Part 1 - Based on the discussions in the studio session that focussed on your criteria for success within the module and the reasons for entering competitions, evaluate the three briefs that you brought to the session. You will need to reflect on:
- To what extent will the briefs allow you to meet your criteria for success within the module.
- To what extent will the briefs benefit you with regards to the benefits of entering competition briefs.
- Any problems that you can foresee with the briefs in relation to the issues discussed in the session.
Part 2 - Based on your response to Part 1, select a brief (YCN 2014/15 Student competition briefs or self selected brief) that you think will provide an opportunity to fulfil the criteria discussed in the studio session. In selecting a brief you should aim to focus on the problem, context audience, opportunities etc. as discussed in the session and not purely a the discipline specific content. Having selected the brief, you are asked to analyse it using the following questions as prompts.
- What problem(s) are identified by the brief?
- What is the brief asking you to do about it/them?
- What is the brief trying to achieve?
- Who will benefit?
- What is the message?
- Who is the audience?
- How will the message be delivered?
- Can you foresee any problems in responding to the brief?
Secret 7"
The Secret 7” brief essentially takes 7 tracks from 7 of the better known musicians, all from different genres and decades and then presses each one 100 times to 7” vinyl. The organisation then invites creatives from around the world to listen to the tracks and develop a vinyl sleeve for just one of the 100 records to be placed into. The interesting way in which the sleeves are exhibited is that the 700 shown and then sold for £50 apiece. The buyer doesn't know the artist or who created it, or even which song the particular sleeve is for until they have purchased it, in their words - "The Secret Lies Within". Having looked over the tracks, this years artists include; CHVRCHES's Clearest Blue, Etta James' At Last, Jack Garratt's Worry, The Jam's Art School, John Lennon's Imagine, Max Richter's Dream 3 and Tame Impala's The Less I Know The Better. I'm personally familiar with several on the artists on the list, and I am interested to discover the other artists for the purpose of this project, to see what they sound like and develop a sleeve cover for their track. I think the difference between the artists I'm familiar with versus the artists I've never heard before is that I will already have some form of previous knowledge of the style, and type of art that they usually feature. I'm hoping to try to ignore this and produce something original and untainted in respect to this. In terms of the extent to which this brief will allow me to complete criteria for success within the module, I think that if this is used a more substantial brief, and all seven of the vinyl's completed for each of the respective artists, there would be huge scope for experimentation and ultimately create quite a large body of work including research, implementation and presentation of ideas. If this process is repeated seven times, then a nice collection of work in response to a live brief would be available to use in my portfolio or take forward as something I've been involved in. Furthermore, album or record artwork is incredibly diverse across multiple genres and artists so there is definitely some potential for learning about this type of design as a whole and other areas that it can be applied to. Aside from this, if even one of the entries that I submitted was successful then it would be an achievement in itself. Along with this, the number of entries and accessibility to the brief means there is a lot of potential for networking and discovering other artists through the Secret 7" brief. I think because of the live nature of the brief and the amount of work that could be placed into it, it can easily meet and surpass the criteria of the module. As far as any problems that I can foresee with this brief in relation to the things we discussed in class, I suppose being original would be quite difficult but still attainable, just because of the popularity and diversity within the brief. Finally, perhaps how open the brief is could cause a problem because there aren't many requirements apart from the size of the image. In no way does it have to link directly to the artist, and because of this it's almost like we are able to produce anything we like as long as we can find a way to associate it with the record artist.
D&AD - John Lewis, Create a Window into the Brand
This brief which is by John Lewis and presented by the organisation D&AD is to create an "inspiring, inventive, conceptually relevant and eye-catching display for John Lewis’ flagship Oxford Street store for the Autumn season, that reshapes expectations of what shop windows do and can be, but keeps product firmly at its heart". The purpose is to put an emphasis on their display and it's also mentioned in the brief the importance of how a shop window is there to communicate not necessarily decorate. It also mentions that ideally the shop window will make commuters stop for a closer look of the shop window, even if they're in a rush, so it would have to be quite eye catching and definitely inventive. Finally it's purpose is also to draw new customers to the store. This is quite a difficult aspect to the brief, because it would be important to appeal to current customers but also bring in new customers through the display itself. I think there is lots of potential in this brief to meet the criteria set by the module. This happens to be one of the briefs where you don't just have to think purely about the aesthetics of your response but also aspects of marketing, consumers and business, branding and in a sense psychology. Again, it is a live brief in which there is a deadline set by the 'client' in which the deliverables must be handed over and I also think that again there is a huge scope for potential ideas. The brief is begging for the entries to be as inventive as possible, and as different as possible. This in itself creates a problem, because you want to be as original as possible but you want to make sure you're creating something that will still appeal to John Lewis and their brand as a whole, so it's difficult to do whatever you like without straying to far. In terms of the module however, this could be setting you up for success because you can bend the brief a little to suit the requirements. I also think that because it's for a shop window, there is a large amount of research and investigation that can be done, combined with the practical element which in turn could create a large body of work to satisfy the brief and also be a strong portfolio piece too. Entering this brief, similar to the other competition briefs would provide invaluable experience at tackling a problem with set requirements and limitations for a big brand. This gives you a lot of responsibility as an artist and trying to satisfy clients. I think that this could also work as a collaboration brief because of the amount of different roles that could be included, so a level of communication and collaboration would be required to be successful, again an invaluable trait as someone working in a creative job. Finally, I don't think that there are too many problems that this brief could provide except that the lack of experience in this area could mean that you are easily lead in the wrong direction in regards to what is the best approach for this task and shop windows only have a few seconds of people’s attention, which is not the usual way in which I personally work, especially in animation where the end product often requires a lot of time invested by the audience.
YCN - Orchard Pig
The Orchard Pig brief is interesting because it's similar to a brief based around branding except they want their existing logo and brand to remain the same. In a way I suppose this brief is more based on promoting their company through imaginative and inventive ways. In the brief it said that based on the background, history and current position of Orchard Pig they believe it is the only ‘craft beer’ like cider in the market today – this needs to be amplified in an integrated campaign across Communications, Packaging, Point of Pour, Point of Sale and Innovation. They highlighted some keywords that the promotional material should communicate such as Bold, Mischievous, Inclusive, Rooted in Somerset. I think this gives you a good starting point as an indication of which direction to take and the kind of techniques and mediums that can convey the message they want. This brief I think would be good in terms of meeting the requirements of the responsive module because again the live nature of the brief combined with a large amount of research and thought into branding that could mean quite a lot of development and something that I haven't done before, so perhaps a large learning curve when responding to the brief. Furthermore, the module requirements state that the brief as a whole is to build on the experiences of Level 4 and offer us the opportunity to inform their understanding through research within the creative industries, I think this brief would be taking a leap and looking into quite a lot of areas I haven't looked into or worked with before, thus expanding my knowledge and diversity as a practitioner. Next, the benefits of entering this as a competition brief similar to most of the briefs give me the opportunity to compete with other professionals, work to an industry standard brief in a live brief format and potentially have the opportunity to network through the attempt of the brief. Finally, problems that could arise include an inexperience at undertaking this kind of brief and also coming up with an idea that meets all of the requirements set by the brief.
D&AD - Shutterstock
What problem(s) are identified by the brief?
The problems identified by the Shutterstock brief are the mention of the importance if stories as one of the oldest and most fundamental forms of communication and ways of understanding culture, history and people. They also mentioned that for brands, more often than not stories are a way to build a deeper more personal connection with their consumers as an audience. They're right in saying that people will engage with, share and respond to narrative in a way they never would with other marketing messages, because like previously mentioned people connect with stories more than any other form of advertising and entertainment. Which can be seen specifically in nearly all successful marketing campaigns. Shutterstock itself is a global marketplace of licensable stock content for creative professionals. They market photos, illustrations, videos, music clips and other content which brands take and utilise to transform marketing, and bring creative ideas to life. They also mentioned in the brief that "the most impactful imagery is not just beautifully crafted; it also evokes real moments and interactions and relatable stories".
What is the brief asking you to do about it/them?
Shutterstock wants us to pick three of the seven archetypes, which include; Comedy, Rebirth, Rags to Riches, Tragedy, The Quest, Overcoming the Monster, Voyage and Return, and create a still illustration or alternatively moving images for each one that tells a story from the modern world. We are to look to unexpected places, and try to find exciting things that hide in everyday life. In a quickly moving digital world that is dominated by media and distractions, having the time and space to unfold a story is a luxury not often available to different people. The brief is asking us to find a way to distil the essence of it down to something that can be captured in a single moment. Finally, the seven plot archetypes can be seen everywhere, from global news stories to the smallest interaction, you just have to look at them in a different way.
What is the brief trying to achieve?
I think that the brief is trying to achieve a certain outcome that illustrates the importance of everyday imagery and stories as a whole. This would reinforce the importance of their services and what they offer as an important commodity in the world of marketing and branding. Ultimately the outcome need to be emotionally provoking, thoughtful and come from a place that the audience can relate to on a human level.
Who will benefit?
The beneficiary of the brief will be I suppose Shutterstock and the people who watch the deliverable, as they will receive the message that's contained within the piece and hopefully benefit from it in some way.
What is the message?
“Stories make us what we are, remind us of when we’re at our worst, and celebrate our absolute human best. For me, it’s the only way to communicate.” Was a quote used in the brief from Dan Germain, Head of Creative, at Innocent. I think the overall message that will be conveyed will be related to the importance of every day life and every day actions. So despite how big or small the final deliverable will be, this will be important to represent throughout it.
Who is the audience?
For this particular brief there’s no target demographic, but I think it's important to consider how and why your images might be used. Ultimately the audience the work is aimed at will come from the tales you choose, the stories you decide to tell and how you tell them. For example, if the story is light hearted and funny it could be appropriate for everyone. However, if they story is more based around crime and holds a much darker story then the audience might be restricted to adults.
How will the message be delivered?
I think the message will be delivered visually, using the art of storytelling. As long as the story is solid and the message is clear then the audience should be able to pick up and interpret the message quite easily. It also depends on what the message is and how it's delivered, it should be fairly easy to deliver message to the audience through solid storytelling though.
Can you foresee any problems in responding to the brief?
The only problem I can see after reading over the brief is that there are a huge number of guidelines and restrictions in place. It depends on how strict the judges are at looking at the restrictions in comparison to the outcome produced, but it will be quite hard to satisfy all the of the requirements and still create something as thought provoking and relatable as the brief requires.
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