Root

Root have been commissioned to creative this brand identity which needed to convey their 'playful' and 'vibrant' nature of their work. I think this has been portrayed extremely well here, the bright colours used to convey the sense of being cheerful and imaginative.

Seeing this has given me scope for thought as to how we can use these type of imaginative ideas to convey Fedrigoni's coloured paper range. Root have used playdough to create these images but it has got me thinking about different coloured art materials and creative materials that we could use to create colourful imagery (powder paints, inks, dyes etc).

Fedrigoni Paper Samples

The samples have arrived! Liv ordered some Fedrigoni paper samples so that we could get a feel for the papers they supply and also look into how they distribute these samples to their clients.

The distribution of the paper is very simple; the packaging is plain (a simple white envelope), the sample holder has a feel of design about it but could most definitely be targeted more toward graphic designers. As for the paper sample itself, it has a horrid big white office sticker stuck on with either hand written or printed type. By just printing the type onto the paper in a simple typeface wold look a lot more effective than this. Undoubtedly the papers Fedrigoni supply are of a high quality, but I am not impressed by these samples and certainly do not feel inspired to use them within my work.

Leaflet Folds

Looking at different leaflet folds to help me create my own mocks ups in order understand each fold and where the information should be presented upon each.

Interactive Ads

I was watching iPlayer yesterday when the ads popped up and explained the new interactive ads that are now present whereby you can click in the top left hand corner to bring up information on the product being sold. Although this is not relevant to this product, as Fedrigoni want the deliverables to be paper based, it is an element of the new digital advertising era that I should take into consideration when designing........

Making Paper

I have been looking into paper making, as although Fedrigoni are a paper-making company I am thinking that I can strip down the process of paper making and the colouring process of paper making, take elements from this and then re-apply this to the paper. For example, capture the dying process via scanning, photography, illustration etc then printing the imagery back onto the paper. This paper can then be printed onto via traditional printing methods such as letterpress.

Colours

I have been looking into colours to see where we can get inspiration from which we can then creatively infuse into our designs for Fedrigoni....

FIELD Data Visualisations

  

The above section of the website highlights their inspiration and how they go about making their designs from this inspiration...

I am starting to think that the manipulation of colour and patterns within natural forms could make way for some innovative designs. 

Typeforce Exhibition Catalog

As the work we design for Fedrigoni's needs to have a strong focus on colour, I have found these Catalogs....

These publications have attention to detail in the smallest of places. There is a high importance of colour throughout these publications using the blue and orange as the focal colours. The opening of the second book is extremely unique; it creates a prestigious vibe about the publication, if the seal is broken it is a tampered/unusable product.

Proud Creative

Just looking at some interesting print work that I have found myself on after looking at GF Smith's work...

I like the colours used within this Generation Press collaboration. The bellyband colour matching the colour of the type on the poster works extremely well with the simple 2 colour palette.  

Seen as Fedrigoni deal with top fashion labels researching into lookbooks seemed quite fitting. I like the way when these two books come together the type becomes one and you can read what is said.

GF Smith

GF Smith is probably Fedrigoni's closest competition. They produce a range of specialist papers, as do Fedrigoni, working closely with graphics designers to promote their paper range. I think GF Smith have got their promotion of their products bang on! Each piece of design truly highlights the strength of each paper and utilities the unique qualities of each. This is exactly what I want to achieve with the Fedrigoni paper range; I want it to become a demonstration of how the papers can be used to their advantage.

Gf Smith's Colorplan is probably the equivalent to Fedrigoni's Imaginative Colours.

They even offer you the chance to buy the designs seen on the promotional material at the GF Smith Editions...

This has made me think that we need to focus on something with a strong focus of colour within it, then consider how this can be transferred onto our designs in order to promote Fedrigoni.

September Industry designed a lot of the work for them, this is what they had to say about it....

GF Smith — Print Test: Digital paper promotion
Over the course of the last 15 years digital technology has been quietly revolutionising the print industry. Yet the limited potential of early digital equipment to handle a variety of quality papers hasn’t always lived up to a paper specifiers expectations. Recent advances have seen new digital presses handle a huge variety of textures, colours, recycled papers and non-paper-based substrates.
GF Smith approached us to create a Digital paper promotion to showcase their expansive portfolio of digital papers, as well as, the technological potential of the latest digital presses.
Without the restrictions posed by plates on lithographic machines, one of the most exciting possibilities offered by digital print technology is ‘personalisation’ or ‘variable imaging’ — allowing for unique prints to be produced from an established document framework. With that in mind we worked with digital artists FIELD to create a series of 10,000 unique abstract digital illustrations, drawing inspiration from the micro details of paper fibres.
Generative processes combined code with pre-determined colour palettes. The vibrance, colour and shapes of the resulting illustrations were caught in the dynamic digital print medium. Each highly detailed image shows a glimpse of the digital sculpture – but it’s entirety remains hidden.
We worked closely with Pure Print to produce all the elements of the swatch. Each sleeve was composed using an RGB variable data publishing workflow; a fusion of a 10,000 record CSV database, our Indesign layout and FIELD’s stream of unique digital illustrations. To reproduce each illustration’s on-screen vibrancy and saturation, the files were directed to a high-performance Production Pro RIP which converted each illustration from sRGB to a press profiled CMYK colour space. The final sheets were printed on Naturalis Absolute White Smooth 330gsm in CMYK from two HP Indigo 7500 digital presses, printing a classic 175 screen.
Samples
We worked with four different digital print suppliers to produce the samples folder, each printer specialising in a different digital print technology and techniques.
This week’s edition of SI is going to be a week of exclusives and to start things off the right way (before Friday comes along – you know what that usually means) we have some brand new work designed by SEA for GF Smith one of Europe’s leading paper specialists.
Now some of you may have already laid eyes upon the visually striking Print Test project – a collaboration between SEA and FIELD. But many of you have probably never seen the GF Smith: Master Specifier – a project that has been in development for over a year – and it gives me great pleasure to share these high-res images with you all before this handsome swatch book lands on every designers desk around the country!

Fedrigoni

Just having a little look into the brand identity of Fedrigoni....

A green company with an environmental focus. The majority of their turnover is within the printing sector, so it may be best to have a print focus when designing for Fedrigoni.

More information about the company....

What we will be advertising...

'A new chromatic guide for Fedrigoni special papers, the handy tool for innovative ideas. 4 theme-based packs for 262 astonishing colour shades. It’s the right partner for designers and art directors to choose packaging and communication project papers: IMAGINATIVE COLOURS'

There is a strong sense of colour about these swatches (which there would be seen as it is a swatch based on 'Imaginative Colours') so I think we should strongly consider the colour element present within our designs. We should literally break down the title of these swatch books to produce a piece of design which showcases their papers in an 'imaginative' and 'colourful' manor. 

Now that we know what we are designing for, along with finding out the problem we need to solve, we can set about designing.

CD Packaging Shop Report

Today I took a trip to a CD shop in town to look at the types of unconventional packaging that were on sale as I don't want to produce a standard plastic cd case containing the cd. However, I do need to take  into consideration the time that I have available to me (one week) so the design I do choose to pursue which need to be made within this timeframe. Anyway, this is what I found....

Simple cardboard structure has two sides which both contain cds. The net designs looks fairly simple. 

A sleeve which opens out to reveal two cds both contained within a plastic casing. 

..having the cd enclosed within a 'book' style publication.

The cd encased in the front of another book like publication.

A hard metallic case (very sturdy and heavy). The title is de-bossed into the front of the cover design and the booklet held in place in the left hand side of the case. 

A hard plastic cover with embossed circles to create a texture. 

A very effective design where the white booklet inside can be interchanged for more vibrant colours which then enhance the design. I think I could easily use this net of this design to create my own version of this. I am thinking that instead of the cross shape (as it has no relevance to my work) I could either get the Ministry of Sound logo laser cut into it or use the semi-circle shape I have used within my fourth ident and title sequence. Rather than a booklet I could have 4 pieces of card with different coloured gradients on one side and then information displayed on the other so that once you open the case you are presented with information regarding what the cd contains. You will also be able to re-arrange these to change the coloured gradient which is being displayed on the outer and the information which is displayed on the inner. PLAN.