Espresso Loves Colour

Our NC Graphics class kicked off 2019 by presenting their packaging project.  We run this project each year, and some of the Units integrated in this work include Colour, Introduction to Typography, Digital Media, and Sketchbooks.  So a lot of new skills are on display, backed by solid research into the client and the product market. It always makes for an interesting project, and the deliverables need to include one completed physical example of their packaging idea.

For this brief the class looked at Union Coffee's espresso blend range. The aim wasn't to rebrand the company (Union Coffee was rebranded in 2015 by Studio Output), but to look at improving the profile of the espresso range at point-of-sale and in displays, specifically in supermarkets rather than the higher end retail outlets they were more comfortable in.

One standout, and a good yardstick for the quality which this class is showing, came from Bethany Carrick, whose concept merged geographical locations with bold colours, abstract patterns, and some clean, delicate typography to create a vibrant set of boxed products capturing the essence of the four blended flavours on offer.

Coffee In A Book

Some inventive print design from Matt White on the latest NC project - a packaging brief for Glasgow-based coffee specialists Matthew Algie who were looking to create one-off gift packs of their best-selling flavours, exclusively on sale only in the National Gallery of Scotland.

Matt came up with the idea of packaging three flavours of coffee in book cover jackets rather than standard pinch bags or foil packs.  He connected each flavour to an artist whose work is on display at the Gallery - Tinderbox is connected to Emil Nolde, Pandora to John Bellany, and Forza to pioneering Modernist John Cecil Stephenson.

Inspired by Grammar school textbooks and Modernism, Matt then combined vector illustration, bold colour and clean sans serif typography to create a set of balanced, minimal paperback book covers. Each can be displayed separately at the point-of-sale, or also packaged as a trilogy or box set.

21 Card Design History Set

HNC Graphics recently completed a design-in-context brief to create a print-based design product or gift for a gallery shop or bookstore.  One nice example came from students Olga Komanek and Aiste Plechaviciute, who teamed up to design a set of 21 cards, each illustrating a movement, technique or practitioner in design history, in the relevant style. The likes of Theo Van Doesburg, Paul Rand, Tibor Kalman, Milton Glaser, El Lissitzky and Rodchenko are all featured.

The cards are printed on linen paper in ivory, 300gsm, and the set is boxed in a black die cut card case, sized at 110mm X 70mm.

Talking Soap

Nice video shot by our in-house film team covering our recent employer-engagement project for Scottish Soapworks.

Lyons Coffee Packaging

NC Graphic and Digital Design presented their latest project this week - to re-design Lyons budget-brand ground coffee packaging. The brief was to retain the low-cost, good quality brand position, but to attract a more affluent consumer to choose Lyons. The coffee comes in three flavours - Gourmet Italian, All Day and Good Morning.

A standout solution came from Zsofia Elek who created a sophisticated design that suggests a high quality product, and uses icons to reflect how and when you might choose to drink each flavour, along with a mixed vintage/modern theme that ditches the primary colours and script font on the current labels for a set of organic tones and a sans serif typeface.

Design Chess

We love this inventive take on chess, designed by HNC students Sarah Diver-Lang and Saulius Strebulis. They developed this idea in response to a design-in-context brief - to create a game-based learning tool for student designers.

The project combined packaging, 3D and typography, and the pieces include Gutenberg as King, the Mona Lisa (Dada version) as Queen, Rodchenko as the Rook, and Jonathan Ive as the Knight. The pawns are an uppercase H set in Helvetica.  The  squares also contain design-related information, which has an accompanying fold-out factsheet.









Check out our 'Project Samples' Pinterest board for samples of other student work from this project.

That Summer Feeling

Natural Selection Brewing officially launched their summer wheat beer 'Anorak' yesterday evening at well-known Edinburgh pub the Stockbridge Tap.



The branding and promotional campaign for the beer was designed by our HND graduate Abbie Macpherson, who took on the live brief for her final project.

Katy's YCN commendation

One of the many highlights of our end-of-year show is that YCN announce their commendation winners during the same week.

The awards list for 2011/2012 appeared today, and one of our Graphic Design students, Katy Johnson, is amongst the winners. This is the sixth YCN Commendation in the past four years for our students.

Katy designed an outstanding response to the Marks & Spencer brief, packaging an M&S picnic for two. She has just finished the first year of her HND, and can now look forward a fantastic start to next year, with a trip to London in September to the YCN Awards Ceremony. Her work will also be showcased in the 2012 edition of the YCN Student Awards Annual.













More:
YCN winners 2011/2012
Showtime 2012

Virtue

Here's a worthwhile taster from HND 1 student Jody Hogg, who tackled the Design Bridge packaging brief for D&AD - to challenge category convention and create a new whisky that appeals to an international female consumer.

Jody's solution features some great typography and manages to combine a retro feel with a complex modern theme.

We Love GFSmith Paper

HND 1 and 2 were treated to an excellent talk today from Paul and Matthew Scharf of GF Smith - the Hull-based organisation which sources, develops & manufactures some of the world's best-quality paper for the Graphics and Printing Industries.

The guys took the students through GFSmith's major collections, which included their many text and cover grades used for all major print processes including, lithography, letterpress, silk screen, blind embossing, foil blocking and die stamping.

For over a hundred years GFSmith has consistently worked with the best graphic designers, photographers and artists. These collaborations have resulted in a catalogue of iconic promotional materials. Amongst the examples showcased were stunning contemporary work by designers from Total, Dalton Maag, and Pentagram, and classics from the 60's and 70's by the likes of Paul Rand, Bill Mackay, Saul Bass and Milton Glaser.

The class also got to get some hands on samples from the Colorplan range, and GFSmith have kindly agreed to supply paper for the HND year 2 final project work this session.

And clearly GFSmith believe that print is alive and well and will never die - Paul's closing quote was 'paper will always have an immediacy and power that pixels never will'.

Cool HND 2 T-Shirts

It's not exactly t-shirt weather, but our HND 2 students finished off the year by designing their annual review t-shirts. In what has become a bit of a tradition, these t-shirts display one thing they have learned or specialised in during the semester.

The standouts last year were Artur Pasiek's 'SWISS' and Hannah Bloomfield's designer black, featuring the CMYK rich black values 30 30 30 100.

This time around my favourites are Emma Hart's 'I Love Ampersands' and Gill McColl's 'Grid System'. Ideal Christmas presents - where can I buy one :)