IRN-BRU

Evaluation

What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?

There are many technical qualities to my work. On all three products I used a glow and a stroke to help make text and images stand out. I decided to use a glow as I have seen a similar thing been done with some of the original Irn-Bru products, especially on the logo. The glow allowed me to subtly add more than one colour to the background without there being big, blocky colours which could have been hard to read over, especially on my billboard adverts. The two images show the use of the yellow glow on both mine and original Irn-Bru’s products. To make mine better I could have added the use of a shadow on the the text or images to add more definition and make the text stand out a lot more. I could have also added more than two colours either by adding a shape behind the text or using a different coloured stroke rather than orange. I could of also made the glow more vibrant and lighter to help achieve the two colours that I wanted. I also used a stroke on the Irn-Bru logo on the logo on my second can design. This adds a cartoon effect as well as help it to stand out. I think I could have added a bigger stroke or used a different technique to achieve this as the stroke makes my work look unprofessional. On my other products I used a stroke that wasn’t black but a slightly darker colour to the background it was on. This is something that I could have used on the can design as it helps the text stand out without using an ‘in your face’, scruffy black stroke. I have also added a filter on any images that I have used except on the Barr logo. This meant that I could use any image I thought would fit with the tone of the products even if the quality was bad as the filter hides it. The filter also added a little bit of messiness to my products something which I I have found throughout the Irn-Bru products. To improve I could have added a glow around the image or a white cut out border to either clean it up and make it look even more messy and like a scrap book. The plain edges against the image make the image look as though it has just been stuck on the page rather than all flowing together.

There are also many aesthetic qualities in my work. On all of my products I have used images where all the people I am using on my products are either smiling or doing something recognisable. I chose to do this because it adds to the laid back, fun attitude I wanted my products to have and what I know original Irn-Bru products have. It makes the product look interesting and the smiling, entertaining facial expressions that my subjects have will attract the audience. The use of the large images on each product, including the can, add to the limited edition and one off promotion that my product has. I could have made this better by using a different image on the ‘Nina Nesbitt’ poster as this is something that wouldn’t be very recognisable and if it wasn’t for the bright colours on her clothes and the size of the image, I don’t think this would attract the attention of the audience as well as the other three images. On my can design I have used a large image which takes up a lot of space. This looks good and attracts the eye of the audience however, I think using a better filter or doing something like Rotoscoping over the image would look better. The image I have used still looks a lot like a photograph and this doesn’t really work with the rest of the contents on the design. I also could have changed the opacity on the image to make it blend more with the rest of the can and draw more attention to the name of the product. I have also lined my text up on both poster and web banner products so that it easy for the eye to follow. I have also made my text big and white so that it is easy to read off the bright orange background. However, I think I have done this a lot better on the Calvin Harris poster compared to the Biffy Clyro poster.

I feel that the text on the Calvin Harris poster flows a lot easier and looks better than the text on the Biffy Clyro poster. On the Calvin Harris poster the slogan is a lot bigger than the Irn-Bru compared to the second poster. I think this works better when trying to catch the eye of the audience as well as making it look neater. I could have made the slogan bigger and the Irn-Bru on more of a straight line to make the Biffy Clyro poster look neater. I also could have made the image of the band bigger or used up some of the white space above the image to make the poster look more professional. On my third web banner design I have have used a glow on the images at the bottom of the design. This is aesthetically pleasing as it looks as though the colour of the background is getting lighter as well as making the images stand out. I could have improved on this by making the glow bigger and brighter to make the change in colour still look gradual but make it a lot more noticeable. I have also added a blue coloured shape to the bottom of this design. The colour sticks with the colour scheme as well as making it easier to read and draw your attention to more information that the audience may need. I think this works better than the first design I created as there is more colour and depth rather than just orange and white and a little bit of blue. I also think the second and third design works better than the first as the use if of the music notes draw your eye to the information and text and this looks better than just images and text.

Are there opportunities for further development in your work?

There are many ways my products and work could take me. I could start by making more can designs as something small and have more than one model on the can to show the competition and who the audience can vote for. I could also take it further by not using just popular and chart musicians but having more classical musicians and Scottish Gaelic artists as well as composers. This could help to reach to a more broader audience and a much older audience. If I was to create cans for classical and Gaelic musicians I could use a more traditional design and add elements of Gaelic history by still keeping the normal Irn-Bru attitude. I could carry this idea onto billboard adverts more than web banner adverts as an older audience may not use the internet regularly. I could use more traditional Scottish designs to show that Irn-Bru are still proud to be Scottish and proud of it’s heritage. I could also use this idea and show unsigned Scottish musicians and possibly dedicate the idea to one genre of music. However, this idea may only appeal to an audience who specifically listen to that genre of music.

I could also take my work a lot further by possible creating short television advertisements to let a broader audience know about the promotion and reason for the change in design. A television advert will also allow me to add more information that wouldn’t fit onto the other adverts, information like why they are doing this promotion, how to vote and what some of the prizes are. I could also use the television adverts as a way to let the audience know what their favourite musicians think of the drink which may make the audience want to buy it. With a television advertisement could come a radio advertisement which would fit perfectly as the idea my products is based around music and popular musicians. Radio advertisements can also reach a lot of people in a lot of places. The radio advert could contain the same amount of information and the same contents as the television advert as well as being cheaper to produce.

Are your final pieces fit for purpose?

I think there are many examples of why my final products are fit for purpose. The purpose of the project was to re-launch Irn-Bru 32, raise awareness and improve sales. I think the idea of using popular Scottish musicians is a good way of trying to achieve this purpose. Popular musicians are people who nearly everyone knows and and this could be good in raising awareness for the product as they are recognisable people. People are also more likely to buy something if they think a celebrity buys something or if a celebrity is encouraging them to buy a product. Using celebrities as the main face of a product doesn’t only raise awareness but with this it can boost the sales. However this could become a problem as I have chosen to use only popular musicians who are in the charts or well known. This means that it can only really appeal to an audience who know of these musicians, listen to their music and an audience who are slightly younger, it may not appeal to an older audience who listen to more classic, old stuff. This could also be a problem as the youngest audience (12-14) may not always have the money to buy a can of Irn-Bru and may have to rely on the money of their guardians.My billboard advert and web banner also fit their purpose by being attention grabbing, providing information about the product and featuring the product on each poster and banner. However on both these products I have not mentioned the new product Irn-Bru 32 you can only see that this is what they are advertising through it being written on the can and the can doesn’t feature on the third web banner. This is not fit for purpose nor does it fit with the brief. If my products were to be run the audience would not realise they were actually advertising Irn-Bru 32 and have thought it was just for Irn-Bru. I should have made sure that Irn-Bru 32 was written specifically and not just shown it on the can. If I was to just show it on the can I should have made the main attention be around the new can design. One of my web banners could have featured the new can design spinning in the middle of it with the information below it. This would have been more fit for purpose.

Here shows that I have not told the audience that this advert is for Irn-Bru 32. I also haven’t shown the new can design.

Here shows where I could have made this piece better by making the can bigger to make the Irn-Bru 32 clearer.

What areas of development worked well and what areas did not?

Developing my can and changing who I feature on the can, the colours and placement of elements worked well for me. I feel having the ability to change things as I go also worked well. Compare my very first can design, before I had a solid idea to work with, to the ones that I have created later on I feel there have been massive changes made and for the better. I feel the use of brighter colours works better for the product and for trying to make the can fit for purpose. I feel that while creating these products I have got better in making everything look even and flow better, especially on the logo of the cans. The logo on the first can isn’t dead in the middle and doesn’t look even with the image, this makes it look messy and unprofessional. On the second attempt I feel the logo looks a lot better and more professional and then even better on the third attempt. Developing also helped with being able to look at text placement, as you can see I have done this with both the second and the third design. The developing process also enabled me to perfect the technical skills I have, especially when adding a glow. The first can design has a narrow, heavy glow around it, making it really noticeable and it doesn’t really fade out. I believe the developing process helped me to get a lot better at this. As you can see on the third poster design, around the text and around the images on the third web banner design I have made the glow look a lot better may making them gradual and light but still noticeable. I think this looks a lot more professional as I have seen this being done on previous Irn-bru products. Overall however I feel as though I need a lot of practice in taking screenshots and documenting the changes I have made. Due to their being no solid planning on just one idea it was hard to stick to one idea when I still had loads in mind. If I had remembered to take screenshots I could look back and remember what I had done, what changes I had made and which designs and techniques worked best for me. I also feel that working with different sizes such as the narrow web banner sizes is something that didn’t go well either. I found it hard to be able to fit the appropriate elements onto something smaller than what I am used to. Again if I had taken more screenshots when working on the web banner designs I feel I would have had more knowledge when looking back at what was there before I changed it.

What effect do you think the planning stages had on your final pieces?

I think the planning stages had a big effect on my final pieces. With all the other projects there has been a more vigorous and strict planning stage with a definite idea and a proposal. There was non of this with this project and it was like the production stages were part of the planning as I feel as though I still didn’t really know what to do. This had an effect on my final pieces as when going into production my mind had still not been fully made up and I kept changing my idea and the visions I had in my head. However, this did allow me to be as versatile and creative as I wanted and changing my mind was okay unlike the recipe card project where we had an idea and a template for each piece. In a way this had a bad effect on my work, as you can see my mind changed dramatically after creating my first can design. This happened through out the whole of my project when working with different texts and I ended up using a font that I had only looked at randomly and didn’t look at through the planning stages. The planning stages also had a good effect on my work. As I was able to be creative as I want and there was no design brief or template to work to, I could go outside the box and create something that I think looks professional and fit to purpose. However I also think we should have looked at web banners a little more in the planning stages as this is something we have never looked at before. We have looked at making poster and products- such as the SASH project but this didn’t include making a web banner or something with the same measurements as one. This is something that I had to adapt to quickly and I this had a bad effect on my finished pieces. I had to know how to fit a logo, image and more information on something which was a lot smaller than the posters and products we had made in previous projects. As there was no planning I was left in the dark and had to get creative with text and image size as well as change the amount of writing I wanted on them. I feel as though my web banner would have been a lot better if we had the chance to plan out a web banner using flat plans and mock ups, just so we could get used to the difference in size and shape.