Design Practice III//UK Greetings & YCN 2012-13 Market Research.

paperchase.co.uk/page/home

Researching the existing market for greetings cards as part of my UK Greetings/YCN 2013 brief.
For my range, I have decided to work around the themes of love, with the target market of 18-30 year old women, who are either in relationships or newly weds/with young families. As the female target market for card purchasing is by far the largest, I felt this would be a great audience, and to celebrate love in all it's forms, as it is, of course, so universal- be it friendship love, marital love, an unconditional love or the first signs of love in romance. 
Whilst researching various high street and online retailers such as Paperchase, Clinton cards and Funky Pigeon (see links and screenshots above and below) I found that the majority of cards, to put it bluntly, weren't very tasteful (Paperchase being the particular exception) and often very gimmicky and cliche, which I don't feel necessarily represents the variants of love and it's personal meaning to each individual. 
I have decided through my initial design development (see my Design Practice blog for more details) that I would like to focus on create a boutique range of designs with a focus on the mid- high-end price range/market, and develop a range of cards that fit into the themes of "love for any occasion" (be it an anniversary, valentines, just to say... etc), with a calligraphic style of text in quirky and heartfelt messages that run throughout with a minimal, graphic style, which can also be applied to gift wraps and gift bags respectively.

Really excited to get well and truly started with the design outcomes, going to be a busy weekend!

whsmith.co.uk

clintoncards.co.uk

hallmark.com

funkypigeon.com

moonpig.com

Design Practice III//Jessica Hische.

jessicahische.is

Documenting research and imagery for the unequivocal queen of hand-rendered type, Jessica Hische.
For a long time I've been a great fan of her work, and it has proved to be a constant source of enjoyment and inspiration through my personal and professional design practice.
For my UK Greetings/YCN 2012-13 brief, I will undoubtedy be returning to her design portfolio as a source of inspiration, particularly looking at the influence of colour, weight of line and the character of the letterforms which are visually communicated.

For my own, personal design developments throughout the brief, see my Design Practice blog.

Design Practice III//Sparrow Nest Script.

etsy.com/shop/SparrowNestScript

A quick research post paying homage to an Etsy seller and calligraphic designer, simply known as 'Sparrow Nest Script', whose work I have admired for some time.

Throughout my product and design developments in the UK Greetings/YCN 2012-13 brief, I hope to produce a range of printed cards and gift wrap outcomes with hand-rendered, calligraphic type that reflect sweet and unique sentiments that I feel will particularly appeal to my female target audience of 18-30 year olds for their reflection of spontenatity, playfulness and genuine sentiment, as well as being stylishly and subtly designed (unlike many of the sickly-sweet or garish cards that are currently available in the retail market).

Really excited to start designing, and hopefully having some resolved outcomes by this time next week. For future design work, see my Design Practice blog.

Design Practice III//Alex Trochut Typography.

alextrochut.com

Always a source of inspiration in regards to my typographic work, and, in particular, throughout research contemporary calligraphy for my UK Greetings/YCN 2012-13 brief (see my Design Practice blog for design developments), Alex Trochut is, clearly, a master of his art. 

The consistency of weight of line and render of his type is absolutely immaculate, and looks beautifully finished in the vector version (something I will definitely be looking to develop for production values within my own work). Some beautiful examples of work and inspiration, looking forward to getting started.

Design Practice III//Calligraphuck.

calligraphuck.com

Recently I discovered the wonderful world and designs of 'Calligraphuck', which have proven to be a particular inspiration for my UK Greetings/YCN 2012-13 brief, though perhaps a little less lewd...

Whilst working on design developments (see my Design Practice blog for more info and visual examples), I started to thinking about themes of love and simple, sweet messages that could be written to a loved one, and started exploring typographic outcomes with my naturally cursive style which evolved into something calligraphic. What I love about Calligraphuck is the ability to take a simple sentence  or something quite tongue in cheek and make it extraordinarily elaborate (particularly loving the embossing- something I definitely want to try out with my own designs!).

Now I've purchased a beginner's calligraphy set online, I'm really going to try and push this brief as one which is skills-driven, and see how professional my production levels can really be. Really looking forward to getting started.

Design Practice III//Qubik Print Samples.

On Friday, whilst working on a day placement with Joe Gilmore at his home studio, 'Qubik', I was lucky enough to leave with lots of printed goodies and samples that Joe himself had designed for a range of clients and project briefs in more recent months.
As well as all I learnt in just one day, the printed samples have given me a great source of inspiration in regards to the range of printed outcomes I hope to produce for my brief- particularly as I look to develop the A/W 2012 Magazine/Portfolio for Jessie Leong Photography as well as the gig programme for the 2013 Orange Juice hypothetical 'Rip it Up' tour. As I start to develop these briefs, I will be sure to return to these samples, along with the others I have collected over the duration of this brief. 

For design developments, as specified above, see my Design Practice blog.

Design Practice III//Gig Ticket Research.

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Doing a quick spot of research in regards to the development of my gig ticket designs for the hypothetical 2013 Orange Juice 'Rip it Up' reunion tour.

At this point, with a very basic ticket design, having determined my use of type and colour scheme, I'm looking largely at the individual print finishes which help to define the gig tickets and make them unique, and consistent with one another- such as foil blocking, perforations (on ticket stubs), barcodes, and foil stamps with demonstrate it's authenticity.

Over the next few days I'll look at the various print processes and outcomes to be applied to the design. For design developments over the next couple of days and weeks, see my Design Practice blog.

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Design Practice III//Lookbook.

http://lookbook.nu

Researching the fashion blog/website 'Lookbook', as a potential source of inspiration in regards to the development of the Jessie Leong Photography A/W printed and digital magazine portfolio for 2012.

Lookbooks works by members of the site posting up images of their creative outfits and daily fashion for feedback from others within the online community. The website itself, simple, bold, and effective uses a monochromatic colour palette to let the images ~do the talking~ with a contemporary minimalism within the use of bold, sans serif typefaces and with hover-over links, something I really hope to explore and develop the design of within Jessie's own website/portfolio.

For more design developments, see my Design Practice blog.