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.
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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 had my meeting today with my tutor, I ended up getting a lot of new ideas for my dissertation, so now going back and looking at my work. I was also reminded of this part of my research a video by Annie Leonard, she looked into where all are stuff comes from and where it goes when we throw it away. It is a very interesting video, I highly recommend you watch it: So as you can see there is a lot more to things and stuff than we originally thought. I was also asked a pretty big question today by my tutor, regarding my dissertation, which was:
Q: As a designer how I felt about happiness, especially when put in a scenario of working with a company specifically designed to sell people products they don't need. What would I do? A: I have to admit, I would take the job. We all need money to survive, to a certain degree. However, I would give back to my community in my spare time. I have previously volunteered at local charity shops, it was actually a lot of fun, and I met so many people. Giving things to charity and helping people, is not something I just simply write about. It is something that I already do. I encourage people to do the same. And that's my answer and I'm sticking to it. I also gave my dissertation to my brother to read over. Mainly due to him continually nagging to see it. As he has already been through uni and written his own dissertation. I have to admit as soon as I pressed send. I regretting everything. However I will admit, instead of him telling me everything I did was wrong, like i thought he was going to. He was incredibly helpful, I actually think I will get a good grade on my dissertation now. YAY!!!!! :) I am actually so tired, but it is finished. However I have started making this into a book and I have to admit all the editing is such a pain. I have also noticed how many pages I am continually adding. I am not even half way through putting my dissertation on the templates and I am already on page 22. Although I have to admit Blurb do make the whole process very easy.Just I am not too sure if I will have this done on time to get it handed in for the 6th. I can see me being able to send this off by some point tomorrow, however. I have also just sent it off to get one last proof read before I get it printed.
I have a meeting tomorrow with my CCS tutor, although I am not exactly sure what we will talk about seeing as we're nearing the end of the process. I am also getting to the point of not caring anymore. This has really been a lot of work. I will admit I have enjoyed it. I just hope I get a good enough mark on this. I am going to go now and stuff my face with chocolate, eagerly waiting for all this to be over..... I think it may be an early night tonight I am now officially eating my own words. I felt like I had a lot of time to get my dissertation done. Which I technically still do, however. I found out today that I can get my dissertation made into a book, and that there is still time left. So I have been trying to get it all done today. To insure it will be here on time, I am also being extra sure on time, as I plan on sending my dissertation off to get professionally proof read. It can take 3- 5 days.... Although I have been staring at my laptop screen solidly for 8 hours, I feel like I am now literally typing gobblely gook. Not much of what I am typing anymore makes much sense within my dissertation. My brain gave up on me about an hour ago. So I feel like I need to call it a night, I have had a lot of sugar today and am feeling really wired. I honestly feel I could get it done if I continued, but. It's gonna be so poorly done, especially as I am now beginning to tweak my conclusion. So yes, calling it a night and backing away.....
About to collapse into a pancake coma..... So last night, I left off saying I was going to go back and do a few quick sketching and research for my re-branding. I ended up actually looking at a few different species of octopuses: Although I did start looking at species of octopuses, I started getting so captured on how they looked. So I had good intentions, but then I just started looking at how pretty they were. I however now know, I want my Kraken logo to look at though it's under water rather than on land or in some kind of container. I have to admit I am starting to get really excited about this, I feel things are starting to become clearer in my mind of what I want to create.
Today I did a bit more of my dissertation, I am now almost at my conclusion. I have however decided to add a few more things about cultures. I have started to sort of figure out what information I want to put into it. I have compared American consumerism culture with UK consumerism culture. From my surveys, It would seem that within the UK, we are more spiritual, with how we react to consumerism traits. 1 in 20 of us actually participated in Black Friday, and it wasn't even in stores, but online. There is a lot of huge differences. I am hoping to continue into looking into different cultures. I have already mentioned about looking into the Gypsy culture, I have previously looked into Bhutan. I would like to continue this theme looking into Chinese and Japanese cultures and their proverbs on happiness and money. Maybe they have a saying that can effect us in how we think on consumerism and lining our pockets. I also have decided to look into how charity effects our happiness. I am not too sure if I will be able to fit this all into my dissertation, I am already at almost 7000 words. My limit is 8000, so here's hoping if I do have to shorten some things down to make room it'll work out for the best rather than not making any sense. As I have said before thought, I am very happy with where I am in my dissertation. I am glad I have another two weeks to sit and think about my dissertation and how it's going to work out. For once I am glad I don't have a job, so I can use this time. So, today I still feel iffy, but feeling a whole lot better than what I was yesterday. So, I did what I mentioned yesterday about asking my relatives which of my book covered they preferred. As they are the age group the design is aimed for. I realized however that after I asked, I was slightly rooting for one design over the other. Especially when both my relatives said they preferred the image on the right. I had also asked some of my friends which ones they preferred. They all answered the image on the Left. So I think there is definitely something to be said about that. I then began to analyse both of the designs. Why did I really not like the image on the right, compared to the image on the right. I realized it was mainly due to the very simple shape and design of the spy like figure. I then looked at the image on the left , what did I like so much about this cover. I realized that it was just this. The image on the right, was a bit too complicated, too much going on. The image on the left, too simple and not much happening. So I went back into photoshop and made a few changes. So I added text to both of the spines, I took away one element from the left book cover, which was the little spy vector. I then made the right book cover a little more complicated. Now with the image on the right I still feel there needs to be more done to it. Even just making the little boy in it the same colour as the main figure of the book cover. I would also like to add gradients. Although I am still figuring that part out, in which way exactly I want to do that.
Now, here's the kicker. I show these new designs to my relatives. They still pic the same one as they did before. I ask friends who are the same age as myself. They still all pic the same book cover of the blue main figure. I really have no idea, what to do. Although after speaking about these with my friends. Something I hadn't realized was brought to my attention. When children want books, it's the parents that buy the books for them. So this cover needs to appeal to children as well as adults. This being a key factor I had forgotten. I am hoping to send my design off to them tomorrow, So here's hoping I will have made a decision. I still feel myself leaning towards the image on the left. whoops... |