Information Graphics, Promotional Materials, Animation, Crowdie Manual
Bri Piccari, DeliveryCrowd, Spring 2013
Table of Contents Who, What & Why 03 Information Graphics 05 Promotional Materials 10 Animation13 Crowdie Manual 21
Who, What & Why DeliveryCrowd is a local Central Pennsylvania start up company focusing on the idea of offering crowd-sourced delivery of almost anything. DeliveryCrowd works directly with consumers to provide them with delivery services from their favorite restaurants and other vendors who may not offer their own delivery services. The company utilities software created for smartphones and tablets to communicate with freelance drivers, called Crowdies, and consumers.
I have been working as an intern with DeliveryCrowd since May 2012 and have been responsible for all of their design work, including their branding, previous website and miscellaneous materials for marketing. Before this semester’s internship began DeliveryCrowd changed their business plan, going from working directly with restaurants and Crowdies to consumers and Crowdies and broadening their deliverable goods spectrum. With a new business plan, comes the need for new materials to communicate the change to previous audiences as well as new ones. 03
When approached with the opportunity to continue working with DeliveryCrowd I gladly accepted, recognizing the potential and one of a kind chance this was. Because I have worked with them for so long, I know their background, needs and expectations. DeliveryCrowd’s work with the Software Productization Center ended at the end of the fall 2012 semester and now is working independently as a start up company. With this being my first experience working in the start up enviroment (not including the work I did through SPC), I learned a lot about my own communication and time management skills. I also learned about the dedication and passion it takes to help get a start up off the ground running successfully and what goes on behind the scenes of a calm and collected exterior. I see internships as a chance to test out different job settings to help determine where I’d like to see myself working when I graduate and in the future.
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Information Graphics
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With a change of direction and business plan comes the challenge of neatly and effectively communicating the change to former audiences, who understood the company to be different than their current state, as well as newer audiences. The expansion of their delivery base, as well as focusing on connecting with consumers rather than businesses, opens 1. Order take-out from your 2. Log-in 3. Sit back & relax; we’ll & tell DeliveryCrowd up the flood greater number ofsend peopleupdates to focus onalong reaching.the way! favorite restaurant. where to gates be &to awhen.
But why should I use DeliveryCrowd’s services? Because time is flying! Use your time to do exactly what you want to. And besides, there’s only 24 hours in a day!
One way to present that change is by using information graphics, a type of design that visually represents information. Infographics can be seen as graphs, icons, illustrations, etc. Infographics are a relatively common occurance in visual communication.I took the chance to talk with one of the co-founders, Fran, about what he was looking to communicate to consumers and potential partners, and any ideas he had as to how he’d like this to happen. Between social media and physically communicating with consumers and businesses, we settled on the idea of using infographics in a flyer format, something that could be given out or posted to any of their social networks.
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But why should I use DeliveryCrowd’s services? Because time is flying! Use your time to do exactly what you want to. And besides, there’s only 24 hours in a day!
9 hours - working & commuting 7 hours - sleeping 3 hours - leisurely activities 1 hour - eating 1 hour - socializing, shopping & caring for others 1 hour - grooming 1 hour - cooking & cleaning
Fran wanted to share the idea that DeliveryCrowd fits into even the busiest of schedules and how it could simplify that
1 hour - other
busy schedule. He also wanted a simple visual explaining how DeliveryCrowd works. The image to the left became a cover image for DeliveryCrowd’s facebook page, quickly showing users that DeliveryCrowd is as simple as three easy steps. The above image is a part of the PDF flyer, a pie chart breaking down any given day for someone with a generally busy schedule, showing how DeliveryCrowd fits in to make their day a little bit easier. 08
The image on the far left is an makes delivery from anywhere possible GUEST
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down even simpler, ideal for Order take-out from your favorite restaurant.
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handing out at colleges or
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1. Order take-out from your 2. Log-in & tell DeliveryCrowd favorite restaurant. where to be & when.
3. Sit back & relax; we’ll send updates along the way!
But why should I use DeliveryCrowd’s services? Because time is flying! Use your time to do exactly what you want to. And besides, there’s only 24 hours in a day!
9 hours - working & commuting
Log-in & let DeliveryCrowd know where to be & when.
7 hours - sleeping 3 hours - leisurely activities 1 hour - eating
local hotels. The smaller sheet focuses on giving the most important information, the three steps, which is enough to get potential customers curious.
1 hour - socializing, shopping & caring for others 1 hour - grooming 1 hour - cooking & cleaning 1 hour - other
Sit back & relax; we’ll send updates along the way!
Fast & simple. Average delivery fee is $5. Visit deliverycrowd.com to learn more!
DeliveryCrowd is a Lancaster County start up looking to serve you! We love the art of delivery and are proud to bring your favorite restaurants to your door. There are 2,200 restaurants in Central Pennsylvania and only 6% of those deliver. We know you’ve had a busy day, so sit back and relax while DeliveryCrowd does the work for you.
As if you need anymore convincing, here are 5 great reasons to give DeliveryCrowd a try tonight! 5. Restaurant quality food is difficult to replicate. 4. You’re already in your sweatpants. 3. Jeopardy is on and the kids are playing upstairs. 2. Your time is valuable and gas is expensive. 1. Less to clean up!
The image closest is the PDF flyer that could be shared via social media or printed and handed out at conventions, meetings, etc.
Promotional Materials
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Promotional materials are important for creating a physical presence and creating an opportunity for communication. What is DeliveryCrowd? Why does it matter? Why should I be using it?
I worked on a few small promotional materials for the company. Fran wanted small flyers to be handed out across Lancaster City and at local universities. He knows a lot of potential customers could come from local college students who may not be able to drive or have a car on campus. Fran expressed an interest in making window stickers for participating shops and restaurants to display in their window to announce their partnership with DeliveryCrowd. I also did a simple t-shirt design for the founders and members to wear at conventions they attended for start-ups and technology.
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DELIVERYCROWD PARTNER
delivery from anywhere
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Animation
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Since the change of plan, DeliveryCrowd needed a new animation explaining how they work to their target audience. The video I had previously created revolved around their previous business plan, and therefore was outdated. I focused on the new business model and how DeliveryCrowd works for consumers.
I began with sketched out storyboards based on the written storyboards I recieved from Fran and Steve, a member of the marketing team. They explained they wanted to video to follow the same style as the last, but because of the change of subject, I realized I’d need to create all new illustrations for it, I could only recycle a few. I spent a lot of time sketching and digitally illustrating parts of the animation before putting it all together in Adobe After Effects CS6. The storyboard follows the sequence of steps it takes to request a delivery from a Crowdie and then recieving that delivery. Instead of focusing on a food delivery and to announce DeliveryCrowd’s broadened delivery base, the delivery in the video is pick up from a hardware store. The end of the video announces that with DeliveryCrowd almost anything is deliverable.
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While creating new illustrations, I made sure to keep the same style and elements of my previous illustrations but to also evolve them further. I was excited to continue working with the simple and minimalistic illustration style I had dedicated to DeliveryCrowd’s visual elements and find ways to push that even further without straying too far from what I had previously done. 16
Software-wise, I worked mostly in Adobe Illustrator and After Effects CS6, with the occasional image edit or resize in Photoshop. I enjoyed the opportunity to work again in After Effects, a program I don’t often use. I spent a good amount of time researching the best way to create effects or transitions, as well the best way to save imported images and export my final video. I also did some audio work on the video, recording the lines myself that had been sent over with the video.
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Crowdie Manual
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The last thing I worked on during my internship was a PDF document that acts as a how to manual for Crowdies. The manual goes over expectations, guidelines and a quick reference guide for the Crowdie app. It’s similar to an employee handbook and neccesary for Crowdies to become successful.
Steve provided me with the copy he and Fran wanted to see in the manual as well as a general outline of how things should be layed out. They gave me complete creative control over how the manual looked and what visual elements I felt would supplement the text in a way that was beneficial and not distracting.
NOT THAT IMPORTANT TEXT
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Just as I would for any other design project, I took time to create thumbnails of page layout and illustrations I didn’t already have for the manual. I took time to think about what parts of the manual would benefit from some sort of icon or other visual and how to represent that section appropriately.
One section is a quick reference guide to the Crowdie app, I felt it was important to include screenshots of the various screens under the appropriate section to help the user identify which menus or screens were being described. I wanted to be sure there would be limited confusion, the guide should be a quick reminder as to where to do a certain action or what a specific screen may be asking the Crowdie to do.
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This was one of the first publication designs I’ve done in a while so I had to do quite a bit of research and inspiration searching. I felt that in order for the manual to be succesful in keeping the style and unity of other DeliveryCrowd designs, it was importanted to the business casual the founders were looking for. DeliveryCrowd isn’t a corporate, white collar company; but casual and cater to people of all ages. I didn’t want to see this manal turn out to be a dry employee handbook but hold it’s own personality, reminiscent of the company itself.
While the marketing team did not give me any specific output for the manual, I knew that if this was a PDF it could be viewed across electronic devices as well be printed out, in black or white and color. This limits the amount of control I have over what the Crowdie sees when viewing this document. I kept that in mind during my sketching and designing. I thought about designing two seperate manuals: one being interactive and one being more print based. After really thinking through that decision, I found too many spots where issues could arise as well as confusion. Maybe a user isn’t super computer literate and isn’t sure which document to download or print, giving them incorrect sources of information (i.e. the use of videos to describe screens instead of images and text) and there is the concern of limitations of certain smartphones, where this could be viewed, or even computers. I felt by creating only one design, it would limit confusion that confusion and be most beneficial to the audience and company. 26