11_ by Kathryn Brooks

Brief 11_The Drinks Club The Brief

THE DRINKS CLUB

‘A well balanced person has a drink in both hands.’

CONTEXT

The Drinks Club is a small, exclusive club that focuses on the art of drinking. The approach to this brief should be a blend of a light hearted tone mixed with the aesthetic of tradition, something that shows the humor and a less serious, corporate side of the branding but still represents the tradition and sophistication of drinking.

THE BRIEF

The brief is to brand the ‘Drinks Club.’ The Drinks Club do not have an existing brand so the idea is to create a new and appropriate image that will show what the club are about. As a drink club you will have to consider an appropriate product range such as coasters, bottle labels etc. As the ‘Drinks Club’ is yet to have an existing brand you must consider what there values are and try and display this in the best way possible. It is a small club and a personal project for the founder so negotiating with members will help to drive the direction of the design further.

PREPERATION/RESEARC H SUGGES TIONS

Look into existing branding and more specifically design and packaging for current alcoholic beverages. ‘Drinks Club’ does not have an existing brand so the design and style must be well thought out and considered in order to successfully and effectively communicate the brand of ‘Drinks Club,’ which does not yet exist. Look at branding in order to realise the importance of an efficacious symbol and how logo design can be crucial. Explore various formats that could be used in your designs in order to make the brand stronger.

Brief 11_The Drinks Club Research AUDIENCE

Audience is something I had to consider, this is targetted at quite a broad group, both male and female, although slightly more directed at males, disposable income and partial to a good drink.

PRIMARY RESEARCH I looked into existing alcohol labels to get a better understanding of the style and branding and the type of aesthetics that existed already. As the ‘Drinks Club’ had no existing branding this gave me the freedom to come up with a completely new style and concept.One of my particular favourites is the Pimms label design. I think the logo design is clean and simple but has a classic feel about it, I feel the colours compliment each other nicely and there is a nice combination of types. Something to consider when printing would be foiling as I think this could make a nice finishing touch depending on the direction the branding takes, but possibly gold or bronze foiling for the logo or part of the written passage on the label.

SECONDARY RESEARCH I did some secondary research into drinks branding and also general branding within restaurants and food chains. This was really helpful in terms of inspiration for generating possible concepts and also visually what works nicely in terms of stock, logos and general design. What I had gathered from both to be quite traditional, as in a with stock, logo and concept. example Absolute Vodka, is still modern approach.

areas of research is the visual design tends simple logo, nothing too over complicated Even the more contemporary branding, for a clean and simple logo design with a more

‘Always remember, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.’

Brief 11_The Drinks Club Development

CONCEPT AND PLANNING

As I was free to create the concept from scratch I started looking at an approach that could be seen as traditional but also contemporary, I thought a good concept for this would be to look at the idea of the ‘philosophy’ of drinking, but in a light hearted, almost comical way.

SPECIFIC RESEARCH

I came across a lot of quotes about alcohol and drinking from famous philosopers, writers, politicians etc. Most of them being comical and witty which I thought was perfect for the style of branding and tone of voice i wanted to create. I gathered a bank of quotes that could be used as part of the branding. In terms of visuals for the clubs logo I started off looking at symbols that represent philosophy and initially thought about including the drinks club door number, 170, into the branding.

LOGO DEVELOPMENT After developing the concept and thinking about a logo that could embody the values and feel for the drinks club I spoke to the client, we discussed a brief history of the building that the drinks club now owns. The buildings name ‘Luccombe’ came from the Victorian era when it was built. We discussed the significance of the building to the ‘Drinks Club’ and decided that the buildings name could be incorporated into the branding as the client felt it was quite an important part of the Drinks Club. Based on research, I didn’t want to over complicate the logo design and thought with a kind of modern approach to the branding in terms of concept I wanted to make the logo look slightly more traditional. I incorporated the line ‘the philosophy of drinking’ into the logo.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I thought incorporating some photography into the branding could work now that the logo had been designed. My thinking behind this was to keep the aesthetic of photography very traditional, old fashioned alcohol bottles, wooden trays and old fashioned glasses etc. Although I was happy with the photography I didn’t really feel like it was quite right for the concept I had come up with and would also be limiting in terms of product range and printing as to keep consistent the branding would then have to be photography based.

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Brief 11_The Drinks Club Development DEVELOPMENT / PLANNING FOR PRINT

BOTTLE MOCK UP For branding a drinks club it was important to mock up the clubs logo on a bottle. I chose a certain type of bottle that I felt was in keeping with the general theme and concept of the branding, I thought the old fashioned shape and the cork lid were in keeping with the ‘philosophy’ theme. I mocked up a label to ensure the measurements were all correct. When deciding on whether the label for the drinks bottle should be printed on to clear stock or paper I looked at drinks branding that was similar to mine to see what approach they had taken. I thought in the end it was probably more in keeping with my branding to have a clear sticker opposed to printed on a certain stock.

STOCK SAMPLES For this particular brief I was struggling with a colour scheme for the branding. The branding in general looks quite contemporary but has taken certain aspects of traditional design such as the script writing for the logo. I wanted something that looked traditional and almost classic but with a contemporary feel as it is for the modern day drinker. I sampled some stocks in order to get a better idea of the colour that would suit it best, choosing darker tones rather than pastels and lighter colours.

L ASER CUTTING & STAMPS I thought incorporating wooden material into the branding would highlight the ‘traditional’ theme that I was trying to portray and also affect the stock and colour scheme choices. I used the laser cutter to produce a set of four drink coasters and a wooden board for when the bill is served. Once I had created these it helped decide on the branding colours and I liked the idea of keeping the branding a simple black and white with certain material being printed on a brown stock, in keeping with the wooden products.

DUPLEXED MEMBERSHIP CARDS Now that I had decided on a colour scheme I thought duplexing the membership cards would give a nice finish, I used black card and brown thick parchment paper to double duplex the cards, in keeping with the rest of the branding.

Brief 11_The Drinks Club Final Outcomes TH

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THE DRINKS CLUB