Graphic Design - Unit 17

By Ellen Maulder

RESEARCH - AO1

5 Top Tips for Creative App Logo’s

1. Bold, contrasting colours. These grab the attention of the consumer and make the app stand out against competition. It is also best to keep a colour palette simple, multiple colours can make the image look fussy.

2. Features either the game name, character or a clear idea or suggestion of what the game is about.

3. Avoid lots of text, having the image clear of text is best as it makes the image less cluttered.

4. Keep the image simple and clear. It should express the ideals of the game without being too busy. The icon is 57×57 pixels so shouldn’t be cluttered with unnecessary items, for example the icon doesn’t need to contain every character from the game.

5.The icon should be consistent with the app. Try to keep the colour palette the same or similar, a great game with a poorly designed app could deter consumers.

App Icon Analysis - App Store

Book Cover Analysis

Movie Poster Analysis

Movie Poster Analysis

Magazine Cover Analysis

TShirt Design Analysis

TShirt Design Analysis

PLANNING MY PROJECT - AO2

My brief was to design and create a series of three products which I could sell to promote my game. My game is called ‘Snail Trail’ and is a simple touchscreen game designed for Apple and Android products. Snail Trail is aimed at children and so the products I design will need to appeal to children too.

Client Brief

The products need to use similar colours to those in the game and I will try to include the characters if possible, this is to increase awareness of the game. If I can’t include the game characters I will need to include the app name or logo. Without these elements it will be hard to identify the products as being related to Snail Trail and this is the whole purpose.

Freelance Rates

I have researched freelance rates and found an article on http://www.creativereview.com where they took part in a major survey with over 2,000 people asking their job title, what they earn and their opinions on this.From this article I found that freelance rates range from £100 daily for a junior designer to £300 daily for a creative director.If I were to charge for my design work I would be classed as a junior designer and so the average amount which I could charge per day would be £110, as I don’t feel that I am a very talented or experienced designer I would most likely charge less than this in order to be competitive within the industry. I would charge between £70-£80 daily rate depending on the work being done.

One Week Plan

MONDAYMONDAY TUESDAYTUESDAY WEDNESDAYWEDNESDAY THURSDAYTHURSDAY FRIDAYFRIDAY

Have a production meeting with my

marketing group in which I will get

client feedback on my draft designs.

Begin to edit my designs and revise

the process for each one. I will need to include

colour, typography and layout.

Make any final changes and

adjustments to my products.

I need to get feedback on my

final designs from my clients in a

production meeting.

I will need to analyse the results

of my feedback.

Create my initial designs for my

graphics project and put in place an

action plan of changes.

I will need to research into my

target audience and use this alongside

my feedback to edit my products.

I will need to have my final design

boards completed with my three graphic design

products on them.

Contingency Period (Catch Up Time)

I need to reflect on my designs and evaluate their

fitness for purpose and compare them to actual products.

Plan For My Products

I want to create three very different products which I will able to link into my marketing presentation. The plan is to create products which will advertise our game, Snail Trail.

First I am going to create an app logo for my game, the purpose of this will be so that I can sell my game on the App Store and have an image next to it to make consumers aware of what I am selling.

I will also create a sweatshirt/ hoodie product which will appeal to my target consumers and thus advertise my products. I am planning to include my app logo on this design.

My final product is a web banner and I want this to be bold and include elements from the game. It is important that my web banner has the characters on it and uses the font from the game so that it links appropriately with the app and also is recognizable.

CREATING MY GRAPHIC DESIGN PROJECT - AO3

App Icon Design IdeasAbstract/Iconic Gameplay/ Screenshot Title - As - Text

Symbolic/ ThematicLanguage - As - ImageCharacter/ Action

App Icon Design Idea Feedback

App Icon Design Idea Feedback

Main App IconI have chosen to develop this Icon because I think it has the most potential. The image sticks to the rules for creating the best app icon possible however it can still be developed further. The colours in the background need to be smoothed and the image can be altered loads however I like the concept.

I may alter the colour palette to make it more suitable for our desired marketing campaign and target audience because at the moment it seems like it might exclude some of the target market, such as the boys aged 6 - 10.

The background needs to be as vectored as the shell or the shell needs to be changed to the same style as the background because the clash in image type looks unprofessional.

App Logo Greyscale Variations

The images above are greyscale variations of my app logo. The different shades of grey all represent a different colour on the logo. The shades surrounding the snail shell are similar as these colours will be comprised of pastel colours in the final image.

App Logo Colour Variations

Colour Wheel

I used the colour wheel to try and find a suitable colour scheme for my app logo. I think that all the variations I have found would appeal more to the female section of our target market however this was something I found difficult to get around due to the fact that the character’s shell is pink and purple. I tried to balance out the pinks with opposite colours on the colour wheel however I didn’t really like the results. I think the bright coloured one would appeal most to our audience as it grabs their attention and is bright however I personally am more attracted to the black background version as I think it looks better from a graphic design point of view.

App Logo Colour Variations Developed

I chose these two images to develop because I think they are the best. I think they would appeal the most however I have adapted the right image so that the colours contrast, I noticed on the colour wheel that the triad colours are blue, pink and green and so I added a green background to try and make the image look better. From my client feedback I found that people love the idea of the shell being the focus point of the image. They preferred the strong colours in image one as they are eye catching however they thought it might be a bit too much and preferred the pastel tones.

I actually really like the green icon and have decided to use it as my final app logo. I prefer it because it doesn’t have the thick black border and is clean, simple and looks professional. The green background also evens out the pink tones of the shell and make it stand out more. It’s also more abstract as it isn’t totally clear that the image is a shell, it’s more of a suggestion.

Image One

Image TwoFinal

Design

This is my initial hoodie design which will be used as part of our marketing plan. Selling hoodies would be a method of direct promotion. The sweatshirt would appeal to young children as it includes the brand logo and name, it also uses bright colours which match the logo. The sweatshirt will probably appeal more to girls as the sleeves are pick but we could possibly create colour variations to assist sales. This would be a good method of promotion as when people see the hoodie being worn they will wonder what it is, bringing more sales to the game. After drafting my idea for the sweatshirt I got feedback, the feedback can be shown below. From the feedback that I received for this design I have decided to adapt the design by altering the colours so that they are more gender neutral and can appeal to more of the target audience, thus making them more appropriate for the mass market. I am also going to add a white background to the text to make it stand out more against the yellow background.

This is my initial design for my banner, a banner is a method of direct advertising. The banner features the King Slug, a character from the game, popping out from behind some half chewed lettuce with the name of the game and ’coming soon’ written across the centre of the image. I chose to put ’coming soon’ on the banner rather than a release date because the purpose of the banner in my advertising campaign is to build anticipation and excitement leading up to the release of the game and by simply saying ’coming soon’ rather than a specific time of release, consumers will have less knowledge and so be more eager to learn things about the game, building excitement.

Banner Design For Snail Trail

From completing my client feedback forms I learnt that the clients liked the link between the photograph of the lettuce and the slug as they thought this was clever. They liked that the character was involved in the image and popped out of the corner however they worried that people who didn’t know the main concept of the game may think the game is focused around slugs rather than the snail and so to solve this issue, I will include only the princess snail on all my other marketing pieces or I could create multiple versions of this banner featuring multiple different characters.They liked how the font is the same as the one in the game however they worried that it was lost infront of the background and so to solve this I am going to add a white background to the text, like on the game’s interface.

Client Feedback Forms (Designs)

Final App Logo

Above is my app logo. This is my final app icon design, this would be a direct advertising method. The app logo would appeal to young children as it is similar to other apps aimed at the children's market. It is simple and shows one piece of strong imagery which represents the game, similar to other app icons such as Cut the Rope and Princess Hair Salon. From the feedback I received it is clear that the colour choices are popular and people like that I have gotten rid of the black border around the inside of the shell.- “The colours are bright and eye catching..works well”- “Niche audience will understand which game the logo is for”- “Like how it is focused in the middle, makes it stand out more.”I like that the logo appeals more to a niche market because it makes the game have an ’in crowd’ feeling, which could lead to it becoming a cult game and therefore having a higher audience. I don’t think this will make the game appeal less to the mass market as young children will still be interested.

Final Hoodie Design For Snail Trail

After receiving feedback on my initial hoodie design I found that people liked the design but wanted it to be a bit more interesting and would have preferred and alternate colour palette. I found that girls liked the existing one but boys wanted something different. To solve this issue I have created a separate colour option to appeal to the male section of my target market. I also added an extra aglet to the end of the hoodie strings to make it look like the eyebrows of the slug, or the antennae of the snail, that much is up to perception of the wearer. On top of this I have added a white background to the text to make it contrast better with the colours used on the pocket pouches as this was highly suggested in my client feedback forms. The new feedback we received was very positive, possibly because of all the changes which we implemented, our clients particularly liked the colours and how the text stands out against the coloured pockets. They also thought that the logo was very recognisable and like how it is the focus point of the design.

Final Banner For Snail Trail

From receiving the initial feedback about my banner it was clear that it needed extra information to be included on the image in order to make what the banner is about more obvious, so in response to this we added the App Store rating to make it clear that the banner is for something that can be downloaded on the App Store. We also added our company logo to make consumers aware that the banner is advertising something that was made by a games company, again hinting to consumers that the banner is advertising a game. We would not release this banner until the later stages of our marketing schedule so that consumers are already aware of the game because the purpose of this banner is not to inform users but more to create excitement, this will also solve the clients worries about consumers not knowing who the slug is. The feedback which we received from clients this time told me that they liked the style and think it is similar to that of Charlie and Lola, a children’s TV show which could help to attract our target audience. They liked the way that the photo realism contrasted with the hand drawn text, similar to the artist Lauren Child’s style. One suggestion was that the banner could be made interactive which we think would be a good idea as it will appeal to children. The feedback was that the text definitely looked better with the white background contrasting against the leaves as it is much easier for people to read now and they also liked the ‘coming soon’ written under the main title as it builds anticipation.

Client Feedback Forms (Finals)

EVALUATION - AO4