Thoughts and reflections on the competition

I have found this to be a very inspiring and enjoyable competition to enter. As a child I had a lot of the Brothers Grimm tales read to me, and it was interesting to actually do some background research on the Grimm Brothers and to shed some light on the background of the stores. I really enjoyed creating my final outcome; particularly because I created a style I had never really done before. I found the whole design process was successful and lead to a strong outcome.

I now also understand the importance of competitions and how they offer a great way to advertise you work. I think it’s definitely worth entering as many competitions as I can in the future. Even if you don’t win the competitions, it’s still good time management practice to complete the briefs on time.

Evaluation of my final piece

Overall I am happy with my final design. I am very happy with the composition of the image, and think that the front cover is strong enough to work well on its own. This will be ideal for if the design were to be sold on the internet, whereby you would probable only be able to see the front cover. I feel I have managed to stick to the simplicity style quite well and have created an attractive and appealing image. I’m also very happy with my choice of typeface, and think it completes my design nicely.

I think my only slight concern is perhaps with the character on the front page. If I had more time I think I would spend some time experimenting with a few different character designs, and experiment a bit more with the colours and tones of the character. I could even try to incorporate more than one character in the design. Although my design development ideas suggested that this didn’t work very well.

Sending off my design

With my design complete, I went onto the Penguin websites and created an account so that I could submit my image to Puffin. Before I sent my image I had to make sure that the image was a PDF file. Also the brief stated that I had to include the crop line for the 5mm bleed. So I added in these lines before I sent it.

Adding the Text

All that remained was to add in the text. I spent a long time on Photoshop searching for a typeface that suited my style. I finally came across a typeface called 'Matisse ITC' which I thought was perfect. To finish off I then added in the logos and the bar code box.

Final Design

After doing all my designs and tests, I felt ready to create my final piece. This image shows the final result. I am happy with the boldness of the style and the composition.

Woodland Design

By this point I was sure I wanted to produce a woodland image for my finial design. So I started from scratch and designed this another woodland image, very similar to the last, just with more detail to plant life.

Woodland Design

So I went back to the other design and I experimented with adding in these two characters. I don't think this worked very well in this design as they look a bit out of place. However I like the idea of adding in characters.