Summer 2009

Some of my favourite typography I've seen whilst travelling this summer

Taros Bar - Essouira Morocco

Moroccan Postcard


Hotel Amister - Barcelona

Steers (fast food chain) - South Africa

Innocent Smoothies

During the week I got to visit Innocent Smoothies, Fruit Towers, in London with Tash (http://tashcarter.wordpress.com/). It was an amazing working environment, their whole philosophy of sustainability, purity and working ethically and responsibly throughout communities was really evident around the office

Of course we were mainly interested to see their design team! They had a small group of graphic designers working on new packaging and redesigning current ones. Innocent packaging is different from many other drink bottles and cartons, as well as getting across necessary information ingredients etc, they incorporate their ideals and beliefs into the design with little stories and anecdotes along side product information and logos.

I was really surprised that within the offices they had everyone from PR, designers, taste testers and smoothie creators!  

We also got free smoothies which was great!

Retropops

For my final box design I kept the plain pink background and changed the font back to the original type. I'm still not sure if the patterned background from my first box would have been better however when printed it wasn't as clear as I would have like it. I was also unable to have my box printed onto a card similar to cereal boxes, so I made a card board net and printed onto A4 sticker labels which I then transferred onto card.

I have really enjoyed the cereal project. I think it was really beneficial to have a project with a long time to work on. I had the opportunity to reevaluate my designs and pick at what I would change and realise what did and didn't work. I still want to get by box printed professionally to have a more sleek finish.

Goal Cards - Paul Arden Project

For my completed goal cards I decided to make a set of four that went together in an origami wallet. They consisted of a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly set of cards.

Retropops

My advert for Retropops.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRy85kY1AvY

Visited Magma today, brilliant art book store! They also have a shop nearby that sells a range of unique gifts and gadgets.

Paul Arden - Goal Cards

I am going to make wallet sized 'goal cards' inspired by Ardens book, Whatever you think, think the opposite. I begun making minimal black cards with a white rectangular goal shape in the middle.

They were really simiular to the page in the book, so I'm playing around with different layouts colours etc. At the moment i like the idea of a pack containing 4 or 5 cards (differently coloured) that people could separate short to long term goals.

Paul Arden Project

I have thoroughly researched the work of Paul Arden, I was surprised at how many well known advertising campaigns he had been responsible for, one of my favourite being "the car in front is a Toyota".

I initially came up with a few ideas based on my Paul Arden brief. 

Reading his book "Whatever you think, think the opposite", the page that really stood out to me was the goal posts ( everybody should have one of these). I think it would be really interesting to bring this idea to as many people as possible, making sure people constantly kept in mind their personal goals ( long or short term). 

My second idea was to create a story/ timeline of a day in the life of brands Arden had worked for eg: wake up to Anchor butter on toast, read the Independent, drive a Toyota etc.

Retropops - Development

I redesigned my box to see if changes to font, colour and layout would improve my box design. I had a mixed reaction from classmates on which elements they preferred. I have decided to create a combination of the two using positive elements of both to have a finished design.

I have added audio to my advert and changed parts of it to a sepia tone. Again some people preferred the original colour version to the new one. However I think I will keep it as it is! I will post it on YouTube and soon as I have my final box design (I need it as the end shot).

Paul Arden

Quick Notes

Paul Arden has written three successful books: Whatever you think think the opposite, Its not how good you are its how good you want to be and God explained in a taxi ride. He has been described as an advertising guru.

Paul Arden famously worked for British Airways, Anchor Butter, Toyota, Ryvita, Nivea, Fuji among many other well known brands.

Saatchi first took on the Silk Cut account in 1983 and Paul Arden introduced the famous cut silk concept. Following the example of Benson & Hedges, no copyline was used, just a still life photographic image in the brand's signature purple.

50's Ads and Design

To improve my Retropops box design and advert I have listed things I would like to change.

The box needs to be bolder/brighter and have a clearer logo, I am also going to play around with the layout. It was suggested in class that perhaps my advert could be black and white so I'm going to experiment with that, also re shooting some parts and getting the audio as best I can!

I want to zone in on the 1950s as a way of focusing on what elements of my design I want to change such a type. There are some great retro and 50s adverts on YouTube which will also be useful with research and redesign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRcRIbExrfg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1gksqqhLU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDk_TEM257k

The 1950's ads that I've looked at are all black and white so there's a strong possibility mine will be too!

Box Design

I used a pre-designed net of a cuboid to mock up two mini boxes. The majority of cereal boxes are similar shape however there are a few which have slight variations.

At the moment I'm sticking with a basic box design but I may look at changing that later on. I like this alternative design by Jordans.

Retropops!

I’ve chosen to call my cereal Retropops. The people I asked liked the name best and it was also my personal favourite. The slogan that I want to appear in my ad and on the box is ‘Retropops, I do it daily’, I thought it was slightly cheeky and refers to the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and should be eaten everyday.

I’ve made three variations of the collage-like picture I want to appear on my cereal box. I put text into one just to give an idea of what will be written. All the images contain roughly the same layout; a breakfast table, chairs and a framed picture on the wall. My favourite is the one with the pink flocked background because it’s very bright and I think it would stand out on a shop shelf. The images of models that appear on two of the collages are from a pin-ups calendar I had, which, I thought worked well with the retro theme. However I think it would be nice to have the same lady appear in the advert as well as on the box and therefore I will need my own model.

Retro Stuff

Many cereal boxes include images of the food inside (serving suggestions), as I’m not creating an actual food product I want to make a kitchen/ dining scene – this will relate to food but not actually picture it.

I’ve made a collage of retro household objects and furniture that I can use to put together a kitchen/dining scene. I’ve also taken photos of flooring throughout my house and collected retro patterns for backgrounds.

Cereal Box - Fonts and Colours

Some ideas for my retro themed cereal product.

I've been playing around with names, I want to get friends and family to pick their favourites.

I've made a collection of retro imagery to help in creating my cereal box. Using magazines, photos and internet images I hope to collage together a kitchen or dining room scene from a retro house for the front of the box. I want it to be really fun, fresh and bright and also a bit cheesy!

Cereal Project - Bits of Ideas!

I've been thinking about how I will put together the image that appears on my cereal box and I've decided to use collage. I've done some research into artists that use collage to create images. I was particulary impressed by those that used a wide variety of materials such as ribbon, food, newspaper etc. By creating collages with photos, drawings, text.... I can then scan them and play around with colour, tones and contrast.

Some of my first atempts

( I also want to keep in mind making an advert that will have a clear link to the appearance of my box)

These are a couple of my first ideas, I used scanned in patterns, pictures and an online image bank to create the scenes - just playing around with colours, text positioning and general layout.

At the moment I'm leaning towards doing a retro themed cereal brand, I believe it could be trendy and also fun and light hearted. I also need to look into what goes onto a cereal box food description, health benefits, weight etc so my box can be as authentic as possible!

Cereal Project - Museum Visit and Ideas

Visiting the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising was really fascinating. I was surprised at how many of the brands were still around today.
I paid a lot of attention to the cereal packaging in particular. The evolution of well known cereals such as cornflakes, Shreddies and Frosties made me very aware of the different types of image and information that are presented to you on a cereal box – I could pick out things that the designers had added, taken away or kept on the box for decades.

I have been brainstorming and playing around with some initial ideas for the cereal project. Looking at packaging and the image that surround most of the popular cereals I have decided that I would like to create something that was part of a lifestyle or trend perhaps. My two main ideas at the moment are

1. A fashion conscious cereal, something that would look good, cool but also have comedic feel to it
2. As breakfast is the most important meal of the day – a cereal that makes the meal into an occasion. A lovely dining experience, but at breakfast possibly the idea that families and/or friends get together at breakfast to spend time together and have a meal.

Cereal Project

I was really excited when we got the brief for the Cereal Box Project as I used to have a bit of an obsession with cereal and it was nearly all I ate when I was younger! I've got a small collection of my favourite boxes that I thought were unusual or not available in the UK.

Postcard Project - Mini Mail Masterpieces

During the first week of the Postcard Project I experimented with posting some unusual formats of post. Midget postcards are a novelty card sized 90mm x 70mm. My own 'Stamp Sized Postcard' failed to make it through the post however I liked the idea of creating something smaller than what is usually expected.

I decided to create my own Mini Mail Masterpieces, making mini canvases with a postcard size and format. I believe the canvases are fun and have a novelty element any image could be printed onto the canvas however I chose to put some of my previous work onto my set of postcards.

Postcard Project

I wanted to try a variety of materials for some initial ideas.

I used papier mache to make a relief of the Tate Modern. My other trial was a beaded mosaic of the Vienna tube line.