Irn bru final evaluation

Evaluation of Irn Bru: Posters, Cans and Web Banners

Can Design Layout 1One of the technical qualities shown in my first can design is that of the head at the bottom of the flat plan. With the head being straight edged and looking unsuitable for a can I added an ellipse and positioned it to look the natural shape of head . Once this had been complete I needed to add the illusion of hair on top of the ellipse. To do this I made the hair of the original image a separate layer and duplicated it to add to the back of the head which had been made from the ellipses tool.

A second technical quality shown in my flat plan is the design of the bubbles on the collar of the can. The bubbles proved effective by adding a drop shadow to each shape.

In terms of aesthetic qualities I have made efforts to make the graphology Irn-Bru based. For example the majority of the text used stays with Irn-Bru’s traditional colour scheme of orange and blue. As well as this the nutritional information as been made easier to read with a background colour that stands out from the blue on the majority of the layout. This orange colour the information as been put on has also been made to be in the shape of a bubble, this again keeps in with imagery of a fizzy drink and in turn Irn Bru 32.

If I had additional time to spend on this can their would have definitely would have developed on the design. For example the circular shapes that the nutritional information are depicted in could have been made to look more like bubbles to link in with the subject of the product; a carbonated drink. As well as this the colour of the words “Irn Bru” would have been a different. It would have been different from the rest of the colour scheme because at the moment I feel as it blends in with the rest of the can and does nothing to grab a potential consumers attention. If I were to keep the same colour scheme for the words “Irn Bru” then perhaps I could combat this lack of bravado by duplicating the words and position the duplication slightly away from being completely covered by the original layer. This could then create a 3d or bubble like effect that could make the wording draw more attention to itself and to a potential consumer.

Can Design Layout 2The aesthetically pleasing aspect of this can design is definitely that of the ‘twist design’ like structure of the “Scotland approves of this drink” slogan. For Irn Bru’s traditional Scottish audience the colour scheme will be aesthetically pleasing with the introduction of the Saltire and Scottish navy blue as well as this the can retains the girder orange it is affectionately related to by its Scottish core audience. The collar also features the Scottish flag’s duo of colours , this way to make the can design extremely nationalistic.

Admittedly not much technical quality went into my second can design. This is down to time constraints, I had many ideas for this can all of which didn’t turn out the way I wanted when I finally settled on this idea there was not as much time to complete the design as I would have liked. To prevent this next time I will leave more contingency time or be fully committed to my initial plans.

Furthermore if I had more contingency time I would have been able to develop some of the ideas on this can further. For example I would have created a background for all of the nutritional information and ingredients to be depicted upon.

Another part of my can which is aesthetically pleasing is the ‘Swiss graphic’ like design of some of the wording on the can. “Scotland approves of this drink” is dissected, with the end of some words being placed on different lines to the beginning. This is similar to the design to the right. This can make a potential consumer stop to read the words on the can as if they are walking buy glancing at the can, their brains won’t process the words properly as the words are not in their natural form. This could lead to a potential consumer stopping out of curiosity to look at the can. This alone could lead to a boost of sales for Irn Bru.

Whilst doing my planning I experimented with a number of fonts until I found one I thought to be suitable. This font was Husky Stash. One of the aesthetically pleasing parts of this font, is that it partly underlines itself. This gives more definition to the words, making them stand out more, becoming more likely to draw the attention of the consumer.

With this in mind I believe the design is a success as one of the aims in the brief was to increase sales of re-launched energy drink Irn Bru 32.

Poster 1For the first poster I designed there were a few technical qualities that I used to produce the final product. Firstly I had to find a way to make Irn-Bru appear to be in the glass of James Bond on the poster. To do this I used the polygon lasso tool and drew around the outline of the glass, up to the point I thought the Irn Bru should be in the glass. After this I had to use the colour pallet to replicate Irn Bru’s famous girder orange colour. After this had been done I lowered the opacity so that the Irn Bru looked more realistic and not an opaque colour. After this created some bubbles via the shape tools, this was to show the realistic carbonation that an Irn Bru drink. As well as this, another aspect of my photo where I needed technical qualities to be at hand, was when creating a reflection onto the table of my can of Irn Bru. I did this by making a selection on the part of the can that I wanted reflecting, I chose to reflect from the bottom part of the can, as it made logical sense to reflect onto the table that it was situated on. After making a selection, I went to edit, transform and then rotated the selection vertically. Following this to make the reflection more realistic I turned down the opacity, this was to make it a reflection than just an opaque copy, which it was before I turned the opacity down.

In terms of aesthetic qualities, I made the conscience decision to change the font to something more informal. Looking at the first draft (top image) I felt that the font lacked not only in readability, but also attractiveness. I decided that the bottom font was the way to go as it was more comic book like and a lot more welcoming to potential consumers. As well as this the readability was a lot easier. The comic book like font works better for an advert put out by Irn Bru as it seems more like an informal font that suits a humorous advert. This is different to the top font, which adds a more formal feel to it, as if the advert is expected to be taken very seriously.

Another aesthetic quality I like about this piece, is the way that the “32” has been depicted. The star surrounding creates a sticker like effect. As if it has been stuck on at the last minute and is something new on the design. This ties in with the fact that the product is a new re-launched drink. Being partly put over the word Irn Bru gives the reader the message that the poster is not advertising ‘just’ Irn Bru, but a brand new product, even better than the last.

To improve this design further, I would have tried to make the Irn Bru liquid inside Sean Connery’s glass, look more realistic. At the moment the thing I think is letting down that aspect of the design is the bubbles. If I had the chance to improve the bubbles again I would definitely have made the bubbles a lot more faint. To do this I would have made a selection on each individual bubble and then I would have brought down the opacity of each bubble until I felt it was suitable for the design. In terms of whether the design does its job or not, it is my opinion that it does. I believe the adverts aligns itself with other past Irn Bru advert that are not meant to be taken too seriously. However with a recognizable Scottish character involved, played by a well loved Scottish actor, I believe that the advert indeed, would increase Irn Bru sales.

Poster 2For my second Irn Bru poster I used a few technical qualities. Firstly I had to edit the image to have the man in the poster appearing to be holding a can of Irn Bru 32. To do this I had to make a selection of the thumb on his hand and make it a separate layer. I then made a copy of this layer and deleted the original one. With the can of Irn Bru 32 already positioned in the grasp of the hand, I dragged layer the thumb was in above the layer of the can. This allowed me to create what looked like Mel Gibson from the film “Braveheart” holding a can of Irn Bru 32.

Another technical quality I used was to create the shading on the face. With Mel Gibson’s face already painted in a blue colour in the original source, I decided to add Irn Bru girder like orange to complete the set of its traditional colour scheme. I did this by using the polygon lasso tool to draw around certain parts of the face. After this I used the colour overlay tool to colour certain parts of the cover stars face in orange.

In terms of aesthetic qualities, not too much needed changing in regards from the first draft to the final product. The font I chose shows an informal and humorous side to the advert, keeping in line with a stereotypical Irn Bru advert. I did this by choosing a soft, bubble like font.

A made a conscience decision to implement a second aesthetically pleasing quality. This was done by putting the majority of the advert in Irn Bru’s traditional colours of blue and orange. The colours compliment each other well and offer good brand recognition to the brand making it easier for consumers to understand what the advert is marketing.

To improve the poster further, something I could have done was to make the orange face paint more prominent in the picture, this would implement Irn Bru’s colour scheme further and offer even more brand recognition.

Regarding whether the advert does its jobs or not, in my opinion it most certainly does. The advert offers humour whilst retaining a marketing purpose, staying in line with Irn Bru’s plethora or high quality adverts, even managing to involve a Scottish icon in William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in the process.

Web Banner 1In terms of technical qualities, once again not that much was needed as I used the same design from my 2nd poster design. One technical quality I used to make the poster suitable for this size of a web banner was to make all the elements smaller to fit the web banner. I did this my selecting all the layers used for my poster and once I was certain of the idea, I then merged them all together. Following this I free transformed them, reducing the size of each element whilst staying in proportion.

Once again the aesthetic qualities centered around the colour scheme of the poster. I retained Irn Bru’s traditional colour scheme if blue and orange. This was to please existing customers who enjoy sticking with tradition as well as potential customers who may be ready to start buying the drink but would not recognize it, if the colour scheme was changed.

The same font has been used, a welcoming an unintimidating one, there to provide comfort to customers existing and new. As well as this it offers a very clear readability and does nothing to cause confusion with viewers of the advert.

To improve the web banner further I could have provided a unique design rather than just downsizing my 2nd poster. The same problem as my second poster features also in my web banner. This is that I once again feel the orange on the face of William Wallace (Mel Gibson) could be more prominent and therefore used to a greater effect. This would offer more brand recognition to potential and existing consumers.

In terms of whether the web banner does it’s job or not, in my opinion it does. Exactly the same to the 2nd poster, it offers humour with the situation of William Wallace holding an Irn Bru can. As well as the slogan offering Scottish slang. This slang and Scottish icon featuring in the poster makes the brand welcoming to consumers new and old.

Web Banner 2For my second web banner I made a drastic change to the dimensions of the design. This provided technical qualities in itself. Instead of reducing the elements of my piece all as one merged layer, I had to do it differently. This was because I knew that the web banner would suffer aesthetically if I tried to cram everything from my other web banner onto this one, whilst retaining the original proportions. To combat this I made the decision not to include a slogan as I felt the advert stood up perfectly well with the inclusion of Scottish icon William Wallace. I had to reduce the size of each individual layer, they were reduced into new proportions, to make the new design work into the vastly reduced space available.

In addition to the regular aesthetic qualities of maintaining the traditional colour scheme of Irn Bru, I have made other efforts to increase the overall aesthetic quality. The major one was the effort to make the words Irn Bru contain a 3d effect this was in order to increase efforts to draw consumer attention to the web banner. I did this by creating a duplicate of the words “ Irn Bru” and then putting them slightly to the side to create a 3d bubble like effect, making the web banner a whole lot more aesthetically pleasing. Another aesthetically pleasing part of the web banner is how the picture of Mel Gibson goes outside of the borders of the web banner. This not only works as aesthetically pleasing aspect to the banner but also an effective marketing aspect too. With the image going outside of the borders, consumers will be drawn to what they think is a faulty advert, when in actual fact it has been done to draw their attention and to possibly great success too.

To improve the banner I would have added a few things to the piece. Firstly I would have added the 3d bubble like effect that I have used on the words “Irn Bru” to the “32” also. I felt this would have showed the most important part of the banner to the consumer – this being the new product. As well as this, as previously mentioned on the other web banner and poster, I would have made the orange face paint more prominent to the banner. At the moment I don’t think it is being used effectively enough to capitalize on potential brand recognition.

In my opinion the web banner does its job in creating a marketing tool that will increase sales of the product as well as adding humour in the process. It will be successful as it maintains the traditional colours as well as implementing a Scottish Icon in the process.