Wear Plants, Not Blood. Graphic Design Communication Final A2 Advertising Campaign Exam

This years theme for A2 Graphic Communication was 'Growth and Evolution'. 

I decided to respond to this theme by communicating the idea that as we have evolved from animals, we should respect them and not use them as ingredients within our cosmetics (e.g Keratin is the protein obtained from ground up horns, hooves etc. and is used for strengthening human hair and nails). Instead of using these 'animal source' ingredients, I was promoting the use of natural plant source ingredients which have naturally grown from the earth through an advertising campaign. This required me to create the product (the packaging and the label; front and back), a billboard, poster and the double page magazine spreads.

I decided to go for a clean and simple layout and colour scheme as I wanted my design to reflect the product - clean and simple. This was inspired by some designer brands such as Chanel as I like how professional and sophisticated the designs look; I was also inspired by some drugstore cosmetic brands which also promote natural ingredients such as, Simple, Garnier etc.

I wanted to use a black and white colour scheme for some of my pieces as I wanted a sense of juxtaposition - the good, fresh side of cosmetics (which I am promoting) and the dark, chemical side (animals source ingredients and chemicals). To encourage the idea of contrasting the two sides, my watercoloured  illustration of the female face, had unearthly and more saturated colours (influenced by the colour palettes of Jenny Saville and Agnes Cecil's works) to oppose the neutral, earthly colours of the overall advertising campaign.

'dark side'

'clean and fresh'

I used slogans and taglines to help to voice my ideas behind this campaign as I wanted my thoughts to be easier to understand as I didn't want the ideas to be concealed otherwise I wouldn't have achieved my aim. On one of my double page magazine spreads, I added facts as I wanted to educate the viewer; I wanted to do this as I  was shocked when researching all of the animal source ingredients, and further disgusted to find that they have a natural, plant source alternative - I want my viewers to feel the same way. I chose to use animal source ingredients which have currently had a rise in popularity within the world of beauty today (such as Keratin, which popular brands such as Treseme use as an 'appealing; ingredient due to the positive reviews about the keratin hair treatments) - this makes my advertising campaign relevant to today, as well as highlighting a major flaw in a product which is so popular - a flaw which people are unaware of. 

Some problems which I encountered: trying to select the appropriate font which can be clear to read at a small scale (for the packaging and labelling) and also keeping the overall appearance of the advertising campaign consistent over all 7 outcomes.

Generally I am happy with how my outcomes resulted. I feel that they achieve what I set out to communicate, they fit in well with the current advertisements of today, are appealing to look at (not cluttered or too confusing) and showcase my strength - my illustrations. The watercolour splats also helped to bring in colour and an interesting, abstract texture. I particularly like the front of my packaging as the leaf cutout is unique and creates dimension as it reveals the product/label inside of the secondary packaging.