Brief 13 : Photography Year book : Meeting 3

We arranged another meeting with photography to discuss our progress with the design of the yearbook. We presented our ideas which went down well they liked what we had done and they like our choice of typefaces. The students on the yearbook particularly liked the mix of the serif and sans-serif typefaces. However questions were raised about how this design would work with different formats of images as we'd only tested the design with a portrait image the design needed to at least be tested with landscape images and square images. Additionally a conversation occurred around the use of the border on the postcard. The students agreed with us and felt that the border added class and professionalism to the postcard and it was a nice layout feature linking the front and the back of the card however the tutors felt that it made the postcards feel old fashioned rather than modern and progressive. However Karen from photography pointed out that all the postcards she received from the V&A and other such like venue all use a similar border within there design. Any to move forward we needed to test the design with different image formats and as well as different styles of images. It was also discussed about how the text will work on the back of the image will it change of portrait and landscape images for will it stay the same?

Moving Forward:


Test design with a landscape, portrait and square image
Experiment with the orientation of copy on the back of the postcard in accordance or opposition of the orientation of the image on the reverse

Brief 13 : Photography Year Book : Initial Ideas

Myself, Tom and Sam start down to begin thinking about how the design of the postcard is actually going to work. With such a limited amount of space within the format we felt quite constrained as to what we could do. We ended up producing a standard reverse for the card with featured the students name, bio and contact information in a left aligned column. We chose a bold serif typeface for the students name to create a classic and timeless design, which was complimented by a formal sans-serif face for the body copy. For the front of the postcard, as student were only getting one image each we really wanted there image to fill the space they are provided with. We filled the entire face of the card with the image. We looked at using a border as well to give the card a more professional feel. We displayed our idea on a pitch board to take to our next photography meeting.

Brief 13 : Photography Year Book : Meeting with Tony

Today Myself, Tom and Sam met with Tony who is going to be responsible for managing the print and production of the yearbook. As were having a different format yearbook we had a lot of specific questions we needed to ask tony about what is possible within our assigned budget.

Questions Covered:


How many cards can we print per student?

Tony worked out that the most feasible way to print the cards would be to digitally print them, this means we can print as many cards as we need without worrying about economy of cards within the print run. However to reach a good unit cost it means we can only assign one postcard per student

What stock is available for the postcards?

After talking with Tony about what he has available we chose a sating stock for the postcards as the year of a couple of years ago was printed on satin and the images really popped and bought them to life more than a Matt stock did, as they appear somewhat dull on a Matt stock.

What are our options for the front and back covers of the postcards?

We discussed with tony the possibility of using a GF Smith stock for the front and back cover in a heavy weight he has as we were using digital printing which is much cheaper printing method that this is possible within our budget as we wouldn't need that much stock because it's only two cards required per pack.

What print finishes can we use?

After talking with Tony about what we wanted to do design wise with the cover and the limitation we had with the stock we were using, he said it is possible to use a single coloured foil on the front and back of the covers to one side on each.


This was an extremely productive meeting with Tony as we managed to clear up all our queries regarding the print run and we go full steam ahead with designing the yearbook.




Moving Forward:

Begin initial designs for the yearbook
Meet with Photography to relay information

Brief 10 : Being : Developing visual concepts

Brand development

Together me and Tom tried to devise a natural palette that appealed to both men and women, we wanted a colour set of colours which could be used across the brand and then potentially some specific colours which could be used for identifying the three separate stores of Him, Her and Home. At this stage we were happy with the use of grey as this was an earthy colour and natural and crisp but the use of the blue and pink and burgundy still don't sit right with the brand.

Developing further visual concepts

Although we'd already decided that we weren't going to use the mark we'd created from two triangles within the logo mark itself we wanted to explore how this could potentially we applied to brand assets rather than the mark. We looked at using it in a range of different ways from incorporating it into text to building geometric patterns from the mark. Both of which we didn't feel was a good fit for the brand, the geometric patterns make the brand feel to modern and digital and slightly to young and fresh and this isn't the ethos of the brand or the target audience. Additionally being the mark into typography may cause readability issue and removes the simplicity aspect from the brand.

 

Brief 10 : Being : Brand development

Brand developed

With the Logo mark we knew from the offset that we wanted to keep it predominately typographical however we experimented with a range of different ways in which we could communicate the idea of communal, nature, raw and truth within the logo design. We looked at using the pattern of the thumb print which drastically over complicated the mark and it also wouldn't work at a small scale. And then looked at playing with elements of the typographical form like the dot on the eye however this had detrimental effects on legibility of the word.

We went back to our original ideas and we'd initially thought about how the brand could be expanded with copy to communicate the brands values like 'Being Together' or 'Being Comfortable' we look at how this would translate visually, but ultimately we felt this over complicated the brand and didn't enhance the brand, it also felt slightly cliche.

We also thought about incorporating a tag line about the brand into the mark however we felt this restricted us in terms of where the logo could be positioned or translated across a range of media and formats.

Marks?

We then looked at devising a symbol that could potentially sit with the typographical brand name, we explored how to overlapping triangles could be used to symbolise the coming together of people and of man and women, as this is all of humanity. We created a up side down and down side up triangle individual each represented a man and woman and together they're beings, communal and together. After working through a range of potential uses of this mark we felt that it the mark was to tribal and it was communicating the wrong message as it also looked like a tattoo. However the mark didn't sit well with the chosen typography for the brand mark and just didn't work.

Brief 9 : Pronto Final outcomes

Brief 13 : Visual Research

After a few initial meetings with photography and project manager Phil, it was decided that the best format for the yearbook would be to produce a set of postcards rather than a full yearbook. The students of the photography course felt this was a more appropriate format for there work. As a result of this we started to explore how this format can be exploited to create something unique.

Brief 10 : Being : Digital experience concepts

Based on the user research, the market research and visual myself and Tom had conducted we produce mind maps to plan out our ideas for both the brand and how the digital experience would work within the retail store/coffee shop. Our initial ideas focused around three sub brands of Being, Her, Him and Home which categorise the store. We also looked into how the brand's values and goals such as the brand being geared towards basics, nature and raw materials link with the visual concepts that we had started to devise. Additionally based upon the technology we'd researched in the market research stage we pulled out relevant concepts that could be adapted to the Being retail space and began to think about exactly how these different features will work within one cohesive store experience added by an iPad and potential use of camera with gesture and facial recognition.

 

Digital Experience Concepts:

Recommendations - What did I buy last time, what do my friends recommend, what are they special, what does the app recommend I try?

Natural gestures to complete common tasks like refill round or getting the bill

Fling the menu to the kitchen

Users can order of iPhone, order is gathered centrally on the iPad

Store fronts to browse, Being Him, Her and Home

Brief 9 : Pronto : Typography Development

Type Development 

Brief 9 : Website Development

Web development 

Brief 9 : Logo Development

Logo development