The Story Book

When talking to Brent he felt strongly that we should make the book a stronger feature of our project. When I produced a rough concept sketch for one idea (above) his reaction was…. Interesting. Though complimentary on my drawing skills he said they were too descriptive. I could see his point; telling the reader what to see on purpose or not defeats the point of the storybook. I must make the book a work of art in its own right but not destroy the story through detailed descriptive drawing. Without realizing my drawing would have subconsciously influenced what the reader would think and imagine from the story.

I want to produce a cover that contains some of the sculptures as to tie the book to the place of the event. My initial concept was very traditional in the way I approached it, but now I will pursue a more abstract path, experiment with various shape and cover ideas. It is crucially important that I remember the artwork is not to tell the reader what to imagine.






Each of these examples are interesting, Alexis Deacon’s ‘Beegu’ for example is a very simply cover, by giving little away it only hints to the reader as to what it may contain. For example the yellow animal staring curiously at the leaf in front of a distant cityscape. I now assume the plot is based on a strange creature out of its normal environment curious to this new one he is encountering. The Gun shaped book is of particular interest it provides an interesting context to the book. If it were perhaps a gun catalogue then its impact would be minimal however imagine the connotations if someone were to produce a bible in the same shape. An interesting shape to the book could make a huge amount of difference.

Ben

What makes a great CD cover?

When choosing our areas to research into products I chose to research CD covers. I'm a big fan of album cover artwork. Even though it is an audio book we wish to create it would be foolish to ignore the artwork of the music industry.

Cover artwork for albums have been amongst some of the most celebrated artwork of the last century but what makes a great album cover? Sometimes the imagery can be the embodiment of the CD's content on the other hand it can be completely irrelevant to it. It may even hold no meaning in itself at all. Yet does it need to? How about just an eye-catching image? I believe this it the fundamental purpose of a CD sleeve, to grab the consumer’s attention. Whether its by by an intricate and beautifully composed image or a really abstract piece of artwork.

Here are a selection of album covers I believe are great in terms of there design. All from various years and in numerous styles from different genres of music. Each are famous for their imagery alone.












I think it would be wise to take influence from the artwork of the music industry. particularly these good examples. Be it the simplicity of the Beatles white album, the surreal but vivid artwork of Chris Flemming on the Biffy Clyro covers. Perhaps even the raw feel given by both the punk covers in the collection by the clash and the sex pistols.

Ben

Our Product Concepts

After conducting another brainstorm on potential products we could make, we have decided to futher research the following 5 idea's to see if it will be possible to put these designs into production;
1. A CD audio book aimed at the grandchildren, feauturing an interesting cover/fold out.

2. Eco-friendly re-useable cotton bags with screenprinted designs aimed at the grandparents.

3. Souvenir plants pots feauturing YSP designs designed by us and aimed at the grandparents.

4. Souvenir transfer stickers for the car windows of the grandparents.

5. YSP sleeping eye masks designed for grandparents.

Product Brainstorm

This is a scan from one of our sketch book's. It shows our group brainstorm of product ideas. The one's circled are the ones we feel are strongest and will research into them further.

Why grandparents?

Our chosen target market is Grandparents. According to an article by the BBC in 1999 there were an estimated 9 million over 60’s in the UK. This was estimated to rise over the next 30 years by 40%. The approximate population of Britain is 67 million. Meaning 7.4 percent of British people are over 60. In 2004 there was an estimated 7 million families with approximately 13 million children in their care. www.grandpsrents-association.org.uk reports that there are 14million grandparents in the UK and that 82% of UK children receive some form of care from grandparents.

These statistics show why the target market of Grandparents is a good choice with an estimated 14million grandparents in the UK alone the YSP would seriously benefit financially from the inclusion of this particular demographic in their friends scheme.

The elder generation we are aiming at will have grown up with books and stories as an important part of their childhood, today’s replacements are TV and video games. The walk would offer them a nostalgic experience. The story walk also offers them a sense of freedom and independence that they may have felt was lost with retirement and age.

It is the grandparents that we are aiming to make the friends of YSP. However, the walk is designed to help grandparents bond with their grandchildren as well as providing them with an escape from everyday life. We want the event and products to conjure the imagination of both the young and old alike. The later evening walks would seem magical with the story being told too the background of the sculptures illuminated at night would be a grand spectacle for both grand parent and grand child. The products will be interesting and carry the creative artistic theme of the parks environment but will not be too outlandish as to scare off either group, we aim to create familiar products with a fresh feel.

When reviewing social groups in our creativity and the end user lectures one particular group stood out, group J, Type J53 “High spending elders”. this is the group we are aiming at

"High Spending Elders contains well educated, early retirees and pensioner couples who see no contradiction between retirement and the enjoyment of an active lifestyle. Such people live not just on the coast but increasingly in attractive country villages."

Experian, Mosaic UK Group and type descriptions

With their location being perfect "country villages", their attitude to an active lifestyle exactly the kind we want the event to appeal to and their spare income they’re are more than able to afford products on sale. We aimed to find a market we felt would have a ‘sub market’ attached, one we could also indirectly sell to. In this case the grandchildren. The range of products we are soon to develop will be designed to appeal to both age groups. The young imaginations of the children will be captured along with the nostalgic grandparents.

In summary the choice of Grandparent should prove to be a stable, sustainable and more importantly profitable choice of target market.

Our New Concept

Yorkshire Sculpture Park: Friendship Scheme Second Concept

Target Audience

We have now decided to change our target audience to Grandparents with Grandchildren between the age of 5 and 10. The friendship scheme itself will be offered to the grandparents and the event we put on will be a family bonding experience.

Proposed Event

The primary aim of the event is to entertain the children and hopefully by doing so we will provide the grandparents and children alike with a memorable trip out. We plan to achieve this by putting on a series of guided story-walk, hosted by local storytellers. Starting mid afternoon we provide a shorter tour for the grandparents with younger children, and also a later and longer tour finishing after sunset aimed at the older children. The sculpture park itself will provide an interesting environment in which the stories themselves may be tied to and help to create a sense of realism for the children. For the younger children the stories will be more imaginative and magical in nature, whereas the older children will experience a more spooky and mature tour.

Products

We plan to create a range of products aimed at both grandparents and children but that will be bought by the grandparents and therefore must be designed with this in mind. We want to engage the children’s imagination and creativity with these products; possibly by incorporating the days experience i.e. environments, stories. We also plan to provide more traditional souvenir type products aimed at the grandparents, but doing so in a fresh unique way.

Targer Market Brainstorm

Here is a brainstorm that we came up with to help identify any potential target markets that we think would best suit this brief. The highlighted idea's are the one which we believed to be stronger. By analysing this brainstorm carefully we decided on a new target market.

Back to the drawing board.

After a meeting with our clients last week, it came to our attention that our initial concept would not be suitable for this brief, for this reason we decided that this week we must go back to the drawing board and come up with a new concept entirely. Within our group we brainstormed as many possible target markets for the friendship scheme that we could think of. We then selected the group which we believed to be the strongest option and using this as a focal point, devised a new concept.

Our Concept.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park : Friendship Scheme Concept

Target Audience

It is our intention to create a friendship scheme between the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and High School teachers, who are teaching GSCE/A-level students taking art/design based subjects. We hope that by drawing in the teachers to our friendship scheme we will make friends with their students, this way by forming a friendship scheme with 1 teacher we can automatically generate the attention of 30+ potential customers for our products.

Proposed Event

To generate this friendship we have come up with the idea of annual art based social event that would take place within the grounds of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park as well as their galleries. This event would be an social-educational visit primarily aimed at the students. With the added aid of local artists and photographers, the students can learn new methods and techniques to generate art work. This event could last up to a week long and host multiple schools on any one day, and does not exclude the general public. Classes will be broken up into smaller group where they scheduled to attend multiple workshops across the park where they will be led by professional artists. These workshops will use the sculptures as points of focus for the artwork that the students will create.

The following is a list of the different artistic field that students could be educated about within the workshops;

• Painting
• Digital Photography
• Pottery
• Sketching

Products

At the entrance to the event there will be a point of sale display filled with YSP sketchbooks (both of which will of been designed by us) which students will be given the chance to purchase and take around the different workshops. The event will then finish at the YSP gift shop where a range of products, including the sketchbooks, will be on sale.

So what is a friend?

Friendship is a relationship between two or more people, based upon common interests they share. These people will enjoy each others company based on the fact that they are there for each other. Friends are also people you socialise with, share feelings and understandings with and alongside these emotions a common trust and mutual respect is built, upon which the friendship sits on. This respect is based on the fact that they trust and rely upon each other to be there for them in a time of need. Friends aim to help each other in as many ways as possible and also introduce one another to new friends as a way of achieving this.

Our Brief

Friends of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Our brief is to create a friendship scheme with the YSP (Yorkshire Sculpture Park). In order to do this we must specify a target audience for the park to be friends with. Once the target market is specified we are required to produce concepts for an event and products to sell there. The event is to draw the target market in to the park and the products will be for them to purchase at the end if they choose to.

Along side the event and the products we must create a sketchbook cover for the sketch books, which will be sold in the park shop, a point of sale display for the products we design, an online blog documenting all research and ideas/concepts for our work and an online shop.