Illustrative Branding Collaboration - Evaluation

Evaluation

To conclude this collaborative project and the brief, which we chose Bacardi and it’s music festival. The group that I was with was great and as a group we worked really well together to get the right message and style for what the brief wanted. To start this project with the mini brief was great for us as a group as we were able to gather the roles in which we each needed to be and also the amount of work in which we had to complete to get the best quality for the customer. Within the group we had some very strong workers with excellently work so I was very excited to see what we could come up with, which was something that was, in our eyes, perfect for what the customer was after. Throughout this project and the time we were apart, over christmas, we collaborated well in using our own styles to start to see what each other could do but then also combine all the ideas a styles into one final concept.

To start, as I said, we went with our own style to design a limited addition bottle label design to see what we could produce and for this I went in a graphical way, away from the Illustration side as my two partners were both illustrators. In a way this gave us an edge in the design sense, however, I still wanted to see what I could come with in a digital/graphical way of designing. I came up with three ideas; two using images, filters and the use of photoshop and then the third was using one of the illustrators designs and making it into a more graphical design to get another concept for what we were trying to create. Two of this ideas worked well and were considered for the final concept. The first design, which wasn’t as successful, was too over powering and was unable to fit all the information on the label where it was seen clearly. In addition to this, even though my other two designs worked well they were also too over powering for the information, so we stayed on the path of using the two illustrators work to combine and finalise.

Furthermore, also designed a advert campaign for social media so that it would spread the message of the up coming Bacardi music festival. I started this with some quick drawings of what we could include, and how each design would work, for these designs I used the main illustration in which we had chosen to use as the base of our campaign, which has a cuban feel to it, as it was the most colourful and best informed for what the brief wanted. after making a couple designs, from the drawings, the main concept in which we liked was a repeat pattern of the main illustration with the name ‘Bacardi’ across with the word ‘Music’ underneath as it gave the exact message of what was happening. What made this design so successful for all of us was the fact the it was so colourful and grabbed the eye of the audience straight away because our use of colour. This was because in the brief it stated that we needed to be able to use this advertising campaign all year round, therefore, we needed to either use all the colours the represented all seasons in every design or use a couple of colours that were toned down so that they could be used all year round. As a group we decided to go for all colours and in all designs as it really made the advert designs come out, especially on the social media platforms. As a group we also decided to make some gif’s that would go on to all social media platforms to give a more interesting and fun clip to look at and get involved with, giving the project an extra edge. We also planned on making some posters and Ad’s to promote the actual festival and the limited addition bottle, however, we ran out of time for anything major to be made and a couple of us from the group were ill and so we were unable to meet as a group and complete the ideas.

Overall, I am very happy with what we achieved as a group for this project and also I am very happy with how well we worked together throughout the time we were together and also the time we were apart. I have also learned so much about illustration and from group work that I believe I have strengthened my skills as a designer and am very happy with the collaboration project.

Illustrative Branding Collaboration - Final Advert concepts

After we had settled on the final bottle label design, we then picked which adverts we should use and in which colours. Phoebe then created an Instagram page (www.instagram.com/bacardi_music) to publish our work, including converting the gifs to videos so that we could see the campaign come together. We all think the vibrant colours work along side each other to represent the festival vibe that we were aiming for.

Illustrative Branding Collaboration - Final Label concepts

After working with Karl's design and finding something we liked we played around with it even more so that we got the best out of the design and in doing so we were able to combine all our ideas, designs and skills to produce all of the advert concepts and this limited addition bottle for the festival.

Illustrative Branding Collaboration - Label idea 9

After seeing Karl's latest design we all agreed that it need something else to make it come out more, as a limited bottle would. Therefore I decided to use the same design style as one of the moc adverts and create a clipping mask of the imagery and text to combine them and the to images of carls illustration and the illustrated designs.

From there I played around with the illustrations and imagery he had and placed them in a more interesting and less busy look which we all agreed it made it look better, however the text then became unreadable unless you were next to it.

Therefore, I played with the colour of the text, although, that didn't work either.

So finally, I removed a couple move things and changed the colours back and we all agreed on this design to be the start of what we should be using for our final concept, although it needed something changing.

Illustrative Branding Collaboration - Label idea 8

Karl's Work

After the feedback from the group we asked Karl to draw up some more palm leafs, he decided to also make another label design after being inspired by an Instagram post by Bacardi featuring a vinyl CD. He used an image of a record player and placed the Bacardi logo inside it and used his other design of the music player to create a symmetrical design.

Phoebe and I liked the idea of the logo inside the record player but were unsure about other aspects of the design, however, he thinks this design would be good to experiment with and possibly combine with other designs to create our final label.

Illustrative Branding Collaboration - Label idea 7

For my third design I used Phoebe's illustration and created the repeat pattern design, like I used for the advert design. I used it as it gave everything we are making a link towards the same thin so that people could understand that everything is together and also know exactly what it was for just by the pattern, if that was all they saw. However, after putting on a moc-up I found that it was too over powering for the audience to properly get the feel for it.

Illustrative Branding Collaboration - Advert concept 2

Phoebe's work;

After looking at my designs of the repeat pattern, as part of a social media advert, Phoebe thought it would be useful to make them into gifs which could be used for our social media campaign. Although the background worked well as a gif, I think that the one with the text works better to push our campaign and to give the social media campaign the brand name, along side the message that was given in the brief. Also, the top gif, with just the background is too fast for the show, therefore will be using the one with the text.