End Of Year Show - Reflection

It was finally time to celebrate the work we had produced over the last two years at College, the end of year show was a fantastic experience for us students to present the work that we are particularly proud of to our teachers, friends and family. The evening began early for the students because we had a lot of setting up to do, we each had a large cardboard stand to stick our work to as well as a desk for us to place our remaining work on. After a stressful couple of hours of setting up, our guests started to arrive. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of people that turned up to the show and it was fantastic to see them enjoy the work that we had individually produced. It was incredible to watch people that I have never met before looking at my stand with a clear interest in my projects, it made me feel extremely proud of the work I have produced.

Towards the end of the evening, the lecturers had the opportunity to celebrate our work and give personalised awards to the students that they felt deserved a special mention. It was a lovely way to end the evening and it made me realise how thankful and honoured I am to have studied Media at Bath College, it was an amazing experience and I have gained a range of transferable skills that will help when I move onto higher education in September.

Peer Assessment

I was given the task to peer assess another publishing student's FMP. Abbie Nelson has created animal themed art prints and photography to sell on a website, the money will all be donated to wildlife charity's. Abbie sent me a link to her FMP blog so I had the chance to look through her progress throughout the project. I was impressed by the detailed posts, she has reflected on her own work and has written up about the areas she can improve on before actively perfected her errors. Abbie has looked at the brief all the students were given and she has completed each critia to the best of her ability, I can tell that she has put in a lot of effort. I know Abbie well so I know how much she loves animals and I believe one of the reasons she has done so well is because she is passionate about the topic. The website that Abbie has created looks proffessional and polished, the colour scheme compliments her personal brand as well as the animal theme, the home page of her site includes photos that she has taken and also photos that she will be selling which is great because the customers will be able to get a taste of what Abbie is selling as soon as they click on the website.

End Of Year Show

The end of year show allows us students to show off our work to teachers, peers, friends, family and people from the industry. Personally, the main project I will be presenting will be my theoretical brand through the package design, this includes the shoebox and the drawstring bag. The show will be at Komedia in Bath on 16th June, both the publishing and moving image students will have time slots to present their projects.

The night will be perfect for us students to show our progress throughout the last couple of years, we will be able to reflect on each piece of work which will allow us to assess our strengths and weaknesses. In my showcase, although the main project I will be presenting will be my final year FMP, I will also be showing the work I have completed throughout the last couple of years if I am particularly proud of it.

Ideas for presenting the work:

• Displaying my work through a 'pop up' store for my brand, including the packages, example trainers and the prices.  I have a vision of a desk that is set up with my products lined up neatly, a poster of my logo will be shown in the background so it will be the first thing people will see when they come over to my stool.
• A large banner with my logo and a description of what my products are, why I decided to focus on this for my FMP and finally, an explanation of my practical journey. I would include a stool with my products shown.
• A stool with dressed up mannequin surrounded in my products, the mannequin will demonstrate how to wear the bag with the shoebox inside. I will also consider ways of making the guests interact with my products whilst still sticking to the theme of fitness, for example, sharing leaflets and posters to a local sporting even.

Our class visited the Komedia to get a good idea of the size of the venue so we can then consider where we are going to individually set up our stands and how much room we will take up. Now that I know that I could potentially be low on space, I will have to consider creating a guest list so I am aware of how many people will be attending the showcase; in terms of my final year FMP,  I only have a few packages that I will be presenting so I don't want to have a crowded desk because that could cause guests to be impatient and agitated and I wouldn't want to cause them an unpleasant experience.

Who can I invite?

As well as inviting friends and family, we have been giving the opportunity to think of companies that we would like to take a look at our work.

Running Bath is a specialist running store based in Bath. With a background in sports therapy, personal training and excellent use of the footscan gait analysis system, the professional staff are happy to help and assist their customers find their perfect trainers. As well as a wide range of footwear, Running Bath also offer technical running apparel, accessories and nutritional products. I would like to invite the company to the showcase because I would love to receive some professional branding advice from a retailer that has been running since 2004. Their website includes their email address and telephone number so it won't be difficult for me to get hold of them.

Osborne Pike is a company based in Bath, they helps clients to build their brands. The company focus on translating the consumers insights into the right design signals for their brand and packaging. Osborne Pike have a professional background in branding and packaging therefore it will be perfect for me to show them my work, listen to their feedback and constructive criticism. Similarly, Osborne Pike have also included their email address and telephone number on the website therefore getting hold of them to invite them to the showcase won't be a problem.

Sketches

I needed to be able to roughly visualise where I was planing to place the logo on both the shoebox and the bag therefore I drew out a couple of quick sketches to demonstrate that the logo will be centre of both packages. After sketching, I moved onto illustrator, designed the net and placed the logo according to the drawings. I printed the net on an A4 piece of paper, cut it out with scissors and started folding it into place. I then assessed the shape of the box to see if the dimensions were correct; as well as using the prototype to test out the dimensions, it was also helpful to experiment with the placement of my branded logo. Once I was happy with how my personal logo looked on the box, I was able to imagine what the final product will look like.

Making prototypes is hugely important for me throughout the next few weeks because I will need to be experimenting with different dimensions and designs so the final product will be created to the best of my ability.

 

After continuosly experimenting with and updating my net, I have designed and put together a couple more prototypes. As well as putting the shoebox together using paper, I have practised spray mounting the paper onto cardboard and fixing it together so I will be more prepared and aware of the obsticles I may face when creating my final package. I have noticed that the dimensions of the prototypes aren't completely accurate therefore a lecturer and I sketched an updated net and wrote down all the correct dimensions, once I was completely happy with the net on paper, I made the correct changes to my illustrater file. Finally, I printed off the net and made my last perfected prototype.

 

Brand Colours

All those months ago, right at the beginning of the project, I knew I wanted to finish with a mint coloured shoebox. The slightly washed out colour creates a clean, fresh and neat appearance. I also wanted to relate the colours on the box to the theme of my product; considering I am branding theoretical fitness trainers, I have used the green and grey to symbolise gravel and grass, colours of running paths.
 

The colours I have used for my fitness brand are convenient for the target audience because I believe they are gender neutral, I also wanted to keep it subtle as well as being pleasing to the eye. The two different shades of green compliment each other, sometimes when two shades of the same colour are layered, they can contrast slightly too much or the human eye can blend them together however the darker shade of green on the logo looks vibrant and noticeable. I have also included grey in the logo because although the green stands out more, I like the way the two colours look side by side because they contrast slightly which causes them to draw in more attention.

 
When placing my logo on the bag I wanted to experiment with the order of the colours therefore I designed one logo with all green letters, one with two grey and one green and finally, one logo with two green and one grey. I liked how the bags turned out because it demonstrates that Ava is a diverse brand and it allows the customer to choose the colours they prefer.

Marketing

I have created a Twitter account for Ava with the idea of promoting the brand. Twitter falls into the microblogging category and it allows you to use up to 140 characters to share a unique message to your followers.  Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter gives you the opportunity to promote a business and build meaningful connections with a relevant and engaged audience whether that would be a niche or a popular category. Twitter can use all elements of the profile such as, the photo, header image, bio and pinned tweet, to reflect the buisness and show the world who you are and what you do.

I searched for Nike's Twitter account as it is a good example of a fast selling, world renowned brand, the account gave me inspiration for my branded Ava twitter page. I noticed that the majority of accounts that Nike follow are famous sporting legends personal pages which is useful for the company if they want the accounts to promote the brand. Nike also tweet short and concise messages to create an impact, I have noticed that they also inlude a link to a blog post or webite to show the longer message. Twitter is known for their hashtags and they can be extremly powerful, Nike use hashtags to focus on keywords that are relevent to their business.

To make the Ava twitter page successful, I have looked into expert companies and social media pages that have influenced me, so that I can use the Twitter page to be able to interact with them on a regular basis in the hope that the number of consumers will increase. To do this, I used the Twitter search to find customers, like-minded prospects and influences by the media. I then followed these different accounts and I plan to interact with them as much possible, this can demonstrate to the consumers that I am willing to share tips and advice from other sources.

After looking for inspiration, I optimised my Twitter bio to make sure that the company's identity and voice are branded well. It includes a link in my bio to a personal account so that it configures a consistent tone so that people are able to clearly understand the brand and what the company does. Adding a human element to my tweets will also build personality around the business and avoid a faceless organisation. I also plan to post about non-business related tweets to widen to target audience.

I believe that Tweeting regularly is a sign of an active profile, so I have aimed to post daily and engage with Twitter consistently. One way to make sure this happens even when I'm busy is using a service which sets up pre-scheduled tweets for particular times in the future. There are several sites that allow this to happen, for example Hoot Suite. In order to engage with Twitter, I have retweeted related Tweets as this will help to link me and cement my own thought leadership within my brand. Following trends and hashtags will help me to find a way to a make a relevant connection to my brand.

Risk Assessment

When making my branded bags, I used the iron on technique. Throughout the process I was extremely careful because I was aware that the iron was at the maximum temperature so I could have easily burnt myself. I also made sure that the surrounding area was clear because if I were to trip over anything, including the iron wire, I could have caused myself an injury. I also made sure that I carried out the process on my own therefore if I hurt myself it would have been my own fault and if I let someone help me out and they got burnt or if they were involved in another injury, I would have felt partly responsible.

When cutting out the net for my shoebox, I used an extremely sharp scalpel that I could have easily cut myself with if I used it incorrectly. I held the scalpel securely like a pen and gently cut along side of a ruler, I made sure that I didn't press down too hard because I didn't want to make the scalpel loose track and slide off the paper because that could have caused a dangerous cut. As well as potentially causing harm to myself, if I didn't use a board underneath the card, I would have made cuts and dents on the desk at College and I wouldn't want to be responsible for that damage, especially because it isn't my personal property.