Design Practice: DESIGN PROCESS - RESPONSIVE

COMPETITION INFORMATION

Before progressing with the brief I reviewed the competition information to help me get a firm understanding of exactly what the brief is asking for. Ensuring that I completely understand the brief at this early stage of the project is essential, as an informed knowledge of the competition specifics are needed to successfully re-write the brief.

The National Trust wants to reintroduce itself as the powerful connector between people and places.
In modern society we are becoming more and more detached from nature - this needs to change.
Campaign needs to be suitable and relevant to a modern audience.
There is a lingering impression that the majority of National Trust members are elderly, this image should be redefined by the campaign.
Make the National Trust relevant to the modern visitor.
Create an integrated campaign that helps people to understand the importance of connecting with nature.
Consider why people don't make time to visit areas of natural beauty.
How can the campaign change peoples perceptions of the Trust being old fashioned?
Target Audience - 25 to 40 year olds nationwide in the UK.
The integrated campaign should consider multiple channels of communication.

RE-WRITTEN BRIEF

After reviewing the brief and assessing what the most important aspects of its content were, I felt that I understood the competition information enough to progress with redefining some of the content.

The process of re-writing the brief is a very important aspect of the project as it allows me to adapt the briefs information to help ensure that the response created is original and stands out from other entries.

THE BRIEF

A large quantity of families in modern society are spending more and more time inside interacting with technologies than they are outsider connecting with nature and the natural environment. The National Trust want to change this habit and help people to understand the benefits associated with connecting with nature.

CONCEPT

Create an integrated advertising campaign that places the National Trust in the interests of parents and children alike. The campaign should also help to establish a new way of thinking with regards to the importance of connecting with nature regularly.

BACKGROUND

In modern society, with jumps in technology and changes in social trends there is a growing number of people spending less time outdoors and more time inside. The National Trust wants to reintroduce itself as the powerful connector between people and nature, bringing people out of their houses an into the wild.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Parents, children and young families living in Britain.

TONE OF VOICE

Playful yet Persuasive. Light hearted.

CONSIDERATIONS

Why are modern families not visiting sites of natural beauty and historical heritage anymore?
How do you provoke parents into changing their perceptions?
What are the benefits of connecting with nature?
What media/outcomes will be utilised? Will they be environmentally friendly?

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

A competition entry.
An integrated campaign that considers all communication channels.
Supporting design boards.

DELIVERABLES

Integrated campaign
Supporting design boards.

Link

WHAT WILL BE PRODUCED?

After rewriting the brief I started creating spider diagrams exploring the different directions in which the brief could be taken. As the brief has stated that the campaign should integrate both digital and printed media careful thought had to be given as to how the campaign would navigate and appeal to both parents and their children.

The first two spider diagrams I created explored how the campaign could connect and influence the two target audience demographics, I outlined both sides of the target audience as I believe that to make a true impact the campaign must address both the parents and children.

The next spider diagram explores what could be produced as part of the campaign and its relevance to the varying target audience demographics.

RESEARCH

Once I had defined some project direction I started collecting a body of research....

Research - Research Link

PROJECT REDIRECTION

After spending around two weeks developing my initial response to the D&AD National Trust brief, attending various critiques, receiving feedback and collecting some initial research I have decided to change the direction of my project.

Currently, my campaign focuses on inspiring children and educating adults in an attempt to get more families to interact with the natural environment. However, since collecting a brief body of research and thinking of ways I could engage and persuade the audience I found myself becoming less and less engaged with the project and therefore decided to redefine my concept and the projects direction.

RE-WRITTEN BRIEF

I started the process of changing my projects focus by re-writing the re-written brief.

THE BRIEF

In modern society less and less young people are adventuring into wild and connecting with nature. People are beginning to lose their connection with the natural environment which only leads them to further disconnect from nature.

CONCEPT

Create an integrated campaign that places the National Trust back in the interest of a youthful audience while simultaneously promoting the importance of connecting with nature.

BACKGROUND

The 'National Trust' have a preconceived image that their members, activities & places to visit are tailored for the elderly to enjoy. The trust want this image redefining to make them more appealing to a youthful audience.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Teenagers and young adults living in Britain between the ages of 18 & 30.

TONE OF VOICE

Persuasive & formal.

CONSIDERATIONS

Why are people not visiting sites of natural beauty/heritage anymore?
How will the campaign appeal to the audience and make them want to engage with the trust?
What are the benefits of connecting with nature?
What areas/ activities does the trust currently promote & are they relevant to the audience?
Will the chosen media/outcome reflect and engage the audience?

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

An integrated campaign spanning all relevant communication channels.
Design boards illustrating the campaign.
Campaign submitted online to D&AD.

DELIVERABLES

An integrated campaign spanning all relevant communication channels.
Design boards illustrating the campaign.

WHAT WILL BE PRODUCED?

After I finished re-writing the brief I was ready to start progressing through the early stages of the project. I started this process by producing a collection of spider diagrams to help me define the navigation of the campaign and what could be produced to engage the target audience.

Initially, I struggled to define how the audience would interact with and navigate through the various aspects of the campaign. Therefore, the first diagram I created helped me to visualise the integrated campaign from start to finish. Creating the campaign map was an essential part of the initial project process as it helped me to define what aspects of the campaign are most important.

Using the campaign map as a guide I then created a diagram exploring what outcomes could be produced as part of the campaign. The highlighted elements are areas that I believe are relevant and beneficial to the campaign.

POSSIBLE PRODUCTS;

Posters - grab audience attention & engage them with the campaign.
Billboard advertisements - Large scale advertisements to get audience attention.
Campaign booklet - Information on campaign and the National Trust.
Compass app - directs audience to pop-up National Trust shop.
Survival matches - freebie, will also contain campaign information/advertisement.

DEVELOPMENT

After defining what could be produced as part of the campaign I started working through each of the possible products in more detail reviewing its relevance to the campaign. This process was started by first dividing aspects of the campaign into three sections;

Advertising campaign - grabs audiences attention and informs them of the campaign.
Information pack - distributed from National Trust stores to further engage audience members with the campaign.
Online campaign - Digital media to support campaign online.

Dividing the outcomes of the project into these subsidiary groups enabled me to define the campaign products much more easily.

I had to be strict with the amount of work I set myself as I am working to a tight timescale and have a lot of additional work from other ongoing projects. Therefore, when defining what will produces as part of the campaign I only defined one or two outcomes.

From the selection of possible outcomes generated for the advertising campaign I decided to outline a set of typographic posters as the idea I plan to develop.

Next, after defining the specifics of the advertising aspect of the campaign I created a spider diagram exploring the possible products of the information pack.

Finally, after I had outlined the individual contents of the information pack I concentrated on generating ideas for the digital side of the campaign starting with a mind-map exploring possible outcomes.

When deciding what direction to take the digital aspect of the campaign in I reviewed the previous diagrams and possible product directions to ensure that all outcomes are cohesive with all other aspects of the campaign. As I have already outlined that I will be producing a poster based advertising campaign with supporting printed information pack I decided to redesign the National Trust website to revitalise its graphic appearance and make it aesthetically consistent with the rest of the campaign.

RESEARCH

The project required the collection of research into various different areas, therefore, when blogging my investigations I made separate posts for the different research areas. Below is a list of links to my various research posts supported with an explanation of the topic and its relevance to the project.

BRAND GUIDELINES - Research Link

QUOTES - Research Link

PRIMARY IMAGES - Research Link

TIME MANAGEMENT

An important aspect of the project that is also key to its success is time and project management. At this moment in time I have a number of extensive projects all running along side each other, without any organisation staying on top of this heavy workload would be very challenging. Therefore, I will apply a number of organisational methods to help me keep on top of the various projects to ensure the workload doesn't get on top of me.

ORGANISATIONAL METHODS;

Week Diary - Plan out weekly tasks.
To Do List - Physical list of everything that needs completing.
Deadline reminders - Reminders in the weeks approaching the deadline to help me check progress.

Below are a selection of images illustrating the weekly tasks organised in my diary;

PHOTOGRAPHY

Below are a selection of photographs taken from my primary research.

CHOSEN IMAGES

I refined the selection of photographs to a choice of six images that will be applied as backgrounds for the typographic posters. As the images are to be applied as backgrounds I used Adobe Photoshop to crop and re-size the images to the correct dimensions ready for when the typographic compositions have been completed.

From the selection of six images below only four will be used, however this gives me freedom to experiment and select the most appropriate image.

DESIGN DECISIONS

After developing my concept and collecting a body of research I was in a position to start producing the designs for the various aspects of the project. However, before starting the design process I first had to define the project design decisions relating to the colour scheme and typefaces that will be applied to the various outcomes.

As I plan to hand-render all typography before applying it to the various aspects of the campaign the typefaces chosen will only act as a base template for the typographic compositions. Additionally, as the posters will predominantly rely on typography to communicate information the fonts chosen must be visually imposing and clearly legible to ensure immediate communication.

PRIMARY TYPEFACES

Below is the initial selection of bold sans-serif typefaces.

CHOSEN TYPEFACE

I outlined 'Bebas Neue' as my main typeface due to its bold legible letterform.

SECONDARY TYPEFACES

Below is the initial selection of secondary sans-serif typefaces.

CHOSEN FONT

Blanch was outlined as my secondary font.

BODY COPY TYPEFACE

Additionally, I also selected a body copy font that will be applied to any printed booklets or leaflets that are produced as part of the campaign. While researching into the National Trust brand guidelines I discovered that the organisation have their own typeface that should be applied to printed media such as booklets. Therefore, to ensure that my project complies with the organisations brand guidelines I selected their font as the final body copy typeface.

COLOUR SCHEME

As mentioned in my research I believe that it is both important and beneficial to use colours selected from the existing National Trust colour scheme. Within their 'Brand Guidelines' the trust display information about the choice of 21 colours with supporting CMYK & RGB colour codes.

From the variety of colours I selected a choice of three dark greens and two light greens with a final supporting black. The colours were selected due to their aesthetic relevance to the natural environment I hope to engage the target audience with.

Any and all outcomes produced as part of my campaign will utilise the colours selected from the original National Trust colour scheme.

POSTER TYPE INITIAL SKETCHES

Once I had defined a concept, collected a body of research and outlined my design decisions I was in a position to start creating designs for the campaign. As the posters will be the project elements that initially capture the attention of the audience and inform them of the campaign I decided to start with these first.

Each one of the posters will feature an inspirational quote taken from my research to inspire the audience and arouse their adventurous spirit. Therefore, before designing the series of layouts I noted down each of the quotes so that I could see how many words I had to work with while creating the compositions.

FINAL DESIGNS;

Below is a selection of four typographic layouts I want to develop to form the content for my posters.

POSTER TYPE DEVELOPMENT

Once I had developed a range of thumbnail typographic layouts and outlined the final four that I want to carry forwards and develop I started the process of creating the hand rendered typographic layouts.

To help me compose each typographic arrangement I first made a grid from the thumbnail layouts previously created, this was an essential aspect of the design process as I relied heavily on the grid to help me with spacing and letterform.

Once I had finished each of the four initial typographic layouts I used a pen to trace over the pencil lines and fill the letter forms.

FINAL TYPOGRAPHIC LAYOUTS

Below are images displaying the four finished typographic layouts;

POSTER DIGITAL PRODUCTION

After I had finished creating the four hand-rendered poster designs I was in a position where I could start digitally producing the outcomes. I started this process by scanning in each typographic layout at 300ppi and using the 'Live Trace' tool available in Illustrator to create vectors of the designs.

Once I had vectorised each of the typographic arrangements I could adjust the kerning and leading to make the compositions more balanced and appealing. The images below show the four final typographic layouts.

Once I had created the final typographic layouts the previously prepared backgrounds could be added. As each of the selected photographic backgrounds had dominating dark aesthetics the colour of the typographic arrangement was changed to ensure it was legible against the background.

POSTER ONE -

POSTER TWO -

POSTER THREE -

POSTER FOUR -

After adding a background to each arrangement the posters were finished allowing me to progress with designing other important aspects of the campaign such as the information pack members of the audience would recieve.

INFORMATION PACK

As outlined in the earlier stages of the brief the information pack will consist of;

A printed campaign poster (a2).
An inspirational zine.
A note book.
National Trust stationary.
An environmentally friendly tote bag.

INITIAL SKETCHES

The project design decisions had already been defined which meant that I could immediately progress with typographic designs for the outcome. When creating these designs I used the same base grids to ensure that there is consistency across graphic elements from different aspects of the campaign.

FINAL DESIGNS

The image below displays the final typographic compositions for the covers of the notebook and zine.

RANDOM ELEMENTS SHEET

MOCK UP IMAGES

Unfortunately, due to a limited amount of time and a fast approaching deadline I did not have chance to print the various elements of the information pack. Instead, I utilised Adobe Photoshop to digitally render the graphics onto a blank set of items to create a realistic representation of how the printed product would look.

I used a blank sheet of mountboard to create a white background and shot the set of images in the top floor bathroom. Due to the positioning of the skylight the room is illuminated perfectly for taking photographs.

NATURE ZINE IMAGES;

NOTE BOOK IMAGES;

PENCIL IMAGE;

INFORMATION PACK GROUP IMAGES;

POSTER & TOTE BAG IMAGES;

After taking the set images and creating the designs I was in a position where I could start rendering the graphics onto each item. Completing this task to the desired standard was very time consuming, however, the final results achieved a convincing aesthetic which was worth the effort.

The final set of proposal images can be seen below;

SOCIAL MEDIA - ONLINE CAMPAIGN

After completing all the design work for the information pack I progressed with creating media for the online aspect of the campaign.

Initially, I wanted to propose a complete re-brand of the National Trust Website to make it cohesive with the rest of the campaign branding. However, after reviewing the sites aesthetics and functionality I realised that it did not need changing as it was already in perfect aesthetic harmony with the rest of the trusts branding.

In modern society there is a growing number of small businesses and corporations utilising social media as a means for online promotion. Therefore, I decided to create campaign branding for social media sites such as Facebook instead of a website re-brand.

INITIAL SKETCHES

As I wanted the graphics featured on the social meida sites to form a cohesive identity with the rest of the campaigns branding I decided to create a banner image with similar aesthetic qualities to my initial poster designs.

Below are my initial sketches exploring different typographic compositions.

CHOSEN LAYOUT

FINAL DESIGN

After creating the various graphic elements for the social media branding I downloaded a Facebook page template and added the relevant aspects.

PROPOSAL IMAGES

SHOP FRONT

After creating the online presence I progressed with developing some additional project proposals to strengthen the overall campaign. As outlined earlier in the brief the campaign information pack will be distributed from pop-up National Trust shops located in towns across the country.

The store branding was created from the existing typographic media already created for the project, utilising the same graphics also helped to establish a consistent visual theme across all aspects of the campaign.

When creating the mock-up I used a reference image taken from the internet and used Adobe Photoshop to render the graphics onto the store front.

REFERENCE IMAGE;

STORE FRONT PROPOSAL DESIGN;

FINAL DESIGN BOARDS

Once I had completed all campaign based design work I accumulated the project resources and created a selection of design boards for the D&AD submission.