Done!

 

That's it. Everything is finished. The yo!sushi brief was quite a task but i am pleased with my final outcomes.

Main aspects I am pleased with is the illustrative style I went with and how my mural came out. Why I liked the style is that it was a unique theme that I had not really seen before, and needed different type of methods that I would usually for general design.

Example of this is a lot of time I spent doing this brief was spent with a pen and on a light box, which wasn't the typical rush to a mac/p.c and straight onto Photoshop.The menu could have gone better I think, this maybe down to layout, it could have been paced better but I did not see any other way of organising it at the time.


Aspects I don't like would maybe be the direct mail. The idea wasn't very strong but why I went with it, is because it was different compared to the rest.


If I was given the chance to do this brief again, I would have chosen  different illustrative style maybe more computer based with more use of colour, because that is what mine lacked quite a bit of, colour. I would have taken a different approach to the menu aswell.

In conclusion the brief did test my skills, and I am pleased with what I came out with, especially with my mural design.

The direct mail is, finished!

After a good amount of time going through several ideas, I finally have my direct mail finished. I obviously wanted it to keep with my pen sketch theme, and believe I have, not just with the visuals of my letter but with the task the audience have to do to ensure a 25% discount on meals.
The idea is (which is explained in the letter) that the image on the reverse of this letter (image below) is to be finished in a given pen, in the same style as my mural (and images on the letter). And for them to add more to it that they think represents new york, once this is done they take it into the restaurant, get 25%on there meal, and the if they are early enough to hand it in, it will be put onto the wall along with other finished pieces.

Direct mail.

So, me being the dull spark I am, and taking a while for things to clock on. I didnt fully understand direct mail. So it was straight to the world wide web to find out what the deal was and to generally gain inspiration and other qualities. Heres how it went.


On my search for creative direct mail I came across yet another helpfull blog.
http://blog.epromos.com/category/direct-mail-promotions/page/3/
This blog looked at just a few really powerfull direct mail packages, and these are powerfull.

To the left is a direct mail package promoting the lives of abandoned Bulgarian children that have to live on the streets and have no family.
This mail package is sent out by a company called "friends" who specialise in finding foster familys and homes for the abandoned children.
I like the idea of bringing two aspects of child life, with a mobile to hang above the bed, but mixed with the strong aspects of what abandoned kids in bulgaria face on a daily basis. I think its very powerfull.
Maybe for some people its too striking but this helps really get the message across.


 

Another good example of direct mail I personally like. This is basically as you can see, a fold out, life size burglar. This folds out from a normal sized envelope too which promotes the message of how easy it is for a burglar to get into your home. Easy enough like climbing out of a envelope. Well maybe not that silly, but you get it. 
I personally think it is effective and promotes home security well. I also like the "its that easy to get in your home" final touch, Icing on the cake that is.
                               

Yet another example, but not quite as good as the others I think. What they are promoting here is wilsons new long distance driver, with personal promotional golf balls. The idea is saying how good there driver is and how far you can hit, that you wont find it again due to the range you hit it at. So what you do is fill in your details and when someone finds the ball they can bring it back to you.
Its not too bad for direct mail but In my opinion I think its below par.

Wine label. Yeh thats done.

And after a bit of graft, and looking into other wine labels. The label is done.
Things to take into account with my label, is this would be an "all over" label, which would cover the hole bottle. Not just a middle horizontal sticker.
Aspects I like, is the colour, and the image used. Yes its same as the menu but it does keep with the theme I want. And same goes for the text. Which is also a pen sketched theme.

If I was to attempt it again, I would maybe add more to it, as it does look a bit too simple and doesnt reflect my hate towards white space and general space in design.

Finished menu.

After a great amount of time spent on this, worrying about type, layout, and images to use, my menu is finally sorted.
Main idea was to keep within the theme of pen sketched work, which I think the landscaped image along the bottom did well.
Personal favourite bits of this I think are the circle pen sketches around each dish.
If i was to do it again, I would have maybe taken a different approach toward layout, because that is one aspect I think that lets down my menu. Maybe just the placing of dishes might be it or maybe more aspects that i havent realised.

Wine.

Whilst in the process of my menu I thought it best to start thinking about my wine bottle aswell (before I forget about it).
So while taking a break I had a gander through the world wide web, and managed to find a blog on quirky and creative wine bottle designs. Link features below.

http://oddyfunny.blogspot.com/2010/09/30-creative-and-cool-wine-label-designs.html

Obviously with me being a bit of a petrol head, this was one that stood out for me. Just the subtle addition of a gear selection beveled image was enough to grab my attention. Labels not too bad either, although I think it could have more elements of car related features added to it.

Another one I thought to be pretty clever, is this boarding pass design label, of which the travel information is replaced by details and info about the wine.
Another one with a subtle addition, this time, with the luggage sticker on the top of the bottle. Simple but effective addition I think.

 Even a wine label for the blind! Even though its not meant to LOOK the part (because its not for those that are entirely able to appreciate design), I still think it looks pretty good, even though its not really meant too.

This is one that doesn't entirely have an element of design, but I like because of what it evokes. Its more of a personal kind of label (personal for the makers of this wine). These collection of wine bottles show the evolution of Matsu's organic wine. How its developed in time. And shown here is how its been passed down in generations from grandfather to father to son. The main point here being three generations of expertise.

Hit a brick wall.

After some time having a gander at other menu's layout and what they do with the content, I started to crack on with my menu. But as always with me, I get too picky, everything has to be a certain way, and now im stuck. What I'm stuck with is one small aspect that could quite possibly ruin everything, well that is how I see it, because I'm weird.  
The small aspect being what type I use on my menu. This should only be a brief decision, but sad as it sounds, it means a lot to me, and it is crucial to get it right!
I have chosen a few fonts of which I would like to use, that I have shown before. I have chosen these fonts as they all stay within the hand written/ drawn concept that I'm following.                      




This font I have used on my menu cover, which seems right to use in the menu. But reasons why I haven't used it is the size it would be used for the description of the food, is small, and at this size it doesn't like it could follow my sketch theme.

This type doesn't have the above problem, and does look sketchy enough to keep within my theme. The reason why I struggle to choose this one is that it only does it in capital letters (yes its a downloaded font), thus looks like it shouts too much.

Another sketched font, but shares the same problem as the above font, in that it only displays capital letters.

 Handwriting Dakota, nice looking written type but not sure it entirely suits my theme. I think it clashes a bit, but that's just me being too picky, and typographically pathetic. A negative point with this type is how unclear it is, certainly at with it being small type.

This doesn't look entirely drawn but reason for choosing it is how clean it looks. Its pleasent, clean and works well on the menu. But could it raise complaints that its not keeping with the theme.







This yet again shares the same problems as the previous fonts, that it only does capital letters (Ill soon learn about downloading fonts) but as a fun looking sketchy look toward it, but still at the same time looks pretty clean and suitable for the menu.





Hopefully by the next post I will have grown up and chosen a font.
Do feel free to comment and help.
I really need to man up.

Menu contents

Maybe I should have attacked this before doing the front cover, but better get on with it now. This issue being the main content in the Yo!sushi menu. 
First thoughts on this is layout. Where Im going to place images and text is my first thought, but I may just keep that basic, as the actual layout of the current one does look quite complex to compete with. 

Biggest problem for me, is the images used. We can take images from the current menu (above) but these are quite pixelated. This i may solve just by making the images smaller.
Ideas for continuing the theme of the pen sketch look, is to tie in a loose looking type, and to continue the sketched skyline image onto the rest of it, like that of the first page.


But, as always, I shall find a way around these problems and troop onwards!

Time to sort the menu out.

After finishing my mural, thought it was time to crack on with my menu. So start of, I did the typical brainstorm, on what I could do. And to be honest, I didnt come up with much, but first idea was to do a menu, with an outline of the statue liberty, this outline would be cut to make the edge of the page. So as usual when an idea has been formed I went along the lines of attempting to produce it. Although as the way with me it didnt go amazingly well. As puttin design on the page didnt go amazingly well, so I went back to the drawing board and went for plan B. 

Second idea, of which im currently working on is simple split A4 landscape menu. Main issue being keeping with the pen sketched theme. Main image being a new york skyline, dont in pen, and a simple layout (maybe with white space, of which I maybe disagree with), with a spread of images of the sushi. 
Below is how it currently looks, but more will be added, as it is still under development.

Mural. Its done!

So after a lot of time spent on the lightbox burning my retina's and sketching various amounts of new york related images, the mural is finally done. Well unless I get annoyed with its layout or something along those lines, and tweak it some more. But for now its time to leave it and move onto the wine/ beer label and menu.

I have just begun my menu, and shall be keeping to the pen sketch theme aswell as I can for it. But for now I shall leave this post with the image of my mural, and for you to rate and slate it.

Example.

After roaming through the internet for idea's on where to direct my mural I came across this on Deviantart, and thought I would share it with you.
I thought this was a really good montage to represent New York, and shows the urban side to New York really well.
It has all the major, more easily recognisable aspects of new york, but other bits people may not realise and relate to New York. Like the classic looking boom box and my personal favourite bit, the street light with shoes thrown onto the pole. This really chips in to help the urban look I think, aswell of the grunge running paint effects, of which I see and think graffiti. Although other people may think differently.

Yes I realise it isnt the style im going for, but thought it interesting because of its layout and images used. Where the images are placed I think works well, and how it all comes from the centre of the image and spans out is good too. This layout I may try on my mural, and see how well it works, or how badly.

Mural images.

 Well Iv been hard at work, producing more images to apply onto my mural, this is just a general update to show you what images I have done.
Comments I have up to now, are I like how they look on paper, with the amount of detail I have tried to put into each images, although scanned in, I do seem to lose some quality.
But through some experimenting I found some ways of regaining some quality and yet again salvaging this illustrative look.

Progress Is Good!

So after finding out how difficult this style of illustration was, and after some major trail and error, its all starting to happen. The Sketchy pen illustration alike Silke Werzinger's work, didnt go aswell as planned from the start, so I decided to go down a vector design route.This worked really well, for one image, and the rest, just didnt go aswell. The one image it worked well for was the statue of liberty, but other images such as police cars, wernt so easy and consumed far too much time.

So due to the vector rather time consuming and difficult, I thought I would go back to square one, and see if I could salvage the sketchy pen look. And after some time and effort, it was salvaged! Im now back on track with the current illustration style, and it looking very tidy.
Compare this to the above, and I think im onto a winner. Also think it looks far more unique than vectoring.

Progress Is Good!

Work has begun!

Im not going to lie, this Silke Werzinger style of illustration, isnt as easy as I first thought. Its pretty difficult. Well not "pretty" difficult. Immensly difficult.
Sketching hasnt been the problem, as I already knew my skills with sketching are weak, thats why I went straight to the lightbox.

And drawing with the lightbox isnt an issue either. No the problem lies with scanning the drawings in. They dont come up as, fresh as I would have expected. So now the major task in hand is to touch em up and dive into a photoshop mission, to try and make them look generally better.

Above is one creation, that actually didnt come up too bad compared to others, but still needs work. But I am no quitter, so I shall try to resolve the matter.
Wish me luck.

Illustrative style. Its been chosen.

This is one of the important posts, so hold tight.
After a fair bit of thought, I have come to a decision. Decision being, that Silke Werzinger has come up top trumps, and I shall attempt to adopt a style alike this, for my mural.
I will be making some small twists and tweaks in the designs to try and make it look more my own, instead of all completely looking exactly Werzingers work.

A lot of Werzingers work is based around people, which is where most of the detail is applied, in that of facial features and other features. What will be different from Werzingers, to mine, is mine will have drawn aspects, that I havent seen in Silke Werzingers, such as buildings, transportation (yellow cab taxis) and maybe typographic elements.
All this aside, I shall be putting some full on action effort into this style and will keep you updated on how it goes.

Here is some images of Silke Werzingers work for you to enjoy, and for me to think, Jesus this looks pretty difficult actually. Enjoy!

 

The distressed look.

It was on another outing I saw something else that triggered idea's/ concepts on my mural. Although instead of Meadowhall, it was only Morrisons. This time, it was a short glance of an image on the side of a DVD clearance bargain bin.
It was the DVD cover image for Cloverfield (see above). This image remind me of my earlier idea, of a urban themed New York. It then made me think of taking it slightly further than a grime/ urban theme, and making it look more distressed, slightly destructive.


This idea I shall be giving more though towards, as it could go one of two days, look really good and my ego could shoot through the roof, or it could look extremely poor, and I could hit rock bottom.
I shall update soon enough with my thoughts on whether to carry the theme out or not.

Meadowhall springs on an idea.

Right then. This isnt so much of an update on my work, but an update on thinkin where my mural may go. It all started yesterday (Saturday) when I went on a mission to meadowhall, from looking through certain shops I stumbled into Footlocker, just for a quick glance at trainers.
It was in this store a t-shirt caught my eye, which made me think about the direction of my mural. The t-shirt was of the Statue of Liberty, although instead of holding the torch, it had a graffiti can and was in the middle of creating graffiti. How I wish Id have got a picture of the t-shirt.
But the main thing is it made me think that maybe my mural could take an urban twist with it aswell, using graffiti for type, and maybe playing with some images as though they have been tampered with, by disrespectful youths!
Like the picture above, as though someone has actually defaced the Statue of Liberty.

This idea I think could also work with other images, maybe of a run down taxi, (like the above) burnt out abused and slap some graffiti on for the ultimate urban look.
Although this street/urban idea would have to keep with my illustration style, once iv decided the style Im going to follow.

Another interesting thing I found based around milton glasers I love new york logo is this design for a t-shirt. Aimed more towards the car enthusiasts, its a Toyota Supra drifting around the logo, with tyre prints going through the heart. Not necessarily to do with my illustrative style but personally I found it aesthetically pleasing enough to share with you, the viewer.

Something else I found interesting.

After another look through the internet I found another illustrator I deemed good enough to share my thought on. What grabbed me at first was the above images because of how I feel it related the design on the post before this, from Steve Wilson. The relation being how they both give the effect of a neon glow. But then through searchin on Scott Pollard (Illustrator of the above image) I found other creations he had done, and it seems he does have several different styles. Scott Pollard, to me, is like another illustrator I feel like i can relate with because of his random characters he does in his work. Alike my random, boredem, sketch doodles.
 If you want to have a look, heres his website. http://www.designjump.co.uk/

 Just to add, I think these little model characters look quite slick aswell.

And his designs applied to trainers looks quite good aswell.

Another Illustrator with a tidy style.

So after some more searching, looking out for certain styles to adapt to my mural, I came across another illustrator with a defined style. His styles do seem to change throughout his work but the certain pieces that caught my eye are these. These caught my eye because of how I feel they relate to the city that never sleeps. The neon lines would obviously work well in a night drop city like New York, to go with the bright dazzling lights and neon glows.

Below are a few other examples of Steve Wilsons work. What I like about Steve Wilson is instead of other illustrators that have one certain respectable style, Steve has quite a few that all work to their strengths.
Steven Wilson's style is good, as this shoes with the big name company's hes done work for such as Nike, Virgin, Vodafone and Coke.

If you want to have a wander around his website visit http://www.wilson2000.com