ISTD Research Brief - Collection

After having a good read through quite a lot of the current and previous ISTD briefs, I have found one that I think pretty much fits the idea that I have for the tea.

This asks for you to have a collection (which would be the different flavours of tea available), and catalogue them using it as an information system. And says "As an information retrieval system a catalogue records, dutifully and in detail, an inventory of any number of objects or products, stating size, weight, colour, price of whatever set of vital statistics you feel is relevant to the objects' - so that would be talking about the flavour, ingredients, what goes well with it, what it is good for, etc.

I will keep the same brief title for my brief that I will write up, and write mine based on what this one says but with the relevant information for the tea idea.

ISTD Research Brief - Idea

I NEED TO START THIS BRIEF. Gahhhh.

So because I have been concentrating on the two briefs that I have pretty much finished now, as well as making a brief start on my other two briefs, I am still yet to start this one. Since deciding to include this brief within one of my four as my main research driven brief, I really fancied doing something along the lines of Batman for it because of how obsessed I have become lately. I thought about doing something maybe researching more into the characters of Batman and what not and making it some sort of 'beginners guide to Batman'. My plan was then to have a read through previous ISTD briefs to find one that would fit my idea. I have kept having a quick look through but haven't really made a start.

THEN, when I was at work one day, I was talking to someone about how I wouldn't mind trying to drink some flavoured tea (to try and get me off my really bad addiction to coffee so much), so we decided to have what I called a 'tea tasting session'. We have a variety of different flavoured Twinings tea at work, so I made us a cup of each of them.

From right to left, there's blackcurrant vanilla and something, earl grey, camomile, peppermint, and green tea. (I didn't like any). But when we were doing it, we got talking about how some teas are good for you and how certain ones are good for certain things, and then when I was pouring them away...DING. I got an idea.

Considering the whole tasting experience, I would never have tried any of these if they weren't free from work, mainly because I wouldn't want to go out and buy a box of 100 tea bags just to try one and then probably not like it. Then I started thinking about how I could take this point and turn it into a brief. What I came up with is...

• have some sort of tea festival
• make available all the different flavours of tea available to buy a small number of
• could have say a box of 20, and you can mix and match different flavours
• have stalls where they are stewing different flavours for passers by to try a cup of
• could include information with them such as what they are good for, or what they would go nice with - for example a lot of people have either milk or a lemon slice with earl grey
• could produce a publication with all of the information in
• produce the packaging for the tea bags
• design how the stalls could be - cups and what not to go with it
• could do it on Twinings? They have the biggest range of tea flavours
• could also offer a 'competiion' for people to suggest new flavours?

I quite like this idea, and although I love Batman and will at some point do a project based on it, I think at this stage in the module, this idea seems and feels a lot stronger for me to go ahead with because I know more certainly with it what I need to do and research. Hmm. Now I just need to find an ISTD brief to base it on, and then rewrite the new brief. And get it started. All for Thursdays 'uber' crit.

Hot & Tasty - Bottle Fridge Mock Up

So because I have printed the shop front mock up to take along with me to the next meeting, I've also printed the mock up that I have of the bottle fridge to take with me too.

Hot & Tasty - Shop Front & Sign Development

The mock up of the shop front that I have just looks flat. Obviously it's going to because it's just an illustration, but I think it just needs that bit extra. So considering what I did with the bottle fridge, having the bottles and cans on the shelves in the background and then a light grey placed over the top with a 90% opacity works really well for this, as it allows to see 'inside' but doesn't distract too much away from what I am actually using them for. So, I have decided to add some elements into the windows of the shop. The display fridge is just as you go into the entrance, and then as you can see with the images I have blogged of the shop, the tables are up to the windows in the main seating area, so I have developed some of these and added them to that.

This is how the new mock up looks. It's harder than it looks to do. I also added open blinds to the windows because you can also see these in the pictures.

So now with the new and improved mock up, I added the shop sign to it again. Looking back over the experiments, the & actually works better going off the top and bottom of the sign, so I went back to choosing this one rather than the one with the & going just off the bottom.

And played around with lining stuff up again.

I'm happy with this. I'll get this printed out to take along to the next meeting with the owner.

Only after I printed it out did I realise that I forgot to reposition the logo between the windows, so I changed this and got it printed out again. I'll take this newer print out along to the next meeting.

Hot & Tasty - Shop Sign

Using the shop front mock up I have done, I started working on designing how the shop front sign would be. I can add this to the mock up because obviously I can't get it done properly and to scale, so adding it to this will give a good enough idea that I am wanting and can take along to show the owner.

Following what I put down from the notes from the last meeting, I made it how we discussed, and then experimented with it in different ways. I also tried to include the oversized & logic to the sign also.

I quite like the last one above. I think having the & on the right works better, and it will also go above the entrance. I experimented then with adding some of the information to the sign that they already have on their existing one. And also with the colours.

I really like this one, and it's similar to how we discussed it in the meeting. I've added it to the mock up to see more of how it would work in context. It was doing this that I really felt the benefit of doing this because it has allowed me to consider the alignment of the elements along with the features of the building, for example, having the logo so that it is centered between the areas of the windows, etc. Also experimented with colours a bit more.

I've had the idea to try having the & extend further down and get some window vinyls to show the bottom of the & on the door windows. I experimented with how I could have this.

I'm not too sure on this actually. Considering the size of a person in context with the building, the window vinyls would block out the view at eye level into the store. Bad move I reckon, so I'll go back to it without. I do like the & being further down though.

Hot & Tasty - Napkin

Napkins. To follow on with what I have been doing with the cups and carrier bags, I think it would be quite nice to also have the napkins designed following the same sort of logic with the oversized &. I've experimented with having the napkin when folded to be 10cm by 10cm, so when it is folded out is is 20cm by 20cm. I can change the size though if I think I need to, but for now this size works well, and can be printed using my own printer.

The & needs to be bigger.

Now it's a bit too big, so need to scale it down a touch. 

I printed this one out full colour.

You have to imagine that it is on actual napkin kind of stock, but I think it works quite nicely. I need to add some symbols on though I think.

Hot & Tasty - Fridge Signs Quick Experiment

Considering the signs for in the display fridge, and thinking back to what I have done with the bottle and can sign, I have decided to experiment with doing the same with these  and having the actual icon as the shape and background to the signs. I used each stage icon for each of the different things available, and just did one of each to see if it would work.

And printed them to see how they would work printed.

upload the pictureeeeee

I don't like these, at all. The icon is too busy for it to work. I either need to look at developing something a lot simpler or scrap this idea for these. Hmm.