Previous Durex Adverts

In order to gather some initial research for the Durex brief that focuses on encouraging 16-24 year olds to use and carry condoms, it was important to gather research on previous Durex adverts that tackle similar issues to this which involve/promote using condoms.

The previous adverts focus on a more humorous/less serious approach to the topic, the brief sheet subtly hints to avoid the obvious stereotyped/puns approach to this campaign. I want to and need to focus on a more serious and sensitive approach to the briefs issue, through using clever imagery/photography along side clever language that will encourage the target audience to carry condoms.

The adverts below show some of the previous adverts that focus on a less serious approach (to an extent) the adverts are very simple and it is easy to understand the message they are trying to communicate, which works really well as the public is less likely to pay attention to a campaign that is over complicated. The first image simply implies that using a condom is cheaper than having a baby. The second image uses imagery of a seatbelt, implying that the public should use condoms in order to stay safe against STIs. The third image implies that a condom a day keeps the pregnancy away.

Additionally, the image/advert below follows a slightly different approach as it doesn't really use photography as its main imagery. I liked this advert more than the others as the message is displayed in a clever way.  

The advert was called 'Love is blind': 'Pointing out the obvious when it comes to love. STDs sneak around when you don't wrap up the gash mallet.'

The advert below caused quite a stir when it was launched, the UK actually had it banned. However the the advert managed receive an award in 2004 at the ‘The Roses Advertising Awards’ in the category ‘Best use of typography’. Sir Roger Moore is in fact best known for his acting jobs as the famous 007 (James Bond). James bond isn't known as the most modest type when it comes to girls, so in fact this Durex ad aims to communicate two things at the same time. The first one is that with the ‘Perfoma’ product line you’ll want more and do more. The second, unspoken, thing is that there’s a connection between 007’s sexual behaviour and the use of condoms.

This advert also focuses on a more humorous approach. I think the use of typography for this advert is extremely interesting and clever, so typography may be something that I look into further thoroughly when developing my campaign. 

Furthermore, the advert below aims to promote the use of condoms through focusing on the issue of unplanned pregnancy. The advert states facts and statistics (25% of pregnancies are unplanned in the Republic of Ireland), statistics will be something to mention and focus on throughout my campaign. I also like the use of the minimal diagram/illustrations as it gets the message across quickly and easily without being over complicated.

Chosen Brief

The briefs that intrigued me the most were all from the D&AD briefs. The top 3 that I was interested in were the briefs for Durex, Adidas and Heinz.

I decided to go with the Durex brief as I found it most interesting and it is also aimed at my age group (16-24 year olds) which makes it more personal to myself and I feel like I'd be able to gather a lot of first hand research from friends and other people my age- even through short interviews/surveys possibly?. I felt that this brief has a clear message, basically to make carrying a condom the norm.

How to stand out when tackling this brief: This topic has been explored by a wide number of organisations in the past so how am I going to make my idea unique and better?? 'Try to avoid stereotyped imagery and puns' instead, 'try to create a beautifully lead campaign' this uses alternative imagery, focus on a more clever/meaningful approach than the previous adverts that often focus on humour...

The main focus for the brief is to make carrying/use a condom the 'norm' as if it were a card in your wallet that you always carry (like ID or credit card). The brief mentions "just like making a cup of tea or brushing your teeth". 

So...an interesting way to tackle this could be to incorporate a condom into 'normal' everyday uses, focus on clever imagery and photography with this deeper meaning (carry a condom!):

• Make the condom look like a card in a wallet
• Make the condom look like a tea bag inside a cup of tea
• Incorporate the condom into the toothpaste/ Durex toothpaste being put onto a toothbrush
• Sleep- make the condom look like a pillow
• Makeup- make the condom look like a Durex makeup product that someone is applying

etc...

Additionally, on the brief sheet under the 'How to be real' sections it states:

'Durex stands for real sex. No filters, no film sets, no faking. Sex thats open, honest and fun" I could use this as a tagline/slogan for the general campaign/something that appears often or on a key piece? With a hashtag #BeReal. A hashtag relates to the target audience as well (social media that use the hashtag is popular within 16-24 year olds)

Things to remember/consider:

• It is a sensitive topic
• Innuendo and crass jokes wont inspire an audience to change their habits
• Target audience 16-24 year olds, so keep it fresh, current/contemporary and eye catching! 
• Only use Durex condoms in the imagery/photographs (obviously)
• Research previous Durex adverts

Starting Studio Brief 1

Deliverables:

1. Studio practice blog: labelled "OUGD503 SB1" containing all developmental work, experiments, research, considerations, etc.

2. 5-6 design boards per brief - This is your academic submission and should be different to your competition submissions.

3. Presentation boards / proposals / competition submission documents - formats for competition submissions. EVIDENCE ON BLOG.

4. Studio brief 1 evaluation

For Studio Brief 1, I have the option to either focus on one main brief, or a selection of smaller briefs. I think the best option for me personally is to choose one big brief, as I feel like this will allow my focus to remain towards one topic and I'll be able to put all my time and effort into it. I feel like it would have a better outcome, whereas with a few smaller briefs I feel like it could become unorganised.

The substantial competitions/live briefs to choose from include YCN, D&AD, ISTD, RSA and Starpack. The ones that interested me the most are YCN and D&AD, the briefs that they offer are a lot more exciting and current, they also offer the best prizes. 

• The deadline for YCN is the 28th of March and the deadline for D&AD is the 20th of March.

I also feel that with the briefs that they provide, I would be able to gather a lot of research which is important. This is due to the fact that their briefs include creating work based on bigger/popular brands such as KFC, Durex, John Lewis, Adidas, Childline, Gumtree and more.

Additionally, D&AD was the first one I was drawn to as I've been familiar with them for a long time and also because we recently had a visit from them. Also, winning a pencil opens a lot more opportunities for the future. However, D&AD is probably the most competitive and hardest.

Summative Module Evaluation

Overall, I have really enjoyed this module as I felt that I was allowed a lot of freedom to explore the module in the ways and techniques that intrigued me personally. I felt that in previous modules we were made to experiment with a bigger range of techniques and processes, whereas in this one I was able to focus on the techniques and concepts that personally interest me, which made it a lot more enjoyable.

I feel that I learnt a lot more in the first brief compared to design for screen. This was because design for print required me to physically try out loads of methods and experiment a lot more, for example; foiling, embossing and considering different paper stocks for certain elements, as well as combining methods together. I think this is why I enjoyed the first brief slightly more, personally I like to work more hands on and experimentally where I can combine different techniques together and play around with textures and scale. I enjoyed combining techniques that are more relevant to textiles such as embroidery, as I don’t often do this within my graphic design work, this is something that I will continue to do in future briefs.

Whereas for design for screen I was able to apply most of the methods that I already knew. However, learning how to create prototypes was something that I had never done before so it was still really interesting. I found design for screen a lot quicker and easier as it didn’t require physical experiments- physical experiments would often go wrong so the refinement process was a lot lengthier.

I feel that this module will have a big impact on the responsive module, which includes real life briefs. This is because we were required to design our publications and screen designs as if they would be used in the real world.

Final App Working

The videos below show the app physically working, through screen recordings as well as it being used on an actual iPhone.

                            

Final App

I have now finished the app pages and made the final tweaks:

App icon

Launch page

Log in page

Home page

Shoe profile page example 1

Shoe profile page example 2

Side menu on shoe profile 1

Categories page

'Night Out' category 

Search page

Search example showing a search for
 'black boots'

Scanning/camera page

The box that comes up once the shoe
 is scanned properly

Gallery, layout option 1

Gallery, layout option 2

Side menu over gallery page 1

Suggestions page

Suggestions page, showing the
scrolling option on the Fila trainers 

Side menu over suggestions page

Favourites page, layout 1

Favourites page, layout 2

Prototype with all the transition links

All the pages 

I have also developed the category page as the previous design was quite dull and boring due to the single colour rectangles, the white background also made them look like stripes. The developed version works a lot better as it is simplified and just uses thin lines to separate the categories. Additionally, black text is used as it is a lot more legible, the arrows were also changed to the purple gradient to make them stand out and match the banner.

First version (Left) Developed (Right)

Photoshoot

I decided to do a Photoshoot of my app being used on an actual phone to show what it would physically look like. However, I think digital mockups look a lot more professional than the photoshoot as you can see the screen a lot clearer in terms of the colours in the app, the lighting of the photographs also interferes.

Edited photographs:

Development From Critique

Based on critique feedback, I have developed my app design further. One of the comments mentioned that men might also want to use the app, making the colour palette more neutral and pale would make it less girly and more gender neutral (purple). I was going to use Pantone 531 C but I felt that the purple was a little too bright, I used Pantone 670 C for my final colour as it is more minimal and soft without being dull.

Furthermore, I also changed the gradient angles to be more subtle as the peach gradient was a little tacky and full on. A more subtle gradient looks a lot more professional and clean. Additionally, the critique also mentioned that I should use a sans serif typeface, sans serif is more suitable for an app as it is more minimal and legible, I changed the typeface from Georgia to Futura.

I have also changed the favourites icon from a heart to a star as I felt the heart was also too feminine, a star is also more relevant to 'favourites' whereas I think a heart icon is more relevant to 'likes' for example.

New colour palette with Futura typeface

I have also developed my icons as I felt the previous ones were quite basic and boring. The new icons are a lot more effective as they are more illustrative which gives a soft and playful aesthetic- the softness matches the pale colour palette.

I have also changed the typeface from Futura to Open Sans. Futura looked a bit too child like whereas I need a more professional look for my app as it is aimed at an older audience. Open Sans is a humanist sans serif typeface designed by Steve Matteson,  it is most effective for print, web, and mobile interfaces, as it is incredibly legible.

Old icons (left) New icons (right)

Final Critique

Today I had my final group critique in which I displayed my app, I explained the brief, showed print out of my app pages and showed the app working physically on Adobe XD. I found this critique useful, most of the feedback comments just mentioned little tweaks I needed to make an some general design changes to apply to every page.

Feedback comments:

• Some men might also want to use this app, maybe make it less focused on being mainly for women- change the colour palette slightly as the peachy pink is very girly...something more gender neutral, a paler colour would work.
• Draw more attention to the shoe profile page
• Could possibly have a 'previously worn' section, suggests which shoes to wear
• Change the heel icon to something else as a heel is too girly
• Use a sans serif typeface instead
• Gradient tweaks
• Look at fonts on the Grilli type website

Page Viewing Options Development

I felt that some of my app page layouts needed developing as some areas looked a little bit simple but in a basic way. The layouts still need to be minimal, however they could definitely have a stronger UI and UX, the pages that I developed were the gallery and favourites page.

I noticed that on the other online shoe apps when scrolling through the shoes, the website and often app too allows the user to choose from two different layout options. One of the layout options usually uses a few shoes in rows of 3/4 (smaller images), and the other layout option uses less rows (bigger images) This feature is useful and good UX as it takes into consideration the users needs, a user with bad eyesight may prefer to use the version with less rows and bigger images, whereas a user that wants to scroll through the page quickly would most probably use the layout option with more rows and smaller images.

'Size?' website

'Office' website

I have applied this feature to my favourites page. I felt that the layout page looked extremely boring and basic before, it didn't really have much going on and didn't give any information about the shoe either. I felt that the developments look a lot more effective and refined.

Before

The first layout option that the user can choose from displays the shoes in rows of 2, with the shoe description underneath the image and an option to scroll through the other pictures. When the user clicks onto the lighter square in the top right corner, the get directed to the other layout option. This layout option uses just one shoe per row, with the description to the left of the image, with an option to remove the shoe from the favourites page. I think both layouts work really well.

After, with the two different layout options

1. The one shoe per row option/button
2. The two shoes per row option/button

Additionally, I also added this multiple layout option to the gallery page. The original gallery wasn't changed too much as it still displays the images in rows of three, but with the multiple layout option button in the top right. The other layout page that I created uses one image per row with the description below the image, with the option to scroll through other images of the shoe on it.

1. 3 images per row option/button
2. 1 image per row option/button

I have created a video showing how this feature physically works: