Design Practice: Research Publication

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Sunday, 23 March 2014

OUGD505: Yankee candle research publication : Bind and wax melt.

YANKEE CANDLE PUBLICATION.
BIND AND WAX MELT.

As I had previously stated I wanted to Make the book look very traditional, to match the traditional aesthetic of the yankee candle brand. I had looked into the traditional bind of books (a case bind) However I then reconsidered how this would work as my front and back pages are printed on mount board. In order to produce a case bind, one must create a skeleton for the book which is then covered in bookram to create hinges between each piece of board. I wanted to leave my book uncovered with the pieces of board showing (As I had digitally printed them) and so I had to think of a way that I could bind the book, without compromising the classic aesthetic I was trying hard to achieve.

I asked some other students if they had ever printed onto mount board, and used these as the front and back cover when binding a book. One student informed me of a simple bind he had done.

Taking the mount board (top) place two pieces of inner paper on the inside face of each page. Place all the content pages (cut out seperately - no folds) inbetween the pieces of mountboard in inner paper. glue up the spine, getting as much inbetween the spine of each page as possible, then glue a piece of mesh down the spine to secure.

I took all of my book pieces down to vernon street and began working on the bind. I cut inner pages from red paper to match the rest of the book aesthetic. Red is a strong colour used throughout the yankee candle brand taking pride of place in their logo, candles, and packaging.

I grouped all of these pieces together in order into a stack, and cut two pieces of grey board to put either side of the stack to protect the front and back cover being damaged by the press. Once all the pages were flush against the spine, I secured the mass of pages into the press

Using my finger I applied two layers of PVA glue to the spine for extra hold, attempting to get glue in between each of the pages so that none of them would come loose and fall out.

After leaving the glue to thoroughly set for 20 minutes, I cut a piece of mesh to fit the spine. This will secure all the pages in place, and give them something to stick to. I could have left the bind at this point, however a mesh bind is not a detail that you would find on a Yankee candle product. Therefore, I cut a piece of red bookram, so that it would overlap the spine by 0.5 mm on each side, and cover up the mesh, leaving the bind look much more clean, and more so in tune with the brand.

Next I began making the Wax melt which I would be placing on top of the book where the red ribbons cross. The design I came up with was simple as shown previously.

I made the design on illustrator for an easy export into Ethos the laser cutting software. I set up the wax melt so that It would raster certain parts and cut out around the edges to create the circle imprint.

I raster cut the detailing of the design so that the wax would press into the crevices, I went over this 3 times on the laser cut to insure that they were deep. I also cut out 4 plain circles to stick on the black of the plate to make a cylinder like handle. I hot glue gunned this to the plate for extra security and left it to dry.

Next I drew around the plate onto a piece of red paper, this is so that when I melted the wax, I knew where to drip the wax, and how big a puddle of wax I would need to fit the size of the plate.

At this point I lit the wicked wax stick and began melting the wax into a large 'puddle' against the paper.Once the puddle was large enough and of a similar thickness throughout I created a moisture barrier on the seal by covering the plate in water. I had read in some instructions that I needed to let the plate sink into the wax for around 10 seconds until the wax cooled.

However when I pulled the plate away, I realised that I hadn't let the wax cool for long enough and therefore it didn't work. I realised in the instructions I had read that the wax seal being made was much smaller, and therefore for my design I would have to increase the cooling time.

For the next attempt I followed exactly the same routine however I held the seal down for much longer, in hopes that when I pulled up the plate the wax would be cool enough. The second attempt worked better than the first however It still did not work. I think that this was due to the fact I was only rubbing water onto the plate to create a barrier between the wax and the wooden plate. As I didn't have much melting wax left, this would be my final attempt, and so I decided to substitute water for oil in the hopes this would create more of a barrier.

Lifting the wooden plate up I realised that my final attempt was much more successful than the first. The wording on the wax melt was fully readable in comparison to the first two attempts. Unfortunately It didn't have as great a shape or shine usually seen in wax melts, however I was more happy to have a readable melt than a more aesthetically pleasing shape.

Happy with the third design I glued this to the front of the book, completing the parcel like aesthetic I was looking for.

OUGD505: Yankee candle research publication - Traditional aesthetic/ details.

I had previously spoken about wanting my book to take on a traditional aesthetic as Yankee candle is a very traditional brand. Therefore I looked into details of traditional books. There were two fine points in particular I found which I thought would help to push my book into that of the Traditional aesthetic and the Yankee candle brand, these are shown in images below:

Ornamental letters usually found at the start of each chapter in a book.

Source

These ornamental letters were found in very old books dating back as far as the celtic era. Now when used in a modern sense, they are reminiscent of tradition and when looked at automatically take people back to a previous era.

However I didn't want to go too historic with the design, as there was a chance that is could pull the piece from looking traditional to overly archaic.

Therefore I looked for some design in which people had applied these details in a more modern sensibility, grounding the design in the current era, whilst still being reminiscent of the past.

The two examples above draw upon the details of old ornamental type however firmly foot themselves within the modern world of design. The second piece of design is one that particularly inspired me for my book details. The design is a wedding invitation that was prescribed to have a story book theme. The design of the Ornamental letter looks somewhat modern due to its balance between ornamentation and minimalism. The letter combines both outline and fill shapes, however these are not clouded by any half toned, hand drawn style illustrations.

I decided to use the ornamental letters as a consistent running theme throughout the titles of my book. Taking the first letter of each title and drawing it inspired by the above styles and completing the rest of the title in Yankee candles serif font 'Book Antiqua'.

Not only did I want these letters to be adorned with detail, I wanted them to also be reflective of the heart of Yankee candle, the candles themselves.

I sketched up ideas, using an extra bold version of the book antiqua font as a base, and adorning it with line, and white fill decorations, the main motif with a nod to candles. Below is the sort of Idea I came up with. I also experimented with doing the letters with both a white fill or black fill but found that the white tended to look too cluttered which Is what I wanted to stay away from.

The figures which I needed to produce in the ornamental style were T,Y,H, F, 1 and 4, However once I felt comfortable with the first 4 I had drawn, shown above, I worked on them digitally.

Inspired by the design of the invitations, I decided to take my page designs further by adding a slightly decorative border to each page. I again sketched up a design using only fill and outline elements, combining simple shapes and another candle motif. Once I scanned the design in as shown below I worked to create it digitally in illustrator.

However I felt that this section of design could be changed to be more in tune with the Yankee candle brand and so I played around with the melting candle motif in the bottom corner, and interchanged it with the minimalist yankee candle logo, used across a range of their design.

Below is how the border and titles appear when combines together:

OUGD505: Yankee candle research publication - Final page designs.

YANKEE CANDLE.
RESEARCH PUBLICATION.
FINAL PAGE DESIGNS.

With the layouts I drew up, illustrations I have designed, body copy I have written and photographs I have sourced for each page, I am now ready to simply drop all of these elements into place.

Doing and managing to complete everything in this exact order means that I was well informed all throughout my process. Planning out the pages by writing up body copy so that I knew the content for each page, then being able to sketch the layouts based upon this, sketching illustrations and then sourcing photographs has lead me to a point now where it is solely about putting all these elements into position.
I have found that this is one of the first times I have been able to work this way as I have been very strict with doing everything in chronological order, whereas sometimes before, I would complete certain tasks such as page layouts after the final piece. However I have found that doing it in chronological order has lead me to being much more efficient.

Illustrations and photographs.

As in Yankee candle design they mostly use photography within their branding, I decided that I would inkeep within this by using photography as my main source of imagery within the book. However also noting that Yankee candle have been branching out and using illustration, I will use this method within my book for images which I cannot find photographs for and for those which are not appropriate.

I made a list of the photographs that I would need for each page, and then the remaining illustrations.

The History of Yankee Candle:
Content: Describing how the company first began, from the first candle, to the first store and to becoming America's best love scented candle brand.
Left page: Illustration of first candle Kitteridge made out of melted crayons which sparked the Yankee candle company.
Right page: Photography of outside and inside of a Yankee candle store.

The success of Yankee candle:
Content: Focuses on the large selection of scents available at Yankee candle and what is special about the brand.
Left page: Images of the 5 fragrance groups. (logo/motifs) already used by the brand.
Right page: Image/ illustration of Yankee candle logo.

Yankee candles most popular products:
Content: Lists yankee candles 8 most popular scented candles and every product available for purchase at Yankee candle.
Left page: Photographs of 4 most popular products.
Right page: Photographs of 4 most popular products.

The effects of scented candles:
Content: Describes how different scents/combinations of scents can help relieve and alleviate problems.
Left page: Two illustrations of candle scents.
Right page: Two illustrations of candle scents.

Fun facts about Yankee Candle:
Content: Two fun facts about Yankee candle.
No illustrations or photographs - Purely text based.

How Yankee candles are made:
Content: Shows and describes how Yankee candles are made.
Left page: Illustration of glass and wax.
Right page: Illustration of colour, scent and wick.

Yankee candle for everyone!:
Content: Describes how Yankee candle have produced candles to attract other audiences than their main targets, and activities for other audiences to take part in at the main Yankee candle stores.
Left page: Photo of man candles.
Right page: Photos of Yankee candle village, Hand wax mould, dip your own candle.

Yankee candle through the years:
Content: How the Yankee candle has adapted and evolved to grow with its constantly modernising audience.
Left page: Old photo of Mike kitteredge at Yankee candle, 2x photos of jar candles.
Right page: Photographs of miscellaneous Yankee candles that demonstrate how broad the company is in its current stage, and how it is attempting to branch out.

List of illustrations I need to draw:

- Melted wax candle.
- 4 x the effects of scented candles (draw scents)
- The process of making yankee candles.

I didn't want my illustrations to take too much attention away from the photography but support the images instead. I also wanted the illustrations to take a somewhat traditional approach and so I made the decision to do them in black and white.

I started by drawing up each of the illustrations with a drawing pen, I wanted the illustrations to have a very hand drawn, classic presence to fit in with the style of the book I had preconceived.

I then took the illustration into illustrator, and gave it a traditional watercolour look, by using the watercolour brush to add depth beneath the already existing outline.

I carried on with this design process for my following illustrations. The next illustrations I needed to produce were the effects of scented candles page in which I talk about how certain scents can relieve symptoms of illnesses. Therefore I drew up illustrations of each of the scents it recommends; Spiced apple and berries for lowering blood pressure, Jasmine, lemon and camomile for relieving depression, Lavender, Sandalwood and vanilla to combat insomnia and finally, citrus fruits to boost the spirit.

Apple and berries:

Lavender, Sandalwood and vanilla:

Jasmine, lemon and camomile:

Citrus fruits:

The last set of illustrations I had to drew up were ones to indicate the process of producing a yankee candle. The journey from Glass jar, to wax, to colour, to scent, to wick.

Yankee candle prides themselves on how bold and continuous the colours are inside their candles, ensuring that even when cut in half the colour is just as bold and strong in the centre as it is on the outside. At first I didn't know how to illustrate the idea of colour through a black and white drawing, however after thinking, it was very simple to come up with an idea that would simply indicate the continuity of colour throughout the candle, by illustrating a candle split in half with a unvarying coloured centre.

In order to communicate scent, I drew an illustration of one of my favourite Yankee candle scents 'Paradise spice.'

Now I have all the illustrations drawn up, I will cull the images I need fill in the rest of the gaps. I would have liked to have collected my own photographs, however there is not a chain Yankee candle store in the U.K, there is solely stockists, therefore I would not have been able to collect the photographs I needed to communicate the messages reflected in the text. I also would not have been able to cull my own photos of past Yankee candle special editions, and photos of the old Mike Kitteredge, and so the only way to represent the text properly was to find my photos from other sources.

History of Yankee candle:
- Outside Yankee candle shop.
- Inside Yankee candle stop.