Group Critique

Todays I had my group critique in which I will explained my question and then discussed the research, initial ideas, case studies and visual experiments that I have gathered. I presented the initial ideas and supporting visuals/designs that I have created (mood board, logo experiments, colour palette research, initial mockups designs)

I briefly explained through my question and the overall concept of my topic and then went on to explain how I want to approach the practical work; re-branding a low-end, cheap brand makeup brand (Wet n Wild) to look extremely high end and luxurious (like Chanel, Mac, YSL etc).

Feedback from critique:

• Research into hour glass makeup and milk makeup, high end makeup brands which also use a very classy, minimal approach to their branding
• Sans serif works well- research more into Sans Serif typefaces and why/how they give a more clean, professional look
• Stick with the typography based logo designs rather than the shapes
• Block type, make typography the main element on the branding (only imagery if needed)
• High end brands often use just the logo in a big scale as the logo does all the talking and selling, research and focus on this
• Stick to a very minimal colour palette, like only 3 colours?
• Foiling

Initial Ideas and Supporting Visuals (Pt2)

For tomorrows critique, I have also created some logo experiments for the brand Wet n Wild. I noticed that higher end makeup brands tend to use Sans Serif typefaces as they are cleaner, giving a more professional and minimal look. I experimented with the placements of the two W's, shapes relating to the brand, composition and type weights for a logotype, at the moment I prefer the designs with the two W's over lapping as I think it would be memorable as it is minimal whilst still looking unique and professional.

I also gathered some research on possible colour palettes I could use, high end makeup brands tend to use a very strict and limited colour palette. I then incorporated the logos and colours into quick wireframe/designs to see how they'd look through re-branding one of the Wet n Wild highlighter sticks. In the critique I will ask for opinions on which logos and colours work best.

Logo experiments

Colour palette inspiration

Incorporating the logos and colour palettes into quick designs/layouts

Initial Ideas and Supporting Visuals

Tomorrow I have a group critique in which I will explain my question and then discussed the research, initial ideas, case studies and some initial visual experiments that I have gathered and created.

I decided that for my practical work I want to re-brand a low-end, cheap brand to look extremely high end and luxurious. I want to re-brand a makeup/skin care brand as this relates to one of the case studies that I mention in my essay, also makeup and skin care is very personal to the user and has high importance in todays society. The makeup brand that I have decided to re-brand is Wet n Wild.

I started by creating some visual experiments that I can show in the critique, as I will find it much easier to explain the concept with actual visuals. I first created a mood board which consists of imagery of high end makeup brands which I found had interesting branding, such as Chanel, Mac, YSL, Glossier and Clinique. These brands are also very well known which means I can gather a lot of research based on them.

Additionally, I have also written a rough draft for my brief which I will also provide in my critique so that my peers can have a clearer understanding of what I want to produce for my practice:

Initial Ideas Notes and Sketches

I have started to come up with some initial ideas for how I could approach the practical work. I know that I want to focus on re-branding through focusing on makeup/skin care brands as this relates to one of the case studies in my essay. My main initial ideas are to either re-brand a really high end, luxurious makeup brand to look cheaper and tacky or the other way round, however I think I would enjoy to re-brand a low-end, cheap makeup brand to look rich and high end as this is more interesting.

I created some mindmaps which focus on these ideas and also researched into low end and high end makeup products which I then annotated using imagery that I have gathered of them. Annotating helped me make notes on design choices which reflect a tackier aesthetic as well as richer aesthetics. The high end brands that I focused on were Mac, YSL, Chanel and Glossier, the low end brands that I focused on were Poundlands own makeup brand, Wet n Wild and Olay.