OUGD405 - Study Task 1

OUGD405 - Study Task 1 - Concepts 

In order to help us with this module we were given a workshop on concepts, this helped us to see how brands employ designers to create a concept that they can use for years to come giving them a consistent style within their products. We looked at the definition of a concept and talked about a range of case studies for example; Nike, Coca Cola and McDonalds. From this I had a clear understanding of why brands use concepts as it means they can create a broad range of advertisements and promotional materials from a single concept without having to come up with a totally new revolutionary idea each time. 

We were then split into groups of boys and girls and assigned a company to which we had to create a new concept for, there were two groups per company (a boy group and a girl group) meaning we would be competing against one another. We would then have to pitch our ideas to the rest of the group who would then pick the most appropriate outcome. 

I was placed in a group with 3 other boys and our company was Burflex (scaffolding) LTD. the first thing we did within our group was to research the company and found they marketing to be extremely out dated. The logo was extremely amateur and the website looked like it was from a previous decade. From this we the realised a total rebrand was needed to boost the companies profile. We looked through their website to see when they were founded looking to see if we could play of their history but as they were only established in 2003 this was not feasible. When looking through their portfolio I noticed that they do a lot of larger scale corporate work however it was emphasised that they still do a lot of one off domestic jobs. I then came up with the slogan 'Working around you' which the rest of the group really liked, this suggests that they can do any job big or small, it also suggests they offer a professional and personal service suggesting they can work around your individual needs and finally it literally suggests they work around the building because of the literal appearance of scaffolding. 

We took this forward as our concept as we felt it was an extremely strong and emotive concept. As the logo was so out of date we felt this was the first thing we should address. We came up with a range of ideas but our favourite was the design featured below. It uses a large B at the centre suggesting the companies identity with a range of abstract shapes working around the B to make a circle. We liked this idea as it reinforced out concept of 'working around you' it was also unique and innovative as the majority of other scaffolding companies we researched used straight lines and structured typefaces to try and reinforce the obvious scaffolding connotations. 

I then drew this logo out neatly using Futura as the typeface, we chose this typeface as it was geometric, minimal,  used structured curves and sleek lines. From this I then imported it into Photoshop to further manipulate the image. If we had longer for this task I would have made a vector in Illustrator however due to time constraints this was the quickest way to gain a professional result. 

We chose a warm yellow and grey colour scheme as we felt yellow gave connotations of safety, hard hats and warning signs often associated with construction and grey as this naturally complimented this and also gave connotations of metal (like the scaffolding itself) and an industrial environment. To company this we also produced an invoice to show this re design in context, Similarly to the logo the invoice is sleek, user friendly and has a contemporary style which we felt worked well. 

We used time management we'll as whilst some of the group produced these physical outcomes the other assembled a presentation ready for the group pitch. I feel we managed our time effectively was we were finished with 10 minutes to spare in which we planned who would say what in the presentation. We delivered a succinct and informative presentation and we were voted the most appropriate concept over the other group which was a success as we all felt our concept was very strong. I feel we understood the task well and came up with an innovative concept of 'Working around you' which the company would continue to use for a number of years, the new logo is stylish and contemporary and could work well in both colour and monotone. Overall I think we succeeded with this study task which also demonstrated how much we could physically do in a short space of time as we came up with a unique concept, implemented this in both a new logo and invoice form and created a succinct presentation ready to pitch to an audience. Full presentation found below; 

file:///Volumes/RHYS%20USB/Untitled%20presentation.pdf