Producing Print Based MediaVisual Language:Composition - How have you chosen to set out your designs and why? (Reference layout, image/text ratio, busy/simplistic etc.)The first ideas that were produced was when I pointed out the idea of having an afternoon tea theme, I thought this because by going into different cities and villages, you start to see a pattern of how different elderly people spend there time in cafes and restaurants. This is a huge market because of the amount of money they receive from pensions etc. We all decided that by having one medium image and then separate close ups, it meant that people could really get a sense of what it looks like and the detail it has overall. We photographed most of the images for our recipe cards because I felt that we should have a more homely feel to the recipe cards as it’s for elderly people. When finding a background for the recipe card it was quite difficult because different patterns and things districted you from the actual image and text. We thought that making the background a bit lighter by using an opacity meant the images and text would be more obvious. Some of recipe cards look a bit busy but that’s just because of the different elements that make it sophisticated, only some look busy because of the amount of text on the recipe card. To take away from the busyness we experimented with different shapes for the images By putting the image in a clipping mask it meant that it could be a circle which makes people look at the image in a different way. We didn’t want to go to over the top because our target audience likes simple and elegant things. By using subtle lines across the circle it meant the image looked like it was in section which adds more excitement to the page instead of having just text. We put the ingredients in bold because there wasn’t much text there and it would make it easier for the elderly as they can be drawn to the text, this would help them to buy what they need more easily. By putting the text in numbers then they would know which one to go on next. The stickers that are used around the image makes the audience think that they are stuck on, this was my idea because I thought it was effective to give the image more character instead of just a box. By putting a white box on the back it meant that you could see the text instead of the strips being behind the text, we didn’t want this as we wanted our text to be visible and clear to read.

Image Construction:

Discuss the contents of your final images and reflect upon decisions made. (Content used- image/text/graphic, use of colour, original or stock images etc.)When actually photographing the images it was quite difficult because I had to make sure that the lighting was correct, some of the images had to much light which meant you couldn’t see the food properly which was frustrating. By working out this problem I used a editing tool on Photoshop called Adjustments > Brightness/Contrasts. This allowed me to produce an image that had more shading and less brightness, because of this it showed more detail through the product and allowed you to see stronger colours and more distinctive shading. I used this for all my images so that they looked professional and neat. For the main image on the bottom right I used the ‘Opacity’ tool on Photoshop. This tool made the image look quite transparent so that it was noticeable on the page but didn’t grasp to much attention. I only used the opacity tool on that image because the rest of the pictures needed the brightness and colour so that it grasps the audience in, this allows them to see the end product so that they can create it themselves. We thought that by putting the images in different layouts and shapes meant that the recipe card would look new, unique and modern. By making the three sections on the front I used the ‘cropping tool’, this allowed me to pick out sections of the product, what was good about this was it gave the audience a different perspective of the food product instead of thinking it was an average sandwich. I made the image a bit separated and different shapes so that it fitted the size of the main image which overall looks very professional. We used all my images into the recipe cards because they fitted the theme with the recipe cards. We had to use sourced images for 2 of our recipe cards because the quality wasn’t that great which meant we had to cover it up with sourced images. This wasn’t to bad because those images were inserted into the recipe cards when we were trying to figure out the colour scheme, this meant they fitted well and fitted the right colour, it also looked professional which is what we wanted. When taking the images I made sure that the plates and the objects holding the products linked well with summer but also the afternoon tea theme. I used pots for the sauces, this fitted well with the theme because you always see jam pots on afternoon tea stands. I was pleased with my images because they were bright and appetizing, for example my Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil sandwiches had a lovely green colour that bright some colour and excitement to the recipe cards.

The food I bought was quality so that it was portrayed nicely onto the whole recipe card. When taking the images I made sure that I tried to copy the layout of the sourced images so that they look professional and would fit with our theme, this worked our well as the sandwiches were laid out correctly, the only downfall was that the lighting could have beenbetter so that the images so more clear. The background for each recipe card was made specifically so that it the colour didn’t overwhelm the final product. We did want a bit of the product to have a certain colour that would link with the background, in this example the black/grey seeds on the bread links with the background as they have a similar colour shade, even though that’s really simple it works and is very effective how they link. We went on Google images and put in ‘grey stripe background’ this helped to find good backgrounds that would suit this recipe card. Once we found one then we used the ‘brightness/contrasts’ tool again on Photoshop which allowed us to find a colour that would suit the overall theme. For the text we made sure that most of it would be Serif type font, the only part that is San Serif is ‘Prep time 15 mins – makes 4’ this could be in san serif font as it’s simple and doesn’t need much attention towards it, because it’s a small amount of text means it’s much easier to read. We went through fonts like ‘Times new Roman’ and ‘American Type Writer’, the one we chose that was San Serif was from DaFont.com, this website had a variety of font that would suit the recipe card perfectly. Overall I feel that each section and shape has been put in the right place and that there is plenty room around each area, from asking peers that have said that it look Posh, easy to read and straight to the point, which is what we wanted overall as a recipe card.

Representation

Discuss 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?) The idea behind the background is that I wanted the strips because it showed a more English garden. In our country we like to have gatherings and to bring people together as a community so I thought that added strips to the background would be very affective as it’s like a marquee or banners that people use to show celebration and a gathering. Our target audience like day trips and outings because they need to fill up there time so to use this method would be very effective for them. What was also clever about the colour scheme was that we made sure that there was a distinctive colour in the photography, once we picked one then we would pick the coloured strips that we wanted from ‘Google Images’. After this we would paste it on the recipe card but then use the opacity so that it wasn’t to bold. We tried to fit the colour background to the food as much as possible. We put the vegetarian logo on every recipe card as it was due to our brief, we made sure that we had the logo on because it makes the recipe card look more professional, without the logo meant that the recipe card would just be simple and not linked to anything. I researched a bit on the vegetarian society to see what they had to offer but I thought that there wasn’t enough traditional foods like ‘afternoon tea’. That’s why I was pleased to come up with that idea as there's a gap in the market for this and also there should be more products advertised to the older generation. We used neutral and pastel colours as our colour scheme because they reminded me of beauty colours. Beauty colours means that people that wear or use these types of colours are trying to show sophistication and class. By having a pastel purple with an outfit or ingredient is like being yourself but adding more class. This is what I thought to the food, by having a pastel purple with blush meringues then it means they are nice yet sophisticated.

Audiences:

Create an audience profile of your chosen demographic(Age, gender, geodemographic, NRS Social Grade, hobbies, etc.)

Age: The age of our target audience would be 60+ I believe this is the right amount due to the layout of our recipe cards. People that are 60+ have all had different lives and different consequences but I think that by making a recipe card that is vintage but pretty will guild them into liking our recipe card. Gender: What we chose for this is more towards women because of the colour scheme, pastel and neutral colours can be for men too but I think that the images and layout is more girly. We started off wanting both men and women to like our recipe cards but then we realised that more women like to go for coffee and have lunch dates. Back when they were younger, women thought that cooking would be there main job around the house whilst men worked so they know how to cook. We also thought that women like to take there husbands for an afternoon tea, this would make them more interested in tasting and eating the different foods. Geodemographic: Our target audience would probably have to be middle class and up this is because people have grown up with different foods throughout their lives and afternoon tea was known to be given out to only the ones that could afford it. As ‘The afternoon tea’ was created in the 17th century so it makes sense that the rich should start to eat it because of the quality of the food. This doesn’t mean that our target audience has to be rich now because ‘afternoon tea’ has started to slowly growing in popularity and businesses are trying to make offers out to people from different backgrounds that can afford it. We would say that our target audience is middle class+ because they should have more knowledge in the food and how it’s made. By living in cities and towns they are more likely to known about the different foods and cultures.NRS Social Grade: ABHobbies: The elderly generation are more likely to have different kind of hobbies from what they have learnt and wanted to do over the years. An example of this would be sowing and knitting, this is a skill that they’ve probably gathered over the years and it means they can make there own products. By cooking it means this can become a hobby which is good for our recipe cards, our recipe cards are like a collection of different bits of food from an afternoon tea buffet that you can use until you known how to make section yourself.

Audiences: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.

The way my recipe card is showed compared to the Downton Abbey recipe card is that the DA recipe card is trying to be to vintage which isolates the target audience to much, you want to express and try a quirky method that would fit different ages. That’s what happens in my recipe card. The use of shapes and imagery helps you to see different sides to the recipe card.

The use of imagery in the first recipe card is good as it shows what the product should look in detail whilst the second recipe card only has a drawing which doesn’t give you a good enough visualisation of the food product itself.

By cutting down the text on the first recipe card it means that it would be much easier for the target audience to read, whilst the second recipe card has a lot of text with tricky font so it would be harder to read.

What’s good about the second recipe card is that they’ve taken care with the theme of the card throughout, this means that people get a good idea on if they like the recipe card or not. The idea of the recipe card is shown clearly which is good and it look sophisticated. The first recipe card has used a calm approach to afternoon tea by using lighter colours and close ups of one image.

The second recipe card has produced a theme by copying a programme from the television, this is a good approach as the older generation are more likely to watch that programme which means they’d like the theme of this card.

I made sure that my recipe card would appeal to the audience because of the font used and how the images were laid out. I made sure that the font wasn’t to complicated so that it was easier to read, a lot of elderly people are known to have reading glasses and have poor eye right so it was important to help there needs as well as others. The title font looked a bit more complicated as it was hand written. The target audience would recognise this as it’s an old fashioned font. What ‘s similar about these two recipe cards is that they both use white boxes for the text and imagery so the background doesn’t affect the written part. This is what I did because I tried to experiment to see if you could see the font without a white box but it just didn’t work, so instead I put a white box on so that you can see the font clearly. I found this out by researching different recipe cards on their own websites and blogs such as: http://michellewooderson.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/cream-cheese-potato-soup-recipe-card.html. By doing this I went on Photoshop and used the shape tool and I put it on top of the background layer so that it showed the text more clearly.

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?)

I’ve always been influenced with British cuisine because of family parties and making foods that would feed a group of people. My parents are a huge influence mostly because they produce different ideas that wouldn’t normally be used for an evening meal. An example of one of these would be banana cakes. They hate wasting food so to use all the food in a more convenient way then I don’t see why not. The shop betty's also influenced me because the business first started in Harrogate where I mostly grew up so when I was younger I saw how they presented themselves in a business sense but why certain foods were more exciting than others. You never walk past a betty’s without seeing a queue of people, I would always get curious on why there was such a hype for cakes and things. By seeing the afternoon stand and experiencing it, I started thinking about how much the business has grown all over England and it has really helped to boost the traditional afternoon tea popularity. When looking around the Betty’s tea room, you saw the target audience in the room, they were mostly couples in there late 60’s or 70’s. This made the idea much more easier to construct because of how much target research Betty’s has done to really gain there popularity, which is keep the building elegance, give staff old fashioned uniform and make sure the ingredients use quality products. When getting the afternoon tea I saw how it was set out so I took pictures, which meant when I make the products, it would hopefully be to the same standard as a Betty’s cake. The BBC Good Food website influenced my work because it helped me to present my food in a manner that I could copy so that it looked professional but also summery. For example I made the sandwiches so I had to make sure that they look elegant but also how they would be placed on a cake stand.

The font and background was influenced by Betty’s tea rooms as there menu’s were used in this font which made it look vintage but also sophisticated. The background was something that was also influenced by Betty’s because for there product packaging they used twirls and strips which meant the food looked more exciting but more of a true British style.

The imagery was influenced by ‘BBC Good Food’ who presented the food in such a unique manner, by using depth but also above shots which gave it character. An example of these would be the cucumber sandwiches, the sliced cucumbers on top of the sandwiches were presented on ‘BBC Good Food’ which made it look cute yet smart.

Whilst the ingredients and making of the food was from me but also my parents gave me a lot of pointers on which food should be made at what time, which helped to give me organisation but they also had background knowledge on the area.

Historical and Cultural Context:

Do vegetarian products have a specific design aesthetic and how does your project reflect/contrast this? Why?What I thought about when doing this project is that vegetarians do have similar meals to non-vegetarians but I feel the presentation of the food is a bit plain. This is what I wanted to improve, that's why we did the afternoon tea idea because we wanted vegetarians to try different foods that isn’t just salads or pasta. We wanted them to enjoy luxuries like cakes and colourful sandwiches that would be appetizing but also exciting. I feel that the foods vegetarians eat aren’t very exciting because of the lack of a main ingredient like meat etc. so we wanted to create an equality to foods between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. I think the design that vegetarians have is more green and they normally just have one theme throughout which is either ‘eating healthily’ or ‘what new things can you try next’ which can get quite boring. We thought lets bring British tradition into a vegetarians balanced diet. By doing this we did:

We added a colour scheme that would fit to the food products, most of these are neutral and pastel colours because we thought that if we don’t use bright colours then the food would stand out more. Whilst this recipe card only has white as there background which is really boring and just drawn anyone’s attention. It also doesn’t have a clear audience which also makes it plain,. The flowers on the side suggests that it’s more towards women but it looks to old fashioned for it to fit anyone's personalities.

http://www.gpb.org/files/productions/peppers-recipe-3.jpg

My recipe card shows 5 images around it which I wanted to do because it helps people to see the detail of each image. Whilst on the other recipe card it doesn’t even indicate on what the meal should look like how it should be presented to guests, this doesn’t help the audience. We made sure that we had images on the back of the recipe card so that you didn’t have to turn the recipe card all the time. As our target audience is for 60+ we want to make sure that we cater for our audience, by making things easier and more enjoyable.

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)

BeforeAfter

Font: What I originally thought for the font was that it had to be more of a vintage font for it to work. This went well because we experimented with different fonts and found that the ‘Bickham Script Pro’ was the best option as it looked handwritten. We felt that by having this font it would help to give the audience a more familiar look on things as the ‘hand written’ font is known to be vintage and sophisticated. This meant that we had no reason to change this. We changed Arial font to san serif because it’s known that it is easier to read which would help our target audience a lot.

We kept the original image which was disappointing because the images weren’t good enough to on the recipe card. By using a sourced image it meant the recipe card wasn’t really ours, the only thing that was ours was the design.

We thought that the methods should be numbered and more close together, this meant that it was organised and didn’t take up to much space. We decided that if we change the font to not bold then it’s easier to read, if it was all bold then you wouldn’t know where to look first.

On the bottom left of the new recipe card, we made the white box smaller which means more of the background is shown, this is better as it looks more neat and tidy instead of just having a white box to cover the whole recipe card.

By making more room I made the circle smaller on the right page so that there was more space around the recipe card. There’s nothing worse then having a recipe card that looks to busy to begin with

We made the ingredients in bold so that it was easier for our target audience to read, it also helps them to focus on the ingredients instead of the method.

Our tutor told us about ‘Da Font’ which was a good website to use as it had quirky fonts that would help our recipe card to look more unique. We used this for under the title and quote line which fitted well and worked affectively. We had to change it as the other font was to boring.

Finished Products:

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

I think our recipe cards really suit the brief because they wanted creative and exciting cards that would catch the eye of the customer. I think we did this due to the strong theme throughout which is our afternoon tea theme. The aim of this was to introduce luxury food that can be suitable for vegetarians but also vegans, by doing this people would be more likely to want to try out the different recipes.

We also took our own images which meant that they can discover our type of style when it comes to photography which is a bonus. We also made sure that we had the Vegetarian Society Logo on our recipe cards, this has made them look more professional. By having this logo on then vegetarians will recognise the sign and want to take the recipe cards. This makes it look different to other recipe cards. We made sure that our theme was strong because of the amount of culture and history it’s got. British Cuisine has always been a strong tradition and a part of what we do so it’s important to incorporate that into the recipe cards.

Our recipe cards are known to be like a collection so you can collect every card which would gradually make up the whole afternoon tea experience. The brief wanted us to come up with recipes that could come from all over the world, we based ours with British cuisine as we know the Vegetarian Society is a British based company that have had historical rooms from the 1800s. This is important as it shows that they have a history that involves vintage British cuisine which is what our recipe cards are all about.

Finished Products:

How did the use of peer feedback help you in your production?(Reference specific examples and their final outcome in finished product)I got feedback from both my peers and also my grandma. It was important to ask her as she is my target audience. What she talked about was: After Before

:

- The colour coordination wasn’t to strong which meant it was to distracting.

( The bright orange background was the background we picked for our recipe cards, as you can see the colour is to dark to put on the recipe card so we used the opacity method. Which meant that the background would be lighter, we tried to see what it would look like to be a bold background but I figured that our target audience wouldn’t want this due to the fact that they don’t like bold colours. That’s where we really got going with the pastel and neutral colours).

-The text was to bold which meant it was quite difficult to read, also the font size was a bit to small to read.(This shows the difference we made in our recipe cards. We improved this by making both the ingredient and method font in san serif as it’s clearer to read. We looked through different fonts to find the perfect one that wasn’t to complicated. I made sure that the font had noticeable fonts as this makes each letter look simpler to understand. We also made the font size from 10 to 12 so that it was much easier to read).

Before

After

Finished Products: PART 2

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

- There is to many different types of font on the page which makes it look to busy.(This was a big eye opener for the group because we chose different fonts thinking that it would make the recipe card more fancy and energetic, then by having this feedback we realised that the card was becoming less and less sophisticated. This made us go on ‘Da Font’ which meant we could pick any font. The font we chose was ‘Fish Finger’ which was good as it made the recipe card look sophisticated but also put across a strong personality on the card. We used this for the quote section and the prep times which is under the main title, this reduced the mixture of fonts but also made the recipe card more neat and created more space for other things like imagery and background space.

We also got some useful information from our peers which helped us to improve our work further which was:- The pictures are very clear and have a lot of different angles to show the food better. The image also had depth which makes the food look more appetising.(When doing my photography I used different research methods like using Google images and also BBC Good Food images. This helped me a lot because they portrayed food in a professional way which helped me to use different angles and techniques that they used. I made sure that I used my own techniques and skills so that the image would fit well with the recipe cards as we based the layout around a sourced image. It was important to get our images as similar as the sourced images as possible. We didn’t edit the images to much because we wanted the natural colour of the foods to come out, this made it look more appetising).

Before After

Before

After

Finished Products:

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your final product regarding its technical and aesthetical qualities.

What I dislike about our finished product is the fact that we have some sourced images and our own. This isn't good because when you go through the recipe cards, you can tell that some images are sourced and some are our own. This is due to the lighting and quality difference of our images. If we inserted all our images in then I think it would be much smarter than having 2 sourced and the rest our own pictures. This would make a balance of pictures overall.

I like our imagery here, we used the opacity tool on this image so that it looks like the image is drifting into our white box. This covers more space and makes the card look more professional. By using more imagery on the back it means that the customer can see what it truly looks like even if it’s a faint edit.

I think the font could have been improved further by making the font larger but also cutting down on the text. Our target audience would prefer simple, straight forward sentences. By having paragraphs it makes the cooking less positive.

I love the use of the title font, it portrays the food like it’s a rich substance, has class about it. The title adds to the theme of old fashioned afternoon tea. By having a nice title, it helps to sell the product. A good title in a newspaper helps to sell the article.

I think the white box was very affective as it helped to show the text more freely. We went on Adobe Photoshop which helped us to use the ‘Shape Tool’ this gave us the circle and box which was used for the text and imagery.

I dislike the stripes over the image, this was only because it doesn’t show the image properly but it also doesn’t affect our target audience very well. It makes it look more fresh and arty which is something 60+ might not always be interested in.

I think the three imagery boxes are a win/win because the angle and detail of each image is probably an angle that not many people see from food. The detail is eye catching and you wouldn’t normally see this layout on a recipe card.

We didn’t change the colour of the vegetarian society logo as the green symbolises their company and brand. By having a different colour background, it truly helps to show of the logo, which makes our cards look professional.

Finished Products:

What skills/knowledge have you gained/developed in this project? How could these be applied in future practice?What I’ve learnt throughout this project is that team work is quite important, everyone has different ideas which help to brain storm. By doing this it helps you to produce Ideas you didn’t think you’d have. Whilst doing this I made 4 thin rectangles to put around the image. I was proud of this idea as it made all the recipe cards look quite quirky. What’s good about traditional piece is that you have the theme but adjust it to how you thinks best. So by making those rectangles it meant that the theme was afternoon tea but it made the picture look like it was stuck down or like a frame. This makes it look smart but still sophisticated. I’ve developed my knowledge of how to cook different foods as I’ve not had to much experience in that area. Making the food meant that I could learn about how much quantities to use and how to make lovely food that would be useful in the future. I’ve developed my understanding of photography by researching how to present the food, by putting different sandwiches on top of each other, whilst sorting our the lighting settings. It really opened my eyes to cameras work and how depth of field is always important. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about the vegetarian society, what I’ve learnt in the past about vegetarians is that they didn’t have meat because of the cruelty to animals but I didn’t realise how much choice there was to eat. My initial idea was thinking that vegetarians could only really mess around with salads and pasta dishes, it’s quite exciting how they can still have the same products but just without the meat. Using Photoshop has really helped me to gain confidence with it again because without it I wouldn’t have known how to do a clipping mark technique etc. The clipping mark technique really helped and made the recipe cards look more fresh and exciting. By being in a group you realise the amount of techniques you can do by learning of one another and trying to improve your own skill s yourself.

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 our imagery was our main focus in this project as it showed the images is a more creative light. The idea of having three close up images underneath the main one was a good idea as it didn’t make the page look to cluttered and it has made time for the audience to look at each image and calculate how they would make there own product. We made sure every image was the same shape and cropped each area where we thought it was visualising.

We used circular shapes to show off our images on the pack page. We wanted this as it gives another point of view to the audience and also make the audience want to look directly in the centre of the image. That’s where are main product is. To do we this used the ‘shape tool’ that looks like this:The shape wewanted was the‘Eclipse Tool.’ Once we putthis on then we used the clipping mask method, we made the sure image was below the circle and then we pressed ‘clipping mask’ on the layer with the image and then it produced the final product.

Our title and sentence understand was quite impressive. We chose this idea because we thought that people always try and fine the ‘prep time’ and ‘cooking time’ etc. By putting it under the title it meant more people can read the title and then realise that the information they need is at the top. This makes it easier for them to get the information quickly. I thought it would be a good idea to put it under the title as it looks like a line for the main title but in words. This makes it look visually unique but also quite modern by having the Bickham script pro font and the fish fingers font together.

Production Progress:

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 our timings for this project went really well as we finished before we were expected to. This isn’t an negative issue as it gave us the time to go back to our work and actually re-do something that were probably not correct. We also asked our tutor is the work that we’ve finished was good enough. We received some good points which meant we went over the work to make it a better standard. Once we made all the cards it was quite tricky to improve them all because we tried to make all the recipe cards as similar as possible. Once there was something to change then we all had to go through the twelve recipe cards and re-do the part that needs improving. This took longer than expected and we had to do it several times. When we finally did them all then we finished it to the guided time which was good for us. What took the quickest was when we started making all our recipe cards, this was quite good as Me and Charlotte made the first recipe card in one day which meant when Marie came back, she would know what it looks like and then she would copy from that on her next recipe card. We went through about 3 each in one day which made 9 after one day. Then we had 4 days to make 3 more. This was done well as we did one each the next day which left us nothing to do but to get peer advice and then re-do what was wrong with it. We organised our photography around when we did our recipe cards and that was easy because we already produced them. The photography took two days so we had one day to fit all the images and do some tweaks and that was us finished. We completed everything that we had to do on schedule which meant we can learn about how organised things were and then keeps those skills for the future.

Production Processes:

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

1. What I think I would have done differently is to make sure that all the photographers knew how to present the food and have sufficient research on how to make all our food products similar. The negative part of a couple was Marie’s and Charlotte’s images didn’t look appetising so we had to used sourced images. This meant we had an uneven balance of our own images and the sourced images. What would have been better is that we should have just had all of our images or all sourced images. This would have made all our recipe cards similar and professional.

2. When doing our recipe cards we didn’t think about putting extra’s on like ‘when you make this why not try a sauce with it’. Little paragraphs like that would make a difference, as it gives them guidance but also helps them to create some fun dishes. We just did the ingredients and method which probably wasn’t enough. We did do this method on one of our recipe cards but we should have done on much more of them so the audience can have new and exciting ideas about how to cook.

Sourced Our Own Images

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

Legal ConstraintsThe legal constraints that we had to take into consideration are photography, graphic design and copy right issues etc. We first of all thought that by making our own pictures then there wouldn’t be an issue with copy right laws. Copyright is when a law helps to cover someone’s work so that no one else can touch it. The good part of this is that the owner can sell there product and promote it to others but it will be protected so no one else can copy or have the idea. So by having our own images it means we don’t have to copy but instead have our own unique images for our recipe cards. We had to use two sourced images which we’ve shown where we have got it from so it doesn’t look like we are portraying there ideas as our own. We made sure we signed a document to show where we were location wise, so the company and college would know where we are. By signing a document it means they can go back to that document to make sure everything was organised and correct. We used sourced recipes which is okay we showed where we got it from and it also fitted well with our brief requirements. Our graphic design was based on a strong theme of ‘Afternoon Tea’ and as our brief told us to be creative and exciting with our work, we then showed this on each recipe card to show our uniqueness and colourful theme to our client.

Regulatory ConstraintsWe made sure that when doing this project, we would make sure that our work was suitable for anyone’s needs. Our recipe cards are targeted to pensioners as they are classed as the vulnerable in our society but that doesn’t mean that 59 and younger can not use our recipe cards. When taking the pictures and graphic design we wanted the layout to be neutral and innocent so that people from any age and background can feel that they can use it for themselves. The ASA is the advertising standards agency that has codes to prevent the public from being hurt or disheartened by any promoted product. By showing our recipe cards to the public, I made sure that we didn’t use any bad language, pictures that are fake or air brushed and miss-leading products that weren’t suitable for vegetarians. Instead we used formal language for our target audience to understand as they have been brought up with the proper English language. Our pictures weren’t edited, this showed there naturalness to the public without being fake and all our recipes have been tested and our suitable to our audience.

Financial ConstraintsThis was quite simple for us as we all created a budget sheet, this sheet calculated the price of all the ingredients we would need for our project. What’s good about this was I went home and found the things that were already stored in the house, this meant I didn’t have to spend as much for the ingredients. We did have to pay for these ourselves which might have been difficult if we didn’t have the money but we did save up so that we could buy the ingredients. I did my cooking at home which meant I didn’t have to travel far to get my ingredients, I got a bus which cost me £2 return into Knaresborough, once I got my ingredient we cost me £17, I got some and cooked. This was contributed to the project, which added up to the overall cost. I made both the food and photography which meant I didn’t hire anyone to do it. Marie and Charlotte didn’t hire anyone either which meant we saved money and didn’t have any legal complications. We all have background in cooking and photography so this was cheaper and easier for us.

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?)When being in a group it’s normally quite fun due to different ideas going around the room. When it came to actually negotiating ideas and trying to listen to one another I don’t think it worked very well. Instead of this, one person would talk about one idea and then that would be used without negotiating any other idea, this isn’t always the best way. By everyone putting their ideas on the table, it’s easier to see which idea is the best, this would make it easier and less stressful. Instead whoever thought of something first, then it would be put down with no further question. In our group everyone was a photographer as we’ve all had past experience, this helped a lot for when we did our food. Charlotte and Marie cooked between them whilst I made my own at home, this was good as I could put my own creative ideas on it. My main jobs without the group would be contributing to the graphic designing, photography and recipes. I was quite proud as it was my idea to create the ‘Afternoon Tea’. This meant I had a vision of what to put into the recipe cards and how to present them. For example I thought the stripped background would be the best option for the recipe cards because it added a fresh British look but also you can edit it to make the colours less strong. The strips looked light a British garden pattern, it’s most likely that people would use it for banners and celebration plates. I feel I was leader because of producing the idea in the first place but during the project I think the way we worked meant that we didn’t need a leader. Instead we said what we needed to do and then got on with it which was probably the best option. I overall would have preferred to do the project on my own because I think I would have introduced more British flavour by adding flowers and extra information on the ingredients. As a group we produced a lot of ideas which produced the final product, that is a positive.

Management:

How important is communication when working in a group? (Use specific examples from working in a group on this project)When starting the project we didn’t really need to use much communication until we actually started making the recipe cards. We started quite smoothly as Me and Charlotte made the recipe cards which meant Marie would just have to copy. Then once we got those done I felt ill which meant Charlotte and Marie would have to make the food whilst I made the 4 other recipes. This meant we didn’t really have much communication when making the products. This was quite bad because I wouldn’t know how they were presenting their food, as they wouldn’t know what I was doing. That’s why communication is important in this way because by communicating you get jobs done at a high standard. It helps you to gain confidence so that you know what your doing during the project. Another example of when we used communication within the group was when we were exchanging ideas to one another. This is a similar answer to the question before when saying that you have to organise all your ideas and thoughts, this helps as you can find out which answer is the most hopeful. Without listening to one another then you can’t get jobs done which I’ve learnt during this group project, by being negative about other peoples ideas isn’t fair which happened within in our group. By listening to ideas freely then we would have made our recipe card even stronger.

What have you learnt about working in a group and how will you apply this to future practice?What I’ve learnt from this project is that you can get a lot of sufficient work covered at a high standard, by working together and communicating, your more likely to get a large amount of work done. It’s important to also not get to stressed within your work because once you do then you can’t communicate properly which means the work isn’t to a proper standard. When you get a lot of work done then you have to learn to split the work load between each person in the group, this is what I’ve learnt. What we did was we split each recipe so that we had four each to do, we would research each of them and then making the recipe cards. After two days we made 12 recipe cards which was good and we were ahead of schedule. I learnt that you have to enjoy what you are doing when in a group because it’s more relaxing to just be set your about of work and not a whole project. If you do it to the standard of the rest of the group then all the work should be at a high standard. By enjoying what you are doing it means you have nothing to lose, work and discussion is always better than stressed and not communicating. I also learnt that when you are working in a group, you have to share responsibilities. This is because if someone makes a mistake, it could be partly your fault because of miss communication or you didn’t explain the idea properly. All of these things that I have learnt will really help in the future as I will add these techniques to group work in the work place. I would make sure there is one main voice that writes down all the ideas that we should use, then once they have been picked then I’d make sure all the work is spit correctly and that everyone knows exactly what they are doing. This will make high quality work for the business.

Management:

What have you learnt about working in to a brief and how will you apply this to future practice?When working to a brief you have to make sure that what you involve in your work is what your client wants from you. This is how a freelancer would work by checking the brief all the time to see every detail so that they can interpret this into the work. I made sure I looked at the brief all the time so that I wasn’t missing anything, during the process we made sure the Vegetarian Society logo was on each of the recipe cards. We made space on each card so that it was visible and easy to see when looking at the recipe card. The size of the logo was a reasonable size so that people would recognise it and we also kept the colour scheme so that vegetarian people would pick it up for there own cooking needs. We made sure that we used vegetarian recipes that would be suitable for there diet and also interpreted a strong theme throughout. What helped towards the theme was that we used vintage plates and saucers, this gave the old fashioned afternoon tea vibe that we were looking for. Also the elegant colours and imagery really helped to give our recipe cards a good appearance, this would be suitable for the client. Working to a brief is quite nice because everything is organised before you start, the client tells you what they need and then you try and interpret an idea that will hopefully be likeable to that client. I will apply these things to future practice because whatever work your in, you would have to make a suitable job for your boss or whatever product you have to make, so what I would have to do is listen, communicate and produce my own ideas for those projects. This will help me in future projects.