PPP2: Self promotion.

PPP2.
SELF PROMOTION. 
DEVELOPMENT.

I also created mock ups of stationary that I would send out to clients that would not be included in my promotional pack. These included:

Envelope.
Business card. 
Letter design. 
Possible mobile website loading screen. 

Letter design in full colour:

When colour is not available to print items such as the letter will take on the following appearance, substituting the colour mint for black:

Below are final Images of my promotional pack and stationary. 

 There are a couple of changes I had to make to the design, these included the screen printed lid. Although I have spent a lot of time screen printing and screen foiling at uni, for some reason I seemed to make a mistake on my final piece of all things. I painted the turquoise gradient seen in a lot of my promotion on the lid. which I was then going screenprint my white logo ontop, however I didn't put enough acrylic in the binding mix and therefore the white colour came out very faint. For this reason I digitally printed the design onto mountboard and stuck this ontop. Although I realise this does not look perfect, I know that if I were to recreate the box again I would do the digitally printed lid first time around as It matches the rest of the branding much more succinctly. 

I also decided to further tie in all aspects of the box with one another by changing the colour of the wood, the wood orriginally was in the natural shade of plywood, however due to my cool toned mint theme the colour of the box looked very warm. For this reason I decided to give the wood a white wash affect as it would be much more neutral and support the mint colour rather than create a large contrast. It was also a good idea as my colour scheme across my branding is white and mint. 

Although It looks like my pack may have been very expensive to produce I found that it was quite low cost, as I thought cleverly about the scale of the piece and where to source my material from. 
I had designed the box, inside storage boxes and coasters to be produced with plywood, which may seem an expensive decision in comparison to other peoples discussions to make their packs solely out of paper and card. However, I was able to source the wood from my dads company, a joinery business, in which they also cut down the wood for me. He reassured me that If I needed to produce more versions of the box, this would not be a problem as they order so much plywood in large quantities, being a low cost material in bulk, it wouldn't affect their price brackets. I then made sure that any paper based work inside the box was printed solely onto A4 card and no bigger meaning that the designs inside can be reproduced on my printer at home if necessary, but mainly both inside college if available and outside if not.  

The only downside about my box / self promotion pack is that It is not cost effective to send out to a large stream of studios, and therefore would be quite a bespoke Item that I would take with me to studios if on a visit. From looking at how to contact clients I would much prefer to visit them, so that not only can they gage a true reflection of myself as a person, something that cannot be fully presented in a promo pack, but I am also able to gage the personality and practice of the company before I start talking placements. If I like the studio in which I visit, I will feel inclined to leave a promo pack with them, with both keepsakes and information about me, to linger in their mind after I leave. However I do think it would be a valuable task to create a less costly version (in terms of postage) that I can send out to a wide range of studios. More for the experience of contacting others, and creating conversation rather than solidifying any work. I also think that In terms of creative contact via exhibitions or events, I would solely carry business cards rather than my promo pack. My business cards not only have details of how to contact me, but also the link to my Behance, where possible contacts can view my work this way. 

Although I am very pleased with the outcome of my self promotion pack, I feel that there are ways in which I could improve it. Mostly aesthetic changes, such as style. I feel that when designing my self branding, I had to really rush to get my promotion together in between all the other deadlines, However, since self promotion is such an important tool in the business, I would want to spend a lot more time really crafting and designing the piece to be a much truer reflection of myself. I do believe that my promotion pack represents myself and my style, however I feel it only emphasises on sector of this. I focused on my strengths when creating my pack which were type, illustration and designing for children, however I don't want it to come across that this is all I can do. I also worry that the illustrative style of the pack, makes me look quite young and inexperienced. Therefore over Summer I would like to further improve my work making it more neutral and not pigeon holing myself, and also trying to appear more mature and responsible to clients.