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At this stage I was becoming frustrated and wasn’t happy with any of my identity/packaging variations enough to submit them for marking. I decided to go back to the drawing board and after taking slight inspiration from the periodic table and my original idea of flesh toned gradients, I produced my final packaging concept.

I made the logo uppercase which gave a masculine feel to the bold, stencil, serif typeface while the white space made it stand out more. The white box with the black stroke allowed the type to stand out against the gradient background and also produced an urban feel as it reminded me of the signs on industrial buildings. Using the same rounded, stencil, typeface for the shade number and the nude gradients re-intoruduced an element of feminity. I opted to use a glass dropper/pipette bottle instead of a regular foundation bottle which also created an element of uniqueness. I purchased mock-ups so that I could present my concept as clear and professional as possible.

I believe that all of these elements together lead to packaging that fulfills my vision of a brand that is premium yet affordable, inclusive of all genders and skin tones, would appeal to people who are both new to make-up and professional makeup artists, and has a slight urban personality making it unique, fun and stand out.

Over the summer I began communicating with other designers on twitter and I am now in a large WhatsApp group chat where we share advice and support eachother. The creator of the group chat is a UX/UI designer and so a lot of the conversations revolve around that area of design. Using Adobe XD for the first time, I decided to play around and mock up an app where Mela Cosmetics customers can shop, create a wish list of products and also use the built-in camera function to find their perfect foundation shade and undertone.

Next, I decided to strip the packing back and keep it very simple, using hexagons which represent the molecular shape of melanin.

I liked the simplicity of this packaging and felt that the repeat pattern would make it stand out as most cosmetics packaging is quite plain however, after printing out the physical product and holding it in my hand, it felt quite clinical and at first glance didn’t represent a brand that was a little unique and who’s main focus was to be inclusive of all skin tones.For this reason I went back to the drawing board.

In an attempt to create an urban feel and make my packaging stand out, I decided to get a little messy and rough with my next design by playing with my makeup; making foundation, lipstick and mascara strokes to create textures before vectorizing them using photoshop and illustrator.

I liked the idea however I didn’t like the physical outcome as I felt that it didn’t look very clean, professional, or like it would feel premium when extended across other branding touchpoints. Legibility of text on the sides and back of the box was also a problem against the textured background which meant I had to place plain coloured boxes behind text which didn’t look very aesthetically pleasing. I also found that this idea wasn’t very unique and that a few other cosmetics brands have already tried the textured brush stroke aesthetic. Because of these reasons I didn’t explore this route any further.

I began by planning some rough logo ideas in my sketchbook. I noticed that most beauty brands keep their logos quite simple with a clean typeface and play around with kerning. As I wanted my brand to stand out I wanted to incorporate an icon or shape into the logo. I began incorporating a hexagon to represent the molecular structure of melanin however the logo ended up bring stripped back to a simple typeface in the end.

I began my packaging designs by creating a dieline in Adobe Illustrator. I had recently purchased a new bottle of Fenty foundation and so used the box that it came in for my measurements.

Taking inspiration from the returning trend of using gradients in design, I decided to keep the packaging simple by using a range of fun, ‘flesh’ related colours so that the packaging stood out from other cosmetics brands, with a strip at the bottom of the box where information about the product would be placed.

I didn’t like the design as I didn’t feel that it captured the premium feel that I wanted to achieve and seems like it would attract a slightly younger audience than I intended to. Because of this I didn’t explore this route any further.

This digital campaign (pictured in my pdf submission) consists of an interactive screen outside stores such as Harrods where when people walk past, all of the intricate the parts of the clock match their speed or sieze to move if they stop walking. This signifies the growth of the brand since 1687 and that their watches pause time/are timeless as the brand is still considered innovative today.

People can snap pictures infront of the display and share them on social media using the hastag #TimelessPurest or use the snapchat geofilter.

To maintain the superior perception of the brand, I kept the details of the snapchat filter simple with the use of a serif typeface to represent class and heritage but increased the kerning to add some modernism. The bottom of the snapchat filter features an Ellicott watch to represent the brand.

I designed the snapchat geofilter in photoshop and watched a tutorial on youtube as I haven’t made one before however it was quite straight-forward.

I didn't engage with this sprint much as I was stuck on what to do for a while and so I didn’t have any intentions of pushing it further

To create a range of cards that I feel MoonPig are missing

The two main ideas that I imediately came to my head were one, targeting a more multi-ethnic audience through the use of cultural banter and memes and two, the current trend of entrepreneurship.

As a young black woman I often find that while I can find the humour in some gimmicks, I don’t quite relate to most and I put this down to differences in culture and so banter. Secondly, I’ve also noticed the increase in young people around me starting their own businesses and following their creative passions.

The visual identity of my cards will feature hand drawn illustrations paired with bold typograpy and lots of white space. The cards will generally be unisex however some may appeal more to men or women.

To create my hand-drawn elements, I sketched a few different designs in my sketchbook and then followed up with my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil using the Adobe illustrator draw app to create digital copies. I then transferred the digital drawing onto my illustrator desktop to add colour and complete the illustrations.

I intended to use a lot of white-space in my designs however I felt that the “Secure The Bag’ card looked quite plain and so drew some notes of money to fill the space.

Before beginning my editorial design I noted down the different design terms aloing with their definitions and made some rough, brief sketches to plan my layout (shown in my pdf).

I incorporated elements of hand drawn typography into my design to add some personality by vectorizing my drawings in Adobe Illustrator. I ended up layering my hand-drawn type to create more of a rough personality. I also watched multiple youtube tutorials where I learnt some new featues in Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop such as how to add an outline around an image I’ve cut out, how to customise master pages and how to warp text around images.

As the brief that I chose didn’t come with text, I copied text to use from another urban fashion magazine online.

5 Retail / Product brands I’m loyal to...

1- Apple

I’m loyal to Apple as a brand as not only are their products, visual merchandising and store layouts functional for every day life, I love their design concepts and simplistic, modern, contemporary branding which enforces the simplicity and ease of use of their electronics. Every element of Apple’s marketing and branding, even down to the till point following you around the store, come together to create a paradigm of experiences which follows through when it comes to physically using their products.

2- Nike

I’m loyal to nike as a brand mainly for aesthetic reasons as I like a lot of the trainers they sell. The first pair of trainers I remember wearing as a child were a white and red pair of Nike Air Max 95′s and although I still buy from nike simply because I like their products, working in a sports fashion store opened my eyes to Nikes branding and marketing which really caught my eye. Playing with the juxtaposition of type and fashion photography, Nikes marketing campaigns are always on trend resembling something out of a fashion magazine.

3- Mielle Organics

Mielle Organics are a natural/curly hair product brand that I am loyal to due to the great quality of their products. Their branding is consistent across the many product lines they produce and consists of a modern sans serif type face and feminine colours such as white and pink with a stripe of green for contrast. Their social media pages feature a wide range of curly - kinky haired women of various backgrounds giving a sense of inclusiveness and showing that the brand caters to a wide range of curl types (e.g loose curls to tight kinky curls).

4- PrettyLittleThing

Again I’m a loyal customer to PrettyLittleThing as their clothing is always on trend, affordable and I’m always guaranteed to find a discount code somewhere...what more could a student want? Their website uses a responsive design layout making the webpage presentation consistent and clear across multiple platforms. PrettyLittleThing have a heavy social media presence, often giving free clothes and discount codes to young Beauty influences with a specific aesthetic for them to model and promote to their large following. This is an example of Katz & Lazarsfeld’s Two Step Model theory where media messages are expressed through opinion leaders who are relatable so feel like friends and advertising becomes more of a word of mouth concept.

5- Lush

I’m loyal to Lush as a brand as their natural, hand made, cruelty free skin care products are the only products I have found to keep my face clear and smooth. Their campaigns are often heavily focussed on environmental awareness and animal cruelty such as their current partnership with Cruelty Free International - Against Animal Testing. Everyone’s aware of the distinct smell of the infamous Lush bath bombs which hits you as soon as you enter the store, personally I like it but I know some people who don't. Either way whether it’s intentional or not the scent is now associated with Lush anywhere you go.

Retail graphics & notes

Story telling Unforgotten Soldiers Installation Collar with Sky TV, History Channel & Design Agency Colour Theory The story behind colours Van Gough - Chrome Yellow Psychology behind type Image Mood boards Photography - Duane Michaels Lustful Angel Jim Goldberg- Raised by wolves - mixed social documentation and art Annie Atkins - Graphic Designer for films DePaul - Homeless charity

Constructing / Deconstructing Narrative Basic perception theory Visual Language Use consistent grammar to ensure the audience know that there is a link between one image and the next Narrative Vs Story We Create life events in order to create the life narrative that we desire (social media) Scott McCloud

Historic themes - using cultures history to form ideas Sir frank dicksee - idealised representation of historic / literary events Sean Ellis - Alexander McQueen - The dark night returns Fictionalised historical as comic/fashion Idealised representation of historic events and cultural values are a useful tool in the armoury of the commercial photographer Dolce & Gabbana - Steven Miesel - 2006 166 Complaints D&G criticised over the use of knife Glamorisation of knife violence Fantasy Themes Surrealism Diesel Triple X Diesel - Human After All - 2007 First world problems Contemporary Cultural Themes Tabloids aimed at a specific demographic Steven Miesel - Super Mods Enter Rehab - 2007 Taking the form and style from paparazzi pics Pap slip vs positioned pic Steven Miesel - Love not War - 2007 Steven Miesel - State of Emergency- 2006 Re acted pics of people being detained, searched etc after a crack down on immigration Steven Miesel - Water & Oil Models are birds, stuck covered in oil Filmic Themes Cinematic Narratives

The final physical of the outcome of my mini playing cards. I printed onto 230gsm lustre paper to give the slightly polished effect that the pages in childrens books and playing cards have.

Final design outcomes for my mini ‘playing’ cards

After having a one to one tutorial with my tutor as I felt that my illustrations were missing something, I decided to add some colour and create ‘playing cards’ rather than a book.

As one side of my card is quite detailed I wanted to keep the other flip side quite simple. I added a grain effect in Illustrator to all of the artboards to take away that pristine white look.

It was hard to get the balance of colour and detail right at first without effecting the visual hierarchy too much but luckily I was working on Illustrator on my iPad so it was easy to undo and try something else

I tried adding a stroke to the letters to make them pop more but I felt that it took the sleekness away from the design.

As I'm not good at drawing people I sketched over some images I got on the internet with my Apple Pencil to create my illustrations before sending them to illustrator on my laptop to continue my page design. I also found a typeface online which I think would work well with my children's book aesthetic and began experimenting with the rule thirds/positioning

I’m currently thinking to go down more of an illustrative route using drawings of characters going through emotions accompanied by text to create an educational narrative.

I’m going to lay out the elements on my page to resemble a childrens book and so have found some examples for inspiration.

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