Evaluation & Take Care PDFs

I am pleased with my design outcome, and I feel I have fulfilled the brief successfully. I have created a brand that is not only sustainable and environmentally friendly, but that also helps to combat a major environmental issue. It will encourage people to make changes in their lives to try and be more environmentally friendly, primarily by using the reusable bottle provided which will reduce the plastic pollution that they create. My design also fulfils the idea of ‘making it different’ very successfully, where I have redesigned what packaging can be, and why it needs to create any waste at all.

After finalising my idea and mocking up my designs, I then moved on to designing my PDFs. I decided to keep the designs simple, using the same base layout for each board and using a few, simple images for each. I wanted to show sustainability as much as I could through the boards and I wanted them to show how I had made the packaging different as clearly as I could. As ‘making it different’ was the main theme of the brief, I kept that in mind throughout my design process and I wanted to show that as much as possible in my PDFs. I also wanted to show some of my own design throughout all of my boards and so I included a faint logo on each PDF behind the body copy.

I think I have been successful in creating these PDFs and I think they show my idea well and in a positive way. I think my boards show sustainability well and I think they are clear in what I am trying to do. I feel my design is clear, strong, and shows my design process, ideas, and the philosophies behind my brand.

500 Word Design Proposal

I am going to be looking at the idea of waste and plastic pollution. I want to design something desirable and fashionable that is also sustainable and environmentally friendly, and inspires people to make changes for the better. I am going to create my own clothing brand, revolving around sustainability and the environment, and I will start by illustrating one or two t-shirt designs for it. I will plan to make the t-shirts from sustainable, green fabrics and so I will be researching into materials such as hemp and bamboo. I also plan to keep the designs on the t-shirts quite small to keep ink usage to an absolute minimum, as inks can be harmful to the environment.

One of the bigger issues that I wanted to combat was that of waste and plastic pollution, and so the way that I package these products will play a big part in my project. My t-shirts will be ordered online, and shipped to the customer. Rather than send them wrapped in cardboard and plastic that will be thrown away, I want to package them inside a reusable water bottle. This will encourage the customer to use this water bottle in their daily life, stopping them from buying plastic disposable bottles and reducing the plastic pollution they create. This method also means that there will be no disposable packaging, and therefore no waste produced there either. Obviously the delivery process may be rough, and so I want to use recycled aluminium to make the bottle strong and sturdy so that it won’t break or damage the product inside. I will be researching into existing water bottle designs to help me decide on the best way to design my own bottle, keeping it sturdy, strong and functional.

My product is most likely going to be aimed primarily at a younger audience, mainly teenagers and young adults who would want to purchase the clothing I am designing. I would love it if my designs appealed to some older people as well; I don’t think my product will exclude them, only be less appealing. I know that many young people are not concerned with climate change and being environmentally friendly, and so I want to try to influence them with my product by presenting environmentally friendly options in a slightly more fashionable manor. This will hopefully encourage them to make changes, starting with the water bottle and then possibly even making their own changes, or influencing others to do so as well. As with the older audience, any that are interested by my product will hopefully be encouraged to use the bottle and be more conscious of their effect on the environment. However with those who are not interested in my product, I would like for the idea of my brand to influence them in some way, whether they simply are more aware of these issues, or even if they start to use their own water bottle, reducing the amount of plastic pollution they create.

Webpage Mockup

To help develop my idea and to get a more finalised idea of how it will work, I decided to mock up the web page on which the t-shirt would be sold. I designed a basic webpage with a simple toolbar and border, with an image of the product. I also included size options and a description of the product, explaining the use of sustainable, green materials. I also included an option to choose which colour bottle the customer wants, adding in the element of customisation and making it more appealing to the customer. I decided not to include information on this page, so as to keep the focus on the product, however if I were to continue designing the rest of the site I would include a page dedicated to explaining the ideas and philosophies behind the brand and why I package the products inside the bottles.

Mocking up this webpage has helped me to visualise my idea a little better, and it has helped me to bring my thoughts together a little more, showing how my ideas come together and how they work with each other to create a sustainable, environmentally friendly brand.

Illustration & T-Shirt Design

For my t-shirt design I wanted to create an illustration in the style I often use, that would work well as a small print on a t-shirt. I drew this illustration in my spare time, not intended for this project, however I really liked it and I thought it would fit well with the ideas and themes around my project, and so I decided to use it for my t-shirt designs.

I started by scanning my design in, and as I had drawn it in a moleskine sketchbook, it had a dim, yellowy colour behind the drawing which I wanted to get rid of. I wanted to experiment with different ways of cleaning up the illustration and so I started by taking it into illustrator and using the image trace tool. This severely simplified my illustration and blocked up a lot of the lines, which I really didn’t like. I have used this tool before for illustrations and really liked the outcomes, however with this I think the lines are too intricate and too close together, and so I don’t think it is successful and I think it takes away from the original illustration.

After trying illustrator and disliking the outcome, I then opened my scan in Photoshop to try increasing the contrast to see if it would take the background away enough. I wasn’t too happy with the outcome, however I next used the Threshold tool, which completely knocked out the background and make my lines bold and black. I really like the way this came out, and I like that this has kept the hand drawn, rough look that my original illustration had. I think as a print this would be successful and it would take really well to fabric. I want to keep the print quite small, probably making it a chest print, and I think this design would work well as I have drawn it at a small size and I think making it bigger would make it lose some of its impact.

After finalising my final design, I then moved on to mocking it up onto a t-shirt template. I experimented with position and scale until I had found one that I liked. I wanted to experiment with having another t-shirt design that customers could choose from, and so I used the same placement and scale and mocked up my Take Care logo in the same place onto a another template. I think these designs are both successful and they work really well in the positions I have put them in. I think they suit the t-shirt and I think they would look really good printed. I like the black on white printed and I think it would look good printed onto a grey t-shirt as well, although I’m not sure it would work with any brighter colours, and so for now at least  want to stick to the white.

Water Bottle Designs

After researching into different water bottle designs and taking inspiration from ones I liked most, I sketched out some rough ideas for designs I could use, taking various elements from designs I liked to create a design built for exactly what I need. After narrowing my ideas down to a few rough designs I asked various people on my course, explained the idea and the designs of the bottles and asked for their opinions.

Overall most people, including myself liked this design best, and so I drew it out slightly neater and more accurately, to give myself a better idea of how I wanted it to look. The bottle would be a rounded square shape all the way up, meaning that it won’t roll away if dropped and it can also be stacked easier for shipping purposes. This should also make it slightly stronger, protecting the product inside. I decided to include a small drinking spout at the top, which can be reached by unscrewing the top part of the bottle, which also has a flip out handle for hanging and carrying the bottle. I really liked the idea of the inside compartment being easily reachable, similar to the Dopper bottle, and so I designed my bottle to be unscrewed in the middle with an inner wall running up to the top of the bottle. This allows the customer to easily remove the t-shirt once they have received it. The bottle is then easily cleaned and can also be used as a cup this way.

I also took into consideration the issues of people owning too many, or not wanting a bottle anymore. I want to make the bottle slightly larger than the one I experimented with, meaning that I could fit two, and possibly three t-shirts inside if I needed to. And as for unwanted or unused bottles, I am going to offer a returns policy, in which customers can return their unwanted bottles to the company in exchange for some sort of discount, rather than them throwing the bottles away. This means that there will be less waste as people will not simply get rid of them, and it also allows us to reuse the bottles for other people, making for an even more environmentally friendly brand.

I was happy with my bottle design and I think it worked very well and would be successful both as a bottle and as a method of packaging, keeping my product safe and secure. My next step was to experiment digitally and to mock up my bottle design. I used illustrator to create a vector of my bottle, including a metallic gradient to give it more depth and a more real look. I also placed my Take Care logo onto the side of the bottle, adding some branding to it to let people know that it has been bought from my brand, and hopefully bringing more people to the site, encouraging them to purchase their own t-shirt and bottle.

After finalising my digital mock up and showing it to a few classmates, a few suggesting offering different colour ways  of the bottle, which would appeal to a wider range of people, allowing them some kind of basic customisation and making the product they receive feel more personal and unique. I liked this idea and so I experimented with different coloured gradients, coming out with 6 different colour ways that I think are very successful and suit the style of the bottle really well. I feel like my bottle design is strong and is something that people would want to own and reuse, which would make my brand a success and hopefully reduce the amount of plastic pollution my customers make.

Illustration

I wanted to create a small illustration that I could use as a print on my t-shirts, and so before I did I wanted to look at some illustration examples and to see what some of them include and what kinds of styles are used. I started by looking into illustration based around environmental issues and ocean pollution, and whilst I did not find a huge amount, I did find a few examples that I really like, including this illustration, ‘Into Empty Seas’ by Alexander Vidal.

I also came across these infographics in my research, both of which have utilised illustration to show their facts and to create a successful piece of design. Many environmental agencies and charities often use photography primarily to convey their messages and to shock people, however I like the use of illustration and I think it has the potential to stand out to more people as it is different; it is not the usual shocking photograph of an environmental issue.

My next step was to look at some examples of t-shirts that have illustrated prints on them. These examples are made by two American brands, Dyer & Jenkins (Above) and Iron And Resin (Below). Their styles are largely concerned with simplicity, the outdoors and adventure, something that appeals to me and that I really like. I feel there is also a link between the illustration style on the t-shirts and my own style, as they seem very similar. This shows that my simple, monochromatic style can work well when printed on t-shirts. I really like these brands and I think their t-shirt designs are strong and successful, so I will take some inspiration from them and use it in my own illustration.

Target Audience/Creating Personas

As I am creating a clothing brand, and I want to make it quite fashionable and well designed, my target audience is most likely going to be around teenagers and younger adults, although it may also branch out to others. As a way to show this and to figure out how my product might reach and affect people inside and outside my target audience, it was suggested that we create a set of personas for varying people, and to imagine how the product would work against them.

I decided to create three very different people, a 17 year old UK student, a 48 year old plumber from the UK, and a 35 year old woman from the US. I found it really interesting when running my product through each person and it was also quite eye opening to see how it could affect people and also how little it could affect some others. For example, Neville, the plumber, would have no interest in buying a t-shirt from my brand, and in turn would not get a water bottle to reuse, however in not buying one there is then no waste created anyway, and so there is no problem there to solve with my idea anyway. There is however the possibility that when hearing about the idea, it educates him more about the issue of pollution, and even though he doesn’t buy a shirt it may still encourage him to use a reusable bottle.

Doing this task has also reminded me of the idea of making the reusable bottle fashionable, and through the t-shirt, making the idea of being environmentally friendly something desirable and something that people want to show off to others. This is something that arose with Jed, the student. Young people often want to stand out and be different from others, and if I could make the bottle and the idea of preventing pollution something fashionable and desirable, then it would appeal more to young people like this, as it will encourage them to not only buy it, but to then show it off to their friends and in turn spread the word and hopefully encourage more people to then buy and use the product.

One issue that I came across in this was that people may already have a water bottle, or may have ordered from the brand before and do not want another one. Through discussions with others I have found a possible solution in the form of a returns process, in which customers can return their bottles that they may not want or use anymore. This means that they can then be cleaned and reused for other customers, which saves resources and also saves people from throwing the bottles away. The bottles could be returned for a discount on their next purchase, which will encourage people to buy from the brand again, and also encourage them to return bottles rather than throwing them away, which keeps the company going and creates less waste, which is the whole philosophy behind the brand anyway.

Take Care

As I am essentially creating a brand to design my packaging around, I needed to create some basic branding and so I began with the logo. The philosophy behind this brand is all about being environmentally friendly, sustainable, and taking care of the environment, and so I decided to name the brand ‘Take Care’. Keeping with the style of my other work that I have been making, and influenced by my own personal ‘Smith’ branding, I wanted to hand write the typography and then scan it and clean it up, whilst still keeping a hand made, slightly rough look. I feel like having a hand made look will also reenforce the sustainable ideas about the brand. It will also show the brand is of a high quality and cares a lot about what it does as it suggests that a lot of hard work and effort was put into the design, and the hand writen type makes it seem much more personal and down to earth, so people can relate to it.

I started by experimenting with some rough ideas and considering some different styles and design options, before deciding on a style and refining it down, experimenting with different layouts and pens to create thinner and thicker designs. Eventually I arrived at a design that I really liked and that I wanted to use for my brand. I am happy with the way it has come out, and I think it represents the brand well, keeping the hand drawn, down to earth appearance and staying simple but without being boring or uninteresting. I also decided to include my own brand in small text underneath, as I would like to almost treat this as a break off from my personal design branding.

After arriving at my logo design, I experimented with placing it over some film photographs I have taken, again inspired by my Smith branding. I chose to use images of landscapes, showing the environment and what I want to work towards saving with my idea. I like these pieces and I think the overlaid text is successful and looks good, and while I dont think I will use them directly in my branding or my design, I think they would be useful as possible cover images or backgrounds for a website or any advertising.

How Small Can You Fold a T-shirt?

My next step was to look at the problem I may have if people wanted to order more than one tshirt, so I decided to experiment with a tshirt to see how small I could get it, to work out how many I could fit into a bottle, or how small I could make any extra packaging if needed. I used a clear plastic bottle for the experiment so that I could see how much space was left inside the bottle. This is around the size I would like to make my water bottle although it can be altered and made bigger if I need to. I started with simply rolling the tshirt and putting it inside and I found that it fit almost perfectly inside the bottle with no room for anymore, and so I needed to find a way to make it smaller.

My next step then was to look into some different methods of folding tshirts to save space and make them as compact as possible, and I came across two main methods that people use. One was very similar to the way I had used first, although more compact and it creates a much smaller package, whereas the other creates a flat, small fold, which could be useful if I could find a way to half that again to create a compact, square package.

I decided to try both of these methods out with a fairly thick tshirt of my own, allowing me to see how much space they would save and whether they would be effective methods to package my products. I found that the military roll did create a much more compacted roll, although it was still quite long and took up a lot of the bottle still, not leaving enough room for another shirt. The Konmari method, however, created a flat fold, and when I tried to fold it in half again, although very tight created a smaller, very compact product, which I think would allow me to fit at least two shirts inside the bottle if made with slightly thinner material, or with a bigger bottle. I think this has helped influence my design a lot as I now know roughly the kind of size that my bottle needs to be, and also it tells me that I need to use a slightly thinner material, which fabrics like hemp are. This means that I will be able to use those organic materials to make my tshirts, adding to the sustainable and eco friendly philosophy behind my brand.