The Propercorn brief is to bring to life the ethos of ‘Popcorn Done Properly’ in a way that engages customers and fits with the current style and message of the company.

This is probably my favourite brief on first glance as it looks to have strong illustrative ties which already interests me. The light hearted style of the company really appeals to me and I think it leaves room for a really fun outcome. This brief was left intentionally open ended which means I can come up with a tonne of solutions and just go with the one I am most excited about and I feel is most plausible.

I’ve chosen this brief as it’s the one I’m most excited about and I think that hopefully this will reflect in my work.

The Macmillian brief is to create three illustrations for the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland. Two of which can be for any chapter and the other for the front cover.

I also really like the look of the Macmillian brief; to create illustrations for the 150th anniversary of Alice In Wonderland. Again I was initially attracted to this idea because it allows me to create illustrations. However I do worry that this brief is a little closed. At the beginning of this brief I already know what I’m going to create, 3 Illustrations. So the only thing I really get to experiment with is the style; which would be fun, but I’d like to try something a little different.

The Save the Children brief is to create a piece of creative communication to encourage fathers to read to their children as part of their Read On, Get On scheme.

This brief really interests me more than the others. I think this brief has one of the strongest messages to communicate and so finding a way to get this across will be really interesting. I think this project would work really well with ambient media which would be really cool to come up with concepts for and possibly carry them out.

The target audience are described in the Propercorn brief as opinion formers, young professionals, 20-35 year olds. They are; time-poor, urban, health conscious, culturally savvy and have an appreciation of the arts.

Opposite I have created a moodboard to encapsulate the target audience.

The company style is characterised as light hearted and frivolous with elements of culture and art. But the hand drawn style helps to keep the company feel personable and not pretentious. This is helped by the their colours are bright and sunny and specific to each flavour.

The company take pride in the fact they are a young brand that are in touch with youth and culture. Their mantra and slogan ‘Popcorn done properly’ encapsulates their attitude towards what they do. Emphasis is on the detail, care and passion put into their product.

You can see I’ve created a moodboard based around the companies visual style and branding , and I’ve also done a little research on the colour schemes of each flavour.

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Zoe More O’Ferrall is the illustrator who creates the package design for Propercorn. She has a distinctive hand drawn style that makes up a lot of the companies branding. I think it helps promote the homemade feel of the company that helps it keep up it’s personal and passionate image.

You can see her style has been used across different areas of Propercorn’s campaigning, branding and advertising.

I plan to experiment in her style as if I plan to create something that fits with the brand I’ll need to mimic it or at least create something that works well with it.

George Law is an illustrator and a kind of professional doodler from Sheffield who I think has a style similar to O’Ferrall’s. Although much more stylised it puts across the same doodle like style. I think a deviation from the style by this much would probably work well in a final piece and compliment the branding of Propercorn.

Geolaw is know mostly for his murals as well as his other work in print, clothing and design. His murals are pretty similar to the pop up shop that Propercorn set up and would maybe work in the same context. Obviously I don’t want to copy his style but I think I could take some inspiration in deviating from the O’Ferrall’s drawing a bit.

After a little research into the brief and the company I came up with a few initial ideas.

1. Use a piece of popcorn as a character in movie settings, use this setting to show how Propercorn is made properly.

2. Create movie posters with a piece of popcorn as the character. This could be linked with the first idea.

3. Animate the packet designs of the Propercorn so they animate into each other.

4. Create an animation that shows the process of making Propercorn

5. Use a Rube Goldberg machine to represent the process of making Propercorn

6. Create a cookbook that shows how the product is made. This could be incorporated into an app or animation.

7. Design a campaign to get people involved in the company. A competition to create a new flavour.

INITIAL IDEAS

I think a really cool way to show the making of Propercorn would be a Rube Goldberg machine. A contraption usually made from everyday objects that works in a domino effect kind of way to achieve goals or tasks. This would keep the message interesting and engaging.

Above is an example of one of my favourite Rube Goldberg machines. This machine works as a music video for the band Ok Go. It doesn’t really have an aim but it features the band members, their instruments and parts of their music.

Above is an example of a Rube Goldberg machine used to communicate information. I feel like this example is a lot easier to understand and is kept simple on purpose to communicate the message that happiness is a domino effect that spreads from one person to another.

If I use a Rube Goldberg machine to show the process I think keeping it simple would be the best option.

Another idea I had was to launch a competition to create a new flavour of Propercorn. I think it would be interesting to create something interactive but as this would just be a proposal I’m not sure it would allow me to create much graphic materials.

I think a really effective way of bringing the Propercorn ethos to life would be using animation. I feel like this idea would be a little obvious but it’s one I’m really into. Partly because I enjoy animation, but also because I think it could look really effective with the idea I have for it.

I think for this idea to work I really need to get across the message that Propercorn put real care into their product. One idea I had was to show how the product is made in an animation, but I think this idea might not be engaging enough.

I like the idea of bringing the illustrative style of the packaging to life, so I’ll probably do this. I could show a piece of Propercorn’s journey through the different environments depicted on the packaging, and use this as a metaphor for how the popcorn is flavoured.

I plan to frame the animation inside of the packet. This will allow me to end on a photo or graphic of the product at the end of the animation, and it also demonstrates the passion and care that goes into each packet.

You can see on the left an example of how each environment will flow into each other. I think that this example looks a little forced and does not look very natural. This is probably because I tried to stick to the layouts seen on the packet and not create my own environment.

Here are all of the transitions mapped out. This will serve as an basis for a story board that will give me an idea of what will need animating and when. I plan to animate some of the environments as well as the water/cream/whatever.

I want to animate a piece of popcorn flowing down the different environments and getting flavoured along the way. I thought it would be best to use a real piece of popcorn as this fits in with Propercorns brand.

Often they use rich and colourful graphics but include real life photos of their product and of popcorn.

I don’t just want to use a single 2d image in the animation because I think this might look a little flat. So I’ve scanned a piece of popcorn from a load of different angles so it looks like it’s rotating and flowing in the current. I only got 7 different angles of the popcorn because it turns out popcorn is pretty hard to scan. But hopefully this lo-fi look will fit in with the hand drawn aesthetic.