Design Context: Brief 4 / Competitors

One of the things that was suggested to me in my progress tutorial and the mini crit was to check out what the competitors were offering in terms of their design centres, as well as comparing the actual design of the branding and website, as a starting point for how mine could look.

selvedge

Selvedge is a high quality craft magazine, featuring work from talented designers. The readers of this would be the target audience for visiting the MCD centre, as they would be expecting well made pieces. The crafting feel still comes across in the use of textures used in the background of the website, as well as the texture of the paper the magazine is printed on, but the sophisticated branding style sets this company out from the ammeter craft making magazines and websites available. The colour scheme of the branding fits in well with what the magazine is trying to represent about itself.

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Here are some websites of some craft workshops and design centres. Most are quite different from the MCD centre, as they are more like places you go to try out crafts, maybe with a focus on children, but as the overall theme is the same, it is important to look at trends in design.

themakelounge

http://www.themakeryonline.co.uk/workshops/

http://www.busybeestudio.co.uk/workshops.asp

http://www.edinburghcontemporarycraftworkshops.co.uk

http://www.thecraftcreative.co.uk

http://rowantreestudio.co.uk

I don't really like any of the styles of these logos and website designs but just looking through I have been noticing prominent themes like the kraft paper or textured background. This is something I could try through my designs, but I want them to be much more sophisticated and professional looking than any of these examples.

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Manchester Art Gallery

I visited the Paper cut exhibition recently and found it useful to look at the postcard and leaflet I picked up when thinking about what should be included on my designs. They are printed on to GH Smith card, as the exhibition was sponsored by them, and so they look really good quality and are more likely to draw the attention of someone walking past. The postcard even finishes a spot varnish over the image on the front. This level of quality is not something you would expect for an exhibition postcard, but the fact that it is high quality gives you an indication that the exhibition will be good and is worth attending.

Postcard