Envelope and folder Design

I have been looking at some envelope and folder designs to help me with making the envelopes for my postcards. I think I am going to keep mine pretty simple in form and in looks but i like looking at printed stuff.




These press kit folders were designed by Greteman Group for Bombardier Aerospace for the Paris Airshow in 2003. The four different folders represent the four different planes that were in the Bombardier line. They have used metallic inks and a curved folder flap to give an aerodynamic feeling to the designs. Apparently, to achieve a rich, deep black sheen, ink densities were doubled using a dry-trap process (which i think is to print over dry ink). What is particularly interesting to me for my brief is the way they look like a set. The colours go really well together and the simple drawings, although they look quite insignificant by themselves, look great as a set as you can see the slight differences in detail of the planes.




I love these folders for the Baltic in Newcastle , designed by Blue River Design. The card looks organic and neutral and the type design is bold but not interfering. I love the way there is several different formats for mailing photos, letters or bulkier items. One of them is flat but is scored along the sides so it can be turned into a 3D mail box. I think i am going to make different formats of my envelopes too - one flat and one 3D.




This pitch folder is designed by Bluelounge Design in USA for Zoe Design Associates - an industrial design and product development company. The stock is heavy weight to convey a sense of industrial and more and more information is revealed as the piece unfolds. Inside there is product brochure showcasing the company's best projects. One of the flaps encloses a business card and letterhead. For continuity, the folder is printed in Zoe's spot colours and features a series of square and round edges to go with their business card. I like this because its fun but its got function at the same time - they havent just done things for the sake of it. I could possibly do something like this where there is information on the inside of the envelope like the headlines that are contained inside? Although i think id like to keep them quite minimal and i dont want to be doing stuff for the sake of it.

Changes to briefs and crit feedback

The latest changes and decisions i have made with my first 2 briefs are:

Postcards:
I have made them part of the Guardian newspaper and have used their colours and fonts etc.
I have changed the requirements to 5 postcards for each category because 8 was unachievable in the time I have.
I am considering context more and where they would go and for what audience
The postcards use 2 colours each - black and the colour for the category.


Book:
I have made some greetings cards as well as a book and will make some badges to have more of a set of things.
I am considering them as a commerial product and thinking where they could be sold etc. i am going to pursue this in real life and try to sell them.
I have given it a name - Spam and Spaghetti


In the crit today I got lots of feedback which was really helpful. Here are my questions and the answers i got:

Postcards:
1. Do you think the postcard packs would work better if they were a pull-out in the Guardian at the end of the month or at train stations/ airports for free for people who have been away and missed the smaller news stories?
Airports/train stations.
They would work better if the packets were tighter - fits the inside postcards. Possibly a postcard book in a stand to keep them all in and they could rip out.
I think they would work better as a sort of subscription thing that people sign up for and form a collection to remind them of important events.

2. Do the images on the front communicate what they're supposed to?
maybe not the magnifying glass as it says science to me. Something more obvious like handcuffs or a poilicemen's hat might work better.
I did get the magnifying glass but it isn't as obvious as the others.
U.S. and health - yes, crime and business - not so much. Images should be more cliche.

Book:
1. Do you think i should keep going with a collection of products like make some badges or just leave it?
Yes, this could be ongoing. This could be used as your own brand - 'i love'
Maybe a couple of products, take photos grouped together.
Perhaps try card and badge as a gift set because the celophane has a nice finish to it.

2. Should i be bothering to contextualise it or is it something completely personal that should not be allowed to go in a shop?
I think the style lends itself to being sold. The cards are funny and i can imagine buying certain ones (vodka and coke for example)
I think its ok to make the idea into products because the style really works for cards etc. I just think you have to do less 'likes' or 'hates' per product so people can choose what they want.
Either way works well - it reflects your personal side but definitely try to contextualise e.g. brand name - maybe your own brand as a vehicle for illustration and cash :)


3. Hows about my moonpig idea? shall i include it in my boards or is it silly?
Yes this is a good idea. i like the fact that it is interactive.
Moonpig would be a good way of gettingpromotion becasue it is a big site, but perhaps online is not the way to go as it seems less crafty and tactile/nice.
It is good that you've explored this as an idea but probably best not to put it on your boards becasue moonpig site looks terrible.

4. Do you understand the pea card?
Is it like a reference to peas on Earth? (no but i wish it was!) Or maybe to seem like it is promoting peace, but is actually anti-peas?
Yes
Not sure but have some theories.


To conclude, the best responses i have got from this crit and what i will be changing/developing are:

Postcards:
Packets wrong size for postcards or postcards wrong size for packet - cant slip in pocket.
Need to do some context images
Need to change the magnifying glass and possibly the briefcase image.

Book:
Internet to impersonal for the style. Try and get a craft stall to sell them personally and tell people to write the things they love and hate and i will make them badges/cards/a book. Do some images explaining this idea on board.
Need to make badges.

Steven Harrington

Steven Harrington works in Los Angeles where he owns and operates National Forest Design with Justin Krietemeyer. As well as doing illustrative designs for skateboards and shop interiors for clients like Burton Snowboards and Sixpack, he does a lot of personal projects which I have chosen to look at because my book was themed around a collection of drawings and a lot of his work involves big collections of images. Also he uses the process of screenprinting a lot in his work and using this process was the main reason for doing my book brief.





Badges are good for having big collections :) I think the pages from my book would make good badges. Im going to make some if I have time.




He produces these screenprints which i think are beautiful because I love the dirty looking paper and bright colours. I think if I am going to do more screenprinting I want to do really colourful things like this because my book is only black and white and I didn't experiment with colour very much. He says the most playful and exciting thing in this process is mistakes which I like because a lot of my better work comes from mistakes (happy ones).









He uses interesting processes and experiments with media a lot. These are done by painting on top of polaroids.

Final look of postcards

I have decided on the final look of my guardian postcards. They will each be 2 colour - black and the colour which their packet is. This will ensure there is continuity and they will look like they're meant to be together. Also from a print perspective it would probably be cheaper than four colour process, although with four packets that means if i were to use spot colours there would be four colours plus black so i dont actually know if it would be cheaper. but it makes them simple and therefore hopefully easier to understand as a communication.
I produced the images by drawing (ok tracing) the objects i wanted in the image, then i scanned them in and vectorised them so i could then live paint them. i had created one of them initially on illustrator to see what it looked like but it didn't look fluid enough, this is why i chose to do it this way.

Edward Monkton

Im pretty sure I've already talked about Edward Monkton a million times on my blog already but this time its actually relevant. My book brief has changed slightly because I want to do it more commercial so its easier to make sense of it. They are very much inspired by (and I'm scared they are ripped off of) Edward Monkton. I am doing some greetings cards now as well as the book, which is something he does and just using black ink, although I might experiment with a bit of colour if I have time. I really like the way the drawings are pretty crude but they work so well. I t makes me feel happy because I've slowly lost the power of good drawings skills since I left school (I used to be killer) and now I can't draw but I realise that it doesn't matter.






It would be my biggest dream ever if I could have a set of products like this made- in shops and everything! I'm going to contact Edward Monkton to see if he has any tips on how to make this happen. I think I would need to develop my own style more though because I don't really have one yet, I would also need to think of some good ideas and subjects for the products to be based around. Also there would have to be playing cards involved.

The Guardian Comment Cartoon

For my postcard brief i have been trying to sum up a news story or headline in one image. This is the job of an editorial illustrator, who has to sum up the point of a whole story or current event in one image.
i think I will make my postcards so they are intended to be for the guardian newspaper. The Guardian has an editorial cartoonist called Steve Bell. Im not really interested in cartoons as such but I enjoy, and am very interested in the process of interpreting text into image. Although my images won't be cartoons, and will be a lot simpler than these type of illustrations, it is useful to look at these because they use visual metaphors and existing thnigs that people already know and can make connections to. They communicate very quickly because of this. Some editorial/political cartoonists take the middle ground but some project their viewpoint through their images, by using humour or emotion in some way. I considered trying to communicate my view rather than just what the newspaper said, but i have decided to just interpret the story literally. I might take this project further by doing something more based on my opinions at a later date.

Colourways

I was having trouble with my packets for the postcards because they looked gross. I initially chose colours that corresponded to the subject e.g. red for U.S. news and a medical green for health, but they didnt look like a set so fred advised me to look at the colours that the guardian use (dont know why i didnt think of this before) and that way they would look like they were meant to be part of the guardian.

Before





After




I think this simple change has improved them so much because they now look like they're meant to go together and im not stressing about this brief anymore because now i have definite colours to work with, the rest should be quite easy.