OUGD503 - Pitch A Papergang - Digital Design Developments

In beginning to develop my initial sketches and ideas into digital designs, the composition of imagery was largely something which was experimented with. This can be seen in terms of developments for the greetings card design. Initially it was decided that type should be the main focus of this, using an appropriate typeface which can be considered quirky in it's own right and did not need anything else surrounding it. However, it was decided that this looked too minimalistic and was not engaging enough as a piece of design. For this reason, illustrations were used in addition to the type.

Based on research into existing products from the company, a use of slogans was presented, specifically for greetings cards. It was decided to make use of this in my own design developments in order to give it a humorous touch and represent the quirky nature of the brand and in not being afraid to be a bit daring in terms of the design of products. A play-on-words was therefore used linking the slogan to the Halloween theme of the products, as well as something more crude.

In starting to produce illustrations which represented the theme of Halloween, it was important that each of these held a similar illustrative style. Such images were therefore all produced using thick, black borders and block elements of colour appropriate to the objects. This was decided purposefully in order to give the illustrations a more pop-art feel about them and to ultimately make them stand out amongst the backgrounds and amongst other competition elements. The bold nature of these illustrations also conveys the idea of Halloween as being a time of things to jump out at you, therefore the aesthetics try to replicate this.

Initial research found that the company had an attraction towards nice surface pattern design, therefore these smaller elements of imagery were further developed into different compositions to produce patterns which could be made appropriate to products such as wrapping paper. These designs were also replicated using coloured backgrounds to see the effects these produce.

Pumpkins were another element which was considered to be representative of the theme of Halloween. An object which can help to convey the 'fun' elements within these design developments since these are typically carved into wacky designs. The same approach has been taken with these as with the ghost illustrations above, composing the different varieties of pumpkin into various patterns.

Continuing the journey through design development, each product was carefully considered as to how these illustrations and designs would be appropriate for use as each thing. In designing coaster designs, it was initially thought about what comes to mind when you think about a drink. One idea was to link the idea of a brew to a witches brew. This was communicated through the development of different cauldron designs which could then potentially be composed with other elements such as pumpkins or the additional development of witch characters.

More surface pattern designs used to convey the theme of Halloween as a whole, making use of various different elements together. These design developments could potentially be used as the artwork for the box itself since it rounds up the stuff you would expect to see within, and links the design of the box to these products.