Research I went into department stores and boots to look at the cosmetics and skincare ranges and brands. I wanted to look particularly look at a similar target market and price range to what my brand 'Self' will be targeting. The current natural ranges within the beauty market often use imagery of nature to reflect the organic nature side or green tones. I wanted to steer away from this typical approach and reflect that aspect of the brand through alternative ways. The key things in this brief was to reflect its natural and fresh faced purpose that will encourage a more natural beauty than the cover up factor.
Its main audience is young females so it needed to attract them to a different view on make up and skincare, using organic ingredients to create and enhance a healthy and natural appearance. I think it needs to combine the essence of Simple skincare range with make up ranges like Max Factor and Soap and Glory. My initial ideas concentrated on stripped back sans serif typefaces with a cool fresh mint colour as a way of representing the organic, natural and fresh brand identity.
Visual Research I felt stuck in a rut in how to layout and make this brand interesting therefore I decided to expand my visual research to interesting packaging with different finishes and processes. I ranged from illustration, to 3D, to photography to pattern. I found this hugely beneficial as although I didn't necessarily like the whole design there were elements that I did admire and thought I could apply with my branding. It widened my mind to the possibilities of layout and design for this packaging whereas before I could only change the scale and composition of a few simple elements.
Idea I thought about the brand and what it was trying to achieve in its brand identity. The key aspect was to encourage natural beauty in an younger audience therefore I made the connection between human natural beauty and environmental natural beauty. I felt this could be an interesting way to make it stand out on the shelf as well as reinforce there organic ingredients and brand moral.
I really liked the strong and powerful landscape photography and I felt there was a good connection with the colours and the brand palette. Also the brand logo reflects and many of the photography have reflections or symmetry. I decided I wanted to try take my own images of natural looking models doing natural/smiley poses.
Design Development From my research I sketched out new ideas drawing inspiration from the different aspects I had admired in there designs. I really thought that using the landscape photography for the skincare range would work really well. I felt it’d be dramatic and different giving it shelf appeal and presence but also work well with the brand image and message. I decided to use different landscape photography to separate each individual product. To create unity I added a strip of the fresh mint colour of the brand across the top as well as tinting the images with that tone.
I did multiple mock ups to get the scales of the packaging to commercial size. I also ordered containers to put products in to mock up the items for the range. I wanted to make this brief as authentic as possible. I developed the nets over several attempts of trails changing point size, layout and scale.
Photoshoot I did a photoshoot with two models alongside a fashion student. I set up a studio and took head shots of the models directing there poses and changing there hair. I found this really enjoyable and a completely different experience. By doing my own shoot I was able to get shots that I wanted rather than having to work around images sourced online.
Campaign I did some research on make up campaigns to see how the photography is used and composed alongside the product and branding. I used this as a basis to create my own campaign using the images I had taken. I cut down the images to a range of poses ranging from smiling to a gaze. I edited the images trying to maintain the natural tones of the models. I then lay out the branding with lots of white space to enforce the fresh, clean branding.
Final Resolution I created a mock up of the point of sales where the campaigns and products would be displayed together. This shows how the brand applied to different formats is consistent. The white space of the campaign and the mint palette will have stand out shelf appearance alongside other ranges.
I mocked up the campaigns in a magazine spread as this is a common place for beauty advertising and also an appropriate way to reach the young target audience.
Final Images I did my own photoshoot of my final products and packaging. I used a particular set up of a white lit back drop to keep the fresh clean appearance of the brand and also to bring out the mint colour of the brand. I also took photos at an angle to cause a reflection as this is the brands logo concept. This style of photography works with the natural landscape imagery as well as the brand identity.
I edited the photos to make the shadow a soft grey to create this misty effect. This I feel works with the landscape imagery also as it almost creates a reflective water scene for the products. I was really pleased with the results of the two photoshoots that I had done for this product and realised that art direction was something more and more I was enjoying.
Brief I learnt so much from this brief and gained so many new skills. Initially I had struggled to be creative and motivated as I had a semi finalised idea of some of the brand elements from the beginning. However after doing research I was inspired and was able to push my initial ideas to something more interesting and relevant than just a logo application. This meant I then got to experiment with new creative fields such as art direction and photography, editing, styling etc.
I was pleased with the final outcomes of this brief as I felt it did reflect the brands personality but in a unique way to normal organic ranges. I also feel it reaches the young target audience in an appropriate way with a mature, modern and stylish approach. It shows the fresh natural qualities of the brand ethos through the use of colour, type and layout.