What I've Been Up To

Hello, faithful readers.

Here's a look at what's been going on in the long and arduous months since my last post.

This semester, my friend Justine and I are taking a package design class. Our first assignment was to design economical and eco-friendly packaging for an inkjet printer cartridge. For me, the worst part about buying new ink cartridges is having to pull out the hedge trimmers to open the package. My design is based off of an idea that, from what I can tell, is already in use in Europe. It is simple to open and uses far fewer materials to package.

Think single portions of breakfast cereal. The top label peels away to reveal the cartridge.

Here is my mood board, the color and black ink designs and a mock up of the package:

I am also taking a Trends in Design course this semester (the name is misleading; it's should be called Trends in Advertising). In the class we discuss the elements of an effective advertisement and advertising campaign. Our first project was to design an advertising campaign for Johnsonville Bratwurst. My teammate Emily and I developed a campaigned based on the idea that "The Future is Brat" with Johnsonville. Our ads revolved around Frank, a fun-loving, fortune-telling football fan (isn't alliteration great?).

Here is an example of print ad, ambient media blade sign and an origami "fortune teller" from the campaign:

Emily and I worked really well together so we decided to stay on for the next project, an ad campaign selling Oreck vacuum cleaners to a younger audience. With a little help from Twitter, we were able to put together a really fun series of ads. We focused on the idea that floors have pretty tough lives, especially messy floors. We decided, if floors could talk, they would have lot to say.

Here is the final series of ads for Oreck as well as two examples of ambient ad placement:

The ambient advertising would consist of plexiglass signs that would be printed with the same style text as the print advertisements. They would be placed in generally messy places; in this case, a mall and a movie theater.

I have also been doing a lot of work for the CCAD Student Programming Board, for which I am the Chair of Communication. This year we rolled out an entirely new system and, of course, with that came a new logo which I was happy to design!

And, of course, with a new logo comes an entirely new brand! I've loved designing a variety of posters for the group and its events.

The project currently devouring my time and attention is for my Graphic Design class and deals with brand standards. We chose a small business to re-brand, developed a series of 30+ logos, whittled them down to one and are in the process of applying the logo and other branding elements to stationery. My small business is The Mean Bean, a coffee shop from my hometown. Of the thirty logos I presented to the class, the one with the most positive feedback was an expressive little mug.

Here are two examples of the brand as applied to letterhead, envelope and business card:

The final design will probably be an amalgamation of these two designs. We also have to develop extension pieces to showcase the brand. I am working on a series of expressive paper and plastic cups, coffee sleeves and travel mugs. I will post the final result as soon as its finished.

I am also working with the great people at The Leaky Cauldron to develop a graphic identity for LeakyCon, a Harry Potter fan conference being held in Orlando, Florida in July of 2011. You can see a sneak peek of what we're working on over at LeakyCon's Twitter. We've got a lot of fantastic things in the works and I can't wait to share them with you.

As always, I would appreciate any feedback you can give about the work posted here.

If you have any questions or are interested in working with me, feel free to email me, jordan@jordanedwardsdesigns.com