Initial Brainstorming and Research
So at this point i know one side of the folder should focus Bonding and the other Safety (To summarise them very bluntly). Which does follow the positive and healthy message the HSC NI is looking to get out there amoung expectant mothers.
At this point i will split the biggest space on my Reflective wall into two and gather as much research as possible on both sides and from there i should be able to get a better idea how much needs to go on either. It will also help with the decision and elimination process.
Find a Need : Fill a Need.
First point of any re-brand or re-design project for myself is ask why its needed. If something already exists then what needs improved or what is out there that has a similar message, function and over all purpose.
This is where the original client given example of England's Mama Academy wallet came in. I would mention the Welsh maternity wallet but it is similar to the heavily circulated Bounty pack, not reusable once open and if reused the products plastic material is badly designed and flimsy and in my personal opinion not fit for this projects purpose, the actual content and illustrated design is over bearing and dull, so i won't be using it as an example except for what i'd prefer to avoid.
An aspect i do love is the duel language, Hypothetically in Northern Ireland this could allow one side written in Irish, or if developed enough it could be ordered in the language of choice.
I researched Mama Academy as inspiration, Id like to take the existing wallet in a different design direction style wise but i do feel the project shares a similar purpose with the charitable organisations aims and outcomes.
The clients expressed no major desire to stick close to the childlike vector art on Mama Academy, i'm currently building on this in my sketchbook. As the vector art does work for the purposes of such a widely produced simplified packet, it however doesn't appeal to one and all and i believe a more modern style of illustration would be appropriate.
Just to note to this blogs readers that are not my lecturers (Hiya) or examiners and therefore not going to be handed my portfolio of work at the end of May, i will include all necessary sketches and final designs in a PDF at the end of this blog,
An important aspect of taking inspiration and knowing which elements to take inspiration from requires a level of critical thinking and deconstruction. Mama Academys style is unique in the sense it is very appealing and cute, it gets to the point but personally i wouldn't have looked at it during my own pregnancy as it reminds me of school textbook. It's downfall is it is trying to be overly appealing and missing their target entirely due to their somewhat patronising imagery.
Keeping everything as inclusive as possible is always great but when designing anything, bottom line is there needs to be a target audience.
Who is this target audience ?
Answer : Low income, young, first time mothers that are commonly deemed low risk pregnancy's.
I came to this decision after further reflection on what the clients suggested about information surrounding low risk pregnancies. These women wont attend clinics or midwife appointments as much as an older mum or a high risk pregnancy, but they should still be informed on the same warning signs discussed during in these appointments.
If this project is to be more inclusive i will cast my target audience net out to family and friends of these young mums,
Due to our current economy and recent events in the news (See Link 1) I would like to be as visual as possible for non-English speaking mums and their families as well.
Personally when discussing where can this project go after the initial wallet, i'd like to include feeding pamphlets.
What is common sense to you isnt to another.
I find new parents and thier families in the baby isle of my local store every other visit whispering over a can of formula. Why? because there are so many tips tricks and myths out there its difficult to actually know what is ok and what isnt when it comes to formula preperation.
I have met an obscene amount of parents that don't know why bottle and water need steralized before bottle prep.
Answer to those of you who don't know is to kill the bacteria. and if you follow one of the tricks by boiling water letting it cool then mixing the formula milk together when the baby is hungry and thus avoiding the recommended 15 minutes cooling, then you have only killed half the bacteria going in your child, you have successfully killed the bottles bacteria but without boiling water in the mix you aren't killing the formula powders bacteria.
I would like an infographic to explain that for under educated or non-English speaking families that are unsure about bottle prep. The entire point of this wallet is to promote health and safety and one of the biggest reasons healthy infants attend the A&E is due to human error in bottle prep.
This would be in the form of a flyer potentially to keep it simple and low cost, it should all follow the style, layout and colour scheme of the finalised projects wallet.
For these future possibilities i will put together a final design pack for the client, which will have the CMYK colour code, character bibles and layout wire frames.
Once the target audience was decided and i was able to begin brainstorming styles i began noticing it was a very backwards and forwards process.
for example i would need at least five decent conceptual designs these five conceptual designs are unlikely to all suit the same layout or colour scheme so there will be mix and matching for the foreseeable future during the design and development stages until a final design can be decided on.
Moving on to the colour scheme i am initially at a loss, wales and England have gone for a pink blue and green scheme one choosing the more pastel version the other a bold contrast.
I looked further into the maternity collaborative in Northern Ireland that the HSC NI clients mentioned during the initial meeting last week, with hopes id have a better understanding on styles and themes already in circulation in Northern Ireland but also what the common colouring is locally.
This was a relatively difficult task as the HSC NI don't appear to prioritise promoting campaign information and linking the collaborative on an online platform of any kind consistently or recently.
I will make a note to discuss this with the clients at the next scheduled meeting.
I have accumulated a vast amount of short and sweet information that focuses on both the bonding and safety aspects i want to include in this wallet, but personally don't feel it is my decision at this point on which information priority to include. Similar to my plan for the concept art i need to compile concept text that can also be mix and matched during the next scheduled meeting.
I hope paper prototyping would be of benefit in this case.
So far i am filling folders full of art styles and schemes but none feel right just now, i do think this will be a lengthy elimination process while i continue to sketch and research.
Links:
Link 1
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/13/sri-lankan-wins-lawsuit-against-nhs-midwives-fail-explain-needed/
At this point i will split the biggest space on my Reflective wall into two and gather as much research as possible on both sides and from there i should be able to get a better idea how much needs to go on either. It will also help with the decision and elimination process.
Find a Need : Fill a Need.
First point of any re-brand or re-design project for myself is ask why its needed. If something already exists then what needs improved or what is out there that has a similar message, function and over all purpose.
This is where the original client given example of England's Mama Academy wallet came in. I would mention the Welsh maternity wallet but it is similar to the heavily circulated Bounty pack, not reusable once open and if reused the products plastic material is badly designed and flimsy and in my personal opinion not fit for this projects purpose, the actual content and illustrated design is over bearing and dull, so i won't be using it as an example except for what i'd prefer to avoid.
An aspect i do love is the duel language, Hypothetically in Northern Ireland this could allow one side written in Irish, or if developed enough it could be ordered in the language of choice.
(See figure 1)
I researched Mama Academy as inspiration, Id like to take the existing wallet in a different design direction style wise but i do feel the project shares a similar purpose with the charitable organisations aims and outcomes.
The clients expressed no major desire to stick close to the childlike vector art on Mama Academy, i'm currently building on this in my sketchbook. As the vector art does work for the purposes of such a widely produced simplified packet, it however doesn't appeal to one and all and i believe a more modern style of illustration would be appropriate.
(See Figure 2)
Just to note to this blogs readers that are not my lecturers (Hiya) or examiners and therefore not going to be handed my portfolio of work at the end of May, i will include all necessary sketches and final designs in a PDF at the end of this blog,
An important aspect of taking inspiration and knowing which elements to take inspiration from requires a level of critical thinking and deconstruction. Mama Academys style is unique in the sense it is very appealing and cute, it gets to the point but personally i wouldn't have looked at it during my own pregnancy as it reminds me of school textbook. It's downfall is it is trying to be overly appealing and missing their target entirely due to their somewhat patronising imagery.
(See Figure 3)
Keeping everything as inclusive as possible is always great but when designing anything, bottom line is there needs to be a target audience.
Who is this target audience ?
Answer : Low income, young, first time mothers that are commonly deemed low risk pregnancy's.
I came to this decision after further reflection on what the clients suggested about information surrounding low risk pregnancies. These women wont attend clinics or midwife appointments as much as an older mum or a high risk pregnancy, but they should still be informed on the same warning signs discussed during in these appointments.
If this project is to be more inclusive i will cast my target audience net out to family and friends of these young mums,
Due to our current economy and recent events in the news (See Link 1) I would like to be as visual as possible for non-English speaking mums and their families as well.
Personally when discussing where can this project go after the initial wallet, i'd like to include feeding pamphlets.
What is common sense to you isnt to another.
I find new parents and thier families in the baby isle of my local store every other visit whispering over a can of formula. Why? because there are so many tips tricks and myths out there its difficult to actually know what is ok and what isnt when it comes to formula preperation.
I have met an obscene amount of parents that don't know why bottle and water need steralized before bottle prep.
Answer to those of you who don't know is to kill the bacteria. and if you follow one of the tricks by boiling water letting it cool then mixing the formula milk together when the baby is hungry and thus avoiding the recommended 15 minutes cooling, then you have only killed half the bacteria going in your child, you have successfully killed the bottles bacteria but without boiling water in the mix you aren't killing the formula powders bacteria.
I would like an infographic to explain that for under educated or non-English speaking families that are unsure about bottle prep. The entire point of this wallet is to promote health and safety and one of the biggest reasons healthy infants attend the A&E is due to human error in bottle prep.
This would be in the form of a flyer potentially to keep it simple and low cost, it should all follow the style, layout and colour scheme of the finalised projects wallet.
For these future possibilities i will put together a final design pack for the client, which will have the CMYK colour code, character bibles and layout wire frames.
Once the target audience was decided and i was able to begin brainstorming styles i began noticing it was a very backwards and forwards process.
for example i would need at least five decent conceptual designs these five conceptual designs are unlikely to all suit the same layout or colour scheme so there will be mix and matching for the foreseeable future during the design and development stages until a final design can be decided on.
Moving on to the colour scheme i am initially at a loss, wales and England have gone for a pink blue and green scheme one choosing the more pastel version the other a bold contrast.
I looked further into the maternity collaborative in Northern Ireland that the HSC NI clients mentioned during the initial meeting last week, with hopes id have a better understanding on styles and themes already in circulation in Northern Ireland but also what the common colouring is locally.
This was a relatively difficult task as the HSC NI don't appear to prioritise promoting campaign information and linking the collaborative on an online platform of any kind consistently or recently.
I will make a note to discuss this with the clients at the next scheduled meeting.
I have accumulated a vast amount of short and sweet information that focuses on both the bonding and safety aspects i want to include in this wallet, but personally don't feel it is my decision at this point on which information priority to include. Similar to my plan for the concept art i need to compile concept text that can also be mix and matched during the next scheduled meeting.
I hope paper prototyping would be of benefit in this case.
So far i am filling folders full of art styles and schemes but none feel right just now, i do think this will be a lengthy elimination process while i continue to sketch and research.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Link 1
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/13/sri-lankan-wins-lawsuit-against-nhs-midwives-fail-explain-needed/
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