Evaluation (Of Doughnut Final)

(Click images to enlarge)
I think my final product/poster is very successful and has a likeness to my drafts. I am pleased with how it has turned out, and I have not had too many problems with it. My favourite aspect of it is how the numbers are very accurate and clear, and I like how everything is proportioned. I am also very proud of the fact that the entire thing is made from my own photographs as I thought some parts of it I may have had to use images off the internet as they would be too awkward to alter. I'm pleased with the way the editing has turned out as none of them look too warped or unprofessional.

I was pleased with my partners feedback to my idea, as he said they may even use it in future publications and advertisements. He explained that it was very relevant, eye catching and well thought out. He has been very keen on this idea throughout all my drafts as he thought it was very imaginative and would appeal to many audiences. I am pleased with all his comments as this was what I was aiming for. His one tip is that I could have added another message, such as information (tying in with the fact that now is the time to start recycling) on how to recycle, such as using your kerbside bin service etc.

I think my partner and myself interacted very well, as he was always up to date with the work I was currently regarding and always knew when our meetings were scheduled. He also seemed pleased with our level of interaction, as he was never left in the dark about what I was doing, and knew about the issues I had etc. Our meetings were very detailed so he knew about the problems I was having and he could reflect with feedback and could tell me what he thought would help. I had to make sure he was well informed as it was vital for this project to be a success. I needed to keep in contact with him as I needed details on the brief, and to know what his opinions were in regards to all my different drafts and ideas to see if it fit with the BANES guidelines etc.

I have gone into detail about what problems I had when creating my posters, including the usage of certain materials and objects and the way I had to edit them. My main problem with this particular piece was getting the base of the doughnut to look realistic. The doughnut I bought for the project was in fact chocolate coated (brown) as I couldn't find any pink ones. I knew I would use the colour replacement tool when editing to make it match my draft, but when it came to editing I found that this didn't work well at all. It made the doughnut seem almost metallic in shading, and very unprofessional. To remedy this I used a bagel instead, which has no colouring, and placing that over the top of the first doughnut and changing the opacity so the texture came through. I then used the colour replacement tool on the bagel and this gave me the desired effect. Another problem I had was the figure '5', as I used pasta and this was too small and thin to be clear, and it would not have been obvious what it was meant to be. To fix this, I copied the five and pasted it on the same layer to make it thicker and less ambiguous.

I think reflecting my partners feedback, there is not a lot I would change about my poster. I appreciate his idea of using another message to encourage people to recycle, but I think if I were to add this, that the initial idea and concept may be lost. I think if I had had more time to complete the project, or perhaps assigned myself more time to work on its actual creation, then it may have appeared more professional. I think I should have thought about which food stuffs I would be using more carefully, as some of them were last minute decisions.

I think that from this project I have learned how to use the Photoshop software more proficiently, as I have had to edit almost everything featured. I also think that my skills learned from working with a partner will be very useful in any future careers as it is a basic business skill. I am pleased I did this project because of this, as I can see it being very beneficial and valuable in any any area of work.


I researched Love Food Hate Waste earlier in the project as I had an interest in their advertisements that are shown. They are originally what I wanted my own poster to look like: simplistic and easy to understand. However I think that my poster is more complex than this, as it's harder to understand at first glance and it is more detailed. I do however think that my poster works better in the advertising sense, as it will get people thinking. Mine demonstrates some of the foods you can recycle that the public may not have known about, whereas the Love Food Hate Waste campaigns simply try to raise awareness of food recycling in general. I like the way the LFHW campaign has a colour scheme, which covers the entire advertisement, as it seems professional and thought out. My own advertisement follows the same colour scheme, except I couldn't make it stretch to cover the entire poster as then the meaning may have been lost, as the food stuffs are different colours. I think the concept behind this campaign is very well thought out, as it has an almost overly-simplistic idea behind it that works really well, as any age audience will understand it, which is what I wanted mine to be like. I think mine does work well too, just that the audience will take longer to comprehend the full meaning of mine. I think in general I prefer my own idea, as mine is almost more relevant to the food recycling scene, as it tells the audience what the companies need them to know, which is all the different types of food they can recycle. I am very pleased with the way my poster has come out as I feel all my ideas have been properly represented.

Final Minutes and Feedback

MINUTES
Summary Minutes of the meeting between BANES representative and City of Bath College students
Held on Wednesday 3rd November 2010 at 12:00AM
In City of Bath College, Room H108

BANES representative
Timothy Rawlings
City of Bath College students
Oliver Drew
Harriet Page
Charlotte Williams

We greeted Tim and explained that this would be our last meeting as we had completed the project. We showed him each of our work individually and he gave us all thorough feedback.

In response to my final posters, he said:

"I sat down with my boss this morning so have finally got some feedback.

It is hard to surmise what I am evaluating as initially I thought the project was to look at the professional life of a designer and their professional partners. So I can evaluate everything from the initial contacts you made, timing and arrangement of the meetings, conduct in those meetings and the discussions over your ideas through to completion.

Obviously what would be different in a professional capacity is that we (i.e. your professional partner) would commission work from you, so approach you with a brief.

I thought you all conducted yourselves very well at the meetings, Harriet seemed to be the first to make contact and lead the discussions. She took any advice and feedback that was given and applied it to her work positively. Everyone had clear ideas about what they wanted to do/achieve and all ideas were relative and played to their individual strengths.

One comment I would make is that if you ask for a meeting and any availalble date from a partner, is to respond with confirmation asap. For example last week I received an invite for a meeting and I suggested Wednesday as a day for the meeting. I had no confirmation in reply and on Tuesday morning I was called away on last minute business. This meant that because I had no confirmaiton from you, I had to prioritise my last minute business. Had the confirmation come back, I would not have been available for any other business on the Wednesday morning and made our suggested meeting. This is even more important when thinking about commercial partnerships where potential clients may have arranged meetings with competing designers!

From a Waste minimization / awareness point of view each idea was highly relevant. Promotional posters and videos are used in every campaign that Bath & North East Somerset Council run and the Council is always looking for new and exciting designs that will engage and educate residents.

Harriet's idea is central to the Council's waste and recycling collections and presented two posters.

The 'BANES' idea:
The first a general poster designed to highlight the different materials residents are able to bring to our recycling centres. An interesting concept of using the materials to spell the Council abbreviated name (BANES), the poster also served to highlight some materials that others might not have otherwise known. I.e. CD's, books, electrical items etc. Initial drafts of the idea were presented and feedback was given to use current Council cooperate design and logo's, which Harriet adopted.
Overall this poster was a good example of the message the Council often relay to its residents and an idea that could easily be adopted into a current campaign. The Council do not often abbreviate their own name so in order to be used we would have to re-consider the wording.

Dougnut Idea:
Harriet presented an interesting poster focusing on the Council's new Food Waste Recycling collections. It was eye catching and very relevant. Harriet adopted the idea of using food items to spell out the numbers on a clock face. Harriet included the national Love Food Hate Waste campaign logo to incorporate a wider movement about food waste in general. A poster that would not be out of place at a bus stop or in an advert e.g. the Council's cooperate style was spot on and even included the Council's tag line ("making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and visit"). It is an idea and concept that could easily be adopted into a wider food waste campaign and we may look to include the artwork in future publications.

A useful idea would be to have some message coming through as well, we know from the poster that its time to start to recycle your food, but how? (i.e. "use your new kerbside collection service")

Harriet was very professional in her conduct and had the confidence to ask questions and chase a response, essential attributes for a designer trying to work to a strict deadline. Sometimes with very challenging clients!

Final Posters

This is my final poster for my main idea, and I am very pleased with how it came out. I stuck with a green colour scheme to reflect the theme of food recycling as opposed to general recycling. I think the clock base and numbers are very unambiguous and this is definitely one of the highlights of this poster. My only issues with this piece are that some of the numbers' details are lost and you can't decipher what some of the numbers are made out of unless the image is very large. Numbers such as the five, made out of fusilli, has lost the detail and merge together, and the two made out of peas, as the peas I used were frozen and so lacked any vivid colour. Also some of the numbers are out of proportion with each other, such as the grapes and bagels are practically the same size, but if I had to do this project again I would do the same thing, as it is how the image is tied together and it makes sense in the context it's in.
The one main problem I had with this image is the clock face. I couldn't get an image appropriate for it and the doughnut I photographed didn't work well at all as it had a rough texture and wasn't very spherical. To remedy this I turned down the opacity, then put the image of the bagel featured in the number 8 behind it, to make it look more realistic. I am pleased with how this turned out. I decided to change the 'Time to recycle food' font as I felt with my final draft of the idea, there were too many fonts and colours going on and it made it seem unprofessional, so I tried to keep all the fonts the same and stick to a running theme. I think to make it more professional and to give it a less childish effect, I think next time I would add some form of shadowing so the numbers don't look as out of place. I kept all the BANES information like out correspondent told us to, such as the council 'tick' and the BANES logo etc. Again I think this makes it look more professional and formal as opposed to just an image.



This is my final poster ideas revolving around general recycling. It is made using all my own images, bar the 'E' as it wasn't possible to create, and I didn't have enough time to find appropriate materials and trees etc. I only had a couple of issues when creating this, such as the objects I used. For example, the CD's as part of the 'B' have my reflection in, as it was the only way I could take the photograph of them face down. I tried mirroring half the CD to the other side when editing the image in photoshop but it made them look unprofessional. Also with the 'A', the tie I used was black in colour, and this paired with the black sock made the images content hard to decipher, so I used Photoshop's colour replacement tool to change the colouring of the tie to red/orange so it makes it clear what it is. One last problem was that with the 'S', I took a picture of my hairdryer but the cord/wire was too long to fit in the picture or work well, so I drew it on after wards, which worked in theory but looked unprofessional. As a whole I was pleased with the outcome, as it is obvious what the shapes spell out, and I think the colour scheme works particularly well. I included the logos for BANES, the recycle logo and BANES' tagline. I decided not to include the council's contact information as they are fairly easy to get hold of and everyone knows who they are. I think if I had to do this again I would put more thought into the writing/typeface below the letters describing what they represent. I think that it seems slightly out of place and could have been done better.