OUGD504: Researching Questions Brought Up In Peer Review
by Roxxie Blackham on Thursday 7 November 2013
I noticed that a lot of feedback I was given in my peer review seemed to be questions that needed answering. So I thought as part of my design development, I should probably attempt to answer these questions so that I can narrow my concept down further...
The Questions:
- Could you create a circular shaped box with a window so that you can see the designs inside?
- Could you stack up the slices to make it look like a slice of pie?
- Can you visit a toy shop / craft shop? Go and see what's out there already!
- Would these printing processes be costly? Could the audience afford them?
- Is it aimed at mums or children?
- Are there items around the house that they could use to bring down the cost? e.g. rolling pin instead of a print roller
- Why a pie?
- What will the tone of voice be? Will it be suitable for both children and adults?
- Could the guide come with it's own printing components?
- Would the packaging appeal more to kids rather than adults?
- Where would you purchase / get this info pack from?
- Very specific target audience - will they use it? Why middle class?
- Will it be specifically aimed at mums? Dads are becoming stay-at-home parents. Do they all have young children?
- How many processes would be appropriate for children?
My Answers:
1&2:
I thought that I could answer 1 & 2 on the same design sheet...
One thing that I have noticed, after thinking about possible packaging ideas for this concept is that triangles and circles are difficult shapes to work around... Could this idea of creating a pie out of booklets be a bit too complex???
3:
(insert primary research here)
4:
When it comes to the printing costs, I know that there will be a few things that they will need to pay for. Obviously, it's not going to be a free process, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they will need to splash the cash on these printing methods!
Prices:
LINO: You can buy sheets of lino in art shops between £1-£10, depending on how much lino you are planning on buying! I bought some lino, roughly A5 size for about £1.85, which I don't think is that bad considering you can create a lot of prints from it! I think it would make sense to include a small amount of lino within the printing pack so that they already have some when they buy the pack, this means that they can try it out before going out and buying more. Also saves the hassle of trying to find a shop that sells lino.
LINO CUTTERS: I bought a pack of lino cutters for £3.50 at a craft shop - comes with a handle and 5 removable different sized and shaped blades. You can probably spend a lot more money on lino cutters, but when it comes to kids activities it probably isn't worth spending all the money on the professional cutters! You can even find lino cutters similar to what I bought online for £1.50 at the following link - http://www.rapidonline.com/Education/Lino-Cutter-Handle-with-5-Cutters-06-7970/?source=googleps&utm_source=googleps&gclid=CLPf8a2j07oCFVMRtAodv1IAWQ
PAPER: Obviously paper stock can be bought at various prices, varying from 20p - £5 or maybe even more. It depends on the kind of paper the consumer will want to be using. I'm sure most parents will just use ordinary printer paper when it comes to making prints with their kids, as kids don't really care if the paper is exciting or not!
POTATOES: For potato printing, the parents are bound to already have some potatoes that they can use in their kitchen, but if not then they can go out and buy some for roughly £2-£3.
ACRYLIC PAINTS: Acrylic paints are usually pretty expensive, ranging from £10-£40 for sets of paints. However, this could be substituted for poster paint at around £1 a bottle, or even packs of poster paints can come up to around £8 or so. Obviously some printing methods will require acrylics mixed with binder, for example screen printing, so that the screen doesn't block...
BINDER FOR SCREEN PRINTING: A cheaper option than buying acrylic paint and binder would be just going out and buying screen printing inks. You can buy big packs of inks for £20-£30, however it would be cheaper to buy the 3 primary colours and then mix them yourselves. Screen printing inks can be found online for roughly £8 a pot, so it might even be cheaper to buy a big pack of several colours! I think this kind of cost would probably only be spent if the children wanted it for their birthday or christmas.
WOODBLOCK: You can find various sizes of wood blocks on ebay at loads of different prices, many being as cheap as £2-£3. Or you could go out and find some fallen down trees and cut yourself some wood for free!
WOODBLOCK CUTTERS: You can find chisels and cutters all over the internet, but this might be a bit too dangerous for kids...
POLYBLOCK: You can find sheets of polystyrene on ebay and online for all sorts of prices. It depends on how much polystyrene you're planning on buying / using.
PAPER SCREENS: To make screens for screen printing, all you need is an old wooden photo frame (you can always find one of these online or around the house), a staple gun (which some families already have - or you can ask your neighbours if they have one that you can borrow) and then either using silk screen mesh (costs around £2-£4 online) or curtain sheers which cost roughly the same or could be found around the house. You can also buy already made reusable screens online for a variety of prices, however they usually cost over £20, except from the odd occasion when you find some selling for a tenner. The kit could already come with a small silk screen, so this could bring down costs after buying. However, this might make the info pack more expensive to buy in shops!
PLEXI GLASS FOR MONO PRINTING: You can find plexiglass online between £2-£5 for an A4 size of plexiglass. Then all you need for mono printing is washing up liquid (which you'll have already), water, and poster paint. You can even find bits and bobs around the house to add textures to the prints, for example leaves from the garden could be added to print a leafy texture onto the paper.
PRINTING ROLLER: You can find singular rollers for up to a tenner online, or packs of different sized rollers for £15.
I've found that most of the printing methods will be pretty cheap when it comes to buying everything you need ready for printing - and a lot of the stuff you will buy (e.g. paints and paper) can be used again in the next printing processes you try out! The only expensive process would be screen printing, but the pack could always come with either screen printing inks or a silk screen frame ready to use, so that it cuts costs down slightly. I also think that the pack should come with a printer roller, so that they don't have to go out and buy one of those - as this will be used for every printing method!
5:
After much consideration, I've decided to aim my info pack at children more than their parents. The design needs to be child friendly, easily understandable, fun to look at, yet also something that will attract their parent's attention when it comes to buying the product. Much consideration will be needed when it comes to designing the info pack as kids tend to break things easily - the stock will need to be heavy and durable, the illustrations will need to be clear, the font will need to be serif and large and easy to read, the printing processes will need to be easy for kids to engage with.
6:
I think there probably are quite a lot of items around the house that they could use to bring down costs. A lot of families might even have most of the stuff they need, e.g. poster paints and paper. I think this could be the case as not every parent will consider teaching their children printing methods - not every parent cares about different types of art and craft things that they can do with their children, so for a parent to be interested they must have done a few arty things with their kids before!
7:
The initial thought behind the pie was because of the fact I decided to call my info pack P.I.Y - which basically sounds like pie.. However, after having my peer review and having to explain this a few times to people so that they understood the concept, I realised that making the pack pie shaped could be completely irrelevant and would make the design process a lot more complicated than it's worth. I want to keep the name P.I.Y as I think it is really relevant to my concept, however I have decided that I need to make my idea less complex. Maybe I could create a publication that comes in a box with some kit to get you started?
8:
When it comes to the tone of voice, it will have to be children friendly. I think anything that is written for children to read is often read by their parents to them anyway unless the child likes to show off that they can read! The tone of voice doesn't have to be suited towards the parent, as they will understand the fact that this book has been written for their kids and it will help when it comes to the children understanding what they're doing.
9:
Yes, I've already considered the guide coming with it's own printing components. I think it would be really helpful for the buyer if they receive a starter kit to get them going - a printing roller, plexiglass, some paint, some lino, lino cutters, that kind of thing. I think I need to decide exactly what items to include in the pack, but the more expensive or harder to get hold of kind of items would be the most useful to include!
10:
The packaging will have to appeal to kids more than adults, as I've decided that children are my main target audience focus. Even though the adult is the one buying the product, they will understand that the children will need to want to engage with the product, so it needs to appeal to children. Otherwise it will just be a waste of money if they aren't interested in what their mum or dad brought home for them!
11:
I think this info pack would probably be sold in places like The Works or crafty shops. You always find little art kits for sale in The Works, and they're generally quite cheap which makes it accessible to all classes of people. I was tempted to sell it in places like The Tate or design museums, where the parents are already interested in art and design and would be more keen on getting their kids involved, but this might take away from the aesthetics of the kit - The Tate usually sells really well designed and clear packs / books, whereas The Works tends to sell things that are more child friendly and aimed at younger audiences. It could also be sold in art shops like Dinsdales in Headingley, or Hobbycraft.
12&13:
I've decided to steer clear of which specific class I'm going to aim this at - I want my kit to be accessible for any kid, not just rich kids. Before, when I was aiming the pack more at mothers, I thought that working class mums would be more willing to spend a lot of money on a really nice printing pack that their kids could possibly join in with from time to time. But now that I've decided to aim it at children themselves, rather than their parents, I don't think I should be exclusionary.
14:
Obviously, children wouldn't be trying to take part in every single process that I mention in the info pack, so the number of processes shouldn't be much of a worry! I just need to make sure that every process I choose is easy to understand and easy for kids to take part in. I should also probably steer clear of anything dangerous, for example wood block printing as children could seriously harm themselves with chisels!!
