-Advert Analysis -Fragrance Trend Booklet -Team Concept Presentation -Graphic Briefing Booklet -Graphics Outcome -Team launch Presentation -Promotional Plan -Blog & Pinterest -Additional Work
Advert Analysis
My advert analysis was based around the ‘Euphoria’ 2009 fragrance advert published by Calvin Klein. My aim was to project the simplicity, shape and pattern of the physical folds and ripples of the dress within the image. The make-up, colour palette and background features followed after this. Initially, the visual aesthetics of my essay portrayed structure and shape, whilst extracting the colour palettes from the actual print campaign. This allowed my essay to follow a theme, which worked together in conjunction with the ad. Once receiving feedback I was told there were a few issues with the layout of the front cover, whilst also using rather large figure titles in relation to the imagery and body of text. The last issue was the lack of a bibliography. Therefore, I went back over my essay and made changes to the features that were weakening my work. Firstly, I re-created the front cover to make the imagery and text proportionate, using a more visually exciting image. I further reduced the size of my figure titles and added a bibliography!
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Improved Version...
Fragrance Trend Booklet
The fragrance trend booklet was one of the first brief ’s we completed in relation to our fragrance projects. I based my content around 4 main macro trends. The first trend explored the surrealist and pure nature in terms of background. I found that trends in 2012 with women’s luxury ads were using dramatic colour and unrealistic scenes, whilst current ads were using more nature and clean settings. The second trend displayed the size of the bottle shape in relation to the model and the subject matter. After this I looked at the narrative of the ads, which evolved from love and seduction in 2011 to friendship and weddings in 2014/15. The last theme I looked at was the shape and structure of the fragrance bottles, currently fragrances bottles are re-visiting the past with the traditional structured square bottle. In terms of visual layout, I have used a consistent green colour palette throughout my book to create flow, whilst using subtle shape and line to create structure. I wanted my book to be packed with visual excitement!
Team Concept Presentation
Where did our fragrance concepts derive from? As a team our initial fragrance concept was based around the idea of healthy living and fitness. Research showed that there was an increase with female fitness engaging in non-strenuous exercise, such as yoga, Pilates etc. Therefore, we decided to delve deeper into this theme. We further discovered an upcoming and increasing trend of portable perfume, our aim was to incorporate all of these ideas into one. As a result we did our primary research and discovered that most woman around the ages of 20-40 were most interested in a fragrance like this. After looking at our competition, we found that most women’s sports fragrances were inelegant and dated, we also found that most came in a liquid format. Therefore, we started off by looking at a more luxury fragrance that would become affordable to our target market. We also decided to go into the direction of a diverse solid fragrance that would be portable as well as compact to allow consumers to carry it with them without the risk of spillage or cracking for post-exercise use.
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Graphics Briefing Booklet
Additionally, our aim was to bring our product to reality, creating visual products and packaging to move onto the next stage. To help us to do this we collaborated with graphic design students. To help describe and illustrate our concept to the students we designed a book to present exactly what we wanted. Our main idea involved the luxury and sophisticated element. We wanted a small product that was suitable for busy woman on the go. When adapting and finalising our ideas we decided to expand our product range to 3 products in total. As our initial product was aimed at a small element of our consumers life. We additionally created 2 more products to reach every element of our consumer’s lifestyle. Therefore, we crafted an additional day and night product. This was also inspired by the increase of personalisation within the beauty industry. Our focus was to create a fragrance that reached ‘all versions’ of our ideal consumer. This was where our fragrance name and strapline evolved. (‘My, Myself & I’) – A Trio Of Fragrances For All Versions Of You. In terms of packaging we informed the students that we were aiming for a more authentic look with a neutral colour palette to match the elegant and luxury properties of our product. We further discovered there was an increase in cardboard packaging displaying an artisan theme. This is an element we further wanted to include. We were pleased with the outcome as we felt it portrayed our concept successfully and created a product that wasn’t like anything on the market currently.
Graphics Outcome
Team Launch Presentation
Our final launch presentation was an opportunity for us as a team to illustrate and project our final concept, product and packaging properties and the promotional execution of our brand, including a print ad campaign and a short video. Our aim was to illustrate the design process from beginning to end. We further wanted to project the big idea and why there was a need for our product. To do this we presented the fact that our product provides value for money with full products of subject matter with little wastage. This is a large increase compared to our competitors who only provide 0.75ml of solid substance within their products. We further wanted to enhance the practicality feature by displaying a vacuum layer inside our products to prevent cracking or overheating. This presentation gave us a chance to project the ingredients used for the scents of our product. The post-exercise fragrance includes green tea and herbs to provide a fresh and clean scent. The day fragrance is floral based to illustrate a light and sweet scent and lastly the evening fragrance is made from vanilla and amber to form a musky, rich scent in relation to its concept. When first applying a fragrance its clear that the scent doesn’t disappear instantly, therefore, our products have the same base notes with varying top notes to allow the layering of each product in a single day to create a complimentary scent. We expressed how we prepared for our shoot for our print ad. We were inspired by the overlaying and multiple exposure of 3 faces to represent a single individual at three different points of the day. We experimented via Photoshop before hand as we discovered early on that the main outcome of our ad would take place post-production. Lastly, we did various mock-ups to express the promotional element of our brand.
Promotional Plan
My promotional plan completes my work for our fragrance project. It explores various promotional ideas to make consumers aware of the ‘Me, Myself &I’ brand. My ideas are realistic as well as creative to provide consumers with an interactive but joyful experience both in-store and online. I have visually focused on producing realistic campaigns and mock-ups of where this campaign would be placed i.e. on train platforms and in magazines etc. The layout of my promotional plan follows a consistent pattern using our brand colour palette on each page. I have mainly used green, black and white to make it look more simplistic and sophisticated, highlighting our luxury brand concept.
Blog & Pinterest
https://danniwood123.wordpress.com
Additional Work
During the process of this module, I have crafted various additional mood boards, some related to the fragrance project and others not. This first mood board expresses the look and feel of our product and concept. This was completed near the start of the project, where we aimed towards a clean, fresh and pure concept/product. I have used images that portray serenity and overall are visually exciting to the eye. It presents our initial female fitness trend, whilst expressing the idea of mixology. The subtle green and white colour palette further enhances the subtle, soft and elegant aspect. The second mood board was based around the inspiration for the packaging of our product. From researching the pages of WGSN, it was clear that cardboard packaging was taking center stage for the upcoming year. This artisan trend suited our product well as it presents clean, neutral and authentic properties. This mood board highlights the visual imagery that inspired our work. I have used a maximum format for this mood board to fill the page with our colour palette and product design to illustrate our brand identity. The third mood board is the last additional mood board I crafted as part of our fragrance project. This mood board was based around the art direction for the final part of our execution; our print ad campaign. There is a selection of imagery that expresses the range of ideas we had before going down the multiple exposure direction. As well as looking at the layering of imagery, we also looked at the simplistic still life imagery as a direction. The still life idea projects minimalist properties portraying colour blocking features with symmetry. One plan we had was to use our ingredients and our colour palette to form a structured still life image for our ad. However, we felt that this idea wouldn’t provide the emotion we were aiming for, especially as our product is all about the personalisation and different versions of one individual! The last mood board was crafted around an era that really inspires me (the sixties), the expression of colour and freedom formed the basis of this piece. I collected a range of imagery that represented the sixties, including the famous Biba label, models including twiggy and of course the musical influence of the Beatles. I have splashed colour and shape all over this mood board to create a bold and striking visual effect to represent the fun, hyper and bold era.
Additional Moodboards...
On top of the experiments we created before our shoot as a team, I decided to do my own digital experiments to get a better understanding of what would look best for our print campaign. As our ad is based around the idea of layering and overlapping facial features to express the different looks and expressive features during three points of the day (day, postexercise and night), my experimental ideas have been based around this. I first experimented by overlapping close-up images, experimenting with the opacity tool to create an illusion of 3, whilst forming a subtle and soft effect. I experimented with the use of silhouettes displaying our colour palette. To do this for the shoot, we would paint our model using 3 colours to illustrate our brand identity. This was inspired by the work of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld. Blumenfeld also inspired the last experiment, which involved layering but this time involved the side profile of a silhouette. However, I soon realised this wouldn’t work very well as it would be very hard to get the lighting right. Not only this, but we also only wanted to use a single model to express the idea that our product is formed for 3 versions of one individual, NOT three individuals. We wanted our ad to be a true and realistic representation of our concept. I have also completed my own sketches for our shoot. We had two ideas to create the layering effect. The first would include using a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the models face from left to right to create an overlapping effect. However, we were prepared for this not to work as it is very time consuming and we didn’t have long! The second idea was to capture single images of the model with different make-up and hairstyles to represent each point of the day and then we would layer the images as part of post-production on Photoshop. Therefore, I have sketched out the plans for each look, including what directions we want to capture the model, the make-up and hairstyles for each look. I further sketched out a storyboard plan for our video ad, which displays our model transforming into each different look every time they turned their heads.
Additional Pre-Shoot Testing...
‘Savage Beauty’ was one of the most visually exciting exhibition’s I had ever observed. Alexander McQueen was not only a designer but was an artist, his works are the most unique and innovative creations. I had the opportunity to physically observe these pieces. Each garment was lit in a black room creating a feeling of anxiety with additional ghostly sounds transforming the designs into almost unrealistic pieces. The sharp edges and rigid detail of his jackets suited the dark and exclusive layout of the exhibition. With spinning mannequins and screens built to ceiling level, I was able to watch the catwalks that McQueen crafted, from encouraging models to walk in fire and water to designs being created live on the runway with paint splattered on a white flowing dress. His work was extravagant and theatrical, it was inspiring. This mood board just illustrates a small selection of the amazing pieces that were part of the exhibition. The layout of my mood board follows a maximum theme to represent the dramatic features and properties of his mixed media designs!
Alexander McQueen Exhibition...