Creative Media Production 2013 1

Recipe Card Evaluation

NAME

2

Producing Print Based Media

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

My recipe card was quite simplistic, there wasn’t a lot of visual information to digest but there was enough to make the final product look professional. For example: on the front page there was only one main image that was enlarged to the point it stretched across the page, and by adding a rounded corner rectangle and creating a clipping mask, it made the larger image blend in to the background which created a more professional look, as previously mentioned.There is definitely more text than images on my design, yet the main image of the food still draws most of the attention towards it at first glance. With the text ratio being larger I also have to consider my background images and the Vegetarian Society, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr logos, however, with the amount of listedingredients, instructions, serving size, time taken to prepare/cook and the main title, it would still be more text toimages.

The layout worked very well and enabled me to design an effective and professional end product with success and little need for change. Using the layout as guidelines made the production process a lot quicker and easier! It meant that we knew exactly what we needed and where we needed to put it even if we made a mistake. For example: there were times where we had to start some production again (due to implications such as not saving a Photoshop document) thanks to the saved layout we were able to re-design the card quickly and effectively.

Visual Language

The images that I used for my final product were all HD photographs, sourced from the internet, we originally planned to use our own images but ended up not being able to afford making our own products and photographing them, therefore we turned to the internet. However, thanks to our contingency plan we were able to quickly and effectively work through the problem and find images that fitted our requirements.The text that we used ended up being Katana, Japestyle and Ariel, both sourced from www.dafont.com in a variety of sizes and colours. The idea behind using these fonts was to add a more Chinese vibe to our cards, thanks to dafont we were able to source some really interesting fontsthat could have potentially worked, we picked afew and then tested them as a print out – weoriginally used a font called: Real Chinese as the body text, however on the print out it was hard to read and not suitable for our cards.

Discuss the contents of your final images and reflect upon decisions made. (Content used- image/text/graphic, use of colour, original or stock images. Compare to existing products.)

We had a very obvious colour theme throughout the cards, this was red, black and gold. Looking at the Chinese culture and other recipe cards enabled us to create a great set of almost indistinguishable cards that applied to the Chinese culture and made them look legit.There wasn’t a lot of inspiration for the cards in terms of design but comparing my set of cards to a few sourced cards we can see that there are some similarities although in some cases, my recipe card looks slightly more professional than the actual printed version.

Visual LanguageDiscuss 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? You could reference how they were used in products you look at during the project.)

There isn’t really a lot I can talk about for this one.The main theme is Chinese recipe cards and looking at the set of cards that I have created that’s obvious, we used images that represented the Chinese culture, for example: I used a panda sitting beneath a large bonsai tree to signify the culture, I used bamboo, koi and some Chinese art as my background images to again, signify the culture.I used the colour theme: red, black and gold to relate to the Chinese culture and again put across to the audience thatthat is what the recipe cards are based off of.For the text I sourced fonts on dafont.com and found some that looked like Chinese calligraphy or almost likeChinese calligraphy to put across that China is the culture that I chose to focus on, so that the audiences will see the card as a whole and understand that it’s a Chinese recipe card and not for any other culture.

Looking at previously designed cards that also aim at the Chinese culture, I can see that I have definitely conformed to the right kind of style. If we compare my recipe card to an already made recipe card we can clearly see the similarities and the differences that I could look back on and use next time to improve my set.

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

Age: 15+ - they seem more interested in trying new things and changing their lifestyle at this age, which means this is the perfect age to aim at if I’m wanting a demographic that wants to try new things and is currently looking for new recipes to try.Gender: both – there isn’t really a chosen gender demographic, the recipes are quite complex and both genders may want to par-take in creating them.Psychographic: Vegetarians – concentrates on the food they eat, makes sure it’s healthy, there are no traces of meat, almost picky in what they choose to eat, interested in nutritional values. Wanting to try new things, bored with their normal choice of food. Could be of the Chinese culture wanting recipes to try new recipes. Could be a different culture wanting to try new things.Geodemographic: National/maybe globalNRS Social Grade: Middle ClassHobbies: Complex cooking, cooking in general, art, reading, creative or creativity, designing, discovery, adventuring i.e. trying new things.

AudiencesHow have you constructed your work to appeal to this audience? Include an annotated copy of an example of your work to help illustrate how you have done this.

The image is of HD quality and has been put through post production to make the image look warmer and more inviting/professional looking.Using a rounded rectangle box with a shadow has made the image merge in to the background enough that it looks slightly professional and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.

I’ve added some logos of popular social networking sites to entice younger viewers.I’ve also managed to keep some level of professionalism with adding the Vegetarian Society logo to prove to my chosen demographic that the dish I have decided to use on my recipe card is acceptable for vegetarians.

I’ve kept the back page very simplistic and sparsely decorated to make it easier for the viewer to read the instructions and ingredients.

I’ve also made the design on the back apply to the Chinese culture therefore making it easier for my demographic to recognise the design and understand straight away what it’s aimed at and easily distinguishable against other cultured recipe cards.

My writing style is simplistic and casual which applies to the young age that my cards are aimed at, it’s easy to follow and easy to understand with minimal writing and explanation.

As explained in the previous slide, I have made sure that my set of cards applies to the right demographic and it does.There is minimal explanation and a casual writing style that should entice the viewer from the start, this also goes for the use of design, on the front, it seems complex, yet aesthetically pleasing, therefore applying to older audiences, but on the back with the sparsely decorated back page and simplistic writing styles, it applies to a younger audience.

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

It was mostly photography of the Chinese culture that inspired my final designs and ideas – looking through the images enabled me to think of a colour scheme and think of the various different images that I would need for the final products.For example, there were Chinese masks, Chinese dragons, Chinese celebrations (that inspired the colour theme), koi fish, bamboo, pandas, Chinese traditional makeup and gowns and so on.

During the idea generation part of the project, I was looking at Chinese menus and previous Chinese recipe cards which gave me the idea for the font, looking at the Chinese calligraphy they have used for these two media sources, I decided to incorporate that idea in to my own designs.

Sources

My Design

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

Vegetarian recipe card colour schemes are usually colours in relation to green and mimic the colour of the food that mostly vegetarians i.e. salad. My recipe card hasn’t really conformed to this as I have gone for more traditional Chinese colours to match the culture rather than reflecting the food that vegetarians consume.The cards are usually simplistic yet professional looking, the designers like to use natural photographs and HD images of the finished dish with a side of either salad or something that relates to vegetarianism – for example an all natural background, a pot of asparagus in the distance to add to the artistic vibe and so on.They usually use very easy-to-read fonts such as Arial or Comic Sans and so on. They do this because some of the recipes are complex or there is a lot of information to fit on to the card and only so much space therefore they have to shrink the text down.

However as I have a minimal amount of writing on some of my cards I have been able to use quite an intricate, harder to read font that whilst being quite easy to read, is also aesthetically pleasing, also it makes my card look unique and stand out amongst the other recipe cards aiming at the same demographic, it means, or it seems like it means to me that more of the audience will be interested in my card rather than the others.

Finished productsDoes 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

No, my finished product looks nothing like my initial plans, however, the layout has managed to stay almost exactly the same!Front Page: Originally I planned to have the Vegetarian Society logo at the top, Left hand side of the page, along with a 1.5cm red border around the entire front page. I decided to get rid of the border as it took up too much space during the production and it was quicker to create the recipe cards without it, I ended up putting the Vegetarian Society logo at the bottom, Right corner of the page instead, this was because in the original plans I hadn’t included a banner at the bottom of the page for the logos to go on, this made me change the bottom title box placement by slightly moving it up the page to allow room for the banner.The background was supposed to be lanterns, I ended up not including them in any of my designs in the end, I changed them to other items associated with the Chinese culture such as koi, as previously stated.

Back Page: in my original designs I had wanted a 1.5cm banner to go around my design and ended up getting rid of it for the same reason that it took up too much room on the design. I wanted to keep the background the same as the front page, however, during the production process I decided it was better to differentiate my front page background and back page background to make it look more simplistic and easy to read when the card is turned over, plus it allowed me to be more creative and add more images that contrasted with the Chinese culture.I also wanted there to be a middle image on the back page to separate the ingredients and the method, I wanted one particular image of a Chinese ladies makeup on a mask, however, as much as I kept the images in the same place I ended up changing the design to images of koi fish, on one of my cards I used an image as the whole background, a bonsai tree and a panda and a flower instead, this gave the card design more creativity and made it look more unique rather than boring and getting the same image every single time.

Front Page Back Page

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

My finished product does match what I was set in the brief, I have used a high quality image of the food on the front of the card, along with a title, I have also put the ingredients and the method on the back, as the brief requires.During my planning I have made sure to use recycled paper, vegetable inks and biodegradable laminate for the end of production.I have made sure to make my finished product interesting, creative and unique. I have included designs on the front and back, making sure to base these designs on a certain country – China, along with the designs, I have made sure all of the dishes I have chosen to put on to my recipe cards are of the Chinese culture, I have definitely aimed them at people who are becoming vegetarians, I have made sure to make the explanations as simple as possible and easy to follow. All of the ingredients I have used are definitely suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

I have definitely included: the serving number, the preparation and cooking time, list of ingredients in order of preparation, I have used metric measurements rather than imperial, spoon measurements instead of metric measurements, I have made sure to leave a space between the number and the spoon measurement i.e. 1 tsp. I have also made sure not to leave a space between metric abbreviations for example: 300g.When talking about cooking temperatures, I have made sure not to include the degrees symbol or the term ‘mark’. I have made the method points as simple as possible, I have broken the original methods in to simple, short sentences and I have numbered the method points and I have not numbered the ingredients.

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

This really gave me an insight on to what others thought about my final product as opposed to what I thought. I found that they liked my layout and images – they commented on them the most when it came to positive responses, such as: “the design on the back of the card 4 shows elegance” or, “I like the theme of the butterflies around the tree, shows more culture” (for card 3). Mostly the positive responses reflected my images and how they turned out.I found that they disliked my font size and some of my choices as background imagery the most – they’d rather my font size on the back of my cards were larger: “the font size for the method could have been a little bigger” they also didn’t like where I placed my dashes indicating a list for my ingredients: “again, I think the dashes should be on the same side for ingredients.” one particular peer thought that the images I chose for the background on the back of the cards was a tad distracting: “I think the bamboo is a little distracting but I get distracted easily anyway.”

I completely agree with some of these statements, although there seems more bad points than good, I feel the good statements were more overpowering compared to the bad.I agree that I chose good images and I placed them well, I also agree that my cards definitely signify the culture I was aiming at.I agree that I could have cleared up the dashes and put them on the same side, however, during production when I tested that idea out (as it was my original idea) it didn’t quite go and therefore I went for this style instead.I also agree that the images I chose for the background are quite aesthetically pleasing and therefore eye catching, turning the main focus away from the main text, however, I think it makes the overall piece more visually pleasing and quite frankly, without those images the cards would look empty, sparse and unappealing.I disagree with the statement about font size, only because I have made a test print and it came out fine and easily readable, therefore I won’t be changing these things, however, I will use this as constructive criticism and utilise it next time I do a project similar to this one.

Finished productDiscuss the strengths and weaknesses of your final product regarding its technical qualities. Reference what you like and dislike about the work with consistent reference to correct terminology of tools/effects used. Reference existing products.

I like the effect that I have used on the background, I put a normal photograph on the document and turned it from ‘normal’ to ‘multiply’ giving it this effect and conforming to the background colour.

I like the background colour, however on products like this, it could do with being lighter, the colour red is very hard to get right, however, it can be seen as a negative or a very passionate colour and that is where I seem to have struggled with this, it comes across as slightly angry – this could even affect the viewers mood.

I like the font that I have used for the title writing, it’s interesting and conforms to the culture I am currently aiming at.

I dislike the image, I think if I was going to do this again I would need to change the size and maybe dodge and burn a little more to make the image darker and look more like part of the whole image rather than looking out of place and awkward.

I dislike the brightness of the bottom bar, it almost steals all of the attention at first glance, which is good, but it could also do with being darker or maybe a different colour altogether. I could have been a lot more creative with the way I have incorporated it in to the image as well.

I like the way I have incorporated the koi in to the space separating the ingredients and the method, I changed the blending mode on the image layer from ‘Normal’ to ‘Multiply’ which completely got rid of the white background and left this silhouette of the koi, I did this for almost every image I have used in my cards. I then duplicated the image layer and rotated them vertically to create the final effect. I dislike the way I have placed the ingredients, I would try to make it look neater if I could. I like how simplistic yet professional it looks. I dislike how there is nothing in the middle of the koi. I like how it took little effort to create.

I like the image that I have used for this card, however I dislike how it seems to be off centre, to make the image look more professional and fit in with my card I had to dodge and burn to create my desired effect. I like the type of font that I have used, as previously mentioned, I like that it’s a different design; however you can still tell its still in the same card set. I dislike how out of place the serving number and preparation time look I’d like to have changed that, possibly by ridding of the rounded corner rectangle and just put them against the yellow/gold banner.

I dislike how sparse the overall design looks, I think I could have made the back more interesting/aesthetically pleasing, I like the background image I have used, I think I have successfully incorporated the Chinese culture look in to this card, I dislike how some of the text is positioned, I think I could have maybe spaced the text out some more using the paragraph panel tool.

Finished productDiscuss the strengths and weaknesses of your final product regarding its 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. Reference what you like and dislike about the work with consistent reference to correct terminology.

I think this text looks unprofessional and cheap.

I find that this text is more eye catching and unique compared to the existing recipe card.

The image looks slightly blurred and it’s not very aesthetically pleasing.

I think that the image stands out too much against the background – it also seems slightly blurred.

I like how they have sold the product more with a sort of catchphrase. Compared to my recipe card, the

existing card hasn’t got any logos, serving times or preparation/cooking time

I like the background image I chose for this, it doesn’t exactly conform to the Chinese culture but it is Chinese art and therefore fits, I think it’s quite eye catching and aesthetically pleasing and compared to other recipe cards I have seen, such as the card I looked at in the previous slide, it’s quite unique and interesting compared to standard, neutral colours and designs. I dislike how the font covers it, however, I think I could have spaced out the writing a bit more. I like the whole page set up, I like where I have put the writing, I just dislike how the writing doesn’t really fit the card design.

I dislike how the image looks out of place on this card, I think I could have maybe made it slightly smaller rather than it taking up the full top half of the card, I think its too bright, I maybe should have dodged and burned a little more. I like the font that I used, I think it makes the card look more unique and conform to the culture I was aiming at. I dislike the rounded rectangles on the yellow banner, I think I should have changed their colour or completely erased them. I like the background image I’ve used for this card, it’s unique, however I don’t really like how the red looks on it, I think I could have changed that.

Looking at other recipe cards, they follow a very neutral theme using greens, greys and so on, I think by using red it’s a stand against the norm and I like that about my set of cards. I dislike how much I’ve had to squish my writing to fit in to the bottom part of the card, I could have spaced it out using the paragraph panel tool or I could have made the Koi smaller, however, I do like how the Koi look, I like the way that it seems they are following each other, it’s very proportionate and aligned and personally, I think it’s aesthetically pleasing.

Again, as previously stated, I dislike how the image seems off centre, at first glance it seems like I have cut part of the photograph out when this is not the case, I like the design at the top of the card, its almost a banner but it only stretches across the top rather than going all around the edge of the page which conserves space and makes the overall design look nice. I dislike the yellow banner at the bottom of the card, I think its quite plain and standard and I would have liked to try something interesting and different with it, use creativity to make it look more professional or fun.

I like how simple this design looks and at the same time I also dislike it, I’m very pleased with how the butterfly effect worked, I also like that I added a panda, it again conforms to the culture I chose and it’s quite aesthetically pleasing. I dislike how sparse the page looks however, it’s nice and simplistic but it might be a little too simplistic, I would have liked to add more to the design, possibly even put a border around it or used the butterflies to make the page look more busy.

I like how I edited the photograph on this card, I blurred and sharpened certain areas to make it look more eye catching and appealing, I also dodged and burned the image so that it was slightly darker and fit in with the card design. I dislike how squished it seems, I should have moved the image of the tofu nuggets up and moved the title up with it. I like the background I used, I found an image of bamboo and utilised it as the background for this image, I think this is different and unique and I find it very aesthetically pleasing.

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

I learnt how to effectively use the paragraph panel tool, this allowed me to increase/decrease the amount of space between writing and sentences. I could use this for the future when creating written documents on Photoshop, it really helps with spacing things out and being able to make the page look more densely designed rather than not having much visual information.I also learnt how to easily erase backgrounds on imported pictures and create silhouettes without using the wand tool – instead I change the Blending Mode from ‘normal’ to ‘multiply’ like I have previously talked about. This enabled me to create most of my backgrounds and will make the whole process a lot quicker and easier in the future, especially when it comes to deleting the background of an image.This task also enabled me to effectively use different paint brush styles, for example: ‘special effect brushes’ these enabled me to create the butterfly effect on card 3, I can definitely use this in the future for when I want to create crafty little designs for future projects.

I have also learnt that exact measurements and placement is very important, I filled a whole sheet with numerical information that told me and my partner exactly where to put certain images, logos etc. this enabled us to make our cards look almost identical apart from the difference in design. I definitely need to remember this for the future and always write down my measurements so if I need to, I can refer to them and make sure they are in the same places.

Production processDo 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. Reference professionally productd work and compare your products to them)

I do believe my work is both creative and technically competent – I’m particularly impressed with my third card. What I like about this is the effect I used on the tree to make the butterflies look like they’re disembarking from and flying off. I also like the panda, I used the blending tool and got rid of the background which gave this effect, I then placed him next to the tree to give the illusion he is leaning against it. Honestly with all of my cards I am impressed with the front page, I liked being able to utilise this new skill, it gives a really nice effect and makes the overall piece look a lot more professional.Comparing my pieces to other recipe cards, I think they are probably around the same level of skill, obviously my cards are not as good in terms of quality, but I’m not a professional, I think for my first attempt at something like this I did a good job.

I do think my recipe cards look less compacted compared to professional standard ones, but that could be a problem in terms of cost for me/my company.

Production processHow 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 honestly think I used my time quite well, I was able to one hundred per cent complete the set tasks within the time that I was given to finish them, however I actually finished planning and production very early on during the production process, this gave me more time to very carefully go over my finished products and correct any errors. Maybe in the future I should try to space out what I’m doing during the production process or add to my designs so it takes me longer to complete set tasks rather than finishing them before I should have.

Production processIf you could repeat the process what would you do differently?

I think I would carefully think through the planning process again, maybe even during the planning process actually create some of the ideas that I came up with, just to make sure they actually work, I ended up changing a lot of aspects during the production process – I think it would be better if I very carefully thought through my actual designs.I might try a different culture, I really wanted to do American culture and aim it at the 1960’s period, I had a full plan but it changed at the last moment – I’d really like to give that a try.Further research in to the Chinese culture and use that as inspiration for designs and ideas – I got stuck towards the end with ideas on exactly what to put on to the cards.

AS Media Studies 2009 32

Production processIf you could repeat the process what would you do differently?

33

Working to a brief

ConstraintsWhat constraints did you encounter and how did you consider/avoid them?

Legal: the only legal constraints that I really faced during this project was when collecting sourced images – most of the images I wanted for my final product had watermarks on them which meant I couldn’t utilise them.

Regulatory: I don’t think we really encountered any regulatory constraints throughout our project.

Financial: When looking at the financial aspects of my project, we can see that the total cost was quite dear.

I also found that, as opposed to the original plan, I had to change from making the recipes and taking the photographs myself, I had to scrap that idea and source the images instead – this didn’t have much of an impact and saved money, time and effort.

ManagementHow 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 personally think that I work better as part of a group as opposed to completing the projects individually. I don’t think there was an overall leader during this project I think it was equally separated between the both of us, however, I do think at some points I did take charge, this was due to my partner not working or cooperating with the task or getting the images and designs in the right places.I think i definitely took charge of the actual production, when it came to designing the cards and creating the finished look in Photoshop, that was down to me, I got all of the measurements and numbers in the right places.I did enjoy working as part of a group, I usually do, this is because it’s easy to distribute the jobs between us so the product gets finished a lot faster. It also usually means better end products as its two sets of ideas instead of one.

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

Communication is very important during group work – without communication we wouldn’t know what we would be doing, we’d end up with two completely different end products.An example of important communication is when my partner didn’t have the right measurements or design that followed my own making our set of cards incompatible – after some evaluation, we decided to move them in to certain areas, we decided this together. It made the final set of cards look complete and almost identical, making it hard to differentiate them, which was the target.

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

There was also the whole problem with cooking the food ourselves, we both had to contact each other at first to make sure that the plans were going as scheduled, this is where we both found out we couldn’t actually afford the initial preparation of the food and therefore couldn’t follow our plan directly, using our contingency plan and communication, we overcame the problem.

Basically without communication, our whole project would have been not only a mess of random designs and recipes, but a complete disaster, it’s very important to maintain this tool when working within a group to make sure the end product is exactly how it should look and ensuring that we’ll get the best results.

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

I have learnt that sometimes you have to take charge, if one member of the team wasn’t working effectively, it means someone has to motivate them and me and my partner both took that particular role in turns, especially when it came to the planning part.I have also learnt how communication is important, as previously talked about, as within our group if we didn’t communicate effectively, then the end product wouldn’t look like it does and we’d end up with two completely different set of cards that wouldn’t look right.I would definitely apply these to future tasks, I think it’s important when working in a group to establish maybe a leader, but seems as there was only two of us in this particular project, I think dividing up responsibilities is very important.