DBA CAPITAL NORTH.
GROUP MEET UP / PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT.
After talking to Ian we got back into our group and came up with a concrete list of 5 'Less than... More than ideas' so that as a group of 5 we could all work on one poster and one idea each.
Poster concepts:
- Less commuting, more living. (Danielle)
- Less outcome, more income. (Melissa H)
- Less squeeze, more space. (Daisy)
- Less former, more future. (Me)
- Less there, more here. (Sarah H)
My contributions were:
Less today, more tomorrow. Which I thought would be great as a basis for education to attract students.
Less there, more here. A comparative to the world stage, not just a comparison between the North/ South divide.
Less former, more future. (Industrial to service based)
Less being alone, more being together. (Northerners are known to be very welcoming and friendly)
Less romanticised, more realistic/ real life. (The south particularly London is very much popularised in television and film, as therefore appears magical due to its associations with such films as Harry Potter etc. Where as the North is branded based upon the elements it actually is)
We discussed the posters further. Recalling the DBA panel say how much clients like moving logos, we decided that not only would it be great If we had logos that moved, but also posters. It is becoming more and more common especially in ports of travel such as train stations for advertisements to be in motion. Therefore we will aim to produce both printed and moving billboards.
However we want to give the posters more context and so taking advice from Ian we looked to evidence the point of each poster with a factual piece of information. When speaking with Ian he mentioned a particular set of city branded posters for York, and how they had used factual information about the city to promote it authentically and with context.
Choosing the poster concept we wanted to work with the most (I chose business), we decided that we should each go away and come up with a concept. This relied mostly on aesthetic decisions and factual contextual information. Aesthetic decisions include, Illustration style, colours and typeface.
I felt that understanding which fact we should use would help us to be inspired for the illustrated visuals.
We also looked at the list of optional elements we had to pick two from. Out of the list we were all most drawn towards train livery and environmental design. However we felt that we should consider these options after finishing the logo / poster combination.
We set tasks to go away and do:
- Find a quote to go with the poster concept.
- Look at other brands for inspiration and come up with a brand style.
- Think about and develop poster aesthetics. How will it move and how will these appear static? How will the two be consistent?
Finding factual context:
First I worked on finding some factual information to put the poster into context. I searched extensively for information about Northern business development. I wanted to emphasise that the south is already rich and heavily developed and that the North is where a massive amount of potential and opportunity lives.
I looked up up and coming business developments in the North where new business' could get involved, invest and become part of the ever growing and evolving landscape of the North.
I found the Baltic triangle in Liverpool, a place previously dominated by 'then', by old warehouses and mills. The Baltic triangle is in its last section of development to become a thriving business, commercial and residential area. I felt that the Baltic triangle acted as a symbol that represents the attitudes and actions of all Northern cities.
The information regarding Liverpool also works greatly in context with the brief as Liverpool is one of the Northern cities named.
Source of information
'On completion, there will be a mixed usage scheme with space for residential, commercial premises and parking. Phase II, is currently going through the planning stage, and will see much of the same, in terms of hotel, commercial and residential development. It is estimated that Phases I & II will have brought in £70 millions of investment on completion.'
'The Blundell Street development, halfway down the Triangle comprises multi-use space for retail and arts including The Orchard restaurant, theatre and cabaret bar. This property investment has now been here for about 10 years. Elevator Studios occupies 90,00sqft of refurbished warehouse space over six floors and four adjacent buildings creating more than 35 standard-sized and 18 full-floor studios for the creative industries. This restored Grade II listed warehouse, derelict before its regeneration is also home to a shop including the UK’s flagship store for Giant bikes and Europe’s largest online music retailer Dolphin.'
Information to be used:
From empty warehouse to brimming with business, The final regeneration of Liverpool's baltic triangle is set to bring in £70 million of investment on completion.
Initial design development development:
Having given the poster some factual context I began sketching up my ideas. I had a visual of a moving landscape, much like a conveyor belt in which the landscape moved from old to new, growing from unused industrial area to thriving service sector creating a home to residential opportunities, stores, hotels and potential business investors a.k.a our audience.
I wanted to keep the illustrations clear concise and minimalist, using a continuos solid line to act as the 'conveyor belt' landscape, and then illustrating four mills/factories/landscapes, which will then disappear out of frame, and four illustrations of shops/hotels/your business and residential property will move in, symbolising the arrival of a new 'North' and giving a literal visual meaning to the development of Liverpool's Baltic Triangle.
I wanted to further the idea of a bright future within the motion poster and so I thought of literal ways to bring visual potential and brightness to the image. Here I decided to have a rising sun, symbolising the rise of a bright future, and in turn have all the lights switch on row by row in the buildings to signify them coming into use, and filling with potential.
Lastly within the poster sequence I need the phrase 'Less is more, Less is North to fade in.' for this section in particular I was inspired by a video Danielle made earlier on in the project, In which she had a constant phrase (The North is) and a rolling list of words. I wanted to take advantage of this idea and do a rolling list style creating a constant phrase using Less is - and then the rolling words would be more and North.
Now that I have a plan for the animation of the poster, I need to think about how to incorporate the brand identity, by giving some reference to the brand, name and logo at the end of the video, I want to try and incorporate both the shortened and longer logo into the sequence.
I came up with a short sequence that involved the secondary logo (capital N) transforming into the full logo 'Capital North'. The N with triangle underneath is first seen on screen, this then moves right, and the compass triangle underneath disappears, The longer logo then fades in (opacity increases) to reveal itself and the original N becomes the n in North.
With a concept sketched up I moved towards looking at digital illustration styles. Firstly I looked at those used by current location brands, to look at the kind of level they were working at. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't doing something too illustrative based that it looked childish, but at the same time I didn't want it to resemble very corporate illustrations either.
Northern rail:
York means business:
Porto:
Turkish Airlines - Kuala Lumpur:
Hildsheim:
As my illustrations will be building based, I also looked on pinterest and at illustrations of landscapes. I wanted my illustrations to look semi realistic, but I also wanted them to have a fun geometric / minimalist edge that made them simple to understand. People will look at the posters for a few seconds, and watch the animated versions for less then 20, so the illiustrations need to be somewhat bright, eye catching and clear. If they are too confusing, people will soon loose interest and move on.
Making the aesthetics appropriate for the wide audience:
The illustrative styles that I felt would be most appropriate for my audience and the brief are:
Illustration style.
Realistic shapes.
Pallet of muted brights.
It is important that I always go back and consider audience with everything that I do. The illustrations need to be geared towards and appropriate for all the demographic targets including younger and older people, students and businessmen, tourists. Therefore I think that trying to keep them as realistic as possible, will appeal to people who are looking for a more serious venture into the North. However we must also consider other audiences, people venturing to the North for tourism will be looking most likely for interest, entertainment and fun. Therefore to also appeal to them, I think that experimenting with a brighter and varied colour pallet would be best. However, I do not want the colour pallet to be too dishonest to Northern culture. Where as one may consider a pallet of bright reds, oranges, yellows and blues for example to brand a very urban and hot city such as Melbourne for example. We must consider a pallet that is complementary and truthful to the North. By doing so I think we can still use a range of colours, however, more muted versions. I put together a colour pallet of 5 different muted brights, with different shades and depths that could be used for shading.
Now that I have a style and colour scheme set out I will move onto digitalising my sketches.
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