Minor Project: Haelan Herbs
WEEK 01 - WEEK 15 (03/04/2023 - 16/07/2023)
Adena Tan Sue Lynn (0345769) / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Minor Project
Haelan Herbs
DIRECTORY
LECTURES
For our first lecture, Mr Mike briefed which projects we were able to choose from. We were then asked to form groups consisting of 6-7 members. I decided to team up with Adeline (Graphic Design), Alicia (UI/UX), Sasilvia (Entertainment Design), Yi Ki & Adlina (Digital Animation) and we all agreed to carry out the Apothecary Project with Brandialogue as our Industry Collaborator. During the first week, we discussed who should be the leader and it ended up being me after we decided to let fate decide by spinning a wheel.
INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Final Project Tracking Document
PROPOSAL:
Contextual Research
During one of our first mini discussions held over Discord, we quickly decided to set ourselves a mini-deadline to obtain our data and input it into the Miro Board. I was in charge of conducting research regarding other herbal brands in the market, to which I focused on Eu Yan Sang, Himalaya and Gaia Herbs. Most of the research I conducted involved using my observational skills to view how other brands have their standard. Definitely something that was tricky was the fact that I had to really dig into a brand to determine if one of their qualities were either their strengths or weaknesses. Below is the one I did.
My group members also contributed to this during their own time. During the second class, we were informed to have a summary of our research which Alicia, Adeline and I worked to do. As each member of the group wrote quality research, we were able to create proper summaries that would present our research with clear data and knowledge. This research step definitely helped us to gage how current brands were doing, and how the market was currently proceeding with these herbal brands coming into play.
Meeting with Ms Zae on Zoom
During our first week, we were able to meet with Ms Zae on Friday. Before the meeting, my group mates and I came up with questions to ask Ms Zae to have a better understanding of the project.
The meeting definitely allowed us to obtain better understanding of her expectations and why this project was decided to be expanded upon. Below are the notes we took when Ms Zae answered our questions:
Meeting Brandialogue's Mr Damien
During Week 02, Mr Mike helped us schedule a meeting with Mr Damien to get a better idea of the products we were building a brand for. Before the meeting, we compiled a few questions to ask him, as he knew more about the topic than us. He spoke about the products, the users of such products and his personal expectations for the group, even providing us little suggestions here and there. He informed us of the possibility of a site visit and asked us all when we would be most free for a site visit. Then, we were also able to set up a WhatsApp group with Mr Damien to communicate with him freely. We all agreed for 28th April 2023, 2pm and let Mr Damien know. He agreed on the timing.
Creating Personas & QuestionsAfter meeting Mr Damien, we had a meeting in the library where we began to create personas that were highly varied, yet realistic in today's world. By discussing, we were able to identify a few types of personas, someone who uses herbal products frequently, someone who is new, someone who hardly uses the product, and someone who uses it to heal their body. We discussed our perspectives on these personas and typed it down on the Miro Board accordingly.
After this, we were able to create a series of questions for each persona during our own time. We wrote freely on notes in the Miro Board, which we later filtered after obtaining Mr Mike's feedback for a better and more qualitative questionnaire.
During the week, we were able to make a Google Form that allowed all the different personas to answer and allowed for us to keep track of in one single link.
After we had gotten confirmation from Mr Mike, we shared it to online platforms to get more people to answer our questionnaire. The group had shared to many places, like Instagram, Discord, Reddit, Facebook & many more platforms.
During the next week, the group obtained feedback regarding our responses from Mr Mike on Tuesday as Monday was a public holiday. We shared our form on the 21st of April (Friday). We decided to look at the data during our own time and while the form was still open to maximise efficiency.
We closed the form once it reached 186 responses. Our first response was on the 21/04/2023 and we closed the form on 28/04/2023. I would say this was pretty successful as we were able to get many varied responses from individuals across the world.
Below was the data analysis, which was led by Yi Ki with some help of other members throughout the week.
Group's Site Visit (Week 04)
As mentioned previously, Mr Damien and us agreed to have a site visit. We went to D'Advance Agarwood Solutions/Nan Yang Chen Xiang in Bukit Jalil. During this session, I took notes, whereas Adeline, Yi Ki & Alicia took photos of the visit, while Sasilvia and Adlina helped ask questions.
The notes for the site visit are very long, so I won't write them here. However, the site visit was indeed so eye opening! We were able to learn so much about agarwood and its value, which we all were so shocked by. We learnt its properties and even got to try Agarwood Tea which was nicer than I was expecting. The whole visit definitely allowed us to get in tune with the entire topic and we felt more excited to carry on with this project with our expanded knowledge of the agarwood products and the consumers they cater to.
Insights, Problem Statement, How Might We & User Journey Map
We were able to come work on the crucial elements as stated in the mini heading. It took us a few trial and errors through the weeks, but with Mr Mike's feedback and guidance, we were able to steer all of this into a direction that was beneficial for the entire project.
During one of our meetings, we all agreed it was time to build a brand in time for our proposal. Thus, I instructed the team to come together to brainstorm and suggest ideas through a in person meeting.
As for our brand name, we had to go two rounds of proposing a name, as our first choice round brand name featured a name that was too restrictive. In the end, we were able to agree on Haelan Herbs, a suggestion by Sasilvia.
For our design direction, we chose Adeline to be our design director, after a suggestion from Mr Mike. Our logo was done with Sasilvia's sketches + Adeline's refinement to build the Haelan Herb logo. You can find it and our initial design direction in our final proposal slides, which will be found in the Final Submission section.
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT:
To start Task 02, I created the Gantt Chart and tried to assign the members their tasks as fairly as possible. I asked for my group mates' approval to see if they were comfortable with their work load, and when they all agreed, we proceeded. Personally, I gave myself the roles of Brand Guidelines, Brand Stationery, Social Media Content, OUD Products & Kickstarter Page.
From this point on, I will write according to the items I did to avoid any confusion.
Brand Guidelines
I enjoy making Brand Guidelines, so this process was quite of a fun process for me. The slides above show my process of making the different layouts and playing around with how it can be done for my group members to provide me some feedback.
After I manage to make all of the empty shells for Adeline to utilise, she helped input her content for the design direction and sent me back the file. This allowed me to complete and finalise the Brand Guidelines with full interactivity due to our communications and planning.
To use the document with interactivity, either download & view on Google Chrome (recommended), or use this link.
Brand Stationery
For brand stationery, I was able to create stationery for the brand that could be used for many different occasions. I created name cards, letterheads & invoice while using the Haelan Herbs graphical elements to tie everything together. In the document, you will also see the alterations I did according to my group mates' suggestions.
Below are the final works I did:
Social Media Content
For social media, the group had a meeting to schedule the calendar after Silvia led the ideation process alongside Yi Ki & Adlina. We were able to plan out a total of 42 posts. After getting Mr Mike's approval, I worked on assigning the members their own posts, which they agreed to their own aforementioned posts.
For my posts, I worked on the tea and hair oil ones. Below was my progression:
For my posts, I was able to get most of my tips from my group mates, who helped me when I felt stuck about what to do for my posts. I sometimes felt unsure of how to proceed or how to edit, but their suggestions really allowed for my posts to improve and flourish.
The slides hold my final posts, so I will not post the original copies here.
After all posts were finalised, I created a mockup for the group.
OUD Hair Treatment Oil
For the Hair Treatment Oil, I first felt a bit lost due to being unsure of how to design labels. However, I looked around for more inspiration (Pinterest hehe) and got some ideas.
Getting valuable insight from my group definitely helped the process as I felt more confident of how to apply the graphical elements and felt more sure of the placement of information. Below is my final:
OUD Tea
After figuring out the Hair Treatment Oil design, I would say this process was definitely a lot easier as I already had a lot of the things planned out. Again, I would say my group mates feedback helped a lot for the process.
However, the slides do not show the final version of the mockup. Below was the final version after much consideration of how the tin can would be presented to clients.
Kickstarter Page
For the Kickstarter Page, I had planned the contents accordingly and arranged them on Adobe Illustrator. As I wanted a more flowy view, I implemented gradients for a more smooth transition between topics, which felt subtle and more clean to fit the Haelan Herbs look more.
Final Presentation Slides
After completing everything, we worked on the presentation slides which can be found in the Final Submissions.
FINAL SUBMISSION
Proposal Presentation: Haelan Herbs
Final Presentation: Haelan Herbs
Final Website Prototype
Final Project Tracking Document
FEEDBACK
Please see the Project Tracking Document for a summarisation of Mr Mike's feedback. Here are some which we pinned in our Discord Channel:
Week 04 (25/04/2023)
- Good that we sectioned the results to their persona group in the google sheet
- Seeing that most of the respondents said their healthy habits are encouraged/motivated by others, we should look into building a community for the brand so that people can learn from each other about herbal products and motivate each other to keep using it. Maybe we can look into pulling influencers like maybe medical practitioners or legit health influencers to give assurance and education about the efficiency and benefits of the products. Maybe this can be done by printing QR code on our packaging that would lead customers to our website which explains all of this stuff. Also, social media is a big thing in influencing people.
- Following the previous point, since people are influenced by each other, we could look into creating combo packages or gift packages for people to buy as gifts to influence other to use herbal products, or a package for their health issue so they don't have to scour the internet endlessly to see what herbal ingredient they should buy. We can also think about custom made packages for the new mom market because according to our survey, our pregnant and new mom all make their own herbal mix, and according to mr mike "who has the time?!". So by letting them to create their own herbal mix in our website, it saves them time and they can just pick, buy and consume.
- For product pricing, we have to make sure our packaging design follows the same theme, i.e: our packaging has to be sustainable since we're selling organic stuff (Also ppl of our survey care about the environment). Since a few respondent stated that they would like to be able to see inside the packaging so that it gives them assurance on authenticity of the product, we can keep that in mind too and find ways to let people know what is inside (maybe a flip-lid on the packaging to see the inside; illustration of the herbs; qr code; poster on store aisles; samples).
- Since a lot of our respondents say that herbs are expensive, we can think about subscription packages too. Cuz it also saves time for people to go out and buy them again/choose brands again. This also have the same influence as the gift/combo packages.
- On the topic of pricing, Mr Mike said we don't have to worry about marketing expenses, cuz that is Miss Zae's problem, so we can go wild on our ideas cuz this is for our portfolio.
- Mr Mike suggestions on our brand proposal: build trust with customers and build a story that focuses on "prevention is better than cure". Cuz (with support from our survey responses) pharma is for quick cure and gives more side effects. One example Mr Mike gave is: I have a fever and I took doc med cuz I want to get rid of it quick to go to work/school, but I will be willing to spend money on herbs if it can ensure that the fever won't come again.
- On the proposal: build trust as in "a brand who is a friend", a brand who is loyal to its customers. e.g: package for pregnant you, package for new mom you, package for your next pregnancy
- Mr Mike also said to find out how those age 24 and below get money for their herbs. Cuz when he is looking at our google doc, he said that there must be at least one age group who would be willing to spend loads of money on expensive herbs, cuz if not, then where do the customers of agarwood come from.
- Since one respondent said he wanna bulk buy herbs for his family, we can think about having different sizes for our products, e.g: big portion to small portion. He also said that people often have the psychology that small size = fresher. (Anyway imo, this depends on the kind of herbs we're selling.)
Week 05 (02/05/2023)
- Reduce or limit the product range into little groupings (health, food, drinks, feng shui, etc..)
- For the product range Ms Zae shared with you, based on the 3 products that they mentioned do you have 3 reliable suppliers with reliable prudential support.
- Brands might have another company that is linked to them in China, China is the OEM, and they produce the parts, agarwood. D'advanced they are the OEM for agarwood, they sell it to Europe brands and rebrand them and they change the packaging, Depending on the branding the price will become more expensive.
- If we have a specific target age group then we will have a specific target amabassador
- We are facing with a wide range of age group and different experience customers
- What is the percentage of the age group, break them out
- We can only market and advertise existing products
- Take and then lock down age group by segments
- How do we wanna divide the 25-40++ age group into different segments, example 4 segments
Week 06 (08/05/2023)
- User Journey:
- Insight doesn't sound important
- Top 2 insight statements are priority as they differentiate the brand from other competitors but go with the first as it is more viable
- Problem statement needs to be short enough for each group member to memorise (shorten it)
- HMW needs to directly answer the problem statement - use the HMWs to build the user journey maps
- Refine information to be more specific with details and amounts
- Fresh take on ancient wisdom and natural remedies + Loyalty comes with trust = put this into your HMW
- Take out bottom row: opportunities and activities
- HMW 1:
- Curate it so that it is educational enough but not boring (e.g. too much text)
- Design their journey based on a persona
- HMW 2:
- Be aware that all the solutions may not apply to every persona
- HMW 3:
- Don't worry about weight, just focus on size and reuse of packaging (say why we think it is important)
- No need this one because it is understood
- HMW 4:
- Is regarding trust and credibility
- How do you make this sustainability certification understandable in layman terms?
- Positive reviews & hire influencers to build trust
- Slides:
- No need our fat foreheads group introduction </3 :'D
- Contextual Research
- Should have specify which competitors are for which section (herbs, agarwood) & have a separate summary for them - strengths, weaknesses, etc
- Everything we put in the slides should have a reason as to why we're using it
- The whole section "contextual research" should be summarised in slide 16
- Put in market size
- Personas
- Personas are too lengthy, try to shorten
- Don't need to see metrics
- Just one slide (per persona)
- Market Survey
- Just the summarised version
- Too much data confuses the clients (differentiate data for you and data for clients)
- Combine personas with their particular data in this section / Demonstrate based on personas rather than demographics
- Key in / underline or add colour to important sections
- Delete slide 51
- Don't need user + need + insight in slide 53
- Slide 54 is good
- Problem - insight - hmw (change the questions into an action plan - slide 56)
- UNSDG
- One slide for UNSDG Goals
- Brand & Art Direction
- We are not milking "miyu" enough to build rationale for using it as a brand name (it sounds Japanese)
- Do a test asking 10 random people where they think "Miyu Herb" is from( How do u sound oriental without sounding too asian?)
- Try to come up with 5 brand names without 'Asianness'
- Does not mean we need to have 5 brand designs
- Search for abstract and/or organic geometric shapes
- Half geometry / half photo-realistic, (we are science tech but not losing the original organic roots)
- HMW, art direction is all connected, using visuals to connect
- When choosing colour palettes, is there a threat from other competitors that makes us not stand out or not identifiable?
- Explain reasoning for logo typeface
- Show slide 81 in a demo poster, landing page, magazine ad, etc (one visual shows everything, typefaces, logo, colour palette, visuals, etc)
- Change slide 83 (no need)
- Brand logo: pick top 3 with a good rationale
- Primary elements are called motifs (recurring shapes that we associate with our brand name - shapes that are inspired by the logo & can be used throughout the brand design, e.g. recurring shape for background) - slide 88
- Explain how primary and secondary elements go together? (e.g. key visual like demo poster)
- Cannot do product style without confirming product list - remember to justify reasonings (e.g. colour of the glass, why? shape of the bottle, why? why this size, why? type of bottle lid, why? basically justify your choice of packaging)
- Social media will come later, don't need to cover this for this presentation
- UI/UX is done later as well
Week 07 (15/05/2023)
- UJM
- No need organisational activities
- Should have kickstarted page and website in 'Consideration'
- Have to be specific in touchpoint row
- We can always feature other people in our website for sourcing
- Have to link website to kickstarter and promotional video
- Communication in website to kickstarted page have to be smooth, trustable and clear (have to connect so they are convinced to invest the brand)
- Website would be most appropriate to show all the brand and rest of the products, all must be in websites
- Make the quiz part more of a personal experience, "quiz" sounds like it's destroying the experience, make it as seem it's very beneficial for consumers
- Get marketing models into "Follow-up", make them continue to buy (a motivator/ strategy)
- Advertisement in UJM
- Have to decide the basic brief for advertisement to decide types of social media
- Things like: message, type, amount, demographics, where is leads to after (call to action), how long until they are completely aware (make it as if it's a story)
- Set ads to target the correct audience for it because it costs a lot to do ads on social media
- Needs to be at least 3-4 weeks long ads
- For its touchpoints, list them under "pre-launch" and branch them out to points like social media ads, offline ads
- Brand Name
- Develop Haelan Herbs (that means 👍 )
- Have The Herbarium and Botanical Herbs as back-up
- Slides
- Replace HMW heading in slides to a tagline related to brand name
- We need to act as an agency in our Brand story, no mention of Taylor's or any uni project
- Take out keywords and UJM slides
- Show UJM in a presentable structure as if we're showing to a client (descriptions, images and such), not in the table form
Week 07 (16/05/2023)
- search what does the letter "ae" stands for, how does it link to our brand identity. Because if you choose to put that out of all the letters in your brand name, you need to have a strong justification for it. (We told him cuz haelan is correctly spelled with the ae in old English and it's the most unique part of the name so thts why we put it, and he says he feels that it is not a strong enough justification, if we really think ot would work, then we need to fight for it, otherwise change idea)
- the ae ligature doesn't look nice on the poster cuz the typeface used is probably too thick and makes the ligature looks mot smooth, maybe try out a less thicker (?) typeface if you want to keep the ligature. (Another solution we discussed with him is keep the ae letter in the logo mark but type it normally in the name, cuz he says non English speaker can probably pronounce haelan but not old English haelan cuz they didn't see the ae letter before)
- focus on making the design to reflect our brand identity of being based on science even though it's natural products. Geometric elements (pointing at ade's 3d wavy element) is heading in the right direction, keep developing
- try to copy other reputable herbal brand's poster design and put our logo on it and see whether it works, everything must be coherent. Also make some black and while poster mockups with bnw photos like gucci, channel magazine layout to see how well the logo fits with tue geometry
- he agrees that the logo that we all voted for does look prestigious, and we did change the image of apothecary, just that we need to keep on developing and have strong reasons for everything so ms zae won't attack us
- After we're done editing and ready for his feedback, we can whatsapp him our miro or slides link next week through WhatsApp. Also refer to the example slide he put in week 7 consultation notes
- look at case studies and references (as yiki said; chanel and gucci) to see if our brand can look just as premium
- make the 3D elements become supportive elements esp when including the bnw pictures in the poster,, also justify why we use the 3d elements / more geometrical, he said its heading into the more scientific direction on herbs and traditional medicine
Week 10 (06/06/2023)
- look back into insights to make sure it translated to ur art visuals
- the sans serif text kerning is weird why are some of them looser and some tighter (double check them)
- the website will be ur main medium so it has to be perfect
- look at oak and eden website their font is very brave
- go fancy for ur fonts, serif makes ur brand looks fancier and premium, about readability, it doesn't matter much because it would be only 2-3 words for the heading,
- look at similar type high quality art direction
- for the images dont just add it in, try to understand it add hues or a focal point.....
- fonts looks kinda off now, photos are good quality but do u want to push it a little further by letting it bleed a little, give it an arch...etc, for the graphical design , make it watermarkish to appear slightly in the bg
- revise the design, it looks a bit normal, u need a unique signature look that when people look at it they will be like ah "Haelan herbs"~
- All succesfull brands have consistency, they have a system in how they organise their visuals and information. If they promote their products with only a heading or heading + caption, or heading + subheading, or all etc. We have to think about our system.
- The graphical elements can either overlay on our pics etc. Make it blend with the background and our other element.s Don't just slap them in cuz then it'll becomes just eye candy and it doesn't serve a purpose. Think about how to incorporate our graphical elements well in our design.
- Comment about our colour change: it's a bold move to move away from green (he didn't agree or disagree). He asked if our design will be too similar to aesop and other similar brands or not. He asked if Ms. Zae told us to refer to aesop's colour directly or not, we told him no and he's just "ok (with contemplative look and nodding).
- He also mentioned that Aesop's branding is to refer back to their cultural roots, that is their philosophy. So, do we have a pilosophy for our brand.
- If we use sans serif font for our heading, we gotta find a fancy one
- Heading font should reflect our logo font choice
- https://696nyc.com/ this website has a really good apporach in a minimalistic design. Minimalistic is all about how to say a lot of things in a very limited space, how you contrast your different colours (like brown and then move to a more neutral colour). This is where graphic design shines
Week 11 (12/06/2023)
- Imagine the applications as a new person you're being introduced as, think of how you want the brand to be presented. (Classy, Down-To-Earth, Environmentally Conscious)
- Look at each of the qualities, does it give the feeling of the person you’re trying to describe, does the layout overall show that. It needs to be consistent. Does it help communicate brand personality through those words? Everything, not just logotype, pictures or elements. Consider the entire layout if it does or not.
- When it comes of down-to-earth and classy, think of Julia Roberts & Taylor Swift.
- Ade’s posters can be used for teasers. It currently holds too much information. Just show the shape. No words. It will create a curiosity within the consumer.
- For teasers, awareness, create something that is more simple, that something bigger is coming. Hint of the characters, doesn’t state the whole thing right away.
- For the third stage, more suited for the current posters as they will inform consumers, rather than feeding too much information as they are seeking the information during this stage. You cannot depend on the client to tell you.
- Test everything. And ensure that it showcases into the personality.
- We’ve done incredible on our insights but it doesn't translate to our applications.
- The tree bark idea is cool, use natural elements, play around with them. It is both geometry and nature, play around with those. Use geometry with photos, how do u make that look & blend nicely (one is organic, one is science, how to blend so that they don’t look hot & cold). This is so that you can highlight tht ur product is well researched, from a well funded lab, bc u are honest and not shy to state it. Designs do not need to be flashy, simple but approachable. We are premium, classy but down-to-earth. How you show these kind of models. Choose those kind of stock photos.
- Don’t worry for watermark, so you don’t have to worry unless you get hired. This is because you are currently pitching the ideas. Ensure you get high res. Think of how you can mix science and organic but have that classy feel still.
- The vectors have to be soft. You create distance but create that transparency.
- Think about how the solids and line vectors will be meshed. Think if they can feather out. The current vector solids look a bit off since they arent photo or geometry. But when mixed, they will be more out of the box.
- Type out an ingredient list to be more rational of the vectors.
- Make sure the brand personality comes out from the visual.
- The following posters will show more, as the process goes down the line.Think about what we want to say in the long run.
- It’s all about using the whole artboard to communicate the personality that you want to reveal in time. If we reveal too much at first, we just end up scaring the consumers in the early stages. Think of this as for social media. Try different layouts so that we can see our design direction in more. Use more photos so that we can see the design direction for when we utilise photos.
- Fairtrade, showcase we support farmers,etc. Showcase in our photos.
- Pexels, Dreamstime, Jupiter, Shutterstock, dont care
- Get copywriting done by CHATGPT
- For the payment, make sure you refer to an existing site as people like to log in using google, etc
- Website looks cool alrd, just the identity needs to be focused more in depth.
- We can add in more for just our portfolio, we can just add in so that we have more, even if we don‘t show mr zae or mr damien.
Week 11 (13/06/2023)
- the flow is there, makes sense, 👌 (i explained to him that after the brand intro posts, for every promotional posts sequence, we'll do informative and or quotes -> 3 product promotional posts [sneak peak pic then full pic then application pic])
- (looking at the first pic in social media calendar) for the abstract images, make sure it looks like the ingredient you're going for. yes abstract with lines and stuff, but make sure an abstract agarwood picture looks like agarwood and not other stuff.
- make sure the quotes etc. are coming from valid sources, from herbalists or from books or journals etc.
- can get any stock videos, he'd seen a lot of aromatherapy, herbal etc. stock vids.
- i suggested having kinetic typography on the live action vids like this: https://youtu.be/gAogtpI9c_U?t=21, then he says ok that works, but make sure that the other design direction follows the same style or it'll be weird to suddenly hv words like tht popping out
Week 12 (19/06/2023)
- Vector Graphics: Very nice. The “drop shadow” is very elegant, like those glass art.
- Teaser Pics: “Ok, sure, if this is the essential ingredient that will be talked about more, then why not?”
- Gradual Posters: “The middle texture, thinking if that one is necessary since the earlier one tried with the geometry inside (as the teaser) then only u reveal. Dont need to tease them so many times”
- Imagery: “Think about why some of them are Haelanised but some are not. Are you willing to sacrifice colours?” Suggested to not focus on one version of Haelanising. Mb it’s not about colour, it’s abt applying the graphical elements into the imagery, so that it frees your design more. Think about the controls of contrast, saturation & levels so that it has more character and mood as the current one is washed out. Have a ref image so to match the brightest part and the darkest part for consistency no matter how the original photo looks. Try around and see to find the Haelan effect. It’s looking good, though as its coming up now.
- Social Media Slides: Ok good
- Copywriting
- Copywriting is okay
- Needs a selling point by describing product
- but then should be provided by Ms. Zae so just go with wtv for now
- Imagery
- put into the art direction the overall imagery concept such as (high-contrast, cropped shots, shadow)
Week 12 (20/06/2023)
- Test Videos:
- Colour grading can be similar to the poster ade did but they have to be improved first since they are washed out now. (he given this feedback in monday class)
- To make the video look more luxurious, it is advisable to slow down the shots.
- Suggest to not do the rapid cutting make it steady , use fades, soft going in and out of text, colours and music (no rapid cutting)
- The slide transition is bad, just do fading,
- Website:
- Overall look is there, it is pretty cool, u have a prestige look there. The mood is already there. Just have to see which elements can be made richer, like the tree rings can be added more, add more elements.
- Other:
- Make sure that we put in our presentation that we have other products that we are planning in the future, whether our design will be suitable for the others that are coming in.
Week 13 (26/06/2023)
- no feedback for art direction. it is okay he says <3
- beginning weeks awareness posts are good (3 times a week is good)
- week 5 is okay
- social media calendar makes sense it's not too ambitious
- assign individuals do to certain posts NOW to create the content
- full speed ahead start working now now now
Week 13 (27/06/2023)
- Very good
- Presentation:
- Either 7 or 14 of July
- all of our final stuff needs to be submitted by the end of week 14 midnight
- just tht we can choose to present either earlier or later in week 15
- but have to confirm with other groups which day is suitable
Week 14 (03/07/2023)
- Product Packaging
- Essential Oil
- Okay, good
- Have to follow the government standard size
- Can get the actual bottle to test
- Make sure logo is visible
- Include colours so the blob dont look like mold
- Insence Sticks
- Blossom, and Serenity looks very, very nice
- Meadow's graphical element can be more "3D", the tea leaf looks a bit flat
- Wood Chip
- Looks cool
- I love the first one
- Tea
- Not sure about the colour for the tin
- Could put something on the top lid so consumers could still see logo when it is stacked up
- Hair Oil
- Okay, good
- Double check the size also for this one as well (like essential oil)
- Delivery box
- Can laaa, let the client choose laaahhh
- Website
- Position the landing page image better (use photoshop and ai, could move the subject towards to left more)
- Side menu is really good
- A lot of "oooOHH" and "ahh" and "niceee"
- Excellent
- The text size is too small, for the body text, force it down with 'enter' and make them bigger
- So keep the body text in quiz page same as the ones in the buttons
- Can submit/ show the run-through
- Kickstarter
- For more flexibility, dont use their box/ blocks, use designs in images
- Prioritise top 3 information on the kickstarter
- Social Media
- Posts: "classy.... nice...wow" literally for all
- Video: Yep! sure!
Week 14 (04/07/2023)
- Socmed
- mm nice mm nice mmm nice nods head yea i told them the visuals looks exquisite looks premium already
- Essential Oil
- The text looks awfully small, get a real label and measure the size of the text/ logo. Have an unwrap version with the barcode and qr because currently afraid that the barcode and qr might be blocked
- Brand Guideline
- Its okay yea, this is beyond guideline already, the target audience should be separated, only include logo and colours in. Plan on which products will be released first (other groups are doing this) Put the socmed images in and explain by schedule, (only include logo, colours, typeface in the brand guideline)
- Stationery
- mmm nods head mmm nods head okay okay
- Incense sticks
- Looks consistent
- Tea refill packaging
- mmm yea
- Tea strainer
- okay hahaahah okay sure yea yea
- Quiz
- Be mindful of ur drop shadows, sometimes like this u dont have to overdo it. Forget about the drop shadow. for incense sticks soften the shadow.
- Informative about herbs
- Dont use minus sign bullets
- Overall
- Its all there just have to put it in the slides
REFLECTION
Week 01
This week, while Mr Mike held our first class, I was really intrigued with the first topic; Apothecary. As someone who has tried traditional practices, such as cupping, moxibustion and acupuncture, I felt really connected with the topic at hand. Thus, I definitely knew I wanted to carry out this project. I quickly asked around me, the closest being Adeline and Alicia, if they were interested in this project as well. Once they gave me their confirmation, I knew I had to find three more like-minded people. I decided to wait a day, to let the Tuesday class brew in their thoughts as I thought it would be nice if they got to choose on their own. During their class, the three of us asked Yi Ki and Sasilvia if they would like to join our group. Yi Ki then recruited Adlina to complete the group. After this, we had to decide who would be the group leader. As we all had experiences with being group leaders and are quite reliable, we decided to spin a wheel and let fate decide for us. In the end, fate chose me. After this, we discussed and assigned ourselves to specific topics for our research. We chose Saturday night as a mini-deadline for ourselves to ensure that we had all our data in a timely fashion.
Week 02
On Monday, our group received feedback from Mr Mike after Adeline, Alicia and I summarised the group’s research. We quickly informed Sasilvia, Yi Ki and Adlina about the updates through Discord. On Friday, our group met with Mr Damien at the Me.reka Makerspace to go over the product and the expectations for our group. We got to learn a bit more of the world of Apothecary, got a brief description of what people around the world experience and so much more. During this meeting, he also invited us to go for a site visit in Bukit Jalil in order for us to get a better understanding of the materials. We all quickly proposed for 28th April 2023, 2:00pm, which he quickly agreed. Moving on, we went to the library after to discuss our personas. During our meeting, we discussed the personas. At first, we took a while to build the first persona, but after we got the hang of it, we were able to create more personas that we felt were varied. We also created a mini to-do list for the weekend so that everybody is on the right track. Over the weekend, we each edited the Miro board with anything we came up with and found inspiration for.
Week 03
This week, we received feedback from Mr Mike regarding our personas and our questions for our online questionnaire on Monday. The group amended the questions and prepared to show Mr Mike the next day where he provided more feedback to us. During the week, we took the feedback into mind and discussed ways to make the Google Form better for people to answer. On Thursday, we asked for feedback again. Once we got the green light to send out the questionnaire, we sent it to our targeted list of contacts and onto forums to understand multiple individuals’ thoughts on herbal products around the world.
Week 04
During this week, my group had our feedback session on Tuesday due to the public holiday on Monday. Mr Mike had looked at our work and provided a lot of feedback, and gave us advice on how to move forward. The group looked at the data during each of our own free time. On Friday, we had a site visit to D’Advance Agarwood Solutions/Nan Yang Chen Xiang in Bukit Jalil that was set up by Mr Damien. During this session, Ms Zaiqi provided us a lot of information regarding the brand’s experience in the agarwood business, and we were able to test out some of the products such as their tea, essential oils and incense sticks. It was very enlightening to be able to learn so much about agarwood and the products it can become, as I never knew the variety it brings. It definitely opened my eyes to the different ways agarwood is valued and used in people’s daily lives. During the session, I wrote notes which I later on typed out for the group to be able to access it whenever needed.
Week 05
This week, our group first had a meeting on Monday to work on some stuff in the MIRO Board. We also assigned ourselves to work on the Google Doc to ensure that the document was updated according to our survey and site visit observations. The next day, we obtained feedback from Mr Mike regarding the MIRO board which contained out ideation as well as the insights from the site visit. He advised us to clarify some information with Mr Damien in order to ensure that we were on the right track and to relook at the personas once we clarified with him. Then, I asked the group for a meeting, in order to get everyone on the same track. We agreed on Friday, 1pm and to prepare some parts of the brand identity so we could discuss during then. During the meeting, we amended some parts of the existing work we had, as well as discuss the brand identity, where we founded the name “Miyu Herb” which represents the consumers and sharing the herbs with them. We also discussed our specific roles for the slides and agreed to do most of it by Sunday night. During the weekend, we also discussed further regarding the design direction, led by Adeline, in order to ensure we selected typography, colours, and moodboard without straying from the brand’s message.
Week 06
This week, Alicia & I received the group’s feedback from Mr Mike on Monday where he looked at our presentation slides and MIRO Board. After his feedback session, we let the group know his concerns through Discord. During the week, we collectively as a group worked on the slides and discussed the items that needed to be altered to make the presentation as best as possible. For me, I tried to summarise the Market Survey slides better with the assistance of Alicia & Yi Ki. Our group also had a mini discussion to agree what to produce for the end result, which would be used to create the Gantt Chart later on. Following that, we each suggested a group name that is appropriate and has no ties to a country and voted for our favourites. The one that ended up being the popular vote is Sasilvia’s “Hælan Herbs”, with Adeline’s “The Herbarium/The Herbaria” following second.
Week 07
On Monday, the group received feedback from Mr Mike regarding our User Journey Map & the Proposal Slides. After we got our feedback, the team worked on fixing the design direction for further feedback the next day. The next day, the group got further feedback from Mr Mike regarding the logos and posters for the brand. Since we had plenty to alter and edit, we all agreed it would be best to have a group meeting on Friday. During the meeting, I was able to pinpoint the specific slides we needed to edit for better readability and presentation flow. The group helped each other whenever we felt stuck at different points, and offered valuable ideas to improve the proposal slides. After finalising the slides, the group had a wind down session in order to boost morale after a stressful week.
Week 08
During this week, we asked Mr Mike for feedback on Monday. Once we received feedback, we started to edit the slides according to the feedback provided. We focused on shortening some slides for the contextual research & persona survey sections. On Wednesday, we sent Mr Mike our improved slides for further feedback from his side. After we received his feedback again, we set on to further improve the slides, with Adeline, our art director, managing our applications for the design direction. Following this, I asked the group for their preferred parts of the slides for the presentation. Once I confirmed everybody’s parts, Yi Ki helped prepare a document for us to share to ensure our presentation was as smooth as can be.
Week 09
On Monday morning, I requested Mr Mike for the group’s feedback in case we needed to fix our slides before class so we could get his approval again. Luckily, he approved it, so we were on our way to present. At night, we had a practice round on Discord with all members present. The next day, we all got online at 2pm, ready to present. We faced some issues, especially with our wifi, which was unexpected, but I would say that overall, our presentation went smoothly. Once we finished presenting, we were able to get valuable advice and feedback from Ms Zae & Mr Damien which steered us to think again about what we had presented and how to improve it. We slowly discussed it over the next few days. I had completed the Gantt Chart after a few days, as I wanted to ensure that it was the best it could be given our timeframe. I ensured I constantly asked the group members for their feedback regarding it, to ensure everybody felt confident in their given tasks.
Week 10
As it was a public holiday on Monday this week, my group mates, Yi Ki, Sasilvia & Adlina assisted in showcasing our progression to Mr Mike. After he had provided the feedback, we proceeded to try and discuss how to improve it, with Adeline and Alicia leading due to the requirements needed for the visual identity and the website. Through the week, I tried to help look and monitor the group’s work and provide any thoughts I had, positive and constructive. On my part, I helped to oversee Yi Ki’s progression with the copywriting for the website as well as try to write a bit for the Kickstarter page.
Week 11
This week, my group mates (Adeline, Alicia & Sasilvia) and I got our feedback from Mr Mike on Monday. Once we got our feedback, we went to reflect on the constructive criticism. During the evening, Sasilvia was able to plan for social media, with a touch of help from Adlina. On Tuesday, Yi Ki, alone, was able to get further feedback from Mr Mike regarding the social media plan. During the week, we were able to view our art director, Adeline’s, progression for the design direction, which we discussed and agreed it improved in the past few weeks. We also were able to have mini text discussions regarding the following stages in the Gantt Chart, to ensure we were ready to start once the design direction is finalised.
Week 12
During Monday’s class, Alicia, Adeline and I obtained feedback from Mr Mike regarding our design direction, photo adjustments, posters, social media plan as well as product description. The next class, Yi Ki, Silvia and Adlina showcased Mr Mike videos that had been edited for the kickstarter and brand. Using the given feedback, my group mates were able to edit and fine tune their tasks to be better. On Thursday, we agreed it would be best to have a meeting to discuss the social media calendar. Thus, we scheduled it for the next day at 2pm. During the meeting, we were able to build the social media calendar, as well as discuss which posts were more suited for the brand, and what could be taken out to ensure the social media posts produced were well strategized. We were also able to find some content for our videos and social media in order to assist the video team. Furthermore, Adeline presented the updated photo editing steps according to Mr Mike’s feedback. During this week, I mainly worked on adjusting the brand story for the kickstarter as well as overseeing other items.
Week 13
First, we had our first feedback during Monday where we showcased our final design direction and social media calendar. On Tuesday, the group showcased the customer service and Kickstarter posts to showcase to Mr Mike. During this week, the group was able to complete a significant amount of progress. Personally, I got to complete the packaging design for the Hair Treatment Oil & the Agarwood Tea jar, as well as start the Brand Guideline. I also almost finalised the Kickstarter Page copywriting. The group constantly shared our progression over the week and weekend, while providing each other insightful feedback until we were all happy with the outcome.
Week 14
This week, Adeline, Alicia & I got our group’s feedback on Monday. After we got our feedback, we let the group know so we can further refine the few that needed editing. Before Tuesday’s session, I created the brand’s stationary and altered some of the brand guidelines for the group’s feedback. After Silvia, Yi Ki & Adlina got the further feedback, we were able to have a clearer direction to move forward with our work. On Thursday, I mainly worked on the social media posts that I was in charge of. This day, we also discussed when to have a meeting to discuss slide flow and finalise this very document. On Friday, I continued and also worked on the Kickstarter writing that needed to be added. On Saturday & Sunday, I worked on the Kickstarter Mockup and made it purposely match the brand design direction.
Week 15
During our final week, we worked on finalising all our tasks. For me, I mainly focused on social media, the brand guidelines and the Kickstarter pages. On Tuesday, we scheduled a meeting to finalise this very document and started to discuss the presentation slides. I took the part of Social Media alongside Yi Ki. We set a mini deadline for ourselves to complete a majority of it by Wednesday, 5pm in order to not delay ourselves any further. After 5pm, we sent the file to Mr Mike to obtain our final feedback from him. Once we got the feedback, we were able to complete our slides, and set up a time to rehearse our presentation for the next day @ 8pm. During our meeting, we were ale to refine the presentation for a smooth flow of presenting and even discussed how to improve the presentation for the best possible outcome. Friday was our final presentation, and we were all equally as nervous as one another. However, we were lucky as it was all smooth and none of our wifis died out in the middle of it all! The comments made by Mr Damien and Ms Zae really helped us to feel reassured on how we did, and we all let out a figurative sigh of relief. Overall, I would say my group has definitely worked their best throughout these 15 weeks. Without them, I would have really felt lost, so I am proud of our work and achievements despite the high stress and high complexity of this very module.
