So it's Sunday 4...

Ahh, rather boring weekend on my half to be honest, slightly lacking work due to feeling under the weather and overworking myself. Dodgy takeaway on Friday night did nothing to help this either. So, what do I have to fill you in with? Well, in the end I followed everyone's advice (apart from the tutors) and stuck with my name of Impression for the pasta brand. Got plenty of justification from my target market why I should keep it so it is staying. Nervously staying but staying. Booklet is now complete for that project apart from potentially another in situe shot of my brand (they thought my supermarket shelving piece was a little cluttered and wanted a shot of it along with a few other brands on a white background...not what I class as in situe but o well, I'll eventually get round to it). Here's a sneaky peek...

A very sneaky peak might I add, don't want to give too much of the game away yet

Started the pasta marketing/promotion brief now, had a day of research which has gone really quickly! Already got a few ideas which run along the 'mundane' styles of advertising except with a twist. We were told we either had to market a unique aspect of our design or come up with a wicked, individual campaign strategy. I'm hoping my windows are a unique and recognisable aspect for me to run with...Decided to create a little survey too which has ended up being pages and pages long but at least I'll get the info (hopefully) that I want and need from my target market.

On a more interesting note, I ended up stumbling upon a few interesting images whilst trawling the internet for advertisements. The following is rather controversial and I apologise now if it offends anyone (it certainly did me) but I couldn't believe how hard-hitting and clearly it got it's message across:

In case you can't quite see it, the message reads 'The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11'

Just wow to be honest. So hard hitting! I was extremely shocked when I saw this but considering WWF and their normal shock tactic advertising, it seems pretty tame in comparison to previous imagery they have used. What do you guys think to it? I'll leave you to ponder...

Friendly Friday 3 (a little late, I know haha)

Well, what can I say, last night was Bonfire Night so I might have just neglected my blog a bit (I'm sorry blog). Anyways, it's getting hard to recommend a friend every Friday as some are still establishing their blogs and sites (if you want a recommendation, drop me a comment or message btw). So, seeing as it got set up this week, I shall recommend myself for one week only (please don't see this as being big headed guys, pleaseee).

Lianna May Design

 

Advert of the Week 3: Marks and Spencers

Seeing as today I've been bogged down with a markting report on Marks and Spencers fashion, I thought I'd torment myself even more by posting their newest campaign:




It's the first week of Novemeber and already their Christmas ad is out! Personally I prefer this one from a few years ago, give me one of those boys on Christmas day and I'll be well happy!



It's so much better! And it has the cute, home-made video feel to it. O well, better luck next year M&S, I'll still get excited when your advert comes on but it's no Take That!

Designer of the Week 3: Jasper Goodall

It's that time of the week again guys and today, to distract me from pasta, I've had some of my fave band on full blast. Nothing like some Muse to cheer up your day. And it got me thinking, especially when flicking through their single and album artwork on my iTunes; I haven't showcased one of my fave Muse single artwork designers yet!

Jasper Goodall

You might have seen my own interpretation of Jasper's Muse cover on my website (if not, I wouldn't suggest looking at it after viewing his, it puts mine to shame!). His cover art for the CD/DVD/Vinyl version of Muse's single 'Invincible' brought Goodall to my attention (I love how music influences you sometimes) and then I realised he'd done most of the single artwork for the Black Holes and Revelations album!

Example of Goodall's smoke imagery which Muse used for their Wembley tour dates in 2008

Starlight single cover, sticking with the recognisable Goodall style

Invincible single artwork. I adore Goodall's smoke imagery and I understand how time consuming it must have been after recreating my own (see liannamaydesign.co.uk, personal work section)

Supermassive Black Hole single artwork

Knights of Cydonia single artwork, another example of Goodall's smoke imagery

Obviously the guy does more than just work for Muse! Quite alot of his work is dominated by the female form (on many occasions, a naked form) which he believes is influenced by his father's photography work of the 70s of the feminist movement. The illustrations are so intricate and delicate, something which drew me further into the work of Jasper and the vivid colours contrasting his theme of strong black and white create a dramatic and eye-catching effect. Below are a few more examples (which aren't to do with Muse ha):

Don't know about you guys but I get a real Bond Girl/Bond Titles theme from this. Think Goodall would make an amazing job creating the next Bond film titles. Made from pieces that weren't use during his Muse brief

Love the limited use of bright colours on this piece, contrasting the stark black and white

Have a look at the dude, his work is amazing! It's pj time and potentially pasta for me now!

Crit Tuesday 3

Well, no more crits for the pasta branding brief! Today was the last one and, well, it was pretty interesting I suppose. After (eventually) stopping my legs and arms from shaking and turning to jelly, I got feedback from all three of the tutors (who in turn, have seen my work each week). Here goes:

• Layout and rendering was to a professional standard, they liked how I had rotated the cylinder to show all aspects of the product
• Windows and their sizing was great and didn't need to be altered
• New text size and colour was much better and don't need to be changed
• Worked extremely well as a brand and delivered a strong corporate image

However

• Despite it being liked for the past two or three weeks and the tutor last week saying how well it worked, the name is no longer liked. It was seen as the weakest point of my product and the teacher who liked it so much last week now said it reminded him of a hair salon or brand of chocolates. It was suggested that I change it to something more pasta related or Italian which is exactly the thing I wanted to avoid with my brand as I wanted it to be different and approachable to those who feel put off by the Italian language. I wanted it to be a more generic brand name, like Heinz etc, and it ties in well with my brand values and potential marketing ideas. I thought Impression was short enough to be memorable and phonetically, sounded approachable and nice

What do I do?
I really like the name Impression but our next brief is (as I thought it would be) to market our brand and create media campaigns for the new product. Impression gives me potential to a lot of predictable catchphrases but also speaks for itself if I want to avoid them. However, if they don't like it now, I'm unsure if this will affect my grade on the next brief if I continue with it. It's such a pain as I was really excited about the new brief until they decided to no longer like the name!

What do you guys think to the name?

I NEED YOU OPINIONS
I am really stuck on what to do. At the moment, I can't think of any alternatives for a brand name but I'm not letting my liking of Impression to stop me from doing this. Please drop me a few comments on what you think to the name, any potential alternatives, whether I should change it or not etc. Any comments will be extremely appreciated guys!

WEBSITE IS NOW LIVE CHUCKS!

www.liannamaydesign.co.uk

Exciting times!

Ooo, final pasta crit tomorrow...

...and new brief! Ahh nerves are setting in! I really hate having to stand in front of a class and present, purely because no one ever understands my accent and I shake. Alot. Anyway. So far feedback has been pretty good so I'm hoping it stays that way tomorrow. I made all the adjustments that were suggested last week and put the pieces in situe which I'm not really too happy with (I don't think they look realistic but let me know what you think) but here you go anyway:

One of the close up shots. The other one didn't want to upload ha

Full range of pastas available

Pasta in situe. Really don't like this one, it's kind of messy but I'll sort it out

Pasta in situe again, like this one a little more. Least it shows my pasta moving off the shelves and being bought!

So yeah, there's a selection of my final pieces. I have a piece showing the side view, lid etc but it didn't want to upload (shy I reckon haha). Really worried about tomorrow so if you guys have any suggestions or pointers, leave them in the comment box below, you can be anonymous if you want!

Moving on to different news...

My website might be going live tonight! I've practically finished the thing and bought the domain so I just have to buy the server space now and publish. Really exciting! It isn't the most extravagant website out there but simplicity seems to be my thing if you go by the images above! Want a preview?

Very limited and blurry preview I know! But stick around, it might be live later! I'm jogging off nah to sort it out, yay!