Below I have described what design and how much information will be included in each of my stationary.
Logo- I will make this very simple by using a simple shape and by using the first letter of my company but making show it looks effective.
Letterhead- no extra information will be on this besides the company’s contact detail and the logo to represent the company. I have to make this simple as not just so that it looks effective but I have to look at its purpose.
Business card- the business card will be discreet and only include the essential information about the company’s details and that is it. I believe this is important, as the purpose of the business card is to give a professional impression to people but at the same time make sure that the information is clear and understandable.
Leaflet- this product will include the most details and will be the most colourful and attractive, as its purpose is to appeal to potential customers. It will include contact details and will also include information about the company.
To get information for my products so that they look professional I will use both IT and non-IT sources so that I have a variety of information at my deposal. I need all the information that I can get in order to make my products have professionalism about them.
I knew I was going to defiantly use IT to make my new products and from my past knew this would be the best thing to do but I still took in to account that even IT has its problems I decided to look what the advantages and the disadvantages of using IT.
The disadvantages, which I have named in the table above, are all backed up by this quote.
“There are many problems that can occur when you are working with computers. Repetitive strain injury, backache, eyestrain, headaches and skin rashes are conditions, which can occur. By using various devices, correct posture and good working practices, these conditions can be prevented”.
Information Systems for You (Third Edition) Stephen Doyle; Nelson Thornes (2001)
After looking at all the advantages and the disadvantages I have found out there are more positives therefore I will IT to make my products and the problems I have found have been overcome by the following.
Eye strain- this can be overcome by just simply using something called an anti-glare screen.
Damage to disks- Make at least 2 copies of your work for example floppy disk and the school system.
Viruses- there is programs to check floppy disks and data taken off the Internet for viruses.
Back strain- this can be overcome by using a suitable chair and taking breaks by gong for a walk every so often.
The system that I was using had a varied number of programs I that I could have use for different problems but to know what programs to use and for what job I looked at the advantages and the disadvantages of all the programs available to me.
Below I have shown all the advantages and the disadvantages for the different software.
Paint
Advantages
- Easy to use
- Tools like paint, drawing and airbrush
- You can use text
- You can rotate images
Disadvantages
You cannot edit the text
- There isn’t an A4 page that can be used as a template
- Bitmap image is blocky
- Not a good range of colours
- Not many different tools to do effects.
Microsoft Word
Advantages
- You can use different fonts
- You can have a template of your choice
- You can present your data in lots of different ways EG. Graphs
- Insert clipart
- Use Word art
- Draw basic pictures
- Import picture etc from other software.
Disadvantages
- Not as easy to use for designing a poster
- Not enough drawing tools
- Can be difficult to edit at times.
Microsoft Publisher
Advantages
- You could use the wizard
- Generally easy to use
- You can get pictures from the Art Gallery
- You can use Word Art
Disadvantages
Not artistic
Not enough tools for drawing
Corel Draw
Advantages
- It has a wide range of tools
- It has space to help assemble the poster
- You can use a variety of different textures and colours
Internet
Advantages
- Easy to access
- Wide range of information is available
- Information is updated and new all the time.
Disadvantage
- It takes quite a bit of time getting a web page
- All of the above had help pages that were easy to use and made it easier to use the software.
- Can be difficult to find what you want
I used Microsoft Word to do all my write ups as it is easy to do so and has some very good tools such as the spell check which goes through your work and finds any errors that might occur
The screen dump below shows how the spellchecker can be used to check my work and to find the errors.
Although this is just one method of checking my work there are others such as asking for support from your teacher or looking on the Internet for help.
Throughout my coursework I made sure that I was saving my work 15-30 minutes so that there was no chance of me losing my work and I also made backups of my work on my home computer and on floppy disk so that if I was to lose my work for some reason I would have a spare copy of everything.
Another thing, which I did was to organise my self by giving my coursework its own folder which I labelled ‘IT’ so that I could easily find all my work and it was not getting mixed up with my other coursework’s and files.
Logo
For my business I decided to do a chocolate business called Muz Chocolates and first of all I did a logo using Microsoft word drawing package and I used different shapes to make my logo.
First of all I decided to use a big M in the middle as the company was called Muz Chocolates and as Muz started with an M and because I wanted the logo to be simple as possible.
Then I chose the colours that I did because they appealed to me and in my opinion they make the logo stand out. But to get these colours I messed around with different shades of blue. After doing all of this I got this logo.
I decided to use the circular shape, as it looked better and smother than the others and I decided to use black in the background to make the big M stand out as this is the main focus of my logo and this is the impact I want to have.
The shade of blue that I chose was one that was not dark so it wouldn’t camouflage in the background so I then decided to use a lighter shade so that the M would stand out from the top and then camouflage towards the bottom. As shown below.
Which in my opinion was something interesting. This was how I made my logo for my company Muz Chocolates and this is my final design, which I did.
Here I have use a screen dump to show that I could format my images by doing the following.
I right clicked on the picture and then went to ‘format picture’.
Here I could crop and edit my picture however I liked.
Below is a picture to show the before and the after of the picture which I cropped.
All of the promotional devices I have made have been based upon my taste and opinion. As they were not directly made for me therefore I needed to make sure that it would appeal to all customers and at the same time give a respectable and professional image of the company. To make sure that my company products met this criteria I did some field research or primary research, for this I asked my fellow pupils in the class, I did want to ask some professionals working in the chocolate business but as there are no major chocolate firms around my area I was unable to do this.
Below I have listed the comments and criticism that was given.
Logo
‘Simple but effective I like that but maybe the M could be a brighter blue.’
Business Card
‘Very good choice of colours only thing just consider different layouts.’
Letterhead
‘Very nice, got your details and looks very professional’
Leaflet
‘I like it but could have a bit more information about the company
All the information comes from only fellow classmates this is because there are no local chocolates companies from where I could get more information and even better criticism.
From all of this I used the information and the criticism and made the adjustments to my products, which helped me to improve all of this.
The first designs of my products were not the best as they only consisted of my ideas, which meant that although they look good to me the general public, may not think the same. So I decided to get views of people who eat chocolate so I asked people in my class and from there views I made improvement so my products so that everyone was happy with it. I was at first going to see someone who works in the chocolate business but as there are no big firms around where I live I was unable to do this.
Logo
When designing my logo I has look at shapes, colour and effects because what ever I did for my logo was going to be shown throughout my other products because I feel that it looks a lot more professional if there is a consistency in the design of the products. When actually doing the design I wanted to make sure that my logo looked simple but was effective at the same time so that it was easily recognisable when seen. So based my logo around a simple shape such a circle and worked around that by using the first letter of my company. Then looking at the colours I decided to use blues as I wanted to colours that would be associated with my company and id not want to use browns for example as they have already been use by other companies.
Letterhead
Designing my letterhead was the easiest as I had all my information to put o the letterhead and found my idea from Publisher which I used to adapt to my colours and to my company. I just made sure that the design was simple and that all the details of the company were on the letterhead so that it could be associated with my company no one else. The design was just simply the two rectangles with the square and then by using fill effects on Microsoft Word I faded them in to the background.
Business Card
When first designing my business card I was not sure about what the layout should look like so I decided to look at Publisher for ideas and then used Microsoft Word to make it from scratch. Then I just simply used the same design I used for the letterhead and made sure I had all my details on the business card but this time making sure that I did not forget to put in all the companies contact details because this is the purpose of the business card so that people can get in contact with the company and so that they can have access to all information but putting on the companies website address at the same time.
Leaflet
I knew before hand tat the leaflet would be the most difficult to make out of them all as it contained the most information and needed the most attention for doing. At first it was difficult but as I started doing my leaflet it got easier all the time. This time I used publisher again but for looking for designs only and one I had my design I used the Microsoft drawing package to make my layout and then I started adding all my information on the leaflet such as details about the company, contact numbers and a map to show the location of where it was, I got the map off the internet. Another thing that I did was that I made sure I used the same colours as I used on all the other products so that everything I did looked simple, effective and most of all professional.
In conclusion I would say that my end products came out very well and could all be used as real life products. The only problem with the products would be that because so many colours are used it might be a bit expensive to produce a bigger quantity of the products otherwise I am very happy with the way all the products have turned out.
