Saturday, April 5, 2008

I can almost see it...

... if only it weren't for those darn product tags, for which I can't seem to find the brain power. Hopefully I will be smarter tomorrow!











This studio was photographed (with permission) at the Yoga Center of Minneapolis.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Product Design Progress

This is the last week I'll be spending time with this assignment. Class critique and final, mounted designs are due next Tuesday. Hopefully I'll be able to post my progress a couple more times this week because I have a lot of work ahead of me! Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

This past weekend I made some progress with putting my designs in context to yoga practice and retail display. My retail display contains two of my three major pieces for the series: the product tag and the display poster. The product tags (3 layouts for one specific pose/color to be developed this week) will contain the majority of my typographic design (health benefits, pose tips and, of course, pose name) and will be mounted on one board together. The display poster is important to show my pose illustration quality. I'm not sure if I should print this piece to scale or full size (24"x36" like my original yoga poster), but this piece may also be mounted on its own board. The contextual retail display (with final tag and poster designs applied) will also be mounted on its own board.

My yoga mat design is the third major piece of this series, though it is possibly the most important. This is, after all, where my ideas for this assignment began. I will be focusing on the same pose that I develop for my product tags (Fire Log Pose might be the best pose to work with) to create a more artistic and interesting mat design. In the illustrations to the left, I've laid the texture of a yoga mat under each design in order to further influence the design. I'm not sure if this is necessary or if it detracts from the design. Ultimately, the graphic I work with will be mounted on it's own board.

My last board will include my final mat design applied to a contextual image (as seen to the left) and perhaps my three other mats. I don't know if I'll develop them further, but perhaps they're necessary to show the overall grid system of my mat designs.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Yoga Series: Mat Development

I've decided on four poses to develop yoga mats and product signs for:

Here are the four yoga mats in progress:

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Client Promotion: Final Draft

Natalie, Andy and I submitted a rough draft (March 13th version) to Theresa Nelson for her comments and mid-project critique. Today, we addressed all of her concerns and created our final draft.



Here is a photo of Natalie and Andy happily preparing our mat boards for mounting the final design:


On Thursday, the three projects that the class created will be formally presented to Theresa for further critique and possible use by the Midtown Greenway Coalition.

Progress with Client Promotion

Below are the brochure drafts that Natalie, Andy and I have created for the Midtown Greenway Coalition so far, by date:

March 6, 2008



March 12, 2008



March 13, 2008


Saturday, March 22, 2008

Client Promotion: Midtown Greenway Coalition

Natalie Olbrantz, Andy Garcia and I are working together to create a promotional piece for a client, the Midtown Greenway Coalition of Minneapolis, Minnesota. We discussed what sort of piece we wanted to create. Whatever we decided, our piece had to be easily reproducible and maintain elements of the client's visual identity. Theresa Nelson, the Greenspace and Art Programs Manager, distributed newsletters and referred us to a website (under production) that we could look to for inspiration.


We started by sketching ideas for a brochure with four panels (full size of 8.5"x14") or a brochure that would fold out as a poster (possible full size of 8.5"x11").

The four-panel brochure sketch:



The poster brochure sketch:



Ultimately we decided to design the four-panel brochure as we thought it would be easier to work with the information that we received from Theresa.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Product Series Design (in progress)



This is what my product display would look like in a retail store. The white blocks are tags I need to develop. I also need to refine the pose on the display sign.