406 Studio Brief 2 - Licence to Print Money, First Mock Ups

First Mock Ups 

After developed design sketches for the money design influenced by Chinese design and the culture, these are some quick first mock ups designed for the bank note. The text will be checked as it is googled translated so i can use it on my experiments.

experiments -

The colour schemes are not relevant to the design, the colours are to separate the layers that would be screen printed, the colour scheme/colours code will be decided after for, these mock up where created to produce the exposed screens for the screen print.

 Here two different illustration style of plum blossom has been used, this is to see which outline works best in comparison. The first is more detailed realistic but doesn't include any of the bud with fits with the Chinese idea of painting including all forms of the flower to reflect the life cycle but this reflect the more intricate style of the ink drawings. Where as the second style is a bolder style that is more reflective of the plum blossom definitions, 5 petals and with buds, this means it will reflect the traditional form of the flower which might make it more suitable for the concept.  Also if this design is being screen printed the second is less detailed so will come better out of the press and some of the detail will be lost on the first illustration. As cherry blossom is the national flower of japan, the first image might cause confusion as it look more like that flower therefore the second will be used. 

IGNORE COLOURS, TO SEE THE SEPARTE LAYERS, FOR SCREEN PRINTING

This idea is taken from my developed design sketches, where the background is less detailed with the intricate line drawing over the top, this style is take directly from some of the painting research where artist used to have less detailed flower overlapped with thin lined branches to create the effect of flowers. This style seems draw attention to the flowers which is the concept but the background layer might be to over powering and mean that the delicate nature of the painting is lost in this idea. Its eye catching in the right places but it needs to be worked on to make it more pretty and elegant like the aim of the note is to achieve.

These are more simple experiments where i have to tried to add more detail to the mocks ups to make them seem more elegant and delicate like the paintings but feel because of the back ground thick line being so over powering this design is hard to make elegant. The design are getting to busy as the more detailed is added which doesn't fit with the idea of minimal Chinese current graphic style,  because of the business of the design the flower its self is lost as it become more part of a pattern the flower needs to stand out as individual part of the design as its a vital to the concept.

Removing the over powering background image has lighted up the not design and included more whitespace  make it seem more modern and minimal like the current style which helps the design seem more balance and will mean it appeal more to younger hip audience which is the target market.

Here the 50 is added to give the not a currency value, this needs to be included in the design as all the research into note rebrands and redesign includes this to make it work as physical note. A modern san serif font (helvetica) is used which is the same seen in research into current graphical design style in china but the weight of the font seem too thin to work with the weight of the illustration and text , it makes the value stick out as odd which draws too much attention to the number. Drawing attention to the number is valid for a practical brief as the notes would need to be differentiated by their value, but as this is a brief for an exhibition the concept need to be the focal point which in this design is the flower and this is lost when the attention is grab by the number.
-text needs to fit with the illustration more
-number need to be linked in
-attention drawn to the flower

feedback on current ideas - 

what do you think of the designs? which dont work and why?
'thick line illustration seems to heavy to be Chinese as Chinese are is very light and delicate'
'the simplest one is the best as it seem the most modern'
'the number looks better when its not included or try it smaller?i feel the thickness of the lines makes its stand out for the wrong reasons'
'i like the minimal ones the best'
'the last one seems thicker than the rest? i think the look better skinner, it seems more balanced as there not one part on its own'
'the text is very decorative, because of this the illustration need to be simple or there too much detail'
'you can use the text as part of the illustration? link it more so it seem like one design rather than an image with text over the top'
'if the text is important it needs to be readable, make sure it stand out against the background'

which do you prefer?
3/6
3
4
1
3
6
3
6/3
4
3
6
6
3

from feedback
-keep it simple
-use the thin lines only
-stick to two sets of flowers
-make the text readable
-make it long and thin
-make the number smaller
-use more text to add detail rather than imagery

some of the text formed used couldn't be applied to photoshop, causes the square box, this meant i was limited to what type i could have on the note