Responsive / Live Brief - Douwe Egberts Coffee

Moving forward with my initial analysis of the brief, I've developed 5 mood boards; investigating the range of materials Douwe Egberts offers aswell as its heritage and direction as a Brand. They've already began their struggle in broadening their Target Audience - "The Flavour Collective will help to attract new younger shoppers to the category, whilst encouraging existing coffee lovers to increase their coffee & hot beverage repertoire. " The Flavour Collective’s packaging reflects the desire to attract a younger consumer, with each flavour having it's own eye catching and fashionable colour palette on a foil label.

Mood-boards

As a starting point and foundation to build on, I made sure I researched relevant areas and thought about what the concept actually meant before I begin designing or moving forward inappropriately.

PROPOSED BRIEF

Key Words

Superior Quality
Established heritage
New brand identity
Engage Younger generation
Break the associations of parents, grandparents & being bought at Christmas
Contemporary // suggestions of heritage and expertise
Outsmart the rivals
Product quality, Aroma & taste
USE THE RED SEAL AND WORDING CONTAINED IN THE PROJECT PACK

The Brief 

Create a range of promotional material that will encourage younger consumers to become brand lovers and regular Coffee drinkers in their home environments. Use the information provided on "DEMASTERBLENDERS1753.COM" and the guidelines provided in the YNC  brief to generate;

Alternative methods of branding
Packaging
Point of Sale Displays/ Advertising
And potential campaign proposals.

Creative Requirements; Use the Red Seal and wording contained in the YNC project pack.

Pitch

Coffee for the younger generation is the A.M saviour, dispenser of energy and the reason why many are able to get through the first parts of the day without looking like zombies. The only thing is…the younger generation barely make coffee at home. 

As your already aware, the younger generation live a wilder lifestyle than their elders, which explains why (as the younger generation) were so reluctant to take time out of the day to make our own coffee's. It needs to be quick, it needs to be fast and it needs to be enjoyable. 

The younger generation indulge in the coffee shop experience because it provides a quick service at a decent and affordable quality, a service similar to a fast food restaurant. 

But with fast food restaurants, People will always have the desire for the more luxurious, hence restaurants. And if people could afford to eat at restaurants all of the time…they probably would. 

The same principle can be applied to this brief…There needs to be that desire for younger people to drink DOUWE Egberts, and drink it a lot.

In todays environment everything is about efficiency and convienience. There's more microwave meals than ever. There's more takeaways than ever. There's more taxi companies than ever and there's more technology than there has ever been. And it's no surprise that the majority of people using these services are the younger generation!

Further notes/ Proposals

Would the younger generation drink coffee at home for enjoyment? or to keep them going through the day? MAKE THESE REASONS BECOME ONE.

Early mornings, late nights and long days. THERE'S DEFINITELY A MARKET FOR COFFEE AT HOME, ESPECIALLY FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION. So why has it not been done already??

Simply because it hasn't been done right. The constant arrival of Starbucks and Costa doesn't exactly help matters but when you think of coffee at home, its a complete different niche.

'As with all good things, moderation is key.'-  A very useful piece of information when it comes to imagining and designing innovative packaging for their products. 


FEEDBACK.

By Andrew Foster

5= Excellent 4= Very Good 3= Good 2= Average 1= Poor

Clarity Of Concept= 5
Breadth of Ideas= 4
Appropriateness of Response= 3
Contextual Awareness= 5
Analysis/ Understanding of Audience= 4
Level of Innovation=/ Originality= 3
Quality/ Clarity of Presentation= 5

Areas for Improvement

You have done loads of research into branding & the company, you just need to come up with a range of ideas on how you can tackle their problems. Visual Mock-ups would of been nice to see, to help us visualise your ideas and objectives.

Additional Comments

Presentation was very clear. You identified your aims and objectives so that it was understandable to non-coffee drinkers or non designers. Good ideas on how you can modernise their brand for a younger audience. Would have been good to have seen some visual mock-ups, the ideas are there already.

By Andrea Cooper

5= Excellent 4= Very Good 3= Good 2= Average 1= Poor

Clarity Of Concept= 3
Breadth of Ideas= 4
Appropriateness of Response= 3
Contextual Awareness= 5
Analysis/ Understanding of Audience= 4
Level of Innovation=/ Originality= 3
Quality/ Clarity of Presentation= 5

Areas for Improvement

Narrow down response. Find an appropriate method for delivering your message. Narrow down the message and decide exactly what your going to say. More visual research to do with your audience would help.

Additional Comments

The concept you've proposed is vague so its hard to be fine how appropriate the response is right now. Professional looking presentation of work though!

Personal feedback - totally agree with Andy's feedback, I could've provided some more visuals, such as quick sketches etc but to be honest I wanted to make sure my foundation and direction was as clear as it could be. Don't really agree with Andrea's feedback because it was as if she was looking for a fully finished idea and direction.

Design for Web - Crit

Strengths

• Vector art over images is strong visually. Focuses viewer on action and looks like you could be viewing on it? (Didn't really understand this comment)
• Gold, Silver & Bronze chairs all well made
• The first image on your blog is the most effective / both relevant / do-able in the time frame.
• It's clear and simple which makes it useable & more understandable
• Contents page would follow nicely from the initial homepage
• Really like the logo & font choices, fits content, although intricate the white and black colour scheme balances it out
• Mix of heart and red cross is clever for the subject & relevant

Areas for Improvement

• The headers should be separated in a clever way e.g. horizontally so they look like individual links rather than a sentence
• On homepage with hexagons, colourful men are a nice image so could be used more effectively on a different page?

Considerations

• The homepage/ navigation reads as a title rather than separate options.
• The hexagons are nice shapes but is there a specific relevance to the Paralympics?
• Homepage with hexagons doesn't seem as relevant to audience
• Consider who exactly your audience is, this will help with considerations for imagery, Children? Older generation?
• SHOW off the logo more, good detail could be lost!
• Visually and mechanically the site will be a great experience for the user, however it may need to be simplified a fair amount because of limitations in html & css.
• Second design logos just as strong - could the page headers be larger/ more noticeable?

This crit provided more useful factors than the previous because I was able to discuss my ideas with Lorraine and gain a perspective of what's actually possible in the time frames, I really need to discuss my design direction with Simon in order for it to work! 

As a secondary measure I've thought about discarding the hexagons as links! and include them as a visual display and just have the category list as a rollover link, however I still want to proceed with my final idea (IF IT'S POSSIBLE).


A swell as reading through literature such as 'HTML & CSS' by Jon Duckett I also thought it would be worth looking through alternative books, I wanted to understand Javascript and different elements of web in greater detail so I began looking over the following book...

 

 

Design For Print - Final Crit

Crit x2

Strengths

• The box is a really nice way to contain the separate books, interactive, makes you want to read the information.
• The use of icons on the box hint to what is in the box if its placed sideways
• The Print pro logo is striking and simple, works well large and small on books
• Good colour scheme
• The use of registration and crop marks etc on each page adds visual interest, unifies covers
• Use of grid means every-things easy to read and clear, like the colour schemes of the books, how each one is focused using one colour. Like the eco-friendly section, interesting, something people might not consider usually
• Professional standard finish
• Unique presentation
• Large amount of well presented content
• Neat finish
• Carefully crafted
• Consistent theme
• Logo, type etc.

Areas for Improvement

• Page 3 of finishing techniques, orphan & no full stop on last paragraph
• Blank pages on Finishing techniques
• Function - the only problem is the openings at the bottom & would slide out if stood up
• Consider altering the cover title logo's to a thinner line

Considerations

• Consider a hard cover & thicker stock for the books to match the robust nature of the box. Would match more
• Section on ethical printing but the making of the box is unethical (really didn't understand this comment because the origin and nature of how the wood was produced isn't supplied, could be FSC approved for all the know)
• Where would it exist? due to size and weight, point size maybe a little small

Personal feedback: The most valuable point that was brought up was probably the end consideration. I should of really expressed the functionality of my approach and justified using the scale I chose. The idea was that the container acted as a personal attribute that you could place anything related to print & design in. The colours and formats would act as a signifier making it easier for the owner to quickly choose what information they need to refer to.

'Blank pages on Finishing techniques' this was only because ISSUU requires a set of pages thats dividable by four, when it comes to actually printing the design I'll need to refine the point size and make sure there's fullstops at the end of all my last sentences.

***Remember; Spelling, Leading, Organisation of content, Blank space - too much?, TLDR - Too Long To Read.

Design For Print - Initial Stages

I'll be developing a response to this brief influenced by Publishing and editorial because its best suited to how I want communicate the information. It's a large amount of literature/ information that needs to be ordered to show a good understanding of print. The actual development of my publication will be derived from the seminars and workshops we've been investigating. The main focus will be based around '7things you need to know about print'.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRINT PRODUCTION* AND WHAT IS RELEVANT TO YOUR OWN PRACTICE.

Because there's such an extensive amount of research it needs to be concise and filtered into the 3 stages of print, these stages could be incorporated into sections, including; 

The development of designing for print 

The production of print 

The professionalising of your designs through the choice of stock and finishes.

As evidence for the development of my content  I'll be examining, tutorials, seminars, workshops, literature and gathered research on the internet. If it's possible I'll be including various samples of different finishes including laser cutting, embossing etc, (I've relied on Sample packs which I've applied for as samples, but if there's no progression on them parts, I'll be hopefully travelling to some of the printers to gather examples.

I can't cover EVERY single aspect of print without it becoming tedious and irrelevant for the reader, therefore I'm focusing on the most effective and important points of print that are relevant to the brief… 

I should effectively have a large amount of research already from seminars and ongoing research. I need to investigate further, contacting companies for stock, reading through various literature/ furthering my secondary research as support and making sure I book all the adequate slots I need to print...this'll include both laser cutting/ screen printing & woodwork.

Now that I've effectively filtered and ordered my research, I can begin to draft all the content appropriately for my publications...

As a form of investigation and string of enquiry, concerning costs, processes and techniques, I went to a Leeds based printers who specialised in various print and specialist finishing solutions, overall the experience supplied me with a broad depth of knowledge and really gave me an insight into how everything worked on the ground as oppose to just sitting on your mac. I gained some useful contact numbers and found out that they didn't have a minimum batch order, they can do one-off prints! As-long as you specify what; material/ stock, weight (gsm) size, quantity and extra finishes you want.

Primary Investigation

4 Colour (CMYK) Print out/ final run, includes colour specifications.

Litho Printing, CMYK - Black.

Simple envelope template / the paper is overlaid, pressure is applied, scoring the selected outline.

 

 Scale / Commercial Order.

Printing Plates / Aluminium. Spot Colour example.

 

Examples of Stock & an investigation into commercial print.

Sample pack...

For a better understanding of stock I rang up 'Far' n 'beyond' and requested a sample pack, what they sent was really helpful in terms of visualising their variety of specifications. I could see and feel how the weight of a paper effected its durability and functions, as you can see from the photograph below most of the samples I'd requested were concerned with the type and weights of stock. This particular company specialises in design, print and web solutions.

I also requested a sample back from 'Quinns'...

After reviewing my content and taking onboard what was said in my interm crit, I've realised I need to get rid of a few less relevant topics, and order my topics more appropriately into the right sections, e.g. Binding should be in 'Finishes'!

Sample pack: Solo Press & Benwells, I found these examples much more useful because they provided different creative finishing techniques across a large range of different contexts, this made it easier to see what was actually achievable with each process...

Fedregoni, Italian paper makers, requested Century cotton wove sheets 230 GSM.

An investigation into the development and format of my publication