Final Collection

For the brief I had to design a range of 8 greetings cards – I chose 4 occasions to design for; new home, new baby, engaged and happy birthday. These occasions are appropriate for the age range of 25-40 I have chosen. I have created two different designs for each occasion and to make my range versatile I have decided to use a variety of fabrics that coordinate with my colour range. Here are images of my final 8 designs;

New Home and It’s a Girl

New Home Lable

Inside of Card

Engaged Card

Engaged

Engaged Lable

It’s a Boy

Happy Birthday

New Home Design

Present Tree

Back of Card

Evaluation of Consultancy Project

This project had a brief from an actual design company; International Greetings, this made it feel more realistic to what working for a client would be like, I had to fit my design work to their criteria which proved challenging to start with but I soon got the hang of it. The brief was for either a range of wrapping paper and accessories or greetings cards, paper-based products was not something I had designed for before. I chose the range of 8 greetings cards as I felt it fitted best with my initial sketches and potential ideas. Research was key to this project – I had to research the company I chose to design for (John Lewis) as well as general card design, trends, colours and much more.

Card Research

John Lewis Research

Trend Research

Developed Sketches

Mixed Media

This proved a great foundation to pick my theme ‘Enchanted Forest’ and start sketching. I was able to experiment with a wide range on drawing techniques as well as using different media. During this project I have been able to develop my own drawing style and discover what works best for me. In order to make my cards different from whats already on sale I chose to stitch my designs on the digital stitch machine, this required learning a few new skills and practising my existing ones. I became very quick and efficient using the software and setting up the machine. The skills I have learnt in this project are a great foundation for my next ‘Field’ project.

Digital Stitch Machine

Samples

New Home Design

Inside of Card

Back of Card

I developed my stitch samples into lavender bags which slot inside the card and can be kept after the card has finished being displayed. I gave a lot of thought to the inside and back of the card – using icons form the digital stitch software created the images with a slightly stitched effect. I did a lot of research into fonts as well, this all proved very successful on my final cards.

During this project I have learnt what it is like designing for a real company, this shall be highly useful after my degree. I have also been continuing the development of my design skills – this time using the media of stitch. I have refined my presentation skills, due to having several presentation with IG as well as group tutorials. I have been able to expand my knowledge of design to greetings cards as well as the fabric based work. Overall I feel I have developed my own style and improved any of my existing design and personal skills.

International Greetings Presentation

On Thursday 4th December several members of the design team from International Greetings (IG) came to view and critique our collections. I displayed my mood boards, sketches, samples and final designs in my space, I gave a 2 minute presentation followed by questions. This proved very useful I was able to get a professional opinion from the member of the IG team as well as my tutor and peers on my range of cards. I therefore had a range of opinions on my work and was able to discovered the areas I needed to improve. I also had a one-to-one tutorial with Sarah the head designer at IG, this proved highly insightful – she made several suggestions on my packaging to make it more commercial. Overall the day was highly useful I now have several areas to improve on before the final deadline.