Brief 4: Paco Rabanne Design Boards and Evaluation

The work on this brief was a challenge due to the existing nature of the brand. The aim was to promote a fragrance which was designed for men, but visually the promotional materials were to appear gender neutral, which has been achieved in the promotional designs.

The decision to limit the use of photography in designs throughout this module has been somewhat of a challenge, but the time in which it became most difficult was with this brief, because Paco Rabanne's previous advertising and promotional materials have been heavily centred around man or woman, and the corresponding lifestyle which supposedly accompanies the purchase of the product. However, keeping the black white and gold theme made a huge difference to how the posters were designed, making them seemingly sophisticated and classy.

The designs of the posters are very effective, with the phrases used hinting at a man earning his fortune, whereas the previous campaigns would argue that the fragrance brings it's buyer luxury. The gold tones only give an underlying element of excess, while maintaining that a man makes his own fortune and it is not handed to him. The strict grid of the pattern is softened by the loosely composed inky textures.

I was not as happy with the outcome of the box. Although the design remained sophisticated and worked well with the other materials, not enough thought was given to stock, as the initial print was using an off white stock, while the rest of the designs are strictly black and white. On top of this, the rebrand as a whole would have benefitted from more designs for the box, perhaps making it more of a line of fragrances as oppose to just the one fragrance.

Ultimately there are some aspects to the design which I feel are very effective, for example the posters and business cards, however the design as a group was let down due to the construction of the box, and my crafting skills, which is something I plan on working on to improve.