Studio Brief 4: Initial Design Ideas, Toys & Feedback

Having decided on the type of packaging I will be using, I then went on to develop ideas for the design of the cardboard label, and purchase objects/toys that would be included in the product.

Label Initial Designs

There were two design approaches I had considered when creating ideas for the design of the cardboard label. The first approach was a play on cheap/bad designs that you would often see on pound shop packaging, with deliberately bad design elements. Such would include: the price written big, bright contrasting colours, typefaces taken from free font websites, no definitive layout/grid, cluttered/overcrowded content, irrelevant imagery and a mix of typefaces. The second approach was clean and stylised design that would create a juxtaposition against the cheap packaging and products. The design elements would include: minimalistic colour schemes, sleek and modern typefaces, precise layout/use of grid, limited and appropriate imagery, and no unnecessary information.

After some sketches, I went on the create some digital versions of the two design approaches I was considering. To communicate the cheap design approach, I focused on the use of colour and typefaces. The colours used were bright and bold, and the typefaces were unthoughtful and generally ugly. This was because typical cheap packaging utilises bright colours in an attempt to make the products eye-catching and attention grabbing, and the typefaces typically used are free or cheap. Because of these reasons, the design outcomes are usually very in-cohesive and random, with seemingly no professional design input. For this reason, I wanted to explore this design approach, with the hope that I could produce some 'bad' design but in a purposeful and 'good' way. However, because I had followed the bad design elements that are present in such packaging too closely, the results I had produced did not seem at all purposeful or 'good'.

To communicate the clean design approach, I focused on minimalism within colours and content, as well as precision within layout. The use of a basic black and white colour is typical of minimalistic and 'clean' design, so it was not surprising that the outcomes for this design exploration met my intentions. However, the combination of black and white, with the format of a cheap cardboard label, makes the design feel awkward and out of place. The use of minimal content I believe also contributes to this issue, as most of the design explorations only contain the name of the product and nothing else, which is uncommon for such label design. Also, the use of just black and white makes the designs feel boring and unexciting, which doesn't communicate a sense of playfulness or toys that I was aiming for. The use of layout I believe has been successful, as it allows the content of the label to be balanced and communicate the hierarchy of information much clear than the previous designs. 

Objects/Toys Initial Purchases

When searching for the objects/toys to include within my 'Graphic Design Stress Toys' product, I was looking for things that a student could fidget and play with. Also, I had wanted for some of those objects to be quite juvenile, as I believe that sometimes forgetting that you're an adult and playing with a children's toy creates a sense of calmness and relaxation.

The objects I had found were: splash balls, bouncy balls, yo-yos, mini slinkys, spiral hair bands and party poppers. I choose these objects because I thought them to have a lot of playfulness and fiddling potential, and had personally found them interesting. As my target audience are Level 4 students, and I am a Level 4 student myself at the moment, I knew that my personal interest would be appropriate chooses to meet the requirements for the objects that I had set.

Feedback:

- Maybe look at including more graphic design specific objects. e.g.. paper clips, blue tac, pencils etc.

- Still keep the objects you have.

- Look into critical graphic design - 'purposefully bad' and 'ugly' design.

- For the label design, maybe combine both cheap and clean design approaches. 

- Consider having instructions inside, to show how each object can be used.

- Potentially make a colouring sheet to go inside it, as some people like to colour to de-stress.