Brief 5 - Final Evaluation/ Reflection

I think that this brief never really reached the full potential of what it could have, mainly due to the lack of client response in the expansion. I did enjoy creating the logo and icons for this, but I do feel that they only go so far, and much more could have been developed and created.

Initially I had been quite excited by this brief because it was something that I found enjoyable in branding a restaurant. The brief was also something very up my street in terms of the deliverables asked for in the logo design - a typographically based design with an integrated icon. Creating a bespoke icon for this is something that interested me as I had not done much work on icon to the point of the start of this brief.

The lack of client response following the logo design made the brief lack direction and enthusiasm. With it being a client brief, I did not want to finish the brief the way I would have seen it because this may not have been what the client wanted, and would have ultimately meant I would be doing things twice over. Looking back at it now, and still with a lack of client response, I realise that I could have completed the brief to my vision and still got something out of it in creating work that I was proud of.

I did enjoy doing the initial parts to this brief and creating the logo, however afterwards it was not enjoyable and was a lost brief as there was no direction to move in. I think that this brief has shown me that in a client brief, they may want you to complete a brief quickly, but it is their response time that is important too in creating a project as it is a two way system.

Brief 5 - Design Boards

Brief 5 - Extension

While I have just decided to cancel this brief due to lack of client contact, I have decided to complete the brief on my own time and finish it in the way I would see fit. This is down to a number of reasons, the first being that I have included it in my portfolio and have had good feedback for it, so it would be great for me if I could actually talk about it a bit more and expand on it.

Right now I had the logo and three icons. The client had asked for a number of other icons, however, I don't think including these will make any difference to the end products. Keeping the three that are there are more linked to the brand as they are of the three specialties. Adding more might dull down the importance of these three icons.

As this was initially meant to be quite a short brief, I will not be spending a huge amount of time on it as I already have the majority of the work for it. It's just a case of applying this branding to the necessary products. I also created mockups to show how the interior of the restaurant could look.


Product Mock ups

Brief 4: Design Boards

Brief 4: Final Photos

Brief 4 - Final Evaluation/Reflection

This brief has been a bit of a surprise to me as it started as a small logo design brief and expanded to a full identity and promotional material for the client. I found the majority of the brief enjoyable, with a few things that I dislike, however I think the outcomes are of a high standard and work really well together and separately.

My initial thoughts on the brief were that it was something short and quick to do, however I did find that once the client asked me to create the full identity, it took a considerably long time compared to how quickly I would have done it if it was my own generated brief. This is mainly to do with having to communicate with the client and the changes that they wanted. The client requested changes to the logo a couple of times, all after I had changed it on every piece of collateral, which was quite annoying as it meant I had to change it all on everything.

Another thing I disliked about this brief was that the client asked me to create product lists, order forms and invoices. This is something that I haven’t done before, especially in that the client wanted them created in Microsoft Excel, which did make it quite hard to get a really consistent and strong design to work. I found these to be very long and tedious, but I understand for a usability point of view for the client, it was necessary to do.

Overall I enjoyed the brief and think that the outcomes were some of the strongest and consistent work that I have done before. I would definitely like to work for this client again in the future as they have been happy with the designs that I create for them and given me a lot of creative control.

Brief 4: Wheatless & More - Extension

Following the last bits of work the client asked me to do, I decided to look over everything and think about what was missing in terms of handing this in as a completed brief. While the clients needs have been met, there are a couple of things that I wanted to do.

The first thing I did was create some brand guidelines. I felt that this is a necessary tool in bringing the branding of the brief together. While I had obviously been sticking to this across all the media throughout, it is good practice to create guidelines and ensure that the branding is clear and consistent.

Brand Guidelines

Promotional Material

I also looked back at the other promotional material that was created for the brand, in particularly, the large poster. This went to the specifications of the client as it was used for a trade show, so it needed to be as it was, however I do think that there are a couple of ways to present the information on a small scale. I decided that it might be nice to create some small A6 postcards/flyers for each of the individual products on the poster.

It would be something someone could pick up and keep instead of looking at a poster and trying to remember all the products. It also suggests that the client has an investment in all of the products equally as they each have their own piece of media and will get the same amount of attention.

I wanted to keep the layout very simple as the entire branding is simple. The one thing that I liked about the original poster was the headings for each of the sections - 'morning glories', 'lunch & dinner delights' and 'sweets & treats'. I though that these were quite quirky and would be good to include on each of the cards.

Looking back over the other material I had created, I liked the layout of the sticker which was a circle. It is very similar to one of the original logos that I pitched to the client. Taking this design, I adapted it to fit the headings in. I also added a couple of thicker outlines to the sign so it would be like a stamp.

Headings:

Keeping in form with the rest of the branding, I kept the front side of the card very simple with just the information on the rest of the promotional material - logo, small slogan and contact details.

Front side

For the back, keeping with the simple format, I initially tried the stamp down in the right hand corner but it didn't work very well because of the difference in product shapes. It was hard to get the product to work well with it, so I decided on putting it at the top central, with the product underneath. I also added a small bit of type to the bottom of the brand name.

Happy with these, I decided to expand this idea into a small A5 leaflet with all of the products in one place. The individual cards are good for someone who wants just one of the products, but a leaflet with them all in is good for someone who wants to know the selection. I kept the layout identical and just adapted the size and shape to the page side.

Front

Inside

Back

I am pleased with the way these turned out and think that they look much better than the original poster I designed. I think the stamps bring it all together and make it all that bit more branded and consistent.

I then decided to look back at the A6 Postcards and how the back sides of these could be image based instead of have text. It makes them quite striking and bold with the use of images instead of text. I also think that the imagery is really nice but isn't actually being used a lot apart from on social media.

Following the success of the stamp on the product media, I decided to use this format and add the small slogan that is used across a lot of the promotional material 'where freefrom meets healthy & delicious'.

Stamp:

In contrast to the blue, I decided to use a grey background and have the text in blue. I decided that because the backs were going to be images, the lighter colour on the front will contrast against this and work much better than the blue.

Front Side

I created four variations of four images, using a slightly dark filter over the top so the stamp stood out a bit better against the images.