Postcards Evaluation
Design
I quite enjoyed producing the designs for the postcards and I feel that I achieved all of my intentions. After finding three of the designs relatively easy to come up with, I struggled with the fourth (summer cat). To me this is the least successful illustration in the set, probably because I was trying to represent the sun as well as the sleeping cat and although I like the illustration as an individual study, I am not sure that it works with the rest of the set. If I had had more time I think that I would have represented a ginger cat with the suns rays in the background.
Printing
This project has taught me a lot about printing. Most importantly I have learnt about the importance of saving files as .pdf for printing. The time that I spent formatting the packaging file ready for printing really paid off. The document was cut and pre-creased in exactly the positions specified and the colours were more or less exact to the screen colours. I was really impressed with the quality of the printing. By contrast, I was very disappointed with the online postcard printing. I now realise why the quality was not as good. The document format requested was .png which is not really suitable for high quality printing and does not maintain CMYK colour spacing. Consequently, I will have to get them re-printed at the same printing firm that I used for the packaging. I would be very reluctant to use a printers again that requests .png,.jpeg,.gif as suitable file formats for printing!
Cost
I also discovered how expensive it is for high-quality printing in small quantities. Thus, if I was to use these postcards as I initially intended I would need to assess the cost-price benefit of distributing them as a promotional item. Given the costs involved to date, which equates to approximately £12 per calendar (based on 7 units), I would seriously need to consider who they were sent to! Having said that I still think that the set works very well as a self-promotional item (albeit a bit expensive) and the innovative packaging has showcased my vector illustration, layout and packaging design skills.
