Stock testing.

When I printed this first test I realised that the tree design could be seen through the type on the spine which isn't supposed to happen and also that on one of the final pieces the tree design colours came out a lot stronger even though the exact same files had been used to create both pieces. This showed me the importance of constantly printing things out in order to see if the design is how I would like it to be. These are both things I will go back and alter in the actual files. 

The first test print of the tree postcard also showed me something that I had not noticed on screen. The tree can't actually be seen on the print on the left so I needed to go back in illustrator and alter the opacity of the tree and possibly also bring this to the front or forward. When I made these changes and printed it again, as seen on the right, the design looked a lot better because I still wanted the tree to be faint but you can actually see it on this print out where as before you couldn't. 

I also made the changes on the rest of the products in the whole range so that everything was definitely going to print out the same and then printed out another example of the postcard in order to see if the changes I made to the tree worked across the products with more imagery in well enough too. 

To rectify the problem I had with the tree image coming out clearer on one of the final products I decided to take the opacity down on this piece only and this seems to have worked although I don't have a photographic example at this point. 

Watercolour and gloss

I wanted to choose stock for this brief that would give a high quality finish because not only are bookcovers usually on high quality stock to enhance design but the rest of the products are limited edition so they need to have a really sophisticated, well considered finish. I thought both watercolour and gloss would be perfect for this because watercolour has a high quality texture to it and because my designs have a watercolour effect, this fits in really well and gloss/varnish tends to be applied to a lot of book covers to give them a high quality finish but probably considerably more low cost. Although both of these stocks made the colours really stand out and give a high class finish I definitely think I prefer the watercolour in terms of the enhancing factor of the designs but I know this isn't practical for the bookcover because I've never known a bookcover to be printed on this stock. This is not to say that it can't be used for the other products though because everything will still link together in terms of colour and design. The gloss is really effective but I think if I were to go with the watercolour for other products and gloss for the bookcover the two wouldn't link 

together as well. 

This has helped me make the decision that the bookcover will be printed on matt white stock  (as traditionally seen through bookcovers) and the rest of the products on watercolour card. 

When it came to stock testing for the illustrative type brief my printer decided it had, had enough and was printing out a blue background on everything as seen above where there should be white space. This just showed me that you had to be prepared for problems such as this and it was always good to be ahead of schedule incase this happened, which luckily I was! I spent a while trying to resolve the issue and eventually I did. 

Cartridge paper, white card, medium silky paper. 

I went for a range of completely different stocks to test this brief on because there wasn't really a particular constraint I was working to as a lot of the products were prints that were to be printed onto stock. I chose cartridge paper for it's cheap cost yet interesting texture, white card simply for durability and cleanliness because this wouldn't interfere with the colour of the designs and a medium silky paper because the texture was really nice to the touch and also would not interfere with the colour of the designs. All of the considerations were to do with the fact these products are going to be interacted with and need to be visually high quality. 

Cartridge paper is most successful I think because although it's a slightly off white colour, it doesn't effect the colours and the texture of it is both visually interesting and nice to the touch. It's also a very afforable stock and for a company starting out I think this is something that would definitely need to be considered. Cartridge paper will work also work well across all the print products because its durable and isn't too thick to be framed if the consumer chose to do this with the product. 

White card, catridge paper, bulky newsprint, gloss. 

I didn't feel it necessary to actually print the black and white design onto the products because obviously the colour isn't going to change based on the stock it's printed on to and because it's black and white it's very likely that it will already work on a range of stock, it just depends what sort of finish i'm looking for and if i'm applying any actual print finishes to the designs. The majority of the products also need to be very durable because they are to be used numerous times so this is definitely something to consider with stock choice. At this point i've already decided that i'd like to foil block my floral design on some of the products so this rules out the gloss finish/stock because the foil blocking won't really have any impact at all and will blend into this. I could use gloss for the products I'm choosing to not foil block but then the range won't work together as well so it doesn't seem apropriate. Cartridge paper and bulky newsprint don't seem to have enough durability that I mentioned previously which is something that a lot of the products need. The only way these would work is if I used two layers and put these together but then at industry standard this wouldn't be practical or possible really. 

The white card is definitely be the best option not only because of the fact it's clean white so best represents the 'black and white' status of the brief but also because it's very durable and this is something that the consumer will be looking for when purchasing products. This also makes the products really afforable and simple to produce because theres a uniform asthetic. 

Some of the products that would be covered with the design would be covered with a medium white stock with the same texture as the white card eg. the ring binder.