Apprentice Challenge Brief Background: This is the first year of Leeds Mencap Apprentice challenge, in which teams are given ÂŁ50 and need to convert this amount into as much money as possible for the charity. We were asked to work with Duke Studios and North Bar as a team to design, produce and sell a one-off run of collectable coasters to reach an aim of raising ÂŁ1300 for the charity. Brief: Design a set of 4 collectable beer mats to be sold across the North Bar chain of pubs in Leeds. These will be laser cut by Duke Studios onto kraft board and distributed in a volume of 2700. The design needs to be simple as it will be produced in high volume and should be quick to laser cut, minimising the detail as much as possible. The design should not reference beer as may be sold outside of the bar environment. A consistent theme should run across the set to encourage people to buy all 4. Audience: North Bar attracts a lot of craft beer drinkers as it stocks a huge number of microbreweries and independently brewed drinks. Drinks tend to be higher priced than other venues and so visitors are likely to have disposable income to spend on the beer mats. Tone: Eye Catching Collectable Simple
Andy Foster (collab with Martin O’Dea)
Apprentice Challenge
OUGD603
Concept / development After discussing some ideas, we decided to move forward with the idea of using half characters whose top and bottom halves would line up when all 4 mats were collected. We particularly liked the idea that people could mix different characters to create unintended combinations, and that this could encourage conversation and fun in the bar environment. We calculated that 8 characters, split into 16 halves, would be needed to achieve this effect. I developed an illustration that would be really stripped back to reduce the time spent on the laser cutter. The single line approach proved to be a unfamiliar but rewarding way of working for me, forcing me to try and strip back any unnecessary details while still giving each of the figures character and unique details. While I designed the style of the six charcters, Martin worked on the layout and typography for the beer mats before helping produce the final two charcters.
Andy Foster (collab with Martin O’Dea)
Apprentice Challenge
OUGD603
Response to feedback After sending over the initial designs a test cut was made we recieved the following feedback: + Concern over the way I had portrayed some of the characters, and we were asked to alter some of them to avoid causing any possible offence due to the mats being in support of a mental health charity. + In the initial cut the laser cutter caused the letters to ‘blow out’ so a thinner, single line typeface needed to be used instead. + The beer mats did not intereact with each other as well as hoped. A solution needed to be found to make the characters match up more directly and make this interaction more obvious. In response to the feedback I toned down alot of the child-like qualities in the characters. I also used a single stroke for the eyes instead of double to make the characters more friendly. Martin swapped to a single line font; Futura Line and also changed the format by cutting a notch in two sides of the beer mat. This mae it clear that the top and bottom of each card connected together encouraging people to interact with them.
Andy Foster (collab with Martin O’Dea)
Apprentice Challenge
OUGD603
Poster After completing the design for the beer mats we were asked to make a poster which would promote the sale of them. I needed to take into consideration that the artwork was going to be laser cut out of the same material as the beer mats. This meant that Martin had to use the same one stroke typeface and thin lines. To show customers of North bar how they were supposed to interact with the beer mats I placed a small example on the bottom of the poster. I also had our mixed up characters in the middle of the poster to show some of the different variations customers of North Bar could make. This variation in the beer mats will hopefully make customers want to buy more so they can make all of the different characters.
Andy Foster (collab with Martin O’Dea)
Apprentice Challenge
OUGD603
Final Product These are the final beer mats that were cut out of kraft board and took over a week to cut out the 2000 beer mats that were initially cut. These were sold across the six North Bar pubs in and around Leeds for a month. In total approximately 1,500 beer mats were sold raising ÂŁ785.77 for Leeds Mencap. We were also really pleased to win an award for the most innivotaive fundraising idea at the Leeds Mencap award ceremony. Throughout the month we recieved alot of positive comments across social media sites and press releases from staff and customers. It was really rewarding to see images of people interacting with the format of the beer mat and even making their own characters on the back.
Andy Foster (collab with Martin O’Dea)
Apprentice Challenge
OUGD603