BA
FMP Evaluation
Reflecting on my Final Major Project, I think it has been a very successful experience, and one filled with learning and challenges. Being the longest project of the year, I feel like I have not only managed my time well, but also filled it with lots of things to do, coming out with quite a few different deliverables in the end. The one aspect that I may not have managed so well is recording all of my processes and writing then up afterwards. This is something I have always struggled to keep up with, although I feel I have done an okay job with it for this project, and I feel I have a lot of evidence and recording to back up my project and my final outcomes.
Overall I think my project successfully fulfils the brief completely. I have created branding, and a fairly strong brand identity for Coleman Customs; and with the use of the style guide this reenforces the brand styles and the identity behind the brand, as well as the reasons and thinking for it. I have created all of the brand stationary and the promotional item for the brand, as well as the phonebook which I initially set out to do, although I feel I have far surpassed my expectations for how it would turn out. I have also gone beyond what I originally set out to do, creating extra items and pieces of design to further back up the brand, such as the style guide and the t-shirts. In terms of research I feel that everything I have looked at has been relevant, and has contributed substantially to evolving and improving my design. I feel I have learnt a lot about my subject throughout this project, not only with technical things such as kinds of custom bikes and different styles, but also more about the huge culture behind it, and the amazing passion that all these gus have for building and riding custom bikes, day in and day out.
As well as learning about my subject, I have also learnt a few new skills throughout my project, from looking at book binding and actually making my own physical book, to different photographic techniques to capture moving motorcycles, and editing using Lightroom. As well as this however, I have also further developed some of my existing skills such as techniques for creating a strong brand identity, and furthering my hand rendered typography skills to work within logo design. Working on a branding project of this sort of scale has definitely reenforced my own personal passion for branding projects, and has reminded me how much I enjoy working on brand identities and creating a hole new look for a brand. This has been an incredibly inspiring project and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning and working on it throughout.
Looking back, I feel this has been a very strong and successful project. I have by far fulfilled the brief, and have completed everything I initially set out to do. There were a few little extra things that would have been interesting to make if I had had the extra time, such as delving into the world of customs and painting some motorcycle parts. This was an idea that I had but never really got to fulfil, although I am not too bothered about missing out on it as I have created a strong selection of other work to back up my brand identity, and also represent it in a variety of interesting and engaging ways. I am proud of my final outcomes, and I think they do well to represent the brand identity in exactly the way I want them to.There has been a lot of thought and decision making put into this project, and I personally feel that it has paid off massively, and h has resulted in, what I personally think, to be one of my strongest projects I have ever worked on.
Final Photobook
The final step in my branding process was to finally print my photo book. After ordering the Naturalis paper and sending my design to the printers, I received the flat pages back. I started by folding the pages in half to create the french folds, and cut along the edges to make sure everything lined up and was the same size. The next step was to create the cover, which I chose to do using one of the textured Colorplan stocks from GF Smith in ebony. As an extra cover however, I wanted to have some sort of introduction to the book after opening it, before jumping straight into the photography, and So I printed a blank page with the secondary logo placed in the centre. I chose to use a glossy finish paper as I felt that this would help the page to stand out, and would make a nice difference to the rest of the book. I wanted to incorporate this page more into the design, and as the front cover at the moment was just plain black, I decided to cut a diamond out of it, allowing the logo on the white page to show through on the cover. I really like this as I feel that it not only makes for a more interesting and ore engaging experience, but it also gives an actual cover to the book, rather than just having it black.
Another sample that I asked for from GF Smith was this Transclear stock in Wizard White. This semi transparent stock is similar to tracing paper, and I love the soft feel and look that this paper has. Originally I wanted to print the cover logo onto this paper, but from trying to print with it I found that I couldn’t get the ink to sit on this stock without running. I wanted to still incorporate this stock into my book somehow however, and so I decided to use it as a flysheet, blank in the front of the book. I found that when pressed flat against a printout behind it, the image can actually be  seen through the Transclear paper, and so I thought it wold be an interesting addition to place this between the logo and the front cover; acting as protection for the glory paper, but also making for a more interesting design.
After finalising all of these decisions, I finally moved to binding the book. I printed a quick, cheap copy of one of the book pages so that I could fold the paper in half 4 times, as this gave me the equally spaced points on the page that I wold put the thread through to bind. I actually used a leather belt hole punch to make the holes in the book, using the printout as a template over each page to make sure that all of the pages lined up perfectly. This was successful, and the final step was to actually bind the book together, referring back to the videos I looked at, and again using red thread to contrast and stand out from the black front and back covers. Using the hole punch to make actual holes actually made the process much quicker and easier, and I quite quickly had finished binding the book, giving me the finished product.
I am unbelievably happy with the outcome of this book; I think it is a strong example of my design skills and my creativity, and I love that it is a much more personal piece of design, where I have curated it, meticulously chosen the paper, and finally bound the book together all myself. As well as furthering my own skills, I think this is a very strong piece of branding, and is a product that represents the brand I have created in a very strong and exciting way. I love that it is an engaging and good looking piece of design, and I like that I have managed to incorporate most of the design styles and brand aesthetics that I have evolved and created throughout the project. I feel that this is a solid culmination of all of the aspects of the Coleman Customs brand, and it is a strong example of the kind of standard that my brand has. I am proud of this design and I think it successfully works to fulfil the brief, acting as a promotional item, and also a work of art to some extent, that represents the brand in an engaging, interesting, and unique way.
Dungeness Finals
For the Dungeness brief, I was given fairly free reign, and tasked to simple design some postcards using imagery from the visit; encouraging people to get outdoors and experience nature. I wanted to take this opportunity to experiment a little more with some hand drawn typography and so I started by drawing up a simple piece of type that I thought looked nice, and was simple and fun enough to inspire people to step outside a little more.
After scanning and editing the type to isolate it, so that I could place it over an image, I started to pick some of my favourite images and narrow them down until I had three that I liked best. After visiting Dungeness, we decided to drive along the coast and stop at Camber Sands, and so I decided to include one image from there as well as I felt the look of the image really helped to encourage the meaning behind the designs, and I really liked the contrast between that image and the other two from Dungeness. I really like the typography placed over the images, as I think the design works really well and the type and image compliment each other well. I would say that the designs are successful in encouraging one to go outside more, and I think that I myself definitely feel inspired to go out into nature even more than I already do.
Dungeness
As one final bomb project, we were tasked with visiting Dungeness, a okay known for its baron wasteland-esque nature. The whole brief is revolved around getting outside in nature and experiencing the outdoors, which is something I love to do as much as I can anyway so I was quite excited to go to Dungeness.
From driving down and getting to the beach, my first impressions were more amazement than anything else. I had been told many times about how baron and empty it was, but I don’t think I was quite prepared for how empty it really was. There is nothing there. After driving along a weirdly straight, flat road in the middle of noting but pebbles, we eventually parked up and got out to have a wander. The thing that struck me as the weirdest was the amount of little houses that look like they have just popped up out of nowhere; they almost look out of place against the environment. The other thing I noticed was the amount of debris and old fishing junk just lying around; it was almost reminiscent of Hastings beach, but without the bustling town behind it, there was just nothing.
I had also been told about the power plant, and about the stark contrast between the man made of the plant and the baron expanse of nature surrounding it. Whilst it was quite a contrast between the two, with the power plant sitting and looming in the distance, I wasn’t actually that surprised by it. Growing up around more built up areas it was almost a little comforting in some ways to see the power plant, weird as that may sound. The thing that I found weirdest about Dungeness was still the emptiness of the place; just nothing for miles other than a few, out of place houses dotted around almost randomly. It was however, a very beautiful place and I found the whole experience of walking along the front very peaceful and extremely interesting. As with whenever I go outside, it was calming to be out in nature and experiencing the outdoors, and it was fun to have a little adventure in the empty wasteland that sits down on the coast there.
Photobook Prototypes
After getting a somewhat finished design ready, my next step was to print a prototype version out to see how the images and the spreads actually looked in real life. Due to the size of the spreads, I would need to print each at A2, which I was unable to do quickly as a test and so I printed at half the size using A3, just for the prototype. To fully test out my design, I decided to also experiment with my binding process and actually use it to bind my prototype. From putting it all together I really like the design, and it was really exciting to see my idea start to physically come to life. Of course as a first prototype there were a few spreads that I felt weren’t as strong as others, and a few different images that didn’t work too well together, so using the prototype as reference I went back in and made some changes to hopefully make for a stronger and better design.
After receiving a statement from Will and placing it onto the introduction page, I wanted to include a more personal and more interesting take on it as well, and so I decided to hand write a few extracts from the statement so that I could place them into a few of the spreads. Using Photoshop I scanned the pages in and removed the white to isolate the black against a transparent background so that I could place the type into the book, overlaying some of the imagery and creating a more personal touch for the piece.
After reshuffling some images and editing a few of the pages, as well as adding in the hand written type with a few different variations, I decided to print another copy to test out the improvements and see if I was happy with it. With the hand written elements, I had placed some in black and some in white, some over images and some not, unsure of which I preferred. After looking at the printed variations however, it was clear to see which ones worked better and which were clearer to read. I found that the spreads all worked much better now after moving some images around, and I feel like the book is much more balanced now throughout, and there are no areas that feel too busy or too empty.
I am really happy with the outcome of this photo book; I feel I have chosen a strong set of images and I feel they all work well together to represent the brand in an interesting, exciting and fun way that definitely reflects the brands values and the ideals that it holds. The next step in this process is to send the book to be printed. I chose to order a pack of the Naturalis Absolute White Smooth paper from GF Smith, using this to print my pages for the book. I still really like this paper as I love the texture and the feel of the paper, and I love the way that the blues pop out and sit on the paper in the samples. After buying the paper, the book will be sent to the printers to process and cut down, before I sort out a cover for the book and finally bind it together.
Photobook Design
Before starting work on the actual design of my book, I wanted to get the right size for the book. I wanted it to be the same dimensions as the images that I was using, and I wanted it to be around A4 in size, so I set up an A4 size Illustrator document and placed one of my images in. I wanted to leave an inch of black space on the edge of the page to leave space for binding the book, and when sizing the images to that scale that left a 29mm gap at the top. This space at the top of the page will be cut off, creating a slightly wider scale for the book, which I actually quite like and I think will look good when printed and bound.
When designing the book, I worked with A4 pages and treated the double page spreads as single pages to be printed, as they would need to be printed as one to be French folded. To allow the 1 inch border for binding, I made sure to leave a margin either side of the spreads, with no margins in the centre as this is where the fold, and therefore the edge of the pages would be. From setting up the margins in the document, I then began to place images into the book. I tried to keep the images opposing each other quite similar in the theme and colours, so as not to make too much contrast and to make for a balanced book throughout. I also wanted to almost tell a story throughout the book, ordering the images starting with details and static shots of the bike parked up, before introducing Will to the images and taking the bike out, introducing the riding shots and the more green images, with the Coleman shirt in some of them as well.
I left an area on one of the first pages blank, filled with placeholder text. This page would serve as the title/introduction page and through developing the book, I plan on asking Will for a statement/description for the bike, talking about the process of building and riding the bike, and some of his personal feelings towards the bike and the theme of building a custom. Through the images and the description I want to include, this makes the book about the bike, and therefore makes it something that could be made for each bike that Coleman Customs makes. For that reason, I named the book Suzi, after the name of the bike itself, chosen by Will.
Final Matchboxes
To make my custom matchboxes I decided to simply make the net for the sleeve myself, but use the tray and matches from an existing box, To do this I started by ordering a bulk order of small matchboxes and removing the sleeve. I wanted my matchboxes to be functional and the audience to be able actually strike a match, so I used a craft knife to cut out the strike paper so that I could stick it to my new boxes.
Before cutting up the old matchboxes, I measured out the dimensions of each side of the sleeve so that I could redesign my own at the exact same size. After doing so I moved to create my design, and I wanted to make it as simple and bold as possible, so made the net white and put each logo on either side of the box. Keeping to the colour scheme and the design theme of my brand I printed my design and I think it looks strong and definitely fits with my brand style. Rather than simply having a white piece of card, I wanted to make the design slightly more interesting and so I kept my net flat and stuck it to a black piece of paper of the same size. This meant that the inside of the boxes would be black, contrasting to the white outside and matching the black of the logos.
I really like the way these have turned out, and I think they represent the brand in a strong and interesting way. Being what could be considered quite a rugged little item, the matchboxes fit really well with the brand and are a really fun little promotional item to represent the brand in a unique and interesting way. I am happy with these and I love that it is a functional item, as well as being quirky and different to most brands. Whilst they may not look quite as professional or slick as if I had had them printed professionally, I like the handmade look and I think they have a bit more meaning being handmade, which certainly links to my brand and the idea of building custom motorcycles.
Book Binding
Another GF Smith sample that I found very useful, but not for the paper itself, was the softy range. The aspect that I actually found most interesting with this was the binding method that they had used to put the little booklets together. As the softy paper is one sided, to get a double page print they have had to fold the pages over in a French fold, and then bind them by seeing them together. This is a technique that I actually find really interesting, and that I would love to have on a bigger book. I love the hand sewn binding as well and I love the red thread against the black cover piece. I think this is a really cool idea and I think I would actually like to french fold and hand bind my photo book myself.
If I am going to hand bind my book, I wanted to look at some examples of different ways of binding books. I have experimented previously with using signitures and simple ways of binding, but because I am using french folding and making quite a unique book, I wanted a more unusual, more unique method to use.
One method that I have always found really interesting and I have always wanted to try out is Japanese book binding. I really love the shapes on the seam that the thread creates when binding the book, and I just think it is a really nice and really different way to bind a book. As well, I love how the edges of all the pages can be seen on the spine, rather than covering them up.
I think this is really cool and I could easily see my book being bound in this way, and so I decided to look at some tutorials on how to actually bind books using this method. What I found is that it is actually quite a straightforward process, and it is something I could easily do myself, and I would absolutely love to do for my final photo book.
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