Mini Task collaborative branding and packaging- starting points
The objective was to pick an existing product and redesign the packaging, incorporating the elements of illustrative branding and telling a story with these elements.
For this new redesign to be successful, my team and I needed to go through a number of steps:
Research
Brand analysis
Understanding target audience
ideation
technical design through to the final execution
The final outcome must be a meaningful visual redesign- presented to a high standard with evidence of collaborative work.
As part of our Collaborative Practise module this term, we had a series of workshops that involved creating new work together in small groups. We had several smaller projects, and then a larger one which we worked on over one and a half days. We then shared our work at whatever stage it was at.
Our group (Jamel, Abi C, Natasha, Reme and me, Abi G) became very fascinated with the concept of everyday objects and what they mean to us. During our explorations, we observed that the relationships to the objects that we use everyday are very powerful, but that they can often be taken for granted. We wanted to put a spotlight on these objects, and explore what they reveal to the world about who we are.
Once our concept was becoming clear, we each bought in a few objects that we use everyday and that are important to us. Trainers, a book, hoodie, a coffee pot, a necklace, a bottle of water.
We then spent some time interviewing each other about those objects, asking one question: Why is this object important? We used a technique we had previously learnt with Detta and Tash (the course leaders for this module) in which you repeat the same question over and over again, in order to dig deeper and peel back new layers of meaning each time. This technique proved really effective in bringing out a sense of authentic intimacy in the interviewee as they talked about their possession.
We recorded these interviews and edited them into an audio file, which we then sent to each of the audience member’s phones. They could then listen to us talking about the objects as they walked around the museum, looking at and touching them. We purposefully edited out any mention of the specific object description in the audio, so that as you listened, you could guess which object was being talked about. (Listen to the audio here).
We also had a participatory section, where you could write your own object on a stickie-note and add it to the wall, as well as a reason why the object is important.
We were really proud of this piece of work, as we found it provoked a lot of interesting conversation, and provided insight into who we are as people through an unusual route.
