OUGD603 Workshop: Ditto Press 'Design Publication' Workshop 2

Following on from the last session with Ben from Ditto Press, I was still very stuck on what had been asked of us and I was hoping to use this session to illuminate my understanding.

Initial Methodology Attempts

We were asked to meet in our groups to speak to Ben in a tutorial and were to have a methodology that we could talk to the group about. I struggled but I managed to come up with some methods which, in the tutorial, I was told were wrong anyway.

Ben could clearly see that I was struggling and I even told him that I just didn't understand what we were trying to achieve. He tried to explain it to me, saying that I should think of a game and how I would have my own rules.

Examples of a Methodology

That's when I had an idea. In regards to my own approach to design, I have a book which I make every note and drawing in that I use for everything. In this book, I have to have a different colour pen ink for every page next to each other and, if writing on a page already written, I have to write on it in a different colour. I can't have colours touching and it lets me see what I had been planning. I showed Ben my book and he found this really interesting because you could see the thought process that I had undertaken on these pages and showed an aspect of my personality within how I work out what I'm doing.

Methodology Plan

From this realisation, I began to make a plan as to how this would work as my methodology where I would be able to have a sheet of paper and solely use that to test whether it would work.

Logo for my Method

We were then given a few minutes to produce a poster about our method. Instead, I decided to give mine a brand, calling it 'Colourplan' and giving it a little pen illustration. I felt that, despite the rushed drawing due to the timing, it was about right because it was exacting and was produced in the method.

Even though I wasn't entirely convinced that my book and pens was a methodology, what I learnt from this session was that it was important to have my personality within the work that I do and how I approach design. This is very important and I want to begin to continue to make a conscious effort to do this from now on as this is how I seem to be able to get the best out of my work.

OUGD603 Live Brief: Intern 'Independant Magazine' Brief

We have been given a one day live brief from Alec Dudson of Intern Magazine to produce an idea for a crowd-funded magazine.

Intern Magazine

Firstly, he gave a presentation on how he got to set up his own magazine:

- Internship in Milan at DOMUS, an architecture and design magazine for 2 months
- Not formally trained in Magazine Design, started work at BOAT travel magazine for 7 months as an intern
- BOAT magazine has each issue revolving around a different city
- As an intern, didn't feel like any place would give him a chance. Wanted to make a magazine that was by and for the people
- Issue 0 of Intern Magazine was used for show for the Kickstarter fund as it gave people something to refer to
- Issue 1 was funded by Kickstarter- Perfect bound, GF Smith paper with copper foiling
- A mixture of illustration, photography and writers is used to make up Intern Magazine
- Approach to adverts- Sponsorship are designed in-house with a uniformed look which works well with the magazines aesthetic.

We were asked to get into groups, with my group consisting of Emily, Anna, Jane and myself. The brief for the day was split up into two parts:

Part 1- Produce a concept for a new independent magazine with a masthead and front cover for the first issue

Part 2- Produce a crowd-funding campaign outline, showing how you would connect to your  audience

Part 1:

We began to have a look at some independent magazines that already exist to see what area of the market we could put ourselves in.

Intern Issue 1 & 2
Intern 'Intern Issue 1 & 2' [Internet] Available from http://intern-mag.com (Accessed 25th November 2014)

We began by looking at what Intern magazine was and we liked the strong branding the the use of photography to give the magazine a professional and dedicated visual identity.

Boat Magazine Issues
Boat Magazine [internet] Available from http://www.boat-mag.com/issues/ (Accessed 25th November 2015)

What drew us to Boat magazine was the culture and the sense of adventure within the publication. If we worked for a magazine, we would like the chance to go travelling with it so this gave us a sense of global perspective for our own magazine concept.

Colors Magazine Cover Issues

Colors Magazine [Internet] Available from http://www.colorsmagazine.com/magazines (Accessed 25th November 2015)

As a group, we liked the illustrative manner that Colors presented itself. We also liked the fact that it continued to change itself and wasn't confined to being a specific topic or area of interest.

To start with, our group did some brainstorming in regards to what areas or ideas we had for a possible concept for the magazine.

Intern Magazine Brainstorm

We had a couple of ideas for what we could do for a magazine concept. A few topics that came up was the topic of food, comedians and a celebration of different cultures yet there was two main ideas which we, as a group, were torn between. The first idea was of produce a conceptual magazine which would be determined by a particular random word, with the word dictating the content of the magazine for that specific issue. The second concept was producing a magazine on obscure, unconventional sports from around the world with an approach on looking at cultures that they take place in.

Speaking to Alec, he mentioned that the random word concept was too similar to Colors magazine where they take a topic and run with it throughout the whole magazine. He liked the idea of obscure sports because it was fun and unexpected so we decided to run with that so that we wouldn't waste time trying to pick between the two concepts.

List of Obscure Sports

The next thing we did was brainstorm content, audience and names. In relation to content, we felt that it was important to have first hand accounts of the different sports, where we could have the writers try the sport out as well as interview and talk to people who are fans or take part in the sport for fun. We felt it was important to have a large feature on 1 person or a team within the sport as well as include the rules of the sport so it is easier to follow the information. We felt that looking at the culture of the sports origins would allow for us to take a documentary approach to the magazine which would be much more far-reaching and wide-ranging in content. I also mentioned that we could do special editions on championships with the Highland Games or the Mud Olympics.

Anna and Emily researched into different obscure sports and made a list of them. As a group, we settled on picking 4 sports to feature in the first issue, with Ultimate Frisbee, Roller Derby, Belly Flopping and Dog Surfboarding providing a mixture of serious and slightly humorous sports.

We knew that it would be difficult to target a new audience for obscure sports so we decided to target people who already have an interest in obscure sports who are looking for a hobby and want to take a sport up or if they already play some and want to stay up to date on news. We felt the readership would be both male and female between the ages of 20-40 with the tone of voice being interested, knowledgable and sincere but with a sense of humour as the target audience will take these sports seriously.

In regards to a name for the magazine, Jane and myself brainstormed names for the magazine, looking at words that would be similar to obscure, with our favourites being Peculiar, Kooky and Off-beat. We decided on Off-beat due to the fact that the sports were off-beat and the cultures that they would be from would be off-beat so we would be working off the beaten track.

Speaking to Alec, he liked that we had a very focused, nichè audience and a clear idea for the content of the magazine. However, he mentioned that the name made him think of music rather than sports and suggested that we changed the name so it was more specific.

In regards to the name, I went onto looking at more possible names that we could call the magazine, with possibilities being Adversary, Team, Result, Athlete but the favourite one I came up with was Contender as it was specific to competition which sport is all about, describing both sides of opposing team members as well as individual people who play for fun.

From this, I went onto trying to produce a masthead for the name of the magazine.

Chosen Font and Masthead Development

I tried a various amount of fonts, with the magazine name in an array of various forms, in order to try and find the correct tone of voice for the word and the theme of the magazine. I felt that a sans serif font in all Uppercase gave a very strong and powerful visual which went well with the power and strength that is associated with sportsmen and women. In the end, I chose Monserrat for the boldness of the title. I went onto trying to develop a Masthead, using the word alone and having the words 'Obscure Sports Magazine' within the title so as to contextualise the magazine.

Emily's Mastheads

Emily took what I had started working on and produced a more focused aesthetic identity which was more suited to the sports culture with the double lines, except we were stuck between the four possible mastheads to choose from. We decided to try and produce some front covers for the magazine so that we could try the different mastheads and decide which would be more suitable.

Focusing on the 4 sports that we had, Jane found a great image of someone mid-belly flop and we decided to see if we could use it for the front cover.

Development of Front Covers

I experimented with masthead and image size, font colour and empty space to try and produce a front cover, however, the trouble with the photo that we were using was the amount of pixelation that was making the image difficult to visually see so I decided to find an image with a larger size so it would be less pixelated when used. We decided to run with this new image as a group. 

Chosen Front Cover

In the end, we decided to go with Emily's front cover for the magazine, settling on a masthead in a white colour so as to be more legible against the full image background. It was important for the image to be full scale because then it would be immersive of the sport so it would get the audience to dive into the magazine and feel a part of the action. 

Part 2

The next thing that Jane and myself did was focus on thinking of what we could do for a crowd-funding campaign. 

                                       

Intern Magazine Kickstarter PageKickstarter 'Intern Magazine' [Internet] Available from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/819444313/intern-magazine (Accessed 25th November 2014)

Neither of us really knew what Kickstarter or crowd funded projects were so we decided to do a quick but of research to understand what it was. Kick-starter is a website which allows users to set up a donation page to encourage people to invest in an idea through the medium of video, with the aim of reaching a target amount by rewarding donors.  By having a look on the Intern magazine page, we were able to see the type of rewards on offer and the video they had used.

Kickstarter Successfully Funded Projects Graph
Kickstarter Successfully Funded Projects Graph [Internet] Available from http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2012/10/05/kickstarting-the-crowdfunding-trends/ (Accessed 25th November 2014)

Kickstarter and other crowd-funding projects have become very popular as it allows the person who is helping to fund it feel as though they are getting involved with the project itself. There are many area of interest that crowd-funding takes up, with the most popular being creative subjects, like music, publishing and art. 

What Kickstarter Has Kickstarted Infographic
'What Kickstarter Has Kickstarted Infographic' [Internet] Available from http://www.kickstartyourjourney.com/23-significant-kickstarter-facts-figures-and-statistics-plus-7-infographics/ (Accessed 25th November 2014)

What Kickstarter has created is a method to which independent people and companies can advertise themselves and allow the individual to reach a global scale audience for their product.

Taking what we had learnt fro the research, we began to think of ways that we would be able to apply these things to Contender.

Plan for Crowd-Funding Campaign

It was important for us to be able to connect to our niche audience so we felt like the video content for Kickstarter would show the sports within the first issue being done, as again it would link to the ideas of the audience being immersed within the action. We would have us filming on location and behind the scenes of the production of the magazine, with some double spreads of the magazine for reference

To get people to pledge a certain amount of money, we needed to think of what we could do as incentives for people to pledge as much money as possible. The initial incentives were based around having either a digital, printed or both copies of the magazine. However, we started getting creative with the pledges, allowing for the audience to pick their own front cover based on the sport they liked or, if they were already involved in the sport, having themselves or their team featured and interviewed within the magazine. We felt that, to encourage audience participation, people could pledge to have a topic sport suggestion for the next issue and be mentioned within the article for that sport within the magazine. Lastly, the largest pledge reward would be to have a one-off lesson on one of the 4 chosen sports alongside us and get to review it for the magazine with us.

Based on the crowd-funding pledging reward concept of having 4 front covers that the pledger could choose from, Emily went onto making 3 new covers for the magazine so that this would be fulfilled. 

Following from this, Jane, Anna and myself went onto presenting these covers to the rest of the year where we talked about the concept of the magazine and the crowd-funding concepts we had come up with. 

To extend on the brief, I decided that I should come up with my own layout for the magazine that I would have showing on the Kickstarter campaign so as to encourage people to read the magazine. Plus, I would be able to work on my layout ability so this gives me a quick opportunity to have a quick exercise to work on this.

Development of Layout Suggestion

I wanted the magazine to have a highly editorial aesthetic whilst still showing a lot of actions shots and being immersive of the sport. I started with working on the image size and placement before adding in the details that come with the page of a magazine, such as page numbers, issue number and magazine name. From this, I started working on the body copy content, with specifically having 3 columns to work in a traditional rule of thirds. I didn't like the idea of using placeholder text because I wanted to show how the magazine would communicate its information, particularly if this was a double spread to show on the Kickstarter.

From this, I went onto producing some design boards showcasing the work we did as a group for this brief.

With the inclusion of the mock ups, I made some submission boards for the module submission to demonstrate the journey of the brand and how we came to this conclusion.

I feel that the boards that I have produced shows a very condensed yet clear development of how the project progressed.

I felt that, as a group, we worked very well and managed to turn around the necessary work in the time given. I liked how we went for a more unconventional topic for the magazine which allowed us to have fun with it, adding more of a personality and character to the brief outcome. The actual workshop I fully enjoyed as it was a bit different and was just about right in regards to the workload amount. Alec was very helpful as he kept coming round the table and criting the work we had done which helped with the direction of the brief.

Tutorial Crit

I had a one to one tutorial with Nick where I had the chance to discuss the briefs that I had been working on so far.

I started off by talking about the brief that I had recently started and was currently working on which is my Kitty Collateral Brief. I showed him what I had been working on, with it being a work in progress with me just experimenting with imagery and type for a logo and that I am undecided with what to choose for a logo.

Logo Possibility

He asked me what it would be producing for the brief in regards to printed work and suggested that it would be a good idea to add more of a context to it, such as making the work for a Cat Hotel due to the handwritten script font that I had experimented with was reminiscent of a traditional American motel. This way, I could produce work for something as well as to sell for a brand. I loved the idea of a Cat Hotel as it was unique and a lot more imaginative.

Illustrations

Alongside the more imaginative side of the Cat Hotel concept, Nick felt that I should keep going with the illustrations that I had produced rather than the logo and develop them because they had more of a fun element and could produce a really nice pattern for the brand. Not only that but they had more of a personality than having a cat shape within the logo.

I went onto talking about my Parish brief as I had got a bit stuck with it. I discussed some of the reasons for my design decisions and he felt that I should narrow down the scope and scale of the brief, sticking to what I had already done for it and leaving it at that. He felt that I was starting to get a bit lost in it and that the brief could become continuous therefore I need to narrow down what I need to do and leave it. The only thing that I could consider doing was some identification for staff.

I am going to work on the comments that he made, particularly those made about my Kitty Collateral brief so that I can move forward and quickly progress with it.

For the next time I speak to Nick, he would like to see both of the briefs having progressed and developed as well as speaking about the DSM Brief.

OUGD603 Live Brief: Something More 'Ministry of Wonderful' Brief

Design Studio Something More (SM) visited the studio to give us a talk and brief us on a Live Brief (See PPP3 Blog).

Ministry of Wonderful

We are part of a group called The Ministry of Wonderful, who want to re-think the brands of today to make them better as brands should have a duty of care to be better. 

We have been given an area at random which needs a brand identity from scratch. We need to show how we can make a brand better, expanding it to show how it can do more than what it does.

Random Area: Recycling Scheme

I was given the area of a Recycling Scheme to brand. My initial thought would be that this would be a challenge as this was a service that was so expansive and covered a lot of areas so I knew straight away that I would want to narrow down my focus on the brief.

I started with looking at different types of recycling and how people recycle so that I would be able to make an informed decision towards the ideas that I will be producing.

Recycling in College

I had a look first at the recycling options that we had in college and the only main one we have is some recycling bins for drinks cans and bottles. Whilst I was a bit disappointed that this was one of the only immediately obvious ways that college recycles, it also highlighted to me that bottle/can recycling is a very wide spread method that everyone knows about so I want to stay away from this area as it is over done a lot.

'Recycling: The Good, The Better, The Best' by Samantha Sanders

'Recycling: The Good, The Better, The Best' [Internet] Available from http://choosetoreuseps.com/other-ways-to-help-the-environment/ (Accessed 12th November 2014)

From this info-graphic, it shows that a lot of our waste is either incinerated or left on landfill which highlights how we have too much stuff that we try to get rid of but find it difficult/ too lazy to recycle. Another point that is made is what things are the most common types of waste. What surprised me was the fact that two of the larger amounts of waste were food waste and textile/fabric waste which are types of waste that you don't seem to hear much about.

'Don't Waste Your Waste' by (2012) by Waste To Energy EU Project

Ristevski.V (2012) 'Don't Waste Your Waste' [Youtube] 9th February Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr_DGf77OhM (Accessed 12th November 2014)

While most information available about recycling was about types and ways to do it to make new things, this animation video looked at re-using the waste that we produce in order to turn it into something useful. I felt that this was a much more interesting route to go down and went well with the ethos of a brand which does something good concept that the client is looking for.

Idea Generation and Brainstorming

I started off with doing some initial brainstorming alongside my research where I started thinking about the different types of materials that are available for recycling and which would be the most successful aspect for me to work with. I felt that food or clothing waste would be the most successful as the general materials of plastic, paper, glass, ect have all been done before. After coming up with a few ideas, I started to expand of them by thinking of what makes the brand different from others and why they should exist.

From the ideas that I came up with, there were two that stood out to me as the ones which would be good possibilities if they were made in real life.

Boutique Swap Shop Design Sheet

One of my main ideas was to have a swap shop based on the idea of consumers being able to recycle their clothes by swapping their clothes for a like for like item, instead of purchasing a brand new piece of clothing. This way, this would allow for items to be reused rather than thrown away and be able to slow down the production and purchasing of clothing as people would be swapping them. This would make the brand different from charity or vintage stores as you would be using clothes rather than money as currency. For my COP3 Essay, I am doing it on the subject of consumerism and I felt that this fed really well into my topic of research and I would be able to apply my understanding to this idea. I felt that this would be a great brand to present as an initial idea as this would be something that could work in real life so I felt that it had a strong presence.

Food Waste Restaurant Design Sheet

My other main idea was to produce a cafe or restaurant that uses leftover or waste food. I work in a supermarket on weekends and there is always a lot of waste left at the end of the day, sometimes with nothing wrong with it or not even on its sell by date which comes across as a waste of food. I thought that it would be a good idea to give this food to a charity or shelter to use it, however, that would be expected. What would be unexpected would be if a high end luxury restaurant sold food in this way as it would give me the opportunity to change the perceptions of society by showing that there is nothing wrong with using or cooking with leftover food. I felt that using this first hand experience and the vision that this could be done in real life would make for a strong brand concept.

For the Crit, we needed to have some research or some initial ideas ready to show so that we could get some feedback based on what we had done so far. For this, I showed the 3 design sheets that I had produced at this point.

Within the crit, I showed the ideas that I had produced so far and both of the main ideas that I had got good feedback. On the boutique, I was told that I should take the idea and get it patented whereas the food waste idea they liked a bit more because they felt that I could play around with it making it a bit witty. Saying that, I was told by other members of the crit that the restaurant idea had already been done so SM suggested maybe looking at the corporate side of the idea, targeting the supermarkets for the waste they produce as it would make a big difference and you would be able to see the benefit straight away.

From the feedback that I got, I am tempted to go with the food waste idea, however, the fact that it may have already been done before has put me off a bit so I decided to go with the swap shop boutique. Plus, I have never produce a brand identity or ideas for a clothing shop so this would be something different for me to work on.

I had a look at pre-existing vintage/charity shops and clothes swap events to see what it would entail for me to consider for my brand. What struck me was how an event and a shop would come across as being cluttered and overbearing because you could tell it needed more time and consideration put into the approach and appearance of the clothing available. I knew that, if I wanted people to use my swapping brand, I would need to approach it from the angle of being a one-off boutique which was specialist and professional.

To start with, I went onto thinking of some initial ideas and settling on a brand name: Renew. Renew means to restore or replenish as well as to re-establish, revive or recover something. I felt that this was a name that was straight-forward and explained the concept of the store within the title.

Logo Initial Designs and Brand Strategy

The most difficult thing about trying to produce a logo idea was the need to be able to incorporate the concept of the swap shop alongside the high fashion clothing brand identity. When I was thinking about the interchangeability of the clothing, it made me think of the clothes hangers that the clothes would be displayed on within a shop and how one piece would be taken off and one added on. From this, I tried to visually show or incorporate the clothing hanger into the brand logo.

As well as initial designs, I brainstormed ways that my brand could engage with people, such as collaborating with other established stores to encourage other consumers to swap clothes as well as maybe hold store events, such as a swap fashion week or specific event swap days, like fancy dress at halloween for example. Plus, I brainstormed stuff that would be relevant to my brand, like producing some guidelines, clothing labels and hangers as well as proposing a store interior and exterior.

Typeface Development

I started at looking at typefaces for the brand identity, using a mixture of sans serif and serif fonts. I was really struggling to choose a font because I liked the idea of using a traditional sans serif to go with the boutique and fashion feel however, I felt that a sans serif would go well with the concept of having something new from the old. 

Whilst I continue developing the brand identity for the brand, I am going to continue with a serif font as I feel that the logo image itself well help in my overall typeface decision further on into development.

Logo Design Development

The next thing I did was start developing some of the logo initial ideas that I had produced and played with them in a digital manner. I started off using just one hanger, using it as a simple image alongside the name however I felt that this was lacking. I decided to use the hanger as a border for the text by having two reflecting hangers, which I soon developed by morphing them together into one shape. This gave a really nice shape that is reminiscent of a traditional boutique shop whilst also representing the constant cycle of the clothes.

Colour Scheme

Colour Addition

I went onto developing the chosen logo by adding colour reminiscent of a clothes hanger, working with a light brown and a soft grey, changing the thickness of the lines and adding colour to the text as well. This changed the dynamic of the logo as it made it much more softer and the colour choices made the logo reflect more on the boutique aspect of the brand rather than making it seem like it has anything to do with recycling, giving off a traditional shop feel.

Typefaces

Using the colouration, I went back to looking at typefaces as the use of the light brown colour made for the logo looking quite soft. I felt that the typeface 'Bodoni Small Caps' made for a smart, concise tag-line font as it was quite formal and traditional. With the use of this, I felt that I would go for a sans serif for the header font so, by having a mix of the two, you can see the mixture of the old turning into new. I felt that 'Monserrat Regular' was thick enough to stand out without being bold.

Use of Green Colour

I decided that it would be ideal to highlight the name of the brand within the logo because, at this point, it hasn't stood out compared to the rest of the logo, when it really should as it is the name of the brand. I did it in a soft pastel green so that it was reflective of the context of recycling, however, I decided to apply this to a piece of design work for the brand so that it would work properly.

I felt that, to be able to contextualise and explain the concept of the brand identity for the clients, I designed to do some design work to show how the boutique would operate. I felt that this would be done through items, like clothes hangers, clothes tags, bags and a contextual shop design.

I felt that the main piece of design I should do for the brand itself to contextualise the brand would be a clothing label. This is simply because this would be used on the products themselves so it would make a lot of sense to include this within my collateral.

Development of Clothing Label

I decided that I would have important information on the clothing label in regards to what the item of clothing was, where it was from, the size of the garment and how it could be washed. I felt that this way, it would orienteer the potential swapper as to the history of the garment and give a trustworthy, reliable approach to the concept. I laid this out in a structured manner so that each piece of information is clearly and carefully set out from the rest of the information, thereby there would be no mixing up or misunderstanding. The content was written in a darker brown to the background of the label for readability, however, I felt that the green colouration was washed out.

Revised Logo 

I felt that the green on the logo was getting lost within the clothing tag, making it difficult to read, so I decided to change the header font colour to a dark brown so that it is easier to read. 

Clothing Label

Instantly, the use of the dark brown rather than the green made for a much more readable tag. I realised that it would make more sense for the label to have the amount of times the clothing garment had been swapped as well so that it was showing the concept in action. 

In-store Design Collateral

To illustrate how the clothes would be shown in store to the swappers, I decided to illustrate the garment on a branded hanger so that this would show to the client how the products would be present. It was important for the clothes to be present as if they were new so that it comes across to the swappers like it would be acquiring a new piece of clothing. It was important for the swappers to get the same feeling from shopping as they do swapping which I think will be aided from this presentation of product.

Store Front Realised

To be able to show and explain the concept, I felt that it was necessary to show what the boutique would look like, with a window sticker on the door and mannequins in the window like a normal fashion store. I would imagine for the store to have a canvas top to give a softness to the store and the mannequins in the store front would be dressed in a selection of the swapped clothes available. 

Explanative Illustration

To explain the idea itself, I made an illustrative visual so that it would be more explanative of the concept. I showed a pair of normal jeans and then a pair of jeans hung up on a branded hanger so as to show the transition between having one item being swapped for another. The arrows are showing the cycle of which this can go on for, showing how this is continuous and the cycle of re-using. I felt that this illustration made the point really clear and easy- to-understanding.

Event Tickets

The most important thing for the brand would be to encourage people to get involved with the message and intention behind the brand, therefore I felt that it would be good to organise some possible in-store events and activities that could be done to get people actively involved. For this, I felt that this would be the best through having a fashion show that everyone could get involved with but making it special through having tickets, giving it an exclusive feel. 

Reusable Tote Bags

To reflect the shopping experience as well as the re-usable nature of the brand concept, I felt that it would be ideal to have tote bags that people would use when taking their swapped garments to and from the shop. It would be a great reflection on the store whilst, at the same time, appearing like it is part of the shopping experience.

I made design boards for the PDF to present and explain my brand concept, with the illustrations for the contextualisation of the brand being the main focus of the boards.

I was very happy with the way that I have made my boards are consistent throughout, using small points of information at the bottom to discuss the concept and aspects of the brand. I tried to make each board relevant and I tried to not repeat information. The illustrations perhaps don't give off as much of a professional aesthetic as photoshop mock ups would but I believe that they help put across the tone of voice of the brand and illustrates the brand much more coherently then if I used a mash-up of random, different photographs with the logo put onto it. This way the identity for the brand is the main focus.  

Despite this, I felt that it was necessary to include a little bit about the brand guidelines for the brand alongside this information as this was lacking in the current design boards and this was the main aspect of the brief to have a fulfilled brand.

I felt that I had put a lot of thought into the concept of my brand and how it would work in real life, making it a strong concept. I was excited by the brief from the start and knew straight away that I wanted to get involved in it. I don't think I will win the brief but I was happy just to take part as I enjoyed doing it so much as the thought process and inception of brands is what I like doing.

From this, we then had to present our concept to SM by giving a presentation. I decided to go with the boards I had made rather than making a separate presentation because I felt that the boards were self explanatory.

My Winning Chocolate Orange!

When presenting, I was very worried that I didn't do my brand justice because I was so nervous that I was tripping up over myself trying to explain everything so in a way I was greatful that I had left it as boards with all of the information along the bottom.

We were told that there would be a winner for each of the 6 categories and I was picked for the recycling topic. I was genuinely shocked as I didn't think I could win anything or have my work recognised by a creative before, especially as I feel like I don't compare next to my peers. It means all the more to me because this is what I like to do, the thinking behind a brand and the way it works.

I was given feedback by SM as they said that they liked that my boards went through my concept succinctly in a journey style where you could see how it worked. They also liked how I had done my illustrations to show the brief as it was totally in keeping with the voice and tone of the brand instead of just putting a logo onto an object.

For this, I won a chocolate orange and an induction into the photography suite at Duke Studios. It's such an amazing opportunity and I am very very thankful, especially as this will give me an invaluable in-site into a working design studio.

I made some submission boards for the module submission to demonstrate the journey of the brand and how I came to this conclusion.

I feel that the boards that I have produced shows a very condensed yet clear development of how the project progressed.