Creative Brand Strategy: Task 2 - Ideation & Design Direction

MKT62504 Creative Brand Strategy 19.9.22 - 10.10.22 (Week 4 - Week 7)

Wendy Seto / 0348805
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 2: Ideation & Design Direction

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LECTURES

Please refer to these pages:
Week 1 - Week 4

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INSTRUCTIONS

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PRACTICAL

Task 2: Ideation & Design Direction

In task 2, we are to further work on our proposed campaign and start ideating and deciding on the design direction. Here's a brief design recap of my campaign:

Campaign name — One step at a time

Communication goals — This campaign aims to inspire those who are still figuring out or experiencing a quarter-life crisis by letting them know that they are not the only one. Through sharing stories on her personal experiences, Lene wants to change the existing age-based stereotypes on how success is defined by society.

 

Key message — Everyone has their own timing.

In class, I started off by finalizing the colour palette I want to use. Actually, I have decided to use Red and Blue from the previous task but I think I need more colours to make the overall execution looks less boring. In fact, since the purpose of this campaign is to inspire and motivate people, colourful and vibrant designs will be able to deliver the message better. Hence, I picked Yellow and Green, just like these crayons:

fig 1 colour palette 19/9/22

I also wanted to add 4 neutral colours like White, Black, Brown and Beige for contrast purpose.

Final colour palette hex code:

#4035FF

#E91C24

#FFEE00

#1BA33B

#FCFAED

#FFFFFF

#603913

#000000

Furthermore, I began finding visual references that matched my colour palette. Honestly, it was just to help me filter the artworks since there are too many on Pinterest and I am a highly indecisive person.

Since I only want to do simple illustrations, these posters caught my eyes:

fig 2 visual references 19/9/22

I also find this collage-style poster interesting, if only I have enough pictures of Lene.

fig 3 an extra visual reference 19/9/22

Moving on to the typefaces, I wanted to use handwritten stylized fonts. I showed these to miss Lilian and she reminded me that I should also think of typefaces to use for the body of the campaign's website. It would be nicer if I am not limiting myself to only these handwritten typefaces. 

fig 4 proposed typefaces draft 19/9/22

fig 5 proposed typefaces draft 19/9/22

fig 6 final proposed typefaces 9/10/22

Lastly for the design direction, since I only want to do simple illsutrations, these are the styles thatt I showed to miss Lilian:

fig 7 rough art style references (1) 19/9/22

fig 8 rough art style references (2) 19/9/22

Now for the ideation that I should have done before the design direction, I further refine my brand touchpoints from the campaign proposal.

According to the proposal, my touchpoints were:

1. Website

2. Social media (Instagram & Twitter)

3. Podcast

4. Merchandises

A website and a minimum of 9 Instagram posts are compulsory according to the MIB, however I decided to add Twitter since it is actually the platform where motivational speakers are the most active at. According to miss Lilian anyhow, there is not much for me as a designer to do with the brand's tweets so I am eliminating it from the list. In addition, I have podcast cover art as one of my touchpoints because I am branding Lene as a speaker. Miss Lilian also gave me the idea of designing a background for virtual meeting (seminar/workshop) purposes. 

fig 9 website references 25/9/22

fig 10 instagram post/feed references 25/9/22

fig 11 podcast cover art references 25/9/22

fig 12 virtual meeting background references 25/9/22

Furthermore, I have quite a few options for the merchandises:

1. Journal

2. Stickers

3. Washi tape

4. AirPods case

5. Casette

6. Tee

7. Tote

8. Tumbler

Now when I realize that I have so many to work on, I think I'll focus on the journal and stickers. I did some research on the benefits of writing a journal to one's well-being and there are:

1. To reduce stress

2. Lowering blood pressure

3. Improving mood

4. Increasing well-being

5. Creatijg space from own mind

6. As a form of therapy

7. A way to process thoughts and emotions

8. Helping to figure out

9. Deepening self-discovery

The rough breakdown of the contents I want to include inside will be as following:

1. Daily log/spread

2. Habit tracker

3. Mood tracker

4. Monthly playlist

5. Goals page

6. Brain dumps

7. Reflection

I am actually pretty familiar with journaling since I used to do it everyday back then during the quarantine period.

fig 13 my journal spreads for april 2020 

fig 14 my journal spreads for june 2020 

fig 15 more journal references 25/9/22

For the stickers, it will either be included inside the journal so it becomes a set or executed seperately. I am also pretty familiar with making stickers because I have made some to sell for my small business, create o'clock.

check out create o'clock!

fig 15 create o'clock's sticker sheet (1)

fig 16 create o'clock's sticker sheet (2)

fig 17 how I make the stickers

fig 18 more sticker references 25/9/22

I also want to make a sample washi tape but I have never done it before so I am not sure if I am able to execute it well, in that case we will see how it goes in task 3.

fig 19 washi tape references 25/9/22

Next on, I really hope I have the time to execute these two merchandises because I can already imagine how cute they would be! Wiceline gave me the iPod idea, she knew how much I would enjoy designing something vintage. And from the idea, I thought of doing casettes too. The only problem I have is that I am not sure if the audience would still buy these kind of stuffs. Miss Lilian herself knows that the trends are literally going back in time so I guess it might work?

fig 20 iPod and casettes references 25/9/22

If I am doing something old school above, for the next one I should probably think of something that is more modern that the majority of people are using nowadays. What about headsets and AirPods cases? I am obsessed with all those adorable AirPods cases sold in Shopee, in fact I have bought myself so many.. 

fig 21 AirPods case references (+ phone case) 25/9/22

The rest of the merchandises like graphic tee, tote bag and tumbler are additional/back ups, pretty boring though since they are considered as the "basic" merchandises of every brand or event. 

fig 22 graphic tee references 25/9/22

fig 22 tote bag references 25/9/22

fig 23 mug/tumbler/bottle references 25/9/22

Finally, it is a must to make a video for the campaign which I almost forgot with. I thought of making an animation since I cannot think of any other possibility than this. There is no exactly accurate example that I can find but what I have in mind is probably something like this: 

fig 24 draw my life - conan gray

I have also sketched out some logo ideas to show miss Lilian in advance. 

fig 25 logo sketches 2/10/22

fig 26 logo development 9/10/22

Below is the document where I dump all of my ideation and design direction:

fig 25 ideation & design direction dump docs 9/10/22

And my final deck for Task 2 submission:

fig 26 final ideation & design direction deck 9/10/22

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FEEDBACK

Week 4: 

Based on what you have here, I think the direction you want to go with is not that clear yet. In this case, you have to compile your ideas to become more solid. Also, remember that you are going to make a website where you will need to write body texts, are you sure to use only handwritten typefaces to execute it? My advice is find at least one or two serif/sans-serif to include.

Week 5: 

I think the iPod and AirPods case ideas can work, because the trends nowadays are somehow going back in time right? But remember there are already so much work to do, are you sure you will have the time to execute all of these merchandises? Of course you are free to do as much as you want but just in case, pick some as your priority and the rest can just be back ups.

Week 6: 

It is really nice to see that you have broke down the contents you want to put inside the journal, this means you understand clearly what you are doing. However, it is not necessary to design all of the pages, some previews would be enough. For the logos, I like the one that looks like a board game. It is also interesting to see you use symbols to represent your campaign name, maybe you can try to execute these two? You don't have to use the brand colours for your logo though, otherwise if will become difficult for the audience to differentiate which is the logo and which is part of the contents.

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REFLECTION

Experiences: It was exciting getting into the stage of ideating, I am able to explore on the possibilities of executing my campaign. However, there was some confusion in the process as well. Turns out we are no longer branding the person, in fact should focus more on the campaign itself.

Observations:  I had a lot of fun finding visual references for the merchandises because I will be doing something that I am pretty familiar at but at the same time it will be my first time doing it for an assignment. I really hope in the next stage I can perform as I expected because sometimes I had a lot of ideas but I am unable to deliver it well.

Findings: I finally learn how a designer is supposed to propose their ideation and design direction to a client before proceeding. It requires a lot of journey to actually have the products showed to customers and available for sale, there are actually a lot of thoughts and considerations behind it.