This assignment will allow you to put into practice what you have learnt in all the projects and exercises you have done so far, in particular your ability to work through the design process and undertake creative problem solving in relation to a set brief.

Context

Greetings cards are an illustrated, folded card usually in an envelope that express a range of sentiments – such as celebrations, congratulations, thanks, regrets and condolences. They are often related to specific dates such as St. Valentine’s Day, religious holidays or big landmarks in your life, like turning 21 or the birth of a child.

The brief

Create a range of cards for sentiments or events that are worthy of a greetings card, but are currently not catered for by card manufactures. The cards could be linked to other calendar events, obscure Saints days, sporting calendars or any other happening that is worth celebrating or commiserating. You may wish to explore some of life’s other landmarks that currently don’t feature in greetings cards, like getting your first grey hairs, being released from prison or any other personal landmark someone might want to share.

Requirements

You will need to design the cover of your card and the message inside. You may choose to include the envelope within your design work as well as explore the possibility of pop-ups or other forms of cards. At least three finished cards will be produced, which can either be unrelated or work as a series linked to the same sentiment. Base the dimensions of your cards on a size of envelope that you have available to you. Work through the design process, documenting it in your research file as you go:

• Analyse the brief Read the brief, identifying keywords, communication issues and design problems
• Research and develop ideas Identify the primary and secondary research you need to undertake. This brief requires some lateral thinking: develop ideas that are unexpected, obvious and fun.
• Visualise your ideas Use mood boards to explore the feel of your sentiments, visualise your ideas through thumbnails and create mock-ups of your cards.
• Critique your work Write a short rationale for each of your ideas explaining your decision-making process. Evaluate your design work, try and include other people in this process.
• Finish your artwork Create at least three finished cards that are of the highest visual quality that you can achieve at this time. Use appropriate DTP, image manipulation and/or illustration software to complete them. Remember to check for spelling, typos and accuracy.

Primary Research

History of the greeting card

Despite the rise in e-cards and instant messaging, sending a greeting card remains as popular as ever. They are so embedded in British culture, we are astonished to discover that it is not customary worldwide to line up your birthday cards on the mantelpiece or buy a card when popping out for a pint of milk. Although countries ranging from India to Germany also send cards, none make such a display of their birthday cards in the lounge as we do, whilst very few have dedicated shops and such a variety of outlets selling cards. What is it about the humble greeting card that has led it to be the forerunner in keeping the spirit of print alive, and why is the British public so in love with sending them?

Greeting cards are nothing new. People from all over the world have been crafting their own paper creations for centuries. The ancient Egyptians used papyrus, 15th Century Europeans used woodcut printing methods and Victorian ladies adorned their cards with lace and embroidery. Making cards was a skilled and luxurious labour of love, a niche activity for those with time on their hands to indulge in it. But the origins of the greeting card began with Henry Cole and the story of British artistic traditions and postal service he helped to establish. He was reported to have declared that his mission was “to beautify life” and whether this is true or not, his involvement in the arts has left a legacy enjoyed by people the world over.

Greeting cards are nothing new. People from all over the world have been crafting their own paper creations for centuries. The ancient Egyptians used papyrus, 15th Century Europeans used woodcut printing methods and Victorian ladies adorned their cards with lace and embroidery. Making cards was a skilled and luxurious labour of love, a niche activity for those with time on their hands to indulge in it. But the origins of the greeting card began with Henry Cole and the story of British artistic traditions and postal service he helped to establish. He was reported to have declared that his mission was “to beautify life” and whether this is true or not, his involvement in the arts has left a legacy enjoyed by people the world over.

Inspired by his love of the printed form, he commissioned artist John Calcott Horsley to produce one of the first commercial greeting cards. They produced 1000 lithographic copies of the triptych card, each one coloured by hand. It wasn’t the most attractive card ever made, but it did cause controversy, upsetting the temperance movement with its depiction of small children drinking wine. Henry Cole was a man who was passionate about British art and culture, a driving force behind the Great Exhibition, The Royal Albert Hall and the V&A Museum. But perhaps his most enduring contribution to our insatiable appetite for sending cards was his work in helping to establish the Penny Post and the reform of the postal service.

It is impossible for a British person to separate the greeting card from the post box – dipping your hand into pillar box red, clutching a Valentine’s card, walking to the end of the street in your winter coat to post a letter to Father Christmas. Even schools have their own handcrafted post boxes for Christmas and Valentine’s day. Homemade boxes covered in red paper for the posting of tiny envelopes addressed to their friends, as though we are training children in the art of sending greeting as part of the national curriculum. Since the Victorian era, most of our best wishes, congratulations, condolences and Happy Birthdays have been sent through the post. The history of the British Greeting card has been shaped by our beloved Royal Mail. In 1840, Henry Cole helped Rowland Hill to establish the Penny Post which made sending cards not only viable but helped the greeting card industry become a commercial success. Before the introduction of the penny black stamp, post was paid for by the recipient, which meant that the poor couldn’t receive letters or cards. Rowland Hill was inspired to reform the postal system when he witnessed a distressed young woman on her doorstep, too poor to receive a letter from her lover. Not only did the post become more efficient, it became fairer, as sending and receiving notes of happiness and comfort was opened up to all.

The British tradition of sending cards continued to thrive into the twentieth century and the postal service was vital in helping us to support each other in times of need. During WW1 soldiers embroidered cards to be sent home from the front line and, due to censorship, the care and love put into the card designs expressed the feelings that they themselves may not have been able to write in letters. These cards still exist and have been preserved and treasured by their families, even when other memorabilia has been lost. They are touching and poignant even for us today, but the intense emotion these creations must have inspired in the intended recipient perfectly capture the simple yet incredible power of a greeting card. This emotional power endures today, despite our over – reliance on digital media. Sharon Little from the Greeting Card Association explains that: “It’s been scientifically proven that receiving cards makes people feel far more special and cared–for than any kind of e-communication including texts, social media messages or e-cards.”

In the same way that digital reading devices have not replaced books, it is the tactile nature of cards that warms the heart, people still love print and the feel of paper in their hands. Foiled, letterpress printed, blind debossed, die-stamped and biodegradable – the quality and variety of our cards is full of artistry and craftsmanship. In some parts of Britain, the greeting card business has replaced heavy industry and throughout the country thousands of artists, designers, typesetters, writers and printers are employed to keep it the most innovative in the world. Over 40% of greeting card companies are smaller independents, leading to the production of highly creative cards produced with traditional, high-quality production values. Charlie Cumming from Meticulous Ink explains that in recent years, “There has been a resurgence in wanting quality, something more considered. We run handwriting workshops because people want to write in a nicer way, to write more cards. To buy cards that they will enjoy sending”.

The history of greeting cards has come full circle. Although not always handmade, people are sending more quality cards – printed on quality papers, designed by respected artists and designers. The value of sales has gone up and people are increasingly looking for something unique and beautifully made. If it is humanly possible, cards are becoming even more desirable in this digital age. This is borne out by the continued international success of companies like Smythson of Bond St. Established in 1887 just 40 years after the first Christmas card was produced by Henry Cole, they attribute their continued success to creating ‘A world where our craft meets your story’.

One hundred years have passed since soldiers sent cards from the Somme but despite the rise of instant messaging, social media, and the E-card, the humble greeting card is still keeping the spirit of print alive. As Sharon Little explains, “We don’t write many letters anymore – so it’s actually cards that are the last bastion of handwriting.” The V&A, which Henry Cole founded, now stocks hundreds of cards, greeting cards are still beautifying life, both visually and emotionally. We remain strongly attracted to the greeting card to provide that special human touch. To understand the British relationship with the greeting card you have to understand that it is historical, traditional and, above all, emotional. Like a private joke or a comforting squeeze of the shoulder, it is a simple way of expressing a myriad of different emotions. We may be accused of having a stiff upper lip, but we wear our hearts on our sheaths of paper and love cards with a saucy joke.

Source: Lagom Design

Facts about the greeting card industry

• The greeting card industry is directly and indirectly responsible for the jobs of 100,000 people in the UK including: publishers; artists, photographers and image suppliers; verse and prose writers; printers; paper and board companies; envelope and cello wrap suppliers; specialist finishers; warehousing and distribution companies; trade fair organisers and retailers.
• No other country has such a tradition of card sending or card display in the home – the sending and receiving of cards is an important part of our culture.
• We buy more cards per person than any other nation – 33 each a year.
• But the industry’s rule of thumb is that 85% of all cards are bought by women.
• The UK card industry is acknowledged to be ten years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of design.
• Greeting cards are stocked in more types of outlet than any other product – with one in six retailers stocking greeting cards.
• There are over a thousand publishers in the UK, most of which are small businesses with fewer than five employees. Out of the 450 plus members of the GCA over 350 are small/micro businesses.
• It’s a creative industry with strong bases in London, Nottinghamshire and the North, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire, where it has replaced many of the heavy manufacturing industries as a major employers.
• Charities estimate that £50m is raised for good causes through the sales of charity Christmas cards each year.
• Greeting card making is also the number one craft hobby, according to Crafts Beautiful, the top consumer craft magazine, which receives more enquiries about greeting cards than any other subject.
• The commercial Christmas card was invented in 1846 by Sir Henry Cole, the chief organiser of the Great Exhibition, pioneer of the penny post and founder of the V&A Museum.
• One of Sir Henry’s first Christmas cards, sent to his Grandmother was recently sold at auction for £22,500.

Facts and figures

Latest Figures from the GCA Market Report 2018

The latest GCA Market Report shows that in 2017 the UK public spent £1.7 billion on greeting cards.

The report, which covers sales January – December 2017, is the only research based on actual retail sales figures, with data confidentially submitted by UK publishers to market analysts Echo Research (formerly a division of Ebiquity).

The total retail value of single cards sales in the UK stood at over £1.506bn in 2017.

Everyday cards are now worth £1.163bn.

Nearly 100 million Christmas single cards were sold, bringing the total for the Christmas card market to one billion cards sold in the UK.

In addition, an estimated 900m Christmas cards were sold in boxes and packs worth around £230m, as well as millions of cards bought from online operators, such as Moonpig.

Source: Greeting Card Association

What is currently on offer?

Greeting cards are no longer exclusively available only in specialist card shops and are widely available in most shops and supermarkets. So a trip to the supermarket was “on the cards”! I took some photos of the offer in a Morrison’s supermarket.

There were so many on offer including generic cards along with birthday and age–related categories. There was also a Valentines Day card section due to the time of the year. This demonstrates that cards can be seasonal e.g. Christmas; Easter; Valentines; Fathers’/Mothers’ Day etc..

The online card business is now a massive part of the industry and gives the consumer a more bespoke service in personalising the cards. This means that card designs need to work well for print and as a thumbnail on a website, similar to the book design exercise.

Secondary Research

What days to celebrate?

I wanted to find some of the more unusual days to celebrate and found the website Days of the year which has days listed for almost every day of the year. Now, which to pick?

Days of the year.com

I started with what was celebrated on the 20th of February other than my birthday. The one that jumped out at me was Handcuff Day as this was unusual and could throw up some interesting imagery and compositions.

While searching for ideas I made myself a cup of tea and wondered if there was a tea day? It turns out that the 15th of December is International Tea Day. So that was number 2.

I chose the final date based on my inner–geek: the 5th of April 2063 Star Trek First Contact Day.

Handcuff Day

Handcuff Day marks the occasion back in 1912, on February 20th, when a patent was granted to George A. Carney for a revolutionary new style of handcuff. This new design became the de facto restraint of law enforcement agencies worldwide.

Lightweight and easier to use than previous handcuffs, Carney’s revolutionary “swinging bow ratchet – type”  handcuff design allows a subject to be secured without the use of a key. Before that handcuffs were heavy and bulky and there was no standard style at all. Carney’s design was always ready and easier to compare to older models.

Since that patent, most modern handcuffs around the world have been made with the same swing through design, with minor modifications. The Carney Patent was bought by James Milton Gill who then started the Peerless® Handcuff Company of Springfield, Mass. and Carney’s handcuffs have been manufactured ever since, becoming the irreplaceable tools of the trade for clients ranging from police officers to Harry Houdini-like escape artists

International Tea Day

The International Tea Day campaign was launched in 2005 by the trade unions, small tea growers and civil society organisations in Asia and Africa to address the issues of living wages for workers and fair prices for small tea producers.

The International Tea Conference in New Delhi came out with an International Declaration on the rights of workers and small growers to help regulate uneven competition, land ownership, safety regulations, rights of women, social security and living wages. Another organisation, The Tea Board of India, proposed International Tea Day in hopes of it becoming an official holiday to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

This was proposed by chairman Santosh Kumar Sarangi in 2015. According to the chairman, the proposal of India was supported by countries such as Canada, the United States, European Union, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Kenya, and Malawi. While the holiday doesn’t have official status, the goal of this holiday is to recognise the vulnerable situations that tea producers in India have with current living conditions and worker-related policies.

The day also focuses on deliberating on urgent issues such as residues, climate change, technology and trends on production and consumption in the tea industry. To observe this day, over 150 representatives from tea organisations gather and conduct a seminar to discuss the pervading problems the tea industry has as well as problems faced within their own country.

Star Trek First Contact Day

There is one day in the history of mankind in the Star Trek universe that stands out above all others, even though it is only celebrated as a relatively minor holiday. On that day in 2063, Zefram Cochrane first took a flight at speeds in excess of Warp 1 in the Phoenix, alerting the Vulcan race to their entrance into the interstellar community and initiating first contact. Some 300 years later it was commemorated as First Contact Day, and the celebration went on from there. Star Trek: First Contact Day commemorates that day in real life, and fans everywhere get together to celebrate the most pivotal moment in Star Trek human history!

First Contact is an important part of a species introduction into the galactic community and is handled very carefully by the extant species of Star Fleet. Generally speaking, they find it beneficial to privately approach the scientists and other intellectuals of the target species with the belief that they’ll be ready to accept the existence of off-world species. The approach is generally timed for when the species is about to enter the galactic community by engaging in their first faster-than-light travel. From that point, they receive an explanation about what the universe outside their solar system is like and are welcomed in.

Mind maps

I mind mapped the 3 days and it went in some fun directions.

The handcuff map went on what seemed to be a thesaurus of words for disorder and various restraints.

Star Trek went down several different routes from literal Trek references to interstellar imagery.

Tea took me from the ingredients and the paraphernalia that goes with it , to vintage tea ads, to the Bauhaus!

Mood Board

I collected a few images that I like that related to the 3 topics I’d chosen that I think would work with my designs

Pinterest Board

Initial ideas

Handcuff Day

I picked handcuff day as it is celebrated on the same day as my birthday. My mind map was split into two categories when it came to handcuffs: Fluffy, hen-do, sexual object and the means of control and imprisonment. I immediately wrote off the fluffy handcuff idea as I thought it could result in something that could be quite tacky. So then I went down the use of handcuffs as a restraint and detention by the authorities. This thought process then got me thinking about pushing back against the “system” and anarchy and chaos. The anarchy part then made me think of the Sex Pistols Never Mind the  Bollocks album cover.

I wondered if I could do something along the lines of this and sourced some images of handcuffs from the internet to find something suitable for what I needed. I had in mind an image that would look screen–printed or stencilled but a little rough around the edges. This would be paired with text in a similar font to the album cover. I’d also had the phrase “Cuffed to bits” in my head and thought that I wanted to fit this in somehow.

This was my initial design for the first card with which I had tried to emulate the feel of the Sex Pistols’ album….it was ok, but I felt it wasn’t quite hitting the spot. So I asked my peer group and they agreed that it wasn’t quite right. I took some time away from this design and concentrated on the other 2 and decided to revisit it at a later time.

On returning to this design it still didn’t quite sit right. I went back to the album cover and decided to reverse the text out of a block of colour. I kept the colour palette to a minimum and repeated the magenta colour for the coloured block. The result felt a lot more cohesive and also made the print job only 2 colours! It also now had more of a “nod” to the original anarchic album cover from 1977.

Referring back to the exercises in this section, I believe that this is eye–catching and minimal but still peaks your interest as to what it is about.

International Tea Day

You can’t beat a nice cup of tea! This is the reasoning behind picking this day to celebrate. Tea is a very British institution and is revered and mocked throughout the world. I looked at how tea has been advertised in the past and liked the images of old tea ads on the side of buildings with the brickwork showing through. I thought this was probably being too literal but did find very interesting and retro and I loved the typography and the fact that it had been hand–painted on there.

Source: Pinterest

Then my thoughts took me to teabags and their shapes.

Source: The Telegraph

The square, triangle and circle immediately shouted ‘Bauhaus!’ at me. This appealed to me and I wondered if I could emulate a classic Bauhaus image and replace the geometric elements with teabags. I sketched out a few ideas to see if anything jumped out at me.

I referred back to the Occam’s Razor exercise and wanted something parred back and minimal, like the Bauhaus style. So I went for the classic Bauhaus image of the white background with primary–coloured geometric shapes and bold, black text in the classic Bauhaus typeface Futura. I also wanted to include some sort of phrase to do with being “my bag” as if the card was used as an endearment. Bauhaus became ‘Teahaus’ and the triangle became a yellow, pyramid teabag; the blue circle became a round teabag and the red square a square teabag. Initially this was all placed on a plain white background, but this seemed a little harsh. I decided to dull this down a bit by adding a blue/grey gradient in the background. This seemed to pull the design together better and soften it a little.

I think that this design adds some tongue in cheek humour but still is about tea. I used the phrase “You’re just my bag!” inside the card to give it a little more humour besides the International Tea Day salutation on its own.

First Contact Day

As I said earlier, I’m a self confessed geek and Star Trek is part of that. So my initial thoughts took me all around the Star Trek universe from its inception in 1966 to its latest incarnation. However, first contact had been the subject of one of the Star Trek movies so I thought I’d better stick to that timeline.

It centres around the first warp flight by humans attracting the attention of a passing Vulcan ship. My thoughts initially leant towards the ships involved and space itself and also the Vulcans and their appearance. However, even from my mind map you could see the Vulcan greeting used in the show. No matter what I sketched or thought I always came back to this.

I played around with the hand and tried it left and right. I also tried it with and without the “live long and prosper” greeting. It then occurred to me that this was still a generic Star Trek card that had no context. The date needed to be added as this was a major part of the event being celebrated and the fact that it was in the future was a pretty major point. As a result I added the date in numerical form and also put it in the US date format as first contact happens in Montana, USA. I kept the design black and white to give it simplicity and clarity, especially where the date overlaps the hand.

I liked the black and white but it didn’t jump off the page which it needed to do if it was to attract customers’ attention. I went back to my original thoughts and decided the black areas had to have a more ‘stellar’ appearance. I went in to Photoshop to create a star–scape to use as a background. I had to refresh my memory on some of Photoshop’s features as I predominantly work in Illustrator. I found a tutorial and used some of the filters and brushes to create an interstellar scene. The first included a planet in the foreground but this wasn’t clear due to the location of the text.

So I then tried again and just used the stars on their own which gave a much better result.

I then placed this behind the text and it gave a much more impressive effect and lifted the card 1000%. I then repeated this scene inside the card and reversed the text of the Vulcan greeting and the title out in white. I could have die–cut the the front of the card but then you would be able to see the text inside the card and it would have to be set differently which wouldn’t look right.

I think that this works really well and is bold enough to be visible from a distance.

Final designs

Conclusion

I feel that this was a really fun and interesting assignment and I can see how the previous exercises lead to this point.

As previously I asked both my immediate and extended peer groups for their feedback on the cards. The feedback was very positive and most of what I had tried to achieve was well received. Some people didn’t get the link between anarchy, The Sex Pistols and handcuffs. But once my logic was explained they saw the connection. The Bauhaus link was not easily recognised by non–designers, But, once it was explained they saw the humour behind the message. The Star Trek on e seemed to be the best received. This may be due to the fact that most designers and students are geeks at heart.

Overall I think that this assignment has been a success even if some of the cards are a bit niche.

If I had to criticise anything it would be that I need to document my process more on paper first rather than in my head or on the computer.

Your local green grocer has asked you to produce a point of sale display to go above the fruit and vegetables in their shop. They want the display to be seen from the street through the shop window to attract passing shoppers in order to boost their trade. The shop is in a small precinct which also houses a baker, a newsagent, an independent shoe shop and is on the route to and from a well respected primary school.

The final reproduction size will be 2 x A1 landscape so you will need to produce your artwork at a smaller scale.

Either take photographs, create illustrations or use a combination to develop two images – one of fruit and one of vegetables. For each range you may choose an individual piece, dissected or partly sliced sections, or create a group of several pieces.

Then identify any wording you might want to use. The most important things to remember are what the shopkeeper wants to achieve and who the message is for (the audience). The posters will be seen from quite a distance and mainly in people’s peripheral vision so the visuals need to be clear and dynamic.

Illustrating food is a challenging area of work. Focus on the food in your image. Remember to create a visual distance between you and the food. Put yourself in the place of the customer and ask, “Does this look edible? Would I like to eat it?”. Be especially conscious of the way you use colour to describe tone, shadow and surface marks – poor colour choices can result in food looking mouldy, battered, and ultimately unappetising.

Identify the most appropriate software to complete the job. You will need to create a folder in which to keep your files.

Ask yourself and, if you can, other people how well the designs work. Have you included enough or too much information? Make notes in your learning log.

Point of sale

A point-of-sale display (POS display) is a specialised form of sales promotion that is found near, on, or next to a checkout counter (the “point of sale”). They are intended to draw the customers’ attention to products, which may be new products, or on special offer, and are also used to promote special events, e.g. seasonal or holiday-time sales. POS displays can include free standing display units(FSDU), shelf edging, dummy packs, strut cards, standees, hanging signs, counter display units (CDU), display packs, endcaps, display stands, mobiles, posters, and banners. POS can also refer to systems used to record transactions between the customer and the commerce.

Source: Wikipedia – Point of sale display

I searched online for some examples of that I liked. They vary in style and message/purpose but all are bold and colourful and draw you in by conveying the intended message in a simple way using both images and type. The fruit/veg is still the main element, but is emphasised by the type and its typeface and hierarchy.

Initial thoughts

My initial thoughts on interpreting the brief was that it was asking for 2 x A1 posters to hang in the window of the greengrocer’s shop. It would involve some food photography which would be edited in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop before being converted to a pdf ready for printing. Images would have to be of a high resolution due to being used on such a large display and text must be easy to read at a glance.

Ideas would need to be worked on paper first and a shopping list written before heading to the greengrocers to find some fruit and veg to be photographed. Photos would need to be set up and lit carefully, so some research on how to achieve this will be necessary as I don’t have any specialist camera equipment apart from my camera and tripod.

Also as a former chef I believe in letting the food do the talking and using its own natural shape and beauty when presenting a dish. There are some gorgeous natural forms and patterns out there in fruit and veg and hopefully I can incorporate this into my designs. I have an amazing cookbook called Modernist Cuisine that has some amazing food photography in it that captures the natural beauty of ingredients and dishes in unusual ways that I really like.

Credit: Modernist Cuisine

Design ideas

So I jotted down a few key words and ideas into my sketchbook using mind–mapping and then listed the ideas that jumped out.

Ideas that I thought had possibilities were:

• Using interesting fruits and their unusual shapes and colours
• Sliced or cross–sections of fruit/veg
• Should it be a single piece or a selection of fruit/veg
• Different varieties of the same fruit/veg
• Will the fruit/veg be the background or foreground?
• Will the display be seasonal?
• Interior of the fruit/veg: seeds etc.
• Bold/bright

Then I started to think about what the message of the display would be and who it’s aimed at:

• Fruit and veg is healthy
• It’s a local business
• It’s convenient
• High quality produce
• Fruit and veg is good for kids
• 5 a day
• “What’s for tea?”
• “Can I have a snack?”
• Come in and buy

As a parent of nearly primary school–age children I think that if this is to be displayed on the school–run it would mean parents would get to see this twice a day. Therefore this is your target audience. They aren’t going to be able to spend time reading details due to having to entertain small people, so it needs to be big and bold and convey its message simply. I think it needs to be aimed at the parents feeding the children fresh, healthy fruit and veg.

I decided that I was going to do this exercise using photos of fruit and veg and see what I could achieve with my own camera. So I blew the dust of my tripod and set it up to see if any of the lenses I had would be good enough for what I wanted. I went into the fridge to see what I could find…strawberries are all that was there! Ah well, they will do for seeing what I could achieve with the equipment I had.

The results proved relatively “fruitful”. I was quite happy with what I achieved with what I had but I didn’t think they were quite up to spec for what I wanted. I did like the close–ups of the strawberry’s skin and seeds as this looked very different at this distance. However, without having a macro lens I didn’t think I’d be able to achieve the desired results. It did point me in the direction of using close–up images in my designs as this would give that bright/bold images for the large posters.

So, which fruit and veg to choose. My initial thoughts were to use exotic fruit and veg as these would give more vibrant and interesting images such as dragonfruit or romanesco. But then I thought, would the target audience be able to recognise or relate to images of more exotic fruit?  So then, interesting images of more run–of–the–mill it was. The message and target audience also influenced what fruit and veg images would be as I thought that they would need to represent “family favourites”.

I had the phrase “What’s for tea, Mum?” rattling around in my head as this is what would be being asked by the kids on there way to or returning from school. Then I thought of my own kids and the “Dad, I want a snack” phrase sprang to mind. I wanted to incorporate something like this into the posters, but if I did it should be made less gender–specific as this may not apply to all of the target audience. The typeface for the message needs to be friendly and relaxed but easily readable from a distance. I decided to use Clarendon as it is a serif font family and is a little softer than sans–serif typefaces which for this type of project would appear too clinical and it also has some good special characters and ligatures.

I decided to revisit my strawberry photos to see if I could at least make one poster rather than using all images downloaded from the net. I used both Photoshop and Lightroom to crop the image and then adjusted the shadows and contrast. I was very happy with the result and it would more than do for this exercise. For the strawberry image I needed to find an appropriate slogan to appeal to the passing trade of parents of young children. I thought it should be something to do with busy parents needing inspiration for meals, whether planning the meals for the next week or something a more spontaneous for that day. So what do strawberries usually come with? Cream? That’s too obvious! What is a “family favourite” that contains strawberries? Trifle of course!

I then went on to make 4 more posters on the same theme using images that I found on the net. I used similar phrases on them playing on the theme of the busy parent stopping in to get something for dinner.

I was very happy with the results and the concept, but I would say that! I then asked my peers for their opinion…

Feedback

Wow! Feedback from my peer group of fellow students was 100% positive. They all felt that I had hit the brief and the designs were colourful and bold which would attract the attention of potential passing shoppers.

The general consensus from those around me and the peer group was that the 2 winning designs were:

The colours seem to work together better and are more harmonious. Peas came in a close second. I liked the strawberry as I’d photographed it myself and also the ligature in the text in the word trifle. I think the peas and strawberry also make a good pair due to their bold, bright colours.

This doesn’t mean that the other designs couldn’t be used as part of a campaign or if the display is seasonal as not all the fruit and veg will be available all year round.

Conclusion

This was a very enjoyable exercise. Receiving such great feedback as well only backs up the enjoyment I got from doing this exercise.

If I were to criticise one thing it would be that I didn’t explore doing more of my own photography and pushing that further. But going forward I will definitely do more of my own photography where possible and not use image found on the net.