Final ideas

We have decided that we are going to use five different methods to help promote Nikki's artwork.

• Business Cards
• Postcards
• Website Design
• New Logo
• Visiting Hotels

The first method that will be using will be the use of business cards. . I will design the website design, logo and business cards. Me and Amy will be working together and create different aspects of each media. We will create our favourites using Photoshop to see what it would look like in more detail. All of these designs will be shown to Nikki in our meeting. Nikki has said she would like the logo on the business card but she wouldn't like an image of herself on there, other than that it is down to us.

The second method that we will be using will be the use of postcards. We will focus on distributing the designs at the two busiest spots in Cambridge which will around the Graphton Centre and also outside of the Grand arcade. If we still have lots left over near the end we will take a walk down to the River Cam as that is also a very busy spot. These will be distributed on a Saturday as that is the best day to do so as there will be a wider range of people as most people will have the weekend off of work and college. 
I am going to create Nikki a new website using a tool online. I am going to add more colours and make it easier to navigate around. I have also decided to add a video of our client talking about her artwork to the website which I think will work very well.

The fourth method that will be focusing on will be creating our client a new logo. We will both create seperate designs and leave the deciding up to Nikki. I will then take these ideas and create one or two of them in Photoshop and allow our client to choose her favourite one and the one that she thinks will reflect her company the most. Nikki would like it to look elegant but also have that arty side to it. She would like the use of the colour green in the logo.

The fifth method is to visit hotels and speak to them about distributing our clients art work inside of them. We will email the hotels first and find out what their policies are on this and then if they are interested we will go in and take in the some of Nikki's art work. We will allow them to display our clients art work for a specific amount of time and if they like it and think that it looks good where it is then we will offer them a price for it.

Flyers or Postcards?

I have decided that I would like to change our idea of creating flyers to creating postcards instead. I think that postcards look a lot more professional than flyers. Flyers tend to be created using paper which will be very flimsy and look a bit cheap. Although, using postcards, this would look a lot more professional and would help to reflect our clients business, especially as she is looking to aim her art work to more corporate audiences.

I have looked at different websites where you can create postcards and where businesses will print off the postcards you have designed and send you them. I have been looking at the different prices and what they range from.

This is the first website I looked at which is called Moo. This website allows you to use some of Moo's designs or you can create your own designs on this website. I would like the postcards to be doubled sided as I think that this will look a lot better. This costs £6.59 for ten postcards which works out about 66p per postcard. 

This is from the Vistaprint website which allows to create and design your own postcards. I would like to use A6 size. The cost for ten postcards is £2.99 which works out about 30p each. Although, to have the postcards double sided will be about £4.48 which works out about 40p each which is a lot better than above.

This is from Printed.com which I think looks like very good prices. Although, this is probably due to the fact that the postcard is only single sided. For 50 postcards it costs £12.83. This works out about 25p each - although they are not double sided. 

After conducting this research I have decided that the best website to print out the postcards with would be the Vistaprint website. I think that they are a reliable business and also are good for the price that you are paying.

concept and pre-production

Overview
We are advertising the artwork of our client, Nikki Sims from Saffron Walden. She has two parts to her company that are landscape paintings and portrait paintings of all different sizes and textures. She would like us to promote her artwork using two different methods. Both methods are left down to Annushka and I but she has been specific about what she would like. Nikki has told us that she would like her landscape paintings to be promoted to corporate companies such as hotels, offices, etc. She would ideally like her work to be displayed in prestigious hotels where they will be appreciated and recognised, helping her business to progress. Nikki has told us that she would also like us to promote her portrait paintings.

Audience & Target Audience
She would like a few more customers, around 10 - 20 as she would like to broaden her experience and gain more customers to be more recognized in the area. She would like to be more recognized in a larger area rather than just Saffron Walden and Furneux Pelham, which is why we suggested that she broaden to around the Cambridge area.

Campaign Message
The campaign message that we would like to put across is the fact that Nikki is a talented artist whose talents aren’t as recognized as they should be. Everyone in the area should know how Nikki Sims is and should be aware of the artwork that she creates.

Method & Approach
We have decided that we are going to split these two tasks evenly and focus on one each, allowing us to give each suggestion she has given 100%. Annushka is going to focus on the landscape paintings for the hotels and I am going to focus on the portrait paintings.

Annushka has looked at a couple of different ways in promoting the artwork to hotels and offices where they will be seen. She has conducted research on distributing work to corporate audiences. Annushka has come to the conclusion that distributing Nikki’s work through hotels would be the best way to approach the job; this will enable our client to successfully build her business. Annushka is an artist herself and will choose a selection of our clients work, given the atmosphere and architecture experience). She will take these paintings to hotels after arranging a meeting with those in charge of interior design at the hotels. She is also going to speak to whom it may concern about leaving a small stack of our clients business cards at the hotels so that anyone who views the work and appreciates the work that our client have created will take a business card and hopefully be in touch.

First Annushka will email the following hotels and ask about distributing work on their premises and what are their thoughts and feelings on this. The hotels that she will email are – The Varsity Hotel & Spa, Anstey Hall and Double Tree by Hilton. To stretch our client’s audience, we believe that Cambridge should be a very easy area to advertise; there are lots of students, parents and people of all ages and backgrounds. Annushka believes that this will be a successful way of showing Nikki’s artwork and gaining clients.

I have come up with a couple of different methods that can be used to help promote Nikki's artwork. The first idea that I came up with was using social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Although, if I, myself, advertised her work on either of these social networking sites using my own account it would only been seen by people my age which I don't think is the best way to approach this situation. I would have to make a new Facebook page or a new Twitter account that I would use entirely to promote Nikki's artwork and this would be a struggle to start up but once it was going it would have a positive outcome. Although, not everyone uses social media sites which means we are leaving out a percentage of people from the Cambridgeshire area as they will not have access to see her art work. 

The second idea that I have come up with flyer distribution, I could create a flyer using Photoshop and also some of Nikki's artwork and then distribute these to people around Cambridge.

Promoting
The budget that we are using is low. Nikki has five children to support at the same time as running her own business so we would like to use the most cost-effective way to advertise her business to the people of Cambridge. As much as we would love to promote an art exhibition that she could be doing it is very expensive if she is running her own one. Although, she doesn't need an exhibition to show off her work as there are plenty of others ways that can be used.

Aims & Objectives
Annushka and I have come up with many objectives that we are aiming for. We would like to distribute Nikki’s artwork and help her out by broadening the area in which she is working in and promoting her company – brand awareness. Rather than just Saffron Walden we would like to gain customers from Cambridge. Which would then help Nikki to progress further in the future, allowing her to build on this and gain more customers from a wider range of areas. Nikki told us that she feels that her business is too informal, which is why she would like to us focus some of our time on corporate companies which will help to turn her company more formal and give her a more professional look. This will help her in the future, she will be viewed on a higher level rather than just an average artist from the area - this is one of our main aims. Another aim that we have is to publicize Nikki as a person. 

We would like to show off her talents and show that she is a unique artist, different to the others around the Cambridgeshire area. We would like to recreate her image, such as create a new website for her as at the moment it doesn’t show off her full potential. Although, our key objective is to bring more customers to Nikki and help to expand her business, helping to broaden the area where her customers come from.

Seasonal Events
There are so many different events in Cambridge that support artists and help them to be recognized in their area. They also bring artists and local people together to create a positive relationship between the two.

Cambridge Open Studios is a flourishing community of over 450 artists, crafts people and designers working throughout Cambridgeshire. Their aim is to help bring artists and local people together. Every July they invite the public to visit their workshops and studios as part of the annual Open Studios even. This provides an opportunity for the public to see their work and find out about the techniques the artists use and the passions that inspire them. The 2015 Open Studios will take place over each of the four weekends in July. If an artist would like to take part they must register by the 31st January. Although this isn’t in the season at the moment this is something that our client would need to sign up for in this season that would help to promote her business.

Broughton House Gallery is a commercial art gallery showcasing monthly exhibitions of paintings, prints and sculptures - this is something that our client could get involved in. Art is very seasonal and seems to be popular in the summer; a lot of people spend their time looking at art in the summer time. Due to the weather being colder at this time of year people seem to spend more of their time inside rather than outside, so this idea would be a lot better in Summer. Also, stickers don’t last and they will last a lot longer in the summer time.

Launch Schedule
We would like to launch our campaign on the 1st February; we are going to launch this with the flyers in Cambridge. This will be followed over the next few days with Annuhska and I visiting hotels and promoting Nikki’s artwork. By the end of the first week of February we would like to have all of our printed flyers handed out and at least corporate business to have make contact with Nikki about her artwork. We have decided that we are not going to go through with the sticker ideas, as it’s not the right season for that. We are going to distribute the flyers on a Saturday, as the city centre is always busiest on a Saturday. There tends to be a lot more families out on a Saturday which is a good group of people to target.

Legal & Ethical Issues
One of the main legal issues that pops up when advertising is copyright. When creating the logo for our clients company we need to make sure nothing we use is copyrighted. This could really let our client down if we did use something that was copyrighted as it could affect her business negatively if she uses a copyrighted logo for her company. Another legal and ethical issues that we need to remember if the fact that we are trying to gain her customers of all ages and backgrounds so when showing off her art to possible customers we need to use suitable pieces of artwork. Our client, in the past, has painted nude images, this would be unsuitable to show off to the public and could get our client some negative responses which is the last thing that we want to do.

Designing Business cards

Design Work- Business Cards- Feedback

I am in charge of designing the business cards that are going to represent our clients company.

Target Audience and Market position
The target audience for our design is for family and corporate clients looking for a unique piece of artwork that suits their personal needs. Also a corporate client searching for an affordable piece of art to give status to their company premises.

In terms of market position we are aiming for affordable work pitched just above a family session in a photographic studio. Although we want this we do not want it as expensive as a sitting for a portrait artist.

Initial Designs and Sample pre-production material
I created four different designs for the front of the business cards which are shown below:

The first design is the one in the top left corner. This would be a black business card with think white paint dripping down it. When creating this on Photoshop I would add a lot of colour and shadow to make it look like the paint that is dripping down looks very 3D. I will then have the logo that is yet to be decided in white. This will stand out well against the black background and I think would look quite effective. I think that Nikki needs to stand out from the other artists in the are and I think that using a black and white colour scheme may help to do this for her. I think that this would look effective but having the white dripping paint as 3D may draw more attention to that rather than the logo itself which is what we want people to be looking at, so this idea may not work too well. I will create a mock up of this idea on Photoshop and see what it looks like. I may have to drop the opacity of the dripping to allow the logo to stand out against the black background.

The second design will also have a black background with white paint on it. This time it will have a very detailed paint splatter in the corner of the business card. I haven't decided which corner I would like it to go in yet. I have drawn it in the design on the right but I personally think that it would look a lot better on the left so when drawing this up on Photoshop I will change the side and decide which one looks better. The paint splatter will be white but this time I will not be using the 3D effect so it will not stand out as much as the paint dripping. Although, anything white on a black background is very contrasting and will stand out. But the writing for the logo will be in white writing so this should also stand out. I may put a white outline around the logo to emphasise this even more. I think that that would look good. This is my favourite design out of the four that I have mocked up.

The third design represents a rainbow. There will be six strips of colour down the middle of the business card with a white line between each to break the colours up. The colours will go in this order from left to right, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo - this will represent the rainbow. The opacity on this design will be dropped and then the logo will go over the top. The background of this business card will be white as I think that this is the best way to make sure that everything stands out but also to emphasise the logo on the front.

The fourth design has a big logo nearly in the middle of the business card, slightly off to the left of the card. On the right of the card coming out of the bottom corner there will be a couple of different paint brushes. All of these paintbrushes will be black apart from the actual brush at the end which will have paint on them. The paint colours will all be different colours from the rainbow. The background of this design will he white to make sure that everything stands out well. Due to the fact that the logo is very big it will draw more attention to it rather than being drawn to the paint brushes.

I have taken my two favourite designs from the four that I have created and I have designed a back for these as well which is where the information will go.

Personally I think that the second designs at the bottom look a lot better than the top ones do. They look a lot more sophisticated, although, this could change when they are both drawn up on Photoshop. I will use these two designs and put them both into Photoshop and see which one looks better then.

Design idea 1

I think that the paint dripping looks quite amateur and doesn't really represent well what our client is all about. If the business card looks amateur then the potential customers will think that our client is going to amateur and that is not something that I want to put across. I think that the design takes a lot of the attention away from the actual logo and this is not what is meant to happen. I sent the two designs to our client and she preferred the second one a lot more.

Design idea 2

Here is the front and the back of my second design. I think that this works very well. The paint splatter is bright and does contrast well with the black background which is something I was worried about as I thought it may draw away the attention from the logo to the actual paint splatter. Although, due to the angle that the paint splat is facing it is drawing the eye to the logo as you follow the splatter. I think that this design works well and looks good. The back of the design fits all of the information in very and I really like this. The first font that I looked at using was very hard to read due to the fact that it was very curly. Although it was elegant and suited the image that we are putting across, at the same time it looked as if we were trying too hard so I chose a different font which is easier to read and more inviting to all ranges of people.

After showing this design to our client she said she wasn't too sure anymore about the fact that its all in black and white. She said she would like to have maybe a white or a black background with a different coloured splatter in the corner. Previously, she has told us that she wanted the scribble on the logo to be orange so we are going to make the splatter orange this time. She also said she wasn't too sure on the font so we are going to change this to something more elegant, less is more when it comes to font in the opinion of our client. The last piece of feedback that she has given us on the business cards is the fact that she doesn't like the line through the middle which is separating the text. We have taken this information on board and created a new business card for our client.

Development of ideas- Final Idea

This is our final design for our client and she is very happy with it. She likes the orange that we have used as the splatter and loves how we have included a small picture of her on there which Annushka drew using photoshop. 

Designing postcards

We would like the postcards to be A6 size. I have created a couple of different designs that we could use for the postcards. Here are a few of the sketches with the first designs on them:

The first idea that I had was to include a piece of our clients art work at one side of the postcard and then add the information on the other side. Although, after talking to our client she told us that this would leave a lot of empty space which means I would be able to fit all of the information onto one side which is a negative point as she would like the postcards to be double sided.

The second idea that I had was to have Nikki Sims Art going diagonally down the middle of the page with rectangles going down each side of it. These rectangles would be made up of different colours from the rainbow but lighter, for example, using pink instead of red and using baby blue rather than a darker shade of blue. Although, after consulting with our client she gave us feedback on this idea, saying that she thought that the colours used might not represent her well to corporate companies, so this design may not put across the right idea to those she is aiming at.

The third design that I have created is to have square blocks at the bottom of the page. Each square block will be split into four which is shown in one of the blocks above. Each quarter will be a different shade of one colour to give the block a 3D effect. Although, again she thought that the colours used might not represent her well to corporate companies, so this design may not put across the right idea to those she is aiming at.

The fourth idea is quite similar to the first one. This would be two of our clients portraits that she has drawn cut in half. Each half of their face would be put at each side of the page and then the information about our client would go in the middle. I would put in the middle our clients name and what she does. Then on the back of the postcard I would put another half faced portrait and include our clients information such as her email, website, address and her twitter. I really like this idea the most so far and our client agrees and said she really likes this idea.

This is the first design that I created. Although, our client wasn't too sure on this design. She told us that she thought that it was a bit plain and that it might look better with a bit of colour in there and I agree with this. She loves the idea of having the postcard as an A6 size although she said she would appreciate it if we worked on a different design for her that involves more colour. She likes the font that we have used in the design and said that she is happy with it.

This is out second design that we have shown to our client. She likes this design a lot more - not only because it involves more colour but the fact that the colour is given to the eye but her own artwork. The only problem she had with this design is that fact that she would like on the front of the postcard what she does rather than her address. She would like us to put her address on the back of the postcard and put what she does on the front.

This is our final design which our client is happy with.

Feed back for postcards

After looking at our clients website we agreed that for an artist the website was slightly bland.

There fore we offered our client an upgrade to interest wider audiences to her product. We have completely remade Nikki Sims' website starting from scratch so that the website would become more appealing to potential customers. Here is a link to her website.
http://nikkisimsart.com

After thought she also decided that she wanted us to create a new logo for her company as the logo she already had was too bland and she never used it anymore. 

Our client is very happy with this design and would love to use this as her website. We have taken this information on board and have added to her old website to say what the link is to her new one. She loves the colours that have been used on there and also the font. She likes to colours because it includes small bits of orange which is a theme throughout the designs that we have designed for our client.

Market Research

There are many different artists in the Cambridgeshire area, working in the same market as our client. There is a website online called Cambridge Open Studios, this shows a lot of local artists and what they do. Here are some of the local artists that are working in a similar market to our client.

Andrew Berridge is a painter in Cambridge who does portraits and figurative works in oil paint and also charcoal. He gives tuition which is similar to Nikki as she also does this in her studio. Commissions are taken and visitors are welcome all year round. Andrew is a self-taught artist with a long standing interest in portraiture and life drawing. He works directly form life rather than using an image as much as possible to capture the physical presence and character of the subject.

Another artist working in the area is called Maggi Amos. She uses a mix of approaches to flowers, landscapes and views of historic towns. She uses a range of mixed media techniques using watercolour, acrylic, collage and embroidery. Maggi takes commissions and also is open to visitors all year round. She uses bold textures and colours as they intrigue her, whether its natural forms such as flowers or glorious landscapes in Scotland. Her love for embroidery began as a small child when visiting relatives in Hungary and seeing the wonderful traditional shapes and colours in their work. Pastels were her first love when she started painting as a teenager.

Another artist in the area is called Pam Hinton. She uses different media to interpret buildings, landscapes, still life and flowers in less conventional ways and with line, shape and colour. She takes commissions which is similar to what our client does. Her training as a biologist helped her to 'see' and this was a great asset when she took up painting. Naturally plants and flowers remain a great inspiration to her but, hang tried botanical illustration, she quickly moved on to a freer style in watercolour although she still enjoys detail in line drawing. Recently she has returned to botanical drawings including pen and ink.

Another artist in Cambridge that is similar to our client is Heloise Toop. She spends her time painting portraits. She was seventeen when she had a portrait selected for an exhibition at The Mall Galleries, London and after than, she was relents in her quest to make painting her life. The art work that Heloise is very similar to the type of art that our client does.

Paintings range in price depending on their size, materials used to create them, canvas size, etc. I have conducted some research into the prices that paintings are sold for that are similar to those that our client is selling. I have found a website that sells similar paintings to our clients and this is shown in the link below:

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=portraits

Logo Designs

We were given the task to create a new and improved logo for our client. She wasn't too specific about what she wanted in her logo apart from the fact she wanted it to show Nikki Sims Art and not to include any images of herself. She said she would like a little bit of colour in the design but doesn't have to be solid colours all over.

We have come up with a couple of different fonts that we can use for the logo which are shown below. Although, I am not 100% on any of these fonts. I am going to go onto a website which is filled with lots of different fonts of all different styles which can be downloaded and used - dafont.com

Here are some of our first designs:

Our first design was black and white with a solid black line underneath. We sent this to our client and she didn't like the black line underneath, she said it draws a lot of the attention away from the actual logo. 

This is our second design, it is the same as above but this time it doesn't have the black line underneath. Our client said she really likes the font but she said she would like a bit of colour in the design and also she thinks that the 'rt' in the 'Art' looks bigger than the smaller font on the other two words. 

This is our next design which includes more colour. Our client said she isn't too sure on this as she thinks the colours are a bit like halloween.

This is our fourth design which our client likes although she doesn't want to have a black background.

She would like us to use a different colour such as an orange as thats the colour that she would like the business card to include also. She also changed her mind and said she would like a black solid line underneath the logo.

This is our final design which our client is very happy with. She loves the orange scribble and she thinks that it all looks very effective and is reflective of her company well.

Final Designs