Evaluation

Print Based MediaHannah Harkus

Visual Language

CompositionHow have you chosen to set out your designs and why? (Reference layout, image/text ratio, busy/simplistic etc)

I chose to layout my recipe cards in a creative but formal way to link it nicely for my target audience. I added curves to the banners at the top and bottom of the cards to make it look more exciting. However the text on the cards is all flat so that it is easy for the readers. Even though the text layout is formal, the fonts themselves are creative which gives it a bit of mix and match. I thought that they worked well.

These are the banners with curves

These are the banners with curves

Text is formal written in straight lines, however they have a funky font

Image ConstructionDiscuss the contents of your final images and reflect upon decisions made.(Content used- image/text/graphic, use of colour, original or stock images etc)

On 3 of my recipe cards I used images that I took myself, however I sourced images from Google for 1 of the recipe cards. This is because the final product of my recipe didn’t look presentable. All images used were then used as the focus so that I could match my banner colours and also the font colours to the images. This happens throughout all 4 recipe cards.When placing images onto my recipe cards I thought that some images didn’t look very nice and wouldn’t make people want to eat them. Therefore I had a change of curves, levels, brightness and contrast to get the images looking nice.

The green leaves in the salad matches the font colour and banner colour

RepresentationDiscuss the semiotics and connotations created from the content you have included.(What meaning or suggestions are created from the images/colours/designs you have used?)

On my recipe cards I included shapes with different shades of a colour which makes it look like a gradient. I did this to make it look more interesting. I used similar shapes as bullet points, these shapes connect to the recipe card in some kind of way.

I looked at this existing product to get the idea of the shape on top the

finished product.

This is another recipe card cover that I used as an existing product. However I did not

feel this was good or presentable for a recipe card.

I used stars to link together nicely with the Potato Stars recipe card

Here are the stars with a gradient colour created by me

Audiences

Create an audience profile of your chosen demographic(Age, gender, psychographic, geodemographic, NRS Social Grade, hobbies, sexuality [if appropriate] etc)

My target audience is Adults having a party for a young child with plenty of other young party friends joining them. However, rather than creating my recipe cards for those adults, I created them so that the child would pick them up to show their parent. I think that most parents listen to younger children and what they’d like at a party. My recipe cards do not include a gender as there are usually specific colours used in a particular way. For example dark blues are the typical colour for a boy whereas pinks are used to represent girls. However young girls may be more interested in my recipe cards as they seem to be attracted to stars – my work includes lots of stars.

My images in the recipe cards are representing how many servings there are. For example there are 3 different bowls of salad, this suggests that this will serve 3 children.

How have you constructed your work to appeal to this audience?

Use box below for text or page space to include an annotated copy of an example of your work to help illustrate how you have done this. You can use a combination of the two.

I have chosen to use bright colours which will appeal to my audience as children seem to focus well with brighter colours rather than dull. The image used is full of most children’s favourite fruits and colours. The idea of the fruit kebab is exciting which most children would like to try.

This recipe is fantastic for children as it is exciting and fun as well as tasty and healthy. I have chosen to zoom in on the image of the food as the full size image doesn’t appeal to the audience very well. I added the pattern in the bottom corner for excitement with for the children.

Historical and Cultural Context

What did you use as your design influences and why were they chosen?(What existing media products influenced the final look of your work?)

Images such as this helped the design of my recipe card. They influenced my work by helping me decide what types of images would look good. I didn’t use an existing product as I decided to just use my own imagination. However if I was to do this task again I would research existing products which would maybe influence my work more and help me finish with an overall better grading mark.

Do vegetarian products have a specific design aesthetic and how does your project reflect/contrast this? Why?

I found that vegetarian food looks more healthy than other types of diets. I saw that there are lots of colourful foods included in a vegetarian diet however some of the foods don’t look as colourful and appetizing.

This looks nice and colourful

Not so appetizing

Finished Products

Does your finished product reflect your initial plans? How? If there are any differences, describe why changes were made.(You can use visual examples of flat plans and finished products to illustrate this)

My finished product does reflect my initial plan, however with some change. My first idea was to create recipe cards for children for children’s parties. Then I realised that the children will not be able to make the food alone. Therefore the language I used on my recipe cards was towards the adults and the design was to attract the children. I also thought of some great ideas when creating flat plans. However these did not work out so well and did not make it into the production of my recipe cards. When I look back to my flat plans there was some very exciting ones I should have chosen to create. If I was to do the task again in the future I would pay more attention to the research and initial ideas as I did not focus on those things and decided to do my own thing.

Does your finished product match what you were set in the brief? How?

I think that my finished product matched the brief well. This is because throughout the task I kept referring to the brief to ensure that it set well. If my work did not meet the brief I would later have to change it to do so. Therefore I found it would be easier working from the brief from start to finish.

• I made up the recipes but went on Google images to see existing products

• All images were my own excluding the potato stars images

• I did cook potato stars however they were not up to photography standards so I chose to source the images from the internet for that recipe card

How did the use of peer feedback help you in your production?(Reference specific examples and their final outcome in finished product)

I found the peer feedback very useful as it gave us time to see what others thought of our work, if they liked or disliked it and to spot any errors made. The feedback I got from 2 peers helped me a lot. The good feedback was nice to see that they liked my ideas, colour schemes and images. However the bad feedback was also good because it helped me improve my work.

Here, one of my peers pointed out that I had a spelling error which helped a lot because if the cards were to be published and sold, a spelling error is real bad.

A peer added that I could have the title on both sides both I did not feel that it would be appropriate. I thought that this would make the cards look cramped with a lack of space. This is not the look I aimed for.

Another feedback comment was that the text located to the right – which is in on my recipe card – is too small which is unreadable. I then changed the size and asked the same peer if they preferred it now. This helped my work.

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your final product regarding its technical and aesthetical qualities.Use box below for text or page space to include an annotated copy of your work to help illustrate how you have done this. You can use a combination of the two.Reference what you like and dislike about the work with consistent reference to correct terminology of tools/effects used.

• In my work I think that the basic design worked well

• I like the shapes on top of the main images to add excitement and patterns

• I like the banners and how they flow throughout the recipe cards

• I like how all my recipe cards have a circled image on the opposite side

What skills/knowledge have you gained/developed in this project? How could these be applied in future practice?

I have learnt the knowledge that I must go ahead with plans to avoid failure. For example, I should have communicated with my group. Vegetarian and vegan foods was a bit complicated to me, but now I understand the difference between the two and which foods fall into which group. Them skills could help me in the future if I was to cook for anybody who is a specific eater. Before this project I was rather confused with the tools on Photoshop and whilst using the programme to create my recipe cards, I got the hang of it. I learnt how to you the ellipse tool, marquee tool and the feather tool. This will come in handy on any other project I need to use the programme including these tools.

Production Processes

Do you believe your work is creative and technically competent? Why?(Reference specific examples (use images if this will help) of where you believe your work is particularly visually or technically impressive)

I think that some parts of my work is relatively creative. However I feel that I should have had creative skills consistent throughout the work. If I had made all of my recipe cards more creative, they would look a lot better.

I like how I created these stars have a gradient colour o them and I created them myself.

How effectively did you manage your time? (Could you have used time more wisely? Did a particular aspect of the project take longer than expected? Did you complete everything on schedule?)

I think that I managed my time well. However when I created the production plan I spread my activities out across 3 weeks which was not the right thing to do as I worked quite quickly on this. However we then changed our time to 2 weeks rather than 3 which made everything ok. 2 weeks was the correct amount of time as I finished all my work on the final day. Creating the actual pages took less time than I expected as I didn’t realise I could use the same template size of paper throughout the 4 recipe cards.

If you could repeat the process what would you do differently?

If I was to do this project again I think that I would work alone so that I could be more focussed. However my team members ideas did help me on this particular project. I would prefer to work on my own so that I could use my own ideas and do recipes which I actually found interesting. I would chose a different target audience as I did not like designing recipe cards for a younger audience.

Working to a brief in media Industries

Constraints Experienced

What constraints did you encounter and how did you consider/avoid them?Legal Constraints

for this project I used 1 sourced image. If I was to publish this, I would have to get copyright permission to have that image in my work. To avoid any copyright I should use my own images taken by myself. The reason I did not do this and chose to source images, was that my image was not at a good standard and I did not think they were very presentable.

What constraints did you encounter and how did you consider/avoid them?Regulatory Constraints

01 compliance – all work must be truthful, factual and not breaking the law. I have stuck to this throughout my work.05 children – children must not be allowed to work with hazardous substances and dangerous equipment. I made sure this didn’t happen by designing the cards for the children but they are actually for the adults who are going to be cooking the food.

What constraints did you encounter and how did you consider/avoid them?Financial Constraints

I researched how much money it would cost me to hire a photographer, chef, graphic designer and writer and saw that it would be far too much. Therefore I did all these jobs so that there was no charge. However I did need to buy the ingredients to do the recipe. When I did buy the ingredients I bought the cheaper products rather than the more expensive foods.

Management:How did you work as part of a group? (Did you lead the project? What parts of the project did you take charge of? Did you enjoy working as part of a group? Why?)

I worked with maddie on this project. However we mainly just worked together as a group during the research and things up until actually cooking the food. After we stopped spending time together on this work we made sure we kept our ideas the same. Also, we kept checking that our recipe cards linked in some ways. However we went a bit of track by forgetting to check what the other person was doing. Therefore the only thing linking our recipe cards together is the banner located at the top and bottom of each recipe card.

How important is communication when working in a group? (Use specific examples from working in a group on this project)

Communicating in a group is vital as it could make or break the work. In my case it was the failure of my work. If me and Maddie communicated more whilst working on our recipe cards, our group work would have been a more group based type of work.

What have you learnt about working in a group and how will you apply this to future practice?

I have learnt that the key task of working in a group is communication. Without communication whilst working in a group, a plan will fail. If I was to work in a group in the future, I would definitely talk to the other group members about work and let other people opinions in as well as telling other people my opinions.

What have you learnt about working in to a brief and how will you apply this to future practice?

I have learnt that working to a brief is much easier than working with nothing. It is good to be told what to do rather than having to come up with my own ideas. Working to a brief is good for those without a wide imagination as some people do not have a clue where to start. However this particular brief helped me a lot as it told us what to do, how to do it and even told us what needed to be on the brief.