UCC Coffee: Material Research
Posted: December 3, 2015 Filed under: competitions, Other, Subject Y3, Year 3 | Tags: branding, coffee, concept, copyright, finish, foil, fresh, generation, gloss, idea, ideas, illustration, lining, packaging, pattern, perforator, preserving, quality, revitalisation, spot, UCC, varnish, vector Leave a commentFor my finalised packaging I would like to use recycled white card with spot gloss to coat my illustrated pattern throughout. I feel this will draw special attention to the detail the illustrations have and bring character to the product, giving it a high-quality finish. I am also hoping to use a perforator for tearable tags for the barrister to open. This will help keep the coffee fresh and lock in the aroma of the coffee beans. I will explain this further in my next blog post.
I am also curious to line the inside of the packaging with a foil sheeting. This will again keep the coffee fresh and protect the contents from having contact with moisture.
UCC Coffee: Tray liner/ poster
Posted: November 24, 2015 Filed under: competitions, Subject Y3, Year 3 | Tags: aspet, award, awareness, blend, cafe, certified, coffee, competition, concept, designer, eco-friendly, ethical, fair, farmers, fresh, grand, graphics, group, hierarchy, history, human, illustration, layout, liner, origins, poster, promotion, quality, rebrand, recycled, reimagined, revitalisation, roasted, slow, student, sustainable, traceable, trade, tray, UCC Coffee, YCN Leave a commentAfter researching different points of contact the consumer has with the product, I thought of traditional forms of communication and advertisement within a café. Often consumers buy food in cafés which may be accompanied by a unique UCC Coffee blend. This would be placed on a tray and then carried to the table. I was inspired by fast food restaurants, e.g. McDonalds – with their tray liner and decided to explore the possibilities of using this liner to advertise each unique blend UCC have to offer. I began by drawing out a basic layout and played with the hierarchy of text and image placement. I was excited to dive straight into digital exploration and initially designed four liner posters with high quality coffee-related stock images. Upon completion I really liked the outcome however I felt this did not respectfully contribute to the brief as it did not raise awareness to the ethical and fair-trade qualities off UCC Coffee. I redeveloped these liner posters with images of photos of coffee farmers from the origins of which the individual blend was harvested, e.g. Brazil & Peru.
Note: Sources of the images are credited at bottom of post.
The ethical aspect of these liner posters bring awareness to the people who work hard to make UCC Coffee possible. The layout of the text is set on the left side of each poster with the corresponding coffee farmer within the negative space. This information-free zone brings importance to the human aspect and quality of delivering fairer coffee beans to you, the consumer. These will be printed onto recycled materials with eco-friendly ink to help promote sustainability in the process.
These posters also have the possibility of bringing deals and statistics of ethical trade from UCC to again highlight the positive effects of drinking UCC Coffee.
UCC Coffee: Sustainable Design; Style Research
Posted: November 17, 2015 Filed under: competitions, Subject Y3, Year 3 | Tags: calm, cardiff, cheap, coffee, collective, concept, contrast, eco-friendly, ethical, graphics, illustration, indie, local, materials, not respected, products, quality, rebrand, recycled, research, revitalisation, shops, small, start-ups, style, sustainability, tesco, traditional, UCC, value Leave a commentUCC Coffee Brief – “We don’t sell directly to consumers; and our core current customers are non-branded coffee shops, cafés, pubs, quick service restaurants and contract caterers but that isn’t to say they are the only target for the brand. The nature of Grand Café means it ticks a lot of the boxes for companies to fulfil their corporate responsibility requirements.”
Locally there are a few interesting sustainable non-branded coffee shops where are start-up cafés which focus on the consumer experience over profit. They act as a base for networking, social gatherings and discussions within an informal environment.
CF24 Project
The CF24 Project is a perfect example of a small café/bar which would be suitable for UCC Coffee. Its choice of minimal decor and makeshift furniture from pallets reinforces the ideology and intentions of sustainability. They offer a small selection of food to keep their customers fulfilled during their stay.
I feel that the packaging must look professional with a spark of character to have the appliance of a professional and respected coffee with the contrasting imagery of a fun, sustainable and fairer coffee which is appealing to both young and older consumers. I also feel the packaging must be heavily influenced through the sustainable aspect e.g. recycled material and eco-friendly ink which reflect the ethical and sustainable approach UCC Coffee are wanting to raise awareness and promote.
The current Grand Café packaging is nothing close to a presentable package which could be presented on the counter to a small cafe like that of the CF24 Project. Its bright use of negative space and cliche sustainable green colour pallet highly contrasts against the traditional, indie vibe of small sustainable cafés. The use of these colours also reminds me personally of ASDA and Tesco essential packaging which brings imagery of cheap, unsustainable and unethical products. The quality of the product is also penalised as a result of mass-manufactured packaging.
Image Optimisation Workshop
Posted: May 21, 2015 Filed under: Subject Y2 | Tags: correction, CYMK, edit, fix, image, improve, levels, lighting, optimisation, photoshop, quality Leave a comment
Ian gave us an image optimisation workshop today and helped me to understand the importance of high quality imagery. I had already used the levels option to make my imagery brighter beforehand. But this workshop gave me the correct knowledge to use it properly. During the workshop I also added in a few extra bits as the table seemed bland.
Persona meet-up
Posted: October 6, 2014 Filed under: Subject Y2, Year 2 | Tags: apple, brief, cardiff, collaboration, costa, deadline, demographics, geographics, group, masonry, notes, persona, presentation, psycographics, quality, research, scotland, socio-economics, team, university, work Leave a commentYesterday most of us discovered that we had no uni today and after such a ‘busy’ week, me and my group-buddy Ruby (check out her blog) thought it would be a great day to work on our persona brief. Though both of us didn’t really want to travel to uni, especially in the rain! So instead we grabbed a Costa in town mmm, and became apple nerds.
Together, we discussed our Persona’s Geographics, Demographics, Socio-Economics, Psycographics and a general background on the character who we named Colin McLean, a 58year old Scottish masonry who is currently out of work after the untimely death of his beloved wife.
We created and exchanged notes to write up correctly tonight for tomorrows presentation. We are not sure exactly what the tutors are looking for but after reading through the Persona Example given to us we are striving for a similar quality.
Ben Walton 
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