Week 5

First of all I did the finishing touches to the presenter for Brantano, and then I had to place the postcards into place in Dreamweaver so that they could be used as E-flyers. The whole postcard project was a big job, but now they can just easily send it out each month without worrying about putting it together and if there are any mistakes, so I've learnt that it is best to get something over and done with to save wasting time.




I had to put text into a presenter for a client of another catering company. Apart from spending a lot of time deciphering the text(!) I had to lay it out so that it matched the design. Luckily they load the swatches onto each document, something that I will definitely be doing from now on. I chose a colour and a matching font face and it was quite straight forward. I had to change the words around so that they sounded the same as each page, as it looked as if it had been written quite quickly. Even though this may sound boring, I actually enjoy things like this because it enables me to see another project and side of Caramba and gives me more ideas and inspiration. The images in the presenter were all of ones in situ that I'm sure I could have created in seconds anyway!...




I also had more amendments for WhiteOaks, promotional material for an old people's home. The wide range of clients here really keep you on your toes as you need to know what type of person needs what. Needless to say this range was a bit calm and simple, yet quite bright, and had a lot of large text. Amending many different documents (as there is 12 every time) really puts my newly learned shortcuts into action, and I am constantly picking up more speed.



At the end of the week I was back on working for Lovefood, first of all a few amendments to the pictures in situ. The client wanted us to show what it would look like with certain walls painted, and I hadn't done this yet but I found it quite easy and straight forward. I think my best project yet though was creating a new range of icons. The Lovefood concept was going to be introduced into infant schools and the icons needed a more fun, bright feel that would fit in better than photographs. I illustrated different versions of each icon, and had fun experimenting with the different brushes and techniques in Illustrator, a program that I don't use very often and don't have much passion to mess around in. I was very pleased with my results and hopefully some might be considered. Its great when a project you enjoy comes along because it increases your drive and makes the day go quick!

Week 4

The first brief of the week was to find new images for Brantano to include on their website. Some of the images that were currently on there were not as suitable of effective as they'd like. So I searched through stock photo sites to try and find some better ones. It was quite hard as images for "little to large" and "choose by size" are going to be quite similar. I tried to also get a wide range, including some abstract ones, but these were not too popular and would not be right for the client. Brantano's marketing budget has been dramatically cut in the past few years, so they couldn't afford their own photography which is a shame as anyone and everyone can be using the same images. I have realised that it is quite a painstaking job, and choosing the right image is vital.


They also wanted me to find an image for their facebook and twitter pages. I did research into their competitors and it was quite surprising to see that there was not a lot of continuity across the different web pages. Next has a certain style of photography which was quite recognisable, but again, with Brantano not having any of their own images this was going to be a hard task. I focused on their strap line "Shoes for all the family" and even though it may have been a little obvious I still think it worked well. I didn't expect that I would be using a lot of my time searching for images in a graphics studio, but knowing what you want and using the right words is a very good skill to have. as it can be very time consuming.



I had various amends, this time including more recruitment posters and changing layout. I also had to amend the Caramba postcards. As I prepared to lay them out for an e-flyer, there were a few mistakes such as forgetting to put the full stop in bold etc, small things that can be easily missed so it is essential to keep looking through your work.

A company called Barlett Mitchell, another catering company, required posters for special promotions. They have a very clean and minimal layout so it can be hard to do different options. I also had to create a loyalty card for a promotion where the customer can get a free deli sandwich when they buy 5. I quite liked this and again it is interesting to work from A3 down to credit card size. It shows the importance of a good logo, and I think that their particular logo struggles when it is reduced. I found that they make good use of tints; I would normally choose a different colour but keeping the swatches down to a minimum is key.