Engagement Invite Research

For this brief the client had already collected some images of existing invitations or general inspiration, this was very helpful as it gave me a good heads up as to what she wanted, and considering how short time I had before she wanted it done, it meant that I was able to get designing as soon as possible.

these were some of the images which she said she really liked

This image was more to do with the colours she wanted on the invite, she specified grey and teal.

Lasercutting was something which came up a lot in the images she had compiled.

She also mentioned that she wanted some sort of henna pattern on it.

She shared the board with me so I was also able to pin things to it, I suggested a wedding logo or monogram as I thought it would be a good way to keep consistency across any of the invitation items.

She really liked the way that this logo had been designed as it was including a pattern as well so it was like both of our ideas in one.

Link:http://www.pinterest.com/frinam/engagement-ideas/

Lexy Branding Research

With the brief being a smaller one and due to the nature of it, I asked the client to look at images of examples of branding which is out there at the moment. She had collected a fair amount of image and in addition to this I looked at some of her work to get an idea of what it was that branding was going to represent. 

Some of the images which she pointed out to me were

She had said to me that she wanted a CV designing and this was the sort of thing she was after.

She also quite liked this logo and branding for an existing textiles designer.

Link: http://www.pinterest.com/lexxwebb/packaging/

Cath Kidston Research

With the brief not being that open or work heavy I kept the research fairly focused on the idea which I had, as I did not have enough time to extensively research.

I had created a pinterest board where I compiled all of the images which I was looking at before I started designing.

link: http://www.pinterest.com/RineshMistry/cath-kidston-pattern-ideas/

Looking at these images had helped me to decided how to illustrate the objects as well as how to put them into a pattern.

I liked how detailed these illustrations were but did I knew I did not have the illustrative skills to achieve something as detailed as this but it gave me a good heads up on how to approach doing the illustrations.

Wedding Invitation Research

For this brief the client had helpfully already seen a few ideas which he liked which he sent to me. Some of the images he shown me were from this pinterest board, 

link: http://www.pinterest.com/ruchitandon/ideas/

But some of the main ones which he really liked were these images, he had said that he wanted something which was not your cliche wedding invitation. 

From seeing what we wanted I decided to compile my own pinterest board, which I then sent to him to see what he thought of what I was thinking of doing for the invite, some of the images which I saw which caught my eye were:

I thought the idea of having a wedding logo was a really good idea and could be applied across different items if he liked it.

Link: http://www.pinterest.com/RineshMistry/wedding-invitation/

Purdeys Research

History

I did some basic research into Purdeys as a brand just so I knew all of the facts and figures about them. With it being such a small brand, they did not even have an official website which was something which I could potentially propose as part of my submission as a website is one of the best ways to expand your audience and profits. But with that in mind I could not find a lot of information on the brand.

Some of the things I did find out about the brand was:

• It is produced by Orchid Drinks LTD
• The parent company is Britvic, which is quite popular
• It is only sold in UK, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands and Belgium
• It has 2 different drinks, Purdeys Activation (which was previously known as Active Body) and Purdeys Rejuvenation (Was known as Active Life) 
• Both drinks are made up of fruit juices and contain vitamins and anti-oxidants

Looking at social media I also discovered that the target audience currently is 25-34 year olds, as their facebook shows

The Drink (Ingredients)

Ingredients: Fruit juices from concentrate 57 per cent, (grape, apple), carbonated spring water 42 per cent, botanical extracts (damiana, bayberry bark, prickly ash bark, Chinese ginseng), natural flavourings, citric acid, Vitamins (C, niacin, B6, thiamin, riboflavin, folacin, B12), glucose. Free from caffeine and artificial sweeteners.

Nutrition

Ingredients

Fruit Juices from Concentrate 57% (Grape, Apple), Carbonated Spring Water (42%), Botanical Extracts (Damiana, Bayberry Bark, Prickly Ash Bark, Chinese Ginseng), Natural Flavourings, Citric Acid, Vitamins (C, Niacin, B6, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folacin, B12), Glucose.

Dietary Information

Free From Artificial Colours
Free From Artificial Sweeteners
Free From Artificial Flavours
Free From Artificial Preservatives

Nutritional Data

Nutrition

Typical values				per 100ml	Per 330ml serving
Energy				137kj	452kj
Energy				32kcal	106kcal
Protein				0.2g	0.7g
Carbohydrate				6.8g	22g
of which sugars				6.8g	22g
Fat				0.1g	0.3g
of which saturates				Nil	Nil
Fibre				Trace	Trace
Sodium				Nil	Nil
Thiamin (B1)				0.14mg	0.46mg
Riboflavin (B2)				0.16mg	0.53mg
Vitamin B6				0.2mg	0.66mg
Vitamin B12				0.1µg	0.33µg
Vitamin C				6mg	19.8mg
Niacin				1.8mg	6mg
Folic Acid				20.3µg	67µg

This was a review from the Daily Mail of the drink:

The active ingredient here is damiana, which is linked to weight management. A study on the herbal remedy Zotrim, which contains damiana, yerba mate and guarana found significant weight loss. The herbs are believed to stimulate metabolism and increase feelings of fullness.

The Chinese root ginseng - which is less active than the Siberian form - is thought to reduce stress. But is there enough here? You need between 0.3g and 2g a day of ginseng to have any effect on stress. Folacin is good for women who are planning to get pregnant, but the rest is all fluff. There might be a study on a mouse somewhere to say bayberry bark is good for you, but it doesn't mean it's any good for humans.

Bottle Design

In terms of the design of the bottle, with the drink only being around for a few years they have only changed it once, even then only very slightly.

On the left is the original design and on the right is the current design.

I personally dont like either of the designs, but I guess I am not the target audience for the drink, but I do not think that the current design is actually doing anything for the drink or brand in terms of sales and showcasing what the drink and brand is about. I think the overall style that they have gone for isn't working along with the colours they have chosen, the only actual purpose of the silver is so that it blocks out the light, but I do not see the point of the glass bottle as some would think that it shows a level of class or that the drink is some sort of luxury or high end drink when in fact it only sells for £1 in most supermarkets. I also think that it does not contribute towards their brand values as they pride themselves on being a completely natural energy drink but I think that this should be reflected through their packaging as well.

This was a limited edition Gold version of the drink which they must have released.

The glass bottle might be seen to be 'signature' for Purdeys but I will not be using it as we do not have to, and I personally do not think it contributes to the design, ethics of the brand or the drink it self.

Competitors 

Having a look at some of the drinks which are in the same category as Purdeys and what their designs are like.

From looking at most of these the use of colour is a lot more prominent than in the Purdeys packaging but This is another reason as to why I think a simpler colour scheme would make it stand out.

Design For Print Research

I started to look at images and things which I thought we related to print in order to get ideas and inspiration for what to do.

I have linked the pinterest board (link) which I used to compile all of the images I thought were appropriate. I have also linked a few here which I thought stood out to me the most.

This image below came up after I looked in to some of the processes I wanted to look into as part of this brief. One of them was foiling and this was one of the images which came up when I had searched it using designspiration 

I found this image interesting as I had never thought to use foil as a form of stock and I think that it works very well for a single colour image like the one above. I also like how it has been folded.

This next image was one which I found as I had said that I wanted to use florescent colours as one of the things I hadn't done before.

This image I thought made good use of florescent colour as I think that it can be done very well and also very bad and I think the selective use of the colour in this works very well.

This next image was one which interested me a lot as it gave me the idea of using holographic foil.

This next image intrigued me as I had never done anything using odd paper folding or binding, so that was another thing which I wanted to try during this brief.

I started to do workshops for things I had not done before. I have documented this on my design practice blog.

From looking at these initial images and after the crits I had on the brief, I started to look into things which I knew I was going to be doing, which I have pinned on to the same board. But these images below are some more which stood out too me.

This image was what I imagined when I was still proposing to do belly bands around each type of poster. Also the use of florescent colour.

The next image was one which was very crucial to my design decisions as it was after seeing this I knew what format I was going to have my posters in, in terms of folding and overall structure.

I like how this shows only a small snippet of the design but then folds out into something bigger but has been designed to work with the folds.

I had also created a separate board (link) for the style of info graphics I was thinking of using for my posters. 

This final image was what really influenced how I had the image side of my poster as I think the halftone photo and text on top worked very well.

For all of my poster all of the contextual information was found out when I was doing the processes or from last years inductions, I went and asked the technicians what and how things were done.