The Brief Brand and package a novelty food range for Selfridges.
Research I did a research booklet looking at Selfridges the brand, own brand ranges and packaging, food photography, funny packaging and novelty packaging as well other novelty campaigns. I found this form of research really useful as I gained vast scope of research looking into all the different aspects to this brief.
Branding I began by defining the two elements to this brand. I wanted a really curvy and childish type for the word 'nosh' and a handwritten type for the word 'posh' so not only were they visually contrasting but also took on the qualities of the word. It was quite difficult to find two typefaces which strongly represent the words characteristics but also work together as one is script and the other sans serif.
Initial Ideas I had an idea for the campaign of using food photography making it appear very 'fancy' when the food was really just basic items. Key items would be the Selfridges yellow, tying in the brands identity.
Design Decisions I decided to go back to the drawing board and go beyond my original sketches for the packaging. After looking at my research booklet I started looking at using imagery and creating a personality of the concept like that of novelty/funny packaging. I started by thinking what is posh portrayed as and I came up with things such as a task, top hot, chronicle, bow tie etc. I tired applying these originally to the food to create characters but decided this wasn't the type of imagery I was going for. I tried a cartoon character but again I feel this wasn’t appropriate to the Selfridges brand.
I decided on a more stripped back and ‘basic’ packaging layout. It was agreed in the crit that this style suited the concept more as well as the brand. I used real packaging for the products to create to scale nets. I first did mock ups to test and see if the nets worked.
The Campaign I purchased the products that were going to be sprayed the Selfridges yellow and the paint from a graffiti store. Then using the facilities at uni I sprayed the items with a few coats to get a strong vibrant colour. I sketched out all the items shoot layout more thoroughly trying to plan out other objects that would feature to create the narrative scene. I needed to ensure I was planned and organised completely in order to get the images I was after. Therefore I did some further research in this so I got the styling and props right for what I wanted to achieve.
Visual Research This was the kind of rustic feel I wanted my images to come out as. I noticed that the items used in these were quirky and quite vintage in comparison to items usually used for eating/drinking. I also looked at photographs of scenarios of eating such as breakfast to see what items compliment the items of food I’m photographing so the items I selected are appropriate and people familiarise with them.
The Shoot We played around with composition and angle so we had varied shots. I learnt that from sketches to the real thing is a lot more difficult. Although I had roughly visualised the images before hand the scale of things are different when it comes to putting them together. I cut down the images we had shot down to a few that I felt had the positioning and angle that worked best. I started playing around with layout and scale after but was struggling to make it work as I had envisioned. There was a lot of space to fill so I'm going to rethink the layout of the branding for the campaign. I think a suitable tag-line would work well in selling the idea of the novelty brand.
Although I thought the photos had a good basis I felt that they needed to be edited in order to give a stronger impression of rustic food photography. However not being very familiar with Photoshop. or editing food photography I looked online for some guidance of the kind of effects applied to enhance the images. I applied the same effects to all the images maintaining the focus on the food. I then experimented with various layout options of applying the branding and campaign content. I got feedback from the crit where suggestions were made about layout and the images I used. I changed the milk image to one where the composition didn’t effect the legibility of the text.
Online Campaign I wanted to show the campaign across different mediums so I decide to create a banner for the website using the photography I had taken. As my images are portrait it was hard to crop in particular way as the banner is long landscape. I tried adapting the layout they apply on the banners at the moment. However I feel this didn't fit my image as well as it had theres. I tried altering the composition of the text to left aligned and centred however I felt centred maintained continuity with the packaging and campaign posters. I felt the image was mainly what was not working for me. The composition was off because the beans where to high instead of centred but that was to try and reveal the other elements of the photo. Therefore I tried cropping the image to just contain the beans. This allowed for a lot of negative space for text to be placed. I felt it worked well having the darker are of the image for the text however the beans weren't in the right direction to the text. Therefore this led me to crop it on the other side of image which meant including the bread. I then edited out the bread on Photoshop. giving a dark grey for the text to be applied to. This worked a lot better and kept the focus on the beans. As another alternative I tried creating a banner without the photography. This I think could be an option to work alongside the photography campaign giving two different elements.
The Resolution I did a photos-hoot with my final packaging for Posh Nosh as I wanted to have good quality images suitable for my portfolio. I edited these slightly in Photoshop. to get better contrast and to neaten some edges. I was really pleased with the result and I feel the stock really photographed well. I've enjoyed shooting and directing photoshoots this week and I think its a skill that I defiantly want to carry forward in the future.
This brief taught me so many skills especially with Photoshop. I got to create a brand, packaging and art direct a campaign. This brief made me realise the kind of work I want to in the future and what I enjoy doing most within design. I really enjoyed coming up with a concept and applying it across all these different mediums. I can tell from the end result that me enjoying the brief makes a difference to the outcomes as I am willing to put more time and effort into it to get it exactly how I want it. My new skills in this brief has helped push all my other briefs as well and develop them to much stronger points.