1. Evaluation
Producing Print Based Media
Visual Language:
Composition
How have you chosen to set out your designs and why?
(Reference layout, image/text ratio, busy/simplistic etc)
The layout has been kept simple, yet professional. The template of the cards shows that
the front of the card contains only minimalistic information such as the recipe title, main
image and the company logo. There has also been a „cooks tip‟ feature added top the front
of the cards to give the audience ideas of what they could do or change in the recipe to
make them more interesting or add a little something extra. The back of the cards has been
kept minimalistic and simple also by only featuring the copy and a small cupid image to add
something visually interesting to the card. Consistency has been remained throughout the
cards for the most part by using the same layout and design on each individual card. The
colour scheme and fonts has also maintained consistency by being the same style and
colour on each of the cards. Both logos (company and cupid) are located in the same area
and size throughout all of the cards also. The parts of the cards, which let down the
consistency slightly and could do with a few improvements, are the image size of the main
photograph and also the font size.
You can see a distinct variation in size for both of these throughout the course of viewing
all of the cards and by sorting this and ensuring everything is the same size and proportion
this will make the cards look better as an overall set and will resolve any issues there may
be with the consistency of the set of cards. The border on the front of the card is located in
the same region each time and holds the main title for each individual recipe. It has been
made red so that it stands out from the background but also because it adds some colour
to the cards and gives the viewer something visually interesting to look at.
The colour of the red ties in with the theme of valentines day and teenage girls because red
is viewed as being a girly colour, which represents love and passion. The title has been
written in black to ensure it stands out from the background and could easily be read.
There has also been the addition of an outer glow to the title after receiving feedback,
which stated that, the text and background blended together; this then allowed chance
improve upon this before handing it in and you can see a massive improvement from such
a little manipulation being made.
For the final images there has been a stroke placed around the outside of each image on
the cards to draw the photograph out from the background and make it stand out to catch
the viewers eye immediately.

2. Image Construction
Discuss the contents of your final images and reflect upon decisions made.
(Content used- image/text/graphic, use of colour, original or stock images etc)
On the set of cards there is a balance between stock images and original photographs (4
each). This has been done because we did not have the time or supplies to be able to
reproduce each individual recipe and photograph them all ourselves. I think that this has
worked well because the original images show the turn out you will actually get through a
home made recipe whereas the stock images look highly professional and they could be
viewed as being “too good to be true”. The images also show other serving suggestions
along with how the final product will look, e.g. serving with a scoop of ice cream. The
images are colourful and bright which makes them eye catching and also look appealing to
the viewer and this may make them in turn want to try out the recipes and eat the foods
themselves. All of the images are sharp and clear, ensuring none of the details have been
left out. They have been composed using a shallow aperture so that the main focus is on
the dish and everything else loses its focus and has not been brought into focus, ensuring
that there is nothing to take your focus away from the product.
The vegetarian logo has been manipulated in Photoshop using „hue and saturation‟ to
change the colour from green to red. This benefits the cards because it ties in with the
colour scheme of red and also the theme of Valentines Day. The red cupid on the back of
the cards adds something which is visually appealing and something for the viewer to look
at but also helps to tie in the Valentines Day feel. It has been made red to add a bit of
colour to the back of the cards and a filter has been placed over the top to make it look
artistic and sketchy. The effect of this is that it adds a little feminine touch and makes it look
young enough to be aimed at teenage girls without making it look to young or childish.
The card is similar to the „Raspberry, Marzipan and Brandy Ice Cream‟ recipe card, which
has already been created by the Vegetarian Society. Both my set of cards and this one are
similar in the sense of they use red as the main colour scheme. The images featured in the
cards are similar also because they are both up close to the dishes to allow them to fill
most of the frame and they also both use a shallow aperture to focus only on the food.
Representation
Discuss the semiotics and connotations created from the content you have included.
(What meaning or suggestions are created from the images/colours/designs you have used?)
One of the strongest meanings or connotations that you pick up on from the images used
for the cards is love. You get this through the use of the recipes being heart shaped and
also one of the recipe‟s used the word „love‟. The cupid strongly uses the connotation of
love as many people view him as being the roman god of love and affection. The belief was
that cupid used his arrows to shoot people and make them fall in love with each other
because “love wounds and inflames the heart‟. This could be passing on the connotation of
who ever you serve these treats to will fall in love with you instantly but also could hold the
connotation of yourself falling in love with the dishes at first bite.

3. Audiences:
Create an audience profile of your chosen demographic
(Age, gender, psychographic, geodemographic, NRS Social Grade, hobbies, sexuality etc)
The target audience for this set of recipe cards was mainly teenage girls but we also tried
targeting males by not making the cards too feminine. The age range we opted to target
was a teenager so between the ages of 12 and 18 was what we had in mind. The reason
for mainly aiming at girls in this age range was purely because we gained the most
feedback from them when we conducted our surveys at the beginning of the project. We
also found that because we had a younger audience to contend with it would be best to
keep our recipes quick, simple and easy that wouldn‟t cost too much to purchase the
ingredients for and make since they are still in school/college and are not likely to have
huge amounts of cash to spend on making the dishes. We figured this would be the age of
when people are first starting to be come interested in having boyfriends/girlfriends and
would want to treat their loved ones so we kept them simple and easy to make but
advanced enough to impress and wow their partners to ensure they enjoy the dishes and
their time together. Since this age range is likely to be living at home we also thought that
this would be a cute and generous idea for ways that they could also treat their parents or
do something nice for them on the special day. Overall, it is targeted mainly at the younger
female generation but it is an idea that the whole family and both genders could enjoy and
find pleasure in along with treating each other and spending quality time together.

4. How have you constructed your work to appeal to this audience?
Use box below for text or page space to include an annotated copy of an example of your work to help
illustrate how you have done this. You can use a combination of the two.
The overall layout of the cards has been kept simple and easy to follow
through. It is fairly basic since we are aiming at an audience as young as 12
and did not want to overwhelm them with information and masses of text
which may put them off of trying the recipes. We went with a girly colour
scheme to ensure that it was obvious who we wanted to view our cards the
most and also used the bright reds and pinks to attract the audience‟s eye and
pull them towards taking a closer look at the set of cards.

5. Historical and Cultural Context:
What did you use as your design influences and why were they chosen?
(What existing media products influenced the final look of your work?)
Initially at the start of the project I looked at recipe cards which already existed amongst the
Vegetarian Society along with other recipe cards that were found on the internet. After
looking through all of the different existing cards and comparing them for similarities and
differences I noticed that all of them were similar in layout or colour schemes. I took all of
this into mind when creating my own cards but do not think any of them had a massive
impact on the way I made my cards and don‟t think my own are drastically similar to
existing ones.
Do vegetarian products have a specific design aesthetic and how does your project
reflect/contrast this? Why?
As far as I could tell, there were no specific aesthetics that all vegetarian cards have in
common. The main thing I noticed was that the colour schemes used on the cards tied in
with the actual recipes, i.e. green colours if the food had vegetables in it.
Finished Products:
Does your finished product reflect your initial plans? How?
If there are any differences, describe why changes were made.
(You can use visual examples of flat plans and finished products to illustrate this)
I think that for the most part the final set of cards matches our initial plan we originally
wanted to use. However, there are quite a few changes which we made as we went along.
One of the changes which we made was the banner on the front of the cards; we changed
the colour of it and also made changed to the title itself. We turned the title round so that it
read across the banner rather than downwards and we also added an outer glow to the text
to make it stand out and separate it from the background which made it easier to read in
the end and it also caught your eye instantly. Another way in which we changed our cards
from our initial plans is that we changed the location and size of the Vegetarian Society
logo. We made it smaller to ensure that it would fit easily on the card and moved it to the
front rather than the back because this is what the brief stated. On our original plans we
initially decided to make all of our copy in red to add colour to the cards and to also match
the colour scheme. In the end though we decided this did not work so we made our main
copy – ingredients and method – black and left the main headings and sub headings in red
to make the different sections stand out and make it apparent what each section is.

6. Does your finished product match what you were set in the brief? How?
In some ways our product does match the brief but there are also quite a few ways which
our set of cards does not match the brief. We have met the brief in the sense of we have
created 8 cards that are all suitable for vegetarians to eat and enjoy. We have also met the
brief because we placed the Vegetarian Society logo on the front of the cards as stated to.
The brief stated that there should be an apparent theme throughout the course of all of the
cards and we did this also by maintaining the same colour scheme and layout. All of the
cards we have created use high quality food photographs as required in the brief also to
maintain a high standard across everything on the cards.
One way which we did not meet the brief is that we were not consistent with our
measurements throughout the course of all 8 cards. We sometimes used the correct metric
units (grams, teaspoons, tablespoons etc.) but some of the recipe‟s we used drifted away
from this and used imperial measurements such as cups etc. The brief asked for the
method to be numbered but this is not consistent throughout the cards, we have some
which the steps have been numbered and some which have not. In the brief the client has
asked to include information such as how many the recipe will serve, preparation time and
vegan suitability which we have not done. We have included the cooking time within the
recipe but the client specifically asked for all of these small details listed separately before
the ingredients.
How did the use of peer feedback help you in your production?
(Reference specific examples and their final outcome in finished product)
After looking through the peer feedback we received we decided that there would be
something‟s we would change about our cards to improve them and make them as higher
standard as possible.
“There is an error on this card because on the brief it says to have the vegetarian society
logo on the front of the card and it’s on the back of the cards rather than on the front of
them” We took into consideration this comment and after re-reading the project brief and
noticing that they were right, we changed the location of the logo immediately and moved it
to the front of the cards.
“I think that the title of the different sections on the cards could be done in a different font
as everything is the same which makes the card look quite boring, I also think that a
background colour could be added or some sort of effect to make it look different.” We
considered this comment and although we did not change the fonts since we could not find
one we liked which we considered suitable for the theme of our cards we still did make
some changes. We changed the cards so that the headings were red and a slightly larger
size than the main text which we changed to being black.

7. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your final product regarding its technical
and aesthetical qualities.
Use box below for text or page space to include an annotated copy of your work to help illustrate how you
have done this. You can use a combination of the two. Reference what you like and dislike about the work
with consistent reference to correct terminology of tools/effects used.
The overall layout of the cards has been kept simple. This is a strength for our
cards because it was easy to match the layout on each card and maintain
consistency throughout. It is also a strength because it has been kept minimalistic
which makes the cards look professional and to a high standard. However, the
downside and weakness to this minimalism is that the cards may be viewed as
being „boring‟ and not appeal to the audience we are targeting which is young
girls. We have not included much colour in our cards and this may be a weakness
because they won‟t catch people‟s eye easily and people may not notice them if
they are scanning over a shelf of cards whereas a different set may be a lot
brighter and visually interesting, making our audience not purchase our cards.

8. What skills/knowledge have you gained/developed in this project?
How could these be applied in future practice?
One thing I have learned from this project is food photography. Although the project
was not based around photography I was still able to learn some things from it due to
taking my own photographs for the cards. The photography through this project has
shown me that changing the aperture you use in your images can make a difference
to the way your final photograph‟s look. I have learned that using a shallow depth of
field worked best through the course of taking my images as it ensured the dishes
were in focus but any background information that would take your eye away from
the food was out of focus. Something else which I have gained/developed through
this project is my ability to work to a brief. Throughout this project there was roughly
2/3 brief‟s which we were working to and we had to ensure we stuck to everything
that was demanded which we found extremely hard and in the end found out we
have missed quite a lot. This is a skill which can be developed more and used in the
future since because a lot of work you do in the print industry requires you to work to
and meet a brief‟s requirements.
Production Processes
Do you believe your work is creative and technically competent? Why?
(Reference specific examples (use images if this will help) of where you believe your work is
particularly visually or technically impressive)
I believe that some aspects for out cards are creative. One of these aspects being
that after I had taken the photographs myself I uploaded them into Photoshop to
create manipulations or enhancements. I adjusted the „levels‟ and „curves‟ to create
various tones and colours within the images. I also used a shape and clipping mask
to change the overall shape of the images and make them more visually appealing. I
used a heart because I thought it would look good and because it would fit in with the
theme of the cards but it did not work as well as I would have liked to in the end we
used squared images all the way through.
How effectively did you manage your time?
(Could you have used time more wisely? Did a particular aspect of the project take longer than
expected? Did you complete everything on schedule?)
The time spent on this project was measured fairly well. All of the individual tasks
and creations of the cards were completed ahead of time. The schedule which we
created was followed as closely as possible and as far as I can tell everything has
been completed and is up to a high standard of work. Some of the aspects did take
slightly longer than planned for the project as a whole because my team mate spend
a lot of their time using Tumblr or texting people rather than spending time on the
project at hand but we still managed to get everything completed on time without fail
and all of my individual tasks got finished quickly and effectively.
If you could repeat the process what would you do differently?
If I was to do this project again I would add more colour to the cards. I would like
them to be more bright in colour and vibrant to attract people‟s attention and make
them want to use my product. Another thing I would change may be the overall
layout of the cards. I would make them more visually appealing and attractive to the
eye rather than keeping them simple and fairly dull in terms of where I have placed
various parts on the cards.

9. Working to a Brief in the Creative Media Industries
Constraints Experienced:
What constraints did you encounter and how did you consider/avoid them?
Legal Constraints
One of the main legal constraints associated with this project would be the brief itself
because once you sign it you have legally agreed upon what it states and you have
to abide it word for word perfectly and do everything the client has asked of you.
Another legal restraint may be if you are aiming your product at children as there is
many laws and restrictions associated with children‟s products.
Regulatory Constraints
One of the main safety/regulatory constraints we may have to deal with is because our
product is for younger teenagers as well as older ones so we will have to ensure we meet all
legal requirements and guidelines following this. we would also have to make sure we added
any allergy advice which may be required such as nuts. We would also have to keep certain
pieces of information to ourselves and not give it to anyone else.
Financial Constraints
One of the main legal constraints we came across whilst doing this project was that
we had to ensure we could afford all of the ingredients in order to be able to cook the
products for the photographs. If we was going to be doing this project for real and
actually creating these cards in a mass production we would also have to ensure we
could afford the paper to print the cards on to and any ink needed for printing.
Something else we would have had to pay for would be any jobs we may have to
delegate to other companies.
Management:
How did you work as part of a group?
(Did you lead the project? What parts of the project did you take charge of? Did you enjoy working as
part of a group? Why?)
Overall I‟d say out team work skills were effective as we have successfully made a
whole set of cards which correspond with each individual card. I enjoyed working as
part of a group because it lifted some of the work load and having other people input
their ideas was beneficial because you got to generate lots of ideas and come out
with the best of everyone‟s work. One thing that I did find though was that I lead the
project in some ways and I had to keep nudging Chloe to keep up with her work
because she would become distracted by her phone or an online website. Another
problem I found was that Chloe was often late to lesson or didn‟t turn up and this
meant I had to do parts of her work to ensure we didn‟t fall behind with anything.
How important is communication when working in a group?
When you are working in a group communication is highly important because
otherwise you there will become a point when tension and conflict arise. Without
communication you will both be doing your own things and it could turn out that in

10. the end you either both did exactly the same thing or you have very different
outcomes. Communication will ensure that everything runs smoothly and according
to plan with no errors or issues.
What have you learnt about working in a group and how will you apply this to
future practice?
Whilst working in a group I have found that although having other people to work
with has its benefits there is also the weaknesses. You have to ensure you have a
reliable work force that won‟t let you down and will get all of their work done on time
and to the best of their ability. One of the benefits I have learnt about working in a
group is that there is always someone to help you if you get stuck or need some
help. I can apply this new found knowledge to the future by ensuring that I have a
work force and colleagues who are willing to put in the time and effort to get all jobs
done well and on time.
What have you learnt about working in to a brief and how will you apply this to
future practice?
I have learnt that when working to a brief it is important to read everything through
thoroughly and to keep going back constantly throughout the project and re-reading
it to ensure you complete everything the client has asked for and that you do not
miss anything or do something wrong.