Chosen brief

After mind-mapping a few of the YCN briefs I felt more of a pull towards (including Douwe Egberts, Fedrigoni and Royal Courts Theatre), I've decided to do the Bacardi brief, the aim of which is to "reconnect with 18-24 year old guys in the bar environment".

Mind-mapping a number of the briefs I found more interesting was helpful in terms of getting a feel for where I could take each brief and what direction it could go in - I could physically see the potential for each option which I found useful. It was a helpful exercise and confirmed that the most suitable brief for me was Bacardi.

This was the brief I immediately had the most interest in, and even though I seriously considered some of the other options it remained at the forefront of my mind. Although it is primarily about becoming more appealing to young men, it seems to want a focus on the heritage of the brand. The brief itself describes how Bacardi was founded 150 years ago and is still run by the Bacardi family today, and states that "when people have heard just a few sound bites from our amazing family and product story, their perceptions of BACARDI have changed". This is a style or concept that appeals to me - I like brands where their history and heritage is valued and used in their current brand or image, and feel it gives a sense of authenticity.

In some ways I think this strong initial attraction to the brief is a good thing, as it seems to indicate that I have a lot of ideas to develop and explore, and will be able to do lots of thinking around the brief and enjoy the experience of coming up with a solution. On the other hand, I know that in the future I won't always have the luxury of being able to pick and choose briefs and jobs, and so I'll need to learn how to get into subjects and projects that might not be to my normal taste (the positive to this being that I'll grow and develop as a designer).

From my rather complex mindmap shown above, I've created a list of areas I need to research for the Bacardi brief which include the target audience and what appeals to them, Cuba (the birthplace of Bacardi) to further my knowledge of the brand's history, and competitors like Smirnoff and Jack Daniels to see how they are marketed. I plan to use a variety of research methods including the internet, books and magazines, as well as observation of bars and shops so that I can understand how Bacardi fits in and look at elements such as packaging and promotion. These topics and methods should enable me to understand the strengths and weaknesses of Bacardi in terms of it's appeal to the target audience, and therefore how it can be improved in order to solve the brief.

 

Image included in YCN Bacardi Brief 2013

First look at YCN briefs

Having found out one of the assessments for this module entails completing a YCN Student Award brief, I've spent the last few days looking over the potential briefs and narrowing down the options.

On their website, YCN (2013) state that the briefs are "written each year by partnering brands, charities and other organisations", a lot of whom are quite big, well-known brands such as Bacardi, Lego and Nissan.

Each brief is described on the YCN website in quite some detail, so I have browsed through them all to get a general feel for what they are asking. I think this was a good way to approach the task as there are around 20 briefs and so reading through all of them in detail would have taken a great deal of time. By skimming through the information, I was able to identify issues and rule out some briefs immediately based on the final outcome they required and my lack of expertise in that particular area (for instance, video/film), making the remaining briefs more relevant options.

I have now shortlisted around 8 of the briefs - some due to personal interest in the subject, others because I had an instant "idea" - and need to look at them in more detail in order to find the most suitable. I plan to print out the briefs and accompanying project packs and read through them more thoroughly, highlighting key terms and making notes about my thoughts and ideas as I go along. This should hopefully give an indication as to which briefs I have more of a connection to. I want to be left with a final three which I can then mind-map more in-depth ideas for.

It's quite exciting, but also daunting, knowing that my work will be judged against that of other students from across the country, even internationally. I've spent some time looking at commendations from past awards to see what kind of ideas tend to be successful. One of the main things that struck me was that the final work submitted is very polished and professional, and so this is something I will need to concentrate on towards the end of the process as it is an area I feel my work has previously been let down by. Considering the number of entries there will be, I am aware that my solution to the brief will need to be fresh and something a little different in order to stand out.

 

 Images from YCN website (www.ycn.org)