making a zine for photography student

I was asked by a photography students to make a zine for them for their cop submission showing their photographs. For this brief i was given a week to complete.

The brief:
make a zine about common miss conceptions
saddle stitch booklet style
cover, content, end in a paragraph from her essay

After meeting grace to talk about the details of the zine after the initial briefing over facebook it was clear that the brief was not as straightforward. The photographs were of people with certain illnesses and didn't want the zine and its information out in the world. This made me ask the question of why she wanted a zine if it wasn't allowed to be seen for anything other than the submission, which defeated the purpose of a zine as they are to be read. After this meeting i seemed to have a completely different brief as she has already told the people who she has photographed how the booklet was going to look and they had signed a form to agree to it. This meant i had many restrictions as didn't have any reign for creative design just the making of the document. 

the new breif :
make indesign document of her content. 


After the debriefing, i started to create the document. when placing the photos into the document i had to photoshop them as without doing it i would not be able to achieve the brief as they would look out of place. This took more time tahn expected as they were supposed to be already edited and the same colour. 


For confidentiality as the people in the photos sign a form i cannot show on the blog the development of zine nor the final design. I was never given a copy of the final zine for my submission.

please find a printed copy in my submission fold. (something went wrong in printed and no long have files as i handed them over to the student) 

Evaluation of experience: 
My experience on this brief was very unpleasant as i was miss lead to what the brief entailed, as she withheld information till after i had agreed to came the zine. They said that they had no experience with indesign so that was why they were asking me to do the brief but in the end it was obvious that they just didn't want to make the zine themselves.
If iwas to ever do a brief for another student i will make sure to clarify the details before saying yes and if i later find that information has been with heald i will turn down the brief.  

Brief 1 - vegan chocolate - packing development

To start our design process we came up with our own designs and colour pallet to then review together. The colour pallet I created was based from swatches of images from the flavours that we chose to develop designs for as well as there contrasting colours. With a colour pallet decided we began producing ideas, to the right are my initial design developments of which we chose to keep the almond milk logo as we thought it would be in keeping with the Cadburys brand and be a healthier alternative to dairy milk while still being suitable to vegans. 

type face - hevetica neue bold

These developments were Key to our designs as this was the point when we choice to create our Bar portrait rather then landscape so that it was different to the original Cadburys dairy milk. We spoke about using natural brown paper background to our wrapper as it would it would create a more organic and natural aesthetic to play too vegan traits such as fair trade products. 

Strong points of this design were the size of the almond milk logo and the illustration style of the almonds by Anna. We also liked the mention of been vegan friendly and it been prominent on the design. Although there were strong aspects to these designs we then decided not to pursue with this style as it was too different to the cadburys aesthetic and any image or text we added on top became lost in the textured background. Another key decision that was made at this point in designing was to drop the vanilla latte flavour as it was the least popular of our four chocolate bars as well as dropping the latte part of the almond milk hazel latte chocolate, as we wanted to simplify the flavours so they were not over sophisticated but were still different to what’s currently available on the market.


Further development

zesty orange

hazel nut

palin milk

After further discussion and looking over Anna’s developments we decided to experiment with the use of a repeat pattern of triangles placed together to make squares. A key aspect to this design was the colours as represented the product itself and made the pattern playful and vibrant. To experiment to see if the pattern would work when text is applied we made a bar shaped pattern and applied the typography in a white box to maximise its legibility so that it can clearly communicate its purpose, because the type was still legible, I developed a pattern for each flavour while Anna developed the label and experimented with type composition. Feedback on this design was positive as they liked the similarity between the dairy milk logo and the almond milk logo but were unsure of the colours selected for the pattern as they did not think the browns represented the true colour of a hazel nut latte. The first experiment of pattern used colours that were correct but not accurate to represent the flavour this took a little experimenting with too decide on the final colours. The plain almond milk bar used colours that were taken from images of milk chocolate and almonds so that they were an accurate reflection of the product while looking smooth and chocolatey. The almond milk hazel nut bar used colours also taken from images to be an accurate reflection of the flavour being smooth and nutty. The red colour helps to distinguish this from the plain almond as I used the same browns in both to represent the chocolate element and make a link between both pattern designs, this was carried over to the third pattern for the Zesty orange chocolate bar. 

Brief 2 - YCN frontier - research into larger/pub/quiz applications

 We began looking into other pub and lager brands applications exploaring the way that they conveyed information and the artistic style, typography and colours that were used within them. We found many of there did not use colourful imagery and were predominately used to just convey information. 

We also began exploaring quiz applications to see what artistic styles and the way that the quiz's actually play's and works.

things we liked about the apps we looked at : 

• side burger menu, cleared room from bottom of sceen
• wiping motions for images moving left
• simple colour pallet
• apps that had useful information
• apps that were interactive

Brief 2 - YCN frontier - Research into larger brand promotions

After we had explored the website we began to explore Frontiers marketing material to see what promotional material we could make to support the app. it was important to see what colours and typography they used in these aspects so that we could get the correct tone of language and imagery to fit in with the rest of frontier branding.

Bright illustrative poster making the poster stand out and catch the viewers eye.

Multiple frontier products such as a phone case, instagram posters and beer mat's creating material that link to the same artistic style for there branding.

We also began researching into different brands to see what promotional materials they used, we found that unlike frontier they just seemed to phocus on just showing the lager in either a glass or bottle with a supporting slogon without any creative or eye-catching imagery.

Brief 2 - YCN frontier - Research into frontier

We began exploring and researching into the existing Frontier material through there online presence such as there website seeing their use of Pantone's and tone used in there typography.  

We really liked the use of the 'old timey' map with use of opacity to make the pantone colour bleed through the map.

We liked the use of the circle tabs and wanted to explare the idea of supporting imagery with a tab. 

The brewer notes explaining the flavour were heavily shown on the website however the YCN brief pack suggested that we tried to stay away from the aspect.

Inbuild fidget features allowing for the use of social media to update onto the website adding constant content to the website.

Brief 2 - YCN frontier - brief and first collaborative talk

The frontier brief from YCN was to create a campaign that promotes frontier in the noisy and cluttered world of lager brands. I chose to undertake this brief as it is very open and the list of possibilities is endless for things that could be created. I have decided to work with a student from Leeds Beckett on this project as it would be interesting to explore building a campaign with someone who’s expertise and ideas are different to that of my own. Research that we will need to undertake will include: researching lager brand promotions, the brands history and current promotions, frontiers social media presence, as well as the brands target audience. Primary promotions that we will have to design will be posters, layers as well as social media content these are essential as they are the basic elements that make up a typical marketing campaign.

The first idea sheet explored all possible idea's that we could have for creating a unique marketing campaign. 

The second idea sheet explored in greater detail the idea of a possible application involving an adventure.  

The next idea sheet explored the idea of creating a pub quiz app and the app pages that we would need.

 (Please see submission folder for physical copies)

From these idea sheets, we decided to work on the idea of creating an interactive pub quiz app. Although there were many interesting project ideas such as the app involving adventure we believed we would have greater success creating an app that socially interacted with the user and provided the user with information about Frontier while they were traveling. 

Greater detail on what the app could look and page ideas. 

A sheet on what roles we would take for working on this idea.

(Please see submission folder for physical copies)

Brief 1- vegan chocolate - survey and audience

survey and results

To clarify our research and justify that it is needed we created a survey and posted it on vegan Facebook pages as well as the LAU collaborations page, these were appropriate choices as it made sure our results were from a range of different people, vegan and none vegan. From this survey we found that most people buy there vegan chocolate from supermarkets and a very small amount buy from local shops. The survey also clarified that there is a limited choice when it comes to vegan chocolate as over 70% said so, they also agreed that vegan chocolate should be more accessible. Over 80% of the people surveyed would be interested in a almond milk chocolate alternative. These results clarified all our findings to be correct. Flavours that they were most interested in were plain almond milk, almond milk and orange, almond milk hazel nut latte, and Almond Milk vanilla latte. As we wanted to create a range of chocolate, we chose to base our flavours on what the survey found most popular. 

audience

When thinking about target audience for my this brief the main focus was at vegans, but with the association of cadburys it could also be for anyone who wanted a healthier option, because of the diversity it was important that i create audience profiles so that i could keep in mind who to aim the product at so that it stayed relevant when designing. 

Name: Anna Framer

Age: 21

Sex: Female

Occupation: Graphic Designer

Location: Leeds

Personality: Outgoing, sociable personality, vegan and loves chocolate.

Interests: Arts and crafts, Graphic deign, Illustration, Video games.

Name: Rose Agar

Age: 24

Sex: Female 

Occupation: Retail worker

Location: York

Personality: Vegan, Picky eater but loves chocolate 

Interests: Art, Tv, Books and dogs

Name: Ryan Hutchneson

Age: 26

Sex: Male

Occupation: Personal trainer 

Location: London

Personality: Loves the gym and a healthy lifestyle, outgoing and loves nature

Interests: Gym, nature, camping and vintage cars.

Brief 1 - vegan chocolate - chocolate packaging research

After I had conducted my Cadburys research we decided to look into other brands chocolate packaging. In a convocation with Anna we discussed that we would both like to create something that was colourful and playful, similar to the Cadburys packaging and the complete opposite to the packaging of current vegan chocolate, so we looked at packaging that we thought did this. I began looking into chocolate packaging that used colour to its advantage in a grown-up simplistic way. Our favourite packaging was by Doisy and Dam because of its bright colourful patterns that although didn’t represent the flavour the colours were a reference to it. We also liked the design by Loving Earth chocolate because of its large icons that represent the flavour as well as the use of two colours that contrast and compliment each other to also represent the flavour in a subtle yet effective way. These two package designs were the key influences on our designs.

brief 1 - vegan chocolate - collaborative talks

below is a mind map of design decisions me and anna started to consider: 

To create a chocolate that was not dark we decided that we could use almond milk instead of the dairy as a substitution for vegans. We also talked about what possible flavours we wanted our chocolate to be. We suggested plain almond milk, almond milk coffee vanilla, almond milk coffee hazelnut, and almond milk with orange. We liked these as there was a range of flavours.

we also talked about what to call the chocolate bars suggestions were :

• cadburys almonds
• almond treat
• almond variety
• almond mix
• almond delights
• almond milk
• almond goodies
• almond satisfaction

Our favourite names were, almond treat, almond milk and almond goodies. We decided on almond milk as it was the smoothest sounding name as well as created a nice like the use of Cadbury association.

to clarify our choices so far we decied to create a survey that we could ask vegans to answer.

brief 1- vegan chocolate - (product packing range)

brief

The objective of this brief is to research a gap in the market for a product and then design a product range which is suited the chosen gap in the market. After some initial research i decided that i would design a product for the vegan market that would be just as appetising for the everyone vegan or none vegan.  

In this brief I will design the packaging for the chosen product as well as create promotional materials to go along side it. I have decided to collaborate on this brief as i do not have a great knowledge of vegan products and it would greatly benefit the brief working with a fellow student who did, because of this i have chosen to work with Anna. A key part of our research will be to understand the vegan audience by undertaking a survey which will help guide the design process. 

vegan chocolate bars research 

To start my research into vegan chocolate packaging I looked at already existing vegan chocolate bars/chocolate bars vegans can eat to collect a idea of what is already on the limited market as well as a look at how vegan chocolate is marketed.

From looking at these I found out :

• there are very limited actual chocolate products for vegans and even fewer options when it came to chocolate that was suitable for vegans. 
• Most of the chocolate I found from this research were milk-less as vegans do not consume milk so most products were dark chocolate options and very few considered using milk alternatives to create milk chocolate suitable for vegans. 
• Only two big brands of chocolate sold dark chocolate that vegans could eat and there was only one chocolate bar called Moo Free that were easily available in some stores. 
• Out of the chocolate available in stores there was no adventures flavours, there was only a milk or dark chocolate option for vegans, this was an issue I had found when speaking to Anna before collaborating on the project, and this conversation was the starting point to our collaboration as she had an insight into what was available to vegan as she is vegan herself. 
• The design of the packaging on the vegan chocolate bars had a limited colour scheme and simple and bland which did not favour the product as the design looked to clearly show it was vegan over enticing the customer with a vibrant design. 

This research confirmed that there was a need for the product design in my eyes, as vegan-ism is becoming more and more popular and food brands are not accommodating for this as well as they should.
cadbury research

After my initial research into vegan chocolate and finding that there is a limited choice of options for them in stores I considered what brands where popular and easily available in most shops, not just supermarkets. The most popular brand that came to mind was cadburys, this brand only has one dark chocolate option but has numerous milk chocolate and nut free options. As they do not have any inventive options for vegans and are sold most retailers I thought that it would be appropriate to design a chocolate bare range with the association of the popular cadbury brand. Another reason why this would be appropriate is that cadburys is not a luxury or expensive brand so it is assessable to everyone.


uses cadbury purple, simple image and 2 logo types


uses cadbury purple, simple image and 2 logo types, also uses more fun colours and creating the impression of a circus


uses cadbury purple, simple image and 2 logo types, all dairy milk with added other flavours

uses cadbury purple, simple image and 2 logo types

 A key part of research into cadburys brand was looking at there existing packaging so that when we started designing we were aware of design traits that cadburys use, such as there signature purple, a golden logo and also the Dairy Milk logo these were consistent throughout many of the Cadbury products. Bright colourful imagery was used were the colour relates to the flavour to entice the customer towards buying each chocolate product and creating an overall fun and playful aesthetic that is welcoming. The Dairy Milk logo is a sub product under the brand and is representative of creamy milky chocolate, this is a clear indication that the chocolate is milk chocolate not dark chocolate. In our product designs I would like to create something as symbolic as this logo so that our product range is as recognisable as Cadburys Dairy Milk, as around a million bars are sold a day!