Responsive // Filmdoo: Initial Ideas

I decided to design a film poster for 'Her' as I really enjoyed this film, and it has developed characters and an interesting, unique plot.

Her is about Theodore, a soon-to-be divorcee who lives alone and is still struggling with the end of his long-term relationship. He purchases a new operating system that has artificial intelligence, called Samantha, who acts and talks like a real human. Theodore sparks an unlikely relationship with her.

Only certain things can be included in a film poster that do not spoil the story for potential viewers, so I will only be including possible imagery that reflects:

• reflects Theodores past relationship
• Theodores romance with Samantha

OR imagery that subtley hints at the plots twists in the film (such as the pitfalls of being so involved in technology). This can create curiosity in people, which makes them want to watch it.

Themes:

• heartbreak
• love
• technology
• loneliness

In the poster I want a simplistic design that clearly reflects love with a subtle at technology. I have come up with these thumbnails initially, using tall buildings as imagery often as Theodore lives in a futuristic Los Angeles, where all the buildings are skyscrapers. I think it reflects the future of society and how developed we will be.

The first two thumbnails show the camera from the OS, first as the equivalent to a human eye and second to seem like a faraway planet (as Samantha isn't real, and is just technlogy. She gets more intelligent throughout the film so by the end it seems as though she is real, but just somewhere far away.)

Responsive // Her cinematography and set design

I took it upon myself to watch the film again, and take screenshots along the way to document the atmosphere that is created.

This is to create a colour palette for my poster design that perfectly captures the film, and to also represent the cinematography, scenery and set design. I think this is important when trying to create an identity of a production; you have to embody it's features which all have their reasons as to why they are important to the plot.

 

The colours in this film are brilliantly executed, and aren't something you can ignore. Soft hues and warm tones are prominent throughout, complementing one another with elegance. There is very little use of blue, which was intentional; the filmmakers wanted blue to be left out, but not for any important reason.
To use blue in a film poster for Her would be pretty inappropriate, when I think of the movie I think of soft pinks and reds.

The filmmakers made sure to use red in almost every frame, most of the time being Theodore's shirt, making it quite an iconic look throughout the movie. It even matches the colour scheme of the iOS system It also reflects love, which is the main theme in this movie, and something Theodore struggles with.

The film is 'futuristic', which makes the perfect colour palette seem something embedded in future society; all of the extras are dressed very smart and elegantly, with a very carefully put together colour scheme.

All of these fresh, colourful scenes are often contrasted with panoramic views of the city at night, which are pretty magical. They strongly signify a big, urban environment that will exist in the future with no escape. To use this imagery as inspiration for the poster would definitely clearly portray the films scenery.


Colour palette:

I took these colours scenes throughout the fim using the eyedropper tool and a little tweaking (this is because colours are perceived differently in some lights than what the eyedropper picks up).

I think they reasonably represent the film - the first row is the film overall, and the second row is the night time colours seen in the amazing views of the city.

I will keep these colours in mind when designing my poster.

Collaborative // GAP: Final campaign

Shopfront display

text on the window reads '#DressNormal this term.'

Alex created this minimal poster, which we all agreed was appropriate and representative of Gap.

However, we seemed to gradually steer away from the original idea of a busy composition of shapes overlapping each other, which I think we should have used more. Saying that, this composition is effective too, as sometimes less is more. The white space is quite captivating paired with the simple imagery.

Flyers

I came up with the idea to design small flyers that would be handed out to students at fresher fairs or on the highstreets. Fresher fairs would be a highly effective way to communicate Gap to a student audience, as students do actually pay attention to things they get handed in these places, as its an exciting time for first years and they aren't in a situation where handouts are a chore.

I used enlarged shapes from our original composition of shapes and segments, so that they stand out clearly on a small leaflet. The straightforwardness and simplicity grabs attention quickly. I made sure to use an appropriate balance of colours and make sure the vibrant pink was always present, which is a colour that is youthful and bold.

Mockups

Bus advertisement, Magazine/newspaper advertisement, Student poster advertisement

Alex and me worked on these mockups. We decided to go beyond the brief and create bus and magazine advertisements because we wanted to make it seem as realistic as possible, and to illustrate how this campaign could work in the real world.
It also gave us the opportunity to design in different formats that we haven't explored before... designing for the side of a bus is a challenge but something that is worth experimenting with.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

As I group, we listened to each others ideas and no one took full charge so I felt quite equal to others in the project. However, by having a leader in the group we could have been more efficient and created stronger work.

One of our downfalls was that as a group we weren't very inspired by the project - as I read more about it and started to research it, it became more unappealing and dull, and Alex and Johnny felt the same. This was mostly due to quite strict guidelines on the YCN brief, such as Helvetica being the only font allowed and then going on to learn more about their 'Dress Normal' campaign, which isn't very imaginative. By this time, we had already agreed on designing for Gap, so we powered through and came up with an outcome that is clear and communicative - something that fits in pretty well with Gap.

I felt quite trapped by Helvetica, as its quite often considered an invisible font - it is so normal and readable that it doesn't have any personality in a lot of situations. Typography is a massive part of any graphic design so the way its used can be very creative and communicative.

This put pressure on us to create imagery that got the message of '25% off' across - a concept we struggled with at first, because Gap is a very simple and clean brand. This meant that there were a lot of boundaries to be aware of when designing for students: boundaries that don't exist in other stores, such as River Island or Topshop.

Collaborative // GAP: Initial and developed ideas

Initial ideas we came up with:

• illustrated clothing or shapes
• geometric shapes
• expressive contrasting with the clean cut helvetica
• use the '25%' feature and create imagery with segments cut out of it

We have decided that the idea of segments to represent a quarter/25% would be quite effective. Because this campaign will be running during Freshers week, we thought of the idea of being Fresh, which fits in well with Gaps identity as simple, clean, and casual. 

• Fresh = fresh fruit
• cut a quarter out of pieces of fruit and photoshoot them.

We liked this idea (that Alex came up with, which I then suggested relates to freshers), but when we came back to it later we thought using fruit to sell clothes might not fit and might not be obvious. We discussed it the day after the idea came about, and Johnny was quite against it and we discussed the ways in which it may not reflect a clothing brand. I was initially unhappy with this decision as we don't have much time left, but decided to go with it.

Following on from this we created some vector images of geometric shapes with segments cut out. Alex created these shapes quickly on illustrator to start off, which stems from a suggestion we got from a peer about playing with the segment idea.

The first stage is promising with exciting colours, but there are too many - it reminds me of things aimed at children. Also, Gap isn't known for being colourful at all.

At the next stage we toned down the colours and made the imagery more subtle with darker colours and small pops of colour. 

The linear segments add more detail and layers to the design, but we thought that it could possibly look like images from a maths textbook...

On my own I have tried out some images made up of small circles, again showing the 25% off. It ended up looking like the American flag, however that would relate to Gap as they say their attitude is "American optimism". That still doesn't justify it enough, and the images aren't strong enough and lack colour.

Me and Alex sat together and experimented with different combinations of colours on illustrator as seen above, taking away some shapes and spreading them out a little bit.

I suggested that the mustard and yellow colours clash horribly with the other colours, especially the pink. An effective combination is an array of grays, pink and the dark turquoise, because more than one bright colour wouldn't reflect Gap at all. We agreed on this.
Their colour palette is mostly creams, greys, and blues, with a little pink. However, one bright colour sets off the design, giving it character and making it bold.

We agreed to use the shapes seen in the last two designs in different mediums such as billboards, leaflets and posters.


Slogans

The phrase 'Make An Understatement This Term' is an initial idea to reflect Gap's identity a bit more. It derives from a caption I saw on their instagram that read "Make an understatement"... which is something I haven't heard before, as normally making a statement is something that people desire.
We thought that this makes Gap different from other brands, as they are saying their clothes are beautifully simple.

In discussing this phrase as a group, we came to the conclusion that understatement has negative connotations, especially amongst students who want to stand out and attract attention. It would be best to use something that suits Gap's "Dress Normal" campaign.

I individually brainstormed some possible alternatives, taking from their website and social media presence, picking up on adjectives they use.

• Normal is the new black (Alex's suggestion)
• Be confident in your style
• Be comfortable with yourself
• Casual confidence
• Classic. Clean. Confident.
• #DressNormal this term.
• Be classic, clean and confident this term.
• Simplicity wins.
• Be classic. Be timeless.
• Shop casual this term.

Me and Alex discussed which of these would be appropriate, and decided to go with '#DressNormal this term'.  mentioning the university 'term' makes it more clearly targeted towards students, and hopefully would make them consider renewing their wardrobe for their fresh start in a new place.

When sharing this idea with Johnny, he thought that it would benefit without the hashtag -
Dress normal this term.
Sometimes an overuse of hashtags comes across as irritating to a lot of people and trying too hard.

Collaborative // GAP: Clothing brands on social media

To get an idea of tone of voice and content I have looked at high street clothing brands that are popular with students - Topshop, ASOS and ZARA.

Topshop

Topshop have 4.1 million likes on their page, so they are clearly successful on social media. The cover photo is details of their clothing in a very fashion-show style, which is reflecting their effort to be seen as similar to high end brands. 

Frequent photoshoots are posted on their facebook page that include young looking models, in ensembles that are very appealing to young people as they hit all the current trends.

'Retro' seems to be a big trend amongst social media where old photographs of celebrities from the 70s/80s/90s are posted as 'style inspiration'. I see this a lot from brands like Topshop.

Overall, Topshop seems to keep some sophistication with its simplistic designs on posts, while using teen-type trends such as lovehearts and cartoon eyes.
Fonts used are very simple and sans-serif.

ASOS

The header image on the facebook page for ASOS is instagram photos taken by consumers, which is obviously trying to prove that their clothes are wearable and attainable. It also encourages people to get involved via social media, which is what spreads a brand quite well amongst students.

Here an effective use of instagram as a marketing strategy is clear: #AsSeenOnMe, which is a play on the name of ASOS: 'As Seen on Stars'. It allows people to get exposure through ASOS posting their photo, while promoting their clothing for free.

ASOS post fashion-orientated articles to keep people interested in their website.

ZARA

Zara are a lot more understated than Topshop and ASOS, as they cater to all ages. Their style is simplicity and quality, which is reflected through their social media. Their logo is very minimal.

#zaradaily is a hashtag for a new outfit posted by Zara every day. This is an effective way of causing interest and making people check back each day to see what they've posted.

From this research I've found that a heavy presence on social media is vital when trying to attract students. Also, design trends are popular as young people follow them more than anyone else.
Hashtags are a way to draw students in as they have a chance of winning something or getting their picture posted.

Collaborative // GAP store photographs

As some primary research, we headed to the nearest Gap store and Johnny took some photographs of the store front and the inner layout, signs and clothes.

We could also possibly use some of these photographs for mock ups of finished designs.

The shopfront is something that could be vastly improved, the windows and paint job are quite attractive. This was something valuable to study as we are primarily designing for the front of Gap stores. Here in Leeds the likes of Topshop and River Island are directly opposite, making Gap seem quite invisible to young people.

The signs dotted around the store don't fit in very well with the rest of the store, and seem to be quite poorly thought out.
'The jeans you've been dreaming of' is something that would be much better fitted in River Island or New Look, as this phrase just doesn't seem to suit Gap's style at all. Their jeans are simple and staple items, nothing wildly statement-making.
They shouldn't pretend to be something they're not, which is still a shop with mostly older consumers.

We found that the shop is very minimal, with white walls and wooden floors. Not much colour has been introduced, except for small occasional signs for sales or indicating the type of clothing. The main colours I sensed in the clothing were blues and creams... nothing that jumps out. Seeing as we can't change the clothes, it is other elements that need spicing up. But subtly... again, throwing off the balance between their clothes and the style of interior could really make things worse.

A quote from Gap on one of their instagram posts is "make an understatement"... they aren't ashamed of it so why change it? Appealing to students isn't necessarily going to change what Gap represent, just open their eyes to it.

Researching other store fronts

River Island's window displays are pretty impressive: Neon lights and large hand rendered type are its key elements. Both these are definitely eye catching and youthful.

Urban Outfitters is an extremely youthful and 'trendy' store, so we took a look around at how it presents itself to students. These lit up signs caught our eye as something that is fun and vibrant... you wouldn't see them in Marks and Spencers.
Everything is very clearly aimed at young people in UO, and gives us good examples of how to attract students. However, we are aware that Gap is a totally different store that isn't primarily targeted to young people.