So today I have been researching how to turn a gift bag into a book, for my dissertation cover. I bought a gift bag yesterday, it was the only one that would fit A4 pages inside, was pretty and didn't look cheap, my only problem is that it only fits A4 pages in horizontally rather than vertically. I made a makette yesterday to try and figure out what to do with my bag, and how I could make it work. The bag it's self is pretty big. I found a few different tutorials : http://stephaniemakes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/glitz-design-gift-bag-mini-book-tutorial.html Stephanie Bryan's was the first tutorial I found on how to do this, the only thing that really concerns me about going ahead with this, is that she made her book into a scrap book/ photo album. I the most pages I will have will be around 50. So I won't need as much of the room fro m the page as she has used. This is the bag I bought from ASDA, it is a similar shape to Bryan's. I have a slight problem with the position of the handles, as this will determine how the book will be seen and opened, as you can see with Bryan, she has put her label on the side of the cover so that it will be opened the correct way, I don't want to lose the style of the bag and how the bag looks, by which way I place my thesis. I also plan to put tissue paper around the opening of the bag, so it gives the illusion that its luxury. The tissue paper would be positioned around the side of the thesis, rather than on top, This makes me think should I continue with this bag or buy another one that will be taller, rather than wider. I also found this video tutorial on You Tube, it shows how Mary Peterson, makes a lot of books from gift bags. Her tutorial seems a lot easier than Bryan's and even the layout makes a lot more sense. However, I feel slightly torn due to really liking the bag I got from ASDA. I think my best option is to go out and try and find a new gift bag, even just as a back up. Or even print my dissertation out Landscape rather than in the standard portrait. I also went back and did a wee bit more designing of my deck of cards. I have amended my little mistake with getting the queen of hearts and queen of diamonds mixed up. I also went back in a re-vamped the Queen of diamonds. Here is the image based on my queen of hearts This is Lady Anne Neville. She became Princess of Wales as the wife of Edward Of Westminster and then later she became Queen of England, husband King Richard iii (1472–1485) This completes the first suit of cards, within this series of experiments.
0 Comments
Today I got back to designing my deck of cards, I have now finished one suit of cards in this style. However this is just an experiment at the moment, as there is still lots I am unhappy with. I firstly designed these in a darker red, I wasn't too sure how the colour would look, So I also brightened the red.... it's very in your face though, so yea, don't like it much. I tried to make these all very minimalist looking. So keeping them simple and sticking to one colour. I chose to reference my King of Heart on King Richard Lion Heart of England he ruled in 1189, then died a few months later. As I spoke yesterday, Queen Wilhelmina. Although as I write this I have actually drawn her as the Queen of Hearts when , I have actually put her down as my queen of diamonds... whoops, not a biggy though, it can be easily changed. My Jack is referenced on Prince Louis Fredinerd of Pruissa. So, yes hopefully more designs tomorrow, I am thinking of giving myself a different subject every week to do for this project. So now that my dissertation is ending, you will hear more about my deck of cards, view bug and my main project. That's all from me today!
So, again I did more dissertation stuff. I did however actually do some other uni work, YAY! although, went into uni today and totally forgot my graphics tablet.... that sucked a lot, so had to come home earlier than first anticipated and finally get some work done. I have started doing a few experiments already, I'm still not too sure on what I want to do with this, but I am glad to start getting the details down and start working at it. So, as you can see these are unfinished, I used this image of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1890 - 1948). As a reference, I really like her crown. I originally, started with the second image with making it in black and white, but I want to reference her as my queen on hearts. So I went back and changed the colours to red. I am not too sure that I am going to make all of my suit the same as I have been doing but this is the first, of many experiments, I am defiantly hoping to spit out a few more designs tomorrow. I will remember my graphics tablet!
So, today I went again back into my dissertation. I am really starting to panic about getting it binded. I have came to terms that I won't be able to get it made into a book, by the deadline. However, everywhere seems to take a week to bind a thesis. So I am hoping to have this officially done by tomorrow, printed out by Tuesday, and possibly get it taken in to get binded, if not tomorrow, Wednesday. I have a back up plan though, however I think uni may yell at me, if I am unable to get it binded in time. I plan to pray to the staples god and go to staples to get a clip folder. Then if allllllll else feels, I may get the sewing kit out and sew my pages together....... They will have a digital copy, anyways.... so yea. This is my weird plan of slight panic.... i'm so impatient, mainly cause I have never gotten a thesis binded before. All my friends are telling me to chill out.... Can't. Minus my Dissertation, I did a bit more research for my new logo design. So I started to look up other peoples. They are all very well thought out and interesting, I don't want to rush the logo design, however, I would like to get business cards made up soon, especially for the end of year show. So the pressure is already on for that.
Tomorrow, I plan to run round like a mad idiot asking if I can get my thesis binded anywhere in uni. Then hopefully get a list of prices and a time frame. As well as finishing my dissertation!, that would help alot! I also want to start getting ideas onto paper, start doing a bit of design work for my deck of cards project. Which is another project I have to be careful of, timescale wise due to getting them printed off. So yea, a lot going on..... hopefully I will have a better idea of what is going on with all this stuff tomorrow. Today has been pretty stressful, I have been again changing my dissertation around a bit. I am incredibly close to calling it quits. I have written the dissertation, I have spent a long time doing it, and not it's just fixing technicality's. I have so much work I need to catch up on. With my dissertation, I am running so far behind. My brother keeps getting it my for structure, and I have just spent the past hour alphabetizing my reference list. I am just so, so very much done. I more than appreciate the help I have been getting, but I really need to start concentrating on my degree, the whole reason why I am still here. My dissertation is only 25% of my final grade, I am completely at the end of my tether. I want to get back to designing photoshoots and designing card decks :( I'm just done. I have to admit though, with complaining about my dissertation, I did manage to get a bit of research done today in regard to my deck of cards project. I have decided on which on my royals is to go with which suit . I am hoping to get started on this tomorrow. Here's hoping tomorrow will be a better day.
So, I decided to actually take the day off from doing my dissertation, and look into my other projects a little. So I did a bit more research into my deck of card project. I mentioned I wanted to do a number of different deck designs. Such as zombies, cup cakes, alcohol, fairy tale characters , etc. So here are a few images I looked into for these topics as research today: So as you can see, I began to look at a few zombie characters, then moved onto cupcakes. Then I thought about zombie cup cakes or even just monster cupcakes. I think it would be really horror -cute to create these little characters that are meant to be terrifying and yet, you put them in a situation where they're cute and yummy. I like the idea of that dynamic , This is something I will most certainly be continuing to look into.
I then had a meeting today with tutors and we were talking of grading charts and really stepping up our game within all of our works in every aspect. So, I will admit I honestly wasn't thinking of getting these playing cards printed out. Mainly because I didn't think it was possible. Then I looked it up.... it's more than just possible but it's affordable. So I am definitely thinking of getting my actual deck of cards printed. I did want to have a series of these. But this will push me harder with my designs to get these to the best of my ability and here's hoping people will be interested enough in buying them off me. This maybe something I could think about doing for the final end of year show. I also really need to get my logo designed to get my new business cards printed. I have to admit I haven't really looked at my re-branding project for a week now. I am still thinking on what to do, but I again have to blame in on the dissertation. For the rest of tonight I plan to do just that and go back to my re-branding project and do a few more sketches. So, still feeling super ill today. But I just curled myself around my laptop and sketch books and made myself do work. I actually got a lot done today! So I have two new book covers that I started working on today. I am still not too sure on either, but I have now realized with the deadline looming. It is perhaps time to look at the ones I already have a choose one or two and develop it further. So here are the two newest editions of my book covers: So as I had discussed yesterday, I had tried to recreate the same style of image as the Star Wars posters. I did this to the image on the left, I don't really feel that this worked. I even added textures to make it look more like rocks and wilderness. The book is based on the Isle Of Skye, Scotland. So I looked up lots of photos in hope of seeing lots of forests and things to create a similar branch effect to create a type of inception image. But no, just lots of mountains and wild flowers : isle of skyeSo, as you can see just a lot of rough rocks and cliffs. Although I tried to recreate this landscape within my book cover I really don't think it worked. So I looked at all my previous book covers and thought, well what do I like about these? I then went back and created the image on the right. Of just a spy, It is definitely a lot simpler. than the image on the left.
I also started doing a little more of my designing of a deck of cards. I looked up royal families from around the globe. Looking at the costumes, uniforms, jewelry and of course crowns and tiara's. I came across this photos. The only thing that was said about them was these are photos from a party. I don't know what year, or place. but the costumes and amazing looking. Hello, so. I realize I didn't post anything yesterday. With very good reason I did nothing, I also wasn't able to blog via, my phone. So anyways, today I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, due to illness. However I just did a little more research on the kings and queens that have ruled Britain. It started with King Offa (757-796 pictured below), The throne was then handed down to his son, Ecgfrith reigns for less than 6 months. The throne was then empty for 6 years before King Egbert ruled in 802. This seems to be the first and last time the throne is empty for this long. Another thing I noticed within the date of all the kings and queens, there really wasn't many that had ruled longer than 30 years. I also thought it was very interesting that the first Queen of Britain didn't happen till 1553, Queen Mary, she only ruled for 5 years and then the throne was ruled by Elizabeth 1st, One of the most famous rulers of Britain, she ruled for a hefty 45 years So I am now hoping to look into Kings and Queens from Europe and hopefully will start to get a better idea about which historical characters I want to have in my deck of cards. So I think I will more than likely have a few different designs of playing cards. But this will be the first hopefully.
I am now on my last few days with being home, So I am now making the rounds of making sure I see everyone before I leave to go back to Aberdeen. So I have to admit I am unsure if I will be able to post tomorrow, let alone do any more research. So don't say I didn't warn you! So, lots done today. Started really getting stuck into the ghost story brief. Been doodling all day as well as really familiarizing myself with the brief, as yesterday i got pretty confused by it. Here is just a wee image of my sketch book. Also looking into the deck of card brief I'm doing, I was researching royalty. Came across a random quiz. "See what King or Queen you are", So I took the quiz just to see what would come up. I had to answer all sorts of questions on what kind of leader you'd be. I'm not very into politics so most of the questions were random picks. I got: I asked my mum to see if she knew who she was, mainly due to my laziness of looking it up on Google. Her response was "She was really manly"..... So, yea. cheers mummy LOL. I feel like I'm learning!
Nothing much really to report today, I still feel super ill, but have been continuing with developing my ideas for the 3 ghost story books.
Also again looking into more Ideas for my new logo, Also I have been doing more research into developing my deck of cards collection. Looking into certain themes and things. Sorry I don't really have much to show for today. Hopefully will have more for tomorrow to show. |