Live YCN Brief

For this assignment I have been asked to enter a 'Live YCN Brief' of my choice, and from the large selection I have chosen to create a campaign for the 'UK Forestry England'. Below I have conducted a wide range of research and created and developed my ideas.
This is the description of our brief that can be found on the website ;

0. The Creative Challenge
   Your brief is to create a campaign to raise awareness of the various outdoor activities the Forestry Commission provides.We need to engage with a younger audience to highlight what a great day out our sites provide, whether it’s with family, your friends or both. It’s great value, its healthy and fun.
   We have competitors UK wide offering leisure days. How can we attract people
   to think about Forestry Commission sites as an offer they want to visit, enjoy and more importantly repeat their visit, or even visit a different site?We want to have
   an interaction with the younger audience not only wanting to use our sites for various activities but to become loyal customers who will in turn become custodians themselves of our very precious offer, and to one day explore our sites with their children. 
   

I started off by analyzing the brief and picking out the key features and other aspects which would help me start this project effectively. Below is the spider diagram that shows different parts of my brief and other focuses.

Once I had analyzed the brief and I understood exactly what was expected of me, I was then able to move on the the research section of the assignment. For this, I firstly collected secondary research using the internet which I have annotated below.

Above is the current logo used for the Forestry Commission England. This logo can be adapted depending on which section of the country it is used in, simply by applying a different area to the light green text reading 'England'. This logo is incredibly simple and straight forward, and to me it doesn't seem very effective as it has no clear ideas or strategy behind it and it also has an unclear target audience in mind.

Above is just an example of the current logo being used on some signage around one of the plots of land. This shows that it can be adapted to it's surroundings, which is something a must consider when helping to re-brand.

Above is just an example of the logo adapted in a slightly different way so that the imagery is next to the text instead of directly above it. Despite the fact that the forestry commission want this logo included on their campaign, i will also experiment with changing the logo as i just think its terrible.

Above is an example of the logo used along side additional information, all done in the same font. I think they have definitely got the sizing right for this signage, as the more 'negative' information is smaller and the names and other information are much bigger. However I still don't think the font is effective, I can only think that they chose it because it fits with most audiences and is legible and readable.

Above is an example of the app that the Forestry Commission have done for android and iphones. I think its actually very impressive that they can communicate through this level of technology as 'outdoor companies' and other nature associated businesses are often behind on the technology front.
The graphics used for this app are also quite nice, once again i'm not a massive fan of the font but it is simple, which links with the simple graphics of the tree logo.

Above is a refreshing example of a banner used on the forestry website to advertise a festival that the company hold annually. I think that it's quite a nice way of appealing to a younger audience

Above is an example of a poster used to advertise the musicians that are involved in the concert, done by the forestry england. I think this is quite a nice poster as the layout is simple yet effective and I think that it is one of the only times that the logo looks sophisticated.

Here is a further example of a musician who is involved with the forestry England concerts. This follows a very similar layout as the previous poster, the only problem being that neither of them have any relevant information other than the very vague logo. This makes me think that they were possibly used on site, and not as a useful source of information.

Above is an example of the app for the forestry England, which helps you identify natural forms. I think this is quite a nice feature as it gives the impression that the company is up to date, which may appeal to younger audiences.

Once I had analysed a wide range of Forestry England related images and branding, I then moved on to developing my own ideas for this brief as I felt that I had enough knowledge and understanding of the company to move on.

Below is a morphological analysis which I started with, which is basically a very helpful ideas generation technique which uses a combination of words to come up with a new concept or idea.

Once I had completed my morphological analysis, I moved on to jotting down any ideas that I thought of as a result of the morphological analysis, and also any additional ideas that popped into my head. These are shown below in my spider diagram.

Below are a few of the ideas which I produced as a result of my ideas generation techniques. I have roughly sketched them out as I find it much easier to visualize the final design and layout if I have a visual aid to work off.

Above is an idea of picking the letters 'T,R,Y' out of the word 'Forestry' and emphasizing the fact that you can try a wide range of activities - not just walking! I really like this idea as it is very versatile and could be applied lot a lot a different mediums.

Sticking with the theme of picking out letters, I have experimented with picking out the phrase 'For England', which is a very patriotic approach. However I believe that this is effective as in recent years people seem to have become a lot more patriotic because of things like the credit crunch (not being able to go abroad as much) and other events like the royal wedding and the Queens Diamond Jubilee.

Above are a number of versatile ways in which you could use the forestry idea. I have developed this idea further as I believe that it is one of my stronger ideas. Below i have used digital software to develop this idea further and give me a clear idea of what it would look like.

I think that by using a sans serif, bold font for the word 'forestry' really helps it to stand out (which is important as it is the main concept) and it also contrasts nicely against the more relaxed font used for the verb. I think its important that the verb is in a more relaxed, hand illustrated font as it is the only feature that will be changing, and therefore it looks quirky if its hand drawn - giving it a personal touch.

Above is just a development of the logo without the addition of the word 'England'. I do think that the logo with 'England' included looks better as it looks slightly more professional and it could be easily adapted for other forestry companies in different areas. I think that its important that my logo is adaptable.

Above is just a further development using different typefaces. I like the main font used for the word 'Forestry' as it looks quite rough and sketchy - which I believe relates to the rough textures found in a forest and the sketchiness and chance related to natural forms. I'm not too keen on the font used for biking as I think it looks too thin, meaning that it doesn't effectively balance out the logo - making it top heavy.

Using a different typeface (for experimental purposes) I then applied my design to some leaflet/poster layouts. The two major problems that I have with this first draft is the colour scheme (as it doesn't work with the nature theme at all) and also the typeface as the second verb typeface looks way too upper market and classy to be aimed at aspirers. However, I do like the layout and concept.

I have developed this idea by changing the colour of the text and also the opacity of the verbs. I think this looks a lot better however it still appeals to an older and more sophisticated audience, which is not my intended target audience.

After changing the choice of photographs, filters, typefaces and colour scheme, I believe that I have come up with a much more contemporary and youthful design. I believe that as well as younger audiences being able oto relate to all of the activities advertised, it also manages to communicate a youthful feel in the chosen fonts as they look bold and they communicate action.

A further development that I did for this piece was changing the colour of the letters 'F,O,R,E,S' to a green as this helps to tie in with the existing branding of the company and also helps to add a much needed splash of colour. The only slight problem that I have with this piece as the green may look a bit out of place as nothing else in the posters/leaflets is coloured. The other thing is that even though the typeface used for the verb is incredibly close to what I visualized, I think it still looks a bit too dated and not rough/original enough.

Once I had the idea that I wanted a much sketchier, slightly more fun font for the verbs, I decided to use my graphics tablet skills in order to illustrate my own style of font. I think that this really helped me to achieve my desired font as it was sketchy, legible and definitely original and innovative. 

I then experimented with a different style of paint brush which just gave the wording a more 'stylized' feel. Its a little bit quirkier but still legible. The only thing that I think will be the final modification is the lettering on the third poster for cycling, as the colour of the word forestry blends into the background.

Once I had come up with my promotional poster/leaflet designs, I then decided to expand this idea on to other promotional gear, for example, t shirts. Above is the starting point for my t shirt designs, and I think the sizing of the font works well as it is bold and definitely stands out. I like the way the words 'Commission England' are less legible tan the main word as this doesn't ruin the illusion of the 'try', however it means that the t shirt is informative

Above I have simply added hand illustrated text to the t shirts, which I think looks really good - especially because it links in really well with the other promotional material.

These are just some further developments.

Evaluation

I believe that my final outcome manages to fully answer the brief and hits all of the requirements. Firstly it is an innovative and original concept, which I have not seen anywhere else. This is important because not only does the company want to be original in its design, but also the originality helps to communicate the fact that the company is independent and modern. In addition to this, I believe that my designs appeal to aspirers as well as mainstreamers and other audiences, which is what was asked of me. It appeals to aspirers because the design is up-to-date and modern, but it appeals to other audiences because it makes sense and follows a steady concept. Also, the concept is quite clever which I think is definitely appealing. I think another positive point about my final outcome is that it can easily be applied to lots of different mediums, which is very useful for the company when making such a large campaign.
If I were to do this assignment again, I would like to spend a little bit more time creating and developing ideas, however due to time constraints, I had to choose my idea quite early on to make sure that I developed it to it's full potential.
Apart from time constraints, the only other obstacle which I came across during this assignment was the  poor performance of the computers in the technology department. The computers kept crashing and turning off spontaniously, which meant that I lost a lot of work and time was even more of an issue. However I believe that I worked to the best of my ability with the tools I was given.