Project 2: Branding

My first thought was a memory of telling someone that they could not borrow my pen, because it was my favorite and happened to be a Parker Jotter that I'd managed to keep for at least six years.  I did give them some cheap bic or something I didn't mind not getting back.  Funny, sometimes the first ideas that our unconscious sends us is the best.  Of course, I ignored it to research and brainstorming. 

My next great (I thought) idea was the juxtaposition of a stereotypical image of a 1950's housewife.  Specifically an image like one from the book,  You Say I'm a Bitch Like It's a Bad Thing by Ed Polish and Darren Wotz with a modern young woman (with tattoos and piercings).  The tagline would be something like "Since 1954 and still a great pen."  However when I tried to execute it, I couldn't find the right images.  I tried forcing it, but it kept falling apart, so back to more brainstorming.  I tried a few photographs of the pen with a tender note, etc. That one looked pretty good, but it wasn't strong enough. Also it changed my audience from today's youth to a much older demographic.  The tagline would be something like "elegant, stylish pen, only $6.49." 

While I was searching for images, can't remember exactly what now, but I came across that great anime image of Goku from Dragon Ball-Z. One of my son's favorites that I had to listen to him talk about it for years because when no one else will listen to you, you can always count on your mom. So Ah-ha!  The combination of my very first idea, a youthful audience of consumers, bold image, and a good, but still inexpensive pen. So I pulled a couple together. Since anime is so expressive, there were lots of possible images. I didn't take this idea as a serious possiblity because it was too easy. 

Then I saw the image of Leonardo Dicaprio (anime fan) in that perfect position to hold the pen with a thoughtful expression on his face. Okay, so I had to do that one just for fun.

More possibilities and suffering.....   Thinking I didn't have any real possibilities for this project, I kept trying to come up with something cleaver during my commute.  So cursive is dead, and kids don't write any more, how are they going to doodle?  "Don't let the Doodle die." 

Time's up.  Have to show something. We went through the progression of ideas and Professor Anderson's response to the anime idea and the Leo was the same as mine, but then again, I've been told that my sense of humor is pretty warped.  Besides, the anime one was too easy and Leo is just really cute.  I did get a laugh from a couple other classmates, so maybe it wasn't too cheesy after all, especially for young anime fans. With this reassurance and encouragement, I worked both up for the pin-up.  Now we wait to see what happens next. 

 

 

 

Project 1

My category was stationery and pens.  I thought a pen would be easier to show visually.  I also figured if I was going to be stuck with this object the entire semester that I had better choose carefully.  While I love how fountain pens look, so elegant, my experiences with them has been that they always leak and make a mess.  Since high school, I've always had a Parker Jotter, so that was it.

My next step was to research and brainstorm about pens, with a slight emphasis on the Jotter.  Being a retractable ballpoint created in 1954 and is still in production seemed interesting.  The history of pens in general also seemed worthy of exploration.  I included images of historical pens to reflect that the Jotter has come a long way since the reed pens of ancient Egypt.  I faded those images in the background so that the focus would be on the Jotter, today, right now in the present. 

The retractable part is a good functional feature, so I showed the parts that make that happen.  That image is also small and faded to de-emphasize it.

The handwritten word "pen" looking like the Jotter image of the pen had actually written the word was for anyone that needed to be beaten over the head with the obvious. 

Because the product was a postcard, it seemed like a no-brainer to mount it on an actual postcard.  I collect postcards and looked through a couple hundred to find one that was the proper size, and one that I didn't mind sacrificing.  The one that fit my parameters happened to have my mother-in-law's beautiful penmanship.  It made me think about the connection that young people today don't write in cursive and really don't write if they don't have to. 

For me, one the wondrous thing about good design is that it can be meaningful on lots of different levels for different people at differing times.  Like a good book or movie, where you get treated with something you missed before that has meaning for you every time you experience it.  I have a special wine bottle opener.  If I take the time to really look at it, I am still surprised with an element that makes it beautiful or beautifully functional. 

With the postcard project, while I talked about all the possible meanings and elements that I thought of, I felt it was more important for the viewer to come to their own conclusions. However, the execution of the final image was muddy and all my references were pretty obvious, and didn't have that "spark" to make it exceptional, so if I were grading it, I would also have given it a grade of "B."