jmones

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Rationale + Reflection

Rationale

Sow & Grow is designed with the target market in mind, and created to address the issue that many children do not know where there food comes from. We wanted to create a brand that was fun and playful, but also had a good purpose at the heart of it all. We chose herbs/veggies that are easy to grow indoors, and fairly low maintenance as an easy introduction into gardening. We hope that the kids gain skills of responsibility, pride, and a further understanding of the agricultural practices. We made our veggies/herbs in characters so that they would appeal to the kids, and the overall design is to be playful and simple. We named them with alliterations as it is fun to say, but also easy to remember. The seed packaging is shaped as a pot to represent the idea of growing indoors, opposed to a garden setting. The how to guides are in simple steps, so that they are easy to follow, and the users/their parents can always look online for more information. The marketing material is simple, but gets the idea of the brand across, and is consistent in using the brand elements. The colours we chose outside of the logo and characters are meant to be fun and eye catching, but also not bright enough to distract from the more important brand elements. 

Reflection

I enjoyed working on this project. Taking it on with a partner, and making sure that we worked on a project that addressed an issue that we care about, working in mediums that we like, and leaving room for some wit/puns made it an enjoyable experience. Alf and I worked well together, and I appreciated him taking on the animation side, as I don’t have many skills there. It’s always good to have a second set of eye on your work, and to ideate together, so I really enjoyed those aspects of this collaboration. 

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Digital Deliverables

Our target market is already on social media, so we wanted to make sure that we covered that touchpoint as well. This campaign remains visually similar to the poster, and introduces the brand, characters, and idea of gardening quickly, as stories are usually viewed for short periods of time.

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Print Deliverables

 The seed packages, how to guide/insert, and poster where the three printed delierables that we decided to have for this project. I am happy with how they all turned out, and I think we did a good job of mixing the playful illustration style of the characters with a minimalist design theme overall. The packages are fun, easy to use, and are quite clearly targeted at kids. 

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April 8

Today I finalized some of the things I had been working on, and printed some mock ups. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, and I did realize a few typos that I need to fix, but other than that, I think they’re basically done. Alf has been working on the animation, and he recorded us singing for the youtube ad.

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April 2/5

These classes were spent mainly playing around with the visuals, and adding the character profile to the back of the cards. I had to do a bit more research for the profiles, but I did find out that Basil and Cilantro are good for companion planting, while carrots and radishes are also good for companion planting. This was a happy surprise, and means that the characters can actually be “friends” while growing. 

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Instgram Stories Campaign

I wanted to keep the story imagery simple, and similar to the poster. They introduce the brand, the veggies/herbs, and the idea of gardening. I wanted to keep the copy writing light and playful, while still getting the idea across.

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March 28

Today I worked on some insta story campaigns visual, and a poster for the brand. Both are fairly simple, but introduce the characters, the brand, and gardening. I wanted to keep the poster fairly simple, as we would assume that the posters would hang on busy bulletin boards at schools, and other public places that are frequented by children (rec centres, doctors offices, etc.) Alf looked it over and gave me some pointers which was helpful as well. I originally had the poster with simply a white background, but Alf commented that it should probably have some more colour to it to make it more eye catching. I tested out a few colours, and we both liked how the purple worked the best, as it compliments the herbs/veggies without overpowering them. 

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March 21

Today I worked some more on the layout of the interior cards, and finished up the research on how to plant the veggies/herbs. Alf has finished illustrating the characters, and they’re all fun to work with. Alf and I also worked on the lyrics for the song that will go along with the youtube ad.

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March 14

Today I started researching all the information on how to plant the herbs/veggies indoors. We want to make the guides as simple as possible so that the kids are able to follow along. If they need more information, they, or their parents, can easily google more steps. I also started designing the packages.

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March 12

Today Alf and I did some character sketches. One of the things that is going to be difficult with the characters is the herbs. Making them detailed enough that you can tell what herb it is vs. making it simple enough to fit with the overall style we have in mind is a bit of a task. I has previously illustrated a carrot that Alf like, so we went with that style, but the rest Alf took care of. We ended up going with four characters. Cindy Cilantro, Caron Carrot, Bassil Basil, and Richo Radish. I also did a bit more sizing/research/design on the package shape/size.

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Character // Packaging Development

I developed these characters for fun, and I like how the carrots are looking, but I’m not a fan of the herb. I find that its difficult to make them look different than brocolli. I like the look of the packaging so far, but it will definitly need some tweaks.

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Logo Process

The logo uses a curved leaf within the ampersand to represent the growing of plants, and also the growing of the kids as they participate in growing the plants. The green is representative of the green plants, but also the idea of a green thumb. We used Din as our font as it is easy to read, while being playful and modern as well.

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March 7

today we tried to decide on what veggies/herbs we wanted to use in the project, and named the project itself. We really wanted the name to have a pun, but we had a bit of a hard time finding one. We did however come up with sow & grow. This name pertains to the plants being sown and grown, but also the idea that the kids themselves are learning and growing throughout the process. We did some logo work together, which was a really good process. As we were sketching and ideating, I realized the the ampersand looked a bit like a folded leaf, and we developed that further. Alf and I both took it digital, and found the solution. We ended up using Din as our font, as it is easy to read, playful, and also has some strong verticals that implies growth. We didn’t completely settle on what veggies/herbs we want to do yet, but we do know that we want to name them with alliterations/ names that sound similar. I thought a little bit more about package design, and Alf mentioned it would be fun if the package took the shape of a pot, so I tested that out, and I quite like how it looks.

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March 5

Today I did a little bit of character sketching, ideating on what the packages could look like, and just some thinking on the overall operation, such as the project would be best implemented in the spring. I also thought that it would be fun for the veggies/herbs to have character breakdowns that would tell you what they liked, what veggies they like to grow with, etc. This makes them more relatable, while also giving the user hints on how to more successfully grow them.

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May 4th Ideation

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Applied Assignment 03

May 04

Alfred and I decided to team up to execute the final Applied project. After lots of discussion on what kind of project we wanted to do, we decided a few things: 1. we wanted to make it as fun as possible for both of us 2. we wanted to address an issue that we both believed in 3. we wanted to cover multiple areas of design

After deciding this, we went on to discuss the ideas we had for the project. Some of the main contenders was a partnership with a community garden that teaches the user to grow their own food, a welcome/introduction guide to living in Canadian cities, raising awareness on how bad travelling by airplane is for the environment, giving more attention to solar power, and the idea of having a train that would travel between Calgary and Edmonton. 

We did quite a bit of research into the train idea, but then realized it wasn’t something that we really wanted to do, and reverted back to the idea of teaching the user how to garden. We then got on the idea that it could be targeted towards kids, as a lot of kids these days have no clue where there food comes from. We thought it would be fun to use puns if we were able to, and to create characters out of the veggies that could be grown. I’m pretty excited about a carrot character, and Alfs more interested in the herbs. We figured that if the project took a similar style to the dumb way to die characters, that it would be a lot of fun. 

Alfred and I decided to team up to execute the final Applied project. After lots of discussion on what kind of project we wanted to do, we decided a few things: 1. we wanted to make it as fun as possible for both of us 2. we wanted to address an issue that we both believed in 3. we wanted to cover multiple areas of design

After deciding this, we went on to discuss the ideas we had for the project. Some of the main contenders was a partnership with a community garden that teaches the user to grow their own food, a welcome/introduction guide to living in Canadian cities, raising awareness on how bad travelling by airplane is for the environment, giving more attention to solar power, and the idea of having a train that would travel between Calgary and Edmonton. 

We did quite a bit of research into the train idea, but then realized it wasn’t something that we really wanted to do, and reverted back to the idea of teaching the user how to garden. We then got on the idea that it could be targeted towards kids, as a lot of kids these days have no clue where there food comes from. We thought it would be fun to use puns if we were able to, and to create characters out of the veggies that could be grown. I’m pretty excited about a carrot character, and Alfs more interested in the herbs. We figured that if the project took a similar style to the dumb way to die characters, that it would be a lot of fun. 

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02 // 01 // 19

Rationale

This poster series is meant to target high school students who would be interested in pursuing creatives studies in post secondary. The main idea is to express to the market that if they have the attention and eye for detail to design/art, that they naturally have, or have developed, a special skill, and that they shouldn’t waste it, or throw it away, by entering a more common profession. The main message being low contrast plays to this message, as the viewer must pay attention to see it, opposed to a poster that is jumping off the wall at you. In a way, the poster itself is testing your attention to detail, and your ability to connect concept. Many students when studying subject they aren’t interested in, will doodle in their notebooks, and this informs the style of the illustrations. The illustrations themselves have to do with the ideas, programs, and mediums one would study in the VC program, while also incorporating social media aspects as well. This has to do with the fact that high schoolers are more ingrained into social media than anyone else, and that the program also teaches you how to create for platforms such as instagram and snap chat. The poster has a call to “study visual communications” and also to “apply”. Along with Visual Communications, “art+design” is included subtly in the poster, to mainly describe the program, but is also a slight hint at the potential name change of the program. A paint stripe and a pattern of dots is also used as a motif if the series to represent the different sides of the program. Roboto was used as the font for this poster as it was the font created for Google//Android phones, and is a nod to the tech//digital side of design, and should also be somewhat familiar to the target audience. This again is contrasted with the hand written//illustrated elements that would represent the more fine art, or process stages that happen within the VC program. Overall, this was a fun project to work on, and I am happy with the outcome.