OUGD603 - YCN Bear - The Brief

BEAR

To create our next set of yoyo cards, whisking kids off on a magical adventure with BEAR

The Brief

To create our next set of yoyo cards, whisking kids off on a magical adventure with BEAR.

Background

BEAR started its grrreat adventure back in 2009. As a personal trainer, Hayley was constantly confronted with people growling about difficult diets, and families finding it hard to get their kids to eat fruit. She searched the world for a healthy alternative, and named her company BEAR, after an article she read in January 2009 that sounded all too familiar…
The article studies bears that had drifted into cities to forage from behind junk food joints and bins. The city bears got 30% fatter than their wild bear friends eating salmon and berries. They were also 30% less active and sadly all dead by the age of 10. This felt like a really simple picture of what BEAR was trying to do: get people back to eating as nature intended. 

We launched with Yoyos, a tasty lunchbox snack made with just fruit and absolutely no added nonsense, with kids aged 4-9 in mind. They’ve become a playground favourite and have grown to the be no.1 kids’ fruit snacking brand in the UK. Ever since we first launched we’ve always had a free collectible card inside every pack of Yoyos- it’s actually a very functional piece of packaging that holds the rolls in place, but it gave us a lovely opportunity to talk to our consumers and driving engagement with the brand.

Every year we launch a new set of cards- we do these in-house, coming up with the idea, doing all the research, and illustrating and designing the cards ourselves. It’s a labour of love and our favourite time of the year. With our Yoyos we’re trying to sneak some fruit into children’s diets without them realising, and with our cards we’re trying to help them to learn about the world around them without ever feeling like they’re at school. Education and facts are at the heart of these cards- but it’s never allowed to be boring. BEAR is always the central character in the cards’ theme, and we create a world around him with the cards that we hope will really fuel children’s imagination and take them off on an adventure with BEAR.

The Creative Challenge

We would like you to create the next world of BEAR’s yoyo cards - it’s up to you to pick the theme! We would like to see at least three card designs, both back and front of the cards. 

To get your brains whirring, previous card sets have included: ‘Around the world in 80 days’ with BEAR, with each of the individually illustrated cards being a miniature postcard sent from one of BEAR’s stops on his travels. Each taught children about amazing places and cultures around the world that they might never have heard of.

Our ‘Super Species School’ saw Head BEAR assemble the world’s most incredible species as students in his school- each had a super power that related to what made that creature incredible in real life, children could take a test online to see what ‘super squad’ (house) they would be in, and there was a specially designed yearbook that children could collect ‘bearcodes’ (barcodes) towards and be sent for free.

This year BEAR has gone off in his Time Cave back through history, with 80 stops in the grizzly past, and 20 in the furrific future showing some of the wildest inventions that scientists believe will roll out in the coming centuries.

Creative Considerations

·There has to be story behind the theme, and BEAR needs to be at the heart of it. BEAR is a real bear in the minds of children, and we want to take them off on an adventure. Every week we receive thousands of letters from children writing to BEAR asking what he likes doing, who his friends are, and asking whether he’ll come to their birthday party. Create something that will spark the imagination of a 4 year old you and you’re on to a good starting point…

· Make sure that your cards are packed full of facts- we want to squeeze as much learning as we can in.  But this can’t be dry- think about how you felt when you were a child, and keep it as far away from a school text book as possible. To give you an example of what we mean- whilst at school we might learn about the planets and what order they’re in, but if BEAR was to talk about space he’d be telling kids that astronauts have to use liquid salt and pepper otherwise it flies up their nose with no gravity.

· Be bold, and not safe. Think wild and keep it really fun.

· Style: our cards are ‘guests’ in pack and therefore don’t always follow the style we use for everything else. That being said, keep it really wholesome, fresh and colourful, and trustworthy.

Target Audience

BEAR Yoyo’s are aimed 4-9 year olds, both boys and girls. 

Mandatory Requirements

Please include the following:

· We would like to see at least three card designs, both back and front.
· A simple paragraph or so explaining the theme and story behind your cards.
· Please include the BEAR logo somewhere on the cards- to help people to understand who they’ve come from. In the past we’ve not always used the full logo (see the ‘clock dock’ on the front of our current cards), but just something that helps people.
· Please make sure that the cards are numbered- these are collectables.

For me, I think that this will be a really fun brief to complete because it will play on the more illustrative side of my practice. I have a few initial ideas for themes but I want to keep it quite open for now. The brief itself is very open considering the only real deliverable they want are the 3 cards. It's also interesting that they seem to value the concept over the designs for this brief. 

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Motivation Research

I started looking into nootropic drugs that help with motivation, focus and attention. I found quite a few variations, mostly depending on why your motivation is low. In some cases, motivation may be low because of vitamin deficiencies or depression. However as a whole attention span increased, I found that L-theanine seems to be the best, and safest solution. The alternative is caffeine, which when used often may cause addiction and anxiety.

The site notes:

L-theanine appears to be both very safe and effective. It has a long history of use, an LD50 estimated to be over 1000 times larger than a standard therapeutic dose and no known contraindications with any food or drug. It may well be health-promoting. ref ref ref
The science behind the L-theanine-caffeine combination seems almost equally compelling. L-theanine seems to mitigate the negative aspects of caffeine, such as anxiety, increased blood pressure and diminished sleep quality, while improving upon the positive aspects. Its ability to enhance attention, over and above that of caffeine alone, has been repeatedly verified.

However doing more research into L-theanine it seems that it is more widely used for relaxation and anti-anxiety. As found below:

L-Theanine is a relaxing and nondietary amino acid found pretty much exclusively in teas from Camellia sinensis (alongside Green Tea Catechins and Caffeine) and is known to promote relaxation without sedation. It appears to be effective at this as well as reducing stress at standard dosages.

After more research, I came across these drugs and how they work with different people.
- Nardil works wonders for most people with social anxiety disorder, atypical depression and depression in general.
- Parnate is best suited if you suffer from a major depressive disorder but it can also be a great alternative for other conditions such as social anxiety and atypical depression.
- Deprenyl/Emsam could be a good choice if your problems are less severe and fall more into the atypical depressive spectrum.

If I change my search to focus and attention it comes up with different results and seems that Modafinil is the most widely used. However this is ADHD medicine and is prescription only in the UK. It can still be purchased online and but is more available in the US. This seems to be the one that people claim gives them the most motivation and focus but the question is whether we are allowed to use it when it is not readily available. 

I found this online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhjLxbP0xgE

After presenting this research to my peers we decided against using this drug due to it being prescription only. We decided to go with the original that I had compound which was L-Theanine.

So the final 3 compounds that we chose were L-Theanine for Motivation, Rosea Rhodiola for Anti-Fatigue and Ashwagandha for Stress relief. 

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - First meeting with group

Our group - Me, Emily Kaye and Vedika Kapoor

We met together this morning to discuss our ideas for a brand for the Nootropics. Initially, we researched into what Nootropics actually are and what they do. We found this very useful definition:

Nootropics, also referred to as smart drugs, memory enhancers, neuro enhancers, cognitive enhancers, and intelligence enhancers, are drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that improve mental functions such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention, and concentration.
Originally in order to be considered nootropic a compound would need to:
a) enhance learning b) resist impairing agents c) facilitate interhemispheric transfers of information d) enhance resistance to brain “aggressions" e) increase tonic, cortico-subcortical “control” f) not have the usual pharmacological effects of neuro psychotropic drugs. ref
Since then "nootropics" has gradually expanded to either be synonymous with cognitive enhancers or refer to the subset of non-stimulant cognitive enhancing compounds with very few side effects and low toxicity. Under the latter definition all nootropics would be cognitive enhancers, but not all cognitive enhancers would be nootropics.
A cognitive enhancer is defined by its ability to augment performance on one or more cognitive measures.

After finding this out we created a mind map of who our target audience might be - who would take Nootropics.

Most of the ideas we got from the presentation that DBA but Emily also had a good idea that new mothers might want something to help them when juggling a new child. We discussed all of these target audiences and why they might take the nootropics. For the Elderly we thought that though it would greatly improve memory and brain function when suffering from dementia taking tablets is a problem. Also Elderly people who aren't suffering from dementia might be sceptical about the effects. So we decided against the Elderly. Next, we moved onto athletes and gym goers and decided with the amount of supplements they must take already that this market would be very overcrowded.  Next we looked at professionals, both young and old, who want to perform better within their jobs. We thought that this market was the most promising, while students are a key part of the nootropics industry I feel like they are already sold on its benefits. We wanted to target the nootropics at someone new. Eventually, we chose young professionals as our target audience. We thought that they are the people who have the most to juggle - new jobs, social and work life, keeping up with competitors. As well as the fact this generation has been called the most distracted generation, having a very short attention span. So next we moved on to what nootropics can do for our consumers.

We found out all the claims that people make even that there are virtually no side effects. However, later we did find that some of the drugs, when consumed with alcohol or caffeine can have adverse effects on the body. The main effects that nootropics are used for seem to be for concentration, memory and energy (anti-fatigue). Other uses include for stress relief, confidence, better sleep and intelligence. 

So we linked these uses to why people would take Nootropics. We came up with quite a comprehensive list and found that the general gist of them all was to improve yourself and unlock potential. I feel like this really does appeal to young professionals who are striving to get better in their career and move up the ladder as it were. 

Then we moved onto the name ideas. We wanted something that sounded scientific and credible yet described what the products did. My first idea was a reference to the third eye - the spiritual belief that you have a third eye that can be opened to reveal more. I thought this fit the idea of nootropics perfectly as it reveals something within you to allow you to concentrate more. However discussing this with my group they thought it might be a bit too spiritual and not backed up scientifically. After a lot of consideration and exploring synonyms We decided on a really simple name of "you +" so the product could be named "you + motivation" or "you + energy". 

I think this name will work really well both visually and as a concept because it embraces the fact that the consumer is trying to better themselves. It is promoting the fact that they can be more than just themselves - it's you plus more. 

We decided for next week to research one topic out of the three final ones that we chose - Motivation, energy and stress-relief and find out how they work and what they are.

OUGD603 - YCN GUCC - Brief & Collaboration Meeting

My plan for this year was to do multiple competition briefs and having already taken on one YCN brief - BEAR - I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do another on my own. However when I saw an illustrator, Polly Vadasz,  looking for a graphic designer to work with them for the Grown Up Chocolate Company YCN brief I asked if we could collaborate. I felt that we would work better and faster in a team and also I haven’t really collaborated with an illustrator before so I thought it would be a good learning experience. Below is a copy of the GUCC brief. 

We met up to look at the brief together and get some initial ideas together. She had a strong sense of what kind of thing that she wanted to create due to her illustrative style. She had sent me a slide that she created for her responsive that shows me a summary of her work.

I really liked her typographic style and thought that the use of hand rendered type would make the designs feel very personal, rather than being a bit cold. Also she has a nice cute style of illustration, which is very different to anything I do so it will be interesting to see how our combined styles work. 

OUGD602 - PPP - Studio 12 and Buttercrumble

Today we had Studio 12 and Buttercrumble in to give us a talk about their practices. First up was Studio 12, which I have never really heard of before. They are a studio who provides recording spaces, photo shooting spaces and general studio space for 16-30 year olds to support their learning and creativity. They are based in Leeds Central Library so are pretty central. This kind of support would be really great when leaving Uni and having no access to the facilities that Uni provides like the photography equipment.

They showed us some of the work that has been created by some people using their facilities which was really inspiring seeing a range of creativity within Leeds. They also briefed us on submissions to the Leeds Zine fair which is holding an exhibition in Leeds Central Library which something that I might be interested in going to.

Next was Buttercrumble, a creative twin duo who studied at Leeds University and set up a business when they graduated. I have been following them for a while because I love their style of illustration so it was quite inspiring to see them talking in person. They talked a lot about social enterprises that you can participate in to give exposure for yourself while hopefully changing the world for the better. This is something I will definitely look into doing. Also, they mentioned how beneficial collaborations have been for them, making them think about things from a different perspective. Which is something that I have definitely found while collaborating, you learn a lot of new things.
One of the most helpful tips that they had was about getting in touch with people for opportunities. They said that you have to be specific, tell people what you can offer and be enthusiastic and show excitement about the project. I often struggle with getting in touch with people but I will be sure to use these tips next time I do. At the end of the presentation, I asked about their social media presence and how important it has been to their success. They said that it is often where most of their work comes from, but to not stretch yourself across too many platforms. They recommended focusing on one or two, like Twitter and Instagram which has worked for them.

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics- Briefing

The guys from DBA came in today to brief us on a competition brief for our class. The brief was to create a new nootropics brand. Personally, I haven't heard of Nootropics before but they gave us a quick definition - they are cognitive enhancers or smart drugs that affect the synapses in the brain resulting in increased energy and intelligence. This is quite an interesting product to brand I thought.

So they suggested some prompts to start us off on the brief.

1. start thinking about the target audience and who they would be for example - students, high performing business men, the elderly, health concious people, athletes? etc.
2. Why should your customers believe in you and your brand?
3. What's the big idea behind your brand? What's your USP?
4. Think of words that drive your brand forwards - link this back to your audience
5. Name your brand - how does the name make you feel?
                                 - Link to audience
                                 - What does it say about your brand ethos
                                 - Is it memorable?
6. Choose 3 products that fit the target market
7. Think about the packaging - is it in a tub or a box etc?
8. Range - how do your products fit together?
               - how do you differentiate between them?
9. Think about copy, information and relevant packaging information.
10. Must be in teams of 3 to 4

These pointers really helped me to develop some initial ideas, prompting thoughts about what direction I wanted to go down already.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS:
- 3 Packs
- Website
Additional:
- A campaign idea
- Some cool stuff
- Fun executions e.g. Gym audience = gym ads

Ideas must be developed and presented on 15th February
Final presentations on 28th February.

OUGD602 - PPP - Hallmark Placement

My two week placement was in the Hallmark own brand section which was an incredibly inspiring place to be. I arrived really excited to explore the more illustrative side of my design practice, specialising in vector illustrations. 

After the general inductions, I was briefed using theme boards, which you can see a picture of below. It was an interesting way of receiving a brief as it was very specific when I am used to quite broad briefs. This one was for my first brief, the 70s Bachelor. It was very useful to have a constant reference point for what style was wanted as well as colour schemes. However I did feel a little limited by this, and couldn't help but think that it took away some creativity. 

Throughout the course of the next week, I worked off numerous different theme boards like this one for different target audiences. I found it very interesting working on such a wide range of different target audiences at once, when I am used to either working for myself or for a target audience that I have found for myself. For instance my second brief was for women and their daughters, with a very girly colour scheme, a complete contrast to the first. 

After they had got the gist of what my style was like as well as how fast I could do it they briefed me on a Morrison's pitch that they were having later on in the second week. So I was working on live work for them. This was really promising and I was receiving good feedback about my work ethic which was really nice to hear. 

For more detail on the briefs that I worked on please see my placement report.

FINAL PRESENTATION BOARDS

At the end of the final week I was asked to mount all of my designs onto presentation boards. Usually the people who do placements only have 2 boards, but I managed to fill 4, one with both sides. I am really proud of how much work I completed, and I think it is all to a high quality. It goes to show how fast I can work without distractions as I was sat on a desk on my own. I think that my favourite designs are definitely the simpler ones that I created, like the pop art style fruit and some of the 70s bachelor's designs. Although I also really liked the Mermaids in Paris designs because they are not of a style which I would usually do. 

Also as part of becoming a freelancer I had to create a profile with some of my designs on it. I tried to include a wide range of what I had created while on my placement to show my flexibility. 

Overall, I’m really pleased with what I have created over the 2 weeks for Hallmark. I found that I can work really fast if I’m not distracted and just get on with design work. I learnt a lot about Hallmark and why it's so successful, in fact, they design for most companies that sell cards. I also learnt about working for an audience or a client, while you may not necessarily like a design, the audience will. I found that design isn’t always to your own tastes.

The feedback that I received from Rachel and Laura, who were in charge of me during my placement, was very positive. They said that I was a very versatile designer, which I think is a great compliment. Also as a result of the placement, I was offered a freelance position, where Hallmark can contact me if they need my style of work for another project. I think that the placement has made me a lot more confident in my illustrative abilities. Before going I thought that I might become overwhelmed by it but I really enjoyed it.

This placement definitely made me consider a career with Hallmark, though it is not necessarily design I still consider illustration one of my strengths and I enjoy doing it. The only thing that I would say is that working here does slightly limit the creative freedom you have and it does feel very corporate.