Brief 1: Winning Whiteladies

This first brief required us to design three different looks for Whiteladies Road's new reusable bag.

Client's brief:
Design an image to go on the side of a reusable bag that promotes Whiteladies Road and the surrounding area.Information: Winning Whiteladies is a project that has been set up to revitalise Whiteladies Road, Cotham Hill, Alma Road, Alma Vale Road, Lower Redland Road, Worral Road and Chandos Road. The project is not just about promoting local businesses, but is about promoting the community spirit and facilities in the local area.The Reusable Bag will be sold within businesses based on and around Whiteladies Road.It should also be noted that in 2015 Bristol is European Green Capital, and as this is a competition to design a reusable bag, this could be reflected in the design.

Initial Research:

To get a feel of Whiteladies Road and the surrounding area I took some photos of some of the shops, signs and streets as I walked them. This would help me to create a design that represents the area and is relevant to what people would find there.

Bag for life research:

I researched some existing reusable bag designs to look at how the message of both the use of the bag (it being reusable - good for the planet) and possibly the area or shop it has come from. As these elements of the design have to interact in order to form a cohesive design it was important for me to see how it has been done successfully. From this I have seen that the environmental element needs to be the more subtle part as the customer will want it to have a stylish design that they would want to carry around.

Design style mood board:

I really like the idea of creating a village scene for my bag that shows the energy and character of the area to build up quite a fun and detailed scene for the design.

Design 1: Round bubble shapes

For a more grid like layout I drew out some circle shapes in Illustrator and a found a colour scheme that had the green for the environmental icons and the warm colours of yellow and orange to make an inviting design.

I then added those colours and added some icons that could represent the various shops on in the area.  This design needs a lot more work - especially with the typography as the colour doesn't fit with the deign but I think it is a neat and stylish looking design other than the font.

Design 2: Mixed typography

I wanted to create a design that used only typography to reflect the diverse range of shops and services available on Whiteladies Road and the surrounding area. Each word is in a font that reflects that word and I think it builds up quite an interesting look that would catch your eye.

I then tested the same design in different colours to see what could be more successful - I really like the red and the multi-coloured one as they are fun and have more character.

I tested the red version on the bag mock up and found it to be quite difficult to read with the colour and texture of the bag so I am using the black version for now until I can experiment more with the thickness of the type.

Design 3: Village scene

I sketched out this initial design for my village scene that shows some of the shops and the customers walking down the street. The typography is on a shopping tag and on the shop name signs - they read out a message that relates to the fact that Bristol will be the European green capital next year and so I wanted a message that asked people to keep the city clean but in a nondescript way.

I then took the design onto Illustrator and started to sketch out the shope using the pentel.

I added a fourth shop to the design to spell out 'please keep Bristol clean' and added all of the extra features (windows, doors, trees and brick effects) 

I added a faded edge to the shops to gradually finish them instead of a sudden stop - this makes it look more realistic. I started to add extra features like window displays, recycling bins and changed the typography to suit the theme.

Finally I added some people and the other shop window displays to add some perspective and make it look like a busy and friendly environment.

It still requires a lot of work to give a finished and professional look that I would be happy to be seen but it fits my original design and I think it is a fun and friendly image to represent the area.

Final Designs on bag mock ups:

Peer Feedback (via Facebook):

The typography based design was the winner in the feedback from my peers and they also gave their feedback which will be helpful in adding final touches to the design before submitting them tomorrow.

Although this design was my favourite, I see why it wasn't chosen as it doesn't look finished and could also be considered quite childish or too feminim to suit the wider market. This is the design I spent the most amount of time on and it would require a lot more work to be in a finished state so I think I will be submitting the typography design instead.

Final design to submit for the competition:

I changed the colour of the all of the street names and added the others to bottom to include them in the design. 

Here is the design on the bag mock up