Photography Student Victoria Kathryn Branding Live Brief - Design Development/ Promotonal Mail Pack Design

After I had completed the logo design and business card design, the only other deliverable for this brief was the promotional mail pack.

Discussion with Victoria/Client about Mail Pack:
- Needs to be portrait, size A4 or possibly smaller.
- 5 photos inside, maybe full-bleed to the sides with some information about each at the bottom.
- An envelope-type mail pack, so that it opens up and reveals the photos inside.
- The mail pack could possibly be inside a see-through sleeve, so it's weatherproof.

To keep the branding cohesive throughout all deliverables, I wanted to make sure that the promotional mail pack followed the same design elements that the business cards and logo design had. I knew what the content of the mail pack should be: prints of 5 Victoria's chosen photographs and 1 business card. I also knew that she wanted the mail pack to be in an envelope-type format, and open up to reveal her photos. So I began by sketching idea of  how her mail pack could fold-out in an interesting way, and what kind of features it could have that accommodated the content as well as represented her brand.

After creating the sketches, I decided to create more accurate vector nets of some of my ideas. The ideas for the mail pack were based on the shapes seen within Victoria's photography, in the same way that the business cards utilise the shapes. One of the ideas was also a play on the logo design attempting to recreate the letters 'V' and 'K'.

I decided that the best way to visualise which of these mail pack fold-out ideas was the most interesting and effective, that I should print out these nets I created and make quick small mock-ups of them.

Inspired by logo and letters 'V' and 'K'.

Inspired by shapes within Victoria's photography.

Inspired by shapes within this particular photograph. (pictured left)

Inspired by simple envelope style.

Although the different shapes and references to Victoria's photography looked very interesting when folder together, when folded out those examples looked very messy and awkward. I tried to imagine how these little mock-up's would look A4 size, and realised that tabs and shapes that looked like eg. elongated 'spikes' would not be very easy and accessible for the audience to work with. I wanted the mail pack to be quite simple and not distract from Victoria's photography, so I decided to continue my development with the simple envelope style mail pack design.

I also began looking at how I could include Victoria's logo and contact details on each photo print that would go inside the promotional mail pack. Victoria wanted to have her logo and contact details on each photograph, so that if for example the photograph gets taken out of the mail pack, it still represents and promotes who she is and shows her branding. In a way, we also wanted each photograph to act like a poster, something visually very pleasing that someone would want to put up on their wall or simply be very mesmerized by.

These are the 5 photographs that are included in the promotional mail pack.

 I began to look at ways that I could add the logo and contact details at the bottom of the photographs. I wanted the layout of this to be quite simple and easy, nothing too abstract or bold, so that no attention was taken from Victoria's photography. I wanted the information to be secondary to the photographs, and to simply inform the audience if they choose to look closer at the photos.

I considered an overlay over the photographs, with the information simply in the corner or stretching across the bottom of the photographs. In the second example, this proved to feel too squished/forced into the photo, and takes attention away from the photograph itself. I need the way the information is displayed on the photos to be the same on each photo, so the layout I choose needed to work for every single photograph.  

 I also considered a white strip at the bottom with the information, and the photograph full bleed across the rest of the page. Although this was something that the client/Victoria had initially imagined the photo print should be like, I realised that the white strip really takes attention away from the photograph. Also, due to the full bleed nature of the print, the photo would need to be edited/chopped to allow for the full bleed to take place and include the white strip as well. What I thought will be quite difficult to do, just add some branding to a photo print, was proving to raise some unexpected challenges, and this was something that I still needed to think more about.

Going back to the design of the mail pack. Having chosen the shape/net of the mail pack, I began to consider how colour and text could be used within it.

 To make the mail pack design cohesive and feel as a part of the whole branding, I decided to incorporate the same 4 pastel colours that are within the business card design, into the design of the mail pack. I thought that by giving each flap/fold of the mail pack a different colour, I could really make the experience of opening the mail pack more interesting and engaging for the audience.

An issue I needed to figure out was how the mail pack would hold the 5 photo prints. The small quick mock-ups I had created earlier were flat, and they did not have any depth. To make the mail pack quite sturdy and professional, the mail pack needed to have some depth so that the photo prints could sit in it snuggly. To figure this out, I sketched myself some quick nets and experimented with folding them to figure out what I needed to do to achieve what I wanted.

 

I found out that the way the flaps fold is too wide to be able to give the depth/height that I wanted. I needed to leave room for the paper to rise, and then have the flap fold over to cover the mail pack.

To then connect the mail pack and have no gaps in the corner, I needed to glue the mail pack together. To do this, I had to create flaps/folds that could insert and secure inside the mail pack.

After I figured out exactly how the mail pack's net should be designed, I could draw the net out accurately as a vector, and continue the design of how it looked and what content it should contain.

I started to consider how the front and back of the net would look like, and what kind of content it should contain. For the inside, I first considered that the contact information should be printed onto one of the flaps/folds of the net, and possibly reflected on the other side also to make the design feel balanced. I also took inspiration from the business cards, and create a puzzle-style graphic of how the four colour come together. This I thought could go on the outside of the mail pack.

Thinking further about the mail pack and it's purpose, I realised that the purpose should be to showcase the photo prints inside. By having colour on the inside of the mail pack, I would be distracting the viewer/audience from the photo prints. Therefore I decided that the inside of the mail pack should have plain white flaps/folds. Instead, I thought that the puzzle-style coloured graphic I created in the pervious design could be a nice surprise to the viewer when they get to the last photo print, or take all the photo prints out, as they are then met not only with just plain white, but with a nice bit of colour. From my initial ideas stage, I also explored the idea of creating a pocket that the business card could be slotted into. As Victoria wants to make the business card a part of her mail pack, I think this would be a far more interesting way to present it rather than just having it loose amongst the photo prints. For the outside, I thought that colour would still be okay to use, as it could hint at the content inside and make the audience/viewer feel excited for it. As I used the puzzle-style graphic on the inside, I thought that it would not be as effective if I also kept it on the outside. So I considered the idea of creating a rectangle with lines, so that Victoria could write in the address of where she is sending the mail pack by hand. This would give the mail pack a more personal touch.

The next step was to create real-size mock-ups of the promotional mail-pack, and ensure that it would work correctly when printed and glued together. For the size of the mail pack, my client Victoria had asked if it were possibly to create it on an A3 sheet so that it was cheaper to produce. I said that it was, but the photo prints inside would then have to be significantly smaller. When making the mock-ups, I decided to make two, one printed on A3 and one printed on A2, so that when I went to meet with Victoria again, I could show her and have the size options available to her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion with Victoria/client about mail pack mock-ups:
- I prefer the size that A2 achieves as the photos would then be bigger inside.
- I really love the colours, however I don't think all that colour printing would be very sustainable. I will already be using up quite a bit of ink on the photo prints and business cards, so maybe the mail pack itself should try and use less ink.
- I love the pocket for the business card, I prefer the one that's straight across the fold.
- Keep the coloured piece on the inside at the back of the mail pack, I think that's a really nice touch, And I still think even if you kept that it would be a significantly less amount of ink used anyway.
- I suggested that if she wants to keep ink-use down, then maybe on the inside of the folds/flaps we didn't need any contact information at all, as the business card would be there and the information on each photo too. Victoria agreed, and said I should try and keep the mail pack as simple as possible to use less ink.
- The like how the information is displayed across the whole bottom of the photographs. But I agree that the full-bleed is not working. Maybe have a whole white boarder around them like you say.
- Not all the information has to be on the photographs, if you think something is not needed or looks to awkward then take it out. The business card will be inside with everything on it anyway.

After my discussion, I went back to my mail pack net design and got rid of all unnecessary content. I only kept the puzzle-like colourful graphic that would be at the back of the photo prints, just as Victoria had requested. In doing this I reduced a huge amount of the ink that would have been used, and in this way the design of the mail pack becomes more sustainable. The paper stock that the mail pack and the photos would be printed on, like the business cards, would also be from recycled paper.

The final promotional mail pack design then became a print of only one side, the inside. As the outside of the mail pack now had no content on it, only the inside needs to be printed, because it contains the colourful graphic and the guidelines for where to cut, fold and glue the net to create the mail pack. The guidelines I made a very light grey, so that it was just enough to see and be guided by. I did this to further reduce the amount of ink that would be used, as well as to make sure that the guidelines are not seen once the mail pack is put together.

With the mail pack vessel complete, what was left now was to finish the design of how the photo prints for the inside of the mail pack should look like. In our discussion with my client/Victoria, we discussed the issues with the full-bleed photographs, as well as the awkwardness of just a white strip at the bottom. So our solution was to do a white boarder around the whole photograph, and to have the information at the bottom of the photo and within that boarder.

Testing this out, I came across the issue that not all of the photographs Victoria wanted in her mail pack were the same size, so the way the white boarder framed some of them was a little awkward. I voiced this concern with Victoria and asked if she had those two photos that were slightly different in the same size as the rest. She said that she unfortunately didn't, however, she was okay if not all the photo prints were exactly perfect. I agreed with her on this and didn't think that visually it was such an issue, but like a lot of times throughout the project I wanted to make sure that these little details were okay with her and that she would be happy with what I was producing.

At  first I tried a slightly thicker white boarder, to try and hide the fact that two of the imaged were slightly different size. However, I soon realised that even though the mail pack will be printed on an A2 sheet, after it is folded it will become slightly smaller than A4. This meant that if I add a thick boarder around the photo prints, then the photographs will be even smaller still. This is something I did not want, and I'm sure Victoria would not have wanted, because the promotional mail pack is meant to be exactly that - a 'promotion', so the photographs within the mail pack should be as big as possible so they remain the centre of attention and do their job of promoting Victoria' work.

 

 

 I then significantly decreased the size of the boarder, although this made the different sizes of the two images stand our far more from the rest of them, I thought it was better to have this small imperfection than to have all the photo prints be too small and not serve their purpose. I made sure give each photo print the same size boarder, and place the information at the bottom in the exact same place, so that all photo prints look professional and cohesive, like a series/collection. The information I included at the bottom was very minimal and clear. On the left I out her website and Instagram handle, I used only these two contact details because I think they're the most important and the ones that promote her work the best, so they should be the ones a client/audience member is more directed towards. In the middle and right side of the print I split the logo I had designed into the logomark and the icon. I did this to create a nice balance across the bottom of each print, as well as to create showcase how the icon can work as a separate branding element, away from the logomark/name.