Invisible Identities by Silvia Grimaldi

Invisible Signs Exploring a brand with all senses BA Graphic Product Innovation London College of Communication | 2011

Student: Name

email address

Invisible Signs Exploring a brand with all senses BA Graphic Product Innovation London College of Communication | 2011

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Content 6 Course desciption 7 Students/Profile Staff 8 Brief 9 The Process Student Projects 11 Yum Icecream Store 39 FOUR Gallery 59 Echoes Music Store 77 Maternal Baby products 93 IRD Graphic design studio 101 Nivea Cream 119 Taste Buds Food delivery 149 Q DJ 167 Aquafresh Toothpaste 193 Jlaudesign Web designer 207 NANG! Magazine 227

Pictures of Preseantation 5

Graphic Product Innovation Course desciption BA (Hons) Graphic Product Innovation at London College of Communication is an interdisciplinary course which allows students to focus on ideas and design principles that can be applied across and outside of traditional design disciplines. The aim is to understand how design thinking can be used to analyse existing situations, communicate with a user and solve problems. The course focuses on why we design and who we design for, how our designs are going to be seen and how they are going to be used. We look at using design as a tool to see and to influence the bigger picture. Most briefs focus on design methods and processes and are not prescriptive in terms of the medium or discipline for the final outcome. Innovation is defined in the Cox Review of Creativity in Business as ìthe successful exploitation of new ideasî and ìthe process that carries them through to new products, new servicesîñ this course will give students the tools necessary to become an innovator that understands the changes that have taken place within the design industry. Students are not constrained as a designer to any one medium or philosophy but may design a service or re-evaluate existing objects and situations in order to add value or change their audience or produce environmental design (for instance typography in the landscape or systems to improve communication or architecture, combining interaction, digital or sculptural components). Students are user centred and engage with sustainability. Students are offered experience of a broad range of media in both two and three dimensions and seek to challenge preconceptions of what constitutes ëgraphicí, and ëproductí and in doing so are encouraged to adopt an innovative approach to the development of ideas and concepts. For more information on the course check the course website on www.bagpi.co.uk BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Students Second year students on BA Graphic Product Innovation involved in this project: Chiara Ambrosoli, Fabienne Ayton, Jasper Baruah, David Bushay, Cecil Campbell, Anabela Ferreira, Lauren Harewood, Kathryn Henderson, Alex Kemp, Roland Koves, Jeffrey Lau, Catherine MacDonagh, Andrew Nangpi, Jon Pickering, Christopher Sayers, Dami Soluade, Loiuse Steyaert and Freddie Villiers.

Profile Staff Hugh Huddy leads RNIB campaigns for Inclusive Society. He works with commercial and public sector companies, government and developers, to help them re-design the way they communicate, so people who primarily gain information through touch and hearing can participate fully in everyday life. Hugh is also active in hearing research, has recently started a new collaboration with architects on the acoustics of urban spaces, and audio blogs the â&#x20AC;&#x153;sound of Hackneyâ&#x20AC;?, amongst other things. Silvia Grimaldi is a product and multidisciplinary designer and Course Director for BA Graphic Product Innovation at London College of Communication. Her interests lie in practice-based research in design focusing on the role of narrative in creating emotionally engaging objects. Stephanie Jerey is a graphic designer who works from her London studio helping clients to communicate through multi-disciplinary projects involving identity, print, editorial, packaging, environmental graphics and exhibitions. She believes that the best solutions demonstrate versatility and curiosity, and the ability to emotionally engage people with a striking simplicity. 7

Invisible Identity The Brief 1.

Create a brand you can not see. How does it sound, smell, taste and feel?

What changes need to be made so that a blind person can experience the brand? Find a way to communicate the values of the brand in a non visual way.

Background: Branding is more than the visual identity and goes beyond the logo. It is an experience linked to environments, sounds, smells... It communicates via different media the values and attitudes of that enterprise. Audience: Consider your audience. Include people with limited vision in the design process. The brand has to work for people with ĂŤaverageĂ vision and for people with limited vision. Consider what it means to be visually impaired. How do people with limited vision experience the brand? Spend time with your focus group and understand who they are and what their unique needs are. Aim: Engage with the user. Research and define issues. Explore design languages. Learn how to present/document ideas.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

The Process The brief was written by Stephanie Jerey in collaboration with Hugh Huddy and Silvia Grimaldi. The idea was to take students out of the comfort zone of designing for sighted people and asking them to consider a blind and partially sighted audience. This was an exercise in semantics and how the visual signs can translate across other sensory experiences. Students were initially asked to choose a brand. They were asked to define, analyse and design a logo for this brand as a short workshop, considering the visual elements they were using such as form, colour and type and how these affect the perception of the brand. Hugh Huddy came to speak to the students and outlined who the RNIB is, what their aims are as well as gave the students an idea of life as a blind person. There were some very interesting questions and answers. The students were then asked to put themselves in the shoes of a visually impaired person, don eyewear simulating different types of visual loss, and try to make their way around first the college and then the city in small groups. They were asked to document the experience and any problems they encountered as well as any possibilities for design. After this initial research phase the students designed several iterations of their brand ideas, testing them with similarly blindfolded audiences as well as in a crit with Hugh Huddy. The final results and a selection of the design process is shown in this book.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC Chiara Ambrosoli Student: Name

Invisible Signs c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com email address

YUM

A Brand for an icecream shop

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

YUM YUM is an idea for a possible branch of Italian icecream shops. Its aim is to create a fun, inviting and layed-back environment with no restrictions in terms of target audience.

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

Children

Parents

Visually impaired

Teenagers

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Audience There is no target audience at YUM. There is just one objective: to create a welcoming space where visually paired and impaired users of all ages can come and enjoy an italian icecream or a range of other products. We pay particular attention to our visually impaired guests, making sure they are perfectly at ease with the location right from their very first visit.

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Branding YUM YUM’s branch of italian icecream shops is different in its kind. ‘Gelaterie’ in Italy, are minute, ugly looking and badly branded shops, where you go in, grab your icecream, and leave. YUM, instead, invites you to sit in its spatious and welcoming environment by offering tables and couches where to sit down and ejoy your icecream in good company. It’s logo is handrendered, to convey its home-made nature. It is overlayed with braille for the visually impaired. YUM is recognisable both for visually paired and impaired users already from the street for its vibrant look and braille signage.

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Understanding my visually impaired audience Eating an icecream without being able to see it properly, or at all,can be difficult, nervewrecking and possibly embarassing. YUM wants to make this easier. In order to understand my audience with low vision I decided to test and document a friend eating an icecream blindfolded.

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

What is it like to be blind? Eating an icecream without being able to see it

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

Improving the experience of my users I prototyped funnel shaped paper aids to prevent the icecream from dripping all over your hands and clothes.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

This product is useful both for visually impaired users, and children.

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

Testing my product The melting icecream no longer dripped over the users hands and clothes, but remained drapt in the funnel shaped paper aid. The visually impaired user was able to detect the presence of the icecream a couple of second before thanks to my product. This resulted in the user not getting her face dirty with icecream. The user seemed more relaxed and in control. It also looked like she was enjoying the icecream more - which is what I was hoping to achieve.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

Experiencing YUM I tried to focus on all the details in order to really make my Italian ice-cream shop work successfully for visually impaired. I thought of how to improve the moment in which you are at the counter choosing your ice-cream flavours. My outcome was a colour coded braille menu on the glass counter.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

I also thought of having braille walls with short stories talking about the origin of every flavour; where it comes from, how we treated it, and so on.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

My final product

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

My finished prototype I personalised my prototype by applying my brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual and tactile logo, in order for it to be experienced both my the visually paired and the visually impaired users.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

YUM

Chiara Ambrosoli

c.ambrosoli@hotmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

FOUR gallery

A Brand for a gallery

Student: Dami Soluade

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

FOUR gallery

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

FOUR gallery FOUR gallery

FOUR When I first received this brief and Whilst thinking about visually impaired people and conducting some experiments, I realized that sight is one of the senses that we use sometimes more often than necessary. We can use this sense to cancel out the others therefore not being able to experience things to the fullest. An example of this being food, more often then not we will judge whether we like something by how it looks. With this in mind I have decided to create a brand called FOUR. Four is a gallery that will be accommodating exhibitions that explore one of the following four senses; sound, smell, taste and touch. The exhibitions will be constantly updating as in new artists will be featured every month. The galleries theme is going to be abstract and from this the exhibitions will also be created with this in mind. The reason I have an abstract theme because I don’t want my gallery to have very much to do with sight; so aesthetically they will be more or less white and black. I have done this because I don’t want the pieces to have any contact to what we see; an example of this would be the logo, it’s in geometric shapes and an abstract form because I want people to touch it and just enjoy the sensations of the levels, I don’t want people to be touching it with ‘what image is this’ in the back of their minds.

Student: Dami Soluade

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

Kids

Adults

To try something new

To learn about themselves

BA ProductInnovation Innovation2011| 2011| LCC BAGraphic Graphic Product LCC

Invisible Invisible Signs Signs

FOUR FOUR gallery gallery

Audience As the aim of my gallery is to allow people to explore their other four senses apart from sight my brand is aimed at everyone. All ages can experience my brand as you can never be too young or old to feel, taste, hear and smell. The beauty of the exhibitions will be because everyone have different levels of sense sensitivity every ones experience will be personal and unique to them. Another reason why people will have their own relationship with the exhibition is because of peoples memories. This will have an effect on how they smell, taste, touch or hear. Gender wise is the same both men and women will be able to enjoy my brand successfully. As the majority of people have at least one their sense apart from sight. The people that will be using the brand will be using it as its a interesting way to experience art and design, its an interactive way that gets everyone involved and excited.

Student: Dami Soluade

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

Material

Images

HELVETICA

Colour

BA ProductInnovation Innovation2011| 2011| LCC BAGraphic Graphic Product LCC

Type

Invisible Invisible Signs Signs

FOUR FOUR gallery gallery

Visuals of the brand One would recognise the brand by the logo that I have create and put on business cards. This geometric logo will be the main imagery for the brand, the brands name FOUR will be the typographic identity of the brand. Colour wise the brands colours are white and black, as I am trying to get people to experience their other senses excluding sight I believe that colours shouldn’t be used. FOUR gallery can be any material; there are no material restrictions as I don’t believe the brand will benefit from material restrictions. The typography of the brand is helvetica; I decided to use this because I wanted a font that didn’t have too much character, one that isn’t distracting. The logo name FOUR must always be in capital letters, and the senses must always be in bold.

Student: Dami Soluade

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

Picture of me “blind”

BA ProductInnovation Innovation2011| 2011| LCC BAGraphic Graphic Product LCC

Invisible Invisible Signs Signs

FOUR FOUR gallery gallery

What is it like not to â&#x20AC;&#x153;seeâ&#x20AC;? How does a person with low vision recognise your brand? The way that a person will low vision will recognise my brand is by the feel of the logo, the embossing allows people to feel the shape and layers of the logo. There are four different embossing height levels, this is to give the logo character. In order to understand my audience with low vision I conducted an experiment. What I did was try and do something that I do often but without using sight. So I decided to go and visit my friend as I was curious to see how my socializing would be effected.

Student: Dami Soluade

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

What is it like to be blind? Visiting a friend blind.

Looking for crisps in my bag

Watching TV

Accidently switching on recording feature on my phone

Walking into friends house

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

FOUR gallery

Closing the gate of my friends house

Getting hot chocolate

Looking for the hot chocolate after I had put it down

Watching TV from memory

Student: Dami Soluade

email address: dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

What do you see?

Geometric shapes

3D installations

Big exhibitions

Different textures

Student: Dami Soluade

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

email address: dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

Invisible Signs

FOUR gallery

Using all your senses Apart from me being â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;blindâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for a while, another research method that I used was have the business cards tested by a visually impaired person. The feedback that I got back from him was very useful and helped me realize that my brand worked. The experiments that I did to text my brands were simply trial and error experiments to make sure the business cards worked for their purpose.

Student: Dami Soluade

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

What do you feel?

Textures

Excitement

Rough Textures

Curiosity

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

FOUR gallery

What do you hear?

Instrumental music

Abstract sounds

Interactive sounds (Arduino)

The card links you to a website that plays sound

Student: Dami Soluade

email address: dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

What do you smell?

Smell able products

Perfumes

One of the business cards has a smell

Scents

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

FOUR gallery

What do you taste?

This business card has flavoured ice in it

Fruity tastes

Sweet tastes

Bitter tastes

Student: Dami Soluade

email address: dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

All four of the business cards

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

FOUR gallery

Conclusion What was challenging for me with this project was having to think about how my brand effected all the senses. Especially as I was occasionally mixing the brand up with the gallery exhibitions when it came to all the other senses. In my research I found out that there are many things we take for granted when we use our sight, and putting myself in a blind persons position was a very interesting experiment and made me realize the difficulties they may have. Also the difficulties will change according to the persona and whether they had being blind from birth this might change a lot of things. I also realized that although visually impaired people may have a restriction this doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enjoy everything it just means that they are enjoying it in a different way. This is inspired me to do my design and think about all the other senses.

Student: Dami Soluade

dami.soluade@hotmail.co.uk

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

A Brand for a record store

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

Echoes I decided that my brand was going to be based on a record store that sells a range of musical materials from old Lp’s to cd’s, but having the main focus on a LP’s with a wide range of musical type. I also decided that the name of my brand would be ECHOES as the sound of and repercussion of young and dynamic people. I’ve always been fond of minimalism, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental and elemental features, and what it carries with in its values so through some illustrative permutations i’ve also come to the conclusion that borrowing the simple shape of the circle with the musical note inside slighlty tilted (expressing dynamism and movement) i could visually represent LP’s shape and character whilst implying music with the white space depicted by the musical note.

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

Image of my audience

A wide range of Lps’ and cds’

Easy & playful interior navigation

Tactile media

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

Audience Since my brand is based on a record store that sells a wide variety of music catering for a wide audience it is really hard to narrow it down other than young, dynamic people who, in many cases, might either have low vision (meaning they can see some colours and type) or serious visual impairment (acute or blind). In my design i always endeavour to make my design inclusive to all as if i aim high it is more likely that my efforts will result in a wider solution range. It would be very unfair if i created a music store that only catered for a certain demographic. Music doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t discriminate!

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

Material

Images

Colour

Type

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

Picture of me “blind”

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

Understanding your “blind” audience Apart from the fact that some of the business cards had Braille writing on them to cater for the totally blind, i wanted to create a varitey of feelings or touches to them. As i’ve found out from researching different tactile media application techniques, i came across a company that produced special textured embossing powders. As in music, the embossed logo on each business card had different touch to them, inevitably creating subtle mental associations relating to types of music such as rock (harsh, metallic surface), jazz (smooth, brushed surface), pop (popped, bubbly surface), electronic (abrasive, popped surface). I had many results depending on the kind of paper i embossed on as the powders had different absorbency. I applied the colour of the text harmoniously to each business card depending on the texture and colour of the embossing powders. To maintain consistency in the brand i chose different coloured paper to match with the different coloured and textured logos on the business cards. Traditional embossing method was used to create the pattern on the letterheads. The embossing can be easily felt under your hands and has a pleasant feel to it so it doesn’t just cater for the blind, but for everyone else who is interested in the brand. i knew that different music had different rhythm and therefore different musical patterns appear.This could be translated into graphic shapes and patterns. My main inspiration for this came from the patterned grounds on the underground. With that link, which happens to coincide with rhythmical patterns in music, i started listening to different music and began identifying archetypes, tiny commonalities in types of music. Since music is very emotional it is also very personal, so what i may find in one music as a pattern someone else finds different. However, music has a universal language and i was sure that we can all identify somewhat similar patterns that could be used as archetypes.

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

What is it like to be blind? Using transportation blind

Stairs

Bottom of stairs

Another set of stairs

On the tube

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

Escalator

Along the underground platform

Before tube station

On the train, along the platform

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

How do you experience your brand using all your senses? In similar technological fashion to the voice business card i had this idea about an envelope that contains nothing inside, but when it is opened it will talk to you. A similar thin and light sound module was assambled to fit inside the envelope with information installed on it regarding this service and what Echoes Music Store is about. I also wanted it to fit with current postal schemes that operate for the blind. The Royal Mail Articles for the blind scheme is a current running scheme and is available to organisations representing the blind and visually impaired. I believe that if the service was checked and certified (due to electronics inside a letter) by Royal Mail this could be a very good addition to methods of communication to the blind. Although, user research show that a good proportion of the blind â&#x20AC;&#x153;societyâ&#x20AC;? use electronic devices, services (smartphones, voice e-mails) to receive messages from organizations, not every visually impaired person is IT literate. In addition, the voice letter technology would allow receivers to record back onto the letter giving feedback or just react to its content. The internal navigation was fully inspired by the patterns found in the vicinity of the underground. Those patterns around the Tube are very successful architectural designs. On a similar basis, i thought that by exploring musical patterns described earlier in this booklet, i could design an internal navigaton system that not only would allow the visually impaired, but also seeing users to navigate around the store without using confusing signs as tools for mapping.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

What do you see or hear?

Tactile media/textured embossing

Innovative voice postal service

Tactile Navigation on the floor

Accessible navigation to all

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

What do you feel?

Textured, haptic business cards

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Tactile, palpable media based on patterns inspired by music

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

What do you hear?

Voice letter sent by free postal delivery

Student: Roland Koves

Voice playing business card

koves.roland@gmail.com

What do you feel?

Feedback on my design from Hugh Huggy, the representative The Royal National Institute of Blind People

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

ECHOES

Conclusion The most challanging part for me was to translate different sensory and perceptual inputs such as touch, hear, feel (emotions)... into my own ideas whilst being original and fresh. I was very concerned from the beggining with other successful design mediums and methods of communications that had already existed concerning the visully impaired. Through my primary and secondary research i came across many interesting and successful applications specifically designed for the blind.However what i found was that a lot of them used technology (without a working framework of service and its design) overwhelmingly with less attention to emotional side of the actual use or handle of objects. Hence, i wanted to create some communication mediums that both used traditional crafting methods (traditional embossing, textured embossing) and the latest technology to convey the values of the brand with emotional input. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learnt a variety of skills over this project as well as developed my attention to designing with the visually impaired in mind. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve also developed affinity to designing for situations where visual outcomes are secondary (although still paying attention to visuals of course) and other (touch, hear, smell) sensory outputs are primary.

Student: Roland Koves

koves.roland@gmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

A Brand for baby products

Kathryn Henderson

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

Maternal Maternal is a baby product brand, for sighted and partically sighted users. The value of the brand is softness. It is unique as it is made of tactile qualitys on the products and the brand itself. The brand is about embracement and feeling close with your child. By having a hightened element of touch through tactile soft materials the experience of the products are more interesting to touch.

Kathryn Henderson

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

Audience The audience of my brand are famillies and mothers. Anyone who has children can use the brand therefore it is quite a broad target audience. They use maternal because it gives you more embracement with your child through the sense of touch. And all elements of the brand are soft so you feel like the brand really cares about your delicate baby, therefore I think the brand with untimatly appeal to mothers.

Kathryn Henderson

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

Visuals of your brand The brand is mainly recognised by its soft colours, soft material, and soft aesthetics. The brand has soft baby colours of blue and pink which works throughout the graphics of the branding on the clothing aswell as its tags. The brands typeface is soft and gentle which ties into the whole brands values.

Kathryn Henderson

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

What do you see?

Colours

Material detail

The brand

Braille

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

What do you feel?

Soft, good quality material

Size and textures

Braille sizing

Textured detail

Kathryn Henderson

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

Understanding your â&#x20AC;&#x153;blindâ&#x20AC;? audience To help me with my idea development for the brand Maternal I tried out caring for a baby blindfolded. And I understood how important the element of touch was. The babies skin, clothes, environment, toys. It was this that made me realise that the brand had to be soft and with an element of embracement so you felt close with your child eventhough you can not see them, it makes you feel closer.

Kathryn Henderson

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

What is it like to be blind?

I also tried out being blind in my normal environment walking along Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s South Bank to the Tate Modern

Justifying around obstacals

Going around people

Dissorienating noises such as bikes going past

Trying to feel if it was still raining

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

Being careful of uneven surfaces

Using the wall as a guidance

Kathryn Henderson

Judging steps carefully

Using the handle and a guidance

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

maternal

Conclusion The most challenging thing was getting the final aesthetics right and that all of the elements worked well together. Through my reserach I found out how important the element of touch is to a particially sighted person and so I made sure this element was what I concentrated on. As touch is so important with your own child.

Kathryn Henderson

kathryn.henderson@virgin.net

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

IRD

A Brand for a graphic design studio

Anabela Ferreira

iquo333@gmail.com

IRD Interventionist and Radical Design This is a graphic design studio dedicated to humanitarian, environmental and political causes. The aim is to create design with meaning having in consideration ethics, human rights, and My brand is not for blind, but to help the blind in a visual world by: - Raise awareness - Create better solutions in:

- Aid technologies for the blind - Support for better social integration - Create self suficiency - Create support

- Contribute for a better world

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

IRD

Understanding your â&#x20AC;&#x153;blindâ&#x20AC;? audience This brand is made to help to improve visually impared peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives. The brand will act on other brands, removing all, all images and visual communication of other brands, as part of the the World Sight day 2011 campaign. The aim is to raise awareness and create the feeling of how to be blind amonghst the visually able people and not being able to have non visual options., suh as audio menus and GPS to guide visually impaired. The choice of places are related with mass consuption and public transports, so the message can be spread easily. Another reason is that renown Corporates are more capable financially and open to of investement in causes for humanitarian and social campaigns in order to improve their image, encouraging other companies to follow.

Anabela Ferreira

iquo333@gmail.com

McDonalds

Starbucks

TFL

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

IRD

Anabela Ferreira

iquo333@gmail.com

Conclusion What was challanging for you? What did you find out in your research? How did you translate this into your design? Visually impared people depend on visual people all the time, either to make choices, get orientation or to be informed. Found that there are few options/help for visually impared, and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work, such as: TFL: - Information/help points at TFL are at the ticket office, where are always big queues or at the survaillance point, where there is mainly only one person, that should be there at all times. - Tube maps are only visual - In order to get information about the tube station plan, visually impared depend on someone that can guide them. SOLUTIONS: - Audio check point, always at the same spot (entrance left or right), where all the information about the trains availability and changes are updated. - Portable GPS with audio guidance to help guidance and aknowlege of station plan - Braille maps

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

IRD

MacDonalds: Universal Audio check point (always at the same spot at the entrance) - Audio menus with all options and prices - Remote control to choose options/menu - Direct the order to the till in order to reduce waiting time Starbucks: Universal Audio check point (always at the same spot at the entrance) - Audio menus with all options and prices - Remote control to choose options/menu - Direct the order to the till in order to reduce waiting time Newspapers: - Every station point, should have 5 or 10 braille newspapers, it takes only a braille machine to perfurate paper, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy and low cost.

Anabela Ferreira

iquo333@gmail.com

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

Rebranding NIVEA

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

101

SPACE FOR IMAGES If you think that you need to show more images use more spreads

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

Nivea Nivea is a large global skin- and body-care brand, owned by German company Beiersdorf. The company began in 1911 when Beiersdorf developed a waterin-oil emulsifier as a skin cream with Eucerit, the first stable emulsion of its kind. The company’s owner, Oskar Troplowitz, named it Nivea, from the Latin word niveus/nivea/niveum. During the 1930s, Beiersdorf began producing products such as suntan lotions, shaving creams, shampoo and facial toners. The trademark “Nivea” was expropriated in many countries following WWII. Beiersdorf completed buying back the confiscated trademark rights in 1997. Internationalisation during the 1980s propelled the Nivea brand to a wider global market.

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

103

Anson

Apple Chancery

AW Conqueror Didot

AW Conqueror Sans

Brie Light

Futura LT Book

Lobster 1.4

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

Visuals of your brand I experimented with colour, by surveying people an option of what colour product they would prefer offering a selection of different colours. The results showed that most people prefer the original blue and white packaging, as it was easily recognisable and distinctly relating to Nivea. The tin is blue, as blue as the sea and sky. Blue is a color that represents eternal values such as strength and reliability, tradition, satisfaction, timelessness, fulfillment and plenitude. The crème inside the blue tin reflects precisely these values. It works. It is purchased and appreciated by consumers all over the world. It has been on the market for 100 years. People trust it. They always have and always will trust it. It keeps its skin care promise. It’s rich. People who see the blue color of this tin immediately know that it’s NIVEA. Niveas existing typographic logo I think was there main problem as I felt it doesn’t represent Niveas brand values convincingly. There current logo is very rigid, stern and static and doesn’t rely the values of a brand that is about skin care. So I decided to change the type and try and convey a more smooth, curvy and user friendly feel to the logo.

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

105

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

Understanding your “blind” audience In order for me to understand my audience with low vision I needed to get “blind”. I did several experiments testing, exploring and documenting how I would interact, function and identify my brand as my audience would, “blind”.

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

107

What is it like to be blind? Putting on shoes & jacket

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

109

How do you experience your brand using all your senses? To truly understand and identify the brand problems and solve them I have to understand how people with low vision experience the brand. In particular I decided to go for “Nivea crème” as my product to focus on as they have many products and it was too broad as a task, so had to narrow it down. Blindfolded I looked into how a blind person would interact with a Nivea crème product with the five senses. From this I will explore ways into how I will represent this brands values through the senses.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

What do you see?

Experiment one, was to explore how the audience would see this product. Being on that the target audience is visually impaired or blind, it would be difficult for them to â&#x20AC;&#x153;seeâ&#x20AC;? the product, but rather experience the product through their senses. David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

111

What do you feel?

The only major problem I found with the feeling and touch of this product was trying to open it. Found it difficult being blind-folded to know which way to turn the product for it to open. When opened the crĂ¨me releases a distinct scent that lingers on the skin when the crĂ¨me is applied.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

What do you hear?

There were two sounds I heard while testing this Nivea product. One was the sound of the turning of the lid, the other of the foil being peeled to reveal the content.

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

113

What do you smell?

The distinct fragrance fills your nostrils the second you open the tin. It lingers on the skin when the crĂ¨me has been applied. Bergamot, lavender, orange and lemon, these are all precious ingredients that are also used to make luxury perfumes. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why the Nivea fragrance is a classic fragrance. BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

What do you taste?

The taste of Nivea crème wasn’t very pleasant.

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

115

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Nivea

Conclusion In response to the problems I discovered in my blindfold experiment and through various other primary and secondary research I undertook I aimed to reflect the values of Nivea crème through the senses. I tried to appeal to the visually impaired and assist them into how to interact with this product and also give them indication as to what the product is for and about. I did three prototypes including the new logo design and icon for Nivea crème. One main problem I came across was difficulty trying to open the product. In response to this I added braille that gives the user an indication as to what the product is and how to use it. In addition it was noted that Nivea crème has a distinct fragrance that is recognizable to many. So for one prototype I explored texture and scent and tried to replicate this recognizable scent to add an extra dimension to this invisible identity. Overall i think from the problems i identified I resolved this problem the visually impaired would face in using this particular product and relayed Niveas brands values quite successfully.

David Bushay

dbush001@hotmail.com

117

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

A Brand for a service

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

119

The shopping list with a twist

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

TasteBud

TasteBud This is a service aimed specifically towards blind and visually impaired people but can also appeal to the rest of the public. It is designed to encourage culinary exploration when supermarket shopping by delievering varied menus with new oppotunites to broaden your taste buds. ‘Taste Buds’ will delievery a weekly promo containing ‘a hand picked 3 course meal’ specific to the tastes of the recipitant. In addition to the recipe and ingrediants the leaflet will feature money off vouchers and discounts relevant to the products on the recipe. The process of ‘Taste Buds’ will be as follows: • In order to create awareness we will send an intial promo through the post to all blind peoples address, introducing them to the brand and service. • This promo will contain a 3 course meal as well as information on how to apply online and set up a profile selecting preferences e.g. allergies, likes, vegetarian, local supermarket... • Once your profile is complete, we post you our menus according to your taste, containing exciting and varied menus from around the world. • take to the shops, with your new recipe with ingrediatents as well as money off vouchers. • Cook and eat following our simple step by step guide • Log into your online profile and tell us what you think, blogging community talking about favourite recipe and menu of the week, • keep menu card for future references.

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

121

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

HELLO Our service has a wide audience but targets the blind and visually impaired community in particular. After research into how the blind prepare and carry out supermarket trips, we discovered they can not be spontaneous when choosing products and must always have a shopping list prior to going shopping. Hence always sticking to the same shopping list, meaning always eating the same foods. Our aim for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Taste budsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is to encourage the blind to experiment with new recipes and menus. However as our brand evolved, we realised that we could target a much wider audience: students, parents, singles, families. Anyone who enjoys a surprise in the mail and is eager to expand their culinary lifestyle. We envision our brand to be fun, easy, encouraging, fresh, social and practical. Our service will provide an oppotunity for the blind community as well as any individual of all ages, cultural backrounds, gender, demographics and social status to be inspired by new and varied menu ideas for their daily lives. It will not only introduce novel ingredients to each individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s food range but encourge curiosity and the will to try something different.

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

123

Try something new today...

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

Explore exciting culinary cultures...

MOROCCAN SPANISH

ITALIAN

CARIBBEAN

CHINESE

MEXICAN

THAI

MEDITERRENEAN INDIAN

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

125

TasteBud TasteBud

PALE GREEN DEEP RED SPICY ORANGE BLUE

YELLOW

TEAL

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

VISUALS

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

127

T YPE

Futura

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz

Futura

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

Penne

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz

Pene

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

129

How does a person with low vision recognise your brand? -

Embossed logo, easy to recognize Simple layout Clear large font Contrasting colours Braille

How does a person with normal vision recognise your brand? - TasteBud logo - Colour Palette - Signature visuals (mustache, speech bubbles ect) - Presence of Braille

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

MEET THE TEAM

YO I’m Lauren

Bonjour I’m Louise

Hullo old chap! I’m Freddie

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

131

What is it like to be blind?

“The bus ride felt so long and I couldn’t listen to music because I had to listen out for my stop”. - Lauren

“I had to ask for help to get of “My senses were much more acute and I felt the ‘bumpy’ pavement for the first time”. - Louise

“I had to ask for help to get off the bus because I couldn’t gage the width of the gap”. - Lauren

“The trickiest part was paying for my ticket: All my cards felt the same and so did the cash. In the end I had to ask the vendor for assistance”. - Louise

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

133

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

“I tried to pour myself a cup of tea but the mug overflowed and i burned my finger”. - Freddie

It was so frustrating, I couldn’t tell if my hair looked reem.” - Freddie

“It was really unnerving even just to walk in the streets because I didn’t know what was in front of me”. - Louise

“I noticed sounds and smells I’d never noticed before”. - Lauren

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

135

Double sided:braille & print Beautifully photographed food

WHAT DO YOU SEE

Clean simple interface Colourful bold graphics

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

Diffrent Textures Tactile Stickers Embossed/debossed logo

WHAT DO YOU FEEL Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

137

WHAT DO YOU TASTE

O D T A H W LL E M S U YO

Because imagery is the strongest sense to sighted beings, there is a photograph of the delicious meal in question on the front of our leaflet. For the non-blind user, this image is the stimulant which makes them want to cook the recipe. Our mouth start to water when we see it and it triggers a desire for that particular food. However for the blind user, we had to think of another way to stimulate their appetite. Instead of showing the food, we describe the food (in braille and on the podcasts) with great detail, with emphasis on tasty, succulent, mouth-watering adjetives. BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

MELTING BUTTER TENDER MOZARELLA

JUICY PINEAPPLE SMOKEY BACON SIZZLING ONION

CRISPY PORK OOZING CHOCOLATE Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

139

SIZZZZZLE CRACK POP R E M M I S BUBBLE E L Z Z I R F SPUTTER MMM MM

WHAT DO YOU HEAR

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

come envelope h t f o d n kes u The so erbox provo t t le e h t ing through d curiosity t an excitemen

Tastebud would be advertised on the radio, including on the RNIB channel and other frequencies with a wider audience .

A big part of our service would be our website. This includes podcasts and videos of how to prepare and cook the recipes. They would be very clear and extremely detailed to suit a blind persons needs,

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

141

Our website is clean and

simple

Hello Felix.

4 easy steps for everyone: 1. Create your TasteBud account by choosing a username and password. We also need your email address and home address.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

2. Give us a bit of info about you. What do you usually eat? What do you love and what do you hate? Are you vegan? Allergic to something?

Invisible Signs

3. Browse our selection of delicious recipes and tick those which intrigue your senses. This gives us an idea about your tastes so we can tailor meals just for you.

TasteBuds

Your New Podcasts are ready.

4. Surprise! Your FREE TasteBud leaflet arrives through the post. Includes: shopping list, recipe and coupons for great deals relating to that very recipe!

5. Go shopping according to the list and cook your tasty new meal with help from our online podcasts and videos.

6. Loved it? Hated it? Tell us what you think by going back onto your TasteBud page and modifying your preferences. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make sure you get somehing innovative and delicious every time.

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

143

Your suprise shopping list, recipe an Big Deal! Tear-away these coupons to get the best deal for this meal.

TasteBud collaborates with Sainsburyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to

bring yout the best bargains and make your shopping experience that much more exciting.

Hello Felix,

We have a

new recipe for you!

Pork chops with pineapple, molasses & tamarind

www.tastebud.com

Delicious Carribean flavours customised just for you.

Everything is personalised an

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

nd coupons delived to your door! Now follow this easy recipe

Felix’s shopping list

Big Deal! Tear-away these coupons to get the best deal for this meal.

4 pork chops 2 red onions 2½ tbsp molasses sugar

serves

mins

1½ tsp tamarind paste 2cm root ginger 1 red chilli 3 garlic cloves 1 lime 50ml orange juice salt and black pepper 400g pineapple

1. Put the chops into a shallow ceramic or glass dish. 2. Mix all the remaining ingredients together, except the pineapple, and pour over the chops, turning them in the marinade to make sure they are well covered. 3. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for about an hour. 4. Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan)/190°C/gas mark 5

level

5. Arrange the chops and their marinade in a shallow ovenproof dish, with the pineapple and onion wedges tucked in around them. Mix everything together with your hands. 6. Bake for 35–40 minutes. 7. Check to make sure that the pork is cooked through – it should be white rather than pink in the middle. 8. Serve the chops straight from the baking dish with all the lovely cooking juices from the chops.

HALF PRICE PORK CHOPS Sainsbury’s Basics British Pork Chops

£1 PINEAPPLES

Sainsbury’s Basics

2 for 1

Orange Juice

nd tailored to your tastes

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

145

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve even got a

Super simple iphone application

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

TasteBuds

In conclusion, this project was probably the most challenging of the year. As graphic designers we rely on our - and our audience’s sense of sight. Everything we make is essentially visual, so to take that vital factor away from us was extremely difficult. However, a challenging brief is a constructive one. I feel that I have learned a great deal these past few months, from researching the blind and visually impaired, to feeling and behaving like them: I walked to the cinema blind-folded and tried to pay for my ticket, I tried to make myself a sandwich with my eyes closed, and even the easiest task like putting my shoes on became a frustrating task. So my awareness towards the blind and visually impared community had considerbaly increased. For the first few weeks I had so much trouble coming up with great solutions to the brief, but when I sat down to discuss it with Lauren and Freddie, dozens of ideas came to us and we decided to work as a group. I feel we worked really well together, firstly because we get along, but mostly because we each have our area of expertise in the design process so the different tasks are distributed very smoothly. Once we had our concept, we all really enjoyed creating the TasteBud brand. This is our first real branding brief and the fact that it was also “live” (set by Hugh from the RNIB) made us all the more eager to work hard. The part I enjoyed the most was designing our brand’s identity - choosing the colours, fonts, images, style, visuals ect - which I must admit was also our weak point because in the end we didn’t focus as much on the blind user. We have plenty of great ideas to include both blind and fully sighted individuals into our brand but the lack of time and rushed deadline didn’t allow us to properly present our non-visual ideas.

Lauren Harewood (lauren6a@hotmail.com), Louise Steyaert (louisestey@hotmail.com), Freddie Villiers (villiers.freddie@gmail.com)

147

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

A Brand for a DJ

Cecil Campbell

cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

149

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Name of your brand DJ Impac What is it for? This is a personal branding for me as a DJ. Why were you interested in this brand? I’ve approach this task as a great opportunity to start developing an identity for my brand. I also have an interest in identity design where I’m currently researching the disciplines of ‘logo design’ and ‘branding’. My favourite contemporary designers are David Airey and Jason Cass, I am also inspired by the works of Paul Rands work and the Pentagram studio.

Student: Name Cecil Campbell

email address cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

2 151

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Audience Who is using your brand? The brand will be solely used by me. The DJ. Why are they using this brand? I going to use the visual identity for recognition so my audience can have a logo to recognize my service. Think about age, gender... 16-40. No specific gender.

Student: Name Cecil Campbell

email address cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

4 153

Material

Images

Colour

Type

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Visuals of your brand How does one recognise the brand. The brand can be recognise visually on websites, the back of my laptop and other mediums such as cds’, t-shirts, etc. This is the normal branding method for non-visually impaired audience - associating my service with an image or symbol, however I have developed a unique ‘sound’ to enhance my idenity to my visually-impaired audience. The ‘sound’ incorporates my name ‘DJ Impac’ keeping it simple for it can be easy idenitfied and able for further research by the audience - interest more of my service. Think about colour, typography images and material. At first, the selected colour was ‘navy-blue’. But in context and in the environments the service will provided the identity will fade very easily. So I selected the colour ‘red’ as the main colour as its effective with both the visually impaired and non-visually impaired audience audience. The chosen typeface is ‘Avenir LT Std -Black’. Avenir was chosen because of it legibility. All the characters of ‘DJ Impac’ were written in bold with an Italic effective for movement. There were no specific material as the image will be printed on various surfaces. The sound branding will be embedded into the music compilation mixes.

Student: Name Cecil Campbell

email address cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

155

Picture of you “ blind”

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Understanding your “ blind” audience How does a person with low vision recognise your brand? Mainly through sound because that’s the fundamental sense my service is aim at. The sounds will incorporate my name ‘DJ Impac’ for instant familiarity. In order to understand your audience with low vision you need to get “ blind” . I experienced being ‘blind’ ordering a coffee at a local cafe. I have walked pass the cafe many times but never enter it’s premises. The experience was carried out wearing a ‘3D glasses’ (the ones from the cinema) which I black out with normally paper and coloured it with a black ‘sharpie pen’. I also had some directional help from a friend who also helped recorded the experience. The experience of being blind or visually impaired wasn’t good feeling. I learnt how brave the visually impaired are, because not knowing what things and places looks like is scary. One important observation (non-visual) was the enhancement of my ‘hearing’. It seems to be the number sense especially in an environment as London. Because I have previous knowledge of what things are my ‘hearing’ was used to identity them. After that it was ‘touch’ or ‘feeling’.

Student: Name

Cecil Campbell

email address

cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

157

What is it like to be blind?

Ordering a drink/Going to an exhibition/Using transportation blind

Senors on the road.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Picture taken blind. Guessing where the person is.

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

My hearing was used as my observational tool. Some pictures came out blurry this is the perfect summary of my sight (vision).

Student: Name

Cecil Campbell

email address

cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

159

How do you experience your brand using all your senses? What kind of research did you do to understand how people with low vision will experience your brand? I became visually-impaired for 30 minutes. I have also done some research on the information available on being visually-impaired. Some of my findings were; â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

text or type has to be legible - this can be achieved through the spacing of letters colours should constrast each other for the text or symbol to be effective in very low visual circumstances.

What experiments did you do? I experimented with sound. I have created a unique to identity my service to my audience.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

What do you see?

Symbol - which was made from an ‘I’ and the given shape a ‘circle’.

Word mark - Avenir black with a Italic effective.

Student: Name

email address

Cecil Campbell

cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

161

What do you feel?

Excitement.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

What do you hear?

Dance Music.

Student: Name

email address

Cecil Campbell

cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

163

Caption

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Conclusion What was challanging for you? The biggest challenge I had in this project was branding the service to the visually-impaired audience. Ideally this service does affect the visually-impaired because it deals with sound ‘earing’. However whilst developing the visual identity, the visual-impaired audience was instrumental in decision of it’s final visual outcome. I decided to choose from the many, a design which is simple and works very well in monotone so that it’s emphacist is on it’s shape rather than tone or any clever negative spaces. What did you find out in your research? In the research stage of the project I discovered some of the elements which will help the design and the branding of my service. The elements spand from colours to text to legibility which will make the design much easier to be identity and to be associated with. How did you translate this into your design? In the design these findings where used to steer the outcome of the visual identity and also the development of the sound design to implement familiarity amongst similar services.

Student: Name

Cecil Campbell

email address

cecil.g.campbell@gmail.com

165

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Rebrand Toothpaste

Alex Kemp

dude905@msn.com

167

Graphic Product Innovation Name:Alex Kemp Email: dude905@msn.com BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Brand: Aquafresh

Aquafresh is a leading brand of toothpaste and toothbrushes. I have used it fort many years and I like the logo. The red, white and blue shape instantly conveys what the toothpaste is like in terms of colour and texture.

Student: Name Alex Kemp

email address dude905@msn.com

2 169

Audience

Reason why they use the brand

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Audience

Toothpaste and toothbrushes are sold in supermarkets and chemists. Anyone can use the brand. Everyone cleans their teeth so it is a big competitive market. Adults are the purchasers, but their children may also be end users. People respond to advertising and once they have tried it and like the taste of the toothpaste and feel of the brushes they tend to stick to the same brand.

Student: Name Alex Kemp

email address dude905@msn.com

171

Product - toothbrush

Logo

Product - toothpaste

Type

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Visuals of your brand

The colours and shape of the swirl and the Sans Serif typography of the name are very distinctive and are instantly recognisable as Aquafresh. The white surrounding the letters creates a clean impression and the lines coming from this imply sparkling.

Student: Name Alex Kemp

email address dude905@msn.com

173

Simulating blindness

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Understanding your â&#x20AC;&#x153;blindâ&#x20AC;? audience

When one sense is impaired you rely more on the others, so with poor eyesight people use the other senses to compensate as best they can. For a blind person these senses would be touch, taste, smell and hearing. I plan to change the 2D Aquafresh logo to 3D which will enable a blind person to recognise the logo by its shape, and to complement this by adding the peppermint smell of the toothpaste and the feel of the bristles of the toothbrushes.

Student: Name Alex Kemp

email address dude905@msn.com

175

What is it like to be blind?

Feeling the texture

Measuring the quantity of liquid by touch

Identifying flowers by smelling the scent

Using touch to tell texture and temperature

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Feet and hands control balance and feel the way

Touch to feel texture of the finish of the paint

Smelling food. Fish is an intense smell!

Taste identifies food type

Student: Name

Alex Kemp

email address

dude905@msn.com

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How do you experience your brand using all your senses?

I visited RNIB to find out more about blindness and what helps the blind to identify the things around them. Blind people use Braille to read, but they can also use 3D letters that they can feel. Sans Serif typeface is easier to identify and if colours are to be used they must be strong contrasts. I did a lot of sketches to help me see what would be appropriate and experimented with smell, taste and textures. It was not enough to use the swirl alone. I needed a combination of the swirl, the 3D letters, the smell and the bristles. The colours have meaning: red for healthy gums, white for strong teeth and blue for fresh breath and I added extra definition to these by making red damp, the white a hard shiny surface and the blue a fresh peppermint smell.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

What do you see?

Shape

Colour

Bristles

Toothpaste

Student: Name

Alex Kemp

email address

dude905@msn.com

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What do you feel?

Sticky

Dampness

Sharp bristles

Smooth and shiny

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

What do you hear?

Bristles brushing against the teeth

Squishy sound

Running water

Exhaling

Student: Name

Alex Kemp

email address

dude905@msn.com

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What do you smell?

Peppermint flavouring

The actual toothpaste

Dampness and faint peppermint

Water

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

What do you taste?

Toothpaste

Peppermint flavour

Student: Name

Alex Kemp

email address

dude905@msn.com

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Work Process: Sketches

Bristles

Toothpaste being squeezed out of tubes

Toothpaste on the bristles

Toothbrush surrounded by toothpaste

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Work Process: Experimental Materials

Carpet

Artificial spiky leaves

Toothpaste

Metal pan scourer

Student: Name

Alex Kemp

email address

dude905@msn.com

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Work Process: Scents

Book of different smells

Mint leaves

Mint sauce

Toothpaste

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Work Process: â&#x20AC;&#x153;healthy gums, fresh breath and strong teethâ&#x20AC;?

Experimenting with dampness for gums

Experimenting with strong shiny material for teeth

Caption Range of experimental materials Student: Name

Alex Kemp

Experimenting with concept for fresh breath email address

dude905@msn.com

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Work Process: Finalising

Rough sketch of final idea

Choice of final material for gums

Choice of final material for teeth

Choice of final scent

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Final Outcome

Bringing the components together

Student: Name

Alex Kemp

email address

dude905@msn.com

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BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

Aquafresh

Conclusion This was a challenging task because it was aimed at blind people and I am not blind. Being deaf myself and relying heavily on my vision it was particularly hard to lose that sense. Finding a logo that could be presented in a way other than visual was challenging. Finding suitable materials to represent gums, teeth and breath for colour, texture and smell was difficult. I experimented with a lot of materials before I was satisfied. I discovered what would be important to help a blind person identify a product. Simple clear shapes with meaning work best. Too much detail would be difficult for a blind person to manage. When one sense is lost you must direct information to the other senses to compensate. I wanted to make the Aquafresh logo into 3D so that a blind person would be able to feel it. I discovered Newplast clay which was the perfect material for this as it did not crumble away when it set as other materials in my experiments had done. I paid a lot of attention to getting the right materials so that the feel of them would represent the components of the products. I chose simple strong Sans Serif lettering made from thin wood so that a blind person could feel the letters. I tried several essences to get the right smell which would be closest to toothpaste and was strong enough not to wear off. It was an interesting project and I am happy with the outcome.

Student: Name

Alex Kemp

email address

dude905@msn.com

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jlaudesign

A Brand for a Web Designer

Jeff Lau

jeff.lau@live.com

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jlaudesign

jlaudesign My brand is myself as a Web Designer. I was interested in designing a brand for myself, because I have recently taken up freelancing, but as yet, havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t branded myself. It would be for almost anyone that needs a website, but aimed at companies who What is it for? Why were you interested in this brand?

Student: Jeff Lau

jeff-lau@live.com

Student: Jeff Lau

jeff.lau@live.com

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Image of your audience

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

jlaudesign

Audience I would imagine that the people using my brand will be young, tech savvy entrepreneurs that have started small businesses. They will see the need to expand their business to the web and hiring a young, trendy web designer will be beneficial to their business. I also imagine that another possible customer would be other designers that need their own portfolio website created. They will look for similar-aged, like-minded designer to help them design and develop their own brand on the web. The age group that both these would fall into is a region between 16-35 years old. In this region, it is not only important to show technical competence, but also that you understand the present and are designing for the future.

Student: Jeff Lau

jeff-lau@live.com

Student: Jeff Lau

jeff.lau@live.com

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Colour

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

jlaudesign

Visuals of your brand My brand can be recognised by the distinctive naked circuitboard that can seen through a hole in the business card. This also can be pushed to the right and reveals a USB that can be plugged into any computer and reveal my portfolio. The front has my contact details and various job titles that describe what I do and what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m about. I imagine that my business card would stand out amongst other business cards and they will remember the distinctive thickness and circuitboard. This will help me be remembered more easily.

Student: Jeff Lau

jeff-lau@live.com

Jeff Lau

jeff.lau@live.com

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jlaudesign

Understanding your “blind” audience My brand is based on creating a business card for myself and therefore will only be given to those I’ve already met. This will mean they will know who and I am and what I am about before they even have my business card. Therefore for a blind user, I have revealed the tactile nature of the circuit board as point of reference for when they are looking over the business cards they have acquired.

Student: Jeff Lau

jeff-lau@live.com

Jeff Lau

jeff.lau@live.com

201

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jlaudesign

How do you experience your brand using all your senses? The research I did involved studying how people recognise a brand. In a visual brand this would involve visual reminders and cues that would invoke a memory in the brain. The same is also true for blind people, however with one sense down, you need to tackle the branding problem from one of the other angles. This I took from a tactile angle and had people that had their eyes closed to see if they could identify which object I gave them was my business card out of several similar objects. I tried this first with cutouts, but with more complicated patterns, in became harder for them to differentiate between each cutout. Therfore i concluded that whatever kind of tactile material I used, it would have to be simple to give more chance of the user remembering it.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Jeff Lau

Invisible Signs

jeff.lau@live.com

jlaudesign

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Caption

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

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jlaudesign

Conclusion I felt the overall concept of my final piece fit well with the brief I gave myself. I felt the idea of a USB-based business card depicts an up to date and tech-savvy designer. Having my portfolio with my business card, although probably many times more costly than a normal business card, could allow me attain more business. And with such a different kind of business card, they will certainly remember me. What i found difficult in this project was how to communicate my brand to blind people. I took my brand from the angle that people with sight would be my primary audience and therefore the visuals for my brand must work before I even think about the blind. This helped me establish my idea, and the tactile nature of the circuit board doubled up as an important reminder to both audiences.

Student: Jeff Lau

jeff-lau@live.com

Jeff Lau

jeff.lau@live.com

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NANG

A Brand for a Magazine

Student: Andrew Nangpi

a.nangpi@hotmail.com

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Image of your brand

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

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Brand Name

NANG

Nang! Magazine Nang! is a glossy lifestyle magazine written by young people for young people. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s packed with brilliant articles on music, fashion, politics, film, real-life issues, careers and sport.The magazine is distributed free to schools, sixth forms, colleges, universities, libraries and youth centres across London. It was a funny story how I came about choosing this brand. It started off trying to brand myself in this project and using the name â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;NANGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; influenced from my surname (which I thought would be unique). After doing some research I found out that there was a magazine that had my idea and figured that it would be a great idea to rebrand it. Nang! magazine produce a free magazine and have an online version of their publications and would be a great opportunity to transform and design something for the blind.

Student: Name Student: Andrew Nangpi

email address a.nangpi@hotmail.com

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Students aged 14-21.

Music.

Fashion.

Trend.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs Invisible Signs

NANG Brand Name

Audience Nang! is aimed at 14-21 year olds, the magazine is free and is distributed at sixth forms, colleges, universities, libraries and Connexions centres in the London area on a quarterly basis. At this important part of growing up in the UK, having the latest trend, fashion and news is essential to feel like the person is being a part of the urban society today. This age group particularly attracts the urban scene and what better way to advertise it through schools, and colleges where they spend their time most.

Student: Name Student: Andrew Nangpi

email address a.nangpi@hotmail.com

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Nang! Nang! Material

Nang!

Images

Nang! nang! Other logo ideas. Colour

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Chosen font: Philliy Sans Type

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

NANG

Visuals of your brand For the Nang! visual identity, I wanted to incorporate the ‘N’ and the ‘!’ which put together would make a great iconic statement about the word ‘Nang!’. From this I created a funky but yet presentable and clear layout that expresses its personality as cool, fresh, modern and more importantly fitting into its target age group. The colour chosen (blue) is an key part in giving away its personality as it tells a lot about what colour is chosen. The blue reflects the ‘coolness’ and ‘neutral’ side of the personality not giving any other false assumptions of the brand. I’ve experimented in the typography and again wanted to give an urban, stylish and at the same time presentable typography to make people understand what the brand is all about. The font chosen (bottom) portrays all those qualities and gives a statement about urban theme.

nang!

magazine Student: Name Student: Andrew Nangpi

email address a.nangpi@hotmail.com

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PICTURE OF YOU BLIND

Picture of me “blind”.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

NANG

Understanding your “blind” audience Designing for the brand is challenging, and to design for them is to experience what its like to be blind. I’ve explored a couple of ways here I am blind folded so I can only see pitch black and also exploring how the other senses become essential and effective without vision. I’ve also taken into consideration people with low vision, a condition where the person is able to read or see anything on the screen, nut not considered to have perfect vision.

Student: Name Student: Andrew Nangpi

email address a.nangpi@hotmail.com

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What is it like to be blind?

Trying to read a magazine/Listening to an mp3 player

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

NANG

Student: Name

Student: Andrew Nangpi

email address

a.nangpi@hotmail.com

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How do you experience your brand using all your senses? In order to enable the blind and the visually impaired to experience my brand, I have used Nangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Products of their online publication and their physical quarterly publication. Again being blind folded would help me get a better response and which should heighten any of the senses that I use. There isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t no other way to explore the other senses but by putting them to use. The next few pages shows how I got on with this research.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

NANG

What do you see?

Clear/ Normal vision.

Blurred effect.

Extreme blur effect.

Blur effect with Noize.

Student: Name

Student: Andrew Nangpi

email address

a.nangpi@hotmail.com

219

What do you feel?

Trying to feel a web page. (can only feel the physical computer.)

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Feeling the surface of a print media.

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

NANG

tactile branding.

Student: Andrew Nangpi BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

a.nangpi@hotmail.com Invisible Signs

221 Brand Name

What do you smell?

Smelling the website through a screen? what does a website smell like? no real smell at all...

The smell of the paper in the magazine.

BA Graphic Product Innovation 2011| LCC

Invisible Signs

Brand Name

NANG

What do you taste?

No taste.

Student: Name

Student: Andrew Nangpi

No taste.

email address

a.nangpi@hotmail.com

223

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Brand Name

NANG

Conclusion For the tactile side of the brand, I have used ‘braille’ font. A tag has been designed on the edge of the magazine and also separators on the top of the magazine to help them navigate to a section of the magazine. On the tag it has a spongey-like material to recognize the magazine when its on sale on the shelves. And even for the visually impaired, the same iconic designs used on the website is incorporated in the dividers. I have redesigned the layout of the website which consists of large icons that take up nearly the whole of the screen. The icons are carefully considered and designed by using very iconic and recognizable icons. I converted and dropped all detail and made it one colour (black), then placed the icons in a very clear coloured background for the icons to stand out. Each colour is distinctive to differentiate each section of the magazine. That way they cannot be mistaken of being in the wrong section and also assisting them into recognizing which section they would like to navigate to. Tests of blurring the website layout has been undertaken, however it would be essential for me to test it to a person who actually has visual impairment to get greater feedback and responses. To assist the visually impaired further, I included voice over which tells them which section they are on. As they hover the mouse on the screen, the sound activates according to which section, For example “New Music”.

Student: Name Student: Andrew Nangpi

email address a.nangpi@hotmail.com

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Pictures of Presentation

227

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