OUGD603 Flora & Fauna - Market Research

Bumble & Bumble

B&B sell products created by stylists, the designs
for the products are unique to B&B they use muted colours and a crafted approach making it more relatable to the consumer. I would suggest this packaging is marketed and aimed at young adults around 20+ this is because the style of design suits the current demographic. Muted colours have been a trend for some time amongst young adults. Despite this the brand feels quite corporate.

Lush
Lush prides themselves in being an ethical company. Fighting against animal cruelty and being proud
of their handmade and fresh products all of which animal free, this shows through their branding
and packaging. By using a brushed text on all of
their packaging it really enforces the whole idea of handmade, it also creates consistency throughout the brand. Even though Lush has different values to Flora and Fauna it is apparent to me that the importance of knowing your values is signi cant in the overall visual response.

Clinique
Clinique has been around for a very long time in the beauty and lifestyle category, this to me is obvious that its brand is successfully iconic, not only this
but well recognised. Simplicity is key to creating a timeless and memorable logo. I would say Clinique’s target audience is females and men of around mid 20’s upwards, although I don’t believe personally the branding discriminates an age range or gender - this could be due to the simplicity of the brand. 

Keihl’s
Keihl’s is arguably my favourite branding out my research this is most likely because it is targeting
my demographic. The logo/icon is very slick and upmarket it gives off the sense of class and luxury this appeals to me and likely appeals to other young females and males. Like Clinique is uses similar branding in the repsonse to simplicity.

OUGD602 Halloween Can Designs

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/brands/2016/fanta-s-debuts-spooky-packaging-for-halloween

Im really interested in packaging design so when I saw this I was super inspired!

My thoughts - The use of colour on the tin packaging is really clever although not the usual design fanta would normally have the use of colour helps the consumer know what is what flavour, not only this but the idea is really playful and exciting this will really engage with a younger audience such as children, teenagers right the way up to adults. This is some impressive design with a simple concept.

Fanta is unleashing some wickedly good fun this Halloween through a series of spooky packaging designs created by noted illustrator Noma Bar. Bottles, cans and multi-packs featuring four ghoulish characters rendered in Bar’s signature style are in stores across the U.S. for a limited time.

Bar added his distinct touch to four classic Halloween characters, each of which bring to life the playful personality and flavor profile of a different Fanta variant. Fanta Orange and Fanta Orange Zero bring ghoulish orange slices to a skeleton’s eyes. A wicked witch and a crow peck at grapes. Frankenstein’s monster grunts with a mouthful of pineapple, and Dracula naturally wears red with strawberries caught in his fangs.

OUGD603 Flora & Fauna - Research Packaging

Because this brief is incredibly packaging design heavy I thought it would be a good idea to look at other packaging in both their competitors market and others. 

Ive picked some designs that I found particularly inspiring and relevant to the brief in terms of quality, target audience and luxury feel.

Soap Stones

This is a soap company - the actual products are carved into look a like gems, the packaging here is really simple and to the point - this really benefits the product, allowing it to sell itself, rather than the packaging having to do all the work.

Quique Cosmetic

Quique uses luxury colours like black and metallics, this really add to the overall luxury feel. The use of black tricks the mind to think that something is luxury and sophisticated. 

Natural Oils

This company uses natural products to create there oils this is very reflective of the actual packaging, the designs are very clear and minimal. This could suggestively reflect the actual product. Looks good but little chemicals.

Musq

Savon de parfumer

Again another soap company, there designs are more illustrative and are representative of the scents and smells - like flora and fauna's ideas they too have used botanical illustration to connect with the audience.

OUGD603 Flora & Fauna - Research

Flora & Fauna can be found on the Greek Island Crete. Flora typically refers to plants and the area that it is found in this case Greece. The actual word Flora derived from the latin word flos which translates to flower, Flora was the roman goddess of flowers and spring.

Fauna on the other hand means animal life, this means the two work hand in hand in terms of nature. Like Flora, Fauna is also a greek goddess but of chastity and fertility.

As the company is specifically using greek natural products, it is important to understand just exactly what the wildlife & nature is like there;

In Greece there are a large mixture of European, Asian and African species. This includes bears, wild cats, brown squirrels, jackals, foxes, deer, wolfs, seals, lynxes, as well as rare species of wild-goat, which inhabits the mountainous regions of Crete.

The flora on the islands on the other hand is endless there are an average of 550 different types of plants discovered on the islands and over 6000 different species. Some of the plants include;

Trees:

Olive, orange, lemon, apple, pear, fig, peach, almond, walnut etc.

Flowers:

roses, daisies, poppies, orchids, lilies, lavender, crocus, Bougainvillea, hyacinth etc.

OUGD603 Flora & Fauna - Brief & Analysis

This Brief has been set by an External Brief site - Brief Box

Because I have a keen influence in packaging I would like to do a short brief in which will help get my creativity flowing this brief should take approximately 3 full days to complete and hopefully add to my portfolio.

I have highlighted some of the key points in the brief to truly understand what is required.

The high-end Greek natural cosmetics company 'Flora & Fauna' is in the process of rebranding their core range to appeal to a younger audience. They would like the new designs to be feature modern, botanical illustrations to represent the raw, natural ingredients that they use within their product range.


The client would like to see an initial design which they would potentially roll out across a larger product range (if they like what they see!) They are looking for the designs to take inspiration from the Flora and Fauna of the Greek islands that the products are made from.

To complete the brief, the client would like you to create one shampoo bottle design and a wrapping paper pattern, to use across soap packaging. Think about the different elements you would like to use and aim to make it appealing for a younger, more modern market.

To start with, choose some striking key colours for the brand and lock down an illustrative style. To spark some inspiration, research the types of traditional ingredients, wildlife and plants used on a greek island and have fun with it!!! Remember, these designs will need to be mocked up on some beautiful bottles, which will allow the client to imagine the brand and how it could be developed in the future into a larger product range. Keep your designs nice and simple, remember to also upload your initial sketches and enjoy the process!!

OUGD602 OFFSET Sheffield

OFFSET

This weekend I attended OFFSET in Sheffield, I have not before attended any design events of this scale, out of the event it really helped settle my nerves about life after university. Some speakers highlighted that they still don't know what they're doing half the time and that's half the fun. It was really insightful into how specific and different people take the way to approach briefs and certain processes, I noticed of the event was a strong influence of moving image and special fx etc I think this is something in order for me to succeed I will need to have a better understanding or even knowledge and skills in the area. It is apparent this will be the future of design.

Out of the 2 days I am going to discuss the people I felt a connection with and enjoyed..

Florence Blanchard - Local illustrator and artist originally from France. Florences bold artwork was influenced by her love for science, originally she studied a PhD in biology this has directly influenced her work. her designs and illustration are based on the structures of particles and cells and so forth - this gave are really strong overarching style to her work, the passion from her talk inspired me to look at the finer details everywhere I go. Her style really connected with me visually her style really reminds me of Hattie Stewart's bold and colourful style but once she explained further how and why it is what she does it couldn't be further from anyone else I know or have heard of.

Shane Griffin - From Dublin and a multi disciplinary designer. Shane started off really confident and discussed his progression to where and how he got where he is, he was originally rejected from both an architecture and visual communication course but he knew that he wanted to create and make things, although Shane has multi skills his strongest is in 3D art and animation his designs and presentation was incredibly inspiring after numerous rejections Shane told us to keep at it you'll find where you fit! He now runs a very successful design team in NYC.

Steve Simpson

Steve Simpson, Illustrator and unknowing graphic designer, Steve started out talking about his development through design, he began loving all things handmade - like myself, he liked to illustrate through patterns, and hand lettering etc. He originally started out as a comic artist under his uncles name John Geering from Dandy this was a stepping stone into the artistic industry, Simpson decided in order to progress from children comics he needed to figure out his style, so his portfolio was succinct and clear. After landing several illustration clients he eventually fell into design working on packaging. This was something totally new to him but also what he had been doing without even noticing.

An example of his first design pieces would be his friends 'Inferno sauces' he had considered every fine detail for the packaging right down the barcode. His barcode was edited to really fit in with the packaging.

I believe Steve's development and progression through his career is very admirational due to the fact he continued to show his passion and love through his work instead of containing and designing into small boxes effectively being successful at what he loves to do most.

Ian Anderson and Guest Speakers

Anderson runs the Sheffield The Design Republic.

Ian Anderson on the Saturday did a talk on 'Home is where the Art is' this was joined with local artists and designers such as Tado, they discussed the reason why people want to work at home and the benefits. I agreed with majority of the debate i still felt that by staying at home for your whole life will not help you develop and see the world but then i appreciate thats not always what others want. I personally would love to travel effectively taking my home to wherever i leave my heart.

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Final Feedback

Unfortunately we didn't succeed in winning this years creative networks. Here is some of the feedback from our proposal and presentation;

Posters
Strengths:

· Screen printing great idea in terms of a physical piece of art – each one would be a one-off.
· Effective – design would keep continuity across events – work is very engaging and pleasing.
· Luxurious feel of posters alongside the souvenir concept all build to an idea of taking something away to be remembered – great idea.

Builds:

· Concerns over screen printing multiple posters at peak times and being able to deliver – volume needed and time available.
· Screen print may work more as a one off for event with plenty of lead time.
· Variation of designs per poster to represent the speaker’s body of work instead of one – this would also make it much more difficult to produce via screen printing.

Souvenir: Fantastic idea! Wouldn’t be able to use the artist’s work due to image rights BUT could be adapted in so many ways – well done!

GIF: Great personal touch to use the artists/speakers chosen medium – the paint brush version of this works very well and could be developed nicely.

The feedback is constructive, we had not considered the time scale involved to create screen prints. For future reference we will need to consider the time scale to produce things.

Overall, although we didn't win I believe our idea and outcomes were strong and directly answered the brief.

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Evaluation

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Design Boards

OUGD602 Manchester Design Fair

This weekend I travelled down to Manchester with Hattie to have an explore round the design fair, this was one of the first chances I had had to explore the city! After a short walk round the northern quarter and a bar later - we arrived at London Fire Station where all the design began, the space itself spoke character and creativity and it was great to meet and network with new people.

After countless circling, I purchased a local students 'zine/mag' called Counterpoint. These designs stood out most to me, because of the illustration. I am really keen and interested in illustration & typography. The print and zine have been printed by risograph this process really draws me in - I would love to know more about risograph printing so I can use this in my own practices.

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Final Submission Presentation

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Opening titles

Although not required for this submission we both decided it would a great idea to consider what we would do for the opening titles and introduction of the speaker - this will show exactly how we want our work to be perceived. We created a short sequence of one way of creating a GIF - if selected or even not selected we will continue this on further to develop and explore other possible routes of introducing each guest speaker.

OUGD601 COP Practical - Sketches

In light of sign writing I tried my hand at doing some lettering before creating and design any initial ideas for my brief. This allowed me to consider sizes, perspectives and shading. All of which can change the tone of voice.

OUGD602 Its Nice That

Design Inspiration.

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/usarae-gul-paints-immigrant-culture-in-manchester-121016?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=intsocial

My thoughts - This lady's art is truly conceptual and inspirational its great to see people different artistic perspectives, the colours she uses are toxically bright this is why i love them so much.

Usarae Gul paints immigrant culture in Manchester

Manchester-based textile designer Usarae Gul describes herself as “Unglish”, a self-coined portmanteau created to convey her experience as a British Pakistani woman who grew up speaking both Urdu and English. Her paintings are a celebration of that identity and of the small businesses set up by first generation immigrants across the UK — the neon-lit restaurant fronts on Wilmslow Road’s “Curry Mile”, a busy market street in Pakistan, sweet shops, extreme floods in Pakistan, her parents celebrating their honeymoon in the Lake District. “I am particularly fascinated by pockets of immigrant culture within Manchester. I like to explore the experience of dual identity amongst first generation immigrants in the UK,” Usarae explains.
Not easily pigeonholed, Usarae’s work varies from energetic, highly-coloured paintings to neatly executed repeating line-drawn patterns. For South Asian-centred art and opinion magazine Kajal, Usarae produced a poem titled Desi Queen accompanied by illustrations of Pakistani jewellery and cooking utensils (including tins of “Gul’s Pure Desi Ghee”).
“In my painted artwork I like to mix objects from both sides of the world I identify with,” Usarae says of her work. “I work with paint and found objects to create striking images, full of colour and pattern heavily influenced by my Pakistani roots. Within my painting I hope to clarify my identity, to confirm it is okay to be muddled, to be part of two separate clashing cultures, and to celebrate myself, as a British Pakistani woman. As the daughter of Pakistani immigrant parents I have loved the rich heritage and diversity I have grown up with. I am so thankful for it — my paintings are a celebration of it.”

OUGD601 COP Essay/Practical - Time Plan

OUGD603 Creative Networks - Souvenir

For each of the events we will be creating a souvenir - this will change from speaker to speaker because of their specialities. For Mignola we discussed the possibilities of creating something illustrative and interactive; such as a character colour, short zine, etc.

The clearest idea to us was inspired by 'The Hungry Sandwich Clubs' Merrion bot - We thought we could use Mignola's Hellboy and creating something fun and engaging. Using Mignolas style we worked on developing a fun cut out character. This would be really cheap to reproduce and would instantly become a talking point across the whole event.

Developments.