Responsive- Design Practise 2: YCN 2014 'Bear' Collaborative Brief

As part of the Responsive Module, we have to do a brief as a collaborative of 2 people who must answer either a D&AD New Blood or YCN Students Awards 2014 Brief. Anna asked me if I would like to be her partner as she felt that our illustrative styles would work together well.

Before we produced any work, we had to work out what each others roles and responsibilities within the brief would be. This way, we would be able to spread the workload evenly, playing on each other strengths.

Roles and Responsibilities

Before we started any practical work, we started the brief by researching into the topic of the brief itself, splitting the research between us (See Design Context Brief).

Outlining the Brief

To begin with, we came up with some of the guidelines, based on the needs of the brief, we would be working to and what we feel like would be successful to produce for the brief. Out target audience is unisex children of school beginning age, meaning that we would have to make sure that our content was age appropriate for the audience. The Deliverables for our brief would be the designs themselves with design boards for YCN and Module hand-in, with maybe producing mock ups and proposals.

Idea/ Concept Brainstorm

For the brief itself, we came up with quite a range of ideas that we could use. The brief asks for the box to be interesting and engaging so we thought about maybe having games and puzzles on the back or perhaps comic strips the children could fill in but we felt that this would disjoint the overall design and would  be unimaginative. In regards to topics, we thought about maybe having box backs about school for school leaver so that they would feel familiar and prepared for when they start to go.  Thinking that was a little pre-emptive and only available to use for a certain time of year, we thought about maybe having a special range of holiday based boxes which could be used to celebrate national holidays but then this would have to be a limited edition run rather than printed constantly. Another idea was having fantasy/adventure boxes with mythical creatures but this seemed far-fetched in regards to the alphabet. We talked about maybe using the concept of what you want to be when you grow up but then we went back to the idea of holidays, thinking it would be nice to have a range of boxes that would be entertaining for children during the 6 week holidays of school term, linking in with our target audience of school children/beginners. 

Running with this concept, we came up wight he idea of having 6 box backs that could be introduced, one very week of the six week holidays. The scene designs on the backs of the boxes would be of a place where children traditionally go o visit during the six week holidays, like a farm or camping. These boxes would have a checklist of activities to do that week to make the holidays fun, such as building a fort, having a picnic, riding a bike, etc. The boxes would be collectable as children would be able to take photographic evidence of them doing these activities and would be able to send them off to the brand to win a prize. We felt that this would engage the children, encourage them to get out more and explore nature which links with the brand.

To show what we had done up to this point, we had to produce Design Boards. Both Anna and myself produced design boards for what we had each done individually.

The design boards are very much clinical and based on the research that we had undertaken so as to give some context to our initial ideas and concepts.

From this, we had a concept crit where we had to put forward our research and explain our ideas and get some feedback on what we had produced (See PPP Blog).

After the Crit, we had to go back to the drawing board on our concepts because we had realised that our current main idea didn't fulfil the necessary requirements of the brief.

Developing What You Want to Be Concept

We brainstormed further ideas that we could use, such as having the box like an advent calendar or maybe having the back of the box part of a bigger picture which is then cut out and out together with other boxes to make one big unified image, revealing a secret message. Another idea was that the box should have a horizontal layout which would be readable when the cereal is being poured from it but then that would be impractical every other time it was in use. Everything we were coming up with wasn't working so we went back to looking at our original ideas. The main idea we came back to was the idea of 'What You Want To Be When You Grow Up' which we felt would allow us to be imaginative and would be a different take on this. Anna came up with the idea of maybe dressing up the bear character of the brand in an outfit after watching an episode of Mr. Benn, the animated children's show, as research based on the conception of dressing up. I felt that this was a very good interactive ideas which would allow the box to be collectable whilst also encouraging the children to be imaginative and have a focus from what they learn in school. Each box would have an outfit with a profession and they would be able to download a bear which they could print off and dress up.

Naming 26 Alphabet of Occupations

In order to prove that our idea would work and fulfil the requirements of the brief, we decided to take some time to try and name occupations or imaginary things that children would want to be when they grow up, making sure that this could be applied to all 26 letters of the alphabet whilst making sure they are occupations which are unisex. We felt that we managed to do this successfully so we felt that this would work in the long run. We felt that it would be asking too much to produce 26 different backs with different professions so we settled on doing 5 which were; detective, astronaut, chef, fireman and pilot.

Anna's Drawings

Based on this, it was Anna's job to produce the drawn design of the uniforms for each profession. Each one has a main outfit, a hat and an accessory.

Initial Character Outfit Drawings

Based on the drawings that Anna did, I applied her drawings by putting them into an illustrator file where I drew them up digitally. I slightly tweaked some elements but overall, I didn't change anything or refined anything because I wanted to be able to keep Anna's illustrative stamp on the project.

The problem with these designs is that when I came to apply them to the logo, they didn't at all fit the bear.  I discussed with Anna the problem with the drawings and asked her to re-do them, using a printed copy of the logo I printed for the shape of the character to use as a template so that she would be able to fit them properly to the character.

From here, we had an Interim Crit based on the progress of our brief, the selected idea and how we had started producing work for it. (See PPP Blog).

In the crit, we were given feedback on our current concept and everyone liked it yet they also stated that the outfits would need to be produced to fit the bear. In the brief, they also stated about having an image of the bear on each box so that they have a constant supply instead of printing off just one.

Developed Character Outfit Drawings

By Anna redrawing the outfits using the template, this meant that I could re-draw the outfits on illustrator to the correct shape for the bear character logo, applying them myself to make sure that they fitted. What is slightly annoying is that the design of the bear character means that the bear is titled to the side and only has one arm so aesthetically it doesn't look great but this is the clients logo so we don't feel as though we could change it as it would loose its brand identity.

To make sure that this would be a viable product that we would be able to produce and work in real life, we decided to print one of the outfits out and Anna mocked it up.

Practical Character Outfit Test

As you can see, now the outfits have been sized and moulded to fit the logo character perfectly, the cutting out of the outfit works.

The next thing we would have to do after producing our characters would be to create a scene which would be relevant to the actual profession. With the back being quite large and a full colour image, it needs to be something that is visually engaging.

A problem from the collaboration was that Anna missed the deadline we had arranged to meet for me to have the drawings which meant that I was instantly behind on my work. I only got the drawings I needed 2 days before the next crit which meant that I was very rushed in producing the work rather than having it spread out like we had planned originally.

Anna Pilot Drawings

This was the drawing that Anna provided in regards to producing a scene for the first profession, the Pilot.

Copied Illustration

Straight away, this looks very empty and disengaging for the audience so I knew that I would have to add to it to make it much more visually prolific. What I did like was Anna's handwriting as a header font as it gave the image more of an innocent, naive quality that would make it more applicable to a younger audience.

Image Development

I added some of my own elements to the design, with the main one being a plane in the background taking off in flight. This gives the image more depth and more visual information so it is not as plain.

Facts and Character

I went onto include some facts about being a Pilot onto the design itself so that the audience could learn about the profession whilst at the same time interacting with the cereal. It was important that our audience learnt something whilst having fun. In regards to the font choice, I selected 'Tekton Pro' because it was reminiscent of an ordinary handwritten font without using Comic Sans. It also went well alongside Anna's handwriting so this aesthetic could be used throughout. I placed the facts in areas which would not interfere with the main visual image so that the spaces which were mainly background could be taken up by the facts. I added the pilot character within the background so as to contextualise the box back and give a reason for the outfit being a collectable at the bottom. This would allow for the target audience to identify with the character and gain an attachment to him. 

Outfit Components

At the bottom of the box, I placed the logo with the outfit scaled to the correct size alongside a short explanation for the purpose of the outfits, encouraging the audience to collect them all, cut them out and play with them. The background colour choice is the same as the colour for the rest of the actual box itself so that it didn't look disjointed from the rest of the box and looks like a separate yet connected entity with the back.

Pilot Box Back

I applied full colour to the design of the box back as I felt that it would be important for children that the image was in full colours. The range of colours I didn't consider as the sample of box backs we were given in the download pack were completely full with a wide range of colours and didn't seem restricted by any certain amounts. 

Due to the fact that we had a Crit coming up, I felt that it would be important to mock up the current design onto a cereal back and onto the net of a box of BEAR Cereal to contextualise the work. 

Mock Ups for Crit

This way, for up to this point in the brief, it would provide a professional delivery of our own work.

Whilst I had been doing this, I asked Anna to produce the Design Boards for the final crit so that I had time to produce the work.

From here, we had an Final Crit based on the current work for the brief, the presentation of the boards and how we can present the work. (See PPP Blog).

The main feedback we got from the Crit was to make the dressing up collectable section more obvious as to what it is by including dash lines. Also, to improve the quality of the images by producing our own. I knew that I would be able to produce these elements alongside the other 4 boards I would have to produce.

The problem with the collaborative after this was that Anna was ill for about 2 weeks which meant that she didn't produce the images for the deadlines and I didn't have any access to the drawings when she did produce them. Obviously, illness is something that you can't plan for and can't be helped so this meant that the amount of work we would have for the deadline would be cut down.

Anna's Drawings for 4 other Scenes

Eventually, Anna did the drawings and sent me the photos a few days before the Final Module Crit which meant that I had a lot of work to produce in a short amount of time. This time, she produced images which were more like scenes that I produced for the Pilot box so I had something I could work with more.

Astronaut Development

For the astronaut, I kept this consistent with the drawing that Anna did and then I added the character and some craters for the moon to give it some texture and make it look less flat.  I placed some facts about the profession onto empty areas of the box before putting the image in full colour. The trouble with having a black text like the Pilot box, however, is that it was difficult to read the text on a dark blue background. In this sense, I had to compromise and changed the text to white which instantly improved the legibility and readability of the text.

Detective Development

In regards to the detective box, I found this really difficult to produce just because it seemed like the box itself was very empty of anything visually stimulating. In order to make the box much more visually impactful, I changed the layout of the original drawing to move the portrait to the opposite side to make way for a large scale character. This gave the box space and the actual scene a sense of scale. From this, I added in the factual elements and made the image full colour, sticking to a more neutral colour palette in conjunction to the detective's outfit, so the box had more of its own identity.

Chef Development

The original drawing that Annas had produced for the Chef was, in itself, quite comprehensive which made it much easier for me to just work from. I added the character and the facts before adding the colour, which I kept in a monochromatic style so it would have its own identity.

Fireman Development

Anna provided me with 2 drawings for the Fireman but both came across as being empty and plain so therefore I decided to take both drawings and merge elements of the together to come up with one comprehensive scene for the character to be in. I added the character and facts in before making the image full colour. I was weary that having a brown background might be a bit too dark for the text to be readable so I went for a light brown so as not to take away from this.

Final Designs

Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of the box backs so far as they are striking, engaging for the target audience and work as individual boxes as well as a series of collectables. Each box has its own comprehensive identity which coincides with the profession they are whilst it is clear in the illustrative style that they are all connected. I like the fact that they are in keeping with the style of the current brand identity so that, if they were commissioned as they are, they would work alongside the style of the company. Despite this, there are still improvements that need to be made based on the comments of the previous Crit.

In regards to the comments made in the last crit, to give the impression that the outfits are to be cut out so that it is clear to the audience, I decided to add a dash line to the bear and the outfit so that it is obvious that this is what it is there for.

Cut Out Indication Outline

Instantly, this gives the message that the box is suppose to be collected for these outfits. The dash line doesn't take away from the actual design of the outfits either and can be cut pout of so that the black line can be taken away from it.

Another detail that I felt needed adding was the need to make the corners curved so that it gives a softer aesthetic.

Cutting Circular Border

To make the corners, using a round-edge rectangle shape, I overlaid it over the top of the design and press cmd+7 to have the shape cut itself out into the box back. Then I overlaid a copy of the shape cut out and grouped the lot together. 

Curved Corner Box Backs

I love the style of the box backs being curved in the style of the original BEAR ones as it makes it much more approachable, illustratively child-like and friendly. This makes the space on the boxes smaller but this gives the backs a much more defined area to work with.

To be able to produce successful contextual evidence of how our back designs would look if produced, I thought that we needed to be able to superimpose the work onto an existing cereal box. I did not want to use an image that had been taken off the internet for our boards because that would be unprofessional for a competition so, using the box of cereal that we had for primary research, I took a range of photos in different poses, lying both flat and upright, both from the front and the back.

Photos of Cereal Box

I used a white background and the flash function on the camera so that the starker the background would make it easier to cut the image out of the Photograph because it will be so clear. After looking through the images, I felt that the photos with the box stood up straight looked more professional as the shadow under the flat ones wouldn't look aesthetically good if I used those images.

The next thing I had to do was put them into Photoshop so that I could produce realistic mock ups of what the product would look like in context. I put the photographs into Photoshop and adjusted the brightness and levels so that they came out much clearer, however, the problem was that I have never cut an object out of a photo to have something side by side. This was a skill which I would have to learn to make it convincing.

Cutting out the Object

To start with, I went around the object I wanted to cut out in the original photograph using the Quick Selection tool. I was able to control the amount I cut out by using the negative selection option so that I could take away any excess I accidentally selected.

Refining the Edges

From selecting the full item, I then selected the Refine Edges to be able to soften the edges I had cut so it makes it appear more natural. Using the feather option, made it more faint and blurred slightly so that the item eases into the image and doesn't look harsh against the different background.

Both sides onto a new document

After doing the same with the other side of the box, I copied both of the boxes into a new document and made them the same size so that it looks like there is two boxes that are side by side.

Placement of Box Back

After this, I placed my illustrator box back images onto the back of the box, resizing them before distorting them into the right angle of the box. I had to cover the side corners using the brush tool by painting it the colour of the box at that corner so that it blends in successfully.

Photo-manipulated Box Backs

I applied this to all 5 box backs which instantly improved the quality of our images and gives a strong contextualised foundation, which will show to the judges that our boxes can be applied and used in real life.

From this, I went onto producing the design boards for the final crit which would display and demonstrate our work. The boards will be portrait in format to coincide with the format of the work as it would make more sense to display them in this way. Each box back will have a page each to display it so that they work as a single box and as a series/ set of boxes.

I produced an impact board using one of the images I mocked up on photoshop to give an instant integration of the viewer as to the use and purpose of the work. Having a board to show off the characters alone allowed for a board to discuss the concept of our work. The rest of the boards are purely visual with only a short few words to contextualise the board. I have left the background and the content surrounded by white space which I am a little worried by as I don't know if this will go against me in the crit but the use of any other colours would only cheapen our designs, especially with them being full colour. The boards are very simple yet the work itself fills it and makes them stand out.

I am very happy with the design boards for this brief as the images for the box backs are centre stage for them, with minimal yet to-the-point text which gives the images all the space to present themselves. I was worried about producing them having white space on them but the difficulty is that they are full colour images so having any other colour as a background would immediately cheapen the work and make it look unprofessional and unconsidered.

After we had produced the design boards, we had a Final Module crit where our boards and our work was put under scrutiny (See PPP Blog).

Following the final crit, we were given a suggestion about the letterforms we had used as the main header, suggesting that the P, D and F should be more 3D.

Anna's Handwriting

Using this, I got Anna to hand draw the letterforms again so that I would be able to use them as templates for the actual design so that it is fluid with the rest of the aesthetic.

Development Letterforms

I changed the letterforms of the P, F and D as suggested through the crit which defiantly added to the 3-D element of the letters. This made them much more clearer on the box back, giving them a defined edge and readability.

Development of A

From this, I changed the A letterform on the Astronaut box as well so that it looks more 3-D to coincide with the ones I had just changed from the crit. For the rest of the boxes, there was only slight tweaks and changes to make, such as moving a vector point for smoothness or enlarging an image so that there is no white space showing but they were just things that I had spotted which needed changing

From the minimal yet necessary changes I made, I updated my mock ups so that the details had been changed on them and reproduced the design boards so that they had no more mistakes on them.

From this, I felt that our work was strong enough to submit for the actual hand in for the awards, particularly from the feedback in the crit which defiantly gave me the confidence boost I needed to be able to feel like I could send them off.

Submission:

Based on the design boards and how successful they were in the crit, I went onto submitting the boards that we had.

Registration

Before I could submit, I had to register an account on the website and then register another account to be able to submit our entry.

Uploading Submission

I made a new entry submission by filling in all the relevant information and including Anna's name on the submission as well and uploaded our design boards as a PDF file format so that they would be uploaded all together.

Submission for YCN Confirmation

From this, I confirmed the submission so that it processed and was submitted. I got a confirmation email to verify this.

The submission for YCN was much easier to do than the D&AD that I did for Individual Practise as it was much easier to navigate and I could upload all of our boards at the same time. I think that I will defiantly take this into consideration next year when it comes around to competitions as it was a lot less stressful.

The final thing that was needed to be done was that I had to produce some individual design boards showing my contribution during the collaboration with my partner.

I feel that my design boards are quite accurate and show all the different aspects that I was involved in during the collaboration.

Overall, I enjoyed the style of the YCN brief as it was much more fun and open compared to other briefs that I have done this year. I think the work that was produced answered the brief and has a chance of being successful within the competition. However, in regards to being in a collaboration, I didn't enjoy it because I felt that I was constantly having to chase up work, particularly after we had purposefully structured our time and none of the work Anna was suppose to do was done by those deadlines. This was difficult for me as I had to depend on her getting the work started for me to be able to do my work which made it very stressful and, in the end, I had a very short space of time to do all of my work.