OUGD603 - YCN GUCC - Stickers

Polly provided me with some handrawn illustrations and said she would draw over them in photoshop. However, in order to progress with the designs, I decided to have digital copies so I decided to vectorise all the sketches that I could.

These were the vectorised stickers I created from her illustrations, using a range of bright colours. The idea was that the bright colours would contrast the chocolatey colours that we plan on using on the sleeves. Polly didn't really like the colours I had used and digitised her own version of the stickers (though not to the extent that I had done). I do think hers look better with the use of textured brushes giving them more depth.

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Further Packaging Development

After showing my development for the packaging to my peers, Emily took over the design process so that I could work on creating the website. She decided to use a  different shape of packaging. She took inspiration from the sleeves that you use to keep your pill packet in. (See below)

She created the net based on this sleeve and took my idea of portioning off the labels into boxes. I think that it looks a lot better being a bit wider giving more space for the information. Emily also worked on creating a more friendly tone of voice through the copy, changing the names to be more playful and informal. She also used a handwritten typeface for the titles to further emphasise this friendliness. 

She then changed the lines of the labels to be 'see through' so that the pattern shows through in the spaces. I think that this works really well as it makes the pattern feel less interrupted. At this point, the sleeve packaging was pretty much complete. 

We altered the tin designs to work in the same way, using the separated labels and patterns. Here the titles can take a bigger precedent in the hierarchy of the label design. Also, the size of the tins meant that more information could be fit onto the back. 

OUGD603 - YCN BEAR - Final Ideas and Illustration Research

I drew some ideas out of my favourite of the ideas that I had created in my mind map for the themes. In the brief it specified that Bear had to be used as a character within the theme so I decided to dress him up. I really like the idea of Deep Sea Bear, as a child I loved the sea and any documentaries to do with the ocean. In fact I used to want to be a marine biologist, so this is by far my favourite idea (although I may be a bit biased). It is also the idea that I have the most ideas about. 

So I have decided on creating a diving academy run by Bear himself. Where children can become part of the academy. Having decided on what I want to do for the yo-yo cards I started looking into styles of illustration that I could use to make it really appeal to the target audience of children aged 4-9.

I wanted to find a style of illustration that was bright and colourful, while not too cutesy. As in their brand guidelines they specify that they are not a cute or timid brand. I like the idea of the fauna framing the image like this, I think it would work really well in the card format. The aesthetic of the illustration itself is very simple and bold. The characters have minimal detail and are done in a style which is slightly naive. However I really like the minimal nature of this style of illustration, keeping things simple for children is best rather adding too much detail as I feel it will be lost on children. 

This illustration stood out to me because of its use of texture. I want to avoid my illustrations for the cards becoming too flat so having textures and shadows like in this illustration would make it feel a lot more vivid. Also, the colour palette that's been used within this illustration is made up completely out of tones of blue. This colour palette is very interesting as it really evokes the feeling under water, however, I feel like some of the likeness of the fish that I will draw would be lost if all of the colours were simply blue. 

OUGD603 - YCN BEAR - Initial Ideas

After reading through the brief I had quite a few ideas to get started for the yo-yo cards. I wanted to keep it to something educational, yet fun, adventurous and relevant.  The theme had to be something that would really interest the target audience of 4-9 year olds as well as providing a collectable element for the cards.

I kept most of my ideas to the natural world as I believed that this represented the ethos of BEAR better. The three that I'm going to develop further are Dinosaurs, the oceans and insects. I have lots of different ideas for all of these but I need to choose one. I'm going to do some sketches of my ideas and see which feels right. 

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Packaging Ideas and Development

We had discussed various different packaging methods as a group, so I sketched out our ideas. We initially had thought of a tube for the portable tablet packet and a tin for the home version. However, I started designing a sleeve that could go around a tablet packet that was a similar size to that of a pack of paracetamol. 

I started by playing around with boxing off areas of the sleeve for the information, starting with just the 'flavour' and the logo as well as how many tablets you get. I like this design because it looks like a piece of paper could have been placed around the sleeve, holding it together. Although the design works being quite minimal I feel like it lacks a description of what the product is. 

I also played around with boxing off the logo and name in the centre of the sleeve packet, this way it is sure to make people read it as you + chill. Although again like the previous design it feels like it needs more information to make it a believable design. 

Additionally, I thought about using an additional tracing paper or acetate sleeve so that the packet  design could be just the un-interrupted pattern. I do really like this idea because I feel like it gives a tactile quality to the sleeve without taking away from the pattern design with a solid box over it. I may come back to this idea. 

After deciding that it needed more information on the front, I decided that I could add a short description of what the tablet actually does, trying to keep to the friendly tone of voice that we as a group had decided upon. Using the same boxing method as before I split up each segment into their own box to make it easier to read. For each flavour I highlighted the flavour name with the most dominant colour in the pattern. I think that this layout is really effective, I will show it to the rest of the group in the next meeting to get their opinion. 

I also started trying to figure out how to do the back in the same way while being able to fit all of the information on it. After looking at a paracetamol packet for ideas on what to put I have included a dosage, side effects and warnings as well as information about the product and brand itself. 

Because we wanted to fit the nootropics around our consumers everyday life I also started looking at bigger tins or bottles to put the tablets in that they could keep at home. I started with a pretty bog standard medicinal bottle shape. I feel like this looks very impersonal and the shape of it looks too medicinal and cold. Perhaps we should be creating a tin that people would be happy to have out on their counter rather than something that is kept hidden in the medicine cabinet. 

So I found an aluminium tin that I feel works a lot better. It looks more stylish and makes you want to pick it up and look what its about. I also feel that this tin would have a huge impact on the shelves, really standing out from the competition because they are so colourful and different. Also using the same boxed label ties both packaging designs to make a cohesive brand style. Perhaps this use of boxes could be used elsewhere like in the website. 

OUGD603 - YCN GUCC - Initial Ideas

At our first meeting we decided to get down what we needed to do and think about overarching themes and concepts for the packaging. Polly thought that because you would send the packs to people for special occasions that we could base the designs for the sleeves around this. We looked at companies like boomf who provide customisable wrapping paper where customers can add their own photographs and text. We both agreed that we wanted to create customisable boxes as well as the customisable bars.

So we brainstormed events or occasions that you might send someone a box of chocolates, from cheering someone up to wishing them a happy birthday. After deciding on 6 key occasions to base our sleeves around we tried to come up with some visual ideas. Polly liked the idea of making the sleeve look like a wrapped package or present. Or even using an envelope on the back so it would look like a gift you would receive in the post. We took this idea and thought that this could be our theme as the way you can order these boxes online so they would be delivered. We liked the idea of a happy package, replicating the excitement you get when you receive nice mail like personal cards or letters. So our theme for our customisable packaging will play on the idea of sending a gift to a loved one

We will also have to make a website, the brief just asks for the landing page. We want to create a full customisation process so that we can really boost the idea of being able to customise your own wrappers, not just the flavours of the chocolate.

OUGD602 - DBA Nootropics - Seperating into Roles

After deciding on our logo and concept for the brand we decided that we should split our tasks between us so that we could get more done before the deadline. We decided to make a list of what we wanted to create for the final presentation:

- Logo - with colour cheme and brand guidelines
- Tablets - coloured to make them less scary
- Packaging - portable + permanent (sleeve and big tub or tin)
- Landing page and Community page for website
- Planners/Stationary
- Advertising (Posters and Guerilla advertising)


I had already developed some ideas for the packaging and logo so we were ahead with this. So we gave each other roles to complete over the weekend to be ready for the presentation. I was given the task of the website, trading off the rest of the packaging design to Emily. Emily was also tasked with working on the copy, writing it in a friendly style. Vedika's job was to do the advertising posters as well as mocking the planners that we talked about previously. We hoped to complete the logo together in our next meeting.