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Reflection

To better meet the requirements of the paper, I have:

designed and produced to a high quality all the designed components of the Starter Kit pack. I also bought some stamps from NZPost but unfortunately have lost them.

Printed my work at professional high quality laser printing companies.

Used a DSLR and professional lighting to capture more professional shots of my work.

Better evidenced some of my process, including the new skill acquirement of using the vinyl cutter.

Expanded on contextualisation, although not as in-depth as I would hope to.

Added more reflection

Overall I have learned a lot on this Studio paper, despite not quite getting everything together well.

Learned how to do screen printing for the first time, including quite complex, intricate design like thin text and layers of colours that need to be aligned. I am looking forward to learning how to do gradients next.

Learned how to use the vinyl cutter and FlexiSign Pro 10 software.

Learned to focus more on my own specific tasks than taking on a more overseeing role

Learned to make research informed decisions over assumptions

Learned how to punch in metal eyelets to artefacts.

Learned about the Bindery and many different tools available there like the Creaser, Compass Cutter (have now bought my own, very useful!), Bone folders, etc.

Learned to communicate clearly and and document my process more.

Challenges

I struggled a great deal in our group dynamic. I found the attitude and tone of language used by some individuals to be unprofessional and very difficult to work with.

I am not a natural leader, but had to become the de facto leader for our group to ensure our work was produced to a presentable and high quality standard by the deadlines. I designed and put together almost all the slides for our formative and summative presentation, as well as being the primary designer of the brand system.

I spent too much time providing feedback and guidance to other group members on their artefacts rather than working on my own artefacts.

Convincing the group to do a photoshoot was never successful, but was critical for this project in my view.

Trying to organise in-person interviews and focus groups with my group members onboard was also something I was also not able to bring people with me on.

Working with someone who has dyslexia as someone who cares about spelling myself was a challenge for me.

Sacrificing my own wish make slower, more research informed, design decisions in order to reduce group conflict and to accomodate the desires of some group members to 'just pick something and go with it.'

If I had more time I would like to try make the Starter Kit in Purple and Orange, as well as Blue. I would also like to have spent far, far, far more time in the research and ideation phase before being pushed along to refining a brand system. A critical missing component of this project, I believe, is photography. Portraits of a diverse range of older generation individuals would have made a real impact for promoting connection in this campaign. It feels like a big missing piece. Something grand to design would be a small pop-up stall tat may appear on a university campus that bears the Gen Pals brand and is giving out the kits.

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Notes on Contextualisation

This project falls short on in-depth exploration of the contexts it should exist in. Our group was reluctant to follow through with in-depth research and the project has suffered as a result. The key demographic is Gen Z New Zealanders, and particularly those who have a desire to connect to wisdom and stories from past generations. These Manilla Envelope Starter Kits would be handed out around college and university campuses, particularly on university open days and orientation weeks. Their purpose is to kick-start and make it easy to start writing letters.

Gen Pals aims to foster and promote intergenerational friendship. The primary method of communication via Gen Pals, written letters, is a COVID-safe way to connect younger and older generations together. Younger generations can ask older generations about what it was like growing up in the Cold War under nuclear threat, or growing up lesbian before many homosexual rights were legislated.

In writing letters to past generations, the chance of intergenerational friendships grows, and there may be just a little less loneliness in our world. This is the positive social impact Gen Pals seeks to promote. Wisdom and stories from the past may be of great interest to younger individuals today. Bridging that social gap between generations helps everyone.

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I loaned a DSLR from AUT Loan Central and took my outcomes to professional studio lighting to take photos. These photos were just with my phone however.

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The final outcome for my guide. My handwriting and illustration is very messy and inconsistent, which I think is part of the genuine and authentic charm of Gen Pals, but it feels quite unprofessional for a design outcome.

While I am not happy with my handwriting and illustrations, I think the underlying concept is strong and fitting for the context.

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Iterations for my letter folding guide. The concept is that it is a letter itself addressed to the user. A little bit meta. If I were doing something like this professionally I would outsource the handwriting and illustrations to other creatives as I do not have great control of my hands for these skills.

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The Guide

While I spent a lot of time sitting down with Eli to help with his concertina guide, his outcome does not adhere to the brand system strongly enough for my vision. I also really enjoyed the handwritten nature of writing onto stickers when I tried that with my name, so I want to explore incorporating handwriting into Gen Pals more.

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I had to seek a different print company to CopyBook as they were fully booked for the day. Luckily I was able to get my postcards printed to a high quality at Colour Copy and Print just before they closed. Something I have learned is to try not rely on other people as much as possible.

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Postcard Designs from earlier in the semester, revisited with trim marks added as part of professional standards.

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Envelope outcomes with their colour matched letter writing paper.

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The outcome of the envelope on the Fabriano Rosapina paper. It has a nice texture to it and weighty premium feel, while the outcome still has a personal, handmade touch to it that can be a bit rough around the edges at times, but fitting for the brand.

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Using compass cutter for the round corners. It is not perfect, but I am much more attuned to using it now and the result is not too bad when combined with some sanding down of rough bits.

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To adhere to professional industry standards, I added some bleed to my envelope designs for preparing them to print at CopyBook. The staff at Gordon Harris recommended CopyBook for when I was talking to them about my sticker work earlier. I used CopyBook for my stickers, and think they turned out well, so I am going to go there again for printing my envelopes.

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I used a guillotine to cut my sticker sheets into strips. I think this helped with disguising some of the misalignment, as well as making them easy to fit into the Manilla Folder Starter Kit

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Stickers doing their job on an envelope

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My collection of sticker sheets that have been vinyl cut. While the alignment was not perfect, I had to move on to other aspects of the project, and overall I am very pleased with how these turned out. I placed the best sheets at the top of my piles.

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Video of me using the vinyl cutter by myself. A snapshot of my trial and error process.

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Alignment improving. Like a home printer, it seems the vinyl cutter is prone to some slight random deviations. The rollers can also be bumped quite easily which can knock the design out of line. We are using masking tape and pen to mark positions that work well and adjusting for improvements.