The Brief!
This exercise is more practical hand based than the ones I have done so far.. Instead of focussing on the final polished design outcome, this is based more around physical mock ups and trial pieces and trying out different outcomes, combinations and formats before a final outcome is reached.
The brief is to design a leaflet for an organisation who want to reach out to invite people to volunteer for their cause. The brief states that they want to target a new clientele. I am to ignore the actual body copy on the leaflet and all of the sub headings and just concentrate on the different folds, styles, layout and formats of leaflets. The brief encourages me to be creative and playful in my approach and to find as many different combinations as I can.
Getting Started!
To start this brief I first needed to know what organisation I wanted to target this brief at. I started off with a brainstorm in my sketchbook of different potential events and volunteering tasks:
- School events
- community projects such as: Building a community garden, street clean up…
- Building
- Animals: charities, farms, sanctuaries, catteries/kennels rehoming…
- Free public events: music festivals, beer fests, street parties…
I then decided to look online to see what upcoming volunteer events were happening. I found an interesting one based in Bristol called Upfest which is a celebration of street artists and graffiti. It is a festival of street art and music. The event runs in May 2020. I might actually consider attending this event as it is something that interests me! – The festival runs purely from volunteer work and the charity that they back is NACOA (National association for children of alcoholics).
I then realised I was given a leaflet when I went on a visit to Cambridge at the weekend… I decided to look into that organisation.
They are an organisation called “Extinction Rebellion” and they focus on protesting their rights towards climate change and saving the planet. When I visited Cambridge at the weekend they were doing an activist protest near Kings College in the streets and handing out these leaflets:
I figured that this would be a good organisation to focus on. They are conscientious about saving the planet and sustainability and this would be perfect for designing the leaflets as it means I will have to take into account the paper and materials used and also how the leaflets would be distributed…
Sustainability
- Using recycled/organic paper
- limited colours to reduce cost of print/resources etc
Distribution of leaflets
- by hand
- at protests
- in racks to pick up
- community centres
- walks – nature trails, woods, coast
- Information centres
- placed on car windows – to highlight pollution and also for mass hand distribution.
I then looked into the target audience for this organisation:
Target Audience
- Everyone who lives on our planet!
- young people (they are the future!)
- The rebellious, passionate, empowered and opinionated!
Places to target the target audience
- Cities! cities with high pollution and high population!
- Tourist attractions
- Universities/colleges and schools
- Music festivals
- Food fayres and vegan events
- mindfulness/ spiritual events
- Pagan events etc
- yoga retreats
- bars/pubs/clubs
Overall I feel that as someone who was in the middle of one of their protests and who was given one of these leaflets, that yes! It intrigued me to read and see what the protest and the organisation was all about but otherwise I would not have actively gone out of my way to pick up a leaflet myself.
The organisation seems to be a very rebellious and carefree “pushing the boundaries” and I feel that they could really be naughty with their advertising and place it wherever they feel pushes the point across…
(I mean…This group dug up the lawn of the Trinity College in Cambridge!…They are not scared!)
They already stick posters etc on controversial windows and buildings… political, religious…which grabs attention but this kind of media is not really promoting them needing volunteers or explaining what the cause is specifically for.
Tarnschriften
The image used on the brief given me by the OCA intrigued me….
The image showed Anti-Nazi literature hidden inside everyday objects.. I liked this idea and decided to research more into it. The examples I found were hidden inside samples of shampoo, seed packets and tea bags. It is a clever way of hiding something where no one would think to look for it.
Hiding the literature in everyday items also ensures that they are reaching a wide target audience. 84% of Britain drink tea (I am in the 16% who don’t! – although I do at Afternoon tea parties so I do not look like the odd one out! haha!) therefore by placing the literature inside tea bags they are ensuring that they are hitting the vast majority of the country with their information. It is also the last place the Germans would have gone to look for it!
I then mused about where I might put some climate change leaflets.. Again, climate change affects everything from transport to food to migration to deforestation to land ownership to petrol, planes, carbon footprint, building, the rising sea level… the places and ways of hiding these leaflets would be endless as everything ultimately comes back to it!…
- hiding inside Vegetarian/Vegan freezers in the supermarket
- placing inside disposable gloves at a petrol station
- inside magazines and newspapers
- pinned to trees on nature walks, trails and in the woods
- Literature hidden as actual objects – paper origami
What are my next moves?
The next stage for this exercise now is to experiment with different leaflet styles, formats and combinations so that I can hopefully decide where to move forward with my design!
Keep posted for the next installment! 🙂
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