Creative Media Production 2013 1

Recipe Card Evaluation

Emily Monsey

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)

We chose to back a fairly simplistic design that could easily be understood by our audience, however we wanted our recipe card to stand out from the rest and attract the reader’s eye as there is strong competition among recipe cards. The layout we had designed for our recipe card also had to fit in with the brief given as there were several design specifications that were crucial to fit within the requests of the vegetarian society. Some of which included adding the banner at the bottom and potentially putting the ingredients and method on the back of the card. These were specifications that we ensured were followed as we had already originally planned to show a large image of the product on the front to draw the reader’s eye as this is the main subject of the recipe card and was one of the main things that people looked for in a recipe card when doing our research. We had also planned to show our method and ingredients on the back as we felt this would separate the main focus (image) to the informative section of the recipe card. We also had thought that putting the text on the front may actually put our audience off our design as all they would face is text instead of something a little more interesting such as an image. After looking at other recipe cards on the market for vegetarians we also found that many of them focused on putting a large image of the food on the front and this was something we found to be very practical and something that would easily draw the attention of the audience. We also saw some of the recipe cards that had gone with a different approach and had put the text and image on the front which we weren’t as inspired or interested by as we found the text to be too much and it also could distract the reader from the image as the main focus of the page. In comparison to the text we wanted the image to stand out, meaning we ensured that the ratio between image to text was vastly different as although our heading used a fairly large font the image still stand out above all. On the back of our recipe cards we wanted the text to overrule the amount of images as the text was now going to be a main focus of the page as the instructions happened to be fairly lengthy, meaning we needed as much space as possible. However we did still want some images on the back of the card as without some imagery we felt it would look a little too plain and boring for our audience as we still need to ensure it looks appealing and interesting in order to catch the reader’s eye. From looking at already existing recipe cards that are on the market now, we could see that many of them chose to follow a simple format and layout for the recipe cards, we felt that although this helped to give the cards a clean-cut and professional look it also looked a little too plain. Therefore we wanted to ensure that our cards were really interesting to look at whilst still linking them all and giving meaning behind the design. As a result of looking at this research and deciding what we really wanted the final look to be like, we chose to make the layout really simple with a straightforward approach, however with the use of different backgrounds, colour and also fonts we were able to make it pretty interesting as a visual product. The layout appears to look quite busy at first as it uses a lot on

one page with the image, background and another image clipping mask overlapping the main image on the front of the recipe card. This may at first look quite busy and possibly complicated, however we have still used a simple format with the addition of overlapping a macro image over the main. This style of card means that it isn’t too confusing to the eye which is something a lot of people dislike, on the the hand it also doesn’t look too plain or boring for the audience. I think that from looking at other recipe card whilst doing some research we had found that many of the designs aren’t very similar to ours as we have made it a little different with the backgrounds, linking with the countries where the food originated and also we have used overlapping of the images to also make it stand out from the rest.

This shows the ratio between image and text as we used two images and only a small amount of text for the front of each card as this is a way of not distracting any attention from the main focus of the food. We only used the main body of text on the back as this is seen as the more informative side of the card as this is where you will find the method and ingredients.

Visual Language

After carrying out our own research and looking at already existing products out there we really loved the look of the images as they were really professional looking and allowed the audience to see the food in full detail. We had also looked at recipe cards in class that had used stock images which didn’t appeal to us as much, after considering what we should do we came to the decision that using our own original images would be best as this is a way to design it as we want and to present the food in a way that we think looks best and what we believe would most appeal to our audience. Our recipe cards show three different images of the food as we used a fairly zoomed out shot of the food to allow the audience to see what it all looks like, we then did a macro shot which allows them to see the food in much more detail and only focuses on one part of the food. The last shot was used on the back of the cards and showed a fairly zoomed in shot which allowed you to see most of the food whilst showing the full detail of the food. Taking our own images allowed us to do this which was essential for our plan of our design as we wanted to show different angles of the food, however this couldn’t be done if we were using stock images as we probably wouldn’t be able to find lots of different angles of the food. This also meant that we didn’t have to worry about potential legal issues that can occur if stock images are used. We tried to make the use of colour a main subject on all our recipe cards as we wanted them to be bold and interesting, by using our own images it meant we could control the lighting of the image at the time it was taken and also adjust any problems to ensure it looked it’s best. The use of colour was essential in our recipe cards as it was key when linking colour to the country and making it obvious where the food was from. We wanted our images to be fairly colourful whilst still making sure that they don’t appear too saturated as many images can easily do, to achieve this we made sure that there was a limited amount of editing and on some we completely avoided editing all together as the images were fine as they were. In comparison to other existing products we feel that the majority of our images are as good as them, especially regarding the macro shots as this gives it a professional look and ensures that the food is seen in full detail. However some of the presentation of the food hadn’t turned out as well as anticipated, resulting in the images not looking as well or professional. From seeing the effects of using original images and the risks in making the food and taking the images yourself we did find that if we were to repeat this project we would have definitely used stock images as this helps with time management as it doesn’t take as long due to you not having to wait for the images to be ready and it also helps with the design of the cards as they would all look professional instead of only some looking better than others as ours is now. We didn’t use any other style of image to add to the design such as blobs and stars as other graphics to add to the card as we felt that this was unnecessary and may make the card look a little too busy

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.)

and clustered as we already used three images and a fairly busy background on each card. However we did use another method of adding an image to our cards as we had originally planned to add some sort of die-cut to our cards as this would make it stand out and add detail the the cards. When this hadn’t worked out we had changed idea to creating a clipping mask with a symbol that represents each country with the macro shot of the food. This method worked really well on the cards as each country had a symbol that could show the image of the food in full detail and this added to the page and helped add an interesting spin to our cards as without this method they may have appeared a little too simplistic for the audience and not given much of an eye catching overall look. We wanted the images to be the main focus of our design for the cards as after doing research we had found that the majority of people had said that images were the main thing that would attract them to a recipe card. From this we had decided that images would be a priority for our cards. We had also seen that on already existing products many had used images as there focus also as they had used a very large image for the front of the card with only the heading as the other bit of text. After seeing this we had decided that this was definitely the direction we had wanted to go in as this had appealed to us much more than others, however we added the clipping mask to make it a little different from the rest and the enable our cards to stand out from the rest. The only disadvantage we had found from using the clipping mask method for our images was that we had sometimes struggled to find a symbol that could be easily recognised and understood as to what it actually was which became quite a struggle at times. However this could be easily resolved as if we were to do this again we found it would have been easier to do more research in to the countries and find which had the most recognisable symbols, and pick the countries after seeing which would be easiest.

As shown here we have shown similarities with the existing recipe cards as we have both aimed to have the image as the main focus and made it the biggest thing on the page to ensure that this is the first thing seen by the audience. However on this particular card they haven't shown a macro shot of the food as well as the larger image.

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.)

For the final design of our recipe cars we wanted to ensure that they all linked and that some of the design had meaning behind it so that it all linked in with the different countries. We had chosen to use a colour scheme throughout that linked with the countries the food had originated from as we felt that this was another way of showing the country and representing it, and this also made the design much more structured as you can see this through all of the cards as each of them link with their own country. Although each of the cards follows a different colour scheme it still shows a structured style and format as it becomes obvious of the representation of the country on each card. Our main focus that we wanted to highlight and represent through the cards was the different countries on each one as this needed to be made obvious by use of the design. We also showed the country through the clipping mask of the image as we had picked a symbol that could be linked with each country and that could be recognised as a silhouette. Each symbol has a different meaning behind it and will mean something different to each country as after research we picked the symbols that can easily give off connotations that fit with the country, for example we used an eagle silhouette for America as this is something that is commonly associated with this country, and we also used the Taj Mahal silhouette for India. Using these symbols helps the audience to register where the food is from in a really interesting way and for those that aren’t all that obvious we have included an image of the flag also to make it slightly simpler. This ensures that the country is made obvious to the audience when they first see the front of the card as the symbols give off the connotations of the country. This is also the same with the colour scheme as if the audience see the colours green, red and white for example the connotations that may come from these colours could be ‘Italy’ as these colours are from the flag and are commonly associated with the country. By showing the different countries through use of colour and imagery on the front of the cards in particular can suggest to the audience straight away that the common theme running through the 8 cards is that they are each from different countries and each show that by the colours used. Our aim for the cards was to ensure that they all had a strong and obvious link within them as they need to follow a consistent design and they all need to symbolise each country accurately. When looking at products already on the market we found that there seemed to be a common similarity between each of them as many of them matched their colour scheme with the images of the food. For example we found that if they had red in the food they would match the colour red with the border of the card to show consistency within the cards. Another design technique we used was the font used on our cards

as we had used a handwriting style font which gave the look of it being written by someone instead of a basic font. The connotations that could be taken from this style of font could be things such as, easy, simple and homemade which makes the card a lot less ‘in your face’ and much more relaxed. This suggests simplicity in the food and the recipe as it shows someone has done it instead of it being overly structured and looking too computerised and set out. This font gives the front of the card a friendly approach instead of using something that may be seen as too harsh or brash on the front, however using the bold image still draws the attention from the audience. The background of each card also symbolises the country as we researched different patterns and designs that would be recognised as from each country. The patterns used on our backgrounds are all traditional designs from the country as we wanted to ensure that they were really well linked and could give the connotations of the countries. For example, for India we used paisley style pattern with intricate detailing as this is something that is commonly associated with India.

Here shows the clipping mask we used to show the macro images of the food as this is a way to show the food in more detail and also allows the audience to see the symbolic eagle on this particular card to link it with the country the cheesecake is from ‘America’. This makes the image and the card in general unique from the rest the other existing products. This idea is very different from other recipe cards already available.

The background also helps to symbolise the country the food is from as this shows a traditional Indian pattern that can be easily associated with that country, however we lowered the opacity of this to ensure it didn’t appear to confusing or busy.

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

We had previously wanted to aim our design at students, however after considering the money involved with purchasing the different ingredients and the time and effort it can take to prepare some of the meals we have included in the recipe cards we then chose to aim it at 30+. This ensures that they most likely have a job and are able to use their expenses on more food instead of other things, they may also have a bigger interest in cooking at this age as more people at this age are likely to have a family. The age range we have chosen doesn’t close off a large proportion of people as this is a general estimate that we have decided upon that includes the age we believe people would be interested in cooking. As we have designed the recipe cards using lots of different foods from different countries we have decided that our recipe cards are best suited to people that want to try new foods and aren’t afraid of testing out the cuisine of different countries as our recipe’s are specialised for lots of different tastes and likes that can appeal to many different people. Our recipe cards can appeal to a very wide range of people due to the amount of different foods on offer and due to the eight different countries to choose from, meaning it doesn’t limit the amount of people that could potentially like this food at all and actually opens the audience up to trying new things. All of the foods are classic dishes from the countries, meaning the audience doesn’t have to be too adventurous when eating foods as this could potentially put people off, however we wanted to make classic dishes that many people would know of. The stereotype is that women tend to cook more than men, however we didn’t want to stick to this stereotype, therefore we haven’t designed our recipe cards in a way that specifies any gender and we have kept it very unisex in the style and design of it. This broadens our audience and offers a larger group of people that it can appeal to instead of closing a large section of people off, just by the way we have designed it. There is no specified geodemographic for our recipe cards as we are offering eight different styles of food and cooking from eight countries, this just helps to offer our recipe cards to a much larger audience. Due to some of the foods being slightly expensive in some cases and also due to the amount you actually need to purchase for the recipe’s we have decided to aim the cards at middle class people that are in the A,B and C1 social grades as this just means they may have a little more disposable income to spend on things such as food. This is also essential as some of the ingredients may not be used again as they are very specified to that recipe or to that culture’s style of food. As a result of this some of the ingredients can be wasted which obviously wouldn’t be ideal for someone like a student who wishes to save their food and money. For our style of recipe card, our audience will have to be quite interested in food and experimenting with new tastes and also may have to be quite cultural and have an interest in the different cultures and the foods that they eat as our recipe cards shows the classic vegetarian dishes that are

available from these different countries. Or they could possibly have an interest in travelling and travel a lot themselves as this would mean they are used to the different foods from around the world and would most likely be appealed to our style of recipe cards and enjoy the food on offer to them. We have used a mix of both main meals and desserts, this just means that the audience may have to enjoy both instead of strongly disliking one as this would mean cancelling out half of the recipe’s available to cook. Overall our audience has to be open to trying new foods and have a passion or interest in the different cultures, with a disposable income that they are happy to spend on foods and ingredients for our recipe’s. There is no specified gender and the recipe cards are open to both families or any other status as we have tried not to specify too much due to it closing off a large proportion of people. We have included little tips to help guide and inform the audience and also use of images which may make it slightly more interesting for families, however they are open to many other people also.

Sticking to colours such as yellow which is said to be a neutral colour shows the unisex style of the recipe cards and doesn’t really close off male or female audience’s. You can also immediately see the cultural side of the recipe cards, for example the use of the symbolic dragon to represent China, the Chinese flag at the top of the page and also the traditional Chinese print used as the background of the card. These things can show the audience straight away that the recipe cards are sticking to a theme and are influenced by the different countries.

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.

We have constructed our cards in a way that can perfectly fit with our audience as we want to ensure that it is made obvious that we haven’t restricted the range of our potential audience and the only major restrictions would be concerning the social grade as they may have to have some disposable income to afford all of the ingredients and also the age may be another limitation for our audience. However we have ensured that our design is well suited to our audience as we haven’t picked a specific colour scheme that is used on all of the cards. Instead we have picked a certain structure in the way that we picked the colours for each card, for example, we decided to make the heading of ‘ingredients’ and ‘method’ in the colours to match the country the food was from and we also matched the colour of the banner at the bottom of the page with the colour of the food. This gives the recipe cards a structured feel, yet it each card is still individual to each of the foods which makes them stand out and is part of the appeal. The colour used in the cards in essential in attracting our audience as this is suited to people aged 30+ meaning they could have children which are generally more attracted to brighter colours, this means that it appeals much more to our audience and also pairing the colour with the country’s flag colour can appeal to the adults as they can see that there is a structured format and this also shows more professionalism. We wanted the theme of different cultures to be very obvious as this is key in our design, to do this we ensured that we used traditional patterns for the backgrounds that help represent the country paired with the clipping mask of the symbol that links with the country. Showing that the cultures are a significant part of the design ensures that we can appeal the correct audience as this can help attract the people that are actually really interested in learning more about cultures and the food they eat and also people that love to travel as this is their way of eating the foods they have eaten when travelling potentially. We haven’t put too much detail in the description of the method to ensure that this doesn’t become to complicated when reading, this can help to appeal to our audience as although they may have a lot more time than say a student or a young person starting out in a career, they still might not want to be spending too much time trying to understand the different stages of the method. Therefore we felt that cutting some of the information out of the method was the best thing to do as some stages seemed very unnecessary and we had simplified some stages also. This can also help if our recipe cards are being used by a family as if children are helping, they cannot be expected to understand an extremely detailed description, so this worked well in general for our audience. After experimenting with several different fonts we found that putting our main heading in a simple and easy to read font that wasn’t too bold or complicated was best and we went for a handwritten style as this seemed to fit well with all of the recipe cards. This font can also feel more family oriented and homely which fits well with our audience. We also used

Matching the colours of the flag with the headings on this page helps to link it all together and highlights the main theme of our recipe cards being revolved around the different countries the food is from.

We also matched the green of the limes in the image to the colour of the banner which helps to brighten and also show consistency and structure within the cards.

We chose to use a background that could symbolise the country well and show the representation of culture across the cards. For example for America we chose to do a checkered/plaid print as the connotations from this can be an American diner.

The tips we added at the bottom of each card show the family oriented style of the cards as this makes it a little easier to understand and helps guide the audience through the recipe.

The flag helps to highlight the country the food is from and reminds us of the culture theme running through the cards.

The use of the clipping mask shows a symbol that represents the country, for example we used an eagle for America as it is commonly associated with this animal.

The little graphics at the bottom of the front of the card to as we used a clock and a person to show the amount of people that the food served and also how long the food took to cook. This makes the card a little more fun and personalised. We liked this idea as we had seen it on already existing recipe cards and found that it made it look a little bit different and made it stand out from the rest. This can fit really well with our audience as if families are using the recipe cards it fits better with them as it makes it slightly more child friendly instead of adding even more text to the cards.

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?)

We had looked at several different recipe cards whilst designing our own as we wanted to gain inspiration and fresh ideas, yet make them our own. From doing this we learnt what we wanted and found really interesting and appealing for a recipe card, and we also found what we disliked about some of the cards which helped us to avoid certain styles of design. We had first seen cards from the vegetarian society as this was who we were designing ours for, so in order to design we felt that we should see what there own cards look like that are already existing. After looking on here it was clear that the format through all of their cards was very similar and followed a strict structure as all the colours matched and linked in different ways and all of the ratio between text and image were the same. For example they always ensured that the colours in the food were matched with the banner and any other colour used on the page, they also made sure that the image was always much larger than the text and heading on the front of the card. The ratio used on the front was something we really liked and chose to use on our own design as it ensured that the image was the main focus and was something that everyone would see, image was also seen as the most chosen in our questionnaire when asked what do people look for in recipe cards. However we disliked the lack of images used on the back of the recipe cards as they only filled this side with text making it look a little plain and slightly boring in our opinion. This was something we knew that we would personally change in our own design as we later ensured that we used an image on the back at all to brighten this side up and help to make it stand out. We also looked at designs from Cordon Vert and took some of our design influences from them also. It appeared that the majority of their designs were also very structured and actually appeared to be very similar to the vegetarian society recipe cards. However these cards showed better images in our opinion as we much preferred the style of putting one larger image on the front with little text and adding a second image on the back. We slightly changed this idea as they had only included one extra image, that being the macro on the back. However we decided to include the macro close up shot on the front and a third image that showed a slightly more zoomed in image in comparison to the main image on the front. This gives our recipe card a little bit of a difference and also makes it more appealing to look at that is suited to our audience as we had found that many people wanted to see more images to actually see what they are going to be making. Looking at the different recipe cards really influenced the final look of our recipe cards as it had helped us to avoid some looks that we hadn’t liked as much and helped us to pick some of the major looks for our design including the ratio of text and having the majority of text at the back also as this is something we preferred much more than others. We feel that the influences we took from some of the recipe cards have greatly improved the look of our recipe cards as the audience can now see the image as their main focus and also the text isn’t too much on the front as we stuck to writing all the main body of text on the back. These influences paired with our own original ideas meant that we changed our design quite a lot until we were

Completely happy with the final look of our design. This became quite time consuming, however looking at the other existing recipe cards sped this process up drastically as without them we wouldn’t have been able to see the disadvantages and advantages of certain styles of design.

We had looked at many designs similar to these recipe cards and found that a lot of them follow the same kind of format and style as many of them chose to put a really large image of the food on the front and to keep the text to a minimum which is something we really liked about the design.

However none of the designs we personally looked at showed a macro image actually on the front of the cards which we slightly disliked and found impractical as it doesn’t allow the audience to see the food in a lot of detail in a close up shot from looking at the front of the card.

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

From looking at lots of other existing recipe cards to influence our own design we found that stereotypically many vegetarian products use a fairly strict colour scheme using colours such as green and red frequently through their designs, this can be a symbolisation of fruit and vegetables through the use of colour. These colours are very commonly used in the colour scheme of vegetarian products, therefore we did want to include them but this didn’t become a key thing for us as we wanted to stick to using colours from the flags of the different countries in our own product. Our final product shows similarities with this colour scheme in the sense that in some of our designs we included these type of colours in order to link it with the colours used in the food, however it does contrast slightly as this is a main aspect of the vegetarian products, however we only did this as it happened to link well and helped it to look consistent. It also became quite obvious that the layout of the vegetarian products were all fairly similar in the layout of the cards as they seemed to all be quite strict in the format and everything looked very organised and well presented which actually showed quite a lot of contrast in comparison to the final look of our product. Our final design looks very different from the usual look of the vegetarian products existing now as ours looked a little more adventurous and different in my opinion. We didn’t want ours to look overly structured and set up as this comes across as a little too formal and impersonal which is something we didn’t like from looking at the other cards. We decided to choose a more relaxed look for our design with overlapping images and a slightly more ‘fun’ font instead of the typical fonts used that we had seen as again this also looked quite plain and a little too formal for the style that we wanted. The fonts used on the majority of the vegetarian products we had seen had used a specific font in all their designs which was a typical look for the text, however this contrasts quite a lot with our own design as we had decided upon a font that would look a little more interesting and unique to add a little difference in comparison to others. However we had chosen a similar font for the main body of text as we found this was much easier to read than the others we had thought of using originally. In comparison the the vegetarian products we had chosen to use this simpler font for our method and ingredients instead of using this for all of our text as we thought that this would look too plain and slightly boring as there wouldn’t be any difference shown. But the vegetarian products had actually decided to use this font for their heading as well as all of their other text which is something we didn’t particularly like as this didn’t help it stand out from the rest and we had wanted our heading to be bold and different. We ensured that all of the measurements were written in abbreviations instead of writing it out which is very common in general for recipes and showed similarity between ours and the existing vegetarian products. Overall it was obvious that the colour scheme was the main design aesthetic that was very commonly used in vegetarian products and it was something that we weren’t particularly interested in using on our own, showing contrast between them.

This shows the kind of design a typical vegetarian product would be like as they tend to use their colour scheme as a key aspect of their product and highlight it through use of matching colours with the food and using it in other aspects of their product. For example on this design they have chosen to use the colour green as their main colour, they have clearly taken this from the colour of the food, and even gone as far as to match it to the herbs on top of the soup shown in the image. This shows the level of precision and structure they use in their products. This colour creates the connotations of vegetables, health and nature which links it back to the healthy lifestyle of being a vegetarian. Also shown on this, the text for both the heading and the main body of text is the same or extremely similar in appearance which keeps consistency throughout the cards, however this does make it look a little plain and doesn’t help the heading stand out in any way. The images on this particular card show both the main image of the food and also a macro shot, showing the food in more detail which we actually really liked and found that this is fairly common on vegetarian products as they present the food in a really attractive way to ensure that the food looks really appetizing for their audience. Also if they achieve a really nice presentation of the product it can help to entice people that aren’t even vegetarians and maybe just want to try it out.

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

At first look of our initial plans and test card in comparison to our now finished recipe card there is a lot of very obvious changes that we have made as we found that our first plan may not have worked if it were to actually be printed meaning we had to change quite a lot f things about it. We had first planned to have our layout as the heading laying vertically down the side of the page, the main image just next to this and also an overlapping of the macro image. Around the edge of the page was going to show the die cut method of shapes that symbolise each of the countries we were writing about. For example, on the British recipe card we were going to have die cut shapes of busses, teacups, teapots and a cityscape silhouette. Each of these shapes would change to fit the country the food was from, however we found that this wouldn’t be possible in to our production as the shapes were too small and wouldn’t actually appear how we have pictured. This had been our first main change as we then had to come up with another way to design our card to make it look a little different and both had to agree on this decision. We had the decided to take the macro image and use it as a clipping mask under one of the symbols we had first chosen for the die cut. This actually worked really well and appeared much better than our original plan. Our next change was moving the heading from the vertical position it had taken to being horizontal across the top as we felt this worked better with the new look of our cards and actually helped to make it stand out. We managed to keep our initial idea of keeping the main image really big on the front page and then having the macro image overlapping which definitely reflects our first test card as this was something that seemed to work really well, and also fitted in with the brief and the answers from the interviews we had conducted as the majority of people as chose images as the thing they look for in a recipe card. For the back of the card we hadn’t made too many changes and only changed the layout, whilst still keeping the ideas we had first chosen. We had first planned to put the image of the food at the top horizontally across the page with the method and ingredients under this. However we changed this as we then adjusted the image to sit at the top left hand corner vertically standing, with the ingredients along side this and the method underneath. The layout seemed to work better than our original look and we had found that this would also help with the quality of the image as if it was to be horizontal it may have meant stretching the image much more to fit within that shape. The font for our main heading on the front continued to stay the same as we had first planned as we felt this looked best and worked really well for our target audience as it gave it a fairly relaxed feel whilst still looking structured and well presented. On the other hand we did have to change our font for the main body of text on the back as this seemed to be a little harder to read against the patterned backgrounds, resulting in us changing it to something really simple and commonly used in recipe cards after looking at the other existing recipe cards.

For the backgrounds we had first planned to keep them very plain and just leave it white as we were going to be adding other aspects of colour and didn’t want the background to overpower any of the other main focuses of the cards. However after seeing what this would look like on the test card, we then decided that this did actually come across as a little too boring and didn’t stand out or grab the attention of our potential audience meaning that we also had to change this to fit better. We decided to change the background to a traditional pattern that links with the country and can easily be recognised as being from there. This actually worked really well and helped to tie the ‘culture’ theme together and highlighted this main focus of the cards, we then lowered the opacity of each of the patterns in order to draw less attention to the pattern and more attention to the images and text. Overall we have made lots of changes in comparison to our initial ideas due to many different reasons including layout problems and also in order to make a realistic design that could actually be printed and used for recipe cards. We kept some of our main ideas the same as we ensured that the use of three images were used and that the font for the heading remained the same.

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

We ensured that throughout the whole production stage we were fitting our designs with the brief given to us, as this was essential and creating a design that could realistically be used. We were told in the brief about the small essentials that were needed to be included in our recipe card design, one of them being to include a banner that showed the vegetarian society logo. This was something we hadn’t initially planned to include in our test card, by error as we hadn’t realised this had been one of the requests, however when we had re designed some of our card we made sure to include this feature and made the banner one of the key aspects in linking the colour scheme together as we had decided to make the banner match the colours that were used in the food in the image. They had also suggested plans regarding the layout as they wanted to have the image and heading on the front of the card and the method and list of ingredients on the back, this was something that we had already wanted to do meaning this fit perfectly with our own initial ideas. As we had already planned to do this we also added the third of our images to the back and found that this worked really well as the front was used to grab the attention of the audience and the back was to inform them of how to make the food and what they would need. Another of the requests made by the brief was to use abbreviations of the measurements used and also make sure that the measurements don’t include things such as ‘cups’. They also wanted us to ensure that obviously all of the food was completely suitable for vegetarians and to ensure that all the food was available in the UK and to convert anything that cannot be found in the UK. This was something we definitely stuck to as we had used only vegetarian recipes instead of trying to convert the recipes to make it suitable, we also changed any of the measurements that weren’t supposed to be included, however we found that in the recipe’s we had chosen to use they hadn’t actually used any cup measurements. As we had made the food ourselves and had to buy the ingredients, this was our way to ensure that all of the ingredients were available to purchase from big chain supermarkets, meaning that it is easy to get hold of for our audience. The brief also suggested that some of the food could be suitable for vegans also, however this was not essential for the project. This was something that we didn’t stick to as we found that in particularly the dessert recipe’s it was really hard to try and find ingredients that fit within the vegan food guidelines. As this was not essential we did not find this to be a major problem and continued to only check for vegetarian recipe’s. They also asked to see a clear theme across all of the cards which actually was quite simple with our idea and design as we wanted to show the theme of different cultures across the cards. We did this using the symbols to represent each country, use of the flag and also traditional patterns from each country as the backgrounds. This request became fairly easily for our design as we had already planned to make the different countries stand out and it also becomes very obvious on our cards as to what the theme is and that there is a running theme through the eight cards. Another of the set guidelines given on the brief was that they wanted to see professional photographs used for the food, this was achieved by us as they didn’t specify if they wanted us to take them or if you used stock images. However we did take our own and found that for the majority of the images it had worked fairly well, especially on the macro

Images as these show lots of detail of the food and make it look very well presented and professional looking which is something the brief had wanted. However some of our images hadn’t worked as well and didn’t give the same effect as the presentation was lacking, resulting in the appearance of the dish in the images didn’t look as professional. This could mean that the quality of the cards suffer as a result of this and also suggests that this doesn’t fit perfectly with the briefs requests. Lastly they had requested some of the things that we included, including cooking time and the amount of people that it can serve, this was something we had originally planned to do, therefore matching with the brief. We had also made this task our own and made it look a little different from just using text to explain this as we used little images of clocks and people to show the time taken and amount of people each dish can serve.

Like this one, some of the images looked very professional and gave a well presented look for the cards, however some of the images were lacking in presentation and appeal.

Abbreviations like this were used continuously throughout.

Here as you can see we used a banner like this on all of our cards, all in different colours to match the colours used in the food. This was included in the brief and we also included the logo of vegetarian society. Cooking time and amount the food serves were also included in this banner which also sticks to the instructions of the brief.

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

Peer feedback really helped when going in to production as it meant that I had lots of new ideas and was also able to correct any mistakes or adjust and improve things that needed it. It allowed me to get another perspective instead of just my own, meaning I was able to see my ideas through someone else’s eyes and get their opinions al well. For example when explaining my ideas I hadn’t given as much detail as I could have given as some of the feedback had been to suggest what type of images I would be using and this helped my develop on my ideas for the images, what they would look like and where they would be placed on the card as this is a key aspect of my cards. Getting this feedback enabled me to receive some critical feedback and suggestions on how to improve my design overall, but also gave me some really positive feedback and opinions, which helped me develop on these particularly good ideas and make them even better. For example, I had been told that the concept of creating a unisex card was a really good idea as it means that I won’t be limiting the range of the audience it can appeal to. This then went on to be one of the main features of our final design as we wanted to include a really wide range of people and didn’t feel that it was necessary to focus on one gender as there is such a wide range of food that our recipe cards offer to the audience. Without the feedback from my peers, I feel that I possibly wouldn’t have been able to develop on my ideas as much and it also may have meant that a lot of time would have been wasted as I wouldn’t have taken longer in production possibly testing some of the things that don’t work so well. Receiving the feedback meant that someone else could see the little faults in my ideas that I possibly couldn’t see, this just meant that it made it much easier for me when it came to production as I had already eliminated some of the initial ideas I had come up with. The feedback also helps when getting positive responses as without getting these I may not have been as confident on those ideas, meaning I might not have decided to include them. I think that overall receiving the peer feedback was really helpful to me personally as I felt that it helped me to finalise my designs and get rid of the ones that didn’t work as well. As well as getting peer feedback from our designs, we were also able to get feedback from the tutors as we were first told that the die cut method wouldn’t work if we were being realistic about the design and if we were actually going to be printing it as this would be far too much work and it also may not give the effect that we want for the design. We were also informed that the font for the main body of text on the back of our cards appeared to be slightly plain and could potentially be seen as quite boring, after we had been informed of this we had decided to change this font to a slightly more interesting look as the font then looked handwritten. This couldn’t actually be seen very well against the complex patterned background we were using as it was too thin to see in great detail meaning we had to change it once more. We agreed after this to use a font that was fairly plain, could be seen easily and wasn’t too boring as we then opted for something that was already on the computer

instead of actually downloading any others from ‘dafont.com’. This feedback really helped us as we were able to receive a tutor’s perspective which was really useful as it meant we were getting more opinions on our designs and were able to change any of the errors we had made and adjust problems that may occur from the way we had designed it. Although the responses of feedback did mean changing a lot about our design it was still found very useful as it helped us to create a design that fit with the brief and also something that fit in with our initial ideas and designs so it was still unique and different from the rest. After receiving this research we have been able to create a design that both we like and also fits with the brief and includes all of the specific details of it.

Finished productDiscuss the strengths and weaknesses of your final product regarding its technical 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 of tools/effects used. Reference existing products.

The technical qualities in our work include the photography aspect and how we did this as we had chosen to take the images ourselves instead of using stock images as a substitute. We also used Photoshop as one of the main tools for this project as this was a really useful device to use to help us to design and adjust our images and our actual card. The strengths of our photography were that some of the images were really successful in their final look and showed the food in a really detailed way. The photographs also made our final recipe cards look much more professional, which is something that the vegetarian society brief had specified as a main aspect of the cards that they wanted to see. We really liked the final look of the majority of our images as the photography in our design was key and was something that was included on both the front and back of the card, meaning it had to look really good, appetising and appealing for our audience. However we did actually have some problems with the photography as due to us making the food ourselves, some of the food hadn’t turned out as we had hoped, meaning the presentation was lacking and it didn’t turn out as it should have done. This became a major weakness with the photography as it meant that some of the images suffered as a result of the presentation and appearance of some of the dishes. This is something we would definitely change if we were to repeat the project as it meant that the final product didn’t appear as well as we had wanted it to. We had also edited some of the photographs which went very well in some cases as it meant we could tidy up any extra crumbs or anything that needed neatening up. This was a definite strength with regards to the technical side to the photography as it meant that the mistakes made with the food could be corrected for some of them. For example on the pictures showing the Victoria sponge there were lots of crumbs and the slice of cake we had cut hadn’t been cut in a straight line, editing the images with the help of Photoshop meant that we could straighten up the line of the cake and also get rid of the crumbs. When using Photoshop for the actual creation of the recipe card, we found that this was a great strength as this allowed up to easily correct any mistakes and easily edit our design quickly. When editing pictures Photoshop was really useful and improved the look of our images and the recipe card dramatically as we could use the clone tool to erase any of the extra bits in the images that we wanted to be removed. We

also managed to change the colourings of some of the images, this was a really helpful tool as some of our mages had a reddish tint on them which ruined the effect of the photographs. However Photoshop allows you to adjust the colours of the images, which enables us to make the image have a much more natural colouring and eliminate the redness of the image. Another main thing that Photoshop had allowed us to do with our design was the clipping mask of the macro image of the food and the symbolic shape that represents the country. This was a main aspect of our design as this was a way of showing the close up shot of the image and also showing the cultural side to the cards which is the main theme running through all of our eight cards and is crucial to sticking to the brief also. There were a limited amount of weaknesses when it came to using Photoshop as it was a really useful tool and helped us to design our cards in a professional way. The only weakness of using this would be possibly that we weren’t able to copy and paste some of the things onto the card so that they were in exactly the same place, which became quite a problem for us. This became quite a problem when trying to ensure that all of the cards were exactly identical as in Photoshop you have to duplicate an item and place it where you want instead of copying and pasting the item and having it be placed in the exact place it is on the other card. This was the main disadvantage about using this tool as it meant we had to measure it all up ourselves, which could potentially mean that some of the items aren’t in the exact same place.

Using the symbol and the clipping mask worked really well and helps the audience to identify with the country it is representing

The small graphics on the banner had to be duplicated and placed in the same place, meaning some faults may have been made and not all may be in the exact same place.

We had edited this image f the cake as there had been lots of crumbs and the cake wasn’t straight which we corrected using tools on Photoshop.

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. You can reference existing products here and compare your work to them.

During the course of production the aesthetical design changed numerous times as we had to adjust certain things and eliminate some of our ideas to fit within the guidelines of the brief and also to achieve the look that we personally felt was best. The strengths of this would be the colour scheme as we felt that this had worked really well and this was also something that didn’t change the whole time we were in production as we had known that we wanted our design to link really well together in order to make it look really well presented and professional. In comparison to existing work, our colour scheme shows some similarities as we have used colours such as green and red and these colours were very common when looking at other people’s work. We have also shown similarities in the way that the colours all link in well with each other and all have reasoning behind that particular colour choice, for example we saw a lot of matching the colour of the banner with the colour of the food in the existing products which is something we liked and used in our own product. Another of the strength’s would be the layout of the cards as we had changed this a few times before finally choosing our final designs layout, our final layout is quite simple and easy to understand as we definitely didn’t want the final look to be too structured and we also didn’t want it to look too busy as this can be very easily done if too much is added to the page. From looking at existing products we had found that a lot of the layouts appeared to be quite boring and very simple with not many interesting aspects to it, which is definitely something that we wanted to avoid, without making it look too overdone and having too much things to look at on one page. Some of the weaknesses would be the actual colourings of some of the banners as I really liked the concept of linking the colours with each other as I thought this worked really well. However on our own recipe cards, some of the food was hard to match with a colour that would look really nice on the banner as well, for example, for the truffles we didn’t want to make the banner brown as we felt this may look a little boring and it definitely wouldn’t grab attention as it isn’t a bright or bold colour to use. This meant that instead of using this colour that would have matched the food, we used a colour that we felt went best with the colourings of the background meaning that this idea is no longer consistent across each of the cards. Another weakness would be the clipping mask, as although on some of them it

had worked really well and given a really nice effect that had made it really easy for the audience to identify which country we were symbolising, on some of the cards this idea hadn’t worked out as well. A small amount of the cards show a symbol that is actually really hard to be recognised as to what it actually is as the shape isn’t as defined or the shape isn’t as well known as to link with that country. If we were to repeat this project we would come up with an alternative idea, or we could try and find another way of defining the shapes, or even possibly do a little more research and find out what exactly could be easily recognised for each of the countries. Overall we found that the final look of our cards works quite well, with a few minor faults such as the symbols on the clipping mask not working out as well as we would of liked, however we have managed to stick within the guidelines of the brief and also included ideas that aren’t on any of the other existing products as we have seen.

The banner for this card was actually supposed to be a brown colour to match the truffles on the image, however we felt that this would look a little too dull and we wanted something much lighter and brighter. Instead of matching it with the food we actually matched the colour with the background meaning that the consistency between the cards was no longer the same.

This was one of the clipping masks that hadn’t worked out as well as we had hoped as we had wanted them to be really obvious as to what they were in order to show the audience what country the dish is from. We also struggled to find the different symbols for each country as not every place had a specific sign that could easily show which country it was. For example for France we couldn’t find an iconic symbol that would work well as a silhouette, so we resulted in using the outline of the country, which didn’t work as well as others and definitely wasn’t obvious as to what I actually is.

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

From this project I feel I have gained many skills as this had told me much more abut designing and also the advantages and disadvantages of using certain things. Taking our own photographs has meant that we had to edit the images also, which has actually taught me a lot about the different tools available on Photoshop as it allowed us to get rid of certain errors in the images and faults that we didn’t like, we also were able to brighten and adjust the lighting in the images which made the appearance of them improve instantly. I had learnt how to use the ‘clone stamp’ tool as this is something we used a lot to improve the look of our images, this was a way of removing any extra parts of the image that you didn’t want, for example we used it to get rid of crumbs that had dropped on the the plate from the cake as this made the image look much more professional and precise that it had done previously. Overall my skills on Photoshop have increased much more over the course of doing this project as it has helped me to design much better and also make everything really precise as the guidelines on the brief had been clear on them wanting all the cards layout to be identical. This meant that I had to learn to be much more patient when it comes to designing and being much more accurate in how I do things as we had to actually use the rulers on Photoshop to ensure that everything was in the right place. My designing and creative skills have also improved slightly as this project meant that we had to think of lots of new and interesting ideas that could be used, whilst still sticking within the guidelines given making it quite hard to try and design something appropriate. This could definitely help in future practice as being creative is essential in the media industry which is something I can definitely apply, precision and accuracy being equally important, especially when designing which are also things that have improved for me over this production stage. Knowing the extra tools that are available on Photoshop can also be really useful in the future as I will definitely be using this programme again, so this is actually really helpful as I have gained much more knowledge on the different things I can use when editing images and also designing. Lastly I think that I have become a little better at actually gaining research as we had to actually go out and find people to interview, post our questionnaires online and also due to the theme we had picked we had to look in to the different culture and find out what kind of things can represent each country.

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 produced work and compare your products to them)

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?)

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

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Working to a brief

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

Legal:

Regulatory:

Financial:

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?)

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

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

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