Creative Brand Strategy: Task 02
WEEK 04 - WEEK 06 (25/04/2023 - 09/05/2023)
Adena Tan Sue Lynn (0345769) / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Creative Brand Strategy
Task 02
DIRECTORY
- Lectures
- Instructions
- Final Submission
- Feedback
- Reflection
- Further Reading
- References & Picture Credits
While doing the proposal, I started preparing for this task. I started a Google Doc to write down my initial thought process, and started a Pinterest board to first find inspiration for the Design Direction.
The document above allowed me to keep my thoughts simmering as its just a plain document. Honestly, I was having trouble trying to settle on a look for the campaign as I felt it needed to look clean, but also have a welcoming feel that was too overpowering. During my feedback session, I showed the document above as well as my Pinterest board that held both my ends.
After getting my feedback from Ms Lilian, I started finding more references for the campaign and building the campaign on slides. I used the SlidesGo template below.
Here is the Week 05 progression that I showed Ms Lilian.
For more context on each of some of the slides, let me just explain my thought process.
Ideation:
- Instagram: I wanted the Instagram feed to not just feature portraiture as it can end up feeling quite stagnant and get boring quickly. To solve this issue, I propose to utilise type play and colours along with it to make posts feel varied and exciting.
- Website: The same goes for website, with a cleaner, but still fun look which doesn't feel overbearing.
- Campaign Posters: Similar to above, but I made sure to include the two visuals that inspired the main look of the campaign.
- Brochures: When I think of easy-to-digest information, I think of infographics and brochures. Brochures tend to feel more educational to me, and are more flexible to be carried around, Additionally, while infographics are just one page, I appreciate the fact brochures have natural sections that will be exciting to play with design wise.
- Daily Journal: As the campaign is named Daily by Laka, it just felt right to include it. As someone who often vents in little nooks, I thought of it while just staring at my desk. Heh.
- Beauty Special Box: Highly inspired by the many gift boxes influencers get when a brand releases new products. Honestly, it would be so fun as a consumer to get those boxes, right?!
- Gift Cards: Originally, I thought it would be more suited to be vouchers, but then I continued to think about it. Not all men who receive the voucher would want the voucher in the first place, but if they were to receive a gift card... It would be perfect as it would fit into the word of mouth factor in my customer journey map as it will most likely be given by friends to friends.
- Tote bag: Tote bags are easy ways to spread positive messages. Not only are they useful for carrying people's shopping, but it also can represent a person's personality and likes.
Design Direction:
- Colour Palette: I came up with three colour palettes, with the guidance of a new design website I found; Randoma11y. Below are the palettes I generated.
- Logo: I decided a wordmark would be best to be an everyday, daily logo that is easy to the eye everyday.
- Typography: I tested some typefaces to ensure I got one. I knew I either wanted one that felt more classy or had character to be enticing to view for the heading.
- Photography Style: Obviously, I needed to include visuals of men wearing makeup for a makeup campaign!
- Graphic Elements: Since I planned for type & imagery to be the main focuses, I knew I wanted graphic elements that weren't too in-your-face since it would be overbearing for the campaign's look.
After getting feedback from Ms Lilian, I followed her advice and edited the slides as I saw fit. During my feedback session, a big thing I missed was the video. Thus, began my journey for finding videos.
For this process, I mainly looked at videos from existing makeup brands and found two which I really felt suited to the campaign as inspiration.
I chose the above video due to how real it felt. It felt really inspiring for me as a woman, to see women embracing beauty, and I wonder if men would feel the same. I just love everything about this commercial.
For the above, I liked the video due to the commercials showing Lee Hi wearing the NARS lipstick on a daily basis, and it feels like the audience is just following her around. Perfect for the Daily aspect of the campaign.
With that, I continued to finalise the slides until I produced the below:
This isn't my final slide, as I still had to adjust some things like adding my picture credits and two more photos. You can find my final slides in Final Submission right below!
FINAL SUBMISSION
FEEDBACK
Week 04 (25/04/2023)
For imagery, plan how to source the images. (Modelling or sourcing images online). Ensure that the look is not too loud so that it doesn't scare off the target audience. It should be subtle, something where if someone were to slip something, then they wouldnt even notice. A good example was the Seventeen Season's Greeting as it has the right vibes and aesthetic for the mellow, but welcoming vibe that does not prevent people from purchasing.
Week 05 (02/05/2023)
Don't forget your video as it is one of the requirements for the task submission. For the colour palette, the one on the left has more potential for designing due to the variety it has. The one on the right is more restrictive as the only thing to contrast the blue is the pink, which can limit the designs later on. In terms of logo, think of which ones would be more approachable, but not too stylised to scare off the target audience. The middle two suggestions have the most potential, with no hint of gender or its stereotypes. For the typefaces, Ms Lilian agreed with me to use Cabinet Grotesk for the header to avoid it being to similar to Laka's brand identity, while being very full of personality. Start considering how to obtain the photographs; if you will use ur friend or if you want to source images
REFLECTION
Experience
During most of this task, I was internally panicking because I thought I had picked such a niche concept for this campaign, despite it making perfect sense. I was struggling inwardly due to the sheer panic there was nothing that was really "within" the designs I was looking for as how do you really specify to Pinterest or Behance that you want a clean design but also not too formal looking because you want the audience to feel comfortable? That's so niche! I was panicking, but am very thankful for Ms Lilian for reassuring me during the feedback sessions that yes, indeed, I was technically coming up with a concept that is new, just like how my campaign is breaking a stereotype that's been shovelled into society's perceptions for far too long.
Observations
Would I say observing helped? Yes. Without the wide variety of references online, I got to learn what I did and didn't want for my campaign, which really helped build this campaign look I am going for. By looking at other designs, I knew what graphical elements were best suitable for my designs as I didnt want it to be bombarded with it.
Findings
I definitely found out a lot about building a campaign through this task. Despite establishing quite a lot for the campaign in the previous task, accommodating the design to fit the campaign's values really was a brain turner. However, with a little guidance, I was able to establish the design direction; something that I found, needed a lot of justification from the campaign and what it stands for.
FURTHER READING
The above article was recommended for us to read by Ms Lilian in her Week 4 Lecture. I found this article to be quite interesting as it provided more insight as to how brand touchpoints are started & handled.
The article allowed me to understand how important it is for the touchpoints to be strategically planned early on, with the guidance on exactly -how- to plan them. As it is still new to me, learning this was vital for my learning process, and it did help me alongside Ms Lilian's lecture notes on the subject matter.
