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The Brief
Compel people to take time out to address their savings gap and plan for the retirement they want. Create a 21-40 second TV commercial and demonstrate how it might also be rolled out online. Both executions should drive consumers to the Prudential’s online retirement planning tool.
Another brief that I hadn't intended to take on - it all seemed a bit dull and open to cliche. What really changed my mind on this one; the several group brain-storming sessions that we undertook. Working as a group of 6 -8 sparked some imaginative ideas, if not while in session together, then some time after. I can't recommend this type of approach enough, we all seemed to develop and spark ideas off each other that I feel sure we would not have had individually. A practice we should have made use of throughout the course.
This idea came to me later, after a session where Timm had raised the idea of saving for your pension being akin to putting a bit aside whether it be food pushed to the side of your plate for later or a dog burying a bone.
Once I had storyboarded the idea I thought that production of the piece would be fairly straight forward but I think that I underestimated the time that is required to get the right shots, to overcome the technical issues involved in adjusting the final shots and just the logistics of getting people and equipment together in the right place. At this stage the project hasn't even gone beyond a basic animatic. What I have learnt is that taking still images in this way helps to identify issues ahead of movie production, what is drawn on the page in an instant is not necessarily readily achievable in real life. Being uncertain of video production and editing techniques as a whole, I find it difficult to anticipate how long it would take me to realise this as a video production. Others, mainly those in the know, say 'not long' but that's easy for them to say. I find it less than comfortable to learn in this 'cart before horse' way. I much prefer to have organised direct tuition of knowledge and skills in advance of applying them in a project rather than learning them in an adhoc way on the fly.
I am of course much indebted to Matthew and Timm for their assistance in this project. I think we all had great fun - well I did anyway. Matthew particulalrly helped out tremedously with the technical side of production, couldn't have done it without him. It felt odd to be directing them so strongly when I was so indebted to them for their help.
I was reasonably pleased with the results. Having shown it to any number of people it seems that the piece is very clear and direct in the message that it conveys. Giving it a little bit of distance I now realise that I should have allowed much more time to realise the project in a more professional way. I think it's a reasonable idea that might hit part of the target market (mainly male) but it could have been made so much better by taking rudimentary steps such as re-reading the brief afterwards prior to submission. Information such as the need for the piece to also work online and for it to drive clients to Prudential's web-based planning tool could have formed a more explicit and humorous part of the presented piece. 
Rachel phoned to apologise for not sending through all the agreed content. Circumstances dictate that it's unlikely that she will be able to assemble all required information in the near future. The project is therefore on hold until she is able to create time and space to proceed.
The Brief
Create packaging and point of sale for Homebase’s ‘Grow Your Own’ fruit and vegetable range for novice gardeners.
Proposition
Homebase know how to help you to grow your own fruit and vegetables – they make it easy.
Target Audience
Our primary target audience are gardening novices. They could be male, female or families with kids. They are adults, but without a specific age range.
Tone of Voice
Simplicity and clarity. Growing your own fruit and vegetables made easy. Easy to understand copy and information for the novice gardener. Natural, earthy, organic. Tastier than the supermarket.I really wanted to tackle a packaging brief, I find it an interesting area of design and feel that it is an aspect that the course has not allowed us to do justice to. Left to my own devices, of all the ideas generated for this brief I would probably have gone with a decorative based style similar in feel to the current Seeds of Change campaign. I like its simple organic handcrafted feel, it seems right on brief.
However, reviewing initial ideas with Adam he persuaded me that the strongest was the notion of dot-to-dot. It is strongly conceptual, has elements of wit in its combination of imagery and has much potential in terms of in-store application - floor graphics and point of sale etc. It also conveys the idea of ease and fool-proof use required by the brief. However, I have found it incredibly difficult to realise. Maybe it's one of those ideas that Alan Fletcher describes as being better in your head than in actuality.I think the piece has improved as it has progressed from the clumsy cartoon-style beginnings towards a look that draws more heavily on the classic kids dot-to-dot image. The focused fruit or vegetable needs a context to appear in for the piece to work. However, I still have doubts about whether the message is clearly conveyed by this means and overall I do not have a sense of ownership over the project. It does not feel like me and more importantly is not developing as the kind of packaging that I would find especially appealing. Maybe that's not important but at the moment it feels so.
For the time being I am going to set this aside while I concentrate on other more fruitful briefs. On coming back to it I know that I should think more carefully about the following:- design as a 3-D object rather than flat, face by face, images
- standardise type and layout devices across the range
The Brief
Use typography to create a series cover design for Faber Film’s range of books that reflects Faber and Faber’s long history of typographic excellence.
Considerations
- The Faber Film range of books covers a variety of genres and includes screenplays, technique guides and film history books.
- Faber and Faber will be offering this range for sale through the ‘Print on Demand’ service (PoD), which is exactly as it suggests, copies are made available on the basis of a single customer order.
- The cover designs should reflect the already high profile of Faber’s film list attracting both film enthusiasts and professionals alike.
I seem to have a natural affinity with book cover design. There is something about it that attracts, possibly the chance of the interplay between narrative and visual design. I originally wanted to tackle this brief using typographic visual puns playing on the title or subject matter of the book. However, on further investigating the existing faber Fiction Print on Demand series I began to deviate from this course and finally, perhaps, confuse myself. This existing series uses generative processing to create unique covers from a palette of decorative strokes. It also utilises a custom made typeface, a kind of modified version of the faber logotype. I wasn't sure whether the accompanying documents appear to allude to this a useful model for this brief. Anyway, I decided to experiment with film symbols that could be processed in a similar way. Although perhaps a little hackneyed, the great variety of shapes found in film spools was most interesting. Playing with these silhouette shapes began to produce some pleasing clean designs but in what way were they typographic solutions? There was little time for me to design a new and sympathetic typeface to support the designs, even if I knew how to begin to do that - which I don't really. Adam also opened a further field of ideas by skimming over what I'd achieved so far, suggesting that I should look more into processing and the language associated with film. I did experiment with this but the results seemed old hat, not very inspired and missing the mark for this genre of book.
The design has obviously gone through many incarnations and my personal favourite is the final shown here. I like the balance between the scale of the various elements and the way in which some advance and retreat according to their colour values. I think the overall effect is fresh, organic and clean. The idea is to produce each category of film book in a different colour theme. For the time being though I am putting this to rest while I concentrate on areas where ideas are flowing a little more successfully. My prefered design does not fulfil the typographic element of the brief and I see it as futile to continue at the moment.
Organised the printing of the cards through I Will Print of Telford following Neil's decision to go with the original burgundy/pink colour scheme. The print run was incredibly cheap and the results OK. I had asked for the cards to be printed matt on board with a slightly rough tooth. The results are far from glossy, and have a slight texture to them, but the ink finish gives the product a satin sheen which is less than ideal. These are not artisan printers and I guess that you get what you pay for.
Neil said that they went down pretty well when given out to fellow students, although I always get the impression that he's kindly sheltering me from true opinion. I like the concept of the little tea bag card but I feel it's a bit corporate in it's execution. If time had allowed I would have liked to develop the design to make it a little more dynamic or stylised, but time has always been of the essence with this project. The supporting posters and web banners suffer even more so in this respect and I am not proud of them at all. They fail dismally to arrest the attention of passing traffic - dull, dull, dull! I'm left doubting my stamina to truly stick with a project and explore a variety of potential avenues. Sometimes I think that I'm glad to conclude a brief, see the back of it, and move on. If this is true, I have to resist because it leaves me with a product I'm not entirely comfortable with. That's no way towards a pleasing portfolio of work.
On a positive note, I did a terrific amount of 'running and carrying' on this little project, including inserting over one hundred tea bags into cards. I have without doubt been reliable and pulled my weight.
Having scanned through the vast array of briefs on offer I had initial interest in PJ Smoothies, National Portrait Gallery and Homebase. Homebase relates to packaging and is quite complex in its demands while the other two briefs appear much simpler in their outcomes. It concerns me that I feel consistently attracted towards the more straight forward print-based projects. I view some of the others, say film, digital or animation oriented briefs, and do not feel confident enough to tackle them because I do not have the technical nous to conceive ways forward. I know all the received wisdom states that I should not adopt this attitude, but that is how it is for me.
Anyway I figured that these projects offered a strong platform on which to practise some of the ideas that have developed in my dissertation. However, having spent some time researching and working through a few ideas I am beginning to change my mind. Although I have given each brief time to incubate, and been able to identify and manipulate key symbols towards witty ends, the results, in my eyes, are less than convincing. The problem is that the results appear contrived, confuse the message somewhat and lack imagination in their execution. I know that it is not healthy to always pursue the big idea, that quantity of ideas is more important, especially in the first instance, but even so I see little to commend any of the number of clumsy attempts so far. I feel frustrated that the key idea will not come and am now tempted to consider some of the other briefs on offer. I know that this is tantamount to conceding defeat and would not be possible in the 'real' world but this is college and the work should be fun and rewarding so I don't have too many qualms about moving on if the ideas won't co-operate.
