design pro forma

Design for AdvertisingDeveloping, producing and evaluating

Patrick Gouldsbrough

Initial Ideas

Idea 1

• The majority of energy drinks are targeting a younger demographic, there is a market for an energy drink for an older target demographic.

• The first thing to be done is to put trust into energy drinks. I believe that older people think that there are health hazards linked to energy drinks. You may need to re-assure this certain group and perhaps advertise the product with a health expert advertising it.

•Restrained colours are generally linked to an older demographic, compared to the bright and bold colours of products for a younger target audience. This is because the two demographics look for different things in the products they will potentially consume: a younger demographic will look at things like colours and design, where as an older demographic will look for a professional look on the can/bottle, as well as looking at the ingredients and sugars, this is a separate issue that will have to be addressed. On the other hand, this product must look striking and eye-catching or it will be passed by in the shop and won’t be a successful product.

• Energy could be a secondary use for this drink, potential other types of drinks could be:• Slimming• Organic• Health drink

• Another feature that could be considered is the text and the font. An older demographic looks for easily readable fonts, this goes for all text on the can as well as the logo.

• I believe that normally a bottle is more practical than a can, but in this case, if the purpose of the drink was to slim or an organic drink, you might want to drink the whole contents and not save any for later (especially if it’s slimming)

• To be a slimming drink, the contents would have to have some form of chemicals in, this could prompt the can/bottle been smaller because a high concentration of these chemicals and they have a negative effect, compared to a positive one.

Idea 2

•The female audience are outnumbered on products such as Relentless and monster. A product for a female demographic could potentially be successful.

• A mix of restrained and bright colours, due to a gender been targeted, not an age demographic. It needs to be professional but still appeal to the young portion of the female demographic.

• A can is easier to store, but the practicality of a bottle is the way to go I think. Mainly because a bit of the product can be saved, compared to the one-off consumption of a can.

Idea 3

•An extra strong energy drink that will have added chemicals because it’s giving out more energy because it might be required by the consumer

• It keeps the consumer up for a given amount of hours, this could be guaranteed, although then you’re open to been proved wrong by consumers and then your credibility might be broken

• More chemicals for more energy. However, there will be a certain amount of chemicals you can put in an energy drink before it’s banned and taken off the shelves, this can be something to be addressed and considered

• An older audience might be put off by the high chemicals in the energy drink, but a younger audience, such as students might want this kind of drink

•Brighter colours because it’s targeting a young-ish audience and it is also designed to keep you up so it should be bright colour wise

•A more creative font type for the young demographic

Idea 4

•Even though it has been agreed that energy drinks shouldn’t be consumed by a younger demographic, I believe that this is a missed opportunity and there is an opportunity to either find a gap in the energy drinks market or create a brand new idea and a new market.

• Obviously, the sugars and chemicals going in will have to be massively cut down so it’s fit for consumption by a very young demographic. This will be difficult because to make it an energy drink, certain chemicals must go into it. Maybe an organic or a health drink should be considered?

• A very bright coloured can/bottle might be the right design choice, due to a younger demographic picking up on the colours, rather than the content of adverts and products.

• A slight collectable idea could be taken and slightly modified, you could have four different designs that the young demographic could collect. This will work out better because all the young children will want to collect all four of them, therefore a bigger income will be achieved.

• a creative font type can be used because 1) it adds to the design and a younger demographic don’t need clear and concise writing like an older demographic. On the other hand, like I mentioned before, the colour is the most important feature of the design, so it doesn’t matter what font type is used. Things that should be considered though:• The font needs to be readable by the audience but can be a more creative font• As well as the bright coloured packaging, the font can be bright and colourful too because I don’t want to compromise on colour, however, I don’t want the colours to clash. A contrast is the way to move forward on this design I think.

•A small can/bottle because young children will be handling them. No jagged or small pieces that could be swallowed by the child however.

•Informal and simple lexis to be used

• Perhaps using small buzz words, such as: “POW” and “BANG” may appeal to a younger audience.

Idea 5

•4 divided parts of the can

•These 4 divided sections will have an individual flavoured energy drink

•This could perform a different function, such as: energy, slimming, organic and health?

•These four sections will have individual openings, how will it open though?

•A mass market product

• Gender/age neutral colours

•Easily readable text because it’s targeting a mass market and even though a younger audience don’t mind a clear font, it’s paramount for an older audience to have a clear and easily readable font

Mind map(s)

Energy drinksEnergy drinks

Imagery Imagery Audience Audience

Concept Concept ColoursColours

NamesNames

An older audience – restrained with just a stripe or spot of bright colour (black and orange for example)

A young audience (16-25) – Brighter colours will be the way to go. However, this doesn’t mean neon or bright yellow, perhaps a bright/light blue?

A very young audience – Bright colours are necessary for the intended audience. A pattern should also be considered.

A female audience – Bright colours could be used, but the older part of this target demographic may want a more professional and restrained product

Health drinkOrganic

Slimming

Extra strength (keeps you awake)

16-25

A very young audience – (6-10)

A female audience

An older audience (35-40)

Ener-J

Ener-GBolt

Energie

Check copyright

Energize Recover

Pirates, jungle theme, sea theme, space them (younger audience)

A pink/ pattern on the packaging, I don’t think something stereotypically linked with females

Celebrity endorsement are key to selling to teenagers so maybe a celebrity on the storyboard

Dual/DuelPossess

Fury Cloud 9

Peace

Ultimate Frisbee

Angel/clouds

Peace sign

Avenge

Avengers/superheroes

Chic

Copy/Script development

Avenge • “Avenge your thirst!”• “Avenge tiredness”• “Want to avenge your thirst?”• “Unleash the avenger in you!”• “Be a superhero”

Duel•“Duel with thirst”•“Dare to duel”

Bolt•“walk.sprint.bolt”•“A bolt of energy”•“Bolt about”•“Bolt to buy your can”•“Putting a bolt in your day”•“Bolt – because walking is overrated”•“Lightning never strikes twice”•“Dash to get your bolt”•“The only bolt that doesn’t just come in stormy weather”

Angelic•“Unlock the angel in you”•“Angelic – fell from heaven”•“Comes along only once”

Copy/Script development

• Usain Bolt enters the stadium to run his race• Just before he’s about to start the race, he’s confronted by a young boy *SPEECH PART 1 “STOP!”*, who hands

him a can of ‘BOLT’• He takes the can from the young boy before powering down the can of bolt and taking his position in the blocks• Bolt starts the race normally before BOLTING away from the other competitors• As he’s passing the finish line, the other competitors turn into the rival energy drinks. This shows how much

better BOLT is, compared to the other energy drinks• Next – Bolt is standing next to the world record sign with the can of bolt next to him• He turns and says *SPEECH PART 2* “walk.sprint.BOLT”

I want the brand name that I am creating to have various drinks in their range, some potential names for these drinks:

• Bolt Voltage• Bolt Duel• Bolt Recover• Bolt Sunrise• Bolt Avenge• Bolt Boost• Bolt Ener-G• Bolt Speed• Bolt Fire• Bolt Overload• Lightning Bolt• Bolt +• Bolt Revitalise• Bolt Fury• Bolt Origin• Bolt Ghost• Bolt Burst *These energy drinks are going to vary in colour, with the logo and the text colouring differing from each

other

Font/Colour Scheme development

Potential colours:

This colour contrasts with most other colours, which is key when you’re planning to make a range of drinks with various coloured logos and font.

This colour contrasts with most colours, but with the wrong colour, it can look ineffective. As well as this, fonts such as lightning strike won’t show up well on the grey colourng.

This colour would look effective if it’s been contrasted with a black or a white and I was making a singular drink, instead of a range of drinks. However, due to my intentions, this colour might not be as effective as first thought.

The same can be said for these types of blues. With the correct colours, it will be effective, however, the darker blue might be the only one that will contrast with a wide range of colours on this colour scheme.

In my opinion, the red is too bright for the can and while it would grab the consumers attention, it would take some key attention away from the text and the name of the product. However, all other colours on this slide would work.

Yellow would be good for the can on this project, however, maybe not as the primary colour. It could be used on the font and the logo on one of the cans as the secondary colour. The main reason for this decision is that yellow doesn’t contrast with a wide range of colours.


Potential fonts:

This font is very creative and handwritten, but I’m not sure of the font is right for the target demographic. While this demographic don’t look for easily readable fonts in their products, I think this font is a bit too handwritten.

Porter Sans is an impact font and is very effective when trying to draw attention to a product. The white outline of the letters means that it would still contrast with the black colouring from the previous page, without having to change the colour.

While the other fonts so far have been generalised, this font, named as a speedy font, fits in with my product well. Bolt, the name of my product, allegedly is meant to make someone run faster. This font is tailored to my product and unlike ‘colours of autumn’ it is easy to read and stand out, therefore, an effective font choice for my product.

Another font that I have managed to find that’s tailored to my product name, Speed + is, in my opinion, more effective than the speedy 12 font. While speedy 12 was easily readable and striking, speed + manages to fulfill these functions, as well as adding the blur lines that makes the bolt and speed element even more evident.

Lightning strike at first glance seems like the best option of font for my product, due to the lightning bolts that would further the product familiarity with the consumer. However, you then start to see disadvantages of this font, such as: the messy lines and certain letters that aren’t legible. These things add together to make it a potentially ineffective font for my project, due to me wanting a more clear and readable font than lightning strike’


After choosing the best two fonts, along with the two best colour schemes, I want to experiment by putting them together before I experiment with the main and the accent colours of the cans.

The black colouring contrasts well with both fonts, due to the speed + font having white movement lines that has an effective contrasts, while porter sans has the white letter outline that contrasts very well with the black colouring. The only disadvantages I have for the speed + font is that it’s maybe less creative than I would have wanted but the movement lines makes it more creative and the boldness makes it stand out, so this is a minor problem. As for the porter sans font, the black shadow underneath the lettering is meant to be effective but I think it takes some of the attention away from the lettering. On the other hand, if the main colour of the can is black, the drop shadow will not be visible and the problem will solve itself.

Before it got narrowed down to the two colouring options, I was already hesitant about using blue for my main can colour on this project. This was because of the issue with the contrasting with a wide range of colours, like the black colouring is able to do. Both fonts look effective when put together with the blue colouring, however, when the font colours change to say a Red, the contrast will be ineffective and make the product look unprofessional and unsellable, the worst thing a company can do.


Like I thought on the previous slide, the blue colouring doesn’t contrast as well with a wide range of colours, compared to the black colouring. While he blue colouring looks better than I thought it would mixed with a range of colour choices, I think black is the obvious choice for my energy drink packaging. Before I go into production, I will have to ensure that the font is perfectly clear and it’s not out of proportion in any way (sometimes text gets stretched and loses it’s proportions. After this happens, it is very difficult to get the text back to normal).


As I varied the colours for my potential product range on this project, I realised the full extent of the effectiveness of picking the black colouring for the man colour on my packaging. As you can see, all the colours contrast well with the black colouring, and like with monster energy, the bright/striking colour with black works really well to make an eye-catching product. Some colours work better than others and I will have to experiment with other colours to make sure I explore all my options on this project. I also established that he text would be more effective if it was to be bigger. On this experiment it was pt.30, but I believe that a pt.72 will get the attention of the consumer more and therefore make it a more successful product. As I previously stated, further experiments will be carried out to ensure maximum effectiveness is fulfilled for this project.


Original Slight lean

Outer glow (opacity turned down)Inner glow

Stroke

Extreme lean

After experimenting with the fonts on the last page, I decided that while the porter sans was effective, it had too much of a border and the font didn’t fit with my product name. Therefore, I knew I had to try different effects on the font I would use, Speed +. At first, I didn’t try any effects at all, I just wanted to try and tilt the lettering. As you can see from the original text, it was already a bit slanted. From there, I wanted to see what it would look like if it was a bit straighter and also wanted to experiment with more rotations. The slight lean gave me a very effective font, while the extreme lean was possibly a bit too slanted for my liking, however, that’s what experiments are for: finding out what works and what doesn’t. As for the stroke effect, I thought the little outlines of the shapes would be coloured over with the white, but as I found out, the white fills in the little outlines and it makes them stand out even more than before. My only criticism of this effect is that he letters look all as one, instead of individual letters, however, this can be changed with alteration of size and spread. The outer glow can be effective and I’ve seen it work very well in my past projects. On this project though, it has made the text look more ineffective than the original and brought this very dull and restrained grey with it. Even if the outer glow would have been white in colouring, I wouldn’t have liked the outcome of it, due to the joined lettering and the outline on the shapes disappearing somewhat and making the overall lettering look ineffective, which would be a fundamental mistake when selling a product. Having never used inner glow before, I was a bit hesitant to use this effect. However, this effect choice turned out to be one of the most effective font schemes on this experiment stage. Due to the inner glow matching the perfect colour to contrast the orange, the lighter orange was chose for the outline and it compliments the text effectively. This gives it a very retro look that I haven’t got with any of my other font experiments.

Product packaging development

What I like about this design• The colouring works well and the two colours contrast each other well. However, the company name on the collar of the can need reviewing because the two colours have almost merged, making the font look ineffective.

• BOLT’s overall design is clean and concise, it doesn’t try an bombard the consumer with information but it tells you all you need to know about the product.

• My nutritional values feature the same information as the leading energy drink companies products, but the placement and the colouring makes it look unconventional and bold.

What I don’t like about the design

• The inner glow on both sets of brand names is too big and needs scaling back so the orange colouring can be see more clearly on the main font face. The same can be said for the lighting bolt, but it can be seen clearer than the font faces so isn’t a priority if the design was revisited.

• The brand names at the top of the can. I think that there are too many o them and they take away too much attention from the main logo and brand name on the packaging. Experimenting with different designs, such as two brand names and a few smaller logos might be the way to construct the collar of the packaging.

What I would change If I repeated the design

• In the UK, drinks haven’t got the table of ingredients and nutritional information like they do in the US, so I would have to change the table I was going to add to my can design. Instead, I will try and set it out in a list or find an original way of trying to set out the ingredients, I will have to test different methods of doing so.

• The recycling logo that occupies the right hand corner of the nutritional information side of the can has a white background which doesn’t fit in with the rest of the colours scheme on the can. Removing the colouring using the magic wand tool on Photoshop will be the process I will take: a simple process, but one that will make a massive impact. Another option O have is to change the colour of the green recycling logo to Orange so it will fit in with my corporate colours.

Product packaging developmentThings I like about this design

• The colours used on this design contrast each other well and combine well to contrast the black background. The colours were chose on colour wheel, a site that combines colours that either directly look aesthetically good together or contrast each other. However, these colours were altered slightly because when I tried using the colours that it suggested, they didn’t look quite right so I had to tweak the colours to get them in perfect contrast.

• The new nutritional information setup is better than the table idea and is an unconventional idea. Even though I have emulated this design feature from another an design, hardly any energy drinks companies use this layout option on their cans. I had to put a stroke on the shapes because the black colouring of them blended in with the background.

What I don’t like about the design

• The problem of having the inner glow too big on the font face is a recurring issue from the previous design and is one that I decided to not amend when designing this layout. However, this may need to be reviewed, due to it making the text look ineffective and in the small fonts case, discoloured.

• The lighting bolt has been increased in size from the last design, however, it might need scaling up again. The way in which the tip of the lighting bolt touches the ‘T’ is effective, but I feel the top of the shape must go all the way to the collar to take up the whole front and back of the can.

What I would change if I repeated the design

• The collar of the can looks ineffective, due to the layout of the brand name and the logo. The alternate colouring of the lightning bolt shapes is a good feature, but the way they are set out needs to be addressed. As I worked them out using the ruler tool on Photoshop, I spaced them evenly apart, however, I forgot to account for the way in which it will be wrapped round the can, which would look ineffective when added to a product.

• While the new way of laying out the nutritional values is original and effective, the stroke on the ellipse shapes are white, which doesn’t fit in with any other feature of my layout. Changing the colouring to a yellow or a pink would be the best way to keep the same layout feature but make it fit in with my corporate colours also.


• The changing of the colouration to the layout and font means that the stroke of the ellipse shapes now fits in with the corporate colours. Even though they are now the same colouration, I experimented with colours and tried an orange shade on the stroke of the ellipse shapes, thinking it would fit in with the rest of the layout. However, instead of making it look effective, the orange stroke colouring blended in with the company name on the can, so I had to change it back to white.

• The lightning bolt through the BOLT text makes the company logo evident n the can while been subtle at the same time. Due to the opacity been turned down, the shape was just the correct shade to be noticed on top of the text, hut not so much that it cut in front of the text and made the company invisible, which is what you don’t want on your packaging.

Things I don’t like about the design

• On the top of the screen where the lighting bolt first meets the company name, the text that says ingredients seems to blend in with the colouring of the two features. I might have to try changing the colour of the fonts or further reducing the opacity on the lighting bolt shape.

• The recycling logo has still not been changed on the design. From the first packaging layout, this has been a problem and still hasn't been resolved on this design. On the other hand, it is not a major problem and can easily be resolved should I choose to adapt this design for my final packaging idea.


• The size of the company name is too big for the packaging. Initially, I wanted the letters to span the whole can, which looked effective when I was experimenting different design techniques on Photoshop. However, when the layout is viewed as a screenshot, it doesn’t look as striking or effective. If I was to take forward this design to my final packaging, I would also need to move the company name down, it’s not centralised, which creates more white space at the bottom, compared with the top.

• The lighting bolt could do to be reduced in size. Even though it looks effective at the bottom of the shape, on the top part of the shape, it hangs over the edge of the font and is unnecessary. If I was to amend it, I would use the transform option to reduce the size of the top and leave the bottom of the shape the same.


• Going back to having the collar design back on the packaging. On the previous design, I had just designed the can design and had left the collar empty because I was trying to emphasise the company logo and company name, but I believe that having a design on the collar of the can is more effective, while reducing the amount of white space on the layout.

• The traditional orange and white colouring that I started with has returned as the colouring for this packaging design. I think orange would contrast with black better, but due to the background colour, white is the second best colour rot contras the orange colouring. As soon as I saw this combination of colours on my font development, I knew that these were the correct corporate colours for the BOLT company name.


• The nine individual lightning bolts help to reduce the white space but don’t quite fulfil the aesthetic effectiveness that the one lighting bolt with an inner glow achieves. On this particular layout, the clear and concise design is not achieved, due to the busy nature of the overall design, compared to the previous ones.

• The text on the ingredients and flavourings sections of the nutritional information is not centralised, therefore the layout of the text doesn’t look as effective as it could. This feature can be easily solved by selecting the desired text box and pressing a central paragraph position on the top tool bar.


• The inner glow on my company name needs altering. In my font development, the white and orange worked well as contrasting colours for a font. They still looked effective when they were transferred onto Photoshop. However, when I put the fonts on my packaging deign and fir them into the correct sizes, they went discoloured and therefore looked ineffective. An alteration on the size of the inner glow will resolve this issue and restore the font to it’s previous colouration.

• I would make the nine lighting bolts that are currently on this design into one big lighting bolt. Even though I like the rest of the layout on this product packaging, I dislike the company logo been communicated to the consumer like this. I think that the one lightning bolt will be more striking and will make the layout a lot clearer and condense the layout down. The same colours should be kept for this alteration (orange as the main and white as the inner glow colour).

Product packaging development

Things I like about this design

• The continued use of the corporate colours that I think I will eventually use for my final packaging design. The orange and black contrast each other well, while looking striking to the consumer. These colours may also be use don my other products, including my web banner and product advert.

• Due to this design been one of my most experimental designs on this development tasks, which involved experimenting a lot with the aesthetic features, not content as well, it is difficult to pick a feature I haven’t already analysed on previous designs.


• The fact that the company name isn’t centralised on the page, but instead leaves more white space at the bottom, compared with the top. This will make the overall layout look more professional and therefore a more successful product, should decide to take this design to the final packaging idea stage.

• Lack of content on the collar of my can is a real issue for me. All of my other designs, barring the ones with large brand names, have looked effective, due to the fact they had collar designs. Popular energy drink companies have collar designs on their products, which makes me think I should emulate this feature. After all, I am trying to fit into a market, not invent a whole new market, therefore I need to emulate as many codes and conventions from existing energy drinks.


• Increased opacity from my previous design similar to this one is one thing that I would change about this particular product packaging. The text behind the shape is getting blocked and the text that is trying to inform the consumer about the ingredients is blending in to the orange colouring of the lightning bolt. Reducing the opacity down to the level of the lightning bolt on the previous design will solve this design problem.

• Making the lightning bolt span across the text more horizontally is another feature I would alter on this packaging. Looking more diagonal than horizontal, this layout doesn’t look as effective as the previous attempt at making a layout which sees the text span around the whole of the packaging. Altering this feature won’t be time consuming and can be done by selecting transform on Photoshop an tilting the shape to the desired position.


• The neon drop shadow added to the font is very effective and is a prominent feature on this particular design. Experimenting with different effects for the font, including: inner glow, outer glow, bevel and emboss, I wanted an effect that could make my font stand out from the black background. A drop shadow was the final effect I tried and it fulfilled the purpose I wanted the effect for. Due to drop shadow working on the edge of the font, I knew that I had to change the colour of my font to something neutral, so the drop shadow could be at maximum effectiveness. Selecting a black font with the orange drop shadow allowed the corporate colours to remain the same, while making the text stand out more than before.


• The opacity of the nutritional information may need to be changed. This is due to it blocking the ‘B’ letter of my company name. If this packaging was for a company that is already well established, it might work better because the consumer would already be familiar with you product, but because this is a new company, it is key for the consumer to see all of your product name so they can establish themselves with your brand and corporate colours.

• Aligning the lighting bolt with the rest of the ‘BOLT’ text may make the packaging design look more professional and more effective. On the other hand, the reduced white space issue that has now been resolved due to the lighting bolt been added to the design, will be an an issue again if the shape was aligned with the rest of the font.


• The font of my brand name is still not centralised and compromises a bit of it’s effectiveness because of this. However, due to the lighting bolt been added instead of the ‘L’, the lighting bolt stretches from the top of the design to the bottom, therefore white space is reduced without moving the whole font.

• Having not been acted on throughout the development stage, the recycling logo has still got a white background to it. This feature doesn't fit in with the rest of the colouring on this layout. If I were to take this design to my final piece, I would have to resolve this issue, as well as experimenting with making the logo fit in with the corporate colours and turning it orange in colour.

design pro forma

Entertainment & Humor

older demographic

energy drink beforeits

young demographic

slimming drink

energy drinks market

younger demographic

extra strong energy

majority of energy drinks