Before I mention the designs I produced in InDesign it’s worth me mentioning I came up with another design for the postcard using a ribbon with the lettering on it as well as the knot with lettering. Just simply because this reflected the coffee packaging more than the knot did.
Commitment Blend – Ribbon based design
Now to talk about my process with InDesign and Illustrator.
At the same time as considering how to express Commitment visually I was looking for layout inspiration for my postcard when I came across some packaging I’d kept from Starbucks Coffee.
I keep lots of packaging because I really admire the design/aesthetic. I found this packet really appealed, and it gave a idea to design my postcard as if I were selling a blend of coffee called ‘Commitment’.
Starbucks Coffee Packaging
I decided to rethink my design for the Commitment postcard. I began by thinking about what did I want to say through the postcard, what did commitment mean to me? When I think about commitment or being committed to something I think about words like; determination, grit, effort, hard work, strength of resolve.
Thinking about these words, I was looking for a image that could depict that, and I was reminded of posters made in World War II which aimed to encourage women into factories, to do their bit for the war effort. I was reminded of the way the women were symbols of strength and resolve in these posters; they appealed to women to make commitment to the war effort.
I found a few of these images and began to think about a design around them:
World War II posters depicting Women of strength and determination.
Looking back over my design for the commitment postcard I was still unsure it was communicating what I wanted it too, in the style I wanted it to. Perhaps I’m being overly critical but it just didn’t look as smooth or polished as I’d hoped.
I wanted to see if making a similar image using different techniques would produce a better result. So I thought I’d give making a similar image in a program called GIMP a go. Now I’m not very experienced with this software so perhaps I was being to ambitious.
I began by thinking if I drew the characters in stages: so a layer for the outline, a layer for clothes, a layer for hair. I could add these into GIMP stage by stage and alter the colour/lines and bring it altogether in one final image.
I’d seen others do this successfully so began drawing layers using tracing paper and scanning them into my computer:
Layer one – outline of boy
I felt like the illustration I’d worked on following my research in Oliver Jeffers had gone fairly well.
So I then thought the next best thing would be work on honing and refining it.
It felt a little lost on a big white sketchbook background. So I cut the characters and the knot out of sketchbook and looked for a background to sit them on top of. I found some brown paper, and felt like I made a nice solid textured backdrop without detracting too much attention away from the characters.
Illustration in progress
(before cutting out)
After cutting out from sketchbook
I thought this looked better than the initial version, much more together but still wasn’t happy.
I re-sized the image using GIMP (an online image editing program like Photoshop). See the result below…
I think these does look like the best refinement of the design. But I’m still not sure that I like the design. It just looks a little random!
We’re in real time now so the next posts I do will be reflecting as I go rather than retrospectively.