Brief 4: Paco Rabanne Evaluation

As the first brief that I have done that I set myself, I really enjoyed the freedom of direction I had with it. One of the main things I learnt was the importance of experimentation when using images and visuals in the branding. I found that I needed to spend a lot of time experimenting with layout, incorporating other imagery and involving the type to pull the whole brand together, as, at times, it was appearing very thrown together without much purpose. I also tried to make more of a point of mocking up the designs in context, as sometimes it resulted in me changing elements of the design for the better, and being able to do this before final print also saved me doing lots of printing with slight changes.

A difficulty I did face was the decision I made to not use any photography for the rebrand, as this resulted in a stark difference in my designs from that of the previous branding. There were some parts at which I struggled to keep this up, but the middle ground I found (scanning in watercolour and ink) was able to compromise the geometric shapes without using actual photographs. I felt that I was able to tie this rebrand in with the previous branding via the colour scheme, which remained black, white and gold, however I feel that using the gold to emphasise different aspects of the brand makes it appear a bit more upmarket than before.

I was pleased with most of the printed materials, however I feel that I should have given more consideration to choosing stock of the box for the bottle, which I printed several times as I was unhappy with the quality of each I tried. Giving this more thought earlier on would have saved me time and money spent on the printing, however, as my first brief this is a mistake that I will remember and benefit from in following briefs.

Given the chance, there are some aspects to this brief I would have done differently, one being that I would have liked to take it further into a campaign. This brief has very much reflected my dissertation, and could have been appropriate as a counterpart for it, and with that in mind I would have been interested in tying this in with a campaign that would draw attention to the unnecessary tricks used in the previous advertising, which sells the lifestyle of fast cars, excessive cash and loose women to teenage boys. In terms of the actual designs I would have liked to spend more time experimenting with colour and with my stock options. However, in spite of this I am pleased with the outcome and I achieved my goal of making the brand seemingly gender neutral.

Brief 4: Paco Rabanne Photos

The business cards and posters cme out well once printed, but the packaging was printed on off white paper. I have decided to reprint this on white paper and spend more time crafting test pieces, as I don't have great skills in crafting and, as can be seen in the box, I need to practice this.

Brief 4: Paco Rabanne Promotional Posters

When starting this brief, I decided I wasn't going to use any photography. Much of the existing advertising for Paco Rabanne relies on images of men, women, cars, money, and gambling, which automatically associates the brand with all these things. Everything that I planned on producing would include images and illustrations that I have designed and set up myself.

One element that I do like to their campaigns is the black, white and gold colour scheme, however I am not as keen on the way it is executed. My plan was to use the black and white imagery, using the gold to highlight important areas of the campaign.

I wanted to keep the poster designs classic, sophisticated and simple, allowing words and type to do the talking for it. The names of previous fragrances all coincide with the underlying theme of their advertising, hinting and wealth and luxurious lifestyles, and informing their audience that this is 'cool; Black XS, One Million and Lady Million.

For these posters I felt that it was important to be promoting a new fragrance, that would fit with this new campaign. I was keen for a play on words and so started looking for words to do with the concept of luxury and wealth that could be given a double meaning:

After looking into one word options for a name for a new fragrance, I found that words similar to 'treasure' and 'fortune' were along the right sort of lines of what I wanted to promote, something to be treasured over the sense of entitlement that the previous ads gave the brand.

I decided to use 'fortune' as the word can be mean several things in different contexts. This would also allow me to use the many phrases and sayings referring to 'fortune' which sends out a more positive message to it's audience:

- 'Fortune favours the brave.'

- 'Every man is the architect of his own fortune.'

- 'Worth a fortune.'

'Wise men turn chance to good fortune.'

- 'A great mind becomes a great fortune.'

'Fortune sides with he who dares.'

I want to use these quotes for the posters as they do not speak of fortune in the sense of money or wealth but in life and attitude to it.

For the kind of aesthetic I was going for I felt it was best to experiment with layout while I design them, as there are a few different elements to the design, and the type is quite minimal. I thought it would be difficult to work out what would work best without the background on the page and seeing it for myself in front of me.

I planned to use the same pattern as with the packaging, but more subtly, as a background and not a key element.

In the early stages of these designs it came to my attention that I was going to need to add something to the posters to let them speak and give the pattern the backseat. In another project I had made some ink compositions that I thought could also work in this context. So I made some more of these, simple bleeding ink around a page with varied intensities, and then scanned them in, photoshopping them to make them black and white:

I thought that these could modernise what was becoming a very 1920s art deco design, so I played around with how these two styles could interact with each other.

After trying out a few variations of this, I was really pleased with how the white pattern looked over the ink, and how the gold fell behind it. I used Optimus Princeps for the copy, as I felt it lent a sense of balance to the cross of modernity and art deco visuals, as well as partnering well with the logo.

I chose to work on a few of those combinations while incorporating some of the quotes I had gathered about fortune.

After trying just a few layout options it came to my attention that the letters were completely illegible when placed over the images, so I knew that each poster was going to have to have a sizeable white space to ensure viewers could read the copy.