PPD... Branding Inspiration

When starting to create my branding for my business cards, I looked back on business cards that I have collected from degree and design shows. I wanted to make sure I was including everything I needed to, and I wanted to see what had worked and what didn't on other peoples. I was quite surprised how many cards didn't have a website or how many had inaccurate details on them so I will double check mine before sending them to print.

I like this idea as its really clever, as this is the business stationery for Ben Brand, and the image is his name on a branding iron. These things might only work if you have a surname that can be relevant, but its made me think about creating the text in some other way than just typing the letters out on the computer. My idea was to create my letters in 3d and photograph them in different surroundings. This is all about thinking outside the box to get an idea that stands out.

These photographs are of my business card wall I have made in my bedroom for constant branding inspiration! I don't want to copy off what has been done before, but just looked at all these business cards can help me think about new ideas.

These are the business cards from past LCA graduates that I think work particularly well. I am considering using print finishes such as foil, spot varnish, duplexing etc in my business cards. I also like that some of the cards are a bit unusual, such as the few that are screen printed. I think these would be quite difficult to make but would stand out from the rest.

Product / Range / Distribution... [Product Packaging]

To help me to decide what goes where and what important info is needed I have looked at the packaging for the products I am re-designing the packaging for. My packaging will obviously look totally different to these examples, as it needs to work as a set with the rest of my products, but looking at these examples has been useful to take information such as ingredients, sizes and storage information from. 

 

Product / Range / Distribution... [Leaflet Design]

Questions I had to ask myself about my leaflet:

How to bind?

What stock?

How many pages?

Any special finishes?

How to be in line with M&S Plan A policy?

What size text?

What content?

What ratio of text to image?

How to recycle?

I know the graze box was an available brief, but I didn't want to do this brief after seeing others do it for the YCN project and get a bit fed up with it. However, I have been influenced by the graze boxes as they follow the same environmentally friendly policy as M&S and contain a mix of hand drawn illustrations with type, making them quite similar in design to my products. Looking at this leaflet has helped me to answer the above questions I had to ask myself about my leaflet. 

Design inspiration ////

Simple leaflet printed on to recycled paper with mix of hand drawn illustration and type with information and photographs inside. I think there is a bit too much going on with the mix of styles of design in the leaflet, if it was more simple it would work better. I think the colour of the stock and the fact everything is biodegradable and recycle is great and this is something I would want to do for my perfect picnic.

 

graze 1st box leaflet / / / / 

I like that this leaflet has a different stock jacket on it. Its just a simple booklet without many pages but the quality of the stock makes it seem like something you should keep hold of. I want my booklet to my appreciated and not just disregarded when people open the picnic carrier.

Product / Range / Distribution... Simple Imagery

Following my crits, I realised the initial vector imagery I had looked at was a bit childish and wouldn't match in with the theme I was going for, and wouldn't appeal to my target audience, of young professionals with an interest in childhood classics. So I have looked at some simpler illustrations, and I think 1 colour illustrations will appeal to both young and old. 

http://www.lemonribbon.com/

These examples I found on printandpattern are vector based, with a handmade feel. Creating something like this would be perfect as it would match in with the hand drawn font. I would use the colours of my colour scheme, or maybe even have my imagery in just black and white, to decorate the page but to still look sophisticated and mature.

I've looked for a few more examples of this hand cut, but not childish type of design to keep looking back at and considering when finishing my illustrations.

Rob Ryan - probably the most obvious example of this kind of imagery, but his designs are obviously far too detailed and complex. What I want to create is really simple image but in this kind of paper cut style (without doing a paper cut!)
The example of Rob Ryan wallpaper works well as its a lot simpler, and the coloured background with the white background looks sophisticated and could work as a pattern in the background or an image on its own.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lindasolovic

I like these examples as they are so simplistic. Again, I'm seeing the white on colour idea and I really like this, it helps things to look more sophisticated.

A different approach, but looking at playing card imagery as this is relevant to the theme of alice in wonderland. These are still quite simplistic. I like the vector approach of the bottom image but I think this looks a bit child like, the style of the top image might work better for the kind of thing I am producing.

Product / Range / Distribution... M&S Packaging

M&S Food Labelling

To help me to create packaging that fits in line with M&S's policies, I've researched into their packaging and how they label stuff. I went in to the store and saw a really varied mix of designs, many containing illustrations. This shows that the type of product I am aiming to create would fit in well with the food on sale in M&S. I was actually quite shocked to see how well designed some of M&S's products are and how different they are to what is available in other well known supermarkets.

debbiepowell

Lots of illustrative designs that still look sophisticated but can appeal to people of all ages.

jellylondon

I really like these patterned backgrounds and think this is something I will try.

martindawedesign

thequickbrownfox

There are loads of themed sets, meaning that my themed picnic pack would fit in well with whats available and that the customers who shop in M&S will hopefully be tempted to buy my product.