OUGD603 - DBA Capital North - Campaign/ poster ideas

After deciding our campaign was to be called 'Less is North' the play on words of 'Less is More', me and Sarah Goldthorpe thought to come up with a few different ideas for posters for each city, which follow the same theme:

First off, we had to decided what the North had 'more' of:

Less 

• stressful
• overhype
• restrictions
• expense
• rushing
• virtual
• extortion

More

• manners (?)
• real
• free
• gravy (?!)

'Less romanticised, more realised'

We were mentored by one of the DBA team, Ian, of whom stressed to us that the brand shouldn't really make it seem like the only thing good about the north is that it wasn't bad. We agreed and thought we shouldn't really focus the bad points from anywhere in particular, IE we're not badmouthing the south, or the north's past, but just emphasising that we need 'more north' in our lives.

Ian told us that when he creates brands he focusses on how that brand can be 

• a promise
• an experience
• and a memory

How can we get the audience to engage, remember and connect with our campaign?

He suggested maybe we look at some cheesy motivational quotes and manipulate them to suit our campaign. He also stressed that it's important that the brand looks consistent, even if it's applied to all these different environmental spaces (my job!)

He told us to look here for inspiration: http://visuelle.co.uk/
The site has lots of great branding and sends a message out to the audience without being massively explicit, the brands just project the vibes intended.

• 'Less is ... not queuing for the escalator'
• 'Less time commuting, more time living'
• 'Less clutter, more freedom'
• 'Less over-hype, more ... (?)'
• 'Less limitations, more opportunity'
• 'Less is the new more'
• 'Less former, more future'
• 'Less manic, more (?)' (chilled?)
• 'Less there, more here.'

We also looked at the possibilities of the campaign:

• logo
• t-shirts
• trains
• train uniforms
• posters
• environmental design - how does the brand interact with the environment?

OUGD603 - DBA Capital North Initial Ideas/ Brainstorming

Group (5) : Daisy Conway, Mel Hardcastle, Sarah Goldthorpe, Danielle Harrison & Sarah Heal

After our initial brainstorming session today, we established that the concept and themes for this project are the most important of all. We realised that we have to make our concept more prominent and memorable to not only make our project stand out, but to inform all our visuals for the brand and most of all - make it interesting for ourselves! We found that a lot of existing brands that fulfil similar briefs were uninspiring for us, leading us to define what we DIDN'T want our project to be like: 

Since we were confined to not using stereotypes and not referring to the landscape aka 'rolling hills', this limited our idea possibilities down quite significantly.

 We also decided to make our campaign none-competitive through referring to others; as in we shouldn't compare the north to the south, but we should be comparing the north to existing preconceptions about the north. However, adverts like the first 'visit scotland' are rather uninspiring - we knew we needed another angle that isn't just 'bet you didn't know we had this-'

Sarah Goldthorpe was particularly interested in this advert because it was a little humorous but it compared California to itself rather than anywhere else, leaving the viewer to decide what to compare it to. The rest of the group liked it, but found it rather cheesy, which Northern English typically are not.

We then decided to explicitly write down points that we think defined the north from other areas. Aside from landmarks, food and local dialect the main difference we found between the north of England and the rest of the country was the people seemed to be friendlier/ more approachable and that it seemed to be cheaper - adding to the overall quality of life (subjective).

We then started to come up with marketing- orientated ideas that we could use to help sell our idea of Capital North:

The North is More 
North of England is more than people think it is.

'Less is North'
This concept was my idea, because I was trying to push how we could market the idea of breaking down negative preconceptions of the North. I thought that the idea that we have 'less' than the south- but in a good way. The main idea sprung from the negatives of living in London - the north is 'less busy', 'less crowded', 'less stressful' - a reverse way of saying we have more.

The North is Growing
The idea that the north is never a static place, and that it is constantly evolving and moving - it's in a state of becoming, and to become it needs others to join.

The North is Connected
A very literal translation of the HS3 train development. 

OUGD603 - DBA Capital North - Briefing

Today, we had a briefing for a new project, named 'Capital North' presented by a group of members of the DBA.
I'm really excited about the project although it sounds very difficult. The idea is that there may/will be a high-speed train being built connecting cities in the north of England. Without focussing on the train itself, the brief is more about the idea that with combining several cities with this high-speed service essentially means the cities (in this case four: Hull, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester) will become one hybrid, offering all of their business and economic status combined, even enough to rival London as an economic centre.

The brief is to brand this and market it in a way that avoids all cliches and that promotes the area in a serious but memorable manner. It was also emphasised that the whole project must be aesthetically perfect/ well crafted.

We are to work in teams; my team being: Daisy Conway, Mel Hardcastle, Danielle Harrison, Sarah Goldthorpe & myself. We have arranged to meet on Thursday to start our brainstorming session. 

OUGD603 - Peter and Paul Interior design space competition - presentation

Last week, we presented our work to the Graphic Design Team, Peter and Paul and Senior Management concerning the interior wall space next to our studio.
Unfortunately, when we received our feedback, we found that we hadn't won the pitch, but were assured that it was because it quite literally wasn't suited to their taste. They feared it was too garish or crazy to live with and interact with on a daily basis for the graphic design studios, but said to not be discouraged as our ideas were interesting and out of the ordinary, which was a good thing! 
He said our work reminded him of Kesselskramer, because it was so conceptually driven.
Even though we didn't win the competition, we've decided that we're going to continue with our design as we think it would be a good piece to put in our portfolios, me especially because I'm interested in interior and interactive spaces.

This was our presentation:

OUGD603 - Verity & Matthew Wedding Stationery Design - Development

Logo/ Emblem development: 

The bride requested that the front of the invitations and the 'branding' throughout the wedding be adorned with a logo or emblem of the two partners initials. 

Last years designs:

From last years designs we decided that the letters not be intertwined but just simply next to each other. She also didn't want them hand-written, but in a font that looked hand written so it would match the inside, which I found in the research to be 'Rochester' font.

I sent these three variations to the bride for her approval:

The last two have horseshoes instead of ampersands - this particular horseshoe being the ones that their show horses have, and so is a very personal touch. The couple liked the last one the most, so we went with that.

Wording:

The bride sent me the wording for the inside:

'Mr & Mrs Stephen Taylor

Request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daugher

Verity Jane

to

Matthew William

son of Mr & Mrs Paul Bedford

on Saturday 25th April 2015

at 1 o clock in the Afternoon 

at St Matthew's Church, Stretton, Warrington'

Which then was corrected by the brides mother using Debrett's wedding and British etiquette website.

Gatefold design development:

We decided that the gatefold design was going to be landscape, so I started off with A5 landscape:

I sent this to the bride for approval. She said that it looked quite dull and probably too plain. There was also a lot of words etc that needed to be changed but it was a 'good start'

I suggested that we spice up the design by adding something floral in the corner inspired by the patterns from Joules I researched into, and changed the lettering to dark blue, part of the colour scheme of the wedding. She said she preferred it plain.

The design started to take more shape, after more information was added.

We then experimented with different brown papers to go with the rest of the theme.

We went to the paper mill shop together and they didn't have the cardstock we wanted in the cost-effective size we wanted. The place we were going to print it at (where my dad works) wouldn't accept different papers unless it was a huge job, and this was only a run of 200. My dad suggested that if we're printing the design anyway on a digital print run, then why don't we just scan in the paper texture. Printed at a high enough quality, it would have the same desired effect. This would also mean that it would reduce the man hours required to insert all of the cream cards. The wedding is not far off now, and there is still so much for the bride and groom to do so we were really stuck for time. 

So I scanned in the paper texture and used it to create this:

 

Then the design was changed to this:

And the outside looked something like this:

Which was then changed again to this:

Then this:

 Then this:

The bride chose the design above. Which doesn't make literal sense, giving away the illusion that it is in fact, digitally printed. It's not the way I would have done it, but that's what the client chose.

Evening invitation development:

The majority of the design was copied from the gatefold design, the details were ever so slightly different, but they also, changed a lot:

Final inside of the smaller evening insert:

OUGD603 - Verity & Matthew Wedding Stationery Design - Research 2

Ok, so since my last research post, the project has taken a very different turn.

The bride saw my prepositions and said that she thinks it should be wayyyy simpler and sent me these images as references.

She said that she wants the initials on the front, something like this. She said she also loves the font of the text poking out. Upon closer inspection, the font is 'Rochester' which we will be using.

The client said she'd like something like this, except the bows/ ribbon would be raffia, to refer to their agricultural/ equestrian backgrounds.

After I said that its risky printing black onto such dark paper and then refusing to screen print over 200 invitations and menus to achieve white on brown paper, the client suggested that we have a cream card insert, something like this:

Name tags for the seating plan would be on these tags, which have been pre-bought by the bride, which I will be hand-writing. She wanted me to print onto them, which would be near impossible unless we vinyl cut them, but even then it is fiddly and the end result is shiny:

She wants me to create a logo or emblem with perhaps both of their initials for the front, and the design to open like a gatefold. 

OUGD603 - Verity & Matthew Wedding Stationery Design - Research

Last year, I created some designs for my cousin for her wedding invitations. This year, it has been requested that the designs be re-vamped and re-evaluated, as the old ones were never printed and the style and theme of the wedding has been re-established. 

Here are the diagrams and research I carried out last year, which I took this year and expanded on:

Mood board

Ideas from the bride and groom

Ideas for stationery

Ideas & development from last year (which we don't have time to do now)

Designs from last year

Designs from last year

Designs from last year

Final design from last year

After having another meeting with my family, we realised that the style that she loves and wants to be fed through the design is similar of that to clothing shop Joules, where she not only frequently shops but is a manager and visual merchandiser. It perfectly sums up her personality as it is playful, eclectic, bright, colourful, country and a bit eccentric. 

Here are a few images from Joules: 

Here are some patterns from Joules. I am noting the colours and floral patterns, in particular the blue and yellow, since they are the colours of the wedding. The main concern for me, if we're designing all of the different graphic elements of the wedding is to make sure that the colours are matching the chosen colours. But, if there was a random range of yellow and blues throughout the collection, then it wouldn't be so much of a concern. 

The bride  requested that she have something like this for the centrepieces of the tables. Again, we can see the pops of colour, Joules design and floral elements in this.