Final Evaluation

IRN BRU

What are the technical qualities of your work?I have used Photoshop well to create my products for IRN BRU. I used these skills the most when I was designing my can as I used tools like free transform, rotoscoping, warping, and I also changed the layer style to make the design look more 3D and realistic when I put it on the can. I used the warp tool to make the design “bend” around the can so it looks better fitted to it. Adding different effects to the text and also manipulating the imagery I used on the designs are other ways in which I developed my ideas. Creating my posters using Photoshop required less tools but it still tested my knowledge of Photoshop because, especially in my second poster, there were times when I had to think about how I could make my way around something and make it look its best. On my second poster I used the clone stamp tool, which is something I haven’t used properly before. I used this tool to erase some of Garfield’s teddy so that I could cover the remainders of it with the IRN BRU can. This worked well with the rotoscoping I did because it looks like Garfield is holding the can of IRN BRU. As for my web banner I rearranged the layout of my second poster to make a smaller comic strip. I took screenshots of the parts of the comic strip I wanted and then placed them onto the template. I was going to change the colours of some of the letters in the title to blue, so that the title would fit in with the colour scheme of IRN BRU but when I attempted to change the colour I could not get it to turn blue. This may have been because of the colour behind the new layer I made.What are the aesthetic qualities of your work?Out of all my products I think that my Garfield poster and my second IRN BRU can design look the best, and they are the two products I used more of my Photoshop skills on, so I believe that they look more professional than my other products. In all of my products I have aimed to use the same colour scheme as IRN BRU because this will make it clear which brand the products are for and will also provide a look which is recognisable to customers or other people who are familiar with IRN BRU. By using the warp tool and by changing the layer style on my can design, I have made the can look 3D and this gives you a good idea as to how this product would look if it was actually made. Giving the can a 3D look also makes it look professional. I have rotoscoped around the can to make sure the edges are smooth and to make sure the design fits the shape of the can perfectly. I have used a good quality image for the background of my design so it doesn’t blur when you zoom in and this also makes the overall design look better, rather than it be a low quality image and it be constantly blurred in contrast with the text. I have used quite blocky texts on both of my can designs which gives a dramatic feel as they are bold and they do stick out more than the other texts I have used. To add to this I put an effect around the text which made it stand out more and generally made it easier to read against the background of the design. I used effects like stroke, drop shadow and outer glow to achieve this. With the Garfield comic strip that I used I kept all of the main aspects of the original comic, but I adjusted some parts to make it fit in with the IRN BRU look I was aiming for. Changing the colours of some things, and adding or erasing pieces of the comic made it suitable to be an IRN BRU poster.

Are there opportunities for further development in your work?I think that a few of my products could use some further development, as well as the planning I did beforehand. I didn’t have much luck in thinking of ideas at first but I did come up with few that were all related to cartoons or Children’s programmes. With my actual products I believe that I could develop them a little further as some of them are quite simple and are mainly based off of my original template, which was only meant to be a draft. I could of tested my Photoshop skills a bit more when I was creating my Winnie the Pooh poster, or I could of even managed to find a better image to work with which didn’t have Piglet in it at all. I should of stuck to my original idea of having Pooh sat eating ‘hunny’, but because I was behind I was trying to come up with something quickly and I didn’t think about what would look good and what wouldn’t. My first can design was also very similar to my first template. I don’t think that this was a good idea because I could of developed my original idea further and therefore I could have had the potential to design a better can.Are your final pieces fit for purpose?I believe that my final products are fit for purpose because they all advertise IRN BRU, but I think that some of my products would be better fitted to be used more than others. For example, I think that my second IRN BRU can design and my Garfield poster and web banner would do a better job and are more fit for purpose than my other products. I think this because I have put more thought and effort into these pieces and I think that they are the products that actually look the best and would do a good job of advertising and promoting IRN BRU. My products are fit for purpose because they clearly show which brand is being advertised and they are also recognisable because I have used the same colour scheme as IRN BRU and have used bold text to make sure the audience knows exactly which brand the product is for. Using bold text also helps the text to stand out and really grab your attention. I have used this on my second can design. Including IRN BRU in a well-known comic is what I have done with one of my posters. This is a more fun and interesting way of advertising IRN BRU, as Garfield is well-known and some people may have grown up reading the comics so having Garfield associated with IRN BRU is a different and maybe more risqué way of getting people to buy IRN BRU.

What areas of planning and developing worked well?When I created a mind map of all the ideas I had come up with I expanded it quite well and ended up thinking of more ideas while I was making it. I think the mind map really helped me as before I was finding it difficult to think of ideas. Although I didn’t use the majority of my ideas, they were good to have because if I ever was stuck on what to do next then I could of looked at them and found inspiration. I also managed to find lots of possible fonts to use on my products. I chose most of the fonts because they were blocky and bold and some of them looked quite cartoony, which I thought would be great for the ideas I had come up with. I did a lot of font testing which helped me decide which colour and which effect looked the best and which of the fonts I had chosen looked the most appropriate for my products. I used the colours orange and blue and swapped the colours round so that the actual text was one colour and the stroke was another. I found that the original colour style of IRN BRU looked the best, with the text being orange and the stroke being blue. Using the different variations and experimenting with effects, I eventually found a style that I liked. The style on the far right is the one which I thought would be more attractive to the audience since it is already similar to the current IRN BRU colour style. I also liked the one that is second from the bottom, but I thought that the larger stroke might be a bit too bulky so I decided to try something less prominent.What areas of planning and development could be worked on?Although my mind map was much more developed, my initial first ideas didn’t go very far. I found it hard to come up with anything I could use for my products, so maybe I could of looked up and researched other energy drinks in more detail, especially looking at how the design of the can is presented and how they advertised the energy drink. Also, I could of developed the work I did on the mood boards, with the colours and pictures I could of used for my products. I didn’t have many ideas to start with but I could of added some extra images to my mood board which were similar or to do with my original idea of using a Snoopy image.

What effect did the development stages have on your final products?My final products did turn out slightly different to what I expected. My original ideas didn’t include Garfield, as I was meant to be using Snoopy, but I couldn’t find any suitable images to use for my poster. I came across a Garfield comic and I started scrolling through different ones and eventually I came to the one that I have actually used for my poster and I thought it would be perfect for IRN BRU because it includes batteries and energy, which is something that IRN BRU 32 is meant to give you. Having quite a few fonts to choose from that I collected in the development stages meant that I was able to test them and experiment with lots of different styles which helped me find one that was ideal for my can design, but also meant that I had other suitable fonts that I could use in other areas as well. I used about four of the fonts that I tested in the development stages in my products, and if I hadn’t of collected as much as I did then I may of ended up using the same font in all of my products and that will have affected the content because not all of the fonts I found would be suitable for use in a comic strip, and it may have been slightly boring if I had of used the same font in every product. I think that making the mind map definitely helped me to come up with more ideas, even though I didn’t use them all. I did actually plan on using Pooh Bear in my products but how the poster turned out was not how I originally planned it. On my mind map Pooh would be sitting on a log eating “hunny”, but instead of the pot being full of honey, it would be full of IRN BRU instead, but I ended up with an image of him lying in a field. I think the poster still turned out okay, but I do think that my original idea may have been better.