Evaluation

YCN – Very Brief Evaluation

 

Having teamed up with my class mate Charlotte wood we both came to an agreement to pick the Very brief. This was best suited to us as the brief involved fashion and so we would enjoy the process yet it was challenging as the brief required something new.

Myself and Charlotte started this project by reading the brief carefully and highlighting key words such as the Very personality, their mission and the creative challenge, from there we started researching existing markets and platforms such as advertisements, catalogues, phone apps, Facebook and Twitter pages and much more. Our challenge was to create something new so we then started making brain storms gathering as much ideas as possible. Having done this we then referred back to the brief eliminating any ideas that did not relate to the brief.

Myself and Charlotte both made a timeline that would be suitable for both of us in order to stay on track and not fall behind. We made sure work was always done at least one day in advance just in case we came across any difficulties.

We arranged regular meetings every Thursday which was convenient for both of us and having Design Practice lectures the next day so we could go over our ideas with our lecturer Kate.

Having narrowed down ideas, myself and Charlotte both agreed that the best solution for this brief was the personalised fashion diary as this is something Very have not done before so it’s a new category for them and also this is a great way to display fashion throughout the year as Very specified in the brief. Having come to this conclusion we both went away and designed mock up page layouts, designs and colour schemes ready for our next meeting in which, we narrowed down the style for our personalised fashion diary. Once this stage was complete we split roles by making lists of what we should each do before our next Thursday meeting. This was a great way to avoid us both making the same design layouts and to ensure we are both working equally as hard as each other. We constantly emailed work to each other to make sure our designs were relatively similar regarding colour, typeface, font sizes and border sizes.

Although the brief states we must not exceed fix colours for print (unless we have a valid reason) we decided that Very is a colourful brand and having looked at their brand bible we both agreed that it was important to get the Very personality across in our diary, we did this by using lots of colour, same typeface and we used a playful/ fun tone of voice as specified in the brief.

Having completed our designs we had a group meeting bringing everything together, although we were both satisfied with our work we wanted to make sure our target audience (women aged 25-44) would also relate and love our designs and ideas. We made a short questionnaire asking specific questions about our layouts, colour choice and diary size. We printed these out as well as emailed them to the relevant target audience. In order to be fair with our feedback we went to Westwood cross and asked women who seem to fit our target audience for feedback and advice in how we could improve our diary. Having planned our time efficiently we made sure we would have a few days to make alterations if required based on consumer feedback.

Over all I am very happy with our final product as I believe it fulfilled the brief requirements in producing something new and exciting for the Very customers.  I feel that myself and Charlotte make a great team as we planned ahead and were always organised, having regular meetings and emailing work to each other to get feedback. We have both been very open minded throughout this project and so I feel a mixture of our ideas has made this project very successfu

Process and final work

Our team consists of two members Charlotte Wood and Nikoleta Gjergji. We have been working together from concept through to completion of the project arranging regular meetings and splitting tasks.

Brief:

The creative challenge is to devise a campaign or concept that decodes key style events throughout the year being perfect, relevant advice and style tips.

 

Solution:

In order to fulfill this creative brief we decided to design a personalized fashion diary being unique to each customer. We believe this is a suitable solution in order to decode fashion styles throughout the year.

The target audience being women aged 25-44, we have based the diary around each personal consumer. Very provide products for men, children and house hold items therefore we wanted to include a variety of products throughout our designs having each layout based around a calendar month, colour and events which each customer has included upon the online Very questionnaire.

As the creative challenge asked ‘to inform and surprise our lovely customers with something amazing once a month’ this is where our inspiration for the Very fashion diary came from.

We took into consideration the importance of displaying a range of products such as home ware, men’s fashion, children’s clothes, perfumes and accessories as well as women’s fashion.

 

Research:

As included within the Very brand bible when informing the customer on style guidance we have kept in mind the tone of voice and the personality of Very by keeping in fashion savvy, playful and sassy, as defined within the brief.

To gain wider research we looked at Very’s website as well as their Facebook page, Twitter, Mobile Phone app, YouTube videos and television advertisements.

 

Plan:

Each month layout will be displayed as a double page spread at the start of each new calendar month. These spreads will be based around our colour chart and particular events based around that month, due to information given within the questionnaire. Each diary will essentially be unique to each customer, due to the information supplied from the questionnaire.

 

Questionnaire:  

The online Very questionnaire is used for each customer to apply for a personalised diary by including their own, family and friends personal details if wanted. These details can include information such as Birthdays, calendar celebrations, anniversaries and other if necessary. In the questionnaire we have considered the data protection act, there for only name and address is applicable for the customer. This questionnaire also gives the customer the option of including body shape, hair colour, celebrity inspiration as well as favorite brand.

This questionnaire is available at: http://bit.ly/ZAlq5R

 

Colour:

Although we have exceeded six colours for print, we feel that this is justified through aspects of the design within the brand bible, it is clear that Very are a colourful brand therefore having portrayed a variety of colours throughout our designs. These colours are shown through the borders within the layouts as to not overwhelm the page with colour whilst showing Very’s border preference.

For the cover of the diary we have decided to use the ‘Very pink’ combined with the white Very logo with tagline and URL. We feel this makes the product stand out for customer recognition.

 

Experimental designs:

We decided to create an A6 personalised fashion diary, unique for each Very customer. In order to decode the ‘Very reveals the style that works for you’ we have designed each calendar month within the diary based on each customers lifestyle and personal details such as birthdays and celebrations e.g. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter. Each month will have its own colour based on our colour chart (rainbow colour chart).

 

Final product:

Having experimented with different page layouts, we have come to the conclusion that splitting a page spread into four days will give customers plenty of space for notes, with the alteration of a three-day layout dedicating a full-page for notes on a special event day, such as a birthday.

As included within the questionnaire, we have made each diary personal to each customer by giving them style guidance based on their body shape and hair colour. This may help the target audience by giving them that little bit of guidance when needed, due to busy lifestyles.

To help consumers with inspiration and style guidance, we have included the option of three celebrity layouts as well as body shape and hair colour.

Based on the consumer’s questionnaire entry, there is an option of having a gift suggestions page for him, alongside with the option of choosing your favorite brand.

In order to link the calendar months with events throughout the year we have displayed  a range of products that the consumer might want to purchase for example for Valentine’s day.

The diary can include birthday reminders if the consumer choses to in the questionnaire.

All artwork included within our designs were taken from very.co.uk and the project pack supplied.

In conclusion, our idea of the personalised fashion diary could in future expand as an app or online social diary which could include forms of social networking. Overall, we feel that the Very diary reveals the style that works for each unique customer.

Final touches

Myself and Charlotte have almost come to the end of this project (Very) and therefor wanted to get together and go over the work once more to make sure we have not missed anything out and to make sure all our designs work well together. We met up last Thursday and spent a few house going over work and making sure our typography, font, spacing, colours etc were all the same and worked well as a collection of pages for our diary. These are our final designs:

Colour chart:

Start of each month:

Page layouts, a few changes might have to be made to the following:

Celebrity inspiration:

Gifts for him:

Fashion based on hair colour:

Fashion based on body shapes:

Page based on favourite brand:

Front cover:

First two pages inside:

Back cover:

Mini Task For Easter Egg

In Fridays lecture we were asked to design an Easter egg (or something similar) Based on Howletts Zoo. We were given the option on working alone or in pairs so i chose to work with my class mate Charlotte. Although our initial idea was to design an Easter egg, i wanted to try something different and push myself with the concept a little more. I thought rather than just provide consumers with a product, we could provide an activity pack that helps consumers (children) learn as well as get what they want (chocolate/ Easter eggs). To do this i thought of different activities and ways of decorating eggs etc.

Our Easter Adventure Activity Pack consists of the following:

• Decorating pens
• Sweets
• Chocolate
• Animal shaped molds
• Net /tights
• Instruction books
• box/ packaging

I remembered something i had seen on the internet once and so i wanted to incorporate that in:

I thought this would be fun and very educational. In order to keep it related to the Howletts Zoo, i though the leaves and plans the children collect can be taken from the Zoo and that way they can also learn what animals eat by looking at different plants etc. This idea is also nice as it would give children and parents quality time together making and decorating Easter eggs. Pens would also be available in this pack so the children can draw on the eggs once they have their leaf prints on.

The chocolate and animal molds are a way of showing children you can melt chocolate in different shapes and it also links back to the Zoo, once the chocolate has been melted and shaped in the molds they parents could teach the children what each animal is.

Sweets would also be provided in our Easter Adventure Activity Pack therefor children would be able to decorate their animal chocolates with sweets 🙂

Along side all this, a small book would also be included in our activity pack for instructions on how to make the leave print eggs, ideas how to decorate and design the animal chocolate shapes and also advice on health and safety. It is important that children under a specific age are assisted by a parent or guardian !

My team mate Charlotte and i work very well together, i got the idea and the concept for this mini brief and Charlotte designed the packaging based around my concept. I thought it would be nice to have the box with an animal cut out shape in the center so consumers could clearly see what is included in the activity pack and what they would get for their money so the black elephant in this case is a cut out and therefor consumers would be able to see whats inside.

Charlotte chose the name of the product and i agreed as it explains our product very well, she chose to include leaves and grass on the cover to represent the egg and leave prints.

Over all i am very happy with the concept and design of our project as it was very different and unique, wanting to step away from animal Easter egg designs that have been done again and again. Our packaging expresses very well what the concept is and therefor i am also very happy with that. Having been provider with more time we would have liked to do a few things differently suck as, taken more time in the packaging but for the time we had, i believe we made the most of!

Binding options for Our Very Personalised Diary

I have spoken with my team mate Charlotte and we have both agreed the perfect binding is the best option for our Very personalised style diary. Obviously if Very was to use our designs and concept they would have the choice of using what ever binding styles they prefer but as the designers myself and Charlotte both think this style of binding works best for the diary we have designed and it also looks very professional.

Although we have considered different styles of binding, we think that if we were to use the rings (not sure what they are called) as shown in the image below, the pages would be easy to rip out, this is not something we want!

We have come to the decision to make our diary A6 in size we have to also consider the appearance of it.

Here are some good examples of how we want the diary to look like:

The difference between our diary and an ordinary diary is our diary will have so much more than calendar pages through out, it will include fashion tips and much more. Also the outside of the diary will be in Very pink and will have the Very logo on the outside.

The example below is something similar to how myself and Charlotte want out personalised style diary to look like:

More designs

Finally i have made a few business cards i am very happy with 🙂 they are not yet finished as i want to run this idea by my lecturer Kate first and get her feed back but over all i am happy with this design.

Here they are :

Over all i am happy with these, the only small mistake i can spot is the cut lines on the front and the back do not match but that’s an easy mistake to correct.

New business cards

Having thought my ideas through i have come up with a good business card idea, i was inspired by something i saw at at gallery in London and thought i could play around with the idea.

At the moment i am still in the process of experimenting but i have a few good designs so i just need to finalise the style, layout and designs and then completing it by creating three or four business cards in different colours (with the same style, designs and layouts).

The idea is to cut eight slits into the business cards and you can place one card into the other to fit perfectly, this will work by having four or more cards.

Here are some of my experiments:

I personally like the one above, its colourful and it shows off a piece of my work.

I also like this one, the polka dots add an edge to it and a bit more character.

I don’t personally like the one above so much, but its just an experiment so i need to keep experimenting till i find something i am 100% happy with.

The card above is the back design, once again i will not be using this as i am not so happy with it but its an experiment and so i can learn from this.

Having thought everything through i realise that i like he original logo and business cards i just disliked the way in which i placed the logo on C.V’s etc, so rather than chance the logo and business cards i should work with what i go and try change the layout of my C.V’S.

Not to worry, this process was not a total waste, i still like the idea of being able to link the business cards together so i will still keep that idea just with my original design :p

Example:

I was thinking also, i still want three or four different business cards with different colours so i may change the back of the bisiness card in to one block colour. . i will have to experiment further.

I am very happy with these designs, now to face the real problem, find a good way of incorporating my logo in to my C.V, letterhead, email signature and invoice.

Going back to business cards

Having come a long way with my group project (working with Charlotte on the Very brief) i feel i have a little bit of time to go back and look over my C.V, Cover letter and my stationary suit. I personally like my logo i designed but i feel as though i could perhaps be creative and experiment more. Also i found the logo i designed previously does not work well in small scale and with a white background which limits my options of where i could use it I have come to the conclusion i will start again with the stationary suit and start again by doing some research and then start designing my own logo etc.

Here are a few business cards i came across that caught my eye:

I think this is really creative, i specifically like the </flip> i like it as a web related business card but other than that i dont personally think it stands out too much. however the use of colour i think is good.

Although this business card is based on food/ restaurant i really like the use of colour and the concept. I think its cheeky and its most defiantly something that stands out and is rememberable.

I like this one as it has a more serious  look/feel about it. It looks very professional which is a plus. Over all i like it but for a graphic designer i personally think it lacks on creativity.

This is one of my favorite designs, i like the idea of the ruler as it makes me think this person must be very neat and organised by the way they have produced thie business card, it also makes me think that they are the kind of person who perhaps pays close attention to detail which in an employers eyes is a very good quality to have.

Now that i have had a look at a few designs its my turn to experiment and play around with ideas 🙂

Consumer feedback forms

Having shown our Very diary layout designs to our target audience being women aged 25-44, we collected the feedback and this is what we have recived;

1. What do you think about the product layout design within this diary?

Too many

Not enough

Just right

2. What do you think about the colour scheme based on each month throughout the calendar year?

Too bright

Too much colour

Not enough colour

Just right

3. Would you purchase this fashion diary for yourself?

Yes

No

4. Would you purchase any of the products advertised within the diary?

Yes

No

5. Would you find this diary useful for your own personal style guidance & fashion tips?

Yes

No

Why………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

6. Do you think that this diary is suitable size (A6) for yourself?

Too big

Too small

Just right

7. Would you personally use this as your everyday diary?

Yes

No

8. How do you think we could improve on this personalised fashion diary?

Colour scheme

Product layout

Page layout

Not enough style advice

Not enough products advertised

Other…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Questionnaire and feedback

The link to our questionnaire:

http://freeonlinesurveys.com/app/rendersurvey.asp?sid=ekfnptj51mws3o6196557&refer=freeonlinesurveys.com

Although Charlotte made the actuall online questionaire/ survey i helped with the questions and ideas as well as writing the data protection act:

The information which you give will be used for the following purposes:
• To create a personalised Very style diary based around you.
• The address given within the questionnaire will allow our Very team to delivery your personal style diary to the correct address.
• The dates of birth given within the questionnaire will allow us to print reminders of birthdays and personalised dates.
• This allows us to make your diary that little bit more special and unique to you.

All dates and information will be confidential and will not be accessed by anyone other than the Very team in order to personalise the perfect customised diary for you. The information you provide will only be kept until the diary is produced and all details will be deleted for your security straight after the diary is completely finalised. You do not have to answer all the questions but please bare in mine the more you do answer the more personal the diary will be to you and your life style. For more information feel free to contact our team at: Very.co.uk

Some of the feedback we got from Kate (Lecturer):

Some questions need to have a “Prefer not to say” option e.g. Q3, Q6, Q8

Q2 can be eliminated – you are leaving people vulnerable (Data Protection again)

You need to check carefully about Data Protection on children’s details – I think you may be on very dodgy ground here – try asking Rebecca for help – is she doesn’t know then I am guessing that she can point you to someone who does.

Q16 – Confusing

Q18 – favourite colours for what? Wearing/looking at/eating???

Q20 – Needs Other (please specify) and None as options

Why are some questions asterisked?*

Having reflected upon the feedback, me and Charlotte have made all the questions optional apart fron name and address which are mandatory for obvious reasons (The diary is personal to each customer so its useful to have basic information such as name and age, althogh age is not a mandatory question, and address for delivery)

Question 16, we have agreed that there should be a page in the diary based on the customers body shape so inorder to know what advice we give them, we first need to know what body shape they are.

Question 20, there are only three celebs that represent Very, there are no other options apart from ‘none of the above’…. This question is not mandatory so it does not have to be answered.