PROVERBIALLY YOURS// Message and Delivery

 Here are the some photos I took of the final mailshot, including images of the mailshot itself, in comparison to the original posters and also the mailing list;

 The mailshot arrived in pretty good condition at first glance, the folds were still stuck down and only the top right corner was damaged by what looked like a roller of some kind, removing ink. I am happy with now visible the face is in the printed version as I thought it might have been lost once printed as many things seen on screen are. One of the concerns the people who performed the crit on this raised was how the mailshot would be sealed. I ended up sealing it along the horizontal cut by sticking them down with double sided sticky tape which I weakened by sticking it to my shirt first.

 This is the front of the mailshot after it arrived in the post. I liked the simple design, but had doubts about its simplicity at first, now its been through the post I can see with all the added markings and stamps that it was a good idea to keep it simple, the postal service probably needs some utilitarian design to work effectively. The mailshot was damaged more on this side, im guessing it got caught on a machine because the ends were not sealed up.

 The inside of the mailshot arrived in perfect condition so it was all legible. I really like in middle section of the design here. It is simple and easy to read with interesting facts and all, however the body copy text surrounding it has a few issues in my opinion. This was bought up in the crit, the reviewers said that the body copy runs tight to the edge of the page and this was a problem for them. I understand completely what they mean, it creates a minor unbalance between the text and the imagery and title, which is quite off-putting in some ways. Also if the leaflet is damaged in some way or the edges become frayed then the text could become unreadable here.

 Another problem I rad about on the crit sheet was the meaning of the leaflets wings, It was clear that they are not recognisable as scalpel blades to everybody. I asked a few other in the studio and about it was about 50/50 between those who understood the meaning and those who did not. I thought it would be a problem when I was designing so I added the text 'stainless steel scalpel' however this does not seem to have helped that much. I suppose this will be a problem I will take in to consideration for future briefs.

 The mailing list follows the same design style as both the mailshot and the posters, in a way it helps bridge the gap between the two. I have detailed who the recipients are two posts ago (Thurs 10th nov). The title uses the same font as on the mailshot but the scribble effect running down the right had side is the same as the scribble effect used on all of the posters. Finally on the bottom right hand corner the phrase 'under the knife' links the mailing list directly back to the mailshot. The mailing list is printed on the same plain white stock and colours as the mailshot itself. The mailing list was incredibly easy to design as I had already set down all of the clouts, fonts and styles needed to create it. To this end I like the final produce, it was a simple design and it fits with the mailshot well.

 One of the criticisms I expected (but didn't get) from the crit would have been the relationship between the Posters and the Mailshot. The major contrast between the two is obviously the colours used at first glance. Like I said in a previous post, I changed the colours to better suit the beauty industry firstly but also because the feedback from the halfway crit with Jo was that red and black would have been gruesome colours for a surgeon to use. On another note the layout style used in both mailshot and poster is fairly similar; both use simple heavy text running vertically down the page with the exact same message.

 Overall I think the mailing list has been a success. I like the final design aesthetically and in its hidden and clear theory and message. It has a few small issues like the format of the body copy and the meaning of the mailshot scalpels.