First off I contacted lots of places for a work placement and received an email back from ignite design… a small studio with 3 guys based in leeds near roundhay park. They specialise in branding and advertising and I really liked there work. They arranged an interview with me and it seemed to go well, although they were interviewing 4 other people that day and ending up finding someone else.
So after contacting lots more places I ended up getting a 2 week placement with totality. This company is also based in Leeds and specialises in brand identity and packaging. They have done work for popular names such as Chicago town, Asda and Nandos. I was really nervous to begin with as I didn’t know what was expected of me… but they were a really friendly relaxed bunch and didn’t expect me to be there tea slave so I was happy.
I knew that totality was a decent company to work with from looking at there website. Go noodle was one of there brand identity briefs they had six weeks from idea to launch and came up with this design. And Two weeks in, and sales of Go! Noodles were 25% above target. Looking into there effective design rebrand figures has also helped fuel my dissertation research… it proves that subtle changes can have a big impact on sales.
Whilst I was on my placement they were working on the rebrand of Halifax Estate Agents, a client Totality has worked with for the last 18 months.I was interested to see how it turned out...They applied the brand across a number different media including in-branch posters, direct mail, media packs, national press ads and web banners. This is why I want to specialise in branding because the choice of media that can be used is not restricted and as I like working with various I can then include these within my ideas.
For instance they designed the chicago town frozen pizza box as a takeaway styled box. With this slight change the first year trading revenues of chicago town frozen pizza was £7.5m. It also brought in 1.2m new customers to the frozen pizza category so it proves that rebranding and package design does its job.
The brief they gave me wasn’t a live brief which was a slight disappointment as I wanted to get involved and experience working in the industry, but when I saw it was a fashion related theme I didn’t really mind as its something I have always wanted to work with.
It was a past brief to create a brand identity for an ecommerce working woman’s fashion site. To solve the problem of business women being to busy to shop. I was to design a logo for the brand name agenda and 925 and also mock up bags and tags a website, shop fascia and billboard.
Having the chance to work with logos got me over the dreaded feeling of designing them and has helped me improve a lot, I have also gained a lot more skills working with brand identity because of this brief and it has only made me more sure this is what I want to continue my 3rd year in. I kept the logo feminine but also formal to relate to the business woman image.
I created both brand names in logos as I was to choose one to continue the brief with… these were my strongest logos for agenda but I did prefer working with 925 as I thought the name was more appropriate to the subject matter.
This is my final logo I came up with in the end. I stuck to this one as the people on my work placement preferred it most when I we had a discussion about it and also it communicate the feminine working woman the best. One of the best things about my placement was that were always had the time for me to discuss my work and show me new skills on the software's.
Heres the bags and tags that I mocked up with my logo and used an on trend plum colour with a floral pattern to incorporate the logo. I wanted to actually print out these designs to and make up the bags to see how well they worked but didn’t have the time.
I was asked to design a website layout which I haven't actually done before, I looked for influence from Asos, Urban outfitters and other fashionable sites to get the feel of how it should look. I came up with various layouts but this is the one I went with and was quite impressed with how it turned out to say it was my first time.
This is the bilboard and fascia design I produced they weren’t the strongest of the project but I was pleased with the work I achieved whilst I was there.
I really enjoyed my placement and didn’t want to leave they were impressed with my work and how I handled the brief. They also want me to arrange time to go back and insisted I stay in touch and ask for advice on my work. Also they explained that they would like to set our year a live brief which I think would be a great opportunity for me to complete during this module.
Outside of work placements I wanted to expand my knowledge with brand work and was happy when I was recently contacted by a guy who works for a surf camp called paradise waves. As I am really interested in the surf culture anyway I thought it would be an interesting and beneficial for me to take on so I agreed to design him a logo and t-shirt designs.
From having already worked on an identity during my work placement I thought the skills would help me with this. I started with designing a few illustrational style logos to show the fun surf lifestyle. Although he explained he would prefer one that was more simpler and related to the sport side of surf similar to the existing ones, that’s when I came up with the bottom logos and I’m still waiting on the feedback to these as it’s a brief I’m still working on at the minute.
I wanted to move away from the computer and have a more hand rendered approach. So I found the dazed digital LAUNCHES THE 1971 REISS T-SHIRT DESIGN COMPETITION although I had already missed the deadline I enjoyed creating a t-shirt design by hand. I came up with this to relate to the punk movement during this year and also the landing of appollo 14 on the moon.
I chose my dissertation topic based on what I wanted to specialise in so that my design practice will influence it. The title for it is…Brand Identity and Packaging does it sell products?
I am going to research and annalyse if the packaging and advertisement of a product is the reason why it is consumed and whether the recession at this time has had any impact on sales and increased demand for home brands.
Here’s some books I have read so far… the neil boorman bonfire of the brands was really interesting to me as I love shopping myself. This guy was addicted to buying brands to form his self image to how he wanted people to see him… and then ended up burning all of his expensive possessions even his T.V. just to get over his obsession. I have also sent out a questionnaire back home to varied age groups so I get a reasonable response it focuses on where people shop and what makes them consume what they do is it advertising or just simply the ingredients' have interviewed a guy that specialised in packaging on my work placement and have also organised to go back to interview one of the clients to hear there opinion on the subject. I'm also yet to visit the design museum in London.
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