Something More / Workshop

Something More were in the studio today running a workshop with us. Our task was to create a children's cereal brand with a healthy motive. We had 4 hours to complete the task.

My group included myself, Jess, Emma, Cameron and Katie. We identified our audience between ages 4-6 as we thought it was important to teach children about healthy eating from a young age. Throughout the day, there was a 'randomiser' that was spun giving us difficulties/opportunities within the project.

The first spin landed on 'cha-ching' - the client has a bigger budget for the project and they now want an 'on-the-go' version of the product.

We decided to create an oat-based cereal as research shows this is one of the most healthy types of breakfast cereal. The group liked the idea of creating the cereal in different shapes to appeal to a younger audience, so after some deliberation we went with clouds and sunshines. The story behind the concept is the sun gives us energy and life, so there will be around 4-5 sun shapes in every bowl and the children have to eat their way through to find them.

The randomiser was spun again and this time the client would like to launch the product with an app.

As the concept has a strong theme behind the sun, we brainstormed name ideas:

Our favourite name was Shinies - this fits with our target age range and has a playful slant to encourage children to engage with the product. We began to sketch out ideas since the randomiser had given us a 1 hour laptop ban:

A few more difficulties were thrown up by the randomiser - cardboard has now been banned. We also need a celebrity to be the face of the brand and TV show where the product will be advertised.

Final packaging design:

Our celebrity is Katie Ashworth who also has her own TV show called I Can Cook. We chose this as she is a children's presenter and the product would fit in well with her TV show.

Overall I found this workshop fun and engaging. It was exciting to see what a real live brief can throw at you over the space of 1 day. During the project we also had to focus our attention onto a different brief for half an hour - this simulated how to juggle projects and how to cope with unexpected jobs.

Live work / Icons

While working with Oslo Agency they introduced me to Hannah-Natalie O'Sullivan, a marketing consultant for Consume Communications. She's interested in some live work but doesn't have a budget big enough for a studio project. I contacted her to see whether she has a project for me:

We discussed a few initial costs and what work is likely to be needed doing. Just over a week later, Hannah got in touch with me again to ask for a project for herself:

After a few initial ideas and back-and-forth emails of development, I created a range of icons she was happy with:

I sent her the invoice and the AI file and she was more than happy to throw in a free ticket to the next Glug Leeds event. 

Overall this was a very positive experience and could potentially leave to more work in the future. Hannah has also contacted me since and said she would promote my work/website on the Glug twitter page. 

Self Branding / Business Card Ideas

My business card design is extremely simple and no-fuss. This reflects my practice and style with the only information on it being my logo and website. I decided to do this as everything you need to know about me and contact details are on my website.

This design could be subject to change as a medium I am interested in printing the cards onto is translucent plastic. This means there can only be 1 printable side to the business card so everything needs to fit on one side. I also may include my phone number as some clients may not have access to the internet.

DBA / Results & Feedback

Unfortunately our team wasn't chosen as the winners, though we got some good feedback from the judges after our presentation.

They loved the idea of Mr Potter and how the brand had a British feeling but wasn't too cheesy. They were impressed with the outcome and the quality of the finished tins, and also made positive comments surrounding the illustrations and general look of the branding. They said that they could see the product in high-end stores and that it would suit the audience well.

The criticisms were mainly of our delivery. They said they would have liked to know more about Mr Potter and his story. They wanted a more dynamic presentation and to have more of the Mr Potter universe explored.

Overall I feel we worked well as a team and have created a good, well-rounded response to the brief. It's a shame we were unsuccessful but the feedback was all valid and can be taken forward into further projects.

Self branding / Website

To ensure my work is seen in a professional light, I have decided to make a website and purchase a domain. I currently have a Behance, LinkedIn, Dribbble and Instagram account and although these each have their own uses, a website is essential to showcase my portfolio a more personal and professional way. 

To create my site I used Squarespace. I purchased a domain and decided to go for my full name: charlotterosewalker.com

Squarespace is easy to use and has lots of different customisable features. I've added my logo across the site and begun to upload the best selection of my work:

Home page / Work

About

Contact

The website has a contact feature where anyone can email me directly from the site. This is extremely useful as its easier for anyone viewing my site to get in contact with me quickly. 

I will be adding more to my site as I create more work for extended practice. As the site is on a yearly subscription I will continue to use it throughout my professional career. 

DBA / Presentation

Our presentation for the DBA judges just includes titles and images as we wanted the presentation to be more personal and professional. Reading off the slides leads to a disengaging presentation, so we divided up the slides equally and made appropriate notes. Unfortunately Jack wasn't able to attend the presentation due to being on placement, so myself, Lo and Rhys had 3 slides each to talk about.

Self Branding / Development

I decided to go with the Rose symbol for my logo as I feel an icon alongside my name will work well as a stand-alone design.

Initial Ideas

I tried a few different variations of the rose alongside my name and different styles of leaf. From here, I also tried different colour schemes for the icon:

Although the rose can work in any colour scheme, I feel that the pink is more suited to myself and my practice. The red was also in danger of looking like an identity for the labour party.

I wanted to keep the colour scheme light and bright, showing that I'm not afraid to use colour but my design style is minimal and professional.


The use of pink in my colour scheme is to represent the roses of both Lancashire (red rose, my home) and Yorkshire (white rose, my university) coming together to form who I am today. Pink is also a personal favourite colour of mine and is a colour that is on trend at the moment.

Final Logo

I decided to remove the details from the leaves and fill in the thorns. This balances the logo and ensures simplicity throughout. The details also won't be lost through scaling.

Self branding / Initial Ideas

Although my self-branding from level 5 is still fairly relevant to my practice, I feel it needs updating to show the improvements I've made in that time.

Previous Branding

My previous branding uses my first name in a 3 x 3 grid as the logo. As my initials are quite hard to combine (C and W) it makes sense to keep something like this or create a symbol for myself that can be applied to lots of different collateral. I want to keep the bold, vector aspect to my branding as that reflects my work, although I don't want it to be too busy or a copy of something I have already created.

My middle name, Rose, has potential as a part of my branding. It can be used as a symbol and has relevance as it is part of my name.

Robot Food / Application

While using LinkedIn, I noticed that one of my favourite studios Robot Food are looking to expand their design team.

I asked Alec about what I should include in my portfolio while he was in the university. He sat with me for around an hour looking into Robot Food's ethos and how to link that to my own practice. Robot Food are very conceptually driven, and so is a lot of my own work. He said I should tap into their values in my own portfolio and really try to show them I would be a good fit in their studio. In my pdf portfolio I included of the best projects I've made so far, and also directed them to my social media accounts. I also sent them an updated CV which discusses my work placements and skills.

DBA / Final Packaging

The final packaging for our loose leaf tea is shown below.

The packaging is bright and vibrant and relates to the story of Mr Potter as the jungle setting has been included. It has a natural feel with the hand written logo and colourful illustrations. We have a colour scheme for each flavour to represent the time of day the tea should be consumed. This also separates the flavours and nootropics to avoid confusion.

We have a clear tin to ensure trust in the customer as they can see the product inside. With the addition of nootropics, trust is essential in our audience as this new ingredient could potentially be off-putting. We have a carefully cut out sticker that includes the illustrations and necessary information on the back. The tins can also be used again by the consumer via up-cycling. This ties in with the natural values of the brand and the consumer, and with the logo sand blasted on the front of the tin the brand will live on through the packaging.