychology and messages that get sent with certain colours, for instance red could be hot, love or blood, all different messages that are sent by one colour, a quick google search lead me to this site:

http://www.colormatters.com/

Which states the most common properties of colours we see, combining this with colour theory we can make attractive colour ways to use in design, below I have looked at a few possible options for the outer design for my packaging, as this is the first thing my audience will see I want to set a good first impression, by not using garish colours that aren't nice to look at.

Overall I think i've done a pretty good job, I did 4 individual colour ways and then experimented by swapping them around with each other, the one's I like most are number 1 and 2 even though orange could be a risky colour choice as it's a love or hate colour.

I want to send a message of reliability and warmth in my package, making it friendly to the audience.

After applying these colours to my packaging they didn't work too well, the difference in values is too much and make them look too bright, I came up with a totally different set of colours for the outside that link to the illustrations inside, a hazel colour for a wooden look and then black for the logo.

This is pretty simple but I think it works well overall.

A good site I came across that people submit colour palettes to is http://www.colourlovers.com/ could be good for future use :)

Illustration Progress Shots

In this post I have added progress shots of my illustrations, this will shows the journey I take on doing my work, to start I use only black and white to get the base values down, I try to add details and some lighting but will later render these in a cleaner more attractive way after I have added colour to the piece.

A technique I use to aid me in doing better work is flipping the canvas (taking advantage of the digital medium) so I can see my drawing in a different light, it gives the same effect as walking away from your work for a while and coming back to it.

After a day of drawing this I feel i've reach a sort of finished stage, I will probably come back to it after i've got the other 2 to the same standard and add some more detail and enhance the colour, once I have the 3 illustrations finished i'll add them to my 3d render and see how they look in 3d space and then further edit them if I feel it is needed.

Here are the progress shots of the 2nd illustration, which is going to be a temple in a desert that is built of books in a desert sort of environment, I forgot to take earlier screenshots as I got carried away but so far I have gotten the basic values and lighting down and it just needs further refining of details, wanting to get some book titles on the spines and just add some basic realism, I will use another technique that is unique to digital painting that utilizes the colour dodge setting on the brush to 'pop' the highlights and make it appealing to the eye.

 After another day of drawing I've gotten the second illustration up to a point where i'm pretty happy with it, I think it's just a case of practice makes perfect, the perspective and depth is there, just something missing, I prefer my first illustration but I think that's just because it relates to me more, it's still decent and will work for my packaging. Tomorrow I will start on my final illustration and get that to the same stage as these, then I will spend a day refining them all and adding anything I may have missed in the moment.

Last but not least we have my 3rd illustration in progress, so far I've got interests in technology and reading, now to show my artistic side, here is the progress of my last piece.

And I'm done, I think for 3 days of work the 3 illustrations are up to a good standard, if I had more time I would work on them further but I need to finalize my design for the outside of my packaging, I believe they help explain my interests and who I am as a person.

This is my way of thinking.

So during this project I wanted to take advantage of past knowledge i've gained whilst looking into 3d modelling in my spare time, the main reason I wanted to do this is because I can almost guarantee my real paper model will not turn out too well, so I wanted to show my packaging in it's perfect form!

Below are some models i've made/textured using Photoshop and Blender (which is free software and very easy to learn), at the minute these are just some ideas I wanted to take forward from my sketchbook and I will develop one of these for the outside of my packaging, I took advantage of the 3 logos I made but I'm going to use the more artistic logo for my final.

I will do a final version of a 3d model when my 3 illustrations are finished for the inside and I have finalized everything, I think the images could do with an extra light source to make it brighter but it will be a nice presentational feature to add to my final hand in.

Laser Cutter Induction

Just had the laser cutter session down in sheaf workshop, it was surprisingly easier than I expected it to be, having never done it before.

The fact you can cut and engrave is nice too and will be great for future use where I can plan things ahead of time, I won't be using the laser cutter for my packaging as I will be using really thick paper and don't want to burn the edges of my net, also don't want to spend a lot of money on a print and then screw up the alignment.

Below is a picture of my test shape that we had to do in illustrator, which was quite easy to do so.