BRANDING & PROMOTING BLOOMBERG SUMMER PARTY JASON KANG FINAL MAJOR PROJECT
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THE BRIEF RESEARCH THEME 1 THEME 2 THEME 3 PERSONAL PROJECT EVALUATION
THE BRIEF
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The brief for this project was to produce three possible themes for Bloomberg’s annual Summer Party. This will be used in a pitch to the company’s board of directors for selection and approval.
Also, for each theme, generate and illustrate ideas for the internal promotion and advertising of the event that would raise awareness and encourage interest.
Each theme, like a brand, should consist of a logo and a look-and-feel that effectively conveys the idea and mood of the theme. Along with this, demonstrate several graphic applications of the theme.
Lastly, present several ideas of ways that each theme can inspire the production of the party such as the activities, attractions and spaces.
This brief is fictional and was self-written for the purpose of this final major project and will not be actually pitched to Bloomberg’s board of directors. However, it is inspired by and similar to the brief given to the lead designer at the London Bloomberg office where I did an internship from January to March 2010. The descriptions
of Bloomberg’s annual Summer Party as described later in this project is real.
RESEARCH
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“ Bloomberg is about information: accessing it, reporting it, analyzing it and distributing it, faster and more accurately than any other organization.” “ The New York-based company employs more than 10,000 people in over 135 offices around the world.” “ The BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL® service, the core product of Bloomberg, is the fastestgrowing real-time financial information network in the world.”
RESEARCH BLOOMBERG
During my internship at Bloomberg, I recall that my first few impressions were that the company is really big, vastly international and of course, very rich. Bloomberg is the leader in its field of financial data and information, followed by its main competitor Thomson Reuters. I began to realise that the company, playing such a big and important part in the financial world really puts it in a different category. The scale on which the company operates was quite mindblowing to find out. And of course,
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that colossal scale also translates into the scale of the parties and events the company puts on. Undertaking that internship helped put this into perspective for me. I realise that the way I think and design also needed to change and be put into the same scale and perspective.
1&2 Images of Bloomberg’s largest and main office on Lexington Avenue in New York City. 3 Quotes that best describes the company, taken from the company’s website about.bloomberg. com
RESEARCH BLOOMBERG
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ABOVE A brief and simplified timeline of the company’s history.
Arts & Design
Bloomberg culture sustainability
RESEARCH BLOOMBERG CULTURE
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To really understand the company, I thought it was important to understand what its culture is like, what it is made of, and what the company values as important and key in the way it is run.
philanthropy
ABOVE The three core aspects that make up the company’s culture.
“ Our business is information. Our aim is excellence, and to achieve it we’ve developed a culture that enables everyone to perform at their best. Our attitudes are as open as the spaces we work in. We encourage learning, inclusiveness and interaction. No on hesitates to ask a question, put forward an idea or do more than they’ve been asked to do. Bloomberg’s offices buzz with enthusiasm and creative energy.” “ We have over 135 offices around the globe, and each typifies our mission: CLARITY, TRANSPARENCY, EMPOWERMENT, and INNOVATION. In addition, we are passionate about the arts and it shows. Our offices integrate art and design as another way to communicate our values.”
RESEARCH BLOOMBERG CULTURE: ARTS & DESIGN
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ABOVE Quotes from the About Bloomberg website that describe the value the company puts on Arts and Design. RIGHT Images of Bloomberg’s offices in New York, London and several other locations.
“ We help charities and non-profit organizations around the world. We support education and literacy programs, health and medical research, social work, arts and culture, public parks and the environment.” “ Our “Best of Bloomberg” program encourages everyone who works for us to give their time, energy and expertise to the many charitable organizations we support.” “ Our people have donated thousands of volunteer hours to charitable organizations around the world.”
RESEARCH BLOOMBERG CULTURE: PHILANTHROPY
ABOVE Quotes from the About Bloomberg website that expresses the importance of Philanthropy as a core aspect of the company’s culture. RIGHT Images of philanthrophy projects undertaken by employees all around the world.
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“ Bloomberg L.P. has developed an aggressive sustainability program. We will reduce our carbon footprint 50% from our 2007 baseline by 2013 through energy efficiency,increased renewable resource use and comprehensive waste reduction strategies.” “ As an extension of our continued commitment to the communities in which we work, we engage our employees, vendors and customers in setting standards, promoting clean technologies and improving natural resource utilization across departments and regions.”
RESEARCH BLOOMBERG CULTURE: SUSTAINABILITY
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ABOVE Quotes from the About Bloomberg website that describe the value the company puts on Sustainability RIGHT Images of Bloomberg’s efforts in this area.
KEY FACTS ABOUT SUMMER PARTY ITS AN ANNUAL AND INTERNAL PARTY FOR BLOOMBERG’S EMPLOYEES BLOOMBERG EUROPE’S SUMMER PARTY IS HELD IN LONDON THE EUROPE SUMMER PARTY ACCOMMODATES MORE THAN 4000 PEOPLE summer party is the only company party of the year (as they don’t organize a christmas party) and so it is done on a large scale
RESEARCH SUMMER PARTY
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SUMMER PARTY FOR EMPLOYEES IN OFFICES AROUND EUROPE INCLUDES A RETURN FLIGHT TO LONDON AND A NIGHT AT A HOTEL
THROUGHOUT THE ALL-DAY, ONE DAY EVENT, ALL FOOD, BEVERAGES, ENTERTAINMENT, RIDES AND ACTIVITIES ARE ALL FREE
the company’s budget for the event is in the millions of pounds* RIGHT Images of the Europe Summer Party in 2009
* When I spoke to Magali Nishimura, one of Bloomberg London’s designers who was closely involved in the design of the event, how much the budget is for the party, she simply rolled her eyes and said, “Millions. You wouldn’t believe it. The whole party feels like Disneyland, but except for just for one day.”
Jason: Hey Kelly, could you tell us who you are, and what it is you do in Bloomberg? Kelly: Hi, I’m Kelly and I work in the Events Department in Bloomberg, I look after all large-production events, and I look after them for Europe and the emerging markets. J: Why does Bloomberg put on events for its employees? What is its purpose and why are events important? K: Internal events for example are really great, because what they do is they break down the barriers, and it allows different people to communicate with senior management, etc. It just allows everyone to all be in one room at once which they (the employees) don’t ever really get to do, and get to communicate with people away from the office environment. Also, what it does is that it boosts morale, it gives the impression that my
RESEARCH SUMMER PARTY
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company appreciates me. We like our events to reflect the brand, and the brand obviously is a very expensive, high-end brand, so most of our events will carry that similar high-end status. And also, its a walking advertisement for Bloomberg. Our events are very cutting edge, and everything we produce there, from a creative perspective, hopefully inspires people as well.
J: How important is design in the whole process of putting on an event? K: In a high production event, there needs to be a common thread works throughout, from the invites, to the map, to when you go the event. I think design keeps things fresh, and again, it will inspire somebody, they see something, they take it away. And it keeps you up-to-date, so i think design is incredibly important, because if you use last year’s designs all the time, everything will look tired,
ABOVE An interview I had with Kelly Blackshaw while on my internship. RIGHT Images from the interview.
and design is a very easy way to inject colours, and beautiful things into events. J: How important is it to keep things fresh, and why? K: Because of the nature of the company and the product, Bloomberg is always at the forefront, and because of that, we’re always looking for the new, updating ‘thing’. Everything we do needs to be ahead of its competitors. For example, we want a dance act before it hits big time. We like using things just before they become famous. We want the brand to be perceived as a leader and a forerunner, and that is also carried through in our events. J: How many people do you usually expect in a summer party?
K: Last year, 4556 people turned up from all over Europe, and they get flown in to London for the party, and they get a hotel for the night. And when you get an invite, its a plus one.
Pride
It gives employees a sense of pride to be a part of a company that produces such amazing and spectacular events as Summer Party
Interaction
The party allows the employees to all be at one place at the same time, giving them the chance to interact with other employees away from the office environment. Also, its a setting that helps in breaking the boundaries between junior and senior managements, which in the long term, benefits the company.
Why does Bloomberg put on Summer Party for its employees? Motivation
It is something fun to look forward to, and after, something to remember, and that boosts morale and motivates employees to work hard and stay focused.
RESEARCH SUMMER PARTY
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Before I can begin designing for Summer Party, I thought it was very important to identify its purpose, and the core reasons it is organized. Only by knowing the things Summer Party sets out to achieve, can I move on to think and generate ideas that suit those needs.
Appreciation
A way to make employees feel appreciated and valued for all their hard work and contribution to the company.
ABOVE Important points extracted from my interview with Kelly
SUMMER PARTY Is Fun Relaxing Enjoyable Grand Big Summery Easy Playful Exciting Chilled-out Family fun Stressless Unwinding Loosen up
Calm Recreation Leisure Pleasure Cheerfulness Jolly Lively Positive Sun Beach Balloons Birds Sand Beach chairs
RESEARCH SUMMER PARTY
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Umbrella Hammock Sleep Grass Park Barbecue Cold beer Flowers Drinks Cocktails Games Sunglasses Bubbles Outdoors
Fruits Smiles Happy faces Bright Colourful Vibrant Brilliant Radiant Rainbow Vivid Animated Fascinating Stimulating Neon
Here I generated a list of words to help identify the existing ideas associated with summer and summer party. This was a good place to start as there were already many themes that I could then use as a guideline for myself when I started the design process.
IS NOT Interesting Ecstatic Dazzling Sparkling Glittering Beaming Glossy Merry Perky Exuberant Bouncy Chirpy
Stressful Painful Hard Boring Serious Corporate Difficult Demanding Pressured Tense Uptight Cloudy Overcast Dark
Dull Monotonous Tedious Bland Dry Stale Gloomy Somber Negative
ABOVE A list of words that describe what summer party and summer is and is not synonymous with.
RESEARCH SUMMER PARTY
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ON THIS PAGE Images that represent the words on the list (on the previous page).
RESEARCH SUMMER PARTY
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ON THIS PAGE (CONTINUED) Images that represent the words on the list (on the previous page).
RESEARCH EVENTS
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ON THIS PAGE Here I did some research into large scale and large budget events to see what is being done in the industry. This helped me get an idea of the great possibilities and options I have. Also, it helped get me inspired.
RESEARCH EVENTS
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ON THIS PAGE More research into the events industry. 1,2,3,4 I was particularly amazed by these four as they were custom designed structures done by famous achitect firm Zaha Hadid. As a whole, the structures were beautiful and attractive to look at, and they created interesting spaces brought to life by colourful lights.
RESEARCH EVENTS
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ON THIS PAGE These are light installations done by Cinimod Studio who make interactive lighting and architecture installations for retail outlets, exhibitions and events. I love how they make the spaces so much more appealing and inspiring just by using light and colour.
RESEARCH ADVERTISING & PROMOTION
In the next few pages, I look at advertising and promotion and how they can be done the good old-fashioned way, and also virally. I look at three movie campaigns; The Dark Knight, Iron Man 2, and Wolverine. I look into movie campaigns because they are quite similar to events in that they have a release date in the future, and the ads are designed to build an anticipation towards the arrival of that date. I am particularly interested at how the ads slowly reveal information to its viewers.
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1 First, a website thedarkknight.warnerbros.com appeared on the internet. It was a static website, without any buttons, links or hints. This was the beginning of the film’s viral campaign. 2 Later, unbranded posters featuring the image above began to appear in major cities in the U.S. incuding Los Angeles. Around this same time, the static website began to link to link through to ibelieveinharveydent.warnerbros. com which featured an identical image.
RESEARCH ADVERTISING CASE STUDY: DARK KNIGHT VIRAL CAMPAIGN
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3 Within the next 48-72 hours, all the posters in the major cities were defaced like in the image above. At the same time, another website, i believe in harvey dent too appeared. When you went to the website, it will ask for your email address and after submitting it, you will be sent an email with the coordinates for a pixel that you could remove from the site. 4 With users able to remove just one pixel each, a viral effort was underway to spread the word to get others to register and remove a pixel. 5
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In less than a day, thousands and thousands of unique visitors had visited the site to remove a pixel - ultimately revealing the face of Joker. 5&6 It doesn’t stop there. If you visit the I Believe In Harvey Dent Too website now, you get a black error page with a message “Page not found.” But, if you highlight the page with your mouse you see the message at left - an almost unending series of Ha ha ha’s. It was also reported that many Joker cards began to appear in strategic areas around the major cities. 6
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The success of this film’s promotion campaign can be credited to the fact that it is designed to be viral. Also, because of its nature as a film, there are already many film buffs and online film communities who chase and look out for hints for any upcoming and anticipated films. When hints, posters, and teaser trailers are found on the internet, people immediately share them with their friends via Facebook or Twitter, who in turn share them with their friends, creating a rapid ripple effect on the internet. The beauty of viral ads is that, if it is done well, most of the publicity is carried out by the comsumers themselves.
RESEARCH ADVERTISING CASE STUDY: DARK KNIGHT VIRAL CAMPAIGN
Later, a series of teaser posters started to appear online, beginning with posters without release dates and instead wrote ‘Coming Soon’ LEFT, and ended with the release of the final posters, with the film’s release dates, and images of the latest Batman RIGHT. Teaser posters like this creates rumours amongst its viewers as they begin to ask questions such as, “Is this the new Batman movie?”, “Is this Joker?”, “When is it going to be in cinemas?”, “I’m going to check if the trailer is up on YouTube.” This builds up a sense of excitement and anticipation for the next poster that could reveal another hint or clue about the film. And so, the effect of this is that viewers are actually looking out for the ads, and this makes the promotion campaign much more effective.
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whos name is not yet known.
RESEARCH ADVERTISING CASE STUDY: IRON MAN 2 CAMPAIGN
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The promotion of the film Iron Man 2, started in a similar fashion as many highly-anticipated films; with rumours about the film circulating online. The first hint was the above, an image released online that was very quickly circulated around blogs and film forums, Facebook and Twitter. It was an image of a newspaper or magazine article that was vaguely titled ‘The Secret Life of Mr. Stark, who was the alter ego of Iron Man in the film.
This image worked succesfully at getting the attention of the public who began anticipating and searching for more hints about the film. Similarly, it started a buzz in online communities and on the street with people questioning what the image was, and the possibility of a sequel. Later, teaser posters began to emerge that confirmed that there was indeed a sequel. This was done by just using the number ‘2’ in the recognizable Iron Man typeface. The first and second poster also reveals a new character,
The posters answered the questions of whether there is a new Iron Movie and when it will hit the cinemas, but gave rise to more questions about what the film is about, who is this new character and many more. The anticipation and expectation is built as the posters get circulated and talked about online, and on the street and thus raising the public’s awareness. Almost at the same time, trailers begin to be released on websites like YouTube and iTunes Movie Trailers, that quickly gets hundreds and thousands of views, all the way until the day the film hits the cinemas.
RESEARCH ADVERTISING CASE STUDY: WOLVERINE CAMPAIGN
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On this page, a similar campaign is done, and this time, it begins with posters that are only images, devoid of any information whatsoever, not even the name of the movie. But at the same time, almost everyone knew what it was about because of the iconic three blades. As more posters are released, they reveal more information about the film (the title, the characters, release date). This subsequently increases public awareness and anticipation that is again caused by questions and rumours shared amongst the public, that builds up all the way to the film’s screening date.
RESEARCH SUMMER THEMED GRAPHIC DESIGN
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ON THIS PAGE Here I began to collect good graphic design that interest and inspire me and that reflects the summer theme; bright, colourful, vibrant.
RESEARCH SUMMER THEMED GRAPHIC DESIGN
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ON THIS PAGE (CONTINUED) More summery design I like. I particularly like the bottom row of images. To me, they seem very lively and dynamic, and I felt they definitely represent the mood of summer.
DEVELOPMENT & OUTCOMES THEME 1 27
THEME 1 FOOD
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At this point, I began generating ideas for themes, and based on the Summer Synonyms list, I chose one of the words, ‘Food’ as a route to go down. I started by collecting attractive images of food that look delicious.
THEME 1 FOOD
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ON THIS PAGE Some more savoury foods and dessert that are party favourites.
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THEME 1 FOOD: LOGO DEVELOPMENT
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Then I began working on the logo for the event. I decided to use a more friendly, rounded san serif typeface for this theme as I wanted it to have a playful and fun feel about it.
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1 I started by just typing the word Summer Party, and through a typo, I notice I could employ a play of words and make it suMMMer Party as a sound one makes to indicate that something is delicious. 2 Then, to add more emphasis to it, I cut out some of the edges to make it look like bite marks. This proved to be tricky as the logo needs to be small and
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therefore cannot have too much detail. 3-7 Next, I worked on other variations and this time incorporating the name with illustrations of different party foods like burgers, pizza and kebabs. This was slightly more interesting, but I was met with the same problem. In order for the illustrations to look convincing, there needed
to be a certain level of detail, and that was what the logo couldn’t afford. Trying this out, I also realised that food is not the easiest of things to illustrate. 8 Then I tried to simplify things by drawing a simple knife and fork and made the logo look like a table set. But I didn’t feel it was working.
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THEME 1 FOOD: LOGO DEVELOPMENT
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1&2 I then went back to the initial idea and continued developing it. This time using the fork I drew to emphasize the theme of Food, I created a few variations. 3 With a tutor’s suggestion, I decided to leave out the bite marks as there were too many elements working together in the same logo. I tried instead to illustrate a hotdog this
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time, an all time party food favourite. As a logo on its own, I think it works, but perhaps in this context. This is because there may be many vegetarians among the Bloomberg employees who may not see this as attractive, or even worse it could be offensive in some way. I then thought about making a logo family of different types of meat-eating
and vegetarian foods, but a salad is quite hard to illustrate. So, I decided not to go down that line. 4 Eventually, I stuck with the initial logo, but even more simplified, taking out the ‘2010’ to make it less bulky
THEME 1 FOOD: LOGO DEVELOPMENT
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Here, the final decided logo. The colours I use here are slightly bread-ish brow for the background and the fork as most foods are interestingly that colour. As for the words, I used a stronger, more contrasting purple, from the colour of some berries.
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THEME 1 FOOD: LOOK & FEEL DEVELOPMENT
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At the same of the logo development, I began developing the look and feel of the brand.
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1 In my first attempt, I tried to go typographic because as I have mentioned earlier, food is quite hard to draw. And so, I used words like ‘eat’ and ‘food’ and translated them into some 18 European languages, including Danish, Hungarian, Polish and French. The first outcome was a mash of words that could maybe be used as a background. But I didn’t really like it, so
I continued developing it. 2 Next, I tried spacing the letters out quite a bit and visually, it improved. After trying it out on some applications (next page), I thought that it had potential to work. 3&4 Then, I tried out another variation. This time, keeping it simple again. Here I used the bite marks element and rea-
lised that it works better here as it is larger. Later, a change to the colours of the logo led to a change in this too. No. 4 is the final decided one.
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THEME 1 FOOD: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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Here, I began to apply the brand on several items to get an idea of how it would work in various applications and situations.
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1 The logo applied onto a lanyard. 2-4 Developing the look and feel by applying it on nametags. No. 4 is the final decided one.
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THEME 1 FOOD: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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Another application is the microsite for the Summer Party. Bloomberg employees access this in their terminal by keying in the function called FUN <GO> in the top bar of the terminal. They will be then brought to this page where they can navigate through the website to find out more information about the event.
1 A mock up of the microsite for Summer Party 2 This is how the microsite looks on the screen within the terminal. As Summer Party is an internal Bloomberg event, the microsite lives within the private Bloomberg server and can only be accessed by Bloomberg employees. 3 Here is an earlier version of the design.
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THEME 1 FOOD: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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Also, another application of the brand is on staff t-shirts. These shirts are worn by the events staff working on the day of the event unless they had a special costume that they had to wear. These shirts have to be striking so that the staff can be easily identified.
1 The earlier version of the staff t-shirt in different colours. 2 The final t-shirt with the decided brand colours.
THEME 1 FOOD: PROMOTION & SPATIAL DESIGN
The next part I worked on is the promotion and advertising side of things. All Bloomberg offices have canteens and the image on the right is of the London officeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s canteen which provides employees unlimited free food like crisps, nuts, fruits, cereal and chocolate and drinks such as coffee, tea, soft drinks and juices. As an advertisement for the upcoming Summer Party, fruit bars or drinks bars like in the images above could be strategically placed
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in the canteens for a short duration of time. These bars would be manned by a promotion staff and exotic fruits and juices could be served here for the employees. News about this would easily spread through word of mouth around the office. If the event branding is displayed, then an awareness of the event will be raised. On the other hand, if no information about the event is revealed yet, a buzz is still created amongst employees who will wonder what it is about.
THEME 1 FOOD: PROMOTION & SPATIAL DESIGN
Here, is a similar bar as before, but bigger, and this time with event branding displayed. With the bigger bar, more fruits can be served, and there can even be a bartender mixing and making special fruit juice cocktails for employees. A bigger buzz will be created by this and at the same time attracting employees to want to be there for the party.
To view this structure in 3D, open the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Food bar.skpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; file with Google Sketchup.
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THEME 1 FOOD: PROMOTION & SPATIAL DESIGN
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Also, the advertising of the event can break away from the common methods into areas where employees donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect to see ads.
ABOVE Ads like this can be placed on the lift doors and whether any information about the event is revealed or not, it still creates a hype in the offices.
DEVELOPMENT & OUTCOMES THEME 2 40
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE
For this theme, I chose to explore a more arty and creative route. As Kelly mentioned in the interview that one of the purposes of events like Summer Party are to inspire the employees, and this is what this theme looks to do. The words from the Summer Synonym list that describe this theme are Dazzling, Exciting, Vibrant, Colourful and Esctatic. As a great word to illustrate this, I chose â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Kaleidoscopeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. On this page are graphic design examples that embody this theme.
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THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE
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ON THIS PAGE Here are some more images that represent the bright, vivid, colourful and lively theme. I personally like the light paintings on the bottom row as they are a great depiction of the mood of this theme.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: LOGO DEVELOPMENT
In the logo development of this theme, it was simple and quick as the direction was very clear from the beginning. The logo was to have sharp and edgy lines as opposed to the smooth lines of the Food logo as it needs to represent vibrancy and ecstacy. The colours used are aslo chosen for the same reason. Red is used in the background as it is an energetic and dynamic colour, Also, as a background colour, it gives more contrast to the main colours of the logo.
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TOP ROW The development of the logo began with the numbers â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;2010â&#x20AC;&#x2122; but it proved to be too bulky and had too much detail that I try to avoid in logos. After some tweaking in the composition and colours, the final logo is birthed.
BOTTOM ROW As the main logo is still quite detailed, a smaller, less intricate one is needed. one that can be used in smaller sizes. Here the development began by playing around with the sizes of the words, leading up to a logo that looks a little too much like the London 2012 Olympics logo, and on to the final one.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: LOGO DEVELOPMENT
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The final logos.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: LOOK & FEEL
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When the logo is not in the picture, and a red background is not needed, the illustration style above is employed. Inspired by artist Matt W. Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection called Crystals and Lasers, the look and feel of this theme takes on a brighter, more radiant, and happier feel.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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Here the logo is applied on a lanyard and an employee name tag that is worn on the day of the event.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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Here, a mock up of the microsite for the Summer Party, and an idea of how it would look on the Bloomberg Terminal.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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As metioned in the first theme, the t-shirts have to help the staff stand out from the crowd at the party and should be easily identifiable. The t-shirt here does just that.
LEFT This is the first version of the staff t-shirt designed. Lacking the same vibrancy in it, it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as attractive as it should be. RIGHT Here, redesigned, the shirt is more animated.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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The brand can also be applied on to many surfaces of things in the party. One such is on the fold-out deck chairs. A simple monochromatic design can be easily and cost efficiently printed in different colours resulting in various bright coloured, themed deck chairs around the whole event venue.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: SPATIAL DESIGN
The colourful, bright kaleidoscope theme of the brand can also be easily translated into lively spatial design.
To view this structure in 3D, open the ‘K Entrance.skp’ file with Google Sketchup.
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Here, a mock up of what the entrance to the venue could look like.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: SPATIAL DESIGN
Here, the brand’s theme translates tself into a sculpture that can also be used as benches. Structures like this can be placed all around the event venue, adding life and colour to the space.
To view this structure in 3D, open the ‘K seats.skp’ file with Google Sketchup.
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THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: SPATIAL DESIGN
One of the ways the Kaleidoscope theme could translate itself is into an attraction. Here, I designed a very simple structure which basically is the joining of a giant kaleidoscope and a camera. It works like a normal photo booth, just adding the real, life size kaleidoscope. These can be put all around the venue and people can snap and bring the photos home as souvenirs.
To view this structure in 3D, open the ‘Giant kaleidoscope.skp’ file with Google Sketchup.
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1 The life sized kaleidoscope. With the subjects on one end (they can turn the kaleidscope to get a good angle), and a camera on the other, snap, and you have a photo of you and your friends ‘kaleidoscoped’. 2 Camera at the other end 3 A mock up of the kaleidoscoped photo effect
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THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: PROMOTION
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2>3>4>5>6>7 Most Bloomberg offices have lightboxes in common, high-traffic areas. As a promotion to the summer party, a series of images could be put up on display, starting with not many elements and gradually revealing more and more. This could be done in the duration of a week, or a few weeks ending with the final reveal of
the full image, but no sign of Summer Party except for a pointer to FUN <GO>. This will stir the anticipation of employees who are guessing and want to know what it is about. 1 Later when the Summer Party theme becomes more known, the main logo can be displayed on the lightbox.
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THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: PROMOTION
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1 Here again, as promotion for the event, the kaleidoscope design can appear on surfaces of the office such as escalators. This can be with or without the Summer Party logo on display, depending on the purpose (to cause employees to wonder and talk about it, or simply to create a buzz for the event).
2 Another thing that can be done for this theme which is quite exciting, is that the common areas of the offices, (in this case, the canteen of the London office), can be brought to life with light shows at high-traffic times, such as breakfast, lunch and teabreaks. Again, these can be done with or without the Summer Party logo. Because this is simply
very out of the ordinary for the employees, there will be a lot of talk and hype generated by this, resulting in increased anticipation and interest in the event.
THEME 2 KALEIDOSCOPE: PROMOTION
As all the major and unconventional advertising takes place, the familiar and old fashioned methods like simple Flash e-vites reaffirms them.
RIGHT A mock up of how the e-vite would look on the Bloomberg Terminal.
To view this e-vite animation in Flash, open the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;K evite.swfâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; file with Adobe Flash Player.
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ABOVE Flash e-vite that animates and gives basic information to the employee, and pointing them to the event microsite.
DEVELOPMENT & OUTCOMES THEME 3 56
THEME 3 TRAVEL
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This last theme takes on the words Fun, Relaxed, Sun, Playful and Beach. This theme takes on the idea of a holiday, and more spesifically the fun and adventure of traveling abroad. Here are some images that portray this.
THEME 3 TRAVEL
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ON THIS PAGE Individual items and things that represent the Travel theme.
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THEME 3 TRAVEL: LOGO DEVELOPMENT
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The logo for this theme needed to have a fun and yet relaxed feel to it and it needed to capture the essence of travel in a playful way.
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1 The logo development for this theme had quite a somber start. The first logo I did was made to resemble an immigration stamp in a passport. But this wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too succesful as many people thought it was a mail stamp. 2-6 In need of something more straightforward, I drew an aeroplane and tried incorporating the words Summer Party into
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it. But none of them were succesful either as they lacked the simple attractive beauty that a logo should possess. Logos 4 and 6 comes quite close though. 7 It was the combination of logo 4 and 6 that gave birth to the next logo which works much better. 8 In this version, I drew a thick black outline to
give the logo more solidity. This style gave birth to the look and feel of the theme in later illustrations. 9 This is the final logo in the chosen colours; yellow and green to represent the sun, and nature, (two main reasons many people travel during the summer)
THEME 3 TRAVEL: LOGO DEVELOPMENT
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LEFT The final full logo RIGHT The simple version of the logo, to use on smaller sizes. Applied on a blue background to represent the sky (and also the sea).
THEME 3 TRAVEL: LOOK & FEEL DEVELOPMENT
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The next step here was to develop the look and feel of this theme and as mentioned before, the thick black outline and illustration style of the logo gave birth to the stye that would be used all throughout the theme. With the images I collected of travel related items or things, I drew them in the same style. The result is a variety of colourful illustrations that represent travel in a fun, bold and playful way.
My favourite illustration of the lot has to be the orange flip-flops. They are a simple and yet great representative of the mood of the summer. And for me personally, a reminder of my enjoyable travel experiences.
THEME 3 TRAVEL: LOOK & FEEL
Once all the items are drawn, they are placed all overlapping each other, creating a cheery and radiant mix of colours. And although it seems like a mess, its gives a sense of spontaneity that embodies this theme. In many cases, this works as a great background image thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s striking and bold, and demands attention.
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THEME 3 TRAVEL: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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Here the logo is applied on a lanyard and an employee name tag that is worn on the day of the event.
THEME 3 TRAVEL: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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Here, a mock up of the microsite for the Summer Party, and an idea of how it would look on the Bloomberg Terminal.
THEME 3 TRAVEL: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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LEFT The first design of the staff t-shirt had the colours green and blue swapped. After some feedback from a tutor, I noticed that the main colour here was green that represented nature. Nature is one of the elements of the theme but is not the main focus.
RIGHT And so, when swapped places with each other, the colours now made more sense with the blue as the focus.
THEME 3 TRAVEL: BRAND APPLICATIONS
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As mentioned in the previous theme, deck chair cloths can be printed in single-colour, making it more economical, and they can be printed in the theme colours. And these can be placed around the whole venue, adding a sense of continuity in the theme throughout the place.
THEME 3 TRAVEL: SPATIAL DESIGN
The look and feel also easily translates into spatial design as seen here. A big, bold, cheeful entrance to a big, bold and cheerful party.
To view this structure in 3D, open the ‘Travel Entrance.skp’ file with Google Sketchup.
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THEME 3 TRAVEL: PROMOTION
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For the promotion side of the event, the travel image jumble can also be employed like above, on a lightwall. And it can be done with or without any event logo or link. Again, this will help create a buzz amongst employees who try to guess what it is about.
THEME 3 TRAVEL: PROMOTION
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For another ad to raise awareness for the event, vinyls of the different footwear (flip-flops, sandals, flippers) can be printed and stuck on to the escalator steps. This can also be done with or without the Summer Party logo depending on its purpose.
THEME 3 TRAVEL: PROMOTION
And here is a good old-fashioned e-vite to reaffirm the other promotion efforts.
RIGHT A mock up of how the e-vite would look on the Bloomberg Terminal.
To view this e-vite animation in Flash, open the ‘Travel evite.swf’ file with Adobe Flash Player.
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ABOVE Classic Flash e-vite that gets sent out to all the employees
PERSONAL PROJECT EVALUATION
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This project was a good-sized and quite wellrounded project to me. I thought that the brief I set for myself was challenging but interesting. As it is a branding focused project, I felt relatively comfortable through most of the project as I have undertaken many branding projects before and I was familiar with the design process specific to this. In terms of branding and promoting an event on the scale of Bloomberg’s Summer Party, I found it slightly hard to get perspective when it comes to budget and feasibility. I find that I’m limited to what I know is doable and possible. This project has been a good learning curve for me to step out of what I was comfortable with (because it simply isn’t going to cut it in Bloomberg’s context) and start thinking and doing things like how they would do it. I had to look at what was done for the Summer Party in the previous years in terms of promotion and branding, and also, the actual events within the event, the activities, the food, and be inspired to think on that level.
PERSONAL PROJECT EVALUATION
On that note, I realize that in the early stages of the project, I spent a lot of time thinking and trying to process my thoughts and ideas simply because of the various aspects of the project that needed my consideration. It was only when I had my thoughts organized did I begin to see any progress being made. It was a good learning episode. I also found that thoroughly developing three different themes at the same time was not an easy task. Because I wanted them to be quite contrasting with each other, it was even
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tougher. The colours, the ideas and themes started looking similar to each other at one point or another and I had to consciously pull them away from each other again. This required a lot more extra thinking into ways that these three themes would be distinctively different. Attempting spatial design for the first time too, was tough, but a great learning process. I started this project not knowing how to do what I did, and I came out of it learning a new skill that would definitely benefit me. At the beginning, I had to watch many Google Sketchup tutorials on how to perform basic tasks and build basic structures. This obviously led to more time spent on learning how to use the software than on actually producing design work. But nevertheless, it was worth it. Also, not to mention, swapping between using Sketchup and Adobe Illustrator was a nightmare as shortcut and navigation keys were totally different. This became completely frustrating at times, but I’m glad I pushed through. Of the three themes produced, I think the weakest is the Food theme, followed by the Kaleidoscope theme, and the strongest and my favourite, the Travel theme. In terms of the theme logo as well, I personally like the Travel logo the best. I think its because its just a very simple, but strong, bold and aesthetically good looking logo, and sometimes I find, that’s the most important thing. I really enjoyed drawing the illustrations of the objects for the Travel theme. For the promotion aspect, I thought the Kaleidoscope theme had the strongest promotion
and advertising. But following not far behind is the Food theme and the Travel theme. Fortunately, some last minute ideas managed to find its way in there, resulting in a variety of good promotion methods. I wish I had more experience and time to do more spatial design as I felt that the project lacked in that area slightly. I have a lot of ideas in my imagination, but many eventually stayed there and didn’t become actual 3D models simply because they were too hard to design and I lacked the speed and experience. And so, I had to forgo some ideas to gain more time. Eventually, I think this project came together well and I did most of the things I set out to achieve. Also, I’m quite happy with the PDF I made. I think it clearly maps out all the different aspects of the project, and one can read it and follow and understand it quite simply.