Getting Creative

Again, reflecting on the feedback from the formative presentation, I want to push myself to make the brand book and report as visual as possible by showing the identity of the brand in a strong way. I have decided that a good way to go about this is by bringing the brand to life through imagery rather than just describing through words what the identity is. Therefore, I am taking the logo and displaying how it might look on different surfaces.

This is my first attempt at creating a visual mock up of packaging design, for this I used the adobe programme Dimensions CC, I found it very difficult and complex to use but managed to produce this first mock up of how the product might be packaged and given to the consumer. At first, I was happy with this mock up and felt good about it as it shows the logo and colour scheme clearly with a general sense of who the brand is. However, I came back to it a few days later and realised something with it just doesn't quite sit right or work for the brand, it seems to me now, quite generic and boring and not very well put together or professional looking. Therefore, I decided to start over and come up with something new.

This is my second attempt at creating a visual packaging mock up, and I am much happier with the way this turned out. For this, I abandoned the Dimensions CC software and instead stuck to Photoshop where I used a template to turn bags into visual representations of the brand. I believe these to strongly convey brand identity, with clear but not overwhelming use of colour scheme and the logos standing out strongly. I also think this does a much better job of showing minimalism, as they are not over the top but are simplistic and understated with the materials of the bags also sitting well with the hand-crafted and nature focused elements as they don't abuse the environment or create an unsustainable packaging problem. As well as this, at the bottom of the bag I have place the phrase 'discover a proper shave' which I think sits well with the brand and is something I am going to explore further as it could be a good slogan for the brand to utilise.

Now with an understanding of how to create high quality mock ups in Photoshop, I got carried away and decide to create more for a full expression of the brand. To do this, I decided to incorporate a leaflet within the shaving kits to explain to the consumer who the brand is as well as instructions on using their new products. I think this makes the brand helpful as well as gaining them loyalty. Again, It took me two attempts to get the look of them quite right.

The first leaflet mock up just didn't sit right, like the first packaging didn't, and so I played around with it more until I landed on this second design. It follows a similar structure but I believe it is a lot more visually impactful, with the colours looking more more in line with the scheme, the logo standing out more and overall it just looking more professional and real. I also continued the use of the 'proper shave' element here which again I think works well and shows potential to work in multiple situations.

Going forward I think making mock ups to go throughout my brand book and report will be very impactful and a great way of portraying things visually rather than through words, and will truly bring Beard & Blade to life. I plan to make more mock ups for elements where appropriate as I really like the look and effect they create. I also want to explore the 'Proper Shave' concept further to see if it has potential as an idea.