Graphic Design 2












  • Semester 2 Project:   Designing media for your own company





                                    
                                                                           

    This project is actually a series of projects that will take up most of the semester.  As a capstone to your graphic design experience, you will get a small taste for what the design, advertising, marketing and business world is like.....all in one project. 




    The Background:



    You are a young entrepreneur with a fresh idea for a new start-up company.  After some extensive collaboration with your buddies, hours of meetings with potential investors, and too many all-nighters to count, you have finally procured enough money to begin the advertising and marketing to get your company out in front of the public.  It's finally time to start getting paid.  But no money comes in unless people pay for your product.  And that requires advertising so that people can finally see what you sell.  Since you have a graphic design background, you have chosen to do all the designs for the advertisements, product labels, brochures and everything else "visual".  Your buddies will take care of the rest for now. 







    Getting Started:
       

    Now that you understand the background for your project, here's how you will get started.  Begin by completing the following steps in order:


     
    1.  Determine what type of products your company will sell.  Your company needs to be one that will create tangible items that will need some type of packaging. 

         Good examples:   shoes, sports drinks, frozen foods, clothing, cleaning products, bikes, etc...

         Bad examples:    Non-tangible services like consulting, therapy, education, lawn care, etc...   Items that are hard/impossible to package like cars, pets, airlines, etc...


                                    

    2.   Determine the name for your company.  The key here, just as much as the next step, is to think of something that will stand out and represent your product the best.  Be different and unique.  Do not imitate another similar brand name.  Think long and hard about this, because your company name will be on everything that you do for this project for the rest of the semester. 


    3.   Design a company logo.  You will need to design a logo that best represents your whole vision for your company and product.  It needs to stand out, be clear, and easily recognizable.  When we see golden arches, you think McDonalds.  The stylized check mark reminds us of Nike.  The sleek apple symbol, we know, is the logo for Apple. 


    To help you in this process, you are required to complete this course in Digital Tutors:  "Understanding the Relationship Between Logo, Identity and Brand".  


    Important:  You do not need to complete any project along with the tutorial this time.  Instead, you are to watch each video, take notes, be able to answer all the questions on the study guide and take the quiz afterwards. 

    Important:  The study guide for the videos not only will prepare you for the quiz, but it will also require you to complete a creative brief and several logo sketches.  Have each of those prepared when you are ready to take the quiz.


    Design Your Logo!  After you have taken your quiz and showed me your creative brief and sketches, you need to complete your company logo.  Remember the rules you learned in the video.  I will specifically be checking for: 
    • Does the logo give me a sense for what your company's vision is?
    • Is the logo memorable?  Does it stand out, or is it just like something else?
    • Prepare the logo with and without your company name.  You can remove the name when your logo has really good name recognition.

    DUE DATE:  Feb. 5


    4.  It's time to go public!  Now that you have a vision, a company name and a logo, it's time to tell everyone about your company. You will need to prepare a short slideshow presentation about your company, its vision and logo.  You will then share this with your classmates.

    • Use 'Keynote' to complete this project.  It is found in the Applications folder.

    • Slides:
      • Introduction - This slide will include only one thing, your company's logo with its name.

        For all of the rest of the slides, place a small version of your logo, without the company name, at the top of each slide (center, left or right).  This will create consistency and help associate your company's identity with the logo.

      • Description - On the next slide(s) write at least 1-2 sentences describing the products and services that your company sells.  Include at least three picture examples of these products.  If your company sells a wide variety of products, you will need to show several pictures so that we can see more examples.  Be prepared to verbally describe these products as well.

      • Vision - What inspired you to choose this company name and the products it sells?  Use a sentence or two to describe the hopes and visions of your company.  In other words, what does your company look like years from now when it is really successful?  Use images if you can, along with verbal comments.

      • Identity - Use the next several slides to describe your company's unique identity.  Use pictures, text and verbal commentary to answer the following questions:
        • Who is the intended consumer that your company will sell to?  Who would want to buy your products?
        • How will your company do that differently than other similar companies out there?  How do you stand out?
        • In what visual ways are you going to try to appeal to them?   Think about it....Olive Garden doesn't do advertising like McDonalds does.  The reason is because of the type of consumers that Olive Garden tries to reach.  They use many different visual images that imply high-quality, authentic and fresh Italian food in a relaxed, semi-formal atmosphere.  So, how will your company appeal to your customers?

      • Analyze your Logo - Now it's time to do another full screen image of your logo.  Describe out loud for us what we see in your logo.  What does each part represent?  On the next couple of slides describe for us the following, along with pictures:

        • How does the logo match your company's identity?  What characteristics of your company's identity can be found within your logo that you've created?
        • Why did you pick the colors for the logo that you used?
        • Show or describe some of the other options that you considered for the logo, and explain why you finally chose this logo design. 

      • Final slide - On the very last slide, include both logos side-by-side:  One with the company name, and the one without.  Verbally explain for us how your logo will be able to gain brand recognition over the next several years, and eventually not even require the name in the logo.  In other words, explain what it is about your logo that makes it stand out, be unique and memorable.






    Now it's time to get to work......



    5.  Create images of your products with your company's logo and package design.  These images will be used in the following steps as well.

     
    You are required to complete the course "Creating Product Packaging in Illustrator".  Once again, you will not complete the work exactly as the video instructs.  However, you will need to answer the questions for the quizzes AND apply what you learn in your own product packaging. 

    After the video tutorial, create 3 separate images of your product(s) with complete packaging. 



    6.    Create a one-page advertisement in a magazine. 


    Watch the course, "Designing a Product Advertisement in Illustrator".  Complete the worksheet for the videos.  Do not do the work, but apply the concepts you learn in your own advertisement. 


    After the tutorials, you will complete your own advertisements for the products that you created in the last assignment:


    Requirements
    When this assignment is complete, you will have completed two distinct advertisements to be placed in magazines.  Don't use the same product for both advertisements. 

    • Begin by actually reviewing and researching existing magazine advertisements either from magazines that you own, or from searching the internet.  This will help you get ideas, and reset your brain from the advertisement in the tutorial (which, let's be honest, may be too simple compared to what you want for your product.  Feel free to WOW your audience in order to get their attention!)

    • For each advertisement, you are required to prepare at least 4 different options for the others in your company to choose from.  In this case, I will represent those in your company that will choose the ultimate advertisement.  So, prepare to WOW me with awesome options to choose from.  Each version must be quite different, not just one color or one font size difference.  Make them unique.

    • You must choose all of your colors from the Color Guide in Illustrator, as you learned in the tutorial.  Choose a color scheme that you like, and stick with it for your whole advertisement.  Remember how the color scheme in the tutorial was chosen based on the color in the logo?  Use the same strategy in your ads as well. 

    • Purposefully choose whether to use serif or sans serif fonts. 

    • You may use Photoshop to finalize the overall look of your advertisement, if you'd like. 

    • Use one attention-getting phrase for each ad, just like the "Stay Focused" phrase in the tutorial.  Make sure it contrasts nicely with the background.

    • Use secondary text to provide further information for interested viewers.  It needs to be much smaller than the other text on the page, but must be readable.

    • Make sure that your product is the most dominant part of the page. 

    • Ensure that neither the text nor your product are within that gutter area that you learned about in lesson #4. 

    • Your product is finished when you are ready to show me 4 versions of each product advertisement, 8 total, and you have followed each of the previous instructions. 





    7.    Create a billboard advertisement for your product(s). 


    8.    Create a flyer announcing a special sale for one of your products.


    9.    Create a unique poster announcing a special event for a charity or important cause that your company wants to bring awareness to.  So, your company is finally doing really well.  You've become a philanthropist and have decided it is time to give back to those in need.  This time, instead of focusing on your products, you will aim for an emotional response towards an issue that is important to you.  Of course, your company will be named on the poster, but the bulk of the poster will be about the cause.