Communication is a virus

Brief

Produce graphics response to the given task (tea) that engages with a specific audience. The outcome should consider the context and environment in which you aim for it to be delivered. This will identified in our initial concept idea. 

Should aim to identify, analyse and use existing means of distribution in order to select an appropriate means of communication. 


What do you want to say? How do you want to say it? What language would be appropriate? 
Will the product be communicated primarily through type or image? If both whats the relationship between the two?       

What are you aiming to achieve? Are you directing your audience to a website, encouraging them to attend an event? Will it be interactive or encouraging them to change their lifestyle?

Use a limited colour pallet, 2 colours plus stock. Will allow for reproduction of the product across a range of media.   



After our discussion as a group, seen on the design context blog, we decided to produce a new tea and all the branding that comes along with it, the tea cup, tea packing, the tea bag, the tag on the tea bag, a carrier bag and a flier. Because the brief title is communication is a virus we are going to produce a video that is intended to go viral. 


We firstly started to come up with names that we thought related well to tea, these names couldnt be too old fashioned because that was something we were straying away from, they also couldn't be too long because we wanted something memorable that people could glance at and remember. 

 These are a selection of names we came up with. In the end we selttled on Brewed, which we thought was the best name that related to tea and a lot of people could relate too. 


After this we then separated what each person was going to do, involving all the aspects of the new tea brand. 

We then split each section for people to do, with some people sharing jobs, such as the logo design where we were all going to design a logo so we could then choose the best one and get the colours sorted. 

Preliminary sketches for a logo

These were the first drawings for a logo, i like the idea of using the tea pots and the simple logos of just the writing and a small image.   

These are simple designs of tea cups, i feel they could produce an effective logo but could also be a bit boring. The images below are following a traditional British design which is what we first looked at doing, but after a discussion we thought that this had been utilised too much already and wasn't anything new and modern.

 

For the crit on the friday we took in all the work we had produced so far, so all the design sheets shown above including the spider diagrams. We then suggested what we were going to do. 

After this crit i then started to create some logo designs.

 I firstly started to create hand drawn logos, shown at the top, i then edited this using the width tool, to get a more dynamic image. I feel the logo is fluid and clearly resembles TEA, but it isn't a logo that will flow across a number of different designs and packaging. The one below is more likely to work across different media, because it is a lot more simple, but with this design its harder to see the representation of TEA, this is because the tea leaf i have created just looks like a general leaf. I then moved away from anything that had to do with tea, i.e the tea cup and tea leaf. So i just used a type that looked like it flowed and in a way resembled tea. I think that that type is far to script, it isn't modern which is something we are trying to portray and i dont like the extended stem on the G because it hangs over the B. The bottom image is just a tea cup i drew to see what a different shape might look like. 

 I then looked at some colours i thought we could look into as a group, i picked organic colours that would look good with brown paper. 

I also thought that the name Get Brewed was a better name, then i chose the layout above and with the colours i selected. 

We then looked at everyone else's logos so we could pick the best one.

I also thought about just using type and not image, so i looked at different type faces that could work. 

I feel the best typefaces are the ones where there kind of playful but not too script because they resemble a more upper class 'posh' tea, when we are trying to produce a tea that is for students and is a bit playful. The best typeface above is single sleeve because its not quite as hard edged and modern as Bangla Sangam or as playful and wobbly as Shaky Hand Some Comic, its in between.  


Oli's logo

After looking at everyone's logos we chose Olis logo above, we thought that this logo best resembled tea, with the green tea leaf and the brown type for the colour of tea.

We then looked at different colours of this logo to see what would look best. 

 

After looking at a number of different colours these were the best of the collection. We then thought the best 2 were the middle left and the bottom right. It was also a logo that could work across a range of different products. 

Looking at creating packaging

After designing this packaging and using the same colours i used for the logos i thought the best shapes were the bag which could be used for carrying things around or what we could hand things out in. I also feel the best packaging for the tea bags would be the cylinder, because there isn't much packaging out there that is this shape. I also feel it would stand out when on a shelf amongst other tea packaging, especially if it was brown paper stock and the organic colours.     

Spliting the jobs up

After selecting a logo we could then work on different aspects of our designs. We then gave each person in the group something to do. 

So Me and Oli got the job of, screen printing the bags, creating the fliers, mixing and making the tea bags and being involved in the viral video.

Sam got the job of creating the tags for the tea bags, the posters and the packaging. 

Sean got the task of preparing all the communication methods, such as Facebook and Twitter, also preparing the YouTube for the video to be uploaded. 

Sarah was asked to make the sleeve and to put them on all 100 cups. 

We then gave Danielle the task of making the costumes for me and Oli to wear. 

Everybody would then help make the bags that we would then hand out. 



Making the tea bags

To produce our own tea i brought 100 empty tea bags, these tea bags were draw string so they created a little bag that had string on for the tag to be attached. I also purchased 2 different kinds of tea, in this case yorkshire tea and twinings tea bags. These were then cut up and mixed together in a bowl and then into the empty tea bags. 

Step one 

 

Cutting up the tea bags and mixing them together.


Step two

Putting the mixed tea into the tea bags and closing them.

I felt we accomplished this process fast and in a efficient manner, we set up different stations, so Oli was putting the tea into the tea bag, i was opening up the tea bags and meg and eve were closing the tea bags. So we got the process done fairly fast and could move on to the bags. 


Making the bags 

To start off with Oli made a logo that was similar to the one he had already done, this logo would be used on just the bag, because we felt with the origanal logo that it would leave too much space around it on the bag, so we needed something that would work the whole length of the bag. 


Olis bag logo   






 (IMAGE)  








I firstly brought 100 brown paper sandwich bags from Poundland. We then decided that for a more organic natural look to the bag we would screenprint the logo onto the bags, this would then look more effective than having a sticker which would have a white background, it would also look tacky. 


So to screenprint we took a black image down to the man at Vermon street, he then put Oli's logo on to a screen. We then mixed our colour, a mint green to screen print. 

 

This is the same type of screen we used for our logo and the machinery we used ( this isn't our screen ). 

We decided to print both sides of the bag so our logo would be seen however somebody may be holding the bag, it will then be communicated a lot more. 

  

    

This was the end product of our bag, as can be seen we printed on both sides. The mint green with the brown bag works really well, they compliment each other, also they resemble tea. The negative space also looks really effective as if the type was hidden with the tea. 

The bag could be improved by maybe having the actual logo on it with our Facebook and Twitter pages on it so people can then be directed there. 


Creating the flier 

The flier is intended to go in the bag and inform people on tea, also it is intended to direct people to our Facebook and Twitter page, i am going to use it to try and combat coffee as well, giving facts about why tea is a better alternative.    

 I firstly started by using the logo created by Oli, i stretched it so it would work over the whole flier, then split it up so i could put in infographics into each section. The infographics i have created are shown below.

Finished Flier 

 Finished cups designed by Sarah

 

Finished websites, Facebook/Twitter