OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Design Boards

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Brand Guidlines

I created presentation boards to demonstrate how I would pitch the branding/identity to the Real Junk Food Project in a commercial context. The boards outline the various aesthetics I made as a designer as well as making a few subtle indications towards my sources of inspiration and conceptual connections. These boards clearly demonstrate the PRODUCTS, the RANGE of the products and how they would be distributed. 

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Product, Range, Distribution Considerations

What is the 'product?'

Essentially, the branding/identity for the cafes and restaurants as well as an integrated Guerilla style print campaign are the products of this brief.

Who am I aiming the work at?

Large groups within society who are probably uneducated about these issues. I want to target people who are perhaps slightly unaware of the extent of our problems and are unaware of the power they have to actually instigate positive change.

Why am I aiming at them?

Because the issues effect them whether they are concious of this or not. In order to tackle these unprecedented issues, we must come together and work collectively to try and solve them. That is my my graphic design for this brief must appeal to people from all backgrounds and ages. I will be primarily targeting parents, who will pass down the information to their children, young couples and singles. The campaign will of course also appeal to an older demographic, but I feel that people who are slightly older are already pretty food smart. I realise this is generational assumption, but there is definitely some truth to it. I feel that younger demographics, especially people of my age are not that good when it comes to saving food. We definitely take things for granted and often choose to dismiss or ignore the negative impacts that our actions have.

What is the range of the product?

Once the logo and general aesthetic for the branding is established, I will begin considering the range of the products. I already know that I want to produce a range of posters, leaflets, flyers and so on, as well as letterheads, banners, flags and additional printed materials. I want to produce some nice t-shirt designs as well as tote bags, because I feel these are on trend and would definitely appeal and attract a younger demographic. Digitally, I will be mocking up a desktop website which could be translated into a mobile version. An interactive app could also support these digital platforms. A social media presence would also be closely linked with the website.

How will they be distributed?

I pondered for a long time about the best way of distributing the diverse number of products that I wanted to design and produced for this brief. The most efficient way I saw of distributing them to the widest range of people was in the form of a ‘Food Smart’ start kit, which could be picked up either in one of the many Pay As You Feel Cafe’s or ordered online and sent in the post free of charge. The starter kit includes a zine which features food saving tips and left-over recipes. The zine functions to introduce the target audience to the cause and the surround issues. It also includes small flashcards which can be stuck up around the kitchen as reminders to be as conscious as possible when buying, preparing, consuming and storing food. It also includes a food smart shopping list template, which is designed to help me get smarter when shopping for food products in a grocery store. A range of flyer’s and A3 posters would also be included in the pack, encouraging people to paste them where ever they want, spreading the campaign in a Guerrilla fashion. To me, the starter kit would be the best way of distributing the products and raising awareness of the cause. People can also access information through the newly designed website and engage using the hashtags included on the printed materials.

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Food Smart Starter Pack Considerations

Items to include in the pack:

Leaflet
Real Junk Food zine
Food Smart shopping lists
Simple flashcards for the kitchen
A3 posters
A5 flyes


Additional items that could be included depending on size:

Portion planners
Clear labels to place on fresh, cooked or leftover food
Colour coding labelling system for fresh goods
A food waste diary
Leftover recipe cookbook
Garland/flags
Stickers
Badges
Fridge magnets

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Research - Alternative Currencies & Credits

Whilst researching into food banks and waste food cafes, I came across a number of alternative currencies and credit schemes that are being rolled out across the UK. I realised here that I could have made some excellent synthesis between brief 01 and brief 02 in 505, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

One of the clearest demonstrations of a more resilient democratic monetary system is a local currency that is endorsed by local traders and, in the case of the Bristol pound, can be used on buses or to pay council tax. Several exist in Britain, including the newly launched Exeter pound and the Brixton Pound. Schemes such as local time banks and online platform echo trade skills and resources rather than money and can have wonderful impacts on local communities and economies. 

These alternative currencies are closely aligned to the sharing economy. As writer John Thackara points out in his new book, How to Thrive in the Next Economy, the sharing economy is based on social reciprocity and networks, and does not need to “grow at all costs” in the same way as an economy dependent on abundant cheap energy.

The alternative currencies have massive potential to expand as conceptual pieces. I think they are wonderful ideas and can definitely make a difference and alter our food waste tendencies and habits. They could be used by minorities in society who are unrepresented, underprivileged and perhaps are poor and food insecure. These alternative credits may be used in the future to 'pay' for food from food banks and waste food cafes and restaurants. For brief one, I could have designed a currency of this nature had I know for definite what I was going to be looking into for brief 02. This would have made for an excellent project and there would have been wonderful connections between the two briefs. Of course, there is nothing stopping me from designing an alternative currency as way of extending this brief past the internal deadlines of the course. I may well look into doing this. 

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Products, Range and Distribution

I pondered for a long time about the best way of distributing the diverse number of products that I designed and produced for this brief. The most efficient way I saw of distributing them to the widest range of people was in the form of a ‘Food Smart’ start kit, which could be picked up either in one of the Pay As You Feel Cafe’s or ordered online and sent in the post free of charge. The starter kit includes a zine which features food saving tips and left-over recipes. The zine functions to introduce the target audience to the cause and the surround issues. It also includes small flashcards which can be stuck up around the kitchen as reminders to be as conscious as possible when buying, preparing, consuming and storing food. It also includes a food smart shopping list template, which is designed to help me get smarter when shopping for food products in a grocery store. A range of flyer’s and A3 posters would also be included in the pack, encouraging people to paste them where ever they want, spreading the campaign in a Guerrilla fashion. To me, the starter kit would be the best way of distributing the products and raising awareness of the cause. People can also access information through the newly designed website and engage using the hashtags included on the printed materials. 

I also designed and produced a set of screen printed t-shirts, tote bags, paper carrier bags and posters. These would be found in the pay as you feel cafes, and could be purchased for a small donation. Printing designs onto objects such as these spread the message of the campaign in a very effective, non-threatening way and would certainly appeal to a broad range of people. 

The branding for the Junk-Food Project could be translated into other products, including traveling food trucks, pop up cafe’s and restaurants perhaps even regular events and even food festivals. I hope to get in contact with the people who manage the organization to see what they make of my designs, they may even want to use them in a commercial context which would be amazingly rewarding. 

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Final Printed Products

Here is a selection of images of a selection of my final printed products for this brief. I screen printed the t-shirts, tote bags and take way bags which was a very long and tiring process but was definitely worth it in the end. I printed the food smart starter pack in the digital print resource, and I am really pleased with the results. I think that within the time frame of the brief, I definitely could have included more items in the starter pack, but this is only the first. It could be extended into a series of stater packs that could be sent out every few months including new items to keep people engaged, refreshed and inspired. 

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Research - Wheatpaste Art

Site specific wheat-paste art has been on my radar for sometime now. For a while, I thought that it was pure street art, just simply another way for artists to express themselves in the public domain. I have come to realise that often, a lot of this sort of street art is in fact more meaningful and purposeful. This art has the potential to make large, bold social, cultural and political comments and statements and I have realised that this sort of technique of distribution would suit the needs of my project perfectly. 

A lot of the designs I have been producing would look wonderful if they were printed out in monochrome and pasted onto walls in urban environments using wheat paste process. I feel this would allow me to reach a far more diverse target audience than by simply producing a digital and printed campaign. This would allow anyone on the street to interact with the cause and spark a conversation. This would be an excellent way of distributing a range of products that I have produced for this brief. I also just really love the aesthetic achieved through using this process. It's raw, gritty and reflective of contemporary visual culture. Site specific pasting would also allow me to embed deeper conceptual and contextual messages into the work. For example, I could post a series of posters on the outside walls of a supermarket, or on the windows of a restaurant, or just simply on the sides of bins in cities. It could take the campaign to the next level. 

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Research - Guerilla Distribution Mockups

This project can be split into two. I have created a slick, polished identity for the Real Junk Food Project which basically includes all the standard collateral you would associate with a chain of cafes, including logos, signs, flags, leaflets, a zine and a website mockup. The second part of the project is a visual campaign, which is comprised mainly of posters and flyers. These posters would be distributed in a gurilla style. I would print them using stock which could be pasted using a wheat-paste process. I would easily be able to make the paste myself from scratch and go out and distribute the posters in  DIY fashion, posting them in places I feel are conceptually relevant. Below, I have mocked up a series of images of where I feel the posters would function the best. I have placed them on bins to make a bold statement and to catch the eye of the house hold food waster. The posters are mocked up in bright colours. In reality, the colours would not be this bright because I would look to use soy based inks which are more environmentally friendly. However, I feel the context in which they appear and the placement of the designs would be the key to their success in spreading the poignant message of the campaign. The posters all say the same thing, this is a deliberate conceptual decision. The repetition of the message is there to represent the extent of our excessive waste habits.  

The posters would also be pasted onto walls and billboards in urban areas in sets of eight to create repeated series of visual stimulation. They would be posted over existing designs to make a bold statement and to really catch the eye of anyone walking by. 

OUGD505 - Brief 02 - Research - Painted Dumpsters

I came across these interesting pieces of street art. Dumpsters are found all over the world, but in American they have become the focus of political and cultural freedom. People have been painting some pretty radical political messages in recent times, some of which directly link to the issues I have been investigating in this brief. Other messages tackle more current, pressing affairs, including the upcoming presidential election. I like the concept of using a public artefact such as a bin as a platform to spread certain campaigning messages. This could be viewed guerilla tactics. I think the posters I have been designing could be distributed in this way, stuck to the sides of large bins and household wheelie bins. This would raise awareness in a subtle way, as it wouldn't be ramming the content down the neck of the target audiences. Guerilla advertising really interests me and work perfectly in terms of distribution for my campaign.