Final Themes

Name: Lovecraft

About: Dark, inspired by witchcraft, love.

For:

Name: Chasing Rabbits

About: Pinks, loving, girly and light.

For:

Genre

Name: Dark Love

About: Dark, dangerous, mysterious, sexual, serif fonts.

Fake French

French inspired, antique, travelling, handwritten.

Cosmic

Space theme, intergalactic, muted colours.

Kitsune

Fox inspired, collage effect

scanning materials

Today, I sourced some materials from a local haberdashery. I scanned each piece of material into the computer and using photoshop adjusted the colours and tones.

The images will be used for the cassette stickers. I want the product to be as organic as possible to give it a more hand made feel. I choose materials with different textures which will hopefully come across in the design of the sticker.

Each piece of material will be for a set tape theme.

Photoshop Actions

[about PS actions here]

Proposed Colour Schemes

Photoshoot - final images

I am in the process of editing the final images from todays photoshoot to advertise the product. The shoot went really well and helped me define a colour scheme for the website.

Photoshoot

There will be lots of imagery throughout the site to advertise the product. The photos will demonstrate how the product can be used and the different designs on offer to purchase.

My friend Rachel has offered to model in the photos for me.

The photos will show:

[sketches to be added soon]

- Her receiving a parcel

- Opening the parcel

- Holding the tape

- Opening the tape

- Playing the tape on her macbook

- Listening to the tape with her headphones

- Laying listening to music on headphones on the picnic blanket

- Walking thru the field with stereo in hand

- Reading love letter

- Putting cassette into stereo

The location

- Grassed area within some woods near my home

- Bedroom

The Concept

The concept behind the photos are to show the old and new ways of listening to music. I will first photograph my model having a picnic listening to a mixtape that her boyfriend has sent her. She will be happy and relaxed, reading a love letter from her boyfriend. She is listening to the music via an old tape player

The second shoot will show her in her bedroom listening to the new style mixtape on her apple macbook. She is listening to the music via her headphones. Again she is happy and relaxed reading a love letter this time on the computer screen.

The style

- Close up product photography

- Shots from above

- Washed out vintage filters

- Lens flare

- Rounded corners

Feelings

- Airy and sweet

- Dreamy

Cassette tape labels

For the cassette tapes, I will design stickers which will compliment the cassette inlay themes. The user will be able to change the design of the sticker with other options. I will produce some of the same patterns in different colours.

The label design will flow on from the design of the website and will have a scrapbook/collage feel to it. I will collect materials to scan into my computer which will then be printed out as stickers. The textures will give the tape a DIY feel to it, like it has been made personally.

Inspiration was taken from the book: Cassette from my ex

[scanned image here]

My target audience

[research goes here]

[questionnaires]

age group

income

location

sex

interests

musical interests

style

Tape Inlay Content

Content

Title

On the inlay of a mixtape the compiler usually gives the mixtape a name relating to the content of the tape and the person they are making the tape for. It could be an inside joke between the two listeners or just something that relates to the genre of music on the tape ie "death tape" for rock/metal.

I should possibly give the user the option of including the name of the person they are compiling the tape to.

Tracklisting

A track listing appears on the inside of the inlay so the listener knows what they are listening to. A cassette tape has two sides, side A and side B. The cassette tape inlay is separated into two so the track listing can be written for both sides.

This is a personal element to the tape as the compiler gets to hand write the track listing. So that I am still keeping this personal element within the design, I will look into using a handwritten type face.

Tape Themes

Themes

According to the book 'cassettes from my ex' there are several different types of mixtape:

Crush Tape

First date tapes, given to someone new that you have developed a crush on. Music on this tape is filled with tracks that represent you, but also songs you think the recipient may like.

Musical Journey

This is an opportunity to share a side of yourself you keep under wraps. Music included on these tapes share musical knowledge.

Audio Postcard Tapes

Usually starts with a spoken introduction to acquaint the recipient with the senders voice. Can be a crush tape or a musical journey tape.

Conceptual Tapes

Made by art students, for art students. Everything about these tapes are artistic, from the cover art to the choice of songs and the way they are recorded.

Era-defining tapes

Categorising music from a particular year or period, eg "Senior prom mix 92"

Breakup tapes

Sent to an ex to remind them of the times they spent together and important songs from their relationship. This could express nice or hurt feelings.

Themed Tapes

Tapes made for a special occasion. The birth of a new baby, driving tapes etc...

The design of my website and the concept of the tapes is based around the romantic gesture of a mixtape. I am predicting the majority of my customers will be purchasing the tapes for loved ones. The following styles apply to me:

Audio Postcard Tapes

Crush Tape

Themed Tapes

With this in mind this helps me define the style of the themes I will design for the user. Another fact which influences the design is the genre of music the user will be adding to the tape. The most common genres are:

Pop

Rock

Indie

RnB

However, the website will undoubtedly have a specific target audience which will determine the type of music they will be interested in, therefore adding to the mixtape.

Tape Inlay Designs

Design

The idea behind the themes is that they will all have a different layout. The user is choosing the layout rather than the content as the content can be edited and changed if they wish.

Inspiration will be taken from old cassette inlays. I will produce 6 designs with the intention of adding more designs in the future, these would include limited edition tapes aswell. All artwork will be my own or acquired from stock image websites.

The user will only be able to change the text and the imagery. This allows the user to create something personal but also of a good design. Most of the inlay designs will be simple and clean.

Layout

With traditional mixtapes, compilers would design the cassette inlay to match the songs on the tape or represent a feeling they wish to express to the person receiving the tape.

This element of freedom is great in allowing people to express their own feelings but perhaps some people wish to make a mixtape but do not feel comfortable designing a cover for it. With my themes, the user can choose a pre-made design, with the option of changing certain elements. However the layout will stay the same.

Traditional mixtape designs were designed both landscape and portrait. I would like to have functionality on my site to allow the user to choose between the two.

The making of the tapes

Today I made a prototype for the product. The finished product is a little glitchy.

- The slider is too high and needs to be cut down

- The slider needs to be covered in black electrical tape to match the tape colour

- The smaller reel inside is pushing the usb up causing it to sit wonky within the tape

To make the product I need cassette tapes which are fixed with screws so they are easy to dismantle. However, I am having problems getting more tapes at the moment.

Gift wrapping the tapes

The tapes will be advertised as gift wrapped in brown paper with card labels. The website logo will be stamped/printed onto the tag and the address handwritten on the reverse.

Typeface inspiration

After some research, I decided a retro style font would sit well with the design. As long as the type looks sketchy and hand drawn. This typeface is very popular at the moment.

The cassettes

I have met a dealer of old cassette tapes through Ebay who is willing to supply some old cassette tapes. Alot of the old tapes on ebay are quite expensive as they have become quite rare. however I will be choosing cheaper alternatives.

When I have received the tapes I shall be following the instructions set out on the website instructables.

Instructables - make a mixtape USB

The kind of look I was going for with the tapes are used, old, scratched and in a variety of interesting colours. Here are some examples:

Digital Scrapbooking

To help with my design, I started collecting reference photos and images and annotated them in my sketch book.

I found from my research that a scrapbook styled website must be:

+ Realistic

+ Rustic

+ Textured

+ Faded

To achieve this I must use:

+ Lots of overlapping elements

+ Textured paper over the top images to give them a more untidy feel

+ Vintage style photography

+ Shadows to give the design a feeling of depth

+ Skewed and misplaced elements

+ Handwritten type

New designs

About upcycling

www.upcycling.co.uk

Upcycling is something we can do to help the planet become more sustainable by reusing unwanted items by turning them into new products. This in turn means we can reduce the use of raw materials and the energy used in the manufacturing of raw materials.

Environmentally it is great… but, just as important is it can be fun and give you more unique products.

Upcycling is becoming increasingly popular among groups and individuals concerned about climate change. Recycling is great but it requires energy and resources to collect, sort and process unwanted items and waste.

Upcycling is an even greener way of recycling – you find a new purpose for your unwanted items before you chuck them away

New moodboard

To get a feel for the new design of the website, I quickly collated some images to form a small moodboard. The feelings behind the website are:

+ Handmade

+ Dreamy

+ Nostalgic

+ Unique

+ Romantic

+ Warm and loving

+ Pretty

+ Retro

Flash or Java

I have decided to complete my project in flash, however if i get chance towards the end I will be attempting to design the website in javascript too. This will allow my users the option of both.

The problem with making the site primarily in flash means it is not compatible with all browsers and users will need to update their flash player.

However, with javascript there runs the risk of users not having installed javascript support for their browsers.

Either way by doing both it should eliminate the risk of some users not being able to use the site.

Changes to the flowchart

The new concept for the website has changed the flowchart slightly in some ways:

- The user must sign up/log in before making a mixtape

- When designing the inlay to the tape, instead of giving the user free-reign on design I will be offering them themes to choose from, however these themes can be edited as regards to text and images. But text and image placeholders will exist and users will not be able to change the positioning of them.

- The colour chooser for the tape will now be the style and make of the tape (eg Agfa 500)

Market Research

Due to my project changing, I decided to do some research into the type of market I wanted my website to fall into. I decided to look at a range of websites which all offered different services, however their target market appears to be the same. I wanted to find out how they were offering

Tumblr

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Weheartit

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Instagram (app)

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Pinterest

http://pinterest.com/

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