Part 2 Problem Solving Exercise: Point of Sale
The M&S food adverts have taken a new turn within recent years, the style of advertising is so clear to identify on video adverts and I wanted to see how this style is then employed within stores. A lot of the time the TV adverts have moving food elements showing the food coming together as well as a stark black background that highlights the bold, colourful tones of the food. By doing this we want to eat this food, it looks tasty and appetising which will drive sales.
The style from the adverts does resonate in store in some ways however, the colour contrast doesn’t seem to be as impactful. There are various different styles that are used for the advertising which works to the companies advantage. Some signage has prices on and wording, whilst others have purely images. These images are enough to guide the eye as to where they need to go. In some cases this wouldn’t be enough, however, because there are other signs with words and phrasing to lead the audience around, it works well to have signs that work for different types of readers. Some prefer words, and some prefer images. This is something that I will have to consider.
The two designs on this page perform this exact function. They tell you where everything is, and they make the food look appealing. With the image below, it is obviously important to show the variety of products that are available to the consumer. If just one piece of fruit was used, it would suggest that that section didn’t have fruit in general, perhaps just apples if this is what the picture depicted. Interestingly, these both use illustrations compared to photography. This isn’t to say that photography shouldn’t be used but with illustration, it is easier to show the ‘perfect’ apple for example. Trying to find one, or often multiples, that all look perfect in terms of shape and tones can be quite difficult so by using illustration, this eliminates the issue.
Polly Lindsay
jessica fisher
nanna prieler
Georgina Luck
What are common characteristics between these illustrations that make the fruit and veg seem appealing? - Bold Vibrant colours that are true to what we know them to be (so that we can identify which fruit or veg it is) but a little omre saturation to make them look tasty. - Texture is added to make them seem more life like but sometimes the texture works well and not so well (Prieler’s cabbage is a little unappealing for me personally, there is a lack of contrast between foreground and background to make the subject pop and the way texture has been added makes it seem less appealing and natural). - Obviously the watercolour designs are not natural but in doing so there is the association with the juices of the fruit. This helps to make the audience taste the subject as well as see it which heightens the appealing nature of the illustrations. - There are natural elements of contrast but also the backgrounds on some of the designs have been selected to be a complimentary colour. Depending what style I decide to go with depends whether I will make this choice or leave it crisp white. If a white background is used then the complimentary colour can be used in another way.
As mentioned before, the style difference between photography and illustrations of fruit and veg is very different. These examples here want to highlight a variety of different types of fruit and veg and most of them use a wooden background to portray the ‘wholeness’ and earthy textures in regards to the origins of the food. Using these tones within illustrations could be really benefical and begin to tie the two styles together. However, as can be seen from these examples, the shade can vary a lot and this would have to be something I experiment with.
Remember to consider the style of shop and the audience whilst creating these POS displays. It needs to fit with the type of client and what they want to see whilst also guiding the customers around the shop.
What
have
I
learnt
from
my
research?
As can be seen from the visual research that has been undertaken, trying to balance everything within one frame it going to take a lot of work. Balancing the tones and the different forms whilst still creating something that showcases the work is doing to be a complex task. Making sure that each piece also looks good and the textures are all correct is going to test my illustration skills. What I liked about the illustrations is that they seem to have more to them, the textures and tonal differences highlight the unique qualities to each piece. Whereas, the photography tries to show too much within one photograph. I established early on that whichever method I use needs to show varying produce in order to show that a range of products can be bought instead of just the oe piece that is on the sign. With the photography it is already proven that this works, whereas, the illustration struggles with this. This is something that I can explore through my development. When you photograph something there is the element of death. What you see in the picture will never exist in that exact form ever again. The element of death is something associated with photography and the illustration doesn’t have this link. Although many viewers won’t understand this link, I think there is some association. It is clear in the advertising I have seen for other food stores that this isn’t always the case however, I do think that illustration would work more successfully for what I am trying to achieve.
What have I learnt from creating my own illustrations? - Texture is a lot harder to build through these illustrations, especially when I’m not the strongest drawer. Using the geometric method breaks down the large amount of content into small manageable sections whilst creating depth and interest. - Size needs to be considered before I start. The size depends on how texture is built up not only in terms of methods but how scale effects the way it is built.
An issue that I had during shooting was that I often cut off edges of the fruit, when I then placed the image on an A1 document, I realised that the proportions that I shot in, did not line up with the proportions of the required document size. Therefore, the image I had hoped to use needed adjusting slightly.
Once again the fonts caused a few issues for me but I was able to draw on what I learnt in some of the other exercises to help me here. - Mirroring the effect of the image on the text doesn’t always work, although I had hoped it would because it does look effective in some ways, it doesn’t fit the purpose. - In the previous covers, combining a harsher font with a slightly softer font worked well in terms of a Sans Serif and a Serif font. Although there is only one font here, I wanted to treat the image like a Sans Serif font (quite harsh with little no embellishment) so I needed to use a Serif font here. Bringing these lessons forward helps me develop future designs however, each one will be slightly different depending on the purpose. - Complimentary tones or contrasting tones often work well however, here, because there are so many options, it is hard to pick one so sometimes it is best to go with the one that has the most associations to the subject matter.
Although I wanted to avoid going with the typical choice of red and green to be with Fruit and Veg, it worked well with the other colour combinations. Trying to find the right shade was important as there was already a lot of green within the Vegetable image. I often overlooked the colour choices, just quickly trying different ones and not processing why a certain one didn’t work or why it did, but here I am starting to realise it isn’t just about the colour itself, it is about the shade that is selected and the associations that we have to each colour that makes it successful or not.
As the high street is becoming less popular, with a lot of shopping being done online now, it was intriguing to go back to stores and have a look at the Point Of Sale Displays that they create and how they try and attract customers. Of course these could also feature digitally, but these designs also need to guide customers around the store. They need to stand out and show exactly what a customer can expect to find in this section. Although my original intention was to try and create a traditional illustration of this, I quickly found that this wasn’t working in the way I had hoped. A lot of the designs were very similar and I wanted the client to be able to have displays that stand out for being a little different. The designs do exactly that. I needed a base image to use for these images and it was best to take my own because I would be able to change elements as and how I pleased. The way the visual hierarchy was then created would be entirely in my control and I could constantly reposition elements to see what would work and what wouldn’t. By taking these photos, I was able to quickly establish that doing a flat lay style image wasn’t going to work and I liked the way the shadows and reflections form on this surface. By photographying them in this way, the reflections and shadows soften the harsh edges that feature on the rest of the display. As I had decided on a font that was quite strong and forceful in some ways, I thought that it would be best to keep these elements in from the original photo in order to soften the overall look. I didn’t want the wrong impression to be given with this display. This style of work isn’t typical for a POS display, having looked at others, I was sure that using an illustration would be enough to make it a little more interesting. However, the style of illustration I had tried, lacked any depth and it had been done so many times before that it would be expected of an illustration. Therfore, combinining the photography and illustration in a slightly different manner, creates more intrigue to the work. From afar this work would appear to be some very nice food photography, however, once the work is looked at closer, it becomes more interesting. I believe these designs work successfully, even if a little unexpected. The designs are appealing and a little more visually stimulating than other displays I looked at. There is a variety of fruit and veg to look at, it isn’t suggesting that only a couple of varities are available. The pair of designs work well together but can easily be separated at different parts of the shop. They do not have to be seen together to work successfully as both clearly identify the subject and will direct the customer to the correct place in the store.
But what have I learnt?
- It isn’t just about combining different forms and tones, it is also important to consider hard and soft elements so that nothing is too harsh for the eye, there needs to be balance in terms of these elements. - Sometimes it is best to stick with tradition (in terms of the colours used for the fonts) as these have particular associations with them but also twisting tradition is good as it makes for a more interesting viewing when the client is trying to reach new audiences. - I was able to learn how individual colours build up as well. My initial illustrations didn’t work on the tones as well as these do but splitting the fruit up into segments made me think this wouldn’t work, how could the fruit still look like what it was supposed to? but here it is clear that using the right size segment helps to build up the image and build up my understanding of how something is formed through varying tones.
Tutor’s feedback: This is a strong response to the exercise with some eye-catching images produced. I’m glad you used your photography skills and set yourself a personal challenge to develop your illustration skills. I would have liked to see you generate your own ideas rather than applying an illustration style that you like. It’s good to see you exploring different fonts and it would have been good to see this applied to some interesting words to communicate a message to your audience.
My Reflection: Where I work, the POS uses one word on the headers in order to direct people around the shop however, it is a very small shop and a very different style to that that is outlined within the brief. Revisiting the POS from the M&S visit reminded me that this advertising requires something different to what I have produced. More words are required in order to sell the product and this is something that I can experiment with. This will allow me to experiment further with my typography choices having been able to develop my illustration skills with the base image. Before I do this, I will revisit some of my original designs to see if I can generate a few more ideas that will inspire the final result. Although this perhaps isn’t the best way to go about a project, by working backwards, I am going backwards to help me move forwards with the designs and I will now know for future reference that more experimentation needs to happen from the start.
I did try and add in some watercolour effects to the image as it had been commented that I should experiment more with the style but also in doing this, I was adding an element of the real back into the adveritising. It has been said before that making something seem real will help the audience to visualise something in their life. By using abstraction as a marketing tool here (more research on the next page), adding an element of the real back in would help to sell the products more. However, I couldn’t get the effect right and blending it between something highly digitalised and something that needs to appear real did not work. My photoshop skills need to be more advanced to pull this off, improving my illustration skills would also help to make it more effective.
The benefits of using abstraction within marketing: Using the paper by Doaa Eldesouky entitled The Use of Abstract Images in Advertising Design (which can be found at: https://www.academia.edu/13793617/The_Use_of_Abstract_Images_in_Advertising_Design ) Abstraction changes the viewers perceptions and attitudes towards what they are seeing but it has to be done with design principles in mind to improve the credibility of the advertising. Adverts without any credibility are quickly disregarded, often unknowingly, by the audience. Using abstract images uses more creative methods that can help highlight the unique selling point of the subject. It relies on more visualisation on the viewer’s part but by doing so, the visualisation helps to place it within the viewer’s own context so they can already see it as part of their life. Although the image is abstracted, the designer should still be able to clearly communicate the message to the audience. “The nature of the images being used should not be complicated that renders it incomprehensible and incapable of being interpreted in the right sense, since it would defeat the very purpose of the advertisement.” Abstraction takes it away from the real but there are ways of controlling this so that the subject seems real whilst still abstracted to bring the benefits of both.
Image source: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html
What have I learnt with this exercise and the developments that I have since made? - The distance and intimacy between the person and subject makes a difference. Having the fruit so far away in some of the designs made it look like this kind of quality is unattainable for the audience. With it being so much closer, even cropped, the audience feels like it can be achieved and they therefore feel it in their hands before even picking it up. - The amount of text helps sell something, isn’t about simple is best, sometimes more is required. Throughout this module I have been trying to simplify my designs so that the communication between me as the designer and the audience is a lot clearer. One way with this assignment that I thought this could be achieved is reducing the text down to one word however, after gaining the feedback from my tutor, it became obvious that more was needed. - When photographing the subject, the final outcome needs to be considered. Some images just didn’t fit the right composition meaning the positioning of the text became difficult and the image had to be blocked to compensate for the text. The final images didn’t have this issue because the format was considered during the photos but sometimes it is good to have images that fit a different format to allow for further experimentation (something that I didn’t consider and therefore struggled with for the additional experiments) - Colour combinations are still paramount. Red and green works well with the fruit and veg but when positioned along the horizontal plane and the image in the middle, it instead looks Italian instead of presenting the idea of health, the smallest differences have a large impact on the visual language. - Although the exercise is called ‘Finishing your artwork’ it is important to consider the quality from the start. Pixel quality cannot be added so easily after the designs are done so it was important that I always made sure that designs were kept at a higher quality throughout, even after the exercise was finished. (How did I do this? I made sure to use Illustrator not only to develop my skills with this program but it is easier to keep the images at full quality without doing destructive editing like on Photoshop (this becomes so easily done that it is hard to reverse). I also made sure to design everything at A1 size from the start as I could then save it as a jpeg to reduce the size instead of trying to make it larger again.)
Evaluation: Having worked in retail for a few years, I was very aware of how beneficial Point of Sale signs can be however, I hadn’t really looked at them in terms of visual communication before. I hadn’t looked at the individual comments that either made them work or not. This obviously proved a good place to start with my own research but after reading my tutor’s feedback, I realised that my research was not pointing out what I needed it to do. The shop where I worked would just use one or two words on the POS signs and I therefore made the incorrect assumption to just said Fruit or Vegetables on my own signs. This was something that Melissa pointed out. The words were only reinforcing what the images were already saying. The words could be used more effectively in order to do more selling that just stating. Once I made this realisation, it was intriguing to see the impact that words could have on this advertising. Maybe it is more appropriate to say that my research was standard but was lacking was some context. I was able to identify how artists make fruit look lifelike and tasty but I didn’t know how this was done within the context of POS signs. Despite these limitations earlier on within the process, this exercise helped develop some core skills for me, one of which was the use of Illustrator. As I have mentioned before, illustrator was not my strongest program and I often felt scared to use it because I knew how to maintain the quality in Photoshop by making non-destructive edits and therefore knew I could do it easier. With this exercise though I wanted to make myself use Illustrator as what I was doing was fairly simple and it could help me get to grips with the basics and it did exactly that. Similarly, although I am confident with a camera, still life was not a style of photography that I had ever experimented with so applying my critical eye to this set up adjusted my photographic eye. In order to help visualise the kind of images I wanted to achieve, instead of doing a shoot plan, an alternative visualisation method was found. This involved me cutting out various images of fruit and vegetables and trying to work out what tones and forms would work well together. This meant that when I bought the fruit and veg, I was able to go into the shop knowing roughly what would work together in terms of colours and compositions. Visualising a shoot in this manner is not something that I have ever done and it was an interesting method to try and work out how each element would be balanced. It worked well for the arrangement and will therefore be a method that I continue to use. The focus of this exercise was based on problem solving and the problems that I encountered for this exercise were less about the visuals, as outlined before, but there were some issues around this. For example, trying to achieve the right colours in order to make the fruit seem lifelike was an ongoing struggle as when larger geometric shapes were created, although it was important to keep the illustration as true as possible, sometimes the colour selected contrasted the main tones that the audience would associate with the subject. For example, on the pear, there are some natural brown sections. Some of the segments around this area were quiet large and putting a whole brown section at the bottom of the pear would make it seem unappetising, as if it were going mouldy. So although it was important to notice this colour in some sections, it was also important to stick to the normal perceptions that the audience have in order to make the fruit seem as appetising as possible.