I have signed up to YCN and D&AD however I find D&AD quite confusing as a website to browse the competitions.
YCN Competitions I am interested in:
Save the children making fathers read to children - http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/save-the-children I just thought this was a really nice idea for a brief and something that was quite open to play around with. I am quite passionate about children reading and learning I have a niece and nephew of whom I read to and do homework with. I think it's culturally known that women are the ones that read to children and this is something that does need to change and a responsibility of fathers too.
Yorkshire Tea appealing to youngsters - http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/yorkshire-tea Me and my friend are a huge fan of Yorkshire tea and just tea in general and we came across the realisation of how sad it is when you forget someone has made you a cup of tea. If you leave a cup of tea on a surface that is out of sight and it goes cold, you get that sinking feeling inside. We call this a 'periferal' brew, a brew that is not in your direct view. I would maybe do something to illustrate this, making it humorous.
Interflora's Grandparents day - http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/interflora I was thinking if this has to appeal to the younger generation of doing something visually humorous to catch their attention. Maybe like a grandma holding up her fingers doing a rock sign, but with flowers coming out of the end of her fingers? I love the idea of this brief because I really do respect my elders and I think we take them for granted. One thing that I remind people about is that we are our grandparents life, when they go home they may not have anyone to talk to whereas we can always talk to our friends or family. So this brief is something I would invest my passion into and I know I could put a humorous spin on it to appeal to youngsters. However, I am not sure my style would suit the brand?
Private Commissions
I often get asked if I will create portraits for people and I have turned them down until now. Now I feel it fits in with my degree and I have the confidence to do it I have begun to accept. I created a tumblr account with all of my work to show people. I also created a new instagram account AMPillustrations which is purely my illustration work. I got messages from doing this; and have created my first portrait. Sold for £40. I advertised them as an 'original idea for a christmas present.'
I also got asked for a copy of an earlier print from last year of overweight disney princesses. I reworked the print and advertised it on social medias for sale and had a few more offers to buy it. I then thought of an idea to do portraits of people but making them fatter as a humorous gift for Christmas. I advertised that I would be thinking of doing this if people were interested and had a few responses for that too.
I was then driving to work and had a brainwave. I work for TGI Fridays and when we place our bills down for customers we have blank tip trays that we are supposed to decorate with our names saying thank you on them. I asked my manager if I would be able to decorate one with my illustrations and place my website along the bottom. I did not know whether advertising this would be against company policy but he agreed to let me do it as long as the illustrations weren't offensive. This is great because it gets people looking at my work from all age ranges and social groups.
Also I visited the apple store for a technical fault with my phone, but whilst I was waiting I brought up my website on a couple of the laptops laying around and left them up for people to browse through - cheeky!
TGI Fridays
TGI Friday's managers asked me to draw out their badges that they wear on their uniform as part of their company passions and incentives. They had a team challenge coming up against all the stores in the UK and wanted to create a book for the inspector to see full of things they have achieved over the year and how the team members worked well together. I came up with these really simple designs from reference of their badges.
Really quick and simple and not happy with them at all but that's the feel they were going for just something fun and they were over the moon with the outcomes. They printed each motif a few times on each page of their book.
Fat Portraits
I posted on social media a chance for people to recieve some of my overweight portraits whereby people send in an image of someone they wish to have a laugh with by adding a little bit of extra weight to them and got asked for a few of these as private commissions so this is something I have been working on. I have had a lot of requests for digital portraits as christmas presents. I think this is a really good idea and definitely a time I should be making the most of these as birthdays don't come around so often.
Here is a sketch of a fat portrait I am working on :
Finished image : This was sold for £30
Posting my work on Tumblr and Instagram has been really successful for me because people are getting in touch with me from all over by word of mouth. I have been asked by one guy if I will print 4 x A1 copies of any of my work for his skate shop. He wants to fill the entrance corridor with 'cool' illustrations. This meant I've had to go back into my work and really zoom in on them making sure there are absolutely no gaps in the colouring to ensure they'll look okay at A1.
I was also approached to get involved in a charity fundraising scheme for EDS disease. A local girl of 12 years old is suffering from the disease and trying to raise money for bed lifts, and bath lifts that they have not received funding for. I said that I was more than happy to get involved free of charge as they promised to promote my work on social media sites and anywhere else they could. I think it is very humbling that people are getting in touch for a good cause.
YCN Brief
I have chosen the Yorkshire Tea brief as my favourite possible YCN brief to explore because I feel they understand what kind of outcome they want more; but are still open for you to run with. They are more focused on what particular audience they want to communicate to. They feel they are not appealing enough to youngsters 18-35. This is obviously ideal because I am a tea drinker of this age and know what people look for. I think I would have to put a humorous spin to it and maybe go more down the design route of a new way of drinking tea. I think this would engage with youngsters more than packaging would. People tend to follow trends more, if this new way of drinking was 'trending' it would be highlighted and therefore used more.
I would be happy to work on this for the next few months because I think it would be quite fun and good to research into. I think the marketing of the product is important and at the minute we do see Yorkshire Tea around but it is quite expensive and so students and youngsters tend to go for the cheapest option. I noticed Yorkshire Tea handing out the portable drinks cups and free teabags in a train station naming it 'Yorkshire Tea day' which I thought was pretty clever. They could do more of this but giving out more of an eye-catching drinks holder where you don't 'forget about it.' Yorkshire Tea is in my eyes, the nicest teabag! I think a new way of drinking would add a fun factor to drinking the tea and set a trend. I was thinking something along the lines of a new mug design, advert idea or package design to highlight how tea's can be left to get cold if you forget about them. I think especially over the winter this would be a great idea to characterise the teabag into not being left unseen to go cold. It could be called 'the periferol brew' rather than peripheral view - a brew that is out of sight that get's left to die out. Peripheral vs Proper. Take tetley for instance, they use character and celebrities in their adverts. Nothing to do with the packaging of the product, but catches your attention.
1) What is the problem?
The problem is tea is not dominant between the 18-35 age range. 55+ are the strong advocates for Yorkshire tea.
2) What is it asking you to do?
Design something that will engage and benefit young customers. Can be packaging/format idea, a new way to drink tea, something that adds to the tea drinking experience, how consumers love a 'proper brew.' The 'proper brew' notion needs to be echoed still.
3) What will you achieve?
Winning a competition brief for a well known brand.
4) Who will benefit?
They will benefit from the idea which is the only downfall. If you come up with a really good idea over simple tweaks to the packaging then you would be a lot more disheartened at the end of it. They will be using my ideas for their product. I will however benefit once again winning a compeition for a brand so well known and my designs be possibly used in all supermarkets or on all packaging etc.
5) Audience?
18-35 year olds.
6) What are you communicating?
How it is not just the over 50 year old's that love a good brew, brews are for everyone.
7) How will the concept/idea be delivered?
The output is product innovation, a creative product idea. Have to explore packaging, format, occasion and usage. It will be delivered digitally 11:59pm 19th March 2015. Can be delivered individually or as a team.
Seminar
Yorkshire Tea
1)Why have I chosen it
2) What do I want to get out of it
3) What I need to produce in response
4) What do I want to produce
1) First off I chose it because it was a brand I was famillar with. One that was popular enough to be researched into well. I love tea so I'd be passionate about the product. It seemed pretty open to play. It was aimed at an age range I felt comfortable I could work with. If I won I'd be proud to say I won to such a succesfull company.
2) Ideally I'd love my design and idea to work. I'd love recognition from them as a company. Perhaps be offered a placement and it would just be nice for such a large company to recognise my talents. I want to win! I'd like to see my designs used in supermarkets on a larger scale, billboards, advertisement etc but not abuse my ideas and just steal them.
3) Need to create a new product innovation. A creative product idea, be it packaging, format, a new way to drink tea. Something that adds to the tea drinking experience
4) I want to produce an idea for a new way of drinking. I think I would use character design as the focus point to get the concept across. A storyline about how tea can be left to go cold if forgotten about. Maybe characterise/personify the teabag walking around out in the snow forgotten about by passers by. In the Yorkshire dales or something to keep it central to Yorkshire. Based on the idea of a 'Peripheral Brew' A brew that is out of sight that you put on the side table and forget about. Something fun and playful to target a younger audience. Captures the hearts of the nation, and still based on a 'proper brew' notion. Have a proper brew, not a peripheral brew. If you look at tetley, they characterised theirs with the monkey, and used a celebrity for the advert. Maybe have 'Peripheral Brew' trying to add people as a friend request on facebook and it getting denied so he's sat there sad with no friends. The mugs could have him on them waving as if to say don't forget about me. Make the most of your brew. Narration over the advertisement talking about how we know you all have busy lives, but don't forget to take the time to have a brew. A proper brew's for life, not just for winter. Maybe a busy mum picks it up and he starts to smile and goes to cuddle her then she puts him down cause the baby has spilt something and he's left on the side again. May be a lad coming home from football about to drink and has to put it down cause someones shouted him to play the xbox. A nana about to drink and puts it down cause shes forgot to record Eastenders... etc etc
1)Who is the audience?
18-35 year olds
2) Who should the audience be?
Any age range that drinks tea, the whole british nation
3) Who could the audience be?
Any one old enough to drink tea, the british nation
4) Why?
Just because it's called Yorkshire tea doesn't mean its souly for the people of Yorkshire. It can be for anyone willing to spend the retail price for it. Both male and female, men and women. They are lucky that their audience is so open and up for play. It can be more than just 35 year olds, it needs to stretch to the very elderly as it applies to everyone. I think 18 year old is fair enough because anyone younger than this maybe shouldn't be encouraged to drink caffiene.
5) What do they do the audience? Everyday life and routine?
Everyday people of Britain. At work, on their lunch hour, at a desk, students, people at home, out walking their pets with a flask, chilling watching television, out in a cafe, a restaurant, at a hotel, having their breakfast, trying to wake themselves up on a morning, trying to warm themselves up in the winter, having a bath with a cup of tea on the side, reading a book. Literally anyone who drinks tea doing their day to day routine.
6) Where do they go?
- home
- bedroom
- pub
- restaurant
- cafe
- hotel
- afternoon tea
- at a friends
- at a family members
- walking around with a flask
- university
- school
- work
- anywhere that sells tea
- a stall
7) What do they buy?
- Food in a restaurant
- food in a cafe
- cakes
- their grocery shopping
8) What do they want to be?
- normal - they are the people of Britain.
Complete project proposal form - specifics. Contextual references of initial ideas - What's already out there, to give some sense of what's in our head. Inital scamps/thumbnails.
Bit more research into Yorkshire Tea
I always thought the reason Yorkshire Tea may not be as popular as tetleys and pg was because it was too expensive. However, after looking at the retail prices it is actually cheaper, if not on par.
Retail Price comparrisons
250g pack of 80 teabags
Tesco
Yorkshire Tea : £200
PG Tips : £2.45
Tetley : £2.29
Typhoo : £1.50
Twinings : £3.49
Morrisons
Yorkshire Tea : £2.50
PG tips: £2.49
Tetley : £2.29
Typhoo : £2.19
Twinings : £3.49
Asda
Yorkshire Tea : £2.00
PG Tips : £2.29
Tetley : £2.00
Typhoo : £1.50
Twinings : £2,00
So if it's not the price being too much, why isn't Yorkshire Tea as popular? Maybe because we don't see it advertised enough?
I decided to compare how they advertise to other popular tea brands.
Yorkshire Tea advertisement
1996
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24N7GMk2Byo
2007
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_4WY9IgXIs
2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QuBM_t_Tjw
2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjiGWUhHnw
2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq-JxQ0cwMA
The whole Yorkshire countryside theme is nice, but it's quite boring. If you want to aim at youngsters you have to be relevant and also capture their emotions whether that be through humour or a sympathy vote.
PG tips
Monkey
This monkey became the mascot of PG. The monkey family, nothing to do with tea, but became so famous and recognisable that they ran with it, and are still using the monkey notion today. For PG it was all about the humor and entertainment factor, as they later started to use one of Britains comedians Johnny Vegas.
1971
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzEBLa3PPk
1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk93JYTzhTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmmE_h60rjk
2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2mA-S0kR98
2008 the introduction of johnny vegas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4IahEqXF_o
2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeyjN4NVNhI
Tetley Tea
Tetley again have their mascot and I feel this is what Yorkshire Tea could be missing. Put 'chuffin' kettle on - they speak down to earth, 'folk' with slang of Britain. They are the people of Britain. If I made a mascot it would have to be an average person that could relate to everyone.
1989 - Tetley revolution. When all teabags were square Tetley was the only teabag to be round
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1gUxFXqcG8
2014 - Bringing 'folk' together. Still using their orginial characters in animation with futuristic vibe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjNeAxTGVCM
I think this idea of bringing together is succesful in advertising. As if nothing sorts conflict like a good cup of tea.
If you look at the Sainsburys ad, the idea of world peace, it has been probably the biggest ad this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM
This could be an idea for Yorkshire. Saying despite how busy you are, come together and have a proper brew. Showing all ages in their busy lifestyles. The character follows different groups trying to get their attention but they're too busy, they forget about him. He goes cold.. and the message stands, don't forget to have a proper brew, before it goes cold. Or they could be two seperate messages. It could be the mascot follows all members of one family, and their busy lifestyle. For example
- Camera follows teenager to college, hes laughing with his mates and pulls out his phone, sees that the mascot has sent him a friend request on facebook - presses not now
- Shows the teabag at a football game everyone cheering and hugging eachother and he cheers but everyone just turns their back to him
- Camera follows Dad to work showing him putting his shoes on so the mascot rushes to put his shoes on and go with him, but dad slams the front door and hes left looking out the window pressing the glass
- Teabag joins a group of 25 year old girls in a restaurant for a girly chat and they all burst out laughing and the tea bag does a delayed laugh slapping the table and they all just look at it like its weird and look anyway like 'anywayyyy'
- Camera follows Mum around in the kitchen whilst she feeds the baby and she drops something so he picks it up and goes to hand it to her but someone shouts her upstairs and she walks away.
- Camera shows the mascot walking down a busy street in the snow waving to stop people as they rush by with their briefcases on their phones but everyone just passing him by.
- Camera shows him looking in on a family home through the window
Then the message says, no matter how busy you are, don't forget to have a proper brew.
- Camera shows grandma bringing in a tray of tea for the family as they take a sip and grandad puts his hand on the mascots shoulder and takes his hand, inviting him inside.
This way it involves all age ranges, and sort of mocking the fact people think brew's are just for the elderly. It also brings the idea of Yorkshire to the busy streets of everywhere else in the UK as well. The idea that 'We'll bring Yorkshire to you' the peace and tranquility.
Or the message could be :
"No matter how busy you are, don't let it go cold.
Yorkshire Tea - have a proper brew."
The Mascot
How do you personify a teabag? Does it have to look like a teabag? Could it be an animal? Could it be like a little borrower that goes unnoticed? Is it a ghost? Why is it so invisible that it's getting ignored?
On the teabag itself
The design can be on the cup itself :
Or those carboard rings around them to stop you burning your hands
That way you can include the character design and slogan.
Thinking outside the box
I started to look into teabag design, designs of the actual teabag itself and packaging.
They're quite graphic but there were some really nice ideas
I then looked into the character design. I would have to create a character that people felt sorry for. I started to look at square headed characters but I felt this was a little limited. I opted to just look at character design in general for sad characters. Their facial expressions and posture
Sad animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLpF4WzdJiI
Getting ignored
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss6LprjSKm0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaxnd6yqXhQ
Best animation so far :
This really inspired me and was just the feel I was going for. Something that really touches you. I like the idea of 3D animation as well. Makes it more realistic and heart felt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_yVo3YOfqQ
Thumbs
Secret 7
Diana Ross and The Supremes - Reflections
- Mirrors
- Young and old
- Heartache
- Break ups
- Other worldly
- Reflections in windows
- Sadness
- Mirrors inside a mind
- Lonliness
- Isolation
From reading into the lyrics I have an idea of an old woman stood looking in the mirror at herself and her partner happy in their earlier years but she is alone looking at it because he is now gone. Or looking out of the window at their earlier selves laughing and holding hands but she is alone. I get a sense that she has lost someone she once loved and was once really happy with and feels alone now. I want to show this sense of loss
Thumbnail of rough idea
Thumbnail of rough idea
Scanned in image ready to edit and colour
Development
I experimented with a few colour palettes changing the colour of their clothing often
I think this sums up looking at yourself in younger years. I need to make it look more like a mirror.. and maybe look more like the old lady is crying? Not sure, but it looks a little too happy at the minute. Maybe more of a shadow of where the man would be stood, but now he is gone?
7X7 inch dimension :
Had to extend the wallpaper along the left hand side to fit
Yorkshire Tea Progress Reviews
Final Yorkshire Tea designs
Yorkshire Tea Boards
- Brilliant ideas
- Lovely head, love it
- Don't leave one word on the bottom row, align to the left
- Thinking about your problem contextually will show Yorkshire Tea that you thought about product
- The text is too long across the page which made me get lost in the middle of reading them
- Nice concept
- Seems like a great animation
- Cutting off your market by doing a winter theme
- Beaut idea, love the teabag head. Don't think you need to explain what they've asked for though
- Good idea suggesting a campaign
- I love the idea, that bag is freaking creepy though
- Love the teabag boy! Really cute idea. Helps the audience become attached to a character.
- Great face reference
Submission to YCN
Project Report
Spice UK Radio station
Quite possibly the most annoying commission I've ever done!
Spice UK are a Radio station aimed at creative teens who got in touch with me on Facebook and asked me if I could create an illustration to stand besides their logo on their website. They wanted something relevant to spice so asked for two peppers. They then wanted the peppers to be dressed cultural.
After showing them my first initial design they decided the peppers should be changed to being dressed fashionable and youth trendy.
They changed their mind after every image I showed them in terms of the hairstyles, hats, what the peppers were carrying etc.
This was extremely tedious and time consuming. Here are some screenshots of the continous change in the design
I then animated the feet tapping as they asked for. They even sent me a video of themselves tapping their feet to show how they wanted the image to move which I thought was pretty amusing.
All in all it look me two weeks after animating. Really fussy customer. I now understand what illustrators mean when they say you will get bad clients who change your idea a million times. It was so frustrating no matter how much I tried to persuade them to keep something the same or give them a better idea. I am not happy with the design or animation at all; but they were very pleased and that's all that counts I suppose. It's not something I would create myself. I also told them that they should get a graphic designer to change their logo for them to which they sent me an image and asked if I could change it and I declined. Not someone I wish to work with in the future. They paid me £50 which seems pretty good but I am not sure is worth it for the time I spent changing things around.
Presentation Board
Project Report
50th Birthday Portrait Commission
Again on social media I was requested to create a portrait for someones mother of her and her deceased mother for her 50th birthday. I am always a little bit cautious when doing portraits of people who have passed away because there is such a responsibility to get the likeness right and to create that emotion within your work that the clients are able to connect with, its a real pressure.
I wanted to make sure I got this spot on but still keep my own illustrative style of painting at the same time.
I spent 3 days on this piece and sold it for £30. The customer was extremely happy, her mother was in tears recieving the design and even went out of her way to buy me a card to thank me and a bottle of wine!
This was a really nice feeling to be able to give someone that memory back in a special way with a digital painting.
Dogtraits - Commissions for dog lovers
I created myself a challenge to do portraits of peoples animals so I posted this on Social media for a chance for the dog lovers out there to recieve a digital painting of their dogs and got a few responses back for it. Each sold at £15 A4 glossy
Presentation Board
I had a request for an A2 scaled print of a deer of some sort for inside the home. I started to look at how I could incorporate deers into designs that would fit the household and be current. I looked at interior design and furniture stores for inspiration. I liked the idea of using an old book but could not find an image suitable to work with. I experimented with bibles, wood, leather, fabric and an atlas as backgrounds. I coloured over them and changed the opacities to my liking. My favourite was the atlas piece which I sold for £50. I then made smaller prints of the rest and sold them for £20 for a set of 6 at A5. People went crazy for them and I ended up having to make lots of prints of these. This was the most I had made off of commissions. People love deers!
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