Good- Alton Towers

End of module evaluation

My initial research was mainly secondary, I tried to get a broad knowledge of my 'Good'. I found videos, maps and information about the rides, and my primary research consisted of photographs I took when I visited Alton Towers and a questionnaire I made. I probably spent to much time on unnecessary research and would have benefitted from furthering my knowledge on packaging and print process. I was doing a lot of research before I came up with a concept, this took a while which let me down slightly. I wanted to do something fun and exciting but struggled at first because my research was quite dull and boring. I also wanted it to be different which I also found quite hard as there is already so much out there. It wasn't until towards the end of the brief that I had more ideas I would have liked to of pursued but didn't have the time. I think I have taken this brief a bit too seriously so I know next time to try and have more fun with it.

I wanted to use type and image and eventually I used fabric pattern as a background for my nets. After trying out a few variations of layouts I decided to reduce the amount of imagery I used and focused more on the layout and packaging. As I was using a patterned background you couldn't see the stock so the only thing I really needed to consider with stock was how it would look when folded into packaging. I therefore went for a matte card.

I learnt a lot on this module about print and how important it is in the industry. I found it hard at first to remember which print processes were used for different things but after looking over my notes a lot and further research it started to sink in. I had a go at laser cutting and embossing but quite a few mistakes happened and I didn't have enough time to correct them. I would of loved to have tried foil blocking but didn't feel it was relevant for the work I was doing. I would of also liked to have tried spot varnish as I think it makes a piece of work look really neat and professional but again this wouldn't have been necessary for the work I was doing but perhaps will try it in the future. I also found that the Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop workshops helped me to develop my skills a lot and made me more confident in using such software.

I struggled at first with design development as I hadn't quite grasped what my concept or message was until I'd had a few crits. I started to develop some designs using layout pads, drawing designs and different variations, but still wasn't sure what they were going to be used for. Eventually I decided I was going to package products for the elderly and promote Alton Towers to them, and this is when I found it a lot easier to design.

The short 'wrap it up' brief helped me to find different nets which could work for the products I wanted to package. After spending a lot of time adjusting the measurements of the nets I was using, and testing them out, I eventually got the right nets I wanted to use. I then just added my designs an tested the nets out again.

I tried to document and blog all my ideas and development as I went along as well as evaluating everything that worked and didn't work. Some of the mistakes I did make were not giving myself enough time to laser cut my work as it ended up taking longer than I thought and also went wrong a few times, which meant I had to re print my designs. I know now for the future to give myself more time.

I was fairly happy with most of my final products but some didn't work as well as I hoped. For example the packaging I made for a pair of slippers were a lot bigger than needed and as they were printed on A1 I couldn't make any test pieces before printing which meant I wasted money on a net that was too big. I had to reprint a few other nets also as some were printed in the wrong size. The packaging for the cards, the tags and the lunchbox all worked as I hoped though which I am happy with.

5 things I would re- do

1- Be more prepared for when mistakes happen

2- Start designing earlier on

3- Make my research more relevant to what I have focused on

4- Have more fun with my work

5- Experiment with more print processes