Ad5403 - The Creative Industries
Brief - March 3rd 2014
Part 1 - 3rd March - 10th March
Brand Research - Research into brand, its position in the market and current strategy and values. Short Presentation which includes the assessment of your brand. Demonstrate a new understanding and insight into the brand.
Part 2 - 10th March - 3rd April
Brand Development - Create designs for a new product which will stretch the potential of your brand into a new area.
Create designs for the packaging of your product.
Make a presentation of your designs and a blog of your research, influences and ideas.
Part 3 - 3rd April - 12th May
Brand Advertising - Create a 20 second TV commercial for your new product.
Part 4 - 19th March - 30th April
Typography - Set typographic exercise.
Part 1 - 3rd March - 10th March
Brand Research - Research into brand, its position in the market and current strategy and values. Short Presentation which includes the assessment of your brand. Demonstrate a new understanding and insight into the brand.
Part 2 - 10th March - 3rd April
Brand Development - Create designs for a new product which will stretch the potential of your brand into a new area.
Create designs for the packaging of your product.
Make a presentation of your designs and a blog of your research, influences and ideas.
Part 3 - 3rd April - 12th May
Brand Advertising - Create a 20 second TV commercial for your new product.
Part 4 - 19th March - 30th April
Typography - Set typographic exercise.
Twix
The brand:
- A Mars produced pair of chocolate bars. A unique confectionery known for it's distinctive 3 layer quality, combining caramel, chocolate and biscuit.
- First produced in the United Kingdom by Mars, Inc. in 1967 and later introduced to the United States in 1979.
- It's two most unique characteristics are firstly that Twix is always sold as a pair of chocolate bars. The second is the actual make up of the chocolate bars themselves. The 3 layer composition of chocolate, caramel and biscuit provides a unique and very specific type of chocolate bar.
- A Mars produced pair of chocolate bars. A unique confectionery known for it's distinctive 3 layer quality, combining caramel, chocolate and biscuit.
- First produced in the United Kingdom by Mars, Inc. in 1967 and later introduced to the United States in 1979.
- It's two most unique characteristics are firstly that Twix is always sold as a pair of chocolate bars. The second is the actual make up of the chocolate bars themselves. The 3 layer composition of chocolate, caramel and biscuit provides a unique and very specific type of chocolate bar.
Brand Values
Luxury
Chocolate itself is seen as a luxury, a treat for us to enjoy. Pairs The product itself always comes as a pair, therefore this is an integral part of the product and how it is presented as a brand. Personality Frequently the Twix products themselves seem to develop a form of 'personality' in order to connect with the audience. |
Tongue n' Cheek
Tackled in different ways, the advertising campaigns for Twix utilise tongue n' cheek humorous ways of promoting the product. This technique is successfully used as a way of developing a connection and emotive response with the audience. Specific Taste As a product Twix is very unique, rather than just a plain and simple chocolate bar. It is meant to be something different and fun. |
Twix Packaging
The packaging for Twix features a very bold colour scheme of gold, red and a hint of black in a drop shadow behind the typography. Not only is this a very bold choice of colours, that really create a visual punch it ensures that the product stands out on the shelf. The twix chocolate bars themselves are also photographed and featured on the packaging, visually informing the consumer of the twinned nature of the product.
Current Twix Packaging
Current Twix Packaging
The current Twix packaging most obviously features the distinctive colour scheme of gold, red and black encompassing the pre-existing brand identity.
One noticeable feature on the typography is the use of a pause symbol instead of a regular dot on the 'i' in Twix. This is a featured that was rolled out worldwide on all Twix packaging in 2011 in order to boost the idea of 'pausing' and 'taking a moment' when eating and hopefully enjoying a Twix product. This push was due to the public idea mainly identifying taking a break when eating a chocolate bar with competitor produced Nestlé Kit-Kat.
One noticeable feature on the typography is the use of a pause symbol instead of a regular dot on the 'i' in Twix. This is a featured that was rolled out worldwide on all Twix packaging in 2011 in order to boost the idea of 'pausing' and 'taking a moment' when eating and hopefully enjoying a Twix product. This push was due to the public idea mainly identifying taking a break when eating a chocolate bar with competitor produced Nestlé Kit-Kat.
Twix advertising and marketing
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As demonstrated, humour and a tongue n' cheek demeanour is always used within commercials promoting both the Twix product and brand. This is used to develop a response out of the viewer and hopefully build an emotional response through humour.
Current adverts utilise the idea of 'Right' and 'Left' Twix that are rivals and encourage you to pick a side, stating that now all they share 'is a wrapper'. This tactfully encourages the consumer to buy into the product, to consume both right and left Twix and see which they prefer. An also popular campaign used by Twix for much of the 2000's was the idea of if you 'need a moment, chewing it over with a Twix' first. This seemed to give the confectionery an amazing, almost magical effect on the costumer when they ate it, positively promoting the idea of buying and eating Twix products.
Current adverts utilise the idea of 'Right' and 'Left' Twix that are rivals and encourage you to pick a side, stating that now all they share 'is a wrapper'. This tactfully encourages the consumer to buy into the product, to consume both right and left Twix and see which they prefer. An also popular campaign used by Twix for much of the 2000's was the idea of if you 'need a moment, chewing it over with a Twix' first. This seemed to give the confectionery an amazing, almost magical effect on the costumer when they ate it, positively promoting the idea of buying and eating Twix products.
Twix Colour scheme
We have identified the colour scheme that is used within the Twix logo. We recognise the importance of this colour scheme and using it within our brand extension so that the new element of the Twix brand that we create is in keeping with the existing corporate identity.
TWix - couple sex toys
Up until this point we had been developing the idea of a three stage dating 'experience'. The biggest challenge that we faced when bringing this idea to fruition was what could be a tangible, real world product that we could concept for the Twix brand extension.
We considered products such as a user pack that could be sent out to pairs and couples undergoing the 3-step 'experience' as well as items that could be used in step 3 of the experience, the 'meet'. Unfortunately we still didn't find this overly exciting or interesting which led to us re-thinking and developing our concept, whilst retaining the focus on couples and pairs. |
Considering the idea that chocolate is seen as pleasurable and something we enjoy as a treat and that Twix comes in pairs, we developed forward into the idea of sex toys for couples.
We saw this is as a natural profession of our original idea as it would enable us to develop actual products and packaging that have a focus on the idea of bringing a couple together. One possible intertwining of the two ideas that we may focus on later on in the project if we have time is some form of app element to promote the sex toys? |
Product & packaging development - Inspiration
Before we designed our products and packaging, we researched existing products and packaging to gain some inspiration of the manner in which we could present our own work. We focused on investigating packaging that relied on a simplistic elegance, an aesthetic that we wanted for our own packaging.
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We also felt that conducting research on existing sex toys was necessary in order for us to develop products that were suitable for our focus on 'couples sex'. Also developing product concepts for real world products we felt would ground our project in reality better.
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Developing the products & packaging
Finished product & packaging renders
All of the products and packaging were rendered using Adobe Illustrator. For the entire range of Twix sex toys we wanted luxury, high end products that succeeded at emulating the high end status we wanted for the range.
We decided to create a range of products that include products such as Vibrators and Cock Rings which couples may use solo but also could use on one another. We also created products including the whip, handcuffs and spanker which have the solo purpose of being used between one another within a couple. Our decision to create this range of products was so that the consumer would have plenty of option depending on the kind of fun that they were interested in having together.
Product colour scheme
The colour scheme that we opted to use for all of the sex toys was in keeping with the Twix corporate identity an element which we believed was extremely important. We found that fortunately the colours compliment one another nicely when applied to the varying products.
Product details
There are a couple of smalls details on the products which we included to boost the 'luxury/expensive' aspect of the product. The first of these features is that the handles of the whip, vibrator and spanker have a texture applied to them. This was to create the effect of 'leather' which is what the handles of each these products would be wrapped within. We felt that leather trim such as this on some of the products would add to the quality and most importantly glamour and luxury of the sex toys.
'XXX' On the top of the lip
It can be seen on the lid of each of the packaging we featured a 'XXX' next to the Twix logo. This was a decision that we made for naming the range. 'XXX' is usually used for referring to something that is of an x-rated or sexual nature and we felt that this was suitable for Twix brand extension. The 'XXX' would be printed onto the box using gold leaf to further enhance the effect and feel of the product that we wanted to create.
We decided to create a range of products that include products such as Vibrators and Cock Rings which couples may use solo but also could use on one another. We also created products including the whip, handcuffs and spanker which have the solo purpose of being used between one another within a couple. Our decision to create this range of products was so that the consumer would have plenty of option depending on the kind of fun that they were interested in having together.
Product colour scheme
The colour scheme that we opted to use for all of the sex toys was in keeping with the Twix corporate identity an element which we believed was extremely important. We found that fortunately the colours compliment one another nicely when applied to the varying products.
Product details
There are a couple of smalls details on the products which we included to boost the 'luxury/expensive' aspect of the product. The first of these features is that the handles of the whip, vibrator and spanker have a texture applied to them. This was to create the effect of 'leather' which is what the handles of each these products would be wrapped within. We felt that leather trim such as this on some of the products would add to the quality and most importantly glamour and luxury of the sex toys.
'XXX' On the top of the lip
It can be seen on the lid of each of the packaging we featured a 'XXX' next to the Twix logo. This was a decision that we made for naming the range. 'XXX' is usually used for referring to something that is of an x-rated or sexual nature and we felt that this was suitable for Twix brand extension. The 'XXX' would be printed onto the box using gold leaf to further enhance the effect and feel of the product that we wanted to create.
Key focus - the final packaging
The packaging for the sex toys would be manufactured out of a durable, thick high quality cardboard to really give well produced feel to the product from the moment the consumer gets their hands on it.
For the actual visual aesthetic of the packaging we were influenced by the make up of Twix chocolate bars themselves and the way that they are layered as confectionery. With the light brown / gold lid and then the thin strip of red sandwiched between the darker brown of the main body of the box we created a rich, simplistic packaging style influenced by the layered chocolate bar itself. |
Due to our want for our sex toy range to look classy and sophisticated we decided that we didn't want to clutter the packaging up with any imagery or lots of information. We decided instead to simply label the side of the box with the name of the product the consumer would find inside.
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Advertisement initial ideas
When thinking through what direction to possibly take for the advertisement for our Twix brand extension we have very much been keeping in mind the tone found in existing Twix commercials. We recognise that Twix always use humour within they adverts or some form of tongue n' cheek concept to entertain and entice the audience.
We also have remained aware of the fact that our commercial needs to be suitable for play on television. We need to advertise our range of sex toys in a manner that the advert would be allowed to play anytime of day, for maximum brand exposure. Therefore we need to be tactful in creating a successful, but respectful commercial for the Twix sex toy range. |
We initially considered an advertisement, that would tease the audience with what the new product was. Featuring tight close up shots of the sex toy range, in fast paced shots inter-linked by fast 'pulse' fade outs & ins to black the advert would feature a seductive, alluring atmosphere. With the products placed on a black background and the flashes to black between each product shot timed to the speed of heartbeats, all to reflect the excitement of sex itself. The advertisement would have then ended with a final reveal key frame with the Twix logo and the 'XXX' sex toy range 'coming soon'. The music for the commercial would have been something upbeat and fitting to the flirty, sexual nature of the advertisement. Although interesting, we felt that this idea was perhaps a little basic and there was more room for fun to be had considering the product we are selling.
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Advertisement - durex inspiration
Whilst undergoing research for our advertisement we found this commercial produced by Durex. It very subtly and cleverly relies on the audience to in-correctly assume that the central character is in a much more promiscuous situation than she really is. This tongue n' cheek adult humour is what really achieves the success of the advertisement. We feel that something of this kind of nature for an advertisement to promote our Twix sex toy range would be suitable, as humour is something that Twix use in their adverts to connect with and entice the consumer to buy into the product.
Advertisement - storyboard
Advertisement - On set
For our 20 second advert, we utilised the Photography studio facilities at the Hardwick Campus. At first this was quite a daunting prospect, approaching the Photography course technicians for help and advice on shooting our commercial. Fortunately the technician, Sally, who helped us and gave great advice on how to set up our shoot.
We rented out constant lights to ensure that our model was professional lit and the finished advert would have a high quality finished effect. We also rented our an DSLR camera with HD facilities and a tripod so that we could professionally capture our advert. We also used the roll-down backdrop facilities to provide a pristine, white background to shoot our advert onto. |
Overall filming of the commercial went really well, as we had a good couple of hours to shoot all of the footage that we needed. We ran through several rehearsal set ups of our commercial, practising and refining how to shoot our advert to the best quality possible.
Although quite an ambitious undertaking at first, especially filming in a professional studio that neither of us had any prior experience to use, it was a very successful undertaking. Both of us agreed that in the future we would like to once again utilise these facilities. |
Advertisement - Finished composition
This is our finished, fully edited advertisement for our Twix sex toy brand extension. We have uploaded the video onto Youtube, and cross promoted it using Twitter, Instagram and Flickr. This will hopefully broaden the potential audience for the advertisement as a reflection of our abilities as designers.
evaluation
Overall we have found this module to be challenging, but ultimately successful. At first we were both unsure as to the brand that we were given as in all honesty neither of us found Twix particularly exciting when we were first told that that was the brand we would be working with. But, as with any brief as designers we heavily researched our brand and dissected it to reveal elements of the brand that we could utilise to our advantage, to create an interesting and what we feel is a well developed and considered brand extension.
Our research and developed understanding of Twix as a product and as a brand initially led us to the idea of a three stage dating process, beginning with a mobile app and ending with a real life ‘meet up’ or ‘date’. This is an idea that both of us were very happy with and liked, but found the stumbling block to be attempting to develop a ‘tangible’, actual product that could be sold to the consumer. With this in mind as an important part of the brand extension, we felt the best case scenario was to go back to the drawing board to some extent and re-think how we tackled the brand extension of Twix.
Both of us liked the idea of focusing on couples, due to Twix’s nature of being a paired product. We felt that it was a natural and well placed attachment to the brand and that therefore developing a brand extension due to this nature was suitable. When considering possible further couples for a Twix brand extension, with new products focusing on the idea of couples, we focused our sights on couples sex toys.
Initially there was some uncertainty between us as a team as to whether or not it was an appropriate step forward, but after a feedback tutorial, where we explained the profession of our brand extension ideas and the reasoning for this, we then felt comfortable professing forward with the brand extension in this way.
The process of developing the extended brand meant that we were able to combine our best skills successfully to generate high quality and well considered responses. We utilised both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop software skills extensively to produce the finished, final renders of our products and packaging. This was also boosted by the assistance of visiting Visualizer Oli, who gave us very useful tips and advice on how to better our visual product mock-ups to create high quality representations. Before this stage we had also gone through an intense period of sitting with A3 pages and sketching out possible product ideas and potential packaging ideas, all whilst maintaing a consideration for the Twix brand itself.
During our feedback presentation for our brand extension, our products and packaging the feedback that we received from visiting lecturer David Myerson, was not as positive as we had hoped it would be. The main criticism we felt was that our developed concept was not necessarily as original or ‘out there’ as our developed idea and resulting products, packaging and brand. This is something that both of us took hard and knocked our confidence somewhat in our project at this point. Obviously when completing work you want to get the best feedback possible and we almost felt as though we had potentially missed out on this due to the direction our project had taken.
Upon ‘post - crit’ reflection we discussed whether or not we had the made the right call changing the outcome of brand from a dating experience to couples sex toys, had we been too quick to change. Both of us ultimately agreed that we as a team had been unable to develop or see what we deemed an exciting response with this idea and felt more confident going forward in our new direction. Ultimately there may have been a possible way that with more time to develop we could have amalgamated the ideas together into something complete different, but unfortunately we did not have time for this. Both of us found this to be a reminder of how design can work, that somethings things don’t always go as well as you want them to, but you have to embrace what you have created and emphasise why we believe it is good and how it is a suitable response to the brief.
After the Easter break we were then required to develop a 20 second advert for our Twix brand extension. Obviously with our feedback not being quite as good as we had expected, we wanted to really ensure that we created an interesting, suitable advert for our brand extension.
Throughout the process of developing our advert, we were inspired by an existing advert by Durex to create a tongue n’ cheek advert, that we intended to connect with the audience through by using humour. This we both also felt was in keeping with the existing Twix adverts that we had found during our research that utilised humour to promote the brand.
For the actual production of our advert, we utilised University facilities and technology that neither of us previously had. Through our own investigation and determination we were fortunate enough to be allocated several hours in a photographic studio with facilities such as professional lighting, pristine white photography background and camera equipment that ensured we could film and develop a high quality, professional looking advert for our brand extension. Both of us agree that this entirely new venture and experience for us as designers really has been one of the most exciting aspects of the module. Learning new things and engaging within new experiences is something that as designers we should always be seeking and this is something that on set shooting our commercial we most definitely embraced.
Overall we both feel that although at times we have faced uncertainty within our project, we have manage to prevail to develop and create a brand extension for Twix which we feel is carefully considered and developed. During no point of this process have we rushed into any ideas or developing without strongly reflecting on the pre-existing Twix brand. From product and packaging styles and colour choices, to the tone of the promotional advertisement every single element of our work has been carefully considered.
Not only this but we both feel that during the design process, both of us have continued to develop our design skills, both in developing ideas and then the actual visualising of work. This is something that as practicing designers, be it currently students or not we know is important if we are to successfully market ourselves post-degree. The new experiences that we have also undertaken have been another very successful aspect of this module as a whole.
Ultimately with hindsight there are one or two things that individually we may like to tweak about our work, but as an overall body of creative response and development to the idea of extending the Twix brand, we are both very happy with what we have generated. We feel that we have more than sufficiently and effectively ensured that at every point, any work we have created has remembered the key factor of Twix brand cohesiveness and suitability.
Our research and developed understanding of Twix as a product and as a brand initially led us to the idea of a three stage dating process, beginning with a mobile app and ending with a real life ‘meet up’ or ‘date’. This is an idea that both of us were very happy with and liked, but found the stumbling block to be attempting to develop a ‘tangible’, actual product that could be sold to the consumer. With this in mind as an important part of the brand extension, we felt the best case scenario was to go back to the drawing board to some extent and re-think how we tackled the brand extension of Twix.
Both of us liked the idea of focusing on couples, due to Twix’s nature of being a paired product. We felt that it was a natural and well placed attachment to the brand and that therefore developing a brand extension due to this nature was suitable. When considering possible further couples for a Twix brand extension, with new products focusing on the idea of couples, we focused our sights on couples sex toys.
Initially there was some uncertainty between us as a team as to whether or not it was an appropriate step forward, but after a feedback tutorial, where we explained the profession of our brand extension ideas and the reasoning for this, we then felt comfortable professing forward with the brand extension in this way.
The process of developing the extended brand meant that we were able to combine our best skills successfully to generate high quality and well considered responses. We utilised both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop software skills extensively to produce the finished, final renders of our products and packaging. This was also boosted by the assistance of visiting Visualizer Oli, who gave us very useful tips and advice on how to better our visual product mock-ups to create high quality representations. Before this stage we had also gone through an intense period of sitting with A3 pages and sketching out possible product ideas and potential packaging ideas, all whilst maintaing a consideration for the Twix brand itself.
During our feedback presentation for our brand extension, our products and packaging the feedback that we received from visiting lecturer David Myerson, was not as positive as we had hoped it would be. The main criticism we felt was that our developed concept was not necessarily as original or ‘out there’ as our developed idea and resulting products, packaging and brand. This is something that both of us took hard and knocked our confidence somewhat in our project at this point. Obviously when completing work you want to get the best feedback possible and we almost felt as though we had potentially missed out on this due to the direction our project had taken.
Upon ‘post - crit’ reflection we discussed whether or not we had the made the right call changing the outcome of brand from a dating experience to couples sex toys, had we been too quick to change. Both of us ultimately agreed that we as a team had been unable to develop or see what we deemed an exciting response with this idea and felt more confident going forward in our new direction. Ultimately there may have been a possible way that with more time to develop we could have amalgamated the ideas together into something complete different, but unfortunately we did not have time for this. Both of us found this to be a reminder of how design can work, that somethings things don’t always go as well as you want them to, but you have to embrace what you have created and emphasise why we believe it is good and how it is a suitable response to the brief.
After the Easter break we were then required to develop a 20 second advert for our Twix brand extension. Obviously with our feedback not being quite as good as we had expected, we wanted to really ensure that we created an interesting, suitable advert for our brand extension.
Throughout the process of developing our advert, we were inspired by an existing advert by Durex to create a tongue n’ cheek advert, that we intended to connect with the audience through by using humour. This we both also felt was in keeping with the existing Twix adverts that we had found during our research that utilised humour to promote the brand.
For the actual production of our advert, we utilised University facilities and technology that neither of us previously had. Through our own investigation and determination we were fortunate enough to be allocated several hours in a photographic studio with facilities such as professional lighting, pristine white photography background and camera equipment that ensured we could film and develop a high quality, professional looking advert for our brand extension. Both of us agree that this entirely new venture and experience for us as designers really has been one of the most exciting aspects of the module. Learning new things and engaging within new experiences is something that as designers we should always be seeking and this is something that on set shooting our commercial we most definitely embraced.
Overall we both feel that although at times we have faced uncertainty within our project, we have manage to prevail to develop and create a brand extension for Twix which we feel is carefully considered and developed. During no point of this process have we rushed into any ideas or developing without strongly reflecting on the pre-existing Twix brand. From product and packaging styles and colour choices, to the tone of the promotional advertisement every single element of our work has been carefully considered.
Not only this but we both feel that during the design process, both of us have continued to develop our design skills, both in developing ideas and then the actual visualising of work. This is something that as practicing designers, be it currently students or not we know is important if we are to successfully market ourselves post-degree. The new experiences that we have also undertaken have been another very successful aspect of this module as a whole.
Ultimately with hindsight there are one or two things that individually we may like to tweak about our work, but as an overall body of creative response and development to the idea of extending the Twix brand, we are both very happy with what we have generated. We feel that we have more than sufficiently and effectively ensured that at every point, any work we have created has remembered the key factor of Twix brand cohesiveness and suitability.