OUGD603 - Extended Practice: DSM Boards

OUGD603 - Extended Practice: DSM Brief (PDF Presentation)

OUGD603 - Extended Practice: DSM Brief Research (Preparation For Pitch)

Location

I decided to create this post to portray some of the key research I have carried out in order to make informed decisions about my final proposal for my brand. I have decided that the event will take place in Leeds Town Hall. I feel as though the event needs to be located in quite a central building so that it is easy for everyone to access, and there also needs to be plenty of room inside, in case there is a vast amount of interest for the event. If this is the case, then there would be several dates throughout the year, and it would be a case of first some first served. 

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I decided to look at some of the statistics relating to Leeds Town Hall to see whether or not it would be able to hold a substantial amount of people. The statistics are listed below and have been taken directly from their website. I was going to call them directly to find out, but when I found this there was no need to carry this primary research out. 

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Colour

I have also considered colour schemes for the branding. As soon as I came up with the logo and was deciding which colour to choose, I found it quite challenging at first as it has to appeal to both men and women, as well as children. Some of the logos below inspired me to experiment with the choice of colours used within my developmental work. I found it extremely beneficial looking at existing logos, as it is important to make sure that anything I produce isn't simply a replica of existing brands. I didn't look too much into depth with logos however, as I didn't want to be too influenced by what I saw. 

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What makes my brand different?

This is just one of the few questions we have been asked to consider. I have put a lot of thought into how to try and make it different. Not only for the purpose of answering the brief, but also to push myself and try and produce something which is different to anything I have ever designed before. I feel as though this is really important, because it isn't healthy to get into a routine or a habit and apply the same style to every single brief. 

Below is an image I found of a wall full of envelopes. This is something I actually looked at and have considered for one of my other briefs (wedding stationery for Tom and Claire). Therefore I already had the idea in my head, and when discussing the idea with Ellen of making the brief a bit more interactive, we both said that the envelope wall could be used as a way of reading out messages from patients of the carers who have sent in a personal message to express how thankful they are for what they do to help. 

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Considerations - What happens if there is a high demand for the event?

When gathering feedback on my idea, I was encouraged to have a look at all of the different areas within Leeds. As it is such a huge city it would be impossible to have all of the carers in Leeds under the same roof in one night, at Leeds Town Hall. This is why I have considered the following below. This is something I am definitely going to consider in my presentation as I feel it is important to demonstrate that I have considered all eventualities.

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Postcode district	Coverage
Leeds LS1	Leeds city centre
Leeds LS2	Leeds city centre, Woodhouse
Leeds LS3	Woodhouse
Leeds LS4	Burley, Kirkstall, Kirkstall Valley
Leeds LS5	Hawksworth, Kirkstall
Leeds LS6	Beckett Park, Headingley, Hyde Park, Meanwood, Woodhouse
Leeds LS7	Chapel Allerton, Chapeltown, Little London, Meanwood, Potternewton, Scott Hall, Sheepscar
Leeds LS8	Fearnville, Gipton, Gledhow, Harehills, Oakwood, Roundhay
Leeds LS9	Burmantofts, Cross Green, East End Park, Gipton, Harehills, Osmondthorpe, Richmond Hill
Leeds LS10	Belle Isle, Hunslet, Middleton, Stourton.
Leeds LS11	Beeston, Beeston Hill, Cottingley, Holbeck
Leeds LS12	Armley, Farnley, New Farnley, Wortley
Leeds LS13	Bramley, Rodley, Swinnow
Leeds LS14	Killingbeck, Seacroft, Scarcroft, Swarcliffe, Thorner, Whinmoor
Leeds LS15	Austhorpe, Barwick-in-Elmet, Colton, Cross Gates, Halton, Halton Moor, Scholes, Whitkirk
Leeds LS16	Adel, Bramhope, Cookridge, Eccup, Far Headingley, Holt Park, Ireland Wood, Lawnswood, Moor Grange, Tinshill, Weetwood, West Park.
Leeds LS17	Alwoodley, Bardsey, East Keswick, Eccup, Harewood, Moor Allerton, Moortown, Shadwell, Weardley, Wike
Leeds LS18	Horsforth
Leeds LS19	Rawdon, Yeadon
Leeds LS20	Guiseley
Leeds LS21	Arthington, Otley, Pool
Leeds LS22	Collingham, Linton, Wetherby.
Leeds LS23	Boston Spa, Bramham, Clifford, Thorp Arch, Walton
Leeds LS24	Saxton, Stutton, Ulleskelf, Church Fenton, Tadcaster, Toulston
Leeds LS25	Aberford, Ferry Fryston, Garforth, Hillam, Kippax, Ledsham, Micklefield, Monk Fryston, Sherburn-in-Elmet.
Leeds LS26	Great Preston, Methley, Mickletown, Oulton, Rothwell, Swillington, Woodlesford.
Leeds LS27	Churwell, Gildersome, Morley.
Leeds LS28	Calverley, Farsley, Pudsey, Stanningley.
Leeds LS29	Addingham, Ben Rhydding, Burley in Wharfedale, Ilkley, Menston.

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Current news

I found the article below online. I knew that there had been a lot of recent news relating to carers and their allowance going unclaimed. This is a good enough reason in itself to encourage all carers to come together and enjoy the evening under one roof, as they will not only be able to get to know other like-minded people, but they will also be able to discuss more serious matters, and it may open some people's eyes up and make them realise that they are actually legible for carers allowance.

£65m worth of carers' allowance going unclaimed says charity

They said there are at least 214,000 people in Northern Ireland caring for elderly or disabled family members.The research was carried out by Carers NI, a charity that supports carers, and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC).More than 21,000 carers in Northern Ireland miss out on nearly £65m worth of unclaimed carers' allowance, a report has found.

The charity also said around 70,000 new people become carers every year.

Helen Ferguson from Carers NI said people who care for family members should use all of the available support.

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OUGD603 - Extended Practice: DSM Brief Research (Primary Research - Food Cycle)

Having researched into the Food Cycle for my dissertation I have decided that the food for my event would be provided by them. This would add another element to my brand and would also bring the community together even more. It is important that carers feel as though they are just as worthwhile as anyone else in the community and by having this event they will be able to meet like minded people and have a break from what they do. 

Food cycle runs volunteer-powered community projects across the UK - working to reduce food poverty and social isolation by serving tasty, nutritious meals to vulnerable groups. Since we started cooking in May 2009, we have served over 102,000 meals, made using 119,000kg of reclaimed surplus food (the equivalent saving of 535,000kg CO2 emissions) by our network of 1,200 volunteers.

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OUGD603 - Extended Practice: DSM Brief (Primary Research)

Wherever I am I always take photographs of things which I find inspiring as they will always become useful at a later date. Below are some examples of some interactive marketing campaigns. Firstly, the Bonne Maman stand was inside of Trinity in Leeds. They were giving out tasters of all of their different preserves. People were able to go and sit down in their little pop up cafe or simply stand and have a chat with those who were running it. 

In Marks and Spencer during the Summer I came across this POS display as I entered the store at home. I really love the way all of the products have been arranged to encourage people to buy the products. I feel as though this is a much more effective way of marketing products, as opposed to them simply sitting on a shelf waiting to be chosen. 

When I was in Marks and Spencer carrying out some research for my Christmas card brief as well as my Tigerprint brief, i came across this card which actually turns into a bag. I loved the concept but not so much the design. When I was thinking of ideas for this brief however, it came into my mind again when I was thinking of designing an experiential marketing pop up in the centre of Leeds. I had envisaged a tree made out of wood which could be used to hang donations which would consist of cards/bags all in one with a donation of money inside. This would have been one way of being sustainable and eliminating the need to produce two separate materials. 

When I visited Liz Earle recently I noticed the trees they had in their window display. This then made me have a look inside and I came across several trees of different sizes. At this stage of my work I had already started the design work for Care Celebration. This tree concept was therefore probably more appropriate to the original idea in the same way that the previous image was too. 

I also went to the Corn Exchange and noticed that there was a sweet stand with lots of different raffle tickets attached to the sweets. This reinforced my idea to include a raffle in my Care Celebration concept, with the prize being something along the lines of a relaxation weekend for adults and activities of their choice for children.

When I was in Wagamama I noticed that they had changed the place mats to an interactive exercise for all of the customers to engage with. More importantly, the concept of it is to get each person to create an origami star, then tweet or post their response to instagram. I love this idea and it made me consider the option of using balloons at Care Celebration and giving one to each guest to make their own wish, tie it to a balloon and let it go. I am not sure whether this is necessary though but it is something I will consider along the way. 

OUGD603 - Extended Practice: DSM Brief (Development)

The Brief

Below is the brief which was given to us by DSM. We received the brief via email although we had already been briefed the day they came into college and did a presentation for us. We were all given a different subject to focus on and create a brand for, I was given the City Council. As soon as I was given it I knew how challenging it would be to come up with something which was exciting, as it is quite a dull subject matter.

The whole point of this brief is to make a brand a wonderful experience though, so this is something I am going to keep in mind the whole time while trying to come up with a strong enough concept to answer the brief. 

Initial Ideas

I started off by having a look at Leeds City Council website and Liverpool City Council too. I wrote down all of the ideas that came to my head when I was looking through all of the things that the council already do for us. 

All of these ideas would be worthwhile but I still don't feel as though one of them stands out from the rest as being the strongest. I like the idea of redesigning a parking permit scheme, because at the moment it takes so long for the council to send out a permit without it turning into a big hassle. It should be a straight forward procedure but it isn't.

I also tried to consider the creative sector within my idea generation. This is simply because I like the idea of involving the community as much as possible and love the idea of designers in Leeds or in any city working with the rest of the community to try and make a difference in some way. 

As I know people who are home taught and have also witnessed the negatives of being taught from home, I feel quite passionate about designing a brand relating to this particular area. I don't want to focus on the City Council without looking deeper into it. I could just design some new bins to be placed around Leeds, but I feel as though this wouldn't particularly be a wonderful experience, and I would be limited as I couldn't really do much to change the bins apart from adapt the Leeds City Council logo. 

I also really love the idea of focusing on elderly people. I feel as though I would benefit a lot from focusing on this age range as I haven't designed anything before which is aimed at the elderly. All of my ideas are illustrated below.

I particularly like the idea of creating a marketing brand or marketing campaign which involves people raising money for the elderly who will be spending Christmas alone. I think Christmas should be a time for happiness, and for a lot of people it isn't. So if we could try and make their day better then we should do. The only problem with this idea is that it has been done already by several different charities so it would be hard to be original. 

I love the idea of bringing experiential marketing into it. I have even considered designing a video which would explain my brand from start to finish and would also tell the story of the brand. I would have to collaborate with The Post House to be able to do this, as they would be able to create a short video for me in the time I need it. 

I had a look on a website called Fix My Street and found some interesting things out from there. However, once again all of the information is quite boring and not very exciting, and all of the possible ideas I have already covered in my previous thought showers.

I had a crit with Vicky about my ideas to see whether she had any suggestions as I felt as though I was coming to a bit of a halt and needed some feedback. Vicky suggested that I could design something for homeless people. This added another spanner in the works as I really loved this idea too, but once again there are already a lot of things which people already do to help them. 

I asked an industry professional what he thought of my idea for the elderly. I explained that I could perhaps have a pop up experiential marketing stand in the centre of Leeds to promote giving and this could come in the form of a giant advent calendar. He made me think a bit more practically about my idea and suggested that I should always reconsider WHY and ask myself WHY I am making all of these decisions and whether they are going to have a meaning to them or simply look good. This was really good feedback as I feel as thought I was getting a bit carried away with how the overall brand will look, as opposed to looking at the bigger picture. 

My concept for the elderly became more and more complex. The idea was simplified to create a Christmas meal for those who are alone on Christmas Day. If someone can't make it to the event then they will have their food delivered to home instead.

I tried to come up with some ideas for the branding of it and came up with the name Festive Feast to start with. I asked Ellen for some feedback and she said that she wasn't overly keen on the word 'Feast' as it sounded a bit over the top and overwhelming, implying that there would be a lot of food. This may put some people off who don't eat as much as others.

I experimented with trying to make the logo look festive in some way. But I feel as though all of these branding ideas are too closely linked to my Christmas card brief, and I need to pull away from that as I don't want all of my final outcomes to look the same. 

I quite liked the idea of using a stamp for the branding. I thought it would be a bit different from the linear branding we tend to see on a daily basis. But once again there wasn't one design which stood out to me. 

Logo Development:

I started to feel as though all of my briefs were linked back to Christmas in some form. So I wanted to try and pull away from the idea of festivities and do something completely different. I feel as though this was a wise move. I spoke to Ellen about my ideas and said to her that I need to start a fresh. She suggested that I looked at the carers as opposed to the elderly. I loved this idea instantly as my Mum was a carer and deserved a lot more appreciation than she received. This is therefore something which I feel passionate about.

Here I tried to incorporate a balloon into the design to represent the idea of celebration. I also tried to use the two 'C' letter forms to create an independent logo to work alongside the full text.

Here I experimented with using shapes of the letters to create a friendly image. None of them worked particularly well though so I think I am going to leave this idea behind. 

Preparing for the presentation and applying the branding:

Below are all of the examples of application to various images and applying the brand to a variety of different materials. I experimented with trying to put the event on the Leeds List website, but it didn't look right. It also needs to be directly linked to the City Council website so this wouldn't be appropriate anyway. 

I sent a mock up design of what I wanted the balloon to look like in the centre of Trinity as an advertising strategy to The Post House company who specialise in this kind of work. They came back to me with all of these different variations to choose from. The chosen design can be seen on my presentation.

I also designed some name badges to go on the tables, which also turn into a badge when everyone gets up at the end of the night for a bit of a dance or simply to socialise. I wanted to create something with a dual purpose as this seems to be something I enjoy within my work. 

Here I am cutting all of the badges out. I chose to use the names of the people who are in my group. I doubt I will be giving them out as there may be more or less people on the day of the presentation but it gave me a bit of focus in terms of fitting various names on the tags.

I also mocked up a message wall. This would be used by the council volunteers running the event and they would choose an envelope at random, and inside each one there would be a testimonial to the carers in the room from their patients. This is to show appreciation and create a wonderful and memorable experience. 

Some further advertisements were mocked up to demonstrate promotion throughout the city. Both inside and outside to reach as many people as possible.

This is a seating plan which would also be interactive. The balloons would be lifted up to reveal the names underneath.

In the end I looked at Leeds City Council website and placed an image on the LS events page on there to advertise the event. I am pleased with this mock up as I feel it would attract people's attention.

Feedback from presentation:

On the last slide of my presentation I asked everyone to fill in a piece of paper with some feedback on my presentation and brand. Only four people filled out a slip which I thought was a little bit disappointing. DSM didn't fill one in either, but I suppose it wouldn't really have been fair for them to have filled a feedback slip for me and nobody else.