Robot Food 7-11th April '14

Junior Designer

After returning to Robot Food for a 3rd time in March I was lucky enough to be offered a job as a Junior Designer starting in June, I was also asked to come back for a final week over Easter, this time being paid.

I picked up where I left off last time working on packaging for a new snacking product, it has been interesting to see the similarities and differences between the different routes RF will pitch to a client. All work that they deliver is heavily reinforced with research and product positioning as well as a strong understanding of who will be attracted to the product and what they will respond to.



Key Lessons learnt at Robot Food

Working at Robot Food has taught me a lot of things I had never before considered in my personal work. The biggest difference I noticed was that designing for someone else (who is paying you) is very different from doing work that you think is good (as a student). You can't do anything simply because you think it is cool/ looks good, it needs to be deeply rooted in reason and purpose. 

There are other commercial aspects that need to be considered when producing work at a large scale, such as:
What is the potential for the range expanding?
Will the design be able to accommodate new flavours/ editions without throwing the set off?

Is the hierarchy of information logical?
Is flavour clearly communicated? 
Is there any unnecessary information on the front that isn't going to be read and is just cluttering the design? 

Is each flavour strong and unique enough in it's own right as well as working in the set?
What style of illustration should be used?
Does it communicate flavour well?

Where is the product going to sit on shelf?
Will it be recessive in comparison to what is already available?



Examples of tiering/ hierarchy

PPP Presentation

Visit to Kesselskramer, Amsterdam

After Erik Kessels talked at College we arranged to visit his studio whilst we were in Amsterdam. His talk was one of the best I've seen at college and I was unaware that Kesselskramer did such big budget advertising campaigns as I was only aware of the publishing side of their work.

\

The Kesselskramer studio was amazing, it was inside an old chapel with Erik's desk at the altar. There was artificial hedges and grass amongst large wooden treehouse structures which gave it a very creative and calm atmosphere.

Selected Work

Robot Food: 10-15th March 2014

I returned again to Robot Food as it is the place I would most like to work after College.
This time I was entirely focussed on one project which allowed me deeper insight into the design process. I was working on a new snacking product for a big brand cooking company.

This began with a trip to ASDA to photograph the snacking and cooking sauce aisles to identify what was most successful and how communication changes from cook-in sauce home cooking to on-the-go quick snacking.

After acquiring this primary research I worked on developing research boards which look into all aspects of snacking and identifying what products are dominant, dated and emergent this allowed us to see whereabouts in the market this new product would be best sitting, considering the competition.

After completing the research I was able to start on naming and concepts and then on to designing.
This week at Robot Food has been the most successful I understood the process more clearly and left a good impression with the ideas and visuals I designed for the project. This resulted in me being asked to come back for a paid week in Easter and then on to a 3 month trial placement over summer.

Robot Food Second Week, December

After enjoying the first placement at Robot Food and leaving a positive impression I organised to return in December.

This time I was mainly working on a new product development for a company called Beanies. The challenge was to add a new product to the already large Beanies range, but this addition was Iced coffee, working with the name 'Cool Beans' I had to develop a pack design that suited the established brand and also added an exciting edge as this product is something you would have on-the-go and it would need to jump off the shelf.

Working on these live projects has forced me to work in a different manner than I have at College, designing what is right for the project often warrants a style that is unfamiliar/ beyond my capabilities.

This week at Robot Food was again very helpful and interesting to see how the design process is structured and also to see what clients want to see alongside the finished design.

All design that I have done at Robot Food can not be blogged for confidentiality purposes.

Robot Food: 1st Week, November

The first time I spent a week at Robot Food I was working mainly on Panda Pops. Panda were rebranding to lose their association with unhealthy and fizzy drinks and give themselves a more health conscious and child friendly image.

My job was to develop a route which was based around hand drawn graphics, similar to what a child might do in a notebook/ sketchbook.

I found designing for such a young audience difficult as what I would normally consider good, the audience wouldn't and vice versa.

Robot Food use an extensive research process that they call RAD. Using this process the design research isn't restricted to direct competitors but instead a cohesive study of all the brands and products that the audience would encounter on a daily basis. This really helps to get into the mind set of a young audience and see what products are currently successful and those which aren't.

As well as working on Panda I helped out with art working packaging for print, this gave me a clear insight into the attention detail that is required in industry but that we have not yet to fully apply to our own practice as we are producing one off's for ourselves - as students.

I also worked on some social media promotion for some of Robot Food's clients, this consisted of Christmas related graphics that the companies could use for Facebook banners and posts:

Successful Packaging Redesign

http://99designs.com/designer-blog/2012/07/25/6-rules-of-great-packaging-design/



Key points to bear in mind whilst undergoing Purdeys redesign

1. What’s this product for?
2. What’s the brand behind it?
3. Honesty- don't try and sell Purdeys as a fruit drink, when it is an energy drink that is better for you than most.
4. Keep it Authentic- use the heritage of Purdeys- family business= trustworthy
5. Impact- vibrancy, shelf stand out
6. Extensibility- how will the organic tea sub brand work with the other drink?
7. Audience, who is this for? does the tone of voice reflect this correctly?