fmp week 2

{07/04/14 - 11/04/14}

Day 1: TESCO

After looking at the basis of how natural ingredients is benefical to the skin and analysising my own skin care routine, I decided to look at existing brands that were in supermarkets and in affordable prices. I think looking at these brands will help me understand reasons to why it looks like it is now and how it distinguish each target audience.

I looked at a range of brands such as; - Clean & Clear / Neutrogena / Simple / Olay / The Body Shop

Clean & Clear and Neutrogena

These two products is similiar in terms of having the concept of treating young people and problematic skin in general because of the different ranges within each brand and how much colour is used to distinguish each range. Clean and Clear (Top half) products looks similars regardless of range by using the basic packaging that is sealed at the top, however Neutrogena also uses this packaging and so it shows there wasn't much thought or effort about making it unique and so it isn't showing a high quality aspect. I think having colour that is inspired by the range / theme is a good thing but it has very predictable, I think it doesn't scream high quality but as its in supermarkets I think I wouldn't expect a high quality cream anyways.

Simple

Simple is a brand that uses natural elements into their products that is mainly for sensitive skin. This brand does have a variety of products but its not easy to differentiate between each other because of the similar colour palette and packaging, I can see the problem of customers accidently purchasing the wrong product and therefore its a hassle to refund and re-purchase the correct one. I think its not necessary to have some in boxes where some is completely fine without one.

Olay

Olay is a brand that caters to mature skin that have problem with wrinkles, aging and maintain to appear youthful. Similiarly to Simple, it is colour coded to distinguish each range but it still has the Olay branding od the black strip in the middle of the packaging, it looks more luxury because of having black and silver which appears mature and elegant. 

The Body Shop

The Body Shop is very known for their variety of ranges that cater to all skin types in affordable prices, although it uses the basic packaging but it does experiment with texture and patterns applied on the label and look at negative space and each range has a different identity but still maintain to have The Body Shop brand, it works with imagery as well as text which indicates consideration in terms of layout and colour scheme.

The reason why I wanted to look at this brand is also because at this moment I wanted to present my product in stores that are convienent for everyone to pop into a supermarket and easily purchase it, the easy accessibility will help me have a greater income then to a luxury place. Also in the future I wanted to compare it with more high end brands to see the difference and see the options of how I want to see my product in.

Day 2: AESOP (COVENT GARDEN)

I visited a skincare store called 'Aesop' which was recommended to me by Andrew Osman because of their interior design in the store and also the minimal style of the packaging. It was very different from styles that I have seen products from drugstores and supermarkets, it shows a great contrast from high end and affordable prices from the visual element.

There are many branches of Aesop which has many unique interior in stores but I only decided to go to Covent Garden simply because I didn't want to space majority of my time going to two or three Aesop stores purely to compare the interior design. The Covent Garden store however is really simplistic that perfectly reflects the label of the product, it is very linear by the way it's lined up in rows with the same products and with some bigger or smaller products to show dimension. The walls was all white and had white shelves that looked that some were placed in order and some was placed chaotic on a bigger wall. The floor was green with white bold lines that add colour and dimension to the overall design.

This is the packaging of the products and I really like it because of the playfulness of the typography, it isn't a very familiar site on skincare packaging so it gave a fresh graphical view compared to other brands. I can imagine these outcomes to be used as posters advertising Aesop and I can see how versatile type is. Each box has a different strong yet slightly muted colour and a type concept, some vey compact and some with a circular form, also using different type and arranging them this way is a contrast with the linear text of the black and white labels on the products, I feel like the package doesn't need to be a carbon copy but taking an aspect like type and evolving it into something fresh like this. It really helped me broaden my ideas but my own outcome.

Day 3: Keeping with the theme of analysing brands I looked at their website designs plus a few more brands and how the brands present themselves, I didn't want to make a website for my product but I thought a lot can be seen with a different media, for instance websites. I focused on many aspects by seeing what colour is used and why, what is the purpose of choosing this image, and layout etc. I was didn't know my concept of my ideas and so I thought this process will help me engage my thoughts.