Kirk Summers / Design GuideAn in depth look into the creativity, ideation, process, and development of a collection of design pieces created by Kirk Summers.

Fanapt

The Task:Psychiatrists are not considering the importance of Akathisia and EPS related events as major obsta-cles to treatment tolerability and compliance. Create a public awareness campaign that can highlight the feelings experienced inside the body, put on display on the outside.

Audience:Primary: Healthcare professionals who treat acute schizophrenia (psychiatrists, psychologists , nurse practitioners)Secondary: Patients with acute schizophrenia

Insight: Schizophrenia treatment is a very crowded market. Many drugs exhibit the equal efficacy. However, patient compliancy is determined based on the treatment that exhibits the least amount of side affects. For schizophrenic patients, Akathisia ranks as one of the most disruptive and destructive side affects. FANAPT (iloperidone) is a second line treatment for schizphrenia that effectively fights the symptoms of schizoprhenia without creating EPS and akathisisa.

Takeaway Point:Fanapt liberates you from the struggle of noncompliance due to Akathisia and EPS.

Deliverables:Channel Considerations VIsAids for drug reps Waiting room materialsPatient and physicians ads

Notes:

This was my final intern project within AgencyRX pharmaceutical advertising agency. It was a group effort that began with understanding the entire medical side of schizophrenia from patient and caregiver perspectives. This gave me a solid understanding of the marketplace and unique landmarks that our product possessed. Akathisia is a feeling that patients were experiencing that doctors couldn’t really quite understand. This side affect is debilitating and unbearable for its patients. Creating a public awareness campaign that displayed the feelings patients were expe-riencing on the insde, on the outside of their body for all to see was the main idea behind this campaign. The shock value of the images grabs the viewers attention, and the copy drives home the feelings that are being illustrated. The positive of the product is shown through the dissipation of the problem from the left side of the face to the right, with the warm glow of the fanapt brand behind the healed side. This reinforces the product goal and the message of improving treatment.

Ground Rules:

The Task:How can children who can’t afford sporting equipment nor have the facilities available to engage in structured recreational activity create a team sport environment for little to no money?

Audience:My target demographic will be children of little afluence, between the ages of 6 and 18.

Insight: Sports and recreational activity is a fundamental part of learning and growing as a child. Having the opportunity to engage in physical activity in a structured environment is something every child should have regardless of economic status. Ground Rules washable spray chalk provides children with the opportunity to create games through establishing boundaries and rules on any surface. This allows children with little or no sporting equipment or fields/courts, the means to create and play.

Business Objectives: My objective for this product is to maintain a safe and legal means of creating a sporting environment, through a means that will cost very little. In purchasing only one can of spray-chalk, you have the opportunity to create whatever game your heart desires.

Deliverables:Bottle selectionBottle graphicsAdvertisementsTravel bag design

Notes:

I was inspired to create this project when I saw Design For the Other 90%. I realized that my design work had not yet touched upon the issue of improving the lives of lower income individuals. I chose to begin my studies with children, considering that making a small change in a product we use regularly, could have a massive impact on the upbringing of a kid in another part of the world. Considering how sports and recreation played a large part in my childhood, I decided to play within that realm. I created the means for a washable chalk spraypaint that combines pressurized air, pigment, and water to allow visible lines to be sprayed, yet not create a permanent and illegal mark on the landscape. I started exploring logos and realized that although the product has an artistic freeform style to it, it couldn’t express anything that suggests tagging or illegal marking ac-tivity. That eliminated alot of the grungey splatter and paint drip graphic elements. So I decided to finalize the design with a logo that displayed grunge in the typography, and also showed a circle, rectangle, and triangle within eachother representing the different types of line art that create a sporting environment.

Inebriaided

The Task:For college students, consuming alcohol is a usual folley for any academic individual looking to relieve stress after a long week of class. Inebriaded is a delievery service that not only offers gourmet break-fast, but aids your morning hangover with your choice of advil, earplugs, or a blindfold to make sure your night, doesn’t ruin your day.

Audience:On/off campus college students at a graduate and undergraduate level, ages from 18-26. This busi-ness is tailored to alochol consuming individuals, however the food can still be delivered to hungry and sober students.

Insight: Most college students that utilize this service would need to be able to access a menu and order very easily. They would also need an interface that can be utilized even with vision impairment or the other various ill effects from extreme hangovers.

Deliverables:Advertising seriesDorm door hanger menuWebsite / iphone appBusiness cardsCoastersFood packaging

Notes:

This was not a school project, it was an actual business that my roommate Matthew Kalish and I created from scratch. We sat down and founded the concept that students need help after they wake up in dissarray from a long night of heavy drinking. I came up with the idea of taking the word inebriated and changing the t to a d so that it would be one word that encompasses the idea of getting intoxicated, and also receiving aid. We wanted to keep the identity as simplistic as possible with strong typographic usage and ecofriendly material for print work. The business grew larger and larger and was promoted any place where alcohol would be consumed. After making a large amount of money and seeing our hard work grow, we discontinued the brand till next year to find new management considering my roommate and I are graduating. However, this brand identity and idea can be sold to any college student looking to manage their own business anywhere.

Wisdom Toothbrush

The Task:A huge amount of plastic waste is generated every single year from disposable products that have usage, however little value in people’s everyday lives. How can I transform the toothbrush into some-thing that is smarter, eco-friendly, reusable, and can gain value over time.

Audience:Since a toothbrush can be used by a person from any age group, economic status, as well as culture, I will have to create a sophisticated, yet simple product and packaging design to highlight the qualities of my product.

Insight: Slight changes in construction, material, and packagaing in everyday objects can create huge dif-ferences in the overall environmental impact of the object when mass produced. 50 million pounds of plastic are used every year on producing toothbrushes in America. Borrowing from nature, in how plants maintain a stalk and regenerate their flowers as the seasons change, the Wisdom Toothbrush changes heads, while keeping the same handle. This reduces plastic waste and increases hygiene.

Deliverables:Physical brush handle designsAdvertisingPackagingToothbrush holder design

Notes:

I think that some of the most simplistic yet intelligent design work can be found within industrial design. Making very minute changes to specific products in material, construction, and packaging so that when mass produced, these small changes become huge differences. This type of forward thinking can help make products more sustainable. I tried to apply this same type of thought to a simple object that I use every single day. The most efficient means of packaging that I found for this product was simply tying a tag around various handles and having the heads sealed off. How-ever, there wasn’t enough of an opportunity for branding with such a small amount of packaging. So I created a holder / replacement cartridge that would demand a little more surface area that could be designed on. This worked much better and created a better looking overall project.

Near Westside Initiative:

The Task:An area within downtown Syracuse, New York known as the Near Westside was struggling to maintain a community environment. The presence of torn down buildings and an overall unsightliness of the area makes the inhabitants depressed.

Audience:I will be targeting a specific area of downtown Syracuse, which is comprised mostly of hispanic and African American inhabitants. Since families are the most abundant of occupants, creating something that can help lift the spirits of multiple age groups is necessary.

Business Objectives: To develop and establish a brand identity for the community revival project. Within this task, I will be aiming to create an enlightened atmosphere through a unified community culture.

Deliverables:Outdoor postersWayfindingCommunity map / guideReveal event posterCommunity signage

Notes:

This was a group project that was presented to the Syracuse University Communication Design students by the city of Syracuse. This project basically turned our class studio into a working design firm. This transformed our professors into creative directors, my peers into art directors, my class schedule into a billable hours sheet. It was an interesting project trying to consider every possible way of transforming the lives of people nearby simply by integrating visual imagery that they could use as a foundation to connect to one another. Even if people are in despair, being in despair alone is worse than experiencing it with others. We tried to convey this feeling of group comfort through our design.

Intuo:

The Task:As technology improves and becomes more intelligent, its use in the enviornment we have created for ourselves becomes continuously more prevalant and useful. Our dependance on this technology results in the consumption, and on-person-carrying of multiple sources of electronics. This can create clutter. What device can provide every conceivable means of electronic communication and media?

Audience:I will be targeting a wide range of people from the ages of 18 to 32, considering that we live in an information age. An age where many people are now comfortable with purchasing electronically intel-ligent material and utilizing it.

Business objectives:My primary consumer goal would be to provide a device that eliminates the need for multiple devices to be carried on person. Music, phone (communication), computer (informational), would be accessible in an interactive tangible setting. This would cannibalize many other electronic communication and assistance device sales.

Deliverables:Physical product designProduct packagingInstructional wrap graphicAdvertising

Notes:

This project was inspired by an invention that was presented by Pranav Mistry at the TED Talks. He had found a way to digitally integrate real life surfaces, motion recognition, and electronicmedia into everyday life. Although his designs were brilliant, there was no finished product to his design work. So I bridged the gaps in his presentation by physically constructing his device in my own creative work. I also applied a finished brand identity complete with packaging and advertising to the new product I had created.

Dairy Direct:The Task:The milkman used to provide local, fresh milk that was brought right to your door. As time passed and shopping became more convenient, the need for a delivery milk service subsided and cartons could be purchased simply from the convenient store. So how can you get farm fresh, organic milk delivered to your door in the modern day?

Audience:My target demographic would be urban families looking for pure products. The designs will need to be modern and updated to show the progress that has been made since the olden days. However, since everyone can enjoy good quality milk delivered to your door, the designs should be colorful and play-ful in nature to encorporate a wider demographic.

Business Objectives: My milkmen would be available in several different metropolitan areas to deliver fresh milk to city dwellers looking for the finest in quality. Reaching out to these people in need of fresh dairy in anyway possible is the main goal of my service.

Deliverables:Bottle selectionBottle graphicsAdvertisementsGuerilla advertisingWesbsite designDelivery truck graphics

Notes:

I figured that if you’re a real designer, you can brand absolutely anything you desire. Bringing back the milkman and completely rebranding it seemed a tad bit arrogant, however a bold and interest-ing concept worth exploration. So I did so through the name Dairy Direct, in the idea that it brings milk from its home on the farm directly to city dwellers looking for good milk. Since my portfolio has a lot of strong yet dark imagery included in it, I figured that keeping things light, and colorful would be a good option. Although I decided to keep it playful, I still applied this overall nervous look and feel to the cows, with their sketchy eyes and slightly imperfect line quality. I felt it gave the characters a sense of the on-the-go attitude, that at any moment they could take off and bring someone their own milk. Since the idea is transporting this milk, the same cow travels in different means depending on which kind of milk you purchased.

Designer Drugs:

The Task:How can you create a fashion line and store that is themed around the idea of letting young adults ex-press themselves and revolt against political correctness while still appearing to be inelligent, through their puchasing decision. The task is to create a unified branded identity for this clothing company that promotes “open mindedness” through “clothes mindedness” thinking through the art it displays.

Audience:I will be targeting young adult males, between the ages of 18-25 who are progressive thinkers and fashion forward individuals. Because of the edgy nature of the theme and fashion, the consumers would most likely reside in a city / urban environment.

Insight: Recently there has been a trend of street art meshing with retro fashion styles to create modern urban clothing design. This new street fashion adaptation utilizing multiple sources of inspiration allows people to display works of art on their clothing comfortably. Young people are comfortable with a fast paced life on consumption and material interest. It is how they have grown up in the modern day. They are also aware of drugs and their illegal trade throughout the world. Pairing the idea of intelligent design with the socially spread idea of the drug trade, creates with company Designer Drugs.

Deliverables:Interior designAdvertisingPrint graphics for clothesStore opening advertisementGuerilla promotional piecesInstore receipts and clothing capsules.VIP opening bracelet

Notes:

My classmates advised against this concept because of the underlying themes in connection to the illegal drug trade. However, I found there to be something intriguing about pairing the idea of the mass consumption involved in media and capitalism with the regularity and addiction within a lifestyle of drug consumption. This kind of rebellious thought became present when my artistic ideas for the clothing design touched paper. The imagery is dark, yet truthful in a raw and fun ap-plication to wearable art. Incoporating the delivery tubes and virtual fitting rooms within the interior just made the idea come together in an over the top, industrial setting that mimics that of a factory prodcution line. This works in fueling the existentialist ideal that we are simply consumers using up the planets resources until will die. Although rather dismal of a thought, it translated into something I find to be very aesthetically unique and interesting.

Pasted:

The Task:Create a unified branding identity for a boutique that offers pastries that are infused with alcohol.

Audience:I will be targeting women between the ages of 21-35 who are not overly health conscious consider-ing that the delights wouldn’t be overly nutritious. However, they would be overly tasty. The designs should speak to intelligent and lively/youthful women, yet also be acceptable for a male to enjoy the visual imagery and graphics that are included within the brand.

Insight: When the work day ends, good food and drink can soothe the nerves and set the tone for a good night. However, if you grow tired of the usual restaurants and bars, something fun yet intoxicatingly delicious could do the trick. Pasted offers an escape with a handmade variety of delicious pastries infused with quality wines and liqeurs.

Deliverables:Menu designAdvertisingTakeaway bag designCupcake wrappers

Notes:

This project was conceived after discovering small truffles with cognac nestled inside at a local bakery. The idea that you can pair food, with an alcohol seemed genius. That you can experience the satisfaction and taste of delicious food, paired with the sensory tingle of enjoying a fine alco-holic beverage at the same time. It seemed like the basis for a solid project, and graphic identity. Something that could appease the eyes to accomodate an appetitie, yet also arouse the taste buds with a playful, youthful, and colorful pallette. I found it an interesting challenge walking the line graphically between the grungey disarray that being drunk accompanies, and the fine baked goods presentation of neatly arranged and presented ingredients. Both of these were on my mind when creating this brand identity.