Research

Stamps

I first looked into stamps in general to help me get some initial inspiration for styles of design that work best in a smaller scale and to find what appealed to me. From this I found that small 2D designs or patterns work best as anything too detailed will be lost in the smaller scale. Because the designs must be so simple I think it would best to do them in a stylised way to make them more interesting and unique. 

Matchboxes

Next I looked into matchboxes and from this I found that the most effective designs that I liked best were either patterns or typography based. I think I would like to go down the typography route as my stamps will be image based so I want to have a mix of different techniques.

Vintage Stamps

I would like to try out the vintage style for my stamps and matchbox because I think it would work well for smaller scale as it is very simple and 2D which makes the images stand out and remain clear and legible even in stamp size. I have also found from this research that the colours schemes tend to be slightly faded and lean towards darker shades of colours which I will have to taken into account for my designs.

Vintage Style Design

I looked into the vintage style in general to get some extra inspiration for the colours, style of images, and typefaces commonly used. This will help me get inspiration for the typeface to be used in the typography one, and from this I have found that full caps sans serif typefaces were very popular in vintage style designs. Again the colour schemes are quite faded and lean towards the darker side and the images are simple and 2D so this is definitely the style I will need to design in.

Analysing Mixed Media Techniques in graphic design

I found some examples of graphic design that had been created using different media techniques. I then analysed how these techniques were achieved. Doing this helped me to think outside the box a little more for my designs, and has given me the inspiration to change my design style. Instead of doing vintage style, I will now look into creating my designs in the style of pointillism. The first image was my main inspiration for this because it showed me that images can have coloured added to them in more ways that just a full colour fill using the pain bucket tool.

Pointillism 

After deciding to change my theme I wanted to research pointillism further so I made a mood board with a variety of different examples. The very small dots are far too complex to be made on such a small scale, so my main inspiration will be images like the pumpkin that use larger more visible dots to make up the image as this will still be visible on the size of the stamps.

Disney Theme

I have decide on a disney theme for my stamps and matchbox because it is a very wide category and would allow me to illustrate characters as well as use quotes for my matchbox. It is also very commonly done in a simple cartoon style, which will work very well for small scale products as when they are reduced in size they will still be clear and recognisable. 

Disney Quotes / Characters

I also researched disney characters, quotes, and films to help me choose ones for my designs. Doing this will help me have a large range of options to choose from to ensure I choose the most suitable and effective for my designs.

Disney Mood board 

Finally I created a mood board of disney characters and illustrations styles. This has helped me decide that I want to go with the simpler 2D characters like the ones used in the vintage disney posters as these would be the clearest in smaller formats.