Progressing from our previous brief which asked us to create three posters which delivered a message we were further asked to produce a mail shot that 'distributes, disseminates and reinforces' our chosen message to our specific target audience.
The resolution which we were asked to produce were required to fit within a 220 x 110m envelope or fold up into this particular size in order for it to be posted successfully. As required in our previous task me were also asked once again to only use two colours along with appropriate stock, the deliverables included 5 editions of our mail shot (5 copies of our mail shot printed out as hard copies ready to send on the appropriate stock) along with a mailing list of our five chosen recipients who in essence were our target audience, this mailing list must be presented with a graphically quality and not just delivered as a list along side our outcomes.
Understanding what is required
Although I have had previous experience designing leaflets, pamphlets, posters and other pieces of graphic design similar, I had never designed a 'mail shot' before, therefore my first instinct was to research what a 'mail shot' was and the sole purpose of the delivery of it.
After
establishing that the true purpose of a mail shot was to send a material
message in the form of a leaflet in bulk to a wide range of audiences through
the mail I realized that in order for my piece to be successful and deliver the
appropriate political message I needed to be direct in my use of language and
approach linguistically.
The
first step I took in response to this brief was to draw-up a spider diagram in
order to organize the thoughts which were flying through my mind, it was
important to capture these initial ideas onto paper as they could become
crucial pieces of informative information to my final outcome in response to
this brief. In order to organize my thoughts I decided to separate my thoughts
into 5 main categories: TASK, DELIVERABLE, RECIPIENTS, TONE OF VOICE AND THINGS
TO INCLUDE (as you can see from the spider diagram above). By separating and organizing
this information I was able to identify who I wanted my recipients on my mailing
list to be. I decided to take a logical approach to this as I wanted my work to
mainly INFORM the audience of how political parties are reducing tax
payers spending budgets, the ultimate message from this was to make the
audience re-consider who they elect to run their country based on statistics
and figures from the past, present and future.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The
main aim of my mail shot was to inform, I personally feel that issues within
society that arise due to political affairs are not taught and made aware to
younger generations and the general public, I feel that making people aware and
highlighting statistics and figures that essentially effect there daily
lifestyle, environment and working life are important, therefore I felt that it
was important to distribute this information to a wide range of
recipients.
• General Public (anybody
who is eligible to vote)
• Conservative party
• Labour party
• Any other
political party effected
• Students - College &
university
• School children
MAILING LIST RECIPIENTS
The Rt Hon David Cameron MP
Prime
Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
BA (hons) Graphic Design
Leeds College of Art
Blenheim Walk
Leeds
LS2 9AQ
The Labour Party
Labour Central,
Kings
Manor
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 6PA
Roundhay School
All-through education from 4-18
Old Park Rd
Leeds
LS8 1ND
Leicester City town hall
Leicester City Council,
New Walk
Centre,
Welford Place,
LE1 6ZG
After identifying these recipients for my mail shot I decided to consider the language that I could use within my mailshot in order to be direct at the recipients. I wanted to craft the mail shot so that I would not have to change the language within it or alter the text dependent on the recipient, I wanted it direct to an individual however also be versatile due to the different age-ranged people who would read it such as the prime minster on one hand and school children on another hand.
LIST OF POSSIBLE QUOTES/PHRASES POSSIBLY BE
USED
‘Conserve not cut’
‘Your money, your country, your vote’
An illustrated guide to where your money is
being spent…
‘Who will get your next vote’?
Is this how you would spend our money
Please open urgently
Urgent action required
Urgent attention needed immediately
Private, confidential and requiring urgent
action
INITIAL IDEAS
The first step I decided to take once reflecting upon the brief was to explore different templates the mail shot could be delivered in, whether it has be strictly designing the standard envelope and having a post card style design inside or whether it may be a fold out leaflet or a series of post cards. I decided to sketch all of my initial thoughts upon this out (as you can see from the a2 design sheet above).
Design decision:
- To continue to explore 4 templates from above through further development.
- Not to just use the standard envelope and 1 post card, to utilise the flexibility in terms of inputting relevant explanatory information.
- To consider the positioning of the address, still want it to be formal therefore to place centrally on the front.
(4 chosen templates)
DEVELOPMENTAL
Using the templates that I decided to carry forward from above I then started developing my work inputting some rough elements that I could include in order to portray Gordon `brown's spending cuts in 2009 and David Cameron's spending cuts in 2012 and ask the audience who they will vote for in the election based on these statistics and figures. As we can see the first step I decided to take was to make the posters have a sense of consistency therefore I extracted the same 'conserve not cut' quotation from my type/image poster and decided to play around with the composition.
After designing these 10 initial designs we then partnered up with another individual and discussed our idea/concept and the designs we had mocked-up so far.
Partners feedback: My partner told me after looking at these initial designs and looking at my posters that I should maybe consider using the type/image poster design and apply this to the back of the leaflet so that the recipient could pin up the mail shot on there fridge after reading the information/ info-graphic and understanding the message that is being delivered.
Taking into consideration my partners feedback I decided to I decided to develop my work based upon there feedback, I think that this was a fairly successful piece of feedback that I decided to apply and consider, I feel that the idea and concept of having a poster on the reverse side for the audience to pin up would reinforce the message subliminally to the audience as they would make an association with the poster and the information inside once reading it.
Design decision:
- To apply the poster design to the back of the mail shot, however to continue experimenting.
- Continue using consistent red, blue and white stock.
- Decided to use white card rather than gloss.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
After deciding gathering collecting my statistic for Gordon Brown's and David Cameron's spending cuts I was fairly sure about which design I wanted to select, however I still wanted to further develop using the different on the designs that I produced so far, purely based on the fact that further development could possibly lead to a better outcome than the one I had already unconsciously driven myself towards.
Design Decisions:
- Too stick to the horizontal fold out design.
- Apply the flag and 'conserve not cut' to the back of the design (pin up on fridge idea).
- Use pie chart style for info - graphic inside.
- Stick to three consistent typefaces on the front.
PHOTOSHOP DEVELOPMENT
FRONT
Started off by extracting the poster design and placing it onto the back cover in order for the design to separate into equal sectors I decided to produce the entire design on its specific measurements of 22cm x 33cm, as discussed before I wanted to maintain a formality to the design therefore I decided to centralise the address panel as necessary.
After altering the addresses for each design in centre, I decided on the tag line at the top from the 'list of possible quotes/phrased to be 'urgent action required', firstly because the number of words were minimal in comparison to others which were on the list and secondly because the language used portrayed to the audience that this mail shot contained important information therefore to read it before other mail received in the post which has less importance and relevance.
INSIDE
On the inside of the mailshot once it has been unfolded I decided to follow the same procedure in terms of measurements, I also left a bleed line of 0.5cm for printing just incase the printers would cut of crucial pieces of text that I intended to include. On the far left hand side at the bottom I started to input text based on one of the stronger phrases from the list 'Your money, your vote, your country' I felt that this linguistic 'rule of 3' seemed appropriate underneath the polling card style design directly above.
After placing a substantial amount of type onto the page I decided to illustrate the design of the brain as I felt the mail shot was becoming far to type based I think the image broke this down slightly. As we can see from the second design I started to input these white lines in order to cordon-off certain areas, the reason behind this was to break down the information in order for the info-graphic to be digested gently.
MAILING LIST
As apart of the brief we were also asked to make a mailing list, however it had to be graphically appropriate, I decided to base my design in a similar manner to the way that the inside of the mail shot had been produced by taking these pie chart style segments and placing them symmetrical on the page for the address of 4 of the recipients on my list. As you can see i decided to put the address of Leeds College of Art at the top the reasoning behind this being that this was the only address I was actually posting the mail shot to therefore it seemed relevant to put this in a prominent position.
After doing so I then made it aware at the bottom of the mailing list that this was the 'mailing recipients' who i had chosen to be my main 5 target audiences. Although I didn't use the blue colour which I had used n my poster designs and on the front of the mail shot i still feel that there was an element of consistency due to the fact that I had used the same shade of red, a white coloured stock and a similar design to the inside of the mail shot design.
FRONT
INSIDE
MAILING LIST
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