Contacting Robot Food- Junior Designer

A couple weeks ago I saw the opportunity to work for Robot Food as their Junior Designer, I was really excited by this as I love their work and have contacted them in the past regarding work experience. I've not graduated yet obviously but I thought it'd still be worth applying to as it might not be for a few months (who knows), plus I had nothing to lose.

Unfortunately as you can see my application wasn't successful, but I'm glad I got a response at least as most studios and designers that I've contacted don't even bother responding.

Through experience I've learnt that I shouldn't let rejection knock my confidence as the creative industry is quite hard, but that I need to keep trying because eventually it'll pay off, success doesn't come easy.

Silent Crit Feedback

In the silent crit today I presented the t-shirt designs and asked people for feedback on how to push them further as well as voting for their favourite or top 2. This feedback is useful as me and Emma now know which 2 designs to use and can buy t-shirts so that we can start screen printing them next week.

T-shirt designs that I presented

Feedback sheet from crit

Votes:

• Design 2: 3 votes
• Design 3: 2 votes
• Design 4: 3 votes
• Design 5: 2 votes
• Design 6: 4 votes
• Design 7: 2 votes
• Design 8: 3 votes- people mentioned to try this design on black.

A lot of the feedback mentioned that the black t-shirt designs with light patterns were best, so I will definitely be choosing one of the black t-shirt designs; design 6 got the most votes so this is the design that will be used.

The second t-shirt design will either be one of the blue t-shirts with the patterns (4 and 5), or the blue or yellow t-shirt that use just the logo (3 and 7). All of these got 2 votes so I will discuss with Emma which one of the designs to take forward.

Patterns and T-Shirt Designs

This afternoon I have started to develop the designs for the t-shirts that come in The Panda Pack, the designs used on the t-shirts use the prints that Emma has created which will we will develop further together. The prints are inspired by the pandas home and environment through using imagery and shapes inspired by bamboo, nature, paw prints etc, below shows the these prints that Emma has been working on.

Emma also created some additional components and illustrations that can be used within all of the outcomes created for The Panda Project, I will begin to add some of these into the publication when developing it further towards finalisation this week and next.

Print 1

Print 2

Print 3

Print 4

Additional components and illustrations

I created a variation of different t-shirt designs which all use The Panda Project colour palette with an overall vibrant and playful aesthetic which is also communicated throughout the other outcomes, creating consistency throughout the branding and different applications.

The t-shirt designs experiment with a range of different ideas which include different colour combinations, purely just using the logo against coloured t-shirts, repeated pattern,  combining different prints together, combing the logo with prints, scale and composition:

In tomorrows group crit I will ask peers which designs they think work best, mine and Emmas original plan was to have 2 different t-shirt designs which the user can pick from, making The Panda Pack ordering process on the website more exciting and personal.

Portfolio Box/Packaging Research

I have now started to gather some research on presentation boxes for Nikita's personal branding, she will use these to send her prints and postcards to future employers.

Nikita mentioned that she only needed one box for hand in, however she will be wanting more to send off in the future to studios and photographers that she wants to work with so it's important that they're of good quality but not too pricey. She also mentioned that the largest prints that she would be sending are A4, so the box should be slightly bigger than A4.

Furthermore, the box will be personalised through displaying her logo somewhere, peer feedback mentioned that either stamps could be created or to use vinyl. I think vinyl will be the best option as it will look clean and won't get messy compared to the logo being stamped or printed onto the box.

Vinyl colours (provided in digital print):

The colour of the vinyl will depend on the colour of the portfolio box, but will most probably be either black, white or silver as this matches the business cards best, Nikita also mentioned that she wanted to overall branding to be sleek and minimal, so black or white would be appropriate.

Portfolio box research:

1. https://www.londongraphics.co.uk/thin-archival-photographic-image-box-a4
Regular box with lid opening- card board
Price: £14.46

2. https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/720811747/large-a4-rose-gold-magnetic-gift-box?ref=related-3
Large A4 Rose Gold Magnetic Gift Box
Price: £8.49 including postage

3. https://www.graphicsdirect.co.uk/products/single-display-boxes-37mm-depth?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoKmiuoyr5wIVirTtCh2JFgXSEAkYECABEgKAT_D_BwE

Attached top

Price: £12.24

4. https://www.pullingers.com/c/72365/seawhite-archival-boxes-50mm-deep?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=pricecomp&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1eLZsqmr5wIVS7DtCh1SewoWEAQYASABEgKX6PD_BwE

50mm deep

Price: £11.95

5. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seawhite-A3-Archival-Box-Deep/dp/B003UN29XK/ref=asc_df_B00BFDQYR4/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=214522367922&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13030658525838915615&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006864&hvtargid=pla-421692927480&th=1

Canvas cloth

Price: £11.98

My top 2 favourite boxes are number 2 and 4. Number 2 I love because of the colour and feel that it'd match the colour used within Nikita's business cards (Rose Quartz) and is also more eye-catching than a regular black box. However, a black box may be more professional, out of the black boxes number 4 is my favourite because of the clampshell opening, it also looks a lot sleeker than the other black boxes. I will show these to Nikita when I next meet up with her or send her the links so she can have a proper look through them herself.

Nikita also mentioned that she wanted to include A5 postcards in the portfolio box with her A4 prints and that she wanted some sort of packaging/sealing for them.

Initial ideas for packaging of the A5 postcards:

• A5 envelopes sealed with a sticker of her logo
• A5 plastic wallet/bags sealed with a sticker of her logo 
• Tie the postcards with a ribbon of a colour that match her personal branding (baby pink, white, silver or black

Envelope websites:

https://www.vistaprint.co.uk/stationery/coloured-envelopes?project_id=97eb34ed-39d1-40e1-b363-8017c3eccb94&gpp_preselect=97eb34ed-39d1-40e1-b363-8017c3eccb94&rd=1

https://www.thepaperbox.co.uk/diy-weddingstationery/luxury-wedding-envelopes/c5-wedding-envelopes/

Final Designs for Printing

The box designs have now been finalised and puts into nets ready to be printed in tomorrows print slot along with the labels that go on the candles and the insert cards that come inside each box. Once I have printed these and folded the nets, I will be able to photograph the candles with the boxes with the labels on them.

Below shows the nets for the 4 boxes, the final label designs and developed insert cards:

Further Business Card Development and Research

Before developing Nikita's business card designs I gathered some further research on business card designs which uses a minimal and sleek aesthetic throughout the front and back as this is what Nikita has asked for, I also think this aesthetic is appropriate for her work which focuses on fashion photography and very clean shot photographs.

I gathered research on brand business cards which include S.BON (fashion brand) and BRASH (an events brand) as well as business cards of different creatives as creatives know the importance of successful design card design since this helps them gain more exposure and employers.

S.BON

Aurelija Sukacke (graphic designer)

BRASH

Laura Oak

Sarah Brown (photographer)

I have now developed the front designs for Nikita's business card following the 2 logos that she liked the most, she mentioned that she wanted to use black and Pantone Rose Quartz for the main two colours.

1

2

3

4

I then sent the 4 front developments over to Nikita and asked which she preferred the most of if she had a top 2, she mentioned that she liked the font used in designs 1 and 2 the most which I was pleased with as I also preferred them over the other two that use a serif typeface (Baskerville).

This allowed me to develop the back designs, Nikita mentioned that she wanted the back design to also be quite minimal and simple, the information that needs to be included is her contact information, website, instagram handle and where she is based.

Developments for back:

Below shows my favourite designs for the front and back of the business cards. I felt that the front design looked better with a pink background and black text as the black background version looked too heavy. 

The back design uses different text hierarchy for the different information which I felt was important, it displays Nikita's name in the font 'Quesha' which is used on the front for her initials, with the rest of the information in the simple sans serif font 'Big John Pro' which is also used for the information around the circle in the logo.

Front

Back

My next step is to gather more research on portfolio boxes and how we could display the logo on the box as well as gathering research on paper stocks and printing companies that could be used to order the business cards. I will then arrange to meet Nikita next week in which I will discuss my research and show her the developed business card designs.

Meeting with Nikita

Today I met up with Nikita in which I showed her the logo and initial business card designs that I had created last week so that we can decide on a logo to take forward and use on the final business cards and additional branding material such as the portfolio boxes. The overall chat went really well as she was pleased with the designs, below show her 2 favourite designs which she will get back to me about which one she wants to go with for the logo:

Nikita's 2 favourite logo design

Below shows Nikita's favourite 3 designs for the business cards which I can begin to develop further following the logo that she decides on, I will also get feedback from peers on which design out of the 2 logos is most successful.

Nikita also mentioned that she wants the business card designs to use black and Pantone Rose Quartz as the main colours for the business cards.

Nikita's favourite 3 business card designs

More notes from discussion:

• Black text or black background with the pink
• The back of the business card should be really simple: email, website, Instagram handle and where she is located (Leeds/Manchester)
• Portfolio box should be thin, not too bulky
• A4 size for the portfolio box, will include A4 prints and smaller postcards inside
• Research into business card companies or whether it would be cheaper to print them in digital print thick stock

We also discussed the photoshoot from The Panda Project t-shirts that I will create, Nikita mentioned that she knows people that would be up for modelling which is great! She also mentioned that she can look for backdrops and fabrics to use in the backgrounds of the shoot which match the colour palette that I have used, I have now sent her a copy of The Panda Project colour palette.