For my initial Idea's I researched different letterforms, different ways to represents the word 'Layer' and different letters. I experimented with different type, and different fonts, and this allowed me to decide what worked best and what didn't work quite as well. During my experiment stages I also decided that I would use a range of both uppercase and lowercase (this then became one of the main basis themes for my brief). I went on to use the uppercase and lowercase letterform of each font to create this layered contrast which looks really effective. 


Here is some initial research;

I used acetate and black marker pen to create my final hand drawn outcomes which look really effective when presented on card and layered to give the effect of 'transparencies within type'. The harsh colouring and simple tone of plain black looks really effective and exaggerates the type to the audience making it stand out as the focal point of the design. As a set or series, the 10 final outcomes work really well and I have used an 'off-white' card for the background as this gave the designs a more professional appearance, whereas using white card gave a yellow-tone to the acetate with a very 'cheap' appearance. Below I have photographed both versions on off-white and on white card to show the contrast between the two. 

I initially chose the letter 'F' as this had a similar format in both lowercase and uppercase and would work well together when layer, unlike letters like 'A' which have a very different appearance in uppercase and lowercase.

The white versions;

As a group we were really pleased with the final outcome of our design, they were informative, and appealed to the target audience that we were aiming the brief at. We decided to create 12 beer mat solutions, using Josh's initial idea as a basis. We used both internet research as well as carrying out our own surveys and questionnaires which formed the basis of our facts for the beer mat designs. The 12 final designs follow on as a continuous series which works really well for our initial target. Our next stage is to get them printed onto thick white mount board back-to-back to give a professional appearance of beer mats. 


Here are the final 12 beer mat solutions;

After joining another group for a crit session we got lots of feedback both positive and negative which enabled us to move on and develop our brief. Here was a Plan of Action, as a result of the crit session;

1. Discuss printing method with the guy in the digital print resource.
2. Complete designs, correct spelling mistakes, complete final 3 beer mats
3. Source references for facts on blogs
4. Plan presentation format and what we’re going to say
5. Get all beer mats printed and finished

Furthering our experimentation, and incorporating more image in with our initial type solutions we decided to create some more Idea's. Josh Douglas created a design, which fit the brief perfectly, and so we decided to take these initial proofs and expand and develop them. 


Here is the example of the initial idea; 

Moving on to the idea of promoting staying healthy while drinking to freshers, we have been looking at facts about alcohol, alcohol calorie content, and how much students drink. For some of the initial research, Andrea and I have created a short questionnaire which asks students about their drinking habits throughout freshers week. 


This is the questionnaire which is passed around 20 different freshers students:

Which of these alcoholic drinks gives you the worst hangovers?

Tequila Slammers ......

Sambuca         ......

Red Wine         ......

White Wine         ......

Beer         ......

What would you consider to be the best hangover cure?

........................................................................................................................

On an average night out during freshers, how much alcohol do you consume? 

(what you would drink and how much?)

........................................................................................................................

On average, how many nights a week would you go out during freshers?

..............................

When drinking, do you honestly know where your own limit is and when to stop?

.............................................................................................................................

How many calories do you think you consume from alcohol on a night out?

........................................................................................................................

Have you ever suffered from memory loss the morning after a night out of heavy drinking?

(Circle the answer)

Yes / No

After questioning the 20 students and compiling the results. We will use these results to provide data and fact for the beer mat designs. 

Wording for each of the beer mats:

General facts / calorie content facts: 

Front: Pints pile on the pounds! Think when you drink. Calories in a pint of beer: 182
Back: Stay fresh for freshers

Front: Pints pile on the pounds! Think when you drink. Calories in a pint of lager: 248

Back: Stay fresh for freshers

Front: Wines a weight gainer! Think when you drink. Calories in a glass of wine: 180

Back: Stay fresh for freshers

Fact or fiction?:

Front: Hang over cure - eggs

Back: Fact or fiction?

Front: Hang over cure - water

Back: Fact or fiction?

Front: Hang over cure - bananas

Back: Fact or fiction?

Front: Hang over cure - burnt toast

Back: Fact or fiction?

Front: Hang over cure - black coffee

Back: Fact or fiction?

Front: Hang over cure - fatty foods

Back: Fact or fiction?

Questionnaire answers:

Front: The average fresher considers a cup of tea and a cigarette to be the best hangover cure...

Back: Stay fresh for freshers

Front: The average student binge drinks 3 nights a week...

Back: Stay fresh for freshers

Front: The average student consumes 1528 calories through alcohol on a standard night out...

Back: Stay fresh for freshers

Now that we have the wording for all the mats, we can create the designs for each one. Following on in the same style and theme as Josh's designs, we are using the same fonts, (Myriad pro and SD Cammello) plus layouts of type mixed with livetraced illustrator images. The designs will just stay one colour each and once each one has been created, we will change colours around so that they all work as a complete coherent set. 

This is a rough mock up that I have created using Adobe Photoshop. It meets our criteria as it is simple, and bold. It will draw attention to the type, which is the focal point of the piece. I have used strong bold colours which is attractive and appealing. I have focused primarily on type, however we will develop this idea further to come up with other solutions.

All of the members of the group are going to create their own idea and design for the beer mats, then between us we will choose which ones work the best. 

The size of normal beer mats is 9.5 x 9.5 cm so this is the template size we will be working to.

All of the beer mats we create will be to this template which is the exact size of actual beer mats in bars. I personally like the square shape with rounded corners over the traditional circular beer mat shape as I think it allows us to be a bit more creative with the designs on them. 


Here are some more solution;

We then decided that type worked really well, but image could also be included to improve the designs. We also decided that the colours schemes could be improved to be less 'vigorous', and so decided to experiment with more pastel colours to see what outcome that would give. Andrea has created these designs;

Although we decided to changed the colour scheme to more pastel based tones, we were unsure how this would be portrayed and whether it would give the right impact on the right audience, so we decided that we would bring this up in the crit sessions earlier today where we got feedback from another crit group. I think we all found the session really useful. 

After a tutorial/ crit session with Amber, our group has changed the direction with which our project is going. As the original How To question was "How to stay healthy as a fresher", we decided that it possibly would be too difficult to promote a welcome pack about staying healthy to students. The subjects and topics we had come up with for the leaflet in the welcome pack were quite generic and the sort of thing that after a bit more thought, we realised students wouldn't really be interested in. 

We then decided to focus more on the alcohol aspect of a students life and how to stay healthy or avoid becoming ill while still enjoying nights out. We brainstormed the different things we liked about nights out and came up with the idea of how students manage to collect items they find on nights out. 

We think the idea of beer mats which promote drinking healthily, that students could collect is the best way to progress with this brief. We want to create a collection of collectable beer mats that could be placed in different pubs and bars, each with a unique fact about staying healthy while drinking on them. They will be designed to appeal to students, and contain information that students would actually be interested in. 

We intend to research into beer mat designs and find research of what we can put onto the beer mats through looking at calorie intakes from alcohol, questionnaires of what gives people hangovers, etc. 

The first group project of the course is focussing around the concept of "How to...". We began by brainstorming 50 things which are new to first years at university, then dividing them up into categories, before narrowing the list down to just 10 items. The short lists of 10 things from each blog group were then split up, put in a box and each group picked 5 out at random. From the 5 subjects we picked, we then had to write a "how to..." for each one. Our group then chose the final question of "How to stay healthy".

From this subject we brainstormed more specific how to questions:

• staying healthy during freshers
• staying healthy during periods of stress
• staying healthy when away from home
• staying in a healthy sleeping pattern
• staying healthy on the Graphic Design course/ a high demand course

We settled on the idea of "how to stay healthy as a fresher" and began looking into the ways we could promote a healthy lifestyle to freshers as the majority of information given to freshers about events and nights out advertised drinking alcohol and wild partying. When each of us moved into our student accommodation before starting the course, we were each given a "freshers welcome pack" which contained flyers about all the freshers events and nights out, plus energy drinks, sugary sweets, chocolate, hand cream, tooth paste, etc. In general, the content of the boxes wasn't actually useful and purely promoted an unhealthy lifestyle. We wanted to work with this idea and, targeting the same audience, promote a healthy freshers week. 

We decided upon a list of things we would need to research and ways to develop the brief:

• questionnaire and interviews (asking friends and flat mates)
• looking into current healthy guides
• planning an outcome - already sorted
• research specific places in Leeds which apply to the guide 
• research hangover cures, and items to put into the boxes
• research winter box objects and "staying healthy tips"
• research logos, typefaces, designs and layouts that are used on existing packaging of a similar theme 
• research into a more "long-term" resolution - making 2 packs (one for freshers, one for winter time) to make the outcome unique from existing freshers welcome packs
• leaflet design
• leaflet wording

Then, through planning and group discussion, we made a list of outcomes we wanted to use for the resolution:

• a box of "staying healthy during freshers" things and a box of "staying healthy during winter" things
• design packaging, branding, logos, labels 
• write and design a short pamphlet/booklet 
• possible power point presentation?

More specifically:

Freshers Box:

• leaflet 
• smoothie
• vitamins

Leaflet:

• contents page plus introduction
• where to eat healthily in Leeds (map)
• 5 a day
• drinking water
• healthy tips
• daily recommendations
• cost cutters (where to shop cheaply) 
• cheap meals
• alcohol - a staged night out
• hangover cure recipes
• weekly planner

“cool facts” included throughout

and we decided that the winter box would just be a proposal instead of attempting to create all of the branding, labels and work needed for the two boxes.