OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus

Wednesday 27th
Here are my sketches and ideas for the video involving diy teabags:

Thursday 28th
Having done my research on making diy teabags and ideas on how to make it into a video, I wasn't very confident that it would be effective, and wasn't entirely sure on how to do it, because you need a sewing machine to make a teabag. 
When I came into college today I saw that Kirsty was working on a typeface made out of tea. I started helping drawing out the letters, and cutting the tape to size and putting the tea on top to make the letters:

This gave me a different idea for the video, which would work a lot better, and this is the idea that I have:


The group liked it, and I now feel a lot more confident about the video, because it is more relevant. I felt that the diy teabag idea was aimed at more crafty people, and that people wouldn't actually make the teabags because it is a lot of hassle, and we have a wider audience than that.

Friday 1st

Today we had a crit with two other groups and Simon about our project. There wasn't that much feedback, just to distribute the posters outside of college as well as inside. We were thinking of asking the cafes around uni to put our posters up.

I thought it would be a good idea to pantone match the tea that we were using, and find a green that will go with it. We thought a colour scheme of brown, green and white stock would be appropriate, as it is natural and earthly, like tea.

Brown
C = 70
M = 90
Y =  100
K = 30

Green
C = 50
M = 0 
Y = 35
K = 0

Today's job is to create the message that will be featured on the video. Me and Kirsty wanted to get it done today so that we wasn't wasting time on Monday. I first went onto Illustrator and looked at different ways to present the text. I did it to A1 scale, as that is the size of the paper we were using for the video. This meant I could measure the dimensions perfectly.

I decided that this one was the best because although the text is very big, it leaves enough white space around the margins and where the logo and twitter would be to look clean and minimal.

I started measuring out the correct proportions that I made on Illustrator, and started drawing. Once all the letter had been drawn, Kirsty helped with cutting the tape and making the letters.

Sunday 3rd

Today I am going to plan out what I need for tomorrows photoshoot.

Photoshoot Plan

Camera: Nikon D5000

Lens: 18-55mm

Props: Tripod; hairdryer/fan; dustpan and brush; clingfilm/paper; teabags.

Time: 12:30-4:30

I spoke to the photography technician about the mess, and he said it was absolutely fine. To clean up the tea, I thought a dustpan and brush would be handy so that we could use the tea again to pour on the paper. I also thought that if someone held clingfilm or paper in the direction that the tea would blow then it would limit where the tea would go.

Monday 4th
Today was the day of the video shoot, and I think it was very successful! Me and Kirsty brought 6 boxes of teabags in preparation, and we definitely needed it. 
First of all we started to set up the studio. We talked to the technicians and they helped us and sorted us out with some equipment, and this is what we needed to set up:
We needed a big tripod which would allow the camera to face the poster at a bird's eye view. We also needed some lighting which were specifically for video. 
We then got some white paper to put underneath the poster as the floor was quite dirty and we wanted it to be pure white.

We also started emptying tea bags so that we could pour it onto the poster. We used 480 teabags for this.

We did a couple of tests before the actual video to see how powerful the fan and hairdryer was so that we knew what to do on the real thing.

(video)

We did a couple of tests to see what it looked like with the camera, and whether we needed to alter the angle:

Here is the final video, that James edited:

Tuesday 5th - Friday 8th

Everything started coming together this week and we distributed a lot of posters and flyers around college and tearooms.

Here are our final resolutions:

Blog

http://yourteablog.wordpress.com/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/yourteablog

Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/Yourteablog?feature=watch

Posters

Flyers

Stickers

Cup Sleeves

Leaflet

Typeface

Logo

Feedback

The interactive poster that we put up in the canteen worked really well, because a lot of people stuck stickers on their favourite tea, which I wasn't expecting.

The 'taste and tweet' leaflet that Jane made also got a response on our Twitter.

We got a lot of direct messages from fellow tea enthusiast twitter pages.

We got a lot of hits on the blog, and more followers on that than on the twitter page.

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus

Thursday 21st

After I had done research on packaging, I started of thinking of ways I could put what I had learnt into context. My main priority is sustainability, and creating a consistent look and feel what everyone was happy with.

I started drawing some of the ideas that I had.

I thought a tube would be a great way of packaging the loose tea, and in a hexagon shape so that they could be stacked on top of each other in the shop, at home, and during transportation. It has to be protected during transportation, because I wanted to use as less packaging as possible to make it sustainable, and I know that sometimes a different packaging is used during transportation than to when it is presented on the shelf, from my research. Being able to stack them would be a good idea of saving space.

I also thought this could be applied to the shape of a tea infuser; coasters; wall hangings with the symbols on; menus and the food packaging.

When I told the rest of the group my idea, they seemed to like it and thought of ideas which could build from this. James suggested that the packaging could be stacked on top of each other, which is a good idea. He was also looking at promotional videos where there were screens on the wall with live tweets being directed to them. We thought this would be a good idea to show tweets that the company was tagged in, and I thought it would work well with the wall idea. Jane also thought that the loyalty card could perhaps be in the shape of a hexagon. Priyesh said he would try and incorporate the shape into the logo as well, so it had positive feedback.

 Friday 22nd

Today we presented our concept to Amber and Simon, and got told that we had to actually produce our ideas, not just create a proposal for it. So we decided to take the weekend to think about what we could do and come back with fresh ideas on Monday.

Monday 25th

Today we brainstormed some ideas, and decided that a blog would be a good idea to produce, so that we could have lots of information about drinking tea on it, and have a link a twitter page on it so people can respond to it. I also thought of an idea to make a viral video.
We had to make a brief outlining what we was going to do:

We had our second crit with Amber today, and she said the idea was more feasible now. 

Tuesday 26th

Today we assigned ourselves with a job each, and decided to research and make sketches of everything to show each other on Thursday.

I'm going to research different nets of tea bags, and make some sketches of nets and how the video will work. The idea for the video is to have a tutorial of how to make a diy teabag, and then for a link to the twitter and blog at the end of it. Me and Sophie booked out the photography studio for Monday so that we can make the video.

We also made a blog, email address and twitter name.

Blog: yourtea.wordpress.com

Email address: yourteablog@gmail.com

Twitter: @yourteablog

Wednesday 27th

Today I am going to start researching different nets, and ideas for the video, which can be found here.

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus

Today we told each other our ideas, and was really happy with what people had come up with. We clarified some things and decided on what to say in tomorrow's crit, which Jane wrote down:

Concept:
Create your own unique tea blend according to your mood. Tell other people about it, tweet it, drink it in or buy bulk to take home. 

We will create a tea room which has lots of different flavoured tea available.


There will be a strong message promoting the healthy benefits of drinking tea instead of coffee.


Unique selling point:
Create your own personalised flavoured tea.

What do you want to say?
A new contemporary take on tea that promotes the benefits of drinking tea and exploring new flavour combinations.

How do you intend to say it?
We intend to create a contemporary brand that will target professionals and encourage them to explore the flavours of the world or create their own tea blend.
We want to utilise Twitter in a creative way to distribute the message to the masses and engage potential customers.

What language would be appropriate?
We want to communicate a vibrant and welcoming atmosphere through the use of informal and friendly language.

Will the content communicated primarily through type or image?
We will use both type and image. Due to the limited colour palette the type will have to compliment the images to communicate our message.

What are you aiming to achieve?
To build a brand that will introduce customers to international tea, creating an appreciation for different flavours that are unique to our brand and not readily available elsewhere.

We want to develop  "the new place to be" and make customers feel part of our company.

We want people to talk about their unique tea and general experience whilst spreading the word.


We identified 6 key areas to start working on in order to cover the brief which were as follows:

Distribution channels (James): 
How will we get people to talk about us, spread the word 

Packaging (Danielle):
What kind of packaging will we provide for people to bring their loose tea home in
cups, mugs for drinking in?

Tea room layout (Sophie):
How will we display the "blend your own tea area" within the tea room and how do we communicate the message?

Products: Tea Flavours and health benefits from drinking the tea (Kirsty):
Research flavours that we should include and find out about the benefits from drinking it.
Think about how they could be illustrated.
Food that complements the different tea flavours.

Branding & Identity (Priyesh):
Name, Logo, colour schemes

Promotional (Jane):
Reward or loyalty scheme to keep customers coming back
Any other promotional activities to raise awareness. 

OUGD406 - Communication Is A Virus

I am in a group of six with Sophie, Jane, James, Priyesh and Kirsty, and we have to 'produce a graphics response that engages with a specific audience' for a set task which is to 'drink tea'. 
Here are our initial ideas:

• We could brand a new tea shop, like there are coffee shops
• Could have a magazine promotion where there is a free sachet of tea attached to the page like perfume/make up ads
• Tea vs Coffee quiz
• App with checklist for different types of tea, where shops are
• Sell loose tea
• 3 in 1 tea - with milk, sugar etc like Nescafe sachets
• Could have option of buying branded reusable cup from shop, like Morrison's bag for life etc to bring and refill for cheaper tea
• Twitter account - people can tweet the blends of tea they drink from shop, get next tea half price if they tweet the company and take a picture of their tea - 'tweet your tea'
• Concept of having lots of flavours so people can mix and match their own flavours with pick and mix style boxes in shop
• Could sell cakes and snacks in shop to compliment tea
• Have information (app, menu) which says what food goes best with what tea
• Questionnaire for 'what kind of tea suits you' matching flavours with personality
• Tea of the week - highest voted combo/seasonal/etc
• Could have portable stalls or sections in supermarkets etc for on the go tea

We are going to brand a new tea shop, and have the option of buying loose tea to take home and brew yourself, or to buy it in the cafe and sit down. We want to make it a personal and social experience, with the option of tweeting your tea and getting feedback on different blends. I started doing some research which can be found here.