'Tall Agency' Year in Review Magazine Live Brief - Initial Ideas & Further Research

Initial Ideas

Discussion with the Creative Director

The brief given to me was not very in-depth, so when I sat down to speak to the Creative Director, Guy Utley, I took this opportunity to ask him and discuss further what he wanted the 'Year In Review' to contain and look like. 

I had prepared some questions for him, as well as considerations for myself. 

- Does each page/spread have a slightly different tone or should it be cohesive throughout?

- Modern/minimal or more chaotic style? Clean/easy to read or more abstract?

- What format, paper stock? Budget? Paperback/hardback?

- Will fillers/illustrations be required? Inspiration could be taken from patterns/branding/studio space.

- Any branding guidelines I need to follow?

- Front cover - prefer photography or illustration?

- Personal touches - illustrations/handwriting from staff/studio members?

- Something linking all the pages together eg. colour? Decorative elements?

- Focus more on imagery (work) or content (copy)?

- Should there be full bleed image spreads, single/double page?

From our discussion, the key elements he wanted the magazine/publication to contain are:

- An about page - take the copy from our website

- Adverts on our 'Gravity' workshop - these are provided

-  'Year In Review' sounds a bit cheesy, and the content is slightly broader than just a year, so have a think about what the name for the mag could be. 

- Mix up the content. Have key features as one page spread, double page spreads and smaller features. 

- It will be not just about the work, some 'Topics' will have more personal and fun stuff, so you don't have to make those too serious. 

- I really like this 'Proof' magazine (pictured in 'Research' below), take inspiration from this. The format/paper stock will likely be the same as this. 

- Think about the front and back cover design, it should be something that represents our brand. 

- Follow our brand guidelines, these will be provided to you. 

- I give you freedom with the layout, see what you can come up with, play around with the content.

Research

'Proof' Magazine

The discussion with Guy revealed that he liked the 'Proof' magazine created by Proco. What he liked especially was how the company created the magazine in a way to market/promote itself, and show off their strengths. The magazine included information about clients they had worked with, events they've attended and even some sections which advertised their printing. Guy wanted the 'Year In Review' to have a similar effect, for it to showcase and promote 'Tall', the clients they've worked with, the work they've completed and especially to advertise their new 'Gravity' Workshop service.

 

To gain a better understanding of who 'Tall' are as brand, I decided to research into their branding identity, by looking at their website, brand guidelines and the 'Gravity' workshop they do. By looking at these things I was able to gain a better understanding of the style/atmosphere that 'Tall' portray to their audience and how they communicate with them online. These things then informed me on how to communicate this digital agency offline - in print.

Tall Website

The website revealed to me that 'Tall' are very proud of their high quality work and their digital expertise. Their website branding and the way they communicate the work they've done is very clean and uses high quality impressive photography and mock-ups. The imagery and language used in their about page showed me that they have a liking for astronomy and space-themes, which could inform some of my design decisions or the choice of name for the magazine/publication. The 'News' section on their website revealed a different, more playful side to 'Tall'. This showed me that they do not shy away from showing their personality and having some fun with design, that they are not always so serious and slick. This informed me that I can be a little more playful and fun within the design of their publication/magazine also.

Tall Brand Guidelines

The brand guidelines revealed to me various design elements that I can utilise to ensure that my design for their magazine/publication fits in with their brand image. The guidelines showed me the typeface, colours, patterns and various other graphical elements that they use to communicate and present their brand to their clients/audience. I knew that if I followed some of these brand guidelines I will be able to make the magazine/publication I design feel cohesive with their brand image, and make it clear that the magazine is showcasing the work of 'Tall'. The biggest take away from looking at the brand guidelines was the main monochrome colour scheme, black & white. Personally I've always liked to include colours within my design, so I was quite excited to step out of my comfort zone and see what I could produce working with black & white only. Of course, the magazine/publication would not be all black and white, however, I knew I needed to have some content in it that was only black and white, so that it could communicate the 'Tall' brand.

'Gravity' Workshop

Looking at the 'Gravity' workshop service Tall can provide their clients re-confirmed my earlier thoughts about the inspiration and liking towards astronomy and space-themes. It also gave me a further understanding of the way the Tall branding guidelines can be applied to a different topic/service, and the way colour can be added/utilised without losing the brand image. Some of the pages within this 'Gravity' documented I also thought were quite visually impressive and could be utilised as part of the advertisement of 'Gravity' that they wanted me to include within the design of the magazine/publication.