Studio Brief 02 - Licence to Print Money - Production

Following a crit I was able to decide which note to take forward many people liked how I had decided to take the route of using architecture but how I had still tried to see the work looking contemporary rather than resulting back to a more traditional style. I kept it contemporary because as I told people in my crit South Korea is one of the fastest developing countries in the world and most people in SK enjoy a more modern take on life, this is why they are the biggest users of credit/debit cards. 

I am taking forward this design as I feel that it takes a number of elements of SK and it still demonstrates the style of design currently popular in SK. I have also considered this design because I wanted the design to be screen printable, I know that it is possible to produce using screen printing but I will be able to split the layers up easier as there is more definition between layers making it more straight forward to print (but still not easy). 

The design consists of a simple typography, this I think makes up a lot of the composition of the design because the type is so intricate, I wanted to also make the lines become one with the type, so from the first design I added the way that the lines go in and out of the letters to make it seem less layered. The use of the cherry blossom tree was to bring the design into more of traditional sense as it adds something else to the design making it seem less basic, as without this the design out be very boring and simple. 

Getting ready for scree printing, to make the design ready I had to separate the layers ready for the printing stage. I decided that rather than using blue paper I would print the background using ink as this would better for the colours on top I could also get the desired colour that I made in my design. When I separated the layers I realised how 
difficult I had made screen printing for myself as it meant that I would have to line each
one perfectly. I was not fussed by this problem as I thought it wouldn't be too difficult 
to do this.

This was my first time screen printing properly so I was new to the whole process, this meant that I exposed the design backwards although it wasn't how I tented it to be I did like the outcome once it had been printed. Although I wasn't pleased with how the rest came out, my concerns for the design being too complicated became true so I realised that I would have to alter my design to make it easier to print. Doing the print lot of prints gave me the confidence to understand how I should later the design. I also had some trouble with my screen because the emulsion dried in a bad way so it was difficult to place the designs out on the screen. So I decided that I would sprit the screen and then redesign the bank note. I now used this this stage has my test printing stage, to make sure that I had the right colours and testing out stock also. 

To redesign my note I went back to my first design which involved the note not being as complicated, it is a simple 4 four layers that do not intertwine with every layer as it was too complicated to print. By altering the design I then exposed the screen again, this time making sure that it did not dry in a bad way. Again I then exposed the lettering the wrong way round, this was unfortunate because I did not have enough time to expose my screen again so I thought I could now work as part of the design. 

This time printing I also change the way I had mixed the ink, I learnt from my research that China, Japan and SK are fascinated by gold and silver objects. So I made the decision to mix in some metallic silver paint to he lettering and the leaves so that when you shine the note in the right light it has a shine to it. 

I was also unclear about what stock to use so I selected some stock from G.F Smith and I then was able to experiment with many different types to see what worked. As you can see from the results below there was a verity of stock ranging from 350gsm to frosted tracing paper, which I really liked the outcome but unfortunately it was not up to standard. I also printed as many as I could to allow for some mistakes when lining up the print, the second time round I found the process much easier to do.