Quick brainstorms for Coffee Sleeve

After looking into both business cards and coffee sleeves we thought that the sleeve would be more successful and actually used rather than a thrown out business card or one kept in a wallet but never taken out. I looked at an approach for whether we should be thanking people for coming to the event or promotion so that when people use the sleeves they will be promoting fair trade.

Colour Schemes

I have been looking at colour schemes for the our style as the browns were a bit flat and dull, they also weren't attracting a lot of attention like we wanted. I make colour schemes the felt and combination of fair trade, farming, coffee and sophisticated/ business vibe. This was difficult and it became clear that the easiest way to make a colour scheme would be to focus on the fair trade, farmer and coffee side of the colours. The business style would come forward in our layout, info graphics and font.

Next I had a turn playing with my a couple of my favourite layouts and changing the colour schemes.

It was clear that the posters with the bold bright backgrounds were more successful in attracting attention from the viewer while the darker backgrounds felt more formal. The backgrounds that where white or lighter didn't feel right or have the vibe I was working towards.

When putting all the posters together like this however, felt very fair trade with all the somewhat natural colours that were toned down to more naturals.

Next I worked on giving the brochure some colour as well. I was in a bit of a stump with the flyer so I thought adding some colour might help be get some inspiration back.

I think the colour works very successfully and feels formal but also fair trade. I wanted to work with green instead of blue however is made the flyer feel African. I might try lighter greens and see what happens.

Layout Experimentation

I was told to try take the proportions to the extreme to make them more in peoples faces so people don't just walk past them.

These are what I came up with. I'm not sure how I feel. Playing with larger images makes it layout more difficult, Im going to try working on them and see if I can come up with anything more successful.

The first poster works well to give more empathy to the poster compared to the others. However the others all feel very clustered and busy.

Poster Development

After a class critique I started developing the posted based on feedback and came up with 8 new posters practising hierarchy and layout for info graphics.

After this is drew all over them to fix up the micro detail and these were my final developments.

Class Critique

Parent to parent concept:

Poster:
Need to work on hierarchy here. We want to be able to read across the page and control where the eye goes. This is very important with info graphic style. The imagery is very important and needs to be exaggerated. Also need to look at different layouts and imagery to use for the kids (who should also be white). Need to also experiment with how what to call the children aka are they in a classroom or on a soccer field. The idea of the working environment vs school needs to be exaggerated and more obvious of working conditions. The icons can also be smaller, not important. Text can be separated to refine each subject from each other.

Brochure:
Need to again work on hierarchy. Use white space to your advantage. Control where the viewer looks to show importance of information. Not overwhelmed by heaps of information.


Business to business concept:

Poster:
Layout and hierarchy needs to be worked on with this concept as well. Everything needs to be deliberate and well thought out. We also need to make sure we're using empathy rather than sympathy. Positioning the audience to look at the information in the workers shoes will be more engaging and effective. To do this, the statistic needs to compared to something relatable and tangible for business workers in a first world country. Also with some of the stats there is a little too much work for the viewer to go through to make the decision if this information is a bad thing or not. Make it easier for them.



CONCLUSION:
We made the decision to move forward with the parent to parent concept rather than business to business. This means we can work more efficiently and spilt up our work so we both know what to move forward with next.

Digital Calendar Concepts

Executing some of the drawn out thumbnails. Its is probably a little too early to develop these in terns of colour and overall aesthetic as our design for our re-brand is still undergoing slight tweaks and improvements. Once this is at a more resolved stage I can then  continue into playing around with the calendar. 

Website Thumbnails

Both Annabel and I have decided the newspaper format will suit our formal audience the best and will keep the website design sleek and sophisticated. The second one on the last page is our best concept of this idea and so the next step is to digitally plan this out and work out sizes etc.

I also quickly drew out some calendar ideas that I will execute on either illustrator or photoshop. At this point, im leaning more toward the first and second idea, however, both still need a bit more thought. 

More Business Sympathy Concepts

Added more of the important information relating the poster to Fair Trade and our event / call to action.

Mandatory Information and Printing- Parents Perspective

After reading through stream I thought it was time I listened to the brief and put on the mandatory details that were online. I made a list for myself of all the details that needed to be on each medium to follow

Notes and printed flyer

First I printed out my previous layout design for my brochure so I could see what it looked like in A5 size. I previously had decided to make it a flyer that folds in half, this was for several reasons:

• it made the flyer look more like a 'book' therefore more important and formal to look at not just a junk mail piece of paper.
• It allowed more structure to the medium meaning I could fit more information on it and use the booklet style to my advantage
•  The booklet was smaller! This meant it could fit in people pockets more easily and people would be more inclined to take it
•  I could make it double sided with a cover and back

After looking at the printed out flyer I noticed it didn't have enough structure to it or colour. I also needed to add he mandatory information otherwise designing around that would be too difficult.
This is what I have come up with today:

Back and Front

Inside Spread

After looking at the design printed out and folded up I thought the front was very empty. Also not sure If i want the info graphic read backwards as it currently is or if i want it to travel over into the inside spread which would incline them to look inside. The back is also not very structured and needs more work.

Font

Back

Inside spread

Next I moved onto the posters. These first off needed the fonts changed to match my flyer which I thought suited better. Next I added more of the mandatory information that needed to be on the poster such as the time and date. These are just two different colour schemes of my poster. I printed them out to see how readable everything was in A2 size.

Business Sympathy Concepts

Going through the research around the business aspects of Fair Trade coffee, it was evident that money was the most easily relatable common aspect for business workers in a first world country. I could have expressed these statistics using such things as a coffee cup or general geometry and lines, however, this would remove some vital emotional connection from the target audience. 

This concept is a little too complicated in the way the different text is laid out. Less is more with this aesthetic and is way the first iteration of this concept works far better. Also the colour in both of these is a little muddy and would probably benefit more from an ashy brown instead. 

In this iteration I have added a catch phrase in a similar style to what Annabel has in her concepts. I needed to add a call to action into my concept design so it meets all aspects of the brief and communicates well with the audience. "Restore the balance" is short and sweet, it gets straight to the point. Initially I looked at having "Level the playing field" but I thought this was a little too playful and has a slight disconnect with the topic.

I will continue to develop and explore the business man to business man empathy and reflect this in the other media forms. 

Further Layout Development

Still trying out more layout design and testing how to work with grids.

Starting the Brochure

First brochure iteration

This is my very first iteration for the brochure. Obviously this is not a complete work but it is a starting point. I wanted a very basic colour scheme at the beginning however looking at it now I think more colour is necessary. We are also unsure of how the brochure folds or the dimensions and this will have a big impact on our design. I really just wanted to get an idea of how all the info graphics I made look together and this is what came out of it. The brochure needs more information and text about the cause and the events and a lot more structure and griding incorporated, also a cover and back.

Infographic Designs

Info graphic 1

Info graphic 2

Info graphic 3

Info graphic 4.1

Info graphic 4.2

4.3

5