No Yellow

The struggle of a Graphic Design student. And their printer with no yellow ink cartridge. Oh, the plot thickens.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

This trimester I assembled a usability test form in InDesign for the first time, which was quite a learning experience for me as I had never used the program for that purpose before. While I learnt quite a lot in regards to making the form interactive - I found it was difficult to distribute and some users did not like that they could not remain anonymous (which I have noted for the future). Other classmates used Google docs, which I was skeptical of at first due to customisation options - but after cheating out what others had developed I think I’ll be using it as an alternative in the future.

Regardless, here’s the form and some results I gathered together.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

After Effects Tutorial

As an After Effects beginner I had to do some prior research before jumping straight into the program - also considering I don’t own it, experimenting with the program was not an option available to me at home, oops. I chose to watch a few videos from After Effects CC Essential Training (2015) with Ian Robinson which really helped me grasp a number of the basics that I would have really struggled with. Though I still got help from Benjamin at university, because After Effects is a program I’m really not comfortable with (and animating in general, as you’ll see in my top notch vid with super amazing effects).

I also struggled with scaling some of the assets I brought into the program as they weren’t cooperating with one another when I tried to scale them simultaneously. Ben linked me to this video here which solved my problem for me. I’ll be the first to admit that the video isn’t great, but I think I’m glad I just managed to do it at all - it’s without music at this point, so I’ll be adding that soon.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Film Collaboration

(LO26) This trimester for my interdisciplinary project I worked alongside Ruby to produce a set of typographic designs for a film student working on a documentary. From my understanding the documentary features individuals and/or groups and their cars, which they hold a foremost passion for. We were tasked with creating typographic designs of the individual or group’s name, and were given a brief on certain details they wanted to capture. The designs generally reflected the cars or referenced pop culture like need for speed. Here’s the two that I worked on:

Because this wasn’t a particularly large project on the design front, there wasn’t a huge need for version control as we maintained our own files - but I did implement a level of version control (which I’ve gotten into the habit of doing now). Here’s a glimpse at my files, though there’s only a few there - and only one version for that matter.

Changes haven’t been made from the original version (crossing my fingers that it won’t need any further iterations but I’m prepared to make them).

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Here’s a pretty condensed version of my brand style guide for Eden. This was fun to make and a little different from the others I’ve put together in the past.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA)

Non-Disclosure Agreements are also referred to as Confidentiality Agreements and Confidential Disclosure Agreements, it serves as a legal contract between two or more parties and outlines confidential material, knowledge and/or information that either of the parties wish to share with another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict the access. The agreement is a contract through which involved parties agree not to disclose any information covered by the agreement. It creates a confidential relationship between the parties to protect confidential and proprietary information or trade secrets (non-public business information).

They are commonly signed when two companies, individuals, or other entities (such as partnerships, societies, etc.) are considering doing business of sorts and need to understand the processes behind and used by the other for the purpose of evaluating a potential business relationship. Non-Disclosure Agreements can be mutual, meaning both parties are restricted in their use of the materials provided, or it can be restricted to a single party only.

Furthermore, it is also possible for an employee to sign NDA or NDA-like agreements provided by employers. Some employment agreements will include restriction to the employees’ use and dissemination of company-owned confidential information. This style of contract would be incredibly helpful for businesses or inventors, etc. looking for investors while remaining non-public in their early stages. For example I could have pitched Eden products/brand itself to potential investors or partners to further the development. Ultimately I can see this being a very beneficial agreement that also protects the parties involved - which is often hard to get at times.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Plan, Advertise & Deliver

Planning The planning for this campaign began in the early weeks, where I conducted research on my product, the market and the most suitable deliverables for such - this campaign was pitched towards the end of week 3 where I then moved on to develop a project plan (as outlined in a previous blog). Mock-ups and base plans were made leading up to the gallery walk where I planned to receive highly useful developmental feedback - adjustments were made afterwards accordingly. My full project plan can be viewed in a simple breakdown here. Advertisement For the purpose of raising brand and product awareness I chose two main methods of advertisement that I feel would best fit my brand and target market. As a small business, billboard advertisement, etc. was not really the best option if a budget were to be considered - but local, bus shelter advertisement could be far more effective and reach the people in the right income range for my product. Furthermore, I decided to focus on web advertisement due to my brands online presence (as I will be mocking a site as a deliverable). Deliver The deliverables I pitched, and plan to produce are as follows: Branding

Logo / Logotype + alt versions

Style Guide & Branding + templates

Packaging

Seedling, plants, pots, kits & tools

Marketing

Web adverts, bus shelter + interactive

Social Media - Facebook

Website mock-up

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Sustainability in Design

Graphic designers are being called upon to implement sustainable practices as ethical and environmental issues reach the spotlight as arising global concerns. Traditional print materials in particular introduce a number of different problems such as toxicity of ink and sheer demand of paper quantities which need to be produced (meaning bye-bye trees!). To truly understand the sustainability or carbon footprint of the product you have to examine the product life cycle. Author Brian Dougherty encourages graphic designers to start at the end of the process instead of the beginning. Visualise every stage of your product from the final destination to the design studio. For example, questions need to be raised in regards to how much fuel is used, how is it shipped, what the product itself is, how long the cycle continues and at what point will it become waste? Consider everything from the time of its ultimate disposal to its conception including transportation, warehousing, production, and manufacturing - each of these aspects may prevent green solutions from being implemented. Ultimately, this has caused me to critically analyse my own processes, application and environmental considerations. It’s important to understand where and when you can implement these green solutions and what is possible. It’s great to start with other businesses who also implement these practices to ensure that they are used consistently across the entire production and distribution, but other helpful aspects include: Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are present in many of the inks used in the printing industry and are often toxic, posing as environmental and health risks. These inks dry quick, but involve stronger and more hazardous solvents to remove it. Fluorescent and metallic colours are popular, but contain high levels of cadmium and other toxic metals. These inks are more difficult to remove than standard petroleum-based inks, intensifying the de-inking process. Many bright inks such as orange and yellow contain high levels of heavy metals such as copper and chromium. An environmental and health solution is to use vegetable based inks that are renewable and emit less toxic VOCs. Furthermore, soy ink is better suited is better suited to recycled paper as it doesn’t ‘wick’ (spread) as much. Additionally, soy ink is removed more easily than petroleum based compounds in the de-inking process of recycling.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Web Design Tutorial

With the intention to produce a front-end website mock-up for my brand, Eden, I looked into a tutorial course that addressed the proper document setup and requirements as well as a number of other areas. I found the course on lynda.com, which is generally my go-to for any kind of tutorial. Photoshop CC for Web Design was developed by Justin Seeley, and I’ve used the tutorial to grasp the proper document setup, which I really wanted to get right the first time round. Justin doesn’t recommend using Web presets as they’re not necessarily modern enough, but a few are great for web advertisement banners, etc. I decided to watch on into the colour modes section, which I thought I was pretty well versed in, but the tutor explains hex in a simple yet in-depth way - and I think I got something about that. He also introduced RGBA, which was something I was not overly familiar with (having never had to work with it before), but he emphasised the necessity of being able to understand and translate these different colour modes.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Typography Tutorial

I decided to sign-up for a free demo-version of digitaltutors.com which gave me access to a number of different tutorials, a few of which were graphic design related. The site offered a course on the fundamentals of Typography, a lot of which I had apparently forgotten since taking the class a year ago. All that aside, the course has been considerably helpful in getting the basics right, especially if I want to try my hand at hand-lettering. The course itself can be found here, the Fundamentals of Typography. It’s been pretty helpful so far, although I haven’t finished it yet due to time restrictions, but getting a good handle on the basic terms at this point is pretty useful. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload some practice of my own later, I need to make time for that. Regardless, the site offers a number of other classes I’m interested in taking a look at - should be interesting.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Campaign Analysis (More)

Evian, with their well-known ‘Live young’ slogan, has produced some pretty interesting campaigns which often feature their consumers as younger, baby-versions of themselves. This poster series follows on from that, as seen below.

Frankly, I think these shirts are really great, and I’d love to see if they actually produced and distributed these shirts as part of their campaign. They’re visually interesting and humorous, but most importantly they’re a great visual representation of their slogan. Furthermore, I think it’d be really effective if the consumers were involved, plus it’s free advertising for their brand. Anyway, regardless of those thoughts, the photographic visuals could have come about in either two main ways. Either the t-shirts were either printed and worn during the campaign shoot, or were edited onto the white t-shirts (I mean, they’ve set themselves up for an easy job) at a later time. In either instance though, photographs of the babies would have been taken prior, or were borrowed from other brand material.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Campaign Analysis

In my search to find a marketing campaign to analyse, I found two that stood out to me. Both were relatively simple, yet they hit their mark all the same without having to create something complex. I first stumbled across HBO’s advertising and marketing for Game of Thrones, which was clean and consistent throughout the entirety of the campaign. The season 3 premiere featured the shadow of a dragon across various locations and media. Here’s a glimpse at the at magazine and newspaper spreads that they ran, which look very effective.

The magazine cover is effective, and the same image is consistently run across the entire campaign, but I think the newspaper is one of my favourites. It implements some great overlaying techniques, and by using a lighter grey the black text beneath is still legible and doesn’t impact the other articles. Then there’s the buildings the dragon shadow was cast on, here’s the HBO building in LA featuring the work.

I didn’t really have a clearer image to work with here, but I’m guessing that the image was either painted or cast on as a shadow - however, that would only work at night using a set of lights. Either way, I think it’s pretty cool and very eye-catching to pedestrians. Lastly, I just wanted to share ORPHEA’s Billboard Fly Trap campaign, which focused on the relatable pain-point of bug hating. The concept of the campaign is really interesting, here’s a video of the billboard itself.

For the campaign they rented a billboard in an area that would draw the most attention, and bugs it would appear (quite visibly). The video demonstrates that they painted glue onto the board in the shape of insect spray and then allowed the bugs to do the rest while they caught it all on camera. I thought it would have been interesting if they could have demonstrated the product simultaneously, whether it could have been possible to mix some of the spray into the glue. Perhaps this wasn’t possible, or their product does not have effective, lasting effects outdoors, and wouldn’t have reflected well on the product. Either way, it’s still really cool and an interesting method of approaching advertising.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Hand-lettering Tutorials

Throughout the trimester I’ve been looking through a number of hand-lettering tutorials produced by type designer and hand-lettering artist Sean McCabe. I’ve always had an interest in developing hand-lettering skills but often focused on developing my illustration skills instead. Regardless, two weeks ago I subscribed to his email letter, and I haven’t regretted it. I’ve also had access to his 30 Days of Lettering posts and video tutorials here.

Here’s a great example of one here. There’s a number of great tips and helpful insights on his website, which I’ve found very useful so far. I’m hoping to implement some of these skills into my studio project as I feel natural, imperfect lettering will suit my brand a little better. Even if I can’t manage to implement it this trimester I feel that it’s a pretty valuable skill to develop.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Here are the consumer personas I put together for Eden.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

The gallery walk that took place Friday morning provided an excellent opportunity to receive some much needed feedback from peers. I setup my laptop to allow others to flick through my illustrator logo files, however, I also placed out some printed versions. I also had a few lo-fi icon mock-ups that I was able to present and got some great feedback on those as well. Here’s a general summary of the feedback I received: Slogan Legibility

Somewhat lost

“Grow”, in particular, needed to be clearer

This is definitely understandable, and something I’m currently trying to find solutions for as it’s proving to be a little difficult. Logo Preferences

2 people indicated that they liked V1 the most

5 people indicated an interest in V2/3 variations

This information is really helpful in identifying which logos were perceived as the most effective (and I really needed a fresh set of eyes here). Logo V2/3 Suggestions

Logotype needs to ‘pop’ more from the background flowers

‘Black’ outline on logotype should be removed

And/or adjust the stroke on particular letters

Only the garden aspect is properly communicated, not herbs/cooking

There’s definitely some valid points here. As explained above, I’m really trying to increase legibility and help separate the elements in my logo (so I’ll definitely address that). Issues regarding the stroke on the logotype I’m also looking into - whilst not actually being black, it was interesting that it was perceived as such by others. Lastly, I can definitely see that the herbs/cooking aspect was not as well communicated, however, I’m trying to explore that without implementing a green colour scheme which is completely overdone in the competition field. Company Name

‘Eden’ fits but holds religious associations for some people

Yes, this is undeniably true - but I’m using this association (like many brands before me) to draw a connection to my business. Eden has no negative connotations and would not be deemed offensive to these religious groups. Herb/Flower Icons

Generally positive feedback

How/if colours are applied? - flat design style colouring?

Ensure that icons are not too similar as differentiation is very important

Like the circle motif/unifying device

Think the style of icons may also work better for the logo too

Most of the feedback was generally good and indicated a fair amount of interest which I’m really happy about. A few gave some leading questions about the colour process I’ll take - I’m still giving thought to this. One emphasised the importance of ensuring clear differentiation between the icons, I understand that this will probably be my biggest concern to address. Another suggested that the icon style may work better for the logo too, so I may actually explore this idea if I can find the time to do so.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Typographic Decision-Making

The typographic decision-making process for this project followed a relatively simple route, but with a lot of investigation involved. First and foremost, I visited sites similar to, and including dafont.com, and several tumblr.com blogs which showcase new fonts daily. Largely, I found most of my choices on dafont.com - here’s a handle of my prime picks:

Of these I presented a narrowed down selection to the class during my elevator pitch - where I received some helpful feedback in the refinement of my selection. Of those choices, the final pick came down to Lillybelle. Where other options are concerned for sub-fonts and copy, I’ve investigated a few options (though I won’t post them here, just to keep the length within reason), but I’ve got some choices ready which I’m currently trying to pair together.

[noyellowinkuniversity]

Project Management Tool

This trimester I’ve decided to implement a new project management tool to scope it out for opportunities in the future as I’ve already used a fair few available. I’m currently using teamwork.com for my final project (it takes a lot more work to maintain, but it’s suitable for a larger scale project). I’ve also used tools like Trello, but I’ve found it doesn't quite work for me. Heli introduced the class to wunderlist.com which is more casual and free-flowing than other tools available, it feels much more natural and suitable for a simple project (like studio). 

It seems inviting enough, and due to the nature of the tool I feel like it would be easily applicable to other aspects of my life outside of university. So I’m giving it a test run during studio, though I can definitely see myself using it. The sheer simplicity of the application, and information layout allows it to feel as easy to use as a written to-do list (and you can manage multiple within the same space). It seems practical enough for my studio project, as I couldn’t imagine myself managing two teamwork.com projects at once, especially by myself. Here’s a glimpse of the overall layout and usage of wunderlist.com in action:

[noyellowinkuniversity]

5Ps of Marketing

The 5 Ps are a set of recognised marketing tactics, which can be used in any combination to satisfy the requirements and expectations of your target market. The 5 Ps are controllable, but subject to your individual external marketing environments. Combining these different marketing tactics to meet your requirements and needs is known as using a ‘tactical marketing mix’. The fundamental 5 Ps of marketing are arguably the best place to start looking for gaps in a business marketing plan. Product Your product and/or service should solve an urgent need or call for the customer. So your product needs the right features: easy to use, visually interesting, and well-packaged. For example, if you own a catering business, the team delivering the service as well as the food, are all considered the “product.” So it’s important the ensure that you consider elements such as matching uniforms, trained in how to speak to customers, ensure the food is nicely plated and properly served. Presentation is everything. Place For local businesses, place matters. Often storefront businesses pay for prime locations so they can achieve the needed foot traffic. Doing your research is important; you want to be located on a highly coveted corridor, in a location that provides you easy access to the target customer. For example, a residential cleaning company might open shop in a neighbourhood instead of a business district. However, if you’re focused on corporate clients, then a commercial district is where you want to be. Not having the right location is definitely a large factor that causes many small businesses to fail. Promotion Without proper promotion to attract your target customer, you won’t grow your revenue. Good promotion starts with a budget and marketing plan. Today social media provides small businesses with low-cost opportunities for marketing. So if your customer is hanging out on Facebook or Twitter, then you need to be there too, and building a relationship that you will eventually be able to turn into commerce. Price When pricing your product you must consider four things: your cost, what the competition is charging, the standard markup or profit margin in your industry, and the value to the customer. Remember to ask yourself this key question: “What will it cost the customer to not have what I’m offering?” So if you can’t determine a perceived value, then you need to redesign or reposition your product. Furthermore, don’t compete solely on price - a customer who makes decisions based purely on price is not a long-term customer. Chances are they will switch to a neighbouring business for just a few cents difference. Profit It’s the difference between your cost of goods and/or services and the price you’re charging the customer. It allows you to grow the business and pay employees - so be sure that you understand the margins typical to your industry. For example, if you were a food business, it would average a 20% margin, while a clothing retailer would average 50%. But there are no hard rules on this, if you run your business efficiently, there’s no limit to your financial success.