APP Words: Design Brief Analysis

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As the proposal is the main brief (with the APP brief as the background/overall brief) I shall have to analyse it to ensure that I hit all of the right spots so that I could produce a successful product. The learning outcomes for the APP has already been done, so click here to see it.  

To make things easier I shall copy and paste the whole brief again to analyse.

"Background Information

Tea and coffee seem to be rising in popularity; it isn’t unusual to see a person stumbling into work or class with a mug of coffee or tea in hand to wake them up. It is also an easy way to relax with friends after a hard day of work. We often look upon inspirational quotes to boost our motivation to get us through the week long of reports or essays we have in our workplace and yet they can even go to the lengths of providing us with the courage to pursue our life long dreams.

Twinings is a British-based company that specialises in tea, and due to their interest in the environment they would like to have a travel mug that would appeal to students. Their aim is to help students cut down from continuously buying paper cups and save money by using their own tea bags. The student could always have a part of home with them in their travel mug, even when they’re far away from it.

The Brief
You are to design the outer design of a travel mug using inspirational words integrating illustration where possible. To reach a wider audience you may design an appropriate unisex design, as the company (Twinings) that would be supplying this product could maximise the potential to sell. You should associate this project with the idea of “Words” theme that is outlined in the learning outcomes."

Background Information

As stated above, my "client" (I say "client" because this is a made-up university brief) is Twinings which is a British-based company specialising in tea. The fact that they're interested in environmental factors would mean I would probably have to create a design that's environmentally friendly but then again my design would be for a ceramic travel mug which will be used more than once. This would give me more freedom, nevertheless I would still like to look into environmental issues.

Recycling is still very expensive and actually uses a lot more energy and this might be the reason why it's ideal to use a ceramic travel mug because it won't use as much energy... I would need to do some more research to confirm this though.

Breaking Down the Brief

I will highlight the part of the brief that mentions 'inspirational quotes' as that seems to be one of the most important factors. I need to do something light and amusing to brighten up a student's day, so this might mean that I'll have to use bright and bold colours or intentional puns. To make it easier for me to break this down I shall list all of the main aspects as bullet points.

• The "client" - Twinings

Need to look at their company information - logo, design, environmental factors, existing mug designs or even travel mug designs.

• Inspirational quotes

Could be really long or even short quotes. The longer quotes could cover the whole of the mug and could be the main focal point. I would therefore need to look for inspirational quotes or find out what makes words inspiring, because I could simply do something like, "Good morning sweetie! You can do it!"

• Target marker - Students - Unisex

I am part of this target market so I would need to find designs that I would find appealing as well as asking my fellow colleagues and friends who are also students or around that age group. I need to produce something for men and women, so I should avoid fully 'feminine' and 'masculine' designs. 

• Travel Mug Design

I need to have a look at travel mug dimensions, possibly purchasing one of the ideal size so that I could measure it up. I would also need to look at existing designs to see what's in fashion and on trend because I want my design to appeal to the target market. This emphasises the thought of having them take pictures of their own mugs so that I know what designs they have already purchased. I shall also look at Twinings mug designs and see if they do travel mugs. 

• Illustration

It mentions that I could mix up the typography with illustration, and this is ideal for me because I love illustration. I've already listed some typographers and illustrators in my proposal so I will be having a look at their work to see how they do it. 

Conclusion:

By breaking up the brief into simple, short bullet points I'll be able to draw up a successful design more easily because I if I ever needed to refresh my mind on what needs to be done I could just flick back to this post and quickly read through everything.

I've noticed that I've got quite a short deadline to work with so I shall have to make sure that I only do relevant research so that I can dedicate my time to experimentation, unlike my last APP where I seemed to have run out of time for this. 

[n] Learning Outcome