Finalising my Concept

Final Poster Design

Above is my final poster design. To produce this, I took my own photography, using my concept idea as the subject. To emphasise the product range, I changed the colour of the pods in the draw using the colour palette in the brand guidelines. Generally, I tried to portray:

• Range - Colouring the pods to emphasise on the range
• Quality - "With over 25 incredible flavours...": Using this, I'm communicating that the coffee is more that good
• Consistent with NDG branding - Using their logo and brand guidelines for the type to stick with the NDG branding. Also, I used a simplistic look with a white background, because I didn't want to overwhelm the design with unnecessary elements, portraying the image of "It's good, there's no catch" and "Cutting the crap". This was influenced by a simple, but powerful concept by BMW that I researched (image below). Using a clean design with a bold title, the type emphasises on the quality of the car.

Overall, I tried to portray and communicate the NDG brand as a whole taking into account my research on successful advertising, and I used impactful imagery to "draw" attention to the design.

BMW 1 Series Ad campaign - Yahoo

Because I had to present my design in an A4 PDF, I produced a small document explaining the concept with visuals and examples of the design in use. I did this because it communicates my idea to the client fully, showing what my design would look like in use.

About my design

My Poster Design

Web Banner Design

My web banner design was influenced by the Ted film ad in my research. I kept the theme of my concept consistent by designing a banner that interacts and draws attention to the viewer. 

Overall, I believe that the outcome has been successful in terms of meeting the brief specifications. To improve this, I would produce more designs, rather than just the draw to allow the client to explore my concept more. 

Concept Development

Using my research and understanding of the brief and NDG branding, I began to draft different concept ideas for my design concept. Rather than doing a poster concept or web banner concept, I wanted to get an overall design concept / theme, which I can tailor to the different advertising elements afterwards. My ideas were rough sketches so that I could find and develop a strong concept effectively.

Sketching helps generate a strong set of possible directions. A mouse and computer adds an extra level of restriction that hinders the process. Most sketches will eventually be made redundant, but the point is to explore every possible direction before choosing the most effective idea. (Airey, 2007)

As David Airey Mentions, sketching allows you to quickly find your direction when drawing concept ideas. Using sketches, I've developed a concept that I believe is good and meeting the brief specifications.

My concept is called "Hiding your coffee is necessary": The coffee is that good, you need to hide it at home, so no one else can take it. Your coffee is a priority, you begin to prioritise this over essential home accessories. To communicate this, I drew very rough imagery (image below) of a cutlery draw, where all the cutlery has been crammed into one section, and the NDG pods have been placed carefully and neatly in all the other sections. By this, I'm trying to communicate how the owner has hidden their coffee and prioritised it over the cutlery, in a fun humorous way.

Rough initial concept idea, vectored

With my concept idea formed, I began to produce poster designs using the concept as a theme, taking into account the NDG brand guidelines.

References
Airey, D (2007) My Identity Design Process [Online] 6th September 2007
Available from: http://www.davidairey.com/process/
[Accessed: 14th May 2013]

Successful Advertising Campaign Research

From identifying the requirements of the brief and understanding the current NDG branding, I began to research and annotate competition winning advertising campaigns. The idea of doing this is to understand what these brands are visually communicating and identifying how they are successful. By doing this, I gained creative inspiration to develop my own concepts, enabling me to think about how I should be visually communicating the NDG brand effectively to its audience.

Ted Film Campaign - IACAWARD winner 2013

The Ted film campaign is an example of a successful online advertising campaign that I researched. From this, I could identify what the brand is trying to communicate about the film:

• From the imagery, I can identify that the film is about humor and anarchy because of the animation of the bear dropping a bottle, which causes the page divs to fall off the page, revealing an unattractive wooden exterior on the web page.

• Because the bear drops a beer bottle, I would understand that this film is not family friendly, and most likely to be aimed towards adults.

The visual communication from this advertisement tells the viewer about the film in a creative and interesting way - therefore being entertaining, but informative at the same time. These are the important factors that I need to communicate in my advert: Gaining the viewer's attention and being informative about the NDG brand.

"'advertising' means 'drawing attention to something', or notifying or informing somebody of something." (Dyer, 1982)

References

Ted film campaign (2013) The Onion Homepage Takeover [Online]

Available from: http://hs.interpolls.com/cache/demos/universal/ted/onion_overlay.html

[Accessed: 14th May 2013]

Dyer, G (1982) Advertising as Communication. Methuen & Co. Ltd
[Accessed: 14th May 2013]

Nescafe Dolce Gusto Current Branding

Current Nescafe Dolce Gusto Brand Guidelines - Logo design, colour palette and fonts

"STAY IN TUNE WITH THE NESCAFÉ DOLCE GUSTO BRAND

It’s important that the audience receives a consistent picture of how NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto looks." (Taken from the Nescafe Dolce Gusto YCN brief)

Because the brief makes it very clear that the client wants the brand to be consistent with current NDG branding, I made sure that I identified how Nescafe communicate their Dolce Gusto products. From the samples below, I understood that they present a range of colours on their branding - this tells me that there's going to be a range on offer and there's not just one product. Looking at the middle sample, you can see a QR code. This tells me that NDG expect their audience to have a mobile phone to scan a QR code. This tells me that they expect the viewer to own a smart phone and be tech savvy - most likely being a younger audience. Coffee shop quality tells me that this product is premium; nescafe aren't advertising a cheap product here, they expect the audience to be willing to pay a premium price for the product. This tells me that the younger audience will be independent, probably a home owner, and someone who prioritises their spending on accessories, like clothing, fashion, and good coffee.

Samples of NDG Advertising

Understanding the brand is essential because I need to communicate this in my design. The things that I can identify from the brand are:

• Colour - Emphasising on the product range
• Round shapes - A bubbly, fun, happy personality
• Quality - "Coffee shop quality": A premium product
• Young audience - Imagery of young people featured on banners, QR codes and an exciting fresh colour scheme to the brand

Taking these into account, I will ensure that I communicate this in my design concept. It's essential that I do this to meet the brief.

YCN - Nescafe Dolce Gusto: Identifying the Brief

Understanding what the client is asking for is a no-brainer. Producing a creative, interesting product is important, but ultimately it needs to be fit for the job. The main reason I identify the brief first is because it helps me to understand and digest the requirements of the client.

My approach to doing this was to highlight the key points on the brief and to note these down on a separate sheets, so that I know what the key requirements are. I broke this down into:

• About the product - This is about understanding the company and the product being sold: Nescafe Dolce Gusto. I did this because understanding the existing brand is key. Since the final outcome needs to fit with their existing brand, this list helped me to identify that.

• The creative challenge - This is the deliverables of the brief - Understanding what the client wants. Nescafe want an advertising campaign to present and portray their Dolce Gusto products. Obviously understanding this was essential because it's important that the subject in the designs is accurate and answers the brief.

• Target audience - This is who will be using and viewing the design, essentially the audience. NDG aim at the younger audience who have just moved into their new home. Understanding this is vital because the success of the design will depend on whether it works and appeals to the target audience, as explained by Mark Cossey:

"I always put myself in the customer/end-users shoes. It’s all very well getting briefed from the head of marketing and lead developer of new dating site for over 60′s but ultimately, what you produce will need to be loved an understood by those silver surfers." (Cossey, 2010)

• Presentation - This is how the client wants the product to be presented to them. They ask for a poster design and an online ad design, presented in an A4 PDF. With this, they want me to sum up my concept in under 300 words, explaining my concept. Understanding how the client wants the design to be presented is essential to meeting the brief.

References

Cossey, M (2010) Understanding the Brief [Online] 4th April 2010
Available from: http://www.burning.me/2010/04/understanding-the-brief/
[Accessed: 14th May 2013]