YCN Live National Competition Given Project
We are being invited to work on a selection of live creative briefs, written by commercial organisations, each offering a range of challenges. This will enable you to benefit from engaging fully with contemporary communication challenges, gain increased confidence, visibility and employability and a unique opportunity to showcase your emerging creative talent. This project will require you to explore, compile, share and analyse, research and individually work up concepts and outcomes.
Creative Challenge- YCN: UCC Coffee Brief
The Grand Café brand performs well amongst its current customers but we’re the first to admit the design doesn’t bring the brand to life as expressively as it could do. We want to make it an iconic visual brand -and that’s where you come in! Your challenge is to visually re-think and revitalise the brand, creating designs that will not only communicate what great coffee Grand Café is, but also the good that it does. We want to move Grand Café coffee from being hidden in a cupboard underneath the counter to having pride of place on display in our customer’s outlets! We’re keen to understand the thinking behind your work; and how you feel your proposed designs, relate back to our brand DNA. We have included some notes on it in the Project Pack that supports the brief, and so please do provide a short written summary to support your visualisations.
Creative Consideration No aspect of the brand, product range or communication channels are off limits. It’s up to you to choose the formats and applications that you wish to demonstrate your re-launch within. For example — you might choose to focus just on the identity and its application to packaging or you may wish to take it further and show how it comes to life in campaign elements; digital contexts or an animation that tells the story. Consider the product family and how each member might creatively relate to each other. You might want to consider renaming the products or introducing a new blend. Think about innovation in sustainable products and how this could support the direction we want Grand Café to go. We want to strengthen our messaging around certifications, and focus on the impact they have — so you are also welcome to think about point of sale and show us how your design thinking might come to life in such contexts. That might be great design ideas for a uniform, posters, table talkers, information booklets or something different that no other coffee shop has tried before. Consider what will empower the staff serving our coffee to communicate the stories around the certifications.
Meet UCC UCC coffee stands for Ueshima Coffee Company. It is the manufacturing company for coffee and also tea.In 1951 it became a big company that has being spreading around the world very quickly. Ueshima Coffee Company is known for it’s canned coffee, as this started a trend of canned coffee around the world. In Japan it is the largest coffee producing company and there liable for £2bn annual sales turnover globally. UCC is a very successful company and developed a coffee culture in Japan for 80 years. Now they are based in the United Kingdom as well in Milton Keynes and they have training sites in Huddersfield and Ireland. You might have not heard of UCC coffee but there is a higher chance that you have tasted it, the certification that UCC Coffee has are Rainforest Alliance, Soil Assocation and Fairtrade, these are unique concepts that helps to support the communities and project in different countries.
Brand Background Before starting the brief I have decided to do some research for the UCC Coffee brand. This way it would help me ge t an idea what the brand does and it’s target audience. UCC Coffee is a high quality brand that has made many high achievements with it’s customers. UCC Coffee has it’s Grand Cafe coffee and it is possible that you have tasted it in the UK. There are over 10.000 customers using it. This market is leading ethical food service brand is credible coffee at its best and the ideal brand for the ethically aware business. UCC coffee belongs to Japan as it is the largest coffee producers, offering sustainability in the industry. The UCC coffee is fully certified, showing that they are doing their bit in the company to sustain lives and lands of the farmers who grow their coffee. The target audience for UCC coffee is not directly to consumers (like us people). It is towards the core customers that are non-branded coffee shops, cafés, quick service restaurants and etc... But this is not the only target for the brand. The Grand Cafe helps it to tick a lot of boxes but doesn’t bring the brand to life. Therefore, re-thinking and re-generating needs to be thought and designed into this. Grand Cafe is one of their coffee at its best and it is a coffee that is guranteed. UCC coffee are doing well with their company. As the UCC help to strengthen or support their workers who grow their coffee physically or mentally. The Grand Cafe is one of their products and it is mainly targeted at non-branded business aware companies. The Grand Cafe has different flavours sourced from different countries that are famous for coffee, certificated with with fairtrade. In the brief: Our Grand Cafe is one of the brand that performs really well within the company. However, the design doesn’t bring the brand to life as it could do. This is the brand that needs to be designed in order to expressively show off to its customers.
source: http://www.ucc-coffee.co.uk/products/coffee/grand-cafe.html https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/453315518723655827/
Target Audience A target audience is an intended audience of a message, products or publications. Target audience takes a big part in designing because designers/producers needs to know their target audience clearly in order to sell their design/products better. We can define target audience as a specific group of people in the targe market for the company or the person. UCC coffee has a wide range of target audience because they don’t just aim for a specific group they focus on places like independent coffee shops, supermarket cafes, food-led pubs, restaurants, farm shops and garden centres, bakeries, visitor attractions and destinations. For a company that is a lot of target groups, but this is a good thing because they deliver high quality products and they know that it needs to exceed their expectations. As coffee is one of the most developing sectors in business people agree that coffee is one big energy booster so many people prefer just having coffee and slice of cake when they are out in these target places. In the United Kingdom people tend to drink instant coffee but would rather drink slow roasted/ ground coffee. It is also important what the target audience wants because the company needs to be able to fulfil their needs and wants.
Design of Grand Cafe
After taking a look at the project pack, I wanted to analyse the Grand Cafe packaging. This is because I know it would help me see what the package contains and build up on my ideas in order to meet the clients brief. As the clients wants Grand Cafe to be removed from hidden cupboards. With this project I want to be able to design the packaging to look appealing towards its audience. I think the packaging is very simple and doesn’t have different colours on it, which this is a positive because when a packaging has more than 3 or 4 colours it can become too much as it would be confronting the viewer as they wouldn’t be able to focus on the main design and information of the packaging. The green colour is used on the packaging to show the sustainability of the coffee as UCC coffee do their best to keep their products sustainable and original. I think the white is used for the main background for the text to be visible on the packaging.
Logos on the Packaging After exploring the packaging on the product, I have realised there are couple of logos that I have come across to. These logos are important with packaging because they represent what the product is supported by and that the UCC Coffee company is well supported and trusted. Having these logos makes the brand become well known as it creates an image in customers head. It is a way of reflecting what customers or clients want to see in companies. I have research logos what the packaging had and why they were important. This is because on the brief it says we are not allowed to change it. Rainforest Alliance: RFA is one of the logos that features on the package. The RFA is an independent organisations by themselves and they are working to engage with biodiversity by controlling sustainable livelihoods to change land practices, businesses and consumers behaviour. The organisation helps to train farmers, improves communities and protects its workers. This way the products being produced can reach to high quality standards. Fairtrade: This is a product certification that is used on products that meets the requirements of Fairtrade, such as meeting certain environments and development. If the requirements are achieved then the company can apply to get Fairtrade certification. Not all farmers or workers get good living and the right money they should earn having Fairtrade supports 1.2 million farmers. Soil Association: This was another logo that features on the package, Soil Association is a charity group in the United Kingdom. They work to help farmers and organic food, so it is produced and supported in the best ways as possible for their local purchasers.
Secondary Research I have decided to do a case study and some research on different coffee brands. This way I would be able to do research on wide range of coffee brands and how they design their packaging. It will help me to gain ideas on how I could be designing my packaging for the company. Doing secondary research will allow me to see different coffee packages and why they are good at what they do. This way secondary research would give me a clear view of what I want to do. Secondary research is important in many different ways because secondary research will be my own ways of researching to produce a design. As this would allow me to feel more in control of the project and allow m to see varities of products. With this research I want to take a look at high brands such as Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero. Doing this will show me how and why these high brands are successful in what they do and what their designs of coffee packaging. Also with secondary research I can make a survey to be able to ask people what they think about the packaging and this will give me straight answers to what customers or consumers want as a design or which of the packaging they would go with.
Research of Coffee Packaging
Throughout my secondary research of high coffee brands, allowed me to see a different perspective to design. This because when you see different coffee packaging you are able to capture ideas in your head of what your designs will look like. The constant pattern on the coffee designs was the colours used, as they have being contrasted and repeated throughout the whole package to create the rich look. The typography of the brand is kept big to catch attention so that consumers are able to identify to logo and who the product belongs to. Information of the coffee and other logos (for the source) is kept small to medium size. This suggests that the company is the key. Texture of the packaging always seems to be glossy material, which I think this helps the package to stand out from the others. source: www.flickr.com/photos/foodbev/9916449786/ www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/markets www.behance.net/gallery/19111239/Packaging-for-coffee
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Date Started:
21.04.15
Last Amendment:
21.04.15
Ricky Manani Email: ricky@cliftonpackaging.co.uk Web: www.cliftonpackaging.com
Design Ref No: Print Ref No:
Clifton Packaging Group Ltd © 2015
WF4160
Illustrator CS6
356
3
625
4
368
5
1795
NO. 2
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6
White
Film Spec:
Film Spec:
20 MATT OPP / 12 PET MET / 60PE Substrate:
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UC-GCS03
Format:
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Black
2
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Operator
1
Unwind:
Version Ref:
7 8
Printing Spec:
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Colour Breakdown: Colour Breakdown:
Grand Cafe Sustainable 385x310
File Info:
Design:
PRINT PRINT PRINT
UCC Coffee UK LTD
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Printer: Printer
Print Type:
Flexo Reverse Film Dimensions:
385.00 (mm) x 310.00 (mm) Barcode:
N/A
Eyemark Size:
Metalised
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Customer:
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Design Info:
Grand Cafe Package Guidelines
15mm x 5mm
Chronos
Plate Making:
Design Ref:
Process Screens @:
WF4160
120 lpi
Print Size:
Additional Notes:
385.00 (mm) x 310.00 (mm) Stepping:
• 3 Designs side by side: Total 3A/2R
Print:
- Grand Cafe Slow Roasted - 1A/2R
Reverse 620mm
• Full set of plates • Calibrated proof required
1A / 2R
Cylinder:
Spot Screens @:
85 lpi
Thickness:
45 thou
- Grand Cafe Sustainable - 1A/2R -Grand Cafe Traceable - 1A/2R
Microdots required on each impression
Packaging Textures
Textured Light Brown
Matte Black Card
Semi Glossy (chosen for packaging)
Recycled Paper
Glossy Silver
Satin Gold
First sketches
Developed Sketches
When I did my first sketches for the Grand Cafe design, I realised that when I was doing quick ideas; these might not fit along with the guideines provided so I decided to print out the guidelines and design my ideas using it.
I did two different designs and from the first design I was obliged with the basic use of dashed lines splitting up the information texts. On my second one I liked the flow of the flower design because it shows the relation between sustainability and nature.
First Design
Traceable
Second Design Idea (Sustainable)
Slow roasted
Traceable
Slow Roasted Decaf
Final Design Idea (Sustainable)
Slow Roasted
Traceable
Slow Roasted Decaf
Idea Evaluation First Idea: For my first idea I decided to generate something really quickly to work my way around it. This meant that I can play around with different features and add bit by bit. Using Illustrator I created a single coffee bean by copying and pasting, I created a pattern on right and left side. But I kept the front design simple so that the attention was drawn with the text as the text contains information about the coffee. However, after doing two designs one for sustainable and traceable I wasn’t happy how the colours looked and I wanted it to be more professional. Second Idea: My second idea came from simplicity this is because I really enjoy simplicity and sharp shapes. Using thin rectangles (lines) I researched the colours of the flags the source came from (for the coffee beans) in order to create a running theme. I thought this was a good idea because it is always important to support and show off the place the products source is coming from, as people are always interested in these type of details. But within my idea I felt like the idea of sustainability was missing so I want to develop this further. Final Idea: My final idea, has developed from the sketches I have made before creating the designs digitally. Even though I knew it would be quiet hard to create leaves in the form I wanted to still give it a try. I was pleased with the results and made designs for each one of them. The reason why I designed branches with leaves is because it shows the sustainability and nature side to the design, as coffee comes from special countries to be delivered to its consumers. The only thing I wasn’t happy was the different colour scheme I have used for each design. I would improve and develop on this too.
Development
For the first stage of my development for my second design idea I re-thought about my colours because the colours had to match with the idea of sustainability as this is the main message Grand Cafe products are trying to deliver.
Changing the colour of the black rectangle label made the typography of ‘Grand Cafe’ look very add as I don’t think it stood out much as it did with the previous colour. So I decided to change the colour of the text too.
On my final stage of development I realised that the ‘Grand Cafe’ text looked like it dissappeared with it being white colour. Therefore, to improve this. I think I will continue this colour throughout other packages as it contrasts with the captions on the sides of the package.
Further Development
Developing my second design package made me realise that the design wasn’t looking appealing for a coffee package. So I decided to go ahead with the final design I have created to develop it further to achieve natural and simple design. Instead of having different colours for each packaging, I decided to keep it all green matching with the logo. This is because I want the sustainable and natural side to be visible.
Second part of the development. I made sure that the black square label was smaller so less distraction. The only reason I chose black and white for my front cover is because this would make the packaging stand out more and appeal towards it’s audience as I have used simple colours. That also contrasts well with the rest of the design.
Final Outcomes
After my development of final idea, this is my final outcomes for each of the packaging. I’m happy with the final outcomes because I think I have managed to achieve the simple and natural look, while keeping the message of sustainability clear with the design.
If I could improve on my design, that improvement would be to spend more time and on the design with the leaves and experiment them around the packaging to see which sections they would look the best. But overall, I think I have manage to achieve the consideration of the brief.
Images of Prototyping