ELMWOOD_PRESENTATION

This was the presentation that was submitted to Elmwood. While none of the designs were printed, the direction has been fully designed and followed through. 

Once again, Joel produced the boards from the images I had created. We reduced the amount of text on each slide, and made each board concise and add a new element to the branding as the presentation went on. 

The branding has taking  very coherent aesthetic, however the brand itself seems a little confusing. There needs to be more clarity in the design and overall visual language, but I will call upon this in further crits in order to get feedback. 

ELMWOOD_DEVELOPMENT

 

The development of the brief has been very fluid and quick. Once the direction and concept was sorted the visual style seemed to take control of it’s self. Being an economy style I did not want the visual style to divert away from this theme. Half tone images and single colours on white were what was needed to convey such a concept. 

While the visual style seems to be asserted, I feel that the branding components could be improved. There is something about the branding which has not quite worked. However, I feel it is at a good enough stage to submit to Elmwood. I would like to develop this brief further to tighten it up in lieu of the potential Elmwood presentation. 

CRIT_TBM

The crit with The Beautiful Meme was a new and interesting form of crit. After presenting our work we received a very honest professional crit. 

What was said?

Ben, the creative director at The Beautiful Meme, gave a brilliant crit. He acknowledged the strength of the ideas, but gave feedback about some potential issues about taking the concept further. 

Some of the issues were the legibility of the NEW logo, and also the idea of using NEW to represent Northern Ireland England and Wales. 

How will I act on this?

For me this was only a short brief, so I wanted to use this as an exercise. I will act on polishing the brief in order to give it a chance of being inducted into my portfolio. I think there are some ideas that can be built on and giving some visual strength in order to be put into my portfolio of work. 

FLAG/TBM_CONCEPT&DEVELOPMENT

The development for this brief went rather well. I particularly enjoyed it because I was allowed to include rationality in the decisions. From the outset I thought their must be more to the brief than ‘revolution' and ‘evolution’ so I set out to achieve both. I felt that creating a completely different flag was completely irrational, but looking into how the new flag could be introduced really interested me. 

The idea of creating a campaign around a new flag was what set me on a path to answering the brief in my way. The brief desired more than a new flag, but was open to a range of interesting possibilities and speculations about what could happen once the flag had been changed. 

Joel put together some boards that summed up our rationale. The presentation included the images that I put together for the proposal in order to be taken to the crit with The Beautiful Meme. 

CRIT3

Ahead of the crit at the Elmwood studio. Joel and I wanted feedback on our concept and how we might make the presentation of it stronger. 

The crit group highlighted that the images were very small, and less impactful. They highlighted that the presentation should make a statement, and having lots of things going off on one board was not the way to submit.

The crit group highlighted that the copy on the boards was good and easy to read, however in places it was a tad more than needed. 

How will I act on this?

To act on this I will increase the amount of boards, but dramatically decrease the amount on each board. I will take on board the comments about the copy and proceed to decrease this as much as possible in order to make a more impactful presentation, and a more concise delivery. 

ELMWOOD_CONCEPT

The concept stage for this brief has been a struggle. The process was slow, however I feel the correct process stages were undertaken. Multiple possibilities were explored and the most appropriate was pursued and developed. Trying to develop the brief proved difficult and it was difficult to pin down the name and final brand concept. The overarching concept was to look toward budget branding and have an economy style. The branding wanted to be blunt and no-nonsense with a view to amplifying the no frills feel. 

CRIT_ELMWOOD

At the crit today, Steph Oglesby (ex-LCA student and current designer at Elmwood) came in to give a  crit about the brief set by the studio. At the crit, some very questionable design sheets were shown, with two very different concepts in mind. 

The first concept was to exaggerate the idea of the Doggy Hotel. A cliche and somewhat repugnant idea of a dog’s accommodation. This idea, although could be fun to produce was not necessarily a unique response. 

The second concept was to follow the path of a budget-economy dog hotel, for the family who are looking after their cash, and saving it for the holiday. 

Steph gave us guidance and expressed more interest in the economy brand idea. This was due to the way that dog hotels not really branded this way, and it would be an interesting route to take.

What I took away

I took away that I should follow the route that has been less worn. The idea of a pushing a brand idea from where it is usually taken could potentially lead to a more innovative and appropriate response. This not only goes for this brief, but is something that I can build on for branding briefs in the future. 

BLADE_RESEARCH

What did I do? 

Once again the Blade research seemed to be very superficial as I conducted it too early. This has definitely made me aware that research can not be conducted right at the beginning of a brief. The research I did was mainly on other Barbershops. I paid particularly attention to a Barbershop in Sheffield, as I felt this had a similar feel to what the owner of Blade wanted to achieve. 

What should/will I do? (because this brief is under development, and will be a longer brief, I will write some things that I can do to make the brief stronger)

I think that I should be in close contact with the Barber and his staff to see what it is that they want. I think I should do some research into competition within the city. While I am aware of some, I think it will be valuable for me to document the competition within the city in order for me to put forward a more solid, and contextualised proposal. 

If the brief was a larger scale brief, I could potentially conduct interviews with the users of the barbershop to see what their thoughts are on the current barbershop as it stands, and what they like so much about it.