Intro First

A multi disciplinary design studio, Based in London’s West End Focusing on brand packaging. Founded in 2007 Brand Opus boasts clients such as Fox’s, Pizza Express and Twinings. Since its birth the company have picked up a number of awards for their work, including 3 Design Effectivness awards.

COMPANY BIOG:Three week placementJunior Designer

INTERNSHIP #2

BRAND OPUS

BadgersBeer rebrand

n contrast to my last placement I was pretty nervous to be starting at brand opus. Having looked at their website, they worked they produce was pretty amazing. An award winning packaging studio, I wonder what i’ll be up to? Where I could handle work quite easily at Motorresolve, i knew this would be a completely different experience.My previous experience of being an intern involved cleaning up after more senior designers, making a lot of tea, so this is what i came to expect from BrandOpus.Having arrived 10 minutes earlier I was sat in the foyer. The studio was huge, far bigger than any I had imagined. In the foyer I was surrounded by a kitchen area, the reception and three meetings rooms.

Through the frosted glass doors I could feel the hustle and bustle of the studio at work.Within a few minutes I was greeted by John, the man I had been put in touch with and who sorted out my placement. A tall man, I shook my hand, and yorkshire accent - quite intimidating. I walked through the glass doors and a huge room starred back at me. As nervous as I may have been, it all got a bit worse. I followed John to my desk, weaveing my way through desks and chair legs, making sure i didn’t accidentally trip and fall, that wouldn’t be good on the first day. I was shown my desk. A lovely great big IMAC sat on top how loverly. I was then greeted by two designers that i would be

sitting next to, James and Ash. After the tour John made a point of saying how busy they were, but they committed to having me before Xmas so there was nothing they could really do. I didn’t really know how to respond, so I just said “thanks”, I wasn’t completely thankful.John briefly explained I would be working on a twinnings brief, which would be briefed later in the afternoon, and that was that. It was about 10:30am by this point and I was back at my desk. Not knowing exactly what time I would be being briefed I decided to do a little research before my briefing. Competitors BrandOpus website Twinnings website.So two hours later, I was kind of done researching. Twiddling my thumbs. James realised this and asked if I could do some research for one of his projects.Badgers countryside ales, a company which BrandOpus have redesigned the majority of their packaging. James explained they were creating a new range of brews based around the creatures of Devon folklore

MY FIRST DAY

“THIS IS AN IMPORTANTQOUTE”

BadgersBeer rebrand

MY FIRST DAY

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My seat

My seat

My seat

My seat

My first project at BrandOpus was to help redesign Twinings Everyday tea packaging.

PROJECT #1

TWININGSEVERYDAY

Having never really been briefed in a studio environment I didn’t really know what to expect. I was led to a meeting room, the table was adorned by boxes of tea. Pg, tetley, yorkshire. The table also had toy construction models all over the place. I felt out of place. In the room, were a group of strangers, but who i now know as Paul creative DirectorJohn Managing creative directorNicky client services Sarah Designer Liz Freelance Designer Abby Were talked through the brief by the energetic Abby. I sat in pretty much silence, bar a few nods and smiles to acknowledge i understood proceedings.The brief was to redesign the Twinings everyday Tea packaging.Twinings felt that their tea was the best, but just wasn’t performing well enough against its competition. They found that consumers that bought their specialist tea, would opt for other brands when buying their ‘everyday’ tea. They wanted to revitalise their branding and make it more ‘modern’ looking. MORE ABOUT THIS BRIEFINGAt this point I was still pretty surprised I was being briefed like a proper designer. I didn’t know what part exactly I would play within this redesign but It was all good experience being part of it.The briefing didn’t really roll how I thought it may. I was expecting more. As a very junior designer, I kind of felt I needed more information about the twinings brand, their target audience and the like. Major things needed to make informed design decisions.

The briefing:

BadgersBeer rebrand

I thought a good start to the brief would be a to get a better idea of the products competition along the shelves. I had a trip to the local Sainsburys to see how twinings everyday could stand out amongst its competitors.Once I had settled, I started sketching out concepts, ecperimenting with layouts, colour and patterns. The idea generation activities i had picked up from my course werent complely applicable on this kind of project. I did use a method i learnt from the one off, and positioned my brand within its competitors to make sure i wasnt going down any similar routes.I brainstormed out different routes i could go down, to give me a better ideaI intially had a few ideas about changing the name of the product. I thought everyday made the product sound very average, and would need to be changed.I got on with sketching out ideas for how my box may look.

SKETCHES x2I thought a good start to the brief would be a to get a better idea of the products competition along the shelves. I had a trip to the local Sainsburys to see how twinings everyday could stand out amongst its competitors.

Once I had settled, I started sketching out concepts, ecperimenting with layouts, colour and patterns. The idea generation activities i had picked up from my course werent complely applicable on this kind of project. I did use a method i learnt from the one off, and positioned my brand within its competitors to make sure i wasnt going down any similar routes.I brainstormed out different routes i could go down, to give me a better idea

I intially had a few ideas about changing the name of the product. I thought everyday made the product sound very average, and would need to be changed.I got on with sketching out ideas for how my box may look.

I didn’t completely know what was expected for the first CR. I had come up with a few concepts but also spent maybe a little bit of time working too much on ideas.Where maybe I was spending too much time on the concept, or getting sidetrakced, what I realised later this was just preliminary ideas and sketches to see what the right route was for the project which would later be determined and brainstormed in one of the CR’s

I did find myself getting a bit carried away while in the early stages of this brief. I started sketching out a custom typeface to work within the packaging, and then putting itthrough the mac. This ultimatley took quite a while, when I possibly should have been working on the concept ideas rather than designing typeface. I learnt from this.

TWININGS

CREATIVEREVIEW #1The first CR didn’t go as well as i had hoped. Sarah and Liz were both prolific with their sketches. It seemed they had just thrown any thought of an idea onto paper. Ideas that had crossed my mind, but i didn’t have the confidence to commit to, they had visualised. I myself only had 5 or 6 different concepts ‘sketched’. I wouldn’t say I was embarrassed by what I had produced. I had only been there a few days, and of course it would take me

time to get use to the process, to really feel within my comfort zone. John remained silent throughout the meeting, observing what was going on. Paul, was more the creative force behind the crit. Paul looked through our work and our thinking. pulling out ideas that might work, ideas that deserved further investigation, and ones he was not interested in. It was agreed this was a hard brief to capture. But i suppose this is

all the challenge of being a designer. I learnt a lot from what I was now expected to produce for the next crite, but was also a bit disheartened in the fact and hadnt produced what the others had.Having spent so much time looking at the same brief, it was easy to reach a dead end creatively, I found the crit a great chance to revitalise myself and have fresh eyes for the brief.The chance to see Sarah and liz’s work also was opportune, seeing how they were approaching the brief was very helpful. I left the CR with confidence and with new ideas and direction, it was a great help. The next CR was just 3 days away, it had been moved forward so our routes could be shown to Nir the MD.

“POSSIBLY CHANGE QUOTE SPACE”

TWININGS

CREATIVE REVIEW 1

I feel up untill now I may have slightly gone the wrong way in to what they were expecting, but I was now fully confident in my understanding and was looking forward to the next crit and getting back to work.From looking at others work....I was stunned at how creative BrandOpus would let you be. They were open to any ideas whorth looking at. Where I had been confined at Motoresolve to their dreaded brand guidelines, it seemed BrandOpus had the balls to overall twinnings if it was the best for the product. Maybe it’s because they had a good working relationship with the tea brand, or maybe thats just how they worked.

I did feel I had been chucked in the deep end with this brief and looked if i could swim. Not at all a bad thing, but I do think my progress thus far hadnt been up to the standards required. I kind of felt pressure being paid ( quite hansomely ) for being working at BrandOpus, and felt that I must deliver, on par with the other designers.I did take a lot from the CR. First off, it was a great help looking at the other designers work and how they approached the brief. This not only enabled me to know what i was expected to bring into each crit, but also a chance to see what direction they thought the packaging should go. I may have reached a slight sense of confusion with the brief, but after the crit i was ready to go at it with fresh eyes.

CREATIVE REVIEW #1WHAT I PICKED UP

“Where are my pants you cunt” - James

BadgersBeer rebrand

On the Thursday I was due to have my only tutorial of the term. Unfortunatly it got cancelled. As I had booked the day off I worked on my FMP proposal

AbbyClient Services

The first had been a mix of ups and downs, but overall a very positive experience.BrandOpus seemed like a great place to work. An amazing set of clients, challenging briefs algebra while at secondary school. Who knows, maybe one day i’ll be a mathmetician.

100 streetblackheathpurplelondonSE3 9PW Lovely Photo

GOOD GRUB

GIGSFISH & CHIPS

Oh! What a lovely Lunch.

Sausage & chips

The Gigsrestuarant

The first had been a mix of ups and downs, but overall a very positive experience.BrandOpus seemed like a great place to work. An amazing set of clients, challenging briefs and a genereally great atmostphere to bepart of. It would truely be an honour to work for a place like this, at the moment I may not be ready, but id definetly want to use these three weeks to pick up and find out what I was needing to look for.I found it a complete priveledge to be working on such a brief and having been so much responsibility and trust at the same time. Before coming to BrandOpus I had not imagined I would have been given this much responsibility. At the same time as being given the chance to work on such a brief, I found myself continually frustrated while working on it. Although the fact BrandOpus had let me work as a ‘designer’ on the brief, at the same time this trust did have draw backs for a student in the subject. They did very much leave me on to my own devices, with not too much direction and I think this may have curbed my initial productivity, with time spent deliberating on things where time could have been better spent. This by no means a complaint, perhaps it was myself not putting myself out there and actually asking for help, rather

The first had been a mix of ups and downs, but overall a very positive experience.BrandOpus seemed like a great place to work. An amazing set of clients, challenging briefs and a genereally great atmostphere to bepart of. It would truely be an honour to work for a place like this, at the moment I may not be ready, but id definetly want to use these three weeks to pick up and find out what I was needing to look for.I found it a complete priveledge to be working on such a brief and having been so much responsibility and trust at the same time. Before coming to BrandOpus I had not imagined I would have been given this much responsibility. At the same time as being given the chance

REFLECTIONWEEK ONE

24/5/2012

BadgersBeer rebrand

“POSSIBLY CHANGE QUOTE SPACE”

Each week at BrandOpus we would start the week off with a brief meeting with the design team. This would comprise of John and Andrew sitting at the head of the table. As each team member was briefed for their weekly assignements a plate of croissants would be passed around the table. As well as getting briefed the it would also be a chance for the team to catch up after the weekend, and act as a kind of ice breaker before we head into the working week.

I would was briefed to carry on with Twinings everyday for the week.ANALYSIS

More Sketching

Working .AI files?

THE PEOPLEDESIGN TEAM

SeniorJunior

A WORD IN RETROSPECTIVE.

The people at BrandOpus seemed pretty nice ( although a few of the girls in accounts im sure thought i smelt (Maybe I dd)) I was sat inbetween James and Ash. James had been working at BO for just over 5 years, and was a really funny guy. Ash, on the other hadn had been there for around 18 months since his graduation.Seeing what everyone else working on was always interesting, a quick walk from the kitchen back past the design desk was always worthy of a quick insight into what else was going on. I was really amazed at how good these deisgners were. There was one project 4 or 5 of the designers were working on, new packaging for ButterKist popcorn, and the designs looked really good.Everything was very illustrative, and my work so far has not been. Ive always not been very confident with the illustrations I do, so it has been easy to avoid, or just create a simple Icon. Working here has definetly motivated me to work on this, and add it to my skill set.Other than the people in my close proximity I probably should have made myself more known around the office. I did not particuarly seem myself, which I suppose is understandable. I suppose the whole place was just bit overwhelming for the first couple of weeks I didnt really want to get in the way of any one elses work. After all I was just the work experience boy.

THE PEOPLEDESIGN TEAM

SeniorJunior

The people at BrandOpus seemed pretty nice ( although a few of the girls in accounts im sure thought i smelt (Maybe I dd)) I was sat inbetween James and Ash. James had been working at BO for just over 5 years, and was a really funny guy. Ash, on the other hadn had been there for around 18 months since his graduation.Seeing what everyone else working on was always interesting, a quick walk from the kitchen back past the design desk was always worthy of a quick insight into what else was going on. I was really amazed at how good these deisgners were. There was one project 4 or 5 of the designers were working on, new packaging for ButterKist popcorn, and the designs looked really good.Everything was very illustrative, and my work so far has not been. Ive always not been very confident with the illustrations I do, so it has been easy to avoid, or just create a simple Icon. Working here has definetly motivated me to work on this, and add it to my skill set.

The people at BrandOpus seemed pretty nice ( although a few of the girls in accounts im sure thought i smelt (Maybe I dd)) I was sat inbetween James and Ash. James had been working at BO for just over 5 years, and was a really funny guy. Ash, on the other hadn had been there for around 18 months since his graduation.Seeing what everyone else working on was always interesting, a quick walk from the kitchen back past the design desk was always worthy of a quick insight into what else was going on. I was really amazed at how good these deisgners were. There was one project 4 or 5 of the designers were working on, new packaging for ButterKist popcorn, and the designs looked really good.Everything was very illustrative, and my work so far has not been. Ive always not been very confident with the illustrations I do, so it has been easy to avoid, or just create a simple Icon. Working here has definetly motivated me to work on this, and add it to my skill set.

THE PEOPLEDESIGN TEAM

The people at BrandOpus seemed pretty nice ( although a few of the girls in accounts im sure thought i smelt (Maybe I dd)) I was sat inbetween James and Ash. James had been working at BO for just over 5 years, and was a really funny guy. Ash, on the other hadn had been there for around 18 months since his graduation.Seeing what everyone else working on was always interesting, a quick walk from the kitchen back past the design desk was always worthy of a quick insight into what else was going on. I was really amazed at how good these deisgners were. There was one project 4 or 5 of the designers were working on, new packaging for ButterKist popcorn, and the designs looked really good.Everything was very illustrative, and my work so far has not been. Ive always not been very confident with the illustrations I do, so it has been easy to avoid, or just create a simple Icon. Working here has definetly motivated me to work on this, and add it to my skill set.Other than the people in my close proximity I probably should have made myself more known around the office. I did not particuarly seem myself, which I suppose is understandable. I suppose the whole place was just bit overwhelming for the first couple of weeks I didnt really want to get in the way of any one

The people at BrandOpus seemed pretty nice ( although a few of the girls in accounts im sure thought i smelt (Maybe I dd)) I was sat inbetween James and Ash. James had been working at BO for just over 5 years, and was a really funny guy. Ash, on the other hadn had been there for around 18 months since his graduation.Seeing what everyone else working on was always interesting, a quick walk from the kitchen back past the design desk was always worthy of a quick insight into what else was going on. I was really amazed at how good these deisgners were. There was one project 4 or 5 of the designers were working on, new packaging for ButterKist popcorn, and the designs looked really good.Everything was very illustrative, and my work so far has not been. Ive always not been very confident with the illustrations I do, so it has been easy to avoid, or just create a simple Icon. Working here has definetly motivated me to work on this,