#chsgroupproject

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Presentation and feedback 

We rehearsed our presentation several times to make sure we each knew what to say and remembered to mention important aspects. We allocated two bullet points to each so that our speech was smooth and so that it did not feel like someone was being excluded from speaking at any point.

We received a great feedback from CHS and here are the comments we got: 

- great presentation skills and team work, the presentation felt seamless

- need to work on the slogan as it gives of yoga/spiritual feel

- think of where each logo is meant to be used, maybe narrow them down to two

- it wasn’t clear for what device the website was designed 

- consider taking photos of plants on a shelf

- loved the combination of images and illustrations, very balanced

- bold colour palette 

- liked the studio shots and the idea behind it

I am very pleased with what we produced for this one-week project. I felt more confident with this branding brief after the project we did last term. And I'm happy to see that my skills and knowledge are expanding. It is also becoming easier and easier for me to work in a team, and I am beginning to see this as more of an advantage than a problem.

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Putting together our presentation

I went over our main points again and rephrased some of them to make them sound more professional. Then I started designing slides, making mock-ups and illustrating additional elements for the presentation.

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Me and Kriszta planned our slides and what we want to say in our presentation.

Here are the bullet points for each slide that we will show.

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Instagram page, reel and web page

Kriszta created our instagram page and designed the advertising for it, as well as thought about what information is needed in our bio and how we will approach our clients in descriptions.

Ollie created the webpage and animation of our logo, which was placed on a video that Kriszta shot for our reel. The animation has green icons in it, which was a problem when we put it on the video with herbs, but we plan to replace it with purple to achieve the necessary contrast.

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Krishta worked on our instagram ads, and this was the only one I suggested we edit. I love the flow she created and the way it brings energy to the image, but I was afraid that our busy potential customers wouldn't stop to read the text. So we opted for a simpler horizontal design in which I considered the hierarchy of information we were trying to convey.

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Pattern

One of our ideas was to make a pattern out of ink prints of herbs. I tried this with rosemary, mint, coriander and rocket, but found it difficult to achieve the same consistency. Some prints are very detailed, while others are smudged and fuzzy. I would take this idea further if we felt it fit our brand style. And perhaps if we had had a little more time, I would have taken it to create single-line illustrations of plants on the shelf to admire the concept of our logo once again.

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Kriszta suggested increasing the warmth of the image because the previous one was quite cold. She also asked to make it more orange to match the tone of our logo, but it didn't look cohesive, so we limited ourselves to adjusting the warmth and level of green.

Once we were all happy with what we got, I moved on to editing the rest of the images we wanted to use, adjusting them to close colour and brightness levels. 

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After changing the background colour, I started to edit the photos we thought were the most successful and suitable for promotional purposes. I lightened this image and increased the saturation and level of green to make the image more vivid. I also worked on the consistency of the background and increased the clarity of the leaves to make the water droplets more distinct.

Afterwards, I asked my group if they were happy with how it looked and if this was the aesthetic I should stick to when editing the rest of the images we took. 

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Here is a few photos that we took. 

We planned to take close-up photos for promotional purposes, some images of rosemary and basil together to use on our social media to remind our customers of The Green Shelf logo, herbs together to make them more comparable to what our customers would see in their kit, and some photos of a person picking herbs, with which we tried to demonstrate that all produce is edible.

We also wanted to add colour as we were tasked with making our brand energetic by using an orange background. Unfortunately, we didn't have any orange paper. We tried using an orange jumper, but it looked unprofessional because of the creases, shadows and texture of the fabric. So we decided that we would try to change the background colour digitally and talk about it in the presentation.

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After we had finished taking the photos, I proceeded to editing them.

I started by changing the background and realised that it looked far from what we had expected. It was difficult to get rid of the fuzzy grey background that appeared when using the colour selection tool. I used the eraser and lasso tool to get rid of it, but the images started to look flat. I checked with my group mates and we decided that it would be too much colour if we put our logo on them. So we'll leave the images with the original background and make our adverts more vivid by adding colour to the text.

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Image taking

We decided to devote some time to taking our images, as this would make it easier to get the shots we need as well as practice our digital skills in taking and editing photos.

As our logo consists of two illustrations of basil and rosemary, we took images of real herbs to use in our social media to reflect the idea of the logo.

I took some pictures on my phone to plan our shots, and then we did some camera shoots.

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Logo variations

Here are the three main logo designs Ollie worked on digitally. At the sketching stage we thought the H used as a shelf would look the most professional, but when we digitised it, we struggled to find a good balance between the size of the icons and the length of the crossbar. It turned out well in the end, but it prompted us to think about how else we could display the shelf concept.  

That's why we have created additional logos that can be used in our advertising campaigns, on the website and in other promotional media.

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Slogan ideas

We had several ideas for our slogan, but most of them seemed a bit boring, so we decided to choose "Breathe out breathe in" as it is more complex but still fits our theme. The idea behind this slogan relates to the rise in CO2 emissions and how plants help us reduce them. This is intertwined with the fact that we plant trees for every kit purchased, as well as increase the oxygen level in your flat. We put “breathe out” first because it demonstrates how we help make the air fresher, and with our brand there is always air to inhale.

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Icons

My group preferred basil and herb illustrations, so we chose them for our icon as they best represent what our brand sells. We didn't want to confuse our customers by putting a potted plant icon for a brand that sells edible plant kits.

I transferred the hand-drawn illustrations into Illustrator and outlined them with Pen, Pencil and Curvature tools. The pots were made a little abstract to give the icon some flow and movement. I made several colour combinations for these icons depending on where they would be used.

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illustrating logo icon in procreate 

Here I am following previously sketched shapes and exploring new ones, trying to focus on a variety of herb forms. 

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Exploring different plant forms and illustration techniques.

I found these 4 books very inspiring. For example, Drawings of British Plants gave me an idea of how to minimise some details and make a two-dimensional illustration.

Beautiful Leaved Plants presents a stunning colour palette and unique shapes. I love that the artist E.J. Lowe didn't delve into crisp detail, he kept the plants rather unrealistic by choosing bright and contrasting colours and unusual shapes.

The etchings from Woodland Plants caught my attention and impressed me with their depth and composition. They don't fit the style I'm looking for for a logo icon, but could still be something I should go back to for inspiration.

I love the cover of The Witch's House and the bold colour choices on it. The illustrations in this book are so delicate and light. I love how the colour of the paper plays a part in them, filling in the negative spaces of some of the elements in the drawings.