OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Evaluation

Based on peer feedback, it was suggested that overall the designs work well in communicating the initial aim. It was suggested that it is clear how research has informed the development of the final outcomes with these displaying lots of connections between the genre of music in terms of its production and the societal issues that vaporwave is usually concerned with.

It was thought particularly that the bubblegum sticker packaging was purposeful as an object, more so than the floppy disk label designs, since this is something people would interact with more and was thought to be a more creative idea and response to the brief overall. However, the floppy disks were still considered well thought-out in terms of their designs and meanings, but were thought to be less purposeful than the bubblegum since these are very outdated and technology has moved on a lot since they were around.

The main purpose of the floppy disks were to work with the bubblegum to try and better communicate the sense of nostalgia which was aiming to be presented through these outcomes. The bubblegum packaging being the main outcome. Therefore, despite the comment that the floppy disks do not seem as purposeful as the bubblegum designs, these work well together to present feelings of 90’s nostalgia that vaporwave is concerned with along with a small sense of surrealism created in the juxtaposition of the two objects.

Another piece of feedback was that the original bubblegum packaging has a perforated strip down the middle which can be teared and so makes it easier to open the packaging up. This is something which potentially could have also been played with in the final outcomes, but despite this, the designs were thought to work effectively in context. The floppy disks use the brand Imation, however, if these designs were to be produced again next time they should be placed onto Sony or Fujifilm branded floppy disks since these are shown to be more associated with the themes of vaporwave than Imation.

In terms of effective communication of information, the nutritional information is generally something of importance which has to be placed onto all food packaging in case of any allergies, etc. The playful nature of this in the designs was considered to be a clever idea to present the way in which a vaporwave music track is produced and the type choice enhances this. However, it was also thought that the pixelated background, although working well to convey ideas of technology, was considered to distort the text a bit making it harder to read. It was suggested therefore that the type should either be made bigger, change colour, or the colours of the background should be made paler.