Blog 11

Today we finished our design, started on a presentation and worked on our folders. To finish the final design we only needed to work on the back. We changed the google map to make it more clear, and added three photos that we took. The top two were photos of food from the restaurant (wrap and salad). I thought the pictures weren't very good because they were slightly blurry and two dark. We also couldn't touch them up on photo shop as much as I would of hoped. I think this was because they were so dark if we made them brighter on photo shop then the resolution became not very good. This wasn't a huge problem though because the pictures were quite small so you couldn't see the imperfections that much. Below these two pictures we put a photo of the cafe. We cropped it so that it was a long strip showing the cafe and the two shops on either side. The reason behind this was just that we needed along image so that it would use up the remaining space better. A nice effect we added to the picture was that we that we put the two shops on either side in black and white and kept the actual cafe colour. We did this so the cafe stands out.

I also printed out some photos of food off the computer to put in my folder. I started on a powerpoint presentation which we should use next week. On it we put some test shots and the process of editing them on photoshop. We also scanned the drafts we had drawn so we could put them on the computer. This was successful because they still looked crisp after they had been scanned. We put the first and second draft on the same page so you can compare them. We are planning to also put on the final design so we can show the three steps.   



Final design front







 



Final design back

Blog 10

Today we photographed the food we would use in the actual flyer. Before we took the photos for real we had to write a shoot plan and take some practise photos. For the practise shots we photographed cheese cake and lasagne with salad. We photographed them on either black or white paper. My favourite picture was one of lasagne and salad on a plate with the background half black and half white. This is because I though it looked more arty and interesting.

This is my favourite photo out of the test shots we took

We also worked on the final design which was done on photo shop. We couldn't replicate the white orange tree we drew on the final design so we had to get a photo of an orange tree. James drew around it in orange to give it a less realistic and more stylish feel to it. Other changes we made were we added a orange border and removed some of the text on the front so now it just says 'The Orange Tree Cafe', the street and street number. We haven't finished the back but so far it has some text and a map from google maps. We are going to add two pictures of food or one of food and one of the cafe. We are also going to add contact details and hopefully a watermark type/faded orange tree cafe logo in the background. This should be possible somehow because the cafe have already done this on their new menus.

After lunch we went to the cafe to photograph some food they had pre-prepared. The food we had to take photos of were wraps, cake, english breakfast, salad and coffee. I was annoyed that we had taken some really good crisp in focus photos of food in previous lessons when we were practising and then when we came to take the photos that we would actually use in the final flyer it was cloudy and the light was dimming so some of them where blurry. We also took some photos of the front of the cafe.

These were some of the photos we took of the cafes food.

Blog 9

Today we mainly worked in our groups. Before lunch we followed on from last week and continued working on draft versions for our flyer. On our previous design we just had a picture of a orange tree which was okay but a bit boring and un-unique. So we decided to do another draft which was similar but we would have a black background and a white, abstract orange tree. I thought this was a big improvement because it looked more arty and stylish. It also made the oranges stand out more against the back and white background. We still included the orange poking in on the right side on a branch with leaves. On the orange it said 'good home-cooked food at reasonable prices'. At the bottom it said opening times 8:30-5:00. We weren't as organised as we could have been, because we weren't sure whether we should colour the the background in with a black pen because we thought it would take too long. In the end I decided to colour in the background.. We did get it done but we were past the the dead line of lunch-time. I contributed to the draft flyer by drawing and colouring in the front. Me and James also had a go at drawing an orange tree on the computer. I did mine on paint and James did his on photo shop. The initial reason for doing this was that we thought that we wouldn't be able to colour in the drawn flyer effectively so we would try it out on the computer so we can mess around with the colours. It wasn't that successful because it was hard to draw trees on the computer since you have less control than you do if you drawing with your hand.

Our second draft was a big impovment on the first draft.

After lunch we did some market research it was hard asking people, who we have never seen before, questions on some pictures we drew. But we did get some good feed back from one person who seemed like he might have worked in advertising. He told us lots of improvements such as adding a map, adding a logo and putting the logo on the back, faded. This was useful information and I think we will act on the feedback especially by adding a map.

Blog 8

Today we started by doing some research either into other competition around Cambridge or into what people buy and how often they eat out. I found out the main competition around the area was the Carringtons Cafe in the Grafton centre. The reason for this is they have a fairly similar theme/style but Carringtons looks a little cheaper. Also their menus are very similar, they both sell paninis, salads jacket potatoes etc... The prices are fairly similar too. I would say Carringtons has a bigger advantage because it's been around longer and its better positioned because loads of people go to the Grafton centre.

Carringtons in the Grafton centre

Then after break and lunch we got into our groups and designed some possible layouts and designs. For the design on the front of the flyer we each drew one idea. On mine the basic design was the name of the cafe on two lines at the top. I did this because I thought the title/name of the cafe needed to be big and bold so its eye catching. The writing has shadow behind it to make it look more interesting and stand out more. The font colour I think should be either white or orange depending on if the background is white or black. I have kept with the colour scheme of the cafe  which is Black, white, orange and green. If think its to do this because If people see the flyer which is in completely different colours then they wont notice the cafe If they walk past it. The original colour scheme is also nice and bold. It's also unique. The main picture on the leaflet is of an orange tree. If we use the orange tree on the final design I would like to keep it cartoony because it matches the title and the simple theme. In the bottom right corner there is a picture of an orange and in it it says 'High quality home cooked food at low prices'. Apart from the title this is the only writing on the flyer so on the final design I think we should add more information, to fill  the gap in the middle. We haven't yet properly designed the back, but I think we should put photos of the cafe and its food, the location (possibly a map), prices and contact details.