Statement of Intent

Product – Range – Distribution

Statement of Intent

Rational:

What do you want to do and why? An overarching statement of the direction of your own design practice, areas of interest and what this will allow you to explore… and WHY?

I really want to create a brief around my experiences with working with type. After doing the type module it has really ignited my passion for typography and this is where I want my practice to go from now on. I want to become an expert in working with and manipulating type in all its formats, whether it be layout and editorial or flyers. I would also like to create it around my second passion, which is food. I am quite a keen cook and I absolutely love baking. So by creating a brief that encompasses both of my passions I am sure I can create something that I will be really proud of. I want to use this opportunity to do something fun, as well as making it functional towards pushing me a designer. I want to do this by improving my skills with type, as well as taking my software skills to the next level. I want to be producing quality work that I can use to represent me as a designer and what I am interested in. By giving myself opportunities to play to my strengths I will hopefully deliver a range of solutions that I can use in my portfolio in the future. This whole brief I have designed is to be used to explore my skills and passions further as a designer so that I become more sure of what I am good at in the future and what to capitalize on.

Statement of Intent:

What do you intend to do in order to fulfill your rationale, creating intentions and individual ambitions?

Product – I intend to create a range of promotional products, and retail products that relate to my designed brief. I want the products to be appropriate to the design solution and give myself enough selection to pick the best from. I will also be designing across design for print and design for screen, this way I am encompassing everything that is important to being a successful graphic designer. My products will also be culturally relevant, so in keeping with a modern and commercial theme.

Range – As I have previously mentioned the main range I will be producing is the range of products used, however within this there will specific ranges relating to each product where it is applicable. For example I know I want to create some bespoke posters, there will be a range within this. There will also be a wide range relating to the development part of my work, giving me a selection of solutions to pick from.

Distribution -  By using my new skills in web design I will be transferring the appropriate designs on to screen to help with the promotional side of the brief. A lot of the work is going to be printed, but I will be using a range of printing techniques so as to have some comparisons.

What will you produce and what will you propose?

I propose a range of promotional goods to help promote the new identity of the cupcake shop that I am creating. These will take the form of bags, packaging, bespoke posters, flyers, mail shots, and web design.

Brief:

(See scanned in version for full brief)

In order to achieve this what brief will you be responding to and how will this fulfill your intentions?

I have specifically designed my brief to encompass everything that I am currently interested in so that I can get the most out of it. My intention is to work with type quite heavily within this brief using the skills I already have available to me. I want to create an innovative and unique identity for the new cupcake show, and I think coupling it with my passion for type is defiantly going to make it interesting. I have also made sure that the brief gives me opportunities to work over a range of media, so as to push my skills in every area. Although the brief may seem quite open, I have set myself certain restrictions as to what I can do and what I cant because I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew.

Research:

Primary – Visiting local bakeries and patisseries, investigating recipe books and speaking to designers who have produced such work. Speaking to tutors and technicians when I get stuck or want to try something different.

Secondary – Research into bakeries, design already done, appropriate fonts and things already done. As well as processes, to constantly inform myself.

Practical Development:

-       Screen printing

-       Digital printing

-       Web Skills

-       Type Skills

-       Hand Crafting

All of these skills will be used throughout the progress of my project to try test and finally produce the final resolutions.

Recording, Documenting and Evaluation:

I will be using my blog throughout this whole process, constantly documenting what I have done. This will also include an on going evaluation of my progress and what I have produced. I will use crits to discuss my progress as well as speaking with tutors when available.

cupcakeshop idea..

Above: Crude drawing of shop...

Cupcake shop ideas: (Seeing as i don't want to go overboard and set myself too big a task, I have selected a range that i can use in my brief to create my products. Now i may not be using all of them but at least I have given myself options)

1. Logo - Once I have the logo sorted it will be quite simple placing this onto other appropriate design work.
2. Selection of bespoke posters that fit within the shop, this is something I can mimic with the packaging possibly.
3. Bag - Bag designs to take away food etc
4. Boxes that hold cupcakes
5. Labels - the labels will have to be designed for the cupcakes so show what they are, this will focus around appropriate font and layout
6. Apron - Staff fitting, but this will almost certainly rely around the logo design.

Cupcake Shop - Idea

I think I have found what I want to do. It meets all the main criteria such as: 

Doing something for me

Doing something that has a purpose and a function

Doing something that can engage me in my new creative style

Doing something that will push my skills

Doing something that meets the criteria for the module.

So as for all that i am happy!

As for the content itself, I am really happy with the subject matter, cupcake shop and i am happy with the fact its all going to be type based. One thing I am going to have to do is be careful with the amount of restrictions I apply. With this brief i could end up going off on a huge tangent and not having anything to show for it at the end, so I am going to apply my own.. Once I've worked out everything that can be done for it. 

Bakery Event - Ideas..

Bakery Event....

so my idea here is to take the concept for the peoples banquet and essentially change the subject matter to a community baking event. Again not toooo sure about this idea, i think it could end up being quite boring and im I think the only audience that would go would be older and not really the kind that i want to get involved. I really want my own brief to be fun and 'quirky', and I think this could be quite the opposite. 

Food - Baking

One huge passion of mine, a long with graphic design, is baking. I have always enjoyed baking and it's something i never get tired of. Sooo when i got to thinking about food again I thought maybe it would be a good idea to combine two great passions of mine. That way i will stay enthusiastic about the concept brief and I know I would really enjoy it. The subject matter for me is always key to working on a good brief, If its something I can get passionate about then I am happy. 

By choosing baking, or something similar I am still encompassing people and food like I originally wanted because everyone loves a good cake...!

So i put a short spider diagram together with some really basic concepts and ideas that I could do surrounding the subject matter of baking.

Taking the basic skeleton I had come up with so far, with regards to what I wanted to do, I applied to the concept of patisserie and bakery. 

Two main Ideas:

New Bakery shop - I thought it'd be great to create a specific bakery shop. I would need to restict what it was because there are so many different types of bakery that it would be too much for me to take on one kind..i don't want to create the new greggs. So I decided to narrow it down to Cupcakes. This way all my design work would be around this one subject matter adding another restriction but still leaving it open for me to create some really nice design work. 

Bakery Event: 

 Bakery event - This is essentially taking the event for the peoples banquet and transferring it over to the event for some form a bakery and community event - not too sure about this concept, could end up being a little ropey.

People Banquet - Analysis of Idea

Before I settled on my brief for creating the promotions around the peoples banquet i wanted to do some basic research, so that I was a little more informed before idea generation. I am really happy I've done this because I've found out that this isn't really the brief that I thought it was going to be. The Peoples Banquet is actually a part of a much larger event called The Big Lunch. I thought I would be designing around a one off event so I could therefore really put my stamp on it, however its part of a much larger organisation. 

Above: I found out all the basic information for me to look at creating my brief around, such as the basic audience and the basic concept of the event. Seeing as it's so broad there would have to be a lot for it. I really liked the idea of promoting food within the community, but I think at the moment it's not exactly what I was expecting it to be. The event already has a lot of appropriate design work done for it, and I think if i was going to do it I would have to stick to the info they already have, which in one respect is good but also restricts me in a way I didn't want to be restricted. 

So the next option for me is to still take the orginial idea of promoting the Peoples Banquet, and just completely designing around that. But my problem with this is a lot of it related back to The Big Lunch and therefore I would have to reference that in my design work, which I don't particularly want to do. 

I have broken the brief I could do, down into it's specific areas in which I would be interested in designing for, I think since I have researched it the whole appeal for it has really gone. I really wanted to designing something from scratch and enforce my own restrictions.

So I think its back to the drawing board.

I still want to do a brief around food, but I think I am going to pick something I am more interested in and that I would enjoy doing more. As Fred said this is meant to be fun, and I could see this brief turning into a bit of a chore. 

Brief qualities

So I have decided to break down everything i want to cover with this brief, just to help me focus it and add my restrictions otherwise knowing me i'll just go off on a huge tangent!

Working with Type and Layout.

Products I want to produce:
Packaging
Promotion - Posters, Leaflets, Flyers etc
Web Design
Branding (possibly - depending on subject matter)

Media:
Print Based, digital and screen printing techniques
Web Design - Design for screen

Subject Matter:
Food
Retail

I am still undecided as to which subject matter i want to design for so i think i am going to put a range of solutions together and then pick the best.