OUGD603: Extended Practice - Brief 7: Zoo Giftshop Branding Evaluation

Evaluation

The concept for the brief stemmed from a personal interest of mine and therefore not only did I have a array of primary research material which I was able to use to inform my practical work but I feel I was a lot more motivated to work on the brief and subsequently I produced a substantial amount of work on it in a short space of time.

Inspired by the Design Some More ethos and brief we had been set earlier in the year the primary aims I wanted to achieve during the course of this brief was to not only produce a considered visual outcome to represent the Zoo but to also have a strong concept which informed this and was a interactive as possible a key attribute of my design practice.

Originally I had proposed to only produce the branding for the gift shop, however during the initial ideas process I developed the idea, deciding to produce three characters which not only visual represent three different aspects of the zoo; a gift shop, café and ice cream stand but also relate to their corresponding sector for example a generous bear who loves giving gifts, a greedy tiger who loves to scoff his face and a cool penguin.

These characteristics are something which I was able to reiterate consistency throughout the branded collateral for each sector of the zoo.

I'm really pleased with this concept as not only does it give some context to the design decisions I made throughout the brief but also is an really engaging idea which meet the criteria of the brief and hopefully would be relatable to the target audience of children. Keeping in mind this concept I was then able to use the branding guidelines as an opportunity to further reiterate this, creating short story books told from the point of view of the character explaining how they should be applied.

When I have created branding guidelines they had always felt separate from the branded collateral I had produced and therefore I really enjoy using this format as a further extension of the branding itself creating a strong visual ethos for the brand. This idea also made the branding guidelines a lot more interactive which was a primary aim of the brief.

Considering this was my first attempt at using vectors and shapes to built up the illustration I believe they turned out very well, the simplistic style not only appeals to children which is the primary target audience but is also something which could be appreciated by adults which would theoretically be a secondary target audience for the zoo.

Although I was quite considered about how the characteristics could be be consistently applied to the branded collateral as well as the book including slogans such as 'greedy tiger' or 'you're almost as cool as penguin' I do believe I could have been more considered in what I actually branded.

As well as improving some of the crafting elements of the brief, I would brand a larger range of collateral should I revisit the brief in order to present a fully rounded brand.

Possible avenues for extension for this brief would be a proposal for the information and way finding for the zoo including menus for the café and ice cream stand, maps and tickets as well as signage which would demonstrate how the characters could work three-dimensionally and be interacted with by children.