SMOODIES

This group project was assigned to me in the first trimester of 2018. It was a group assignment consisting of 8 weeks and 2 submissions, a work in progress submission and a final, completed submission.

We had to create instructions for a task (like a recipe for example) without using any words. This meant using clear visual communication and having a good understanding of semiotics. There was no distinct leader for this project, the four of us simply worked in tandem and made sure that we kept up clear and consistent communication.

Although we worked together throughout the whole 8 weeks, as per the request of the lecturer, we had to make each of our recipe cards unique. This meant having a unique layout and method of communication.

As you can see above as a group we came up with the idea of “Smoodies”. Smoodies is a hypothetical smoothie brand that creates drinks for certain moods and feelings. We felt this angle would allow us to Impart a lot of character and personality into the work.

Throughout the project we distributed tasks and made sure we were always having some level of input of each other’s work. This can be seen with the personas for the 4 flavours above. I created these characters to represent each flavour and I then refined the Ideas using feedback from my team-mates.

Although a single person would typically lead a certain element, it wasn’t always the case. An example of this can be seen in the 2 icon suites above. The first was purely my own work with the second making up our final suite, with it taking elements from icons all 4 of us created. This made for a good exercise in team work and also helped us establish a style and personality we were all happy with.

I ended up creating 2 recipe cards as one of the members of the group had time constraints and wasn’t able to put something together that was quite up to par. These 2 recipe cards can be seen above, 1 just the flat design with the 2nd showcasing the design in a mockup. Despite this, the four of us were happy with our work and we ended up earning a distinction for our efforts.

I believe the work above demonstrates a good use of colour, style, and layout to craft a consistent and appealing brand for Smoodies. A brand that flaunts character and a palette of bright but smooth colours to stand out without sticking out.

Over the 8 weeks I learnt about working as a group but really excelled in my knowledge of creating iconography and utilising semiotics. It helped me understand software like Adobe Illustrator to a much better extent and generally made me a more confident designer for the future.