Week 06 - Brief and Strategy
Weekly Learning Outcomes
You will be working towards achieving the following learning outcomes detailed in the Assignments tab:
LO1: Research — Select and deploy appropriate research methodologies to inform the needs within a project.
LO4: Distil — Position a creative strategic insight that has been distilled and refined through an informed investigation.
LO5: Imagine — Deliver appropriate and innovative ideas that embrace risk, have contemporary relevance and question the boundaries of the discipline.
LO6: Make — Select and utilise relevant tools, skills and technologies in the delivery, iteration and sustainable production of an outcome.
LO7: Collaborate — Demonstrate inclusive and empathetic strategies to plan and execute a project across distributed collaborative situations.
LO8: Design — Realise a final solution that evidences its strategic journey and clear relationship between form and function.
LO9: Communicate — Communicate effectively in a range of contexts and situations to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
TUTORS ADVICE
Pay careful attention to how you can potentially reach and engage with a global audience. Explore relevant avenues for engagement, such as social media, innovative developments in technology, traditional print media, slow journalism, crowdfunding and forums.
Brief and Strategy | Interviews
This week the creative practitioners answer the following question:
– How do you develop a strategy and project plan for a client/audience in a continually evolving global market?
What advice resonates most to my project concept and how can I springboard this into my own ideas?
Torsten Possett FELD
Identify a structure, and organise my brief and weekly achievements. He also emphasises how important communication is. It is incredibly important to understand the person/client and recognise their needs. Structure and scheduling is crucial. not just with budgets and money, but timelines. These need to be planned from the start, especially if you have deadlines and you’re not good with sticking to deadlines. Clarification and being open with the client is key to a project running smoothly.
Matthew Jones and Michelle Dona - Accept & Proceed, London
Michelle states - Client collaboration plays a pivotal role, with deep-dive workshops serving as a platform for open discussions. During these workshops, a comprehensive assessment of the market's current state, the client's perspective on their product or brief, and the agency's viewpoint is conducted. Equally important is the evaluation of how the target audience is responding to and evolving with the brand.
Wouter Dirks - Studio Dumbar,
For their approach to every project, they emphasised its uniqueness and recognised the vital role of strategy. Their process always commenced with comprehensive research, incorporating both their own investigative efforts and utilising the client's documented research. This entailed desk research to understand the market, client, and product. They then conducted a collaborative brand workshop with the client, involving a diverse group of individuals within the organisation. Additionally, they conducted interviews with various key stakeholders, including customers, business partners, and product contributors. By doing so, they aimed to obtain a comprehensive and current perspective of the market, even if they were already familiar with it. This diligent process ensured that their strategies were always up-to-date and well-informed.
Stijn van de Ven Eden - Spiekermann, Amsterdam
They positioned themselves as challengers amidst the prevailing tech design trends, rebelling against conventional design thinking in boardrooms and adopting an agile approach. Berlin, on the other hand, concentrated on building robust digital products. Despite being part of the same umbrella brand, each office exhibited distinct characteristics and approached the local market differently.
Read | Watch | Listen - Issuu, creating the perfect design brief
For this week’s reading material I looked at the module resource list - Phillips, P (2004) Creating the perfect design brief: how to manage design for strategic, New York, Allworth Press. My key notes as follows.
Creating the Perfect Design Brief." Chapter 11
This example shows the construction of an effective design brief through a detailed case study. This chapter underscores the significance of elements such as well-defined objectives, consideration of the target audience, and a thorough understanding of the project's context in crafting a successful design brief. It provides valuable insights for those seeking to create their own design briefs.
Chapter 12 - This delves into the anticipation and mitigation of obstacles in the design process. This section underscores the importance of identifying potential challenges and addressing them in advance to ensure a smoother design journey and successful outcomes. Effectively overcoming obstacles is a critical aspect of achieving design goals.
(Remember keep the client communication lines open.)
Chapter 13 - Development of a strategic plan for progressing in a design project. This researches the significance of establishing a clear direction, setting project milestones, and aligning the team's efforts with the project's objectives. This planning and management approach is a crucial aspect of steering design projects towards successful outcomes. By incorporating these insights, my research sheds light on the strategic dimensions of crafting design briefs, addressing obstacles, and planning for the future, contributing to effective design management.
(Time to book a tutorial I think to check I’m on target!)
Brief and Strategy | Thinking for strategic, brand and global difference, client engagement
After narrowing down my choice for brief 2 to the ‘Science Museum’ brief, I realised I had opened a can of worms and I would need to explore this task some more to pinpoint my subject’s area. The Science Museum has a collection of 7.3 million items from science, technology, engineering and medicine, transport and media.
I decided to look at the learning resources on the website. I was immediately drawn to the Space archives. I think this is probably what I associate the Science Museum with. Living just an hour outside of the London Science Museum, I have visited it on many occasions, as a child and more recently with my children. I wondered if there was a way I could translate the visual aspect of what I remembered into something interactive online.
I re-read the brief -
How could I engage and educate a young adult audience (aged 18-30) to discover the digital archive collection?
Initial thoughts and ideas
- Immersive storytelling through a technology display through a physical dashboard
- VR headsets or use a touch-screen interface to embark on a captivating journey
- Animated visuals, 3D reconstructions, and machine-generated content - could this be tied in with AI?
- Historical space artefacts through a timeline of history
Independent research - How audiences discover the Science Museum Group Collection
I decided to look into how audiences were currently finding information online through the Collections website and found this interesting article. It provides an insightful look into the Science Museum Group's efforts to understand how audiences engage with their extensive collection of scientific artefacts and exhibits. Published on the Science Museum's official lab website, the article delves into the methodology and findings of their audience research.
The Science Museum Group recognizes the importance of understanding how diverse audiences, both online and in-person, interact with their collection, which spans multiple museums and locations. The research conducted by the group aims to shed light on the various motivations, interests, and behaviours that drive visitors to explore their collection, ultimately enhancing the visitor experience.
The research presented in the article is divided into two phases. The first phase involved analysing the motivations and usage patterns of the online collection. This analysis revealed a wide range of reasons for visiting, from research and inspiration-seeking to nostalgic recollections of past visits. Additionally, the research uncovered that visitors possess different levels of scientific knowledge, influencing their information needs and preferences.
The second phase involved a website-wide survey, which aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the diverse online audience and create a segmentation framework based on motivations, knowledge levels, vocational connections, online behaviours, and the relationship between online and physical visits. This segmentation approach helps the Science Museum Group tailor their digital content and experiences to better serve the unique needs and interests of different visitor groups.
The article concludes by detailing the nine audience segments identified through the research, personal interest research, student research, professional research, inspiration seekers, enjoyment enthusiasts, art news followers, repeat visit planners, first-time visit planners, and those seeking organisational information. This segmentation approach provides the Science Museum Group with a valuable roadmap to engage with their audience effectively, delivering a more personalised and enriching experience for visitors both online and in their physical museum locations.
To summarise, this overview of the Science Museum Group's audience research efforts and segmentation strategies highlights their commitment to making science accessible and engaging for a wide range of visitors.
Traffic coming to the website - Over half (56%) enter the website on an object page
Initial thoughts: With 56% of traffic coming into the collection looking for a specific object, I need to consider how to integrate a route into discovery from an object page or person page, alongside a big “homepage” experience. Is this through a hyperlink from another entity - poster/app/zine?
Exploring museum collections online: Some background reading
The article "Exploring Museum Collections Online: Some Background Reading" on Medium serves as a valuable resource for understanding the Science Museum Group's endeavours in making museum collections accessible online. This piece offers insights and context regarding the challenges and opportunities that museums face when digitising their collections and making them available to a global audience.
The article starts by recognising the growing importance of online accessibility for museums in the digital age. It highlights the fact that physical visits alone cannot satisfy the diverse needs and interests of modern audiences. To address this, the Science Museum Group is actively working to make its extensive collection more accessible through online platforms.
One of the key elements discussed is the digitisation of museum collections. The article provides an overview of the various ways in which museums are digitising their artefacts, including through high-quality images, 3D scans, and detailed descriptions. This digital transformation allows museums to bring their collections to a broader audience, including those who may not have the opportunity to visit in person.
By making their collections available online, museums can engage with a global audience, reaching individuals who might not have the chance to visit a museum in person due to geographical or other constraints. It also discusses the challenges museums face in ensuring online accessibility, such as the need for robust content management systems, metadata standards, and efficient search functionalities. These considerations are crucial in creating a user-friendly and informative online museum experience.
Why this matters: The Science Museum Group's efforts to digitise and make their collections visible and accessible to a wider audience emphasise the importance of a changing digital era and the opportunities of a global appeal.
References:
MEDIUM. Exploring museum collections online: Some background reading. [online]. Available at: https://lab.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exploring-museum-collections-online-some-background-reading-da5a332fa2f8 [Accessed 5 November 2023]
This week’s webinar with Teresa - notes from her answer to the brief
This week’s webinar explored concepts relevant to the current brief. Teresa talked about how important it is to develop a strategy when given a project and gave examples from her own portfolio. This was a great project example of how to fulfil the brief given and gave me a lot of insight to how I should answer the brief and also development for my own practice.
The one-line brief - process (Example Monty Don's book)
The example given was that this project should stand out on the shelf against the competition, and be a D&AD award-winning book cover (it was) and how she approached the brief with various solutions and her thought process behind them.
Key pointers to make the creative project run smoothly
Chat with the client in person
Get a thorough brief
Discuss the brief (who are the decision-makers, marketing, and sales director) This establishes who is running the projects, researching the subject, looking at the audience and who it will appeal to. Is it a global audience or localised?
Discuss the budget/fee and timings
Review the pictures as a picture editor
Research the subject
Keep client conversation going
Develop the ideas
Test Ideas
Refine Ideas
Select final ideas
This image shows the final design - which won a coverted Graphite Pencil D&AD award for its Book Cover Design
Designing a book about gardening without putting Monty Don on the cover was a brave move, but the end result was a beautifully balanced piece of design. Using a flock finish enhances the link between the title and content.
This is a reminder to be brave and not go for the obvious solution. Make sure to also test it in its bookshop shelf environment. This really stood out amongst the competition, which all had a very similar look.