4.1 29/sep

Today we carried on developing our style and refining the colour scheme. We worked on creating more interesting vector shapes.
The colour scheme we created and decided on is here:

We went with this colour scheme because limiting ourselves too much would take away from the bright, playfulness that we are currently achieving. But our designs would benefit from a selected palette so make it easier to apply the style across all media. We need to print the colours to make sure that they print out well.

I began applying the colour scheme to a couple of designs :

We will be applying the characters that Jessica is creating to these designs. Having the same background colour could be beneficial to make them more cohesive, but it may not be necessary, as the style will carry through by itself.

Designing across the media

Beginning to apply our design style across the poster, website header, and name tag.

Colour Schemes

Sticking to a triad of colours I think would keep the vibrancy of our designs while making the design seem more structured and cohesive

Some examples that I think would work:

Colour research for vector style

 

Minimal colour palette looks good, but possible more sophisticated? choosing the right colours here could be crucial.

Interim 1 feedback 3.1 22/9

Before explanation

• can tell that it is neighbours day
• The kids ones are brighter but i prefer the icon one
• Looks fun - very bright
• Like they illustration stye and colours of the kids one
• Icons one doesn't feel inviting
• Clearly neighbours day
• Don't like the bright colours together, too bright and contrasting.
• Feels very childlike and youthful
• Prefer illustration of the icon one
• Kids one definitely catches your eye more, good illustrative style
• Not too sure what the left one is showing
• I love the graphic style, bright colours are very eye catching and friendly
• Looks like a journey- destination neighbours day
• Neighbours day aimed at young children, very bright
• Game layout
• I don't really get the icon one - it looks more like a visual library
• I REALLY REALLY LOVE THE VECTOR STYLE! FEELS VERY CONTEMPORARY.
• Good for contemporary families etc
• The colours work well together and draw my eye immediately
• The bright colours stand out and grab your attention
• Like the use of playful equipment, shows kids
• Use of bright colours is fun
• I like the road up the middle and house effect looks inviting
• The road directs you to the name of the event
• Bright, playful
• The road leads your eye into the page
• Feel the colourful one is stronger as it is more eye catching
• very playful
• colourful one targets families and children
• Like the colourful ones bright fun colours
• A bit unclear and underdeveloped
• Travelling to different places together?
• Going camping etc together?
• Maybe it's an event that requires you to travel somewhere to get to?
• happy, bold colours are eye catching and fun
• Don't get the icon one
• Bright, bold colours seem fun and exciting
• infographics on the kids style one seem a bit more boring and mature
• See a sense of connection with the bright colours

After explanation

• Clean & sophisticated yet playful
• Symbols could be more kiwiana
• could be bolder
• Bright one is fun and catches your eye
• your eye follows the road
• Use of icons as icons (?)
• Wallpaper?
• Indicators e.g. click on for message
• check out doctor Seuss colour scheme for bright one
• I think the icons one doesn't look as friendly and would be harder to catch your eye
• Definitely need to switch up the colours on the icons one, white background can be boring
• Define it as a poster more
• Not sure what the orange bit represents, doesn't work into it well.
• Really like the bright vector style, love the colours
• You could still use the icon, infographic style
• The icons would work if you made the icons more personalised and introduced more colour
• Both have very different target audiences, which one will work better?
• Can't tell it's about NZ neighbours
• Make it a bit more iconically NZ
• I feel like you need to think about your target audience, and who you want to go for
• maybe the icon one needs more colour to entice the viewer
• The coloured one is very inviting, but could exclude some audiences
• The coloured one also indicates travelling long distance
• I think both of your posters are looking a little JUVENILE
• Prefer the repetitive nature, doesn't look so immature
• Colourful ones are stronger, you could make it more effective with the text/typeface
• Like the trees houses and cars
• More NZ to combine ideas together
• Target audience=young families
• needs more community feeling
• Kids one has good use of colour/illustration but feels too childish, definitely more eye-catching
• Like the icons, symbolise different activities that could take place at the neighbours day
• Second one is very bright
• maybe join the two together
• I prefer the icon one as it links more to neighbours
• Maybe pick one audience
• Kids one targets young families, whereas the icon ones feels a little older
• NZ things - tiptop, sunblock, cricket, beaches, kiwis.
• I think the icon poster would be more effective if orange box was on the top left or if the whole poster is orange
• I think the colourful vector style works more for me because it feels fun, communal, youthful

Conclusion

I think the feedback generally suggested that we go with the colourful poster, adjusting the colour, following the examples from other designers using similar styles. We could possible still use the icons so give more structure to the younger style, but draw them in the vector style.

INTERIM 1 PREP - Starting to develop some designs

This design is much too formal for our target audience, although it targets families, it more targets mothers. And it also targets a more middle-lower class community, rather than a middle-high class community like we are aiming for.

This design has some merit with a different picture and possibly different style drawings and logo it could work.The idea of drawings over an image has appealed to both me and Jess since the start of the topic, but it is really difficult to get right. Finding the perfect image on the internet is hard, I will continue to look at design models of this style until we can manage to take our own imagery.

This design targets a higher class, young family that is looking for connections within a new community (really reminds me specifically of the 'new' section of Churton Park, near Amesbury School) This is much more up-beat and fun, and much more on-point with our intended audience. It  could be something to work with. The logo probably needs a bit of a change but it could work.

This design targets a higher class, older family, perhaps with teenage children or even elderly people. The houses show community, but I'm not sure if this reflects suburban living or apartment/city living. Either way, this could be worked into something more suburban style, the clean style of the design could perhaps be offset with messier drawing or bright colours.

I also think that all my designs lack a rhetorical aspect. Although these designs can be a good starting point, I think that to develop them further I will need to think about the rhetorical approaches again and apply them to these concepts.

Research into website headers

2.1 15/sept

Mood board Presentation

We presented our mood board to the class, we received feedback to focus on the benefits of socialising with you neighbours, like neighbourhood safety. The style that we had portrayed in our mood board was reflective of out suburban family target audience.

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Design Matrix

We looked at the different categories that would make up our design, talking about it after class, we made our own path through the table that was on the board.

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Good + Bad Website

For our good website, we found a website that had a simple layout. We liked the clean lines and columns used.The hierarchy of information was good, and the most important information was highest on the website.

The bad website was Westpac online banking. We identified the key features of the website, which only took up about 20% of the page, the rest was pretty useless information, or wasted space.