BRUT - Rationale

An ad campaign for the male fragrance BRUT with the main insight being that teens use this as their first cologne, transitioning them into manhood. The design has been driven with the idea that BRUT is the key to manhood with the copy on the ad showing that there is ‘two sides to every bottle’.

BRUT - Final presentation

BRUT - Final designs

In response to the feedback on the refined designs we continued with the development and applied the changes that were needed and in the formats that Lucy had decided were most appropriate to the brand.

BRUT - Refinement

Final designs

Feedback

All

Mock up looks squashed. - Make sure they are in proportion.

Try copy at the top of the page. Up to us which looks best. But try.

Make mock ups easier to look at and read.

Adshel

Change Copy to 

Churps

Send nudes

Netflix and chill

Repeat 

Magazine 

Don't Squash the advert to fit into mock up. Keep in proportion. (The text and bottle look Squashed)

Turn opacity down on the reflection layer 

Make Mock up easier to read and look at - Magazine not at an angle  

Copy - Take out ‘Meet each others friends’

Tabloid - metro 

Don't Squash the advert to fit. Keep in proportion. (The text and bottle look Squashed)

BRUT - Production

In terms of production, this brief did not require the finals to be physically produced rather mocked up into the correct visual environment. As the outcomes are advertising it wouldn’t be viable to be able to print due to the industry standard equipment needed to be able to produce such an outcome.

As part of the briefs progression, creative advertising created a media plan describing the way in which the outcomes needed to sit if produced in the industry. The media that is needed are a full-page magazine print, and outdoor ad shell and two tabloid adverts, one a half of the page and another a third. To be able to plan which ad needs to go into which position we decided to create some small scamps, working out the positioning of each ad. This also allowed us to take into consideration which products to put on which size ad, as there were three types of bottle we photographed.

Media Plan:

BRUT - Timeplan

BRUT - Imagery

Photoshoot

To be able to get the best possible images that have a visual consistency throughout the campaign itself, we decided to have our own photoshoot of the products. this ensured the same quality of image, lighting and background throughout. We asked a photographer who was also a student at Leeds Arts University to take the images, by asking someone who specialises in photography we also ensured having the best quality images as possible.

Photoshoot Setup

Once we had selected the best images from the shoot, to be used within the campaign, our attention turned to the fact that the bottles are made from different materials. As the whole point of the shoot was to give the best consistency to all of the images it was important to note that the bottles which were translucently needed to be edited due to the information on the back of the bottle showing through. As can be seen below in figure 1. 

Figure 1

Through removing this factor, it allows for a cleaner image, as the cleaner the image, the more focus that will be on the typography that is set around the image itself, which is the key basis of the campaign. Once this was completed we were able to edit the images in Lightroom, again visually reaffirming the consistency between the images on the campaign.

Three Selected Images:

BRUT - Feedback + response

In response to the initial ideas we received some feedback from the creative advertising tutor and Lucy. We presented the two design styles of handwriting and type to see which would work better as a final outcome. 

The feedback showed preference to the deign using a typeface as opposed to the handwriting as they felt that this would ensure a better brand consistency. It was also discussed that the handwriting might not work as well in this context as some of the exiting visual research that we conducted - it is more likely that you will find a pen laying on a piece of paper that you can write around rather than a bottle. Another point made was the masculinity as an aim within the advert but with the handwriting it actually suggests a more female aesthetic - contrasting to our intentions. 

Feedback response

In response to the feedback we changed the placement of the tagline from the top to the bottom so that the hierarchy was more considered and there was more of a focus on the product and main content, then leaving the audience with the tagline in their heads to clarify exactly what the content is showing.  

BRUT - Initial design ideas

Design Idea 1

Design Idea 2

To begin our initial design ideas, we decided to create the typography by hand. This goes with the concept previously discussed, giving a sense of familiar visual identity to the audience themselves, in keeping with the idea that the audience has just jotted down their progress with their partner. To be able to give this a fresh and unique look, rather than using a typeface which had already been produced, we used a newly written element for each statement. This was repeated multiple times in order to be image traced/vectorised and dropped into the development of the design itself in order to get the design which has the best consistency throughout. Even though each of the type elements varies in their style, through sizing and positioning on the page itself we will be able to create a sense of consistency throughout the campaign. In order to be able to reaffirm this visually, we decided to use Hannah’s handwriting for this experiment, therefore keeping the same visual characteristics of the glyphs throughout, as can be seen in figure 1.

Figure 1

In order to offer multiple styles, we also decided to experiment with the typeface that can be found on the bottle itself. This is a design element that we experimented with on the other optional initial design idea. This was a feature that both the   group and the creative advertising student both appreciated, because of the way that it carried the visual brand identity across the visuals of the campaign.

In order to highlight this, we decided to move the strap-line to the top of the page, this brings to the forefront of the piece the fact that the typographic style is consistent with the branding of the product itself. Once again due to the face that the brand is something that is new to the audience which it is being presented to means that the brand is being entirely pushed by the visual identity of the existing brand. The use of the new language is a push towards the audience already, by removing the type it may push it too far away from the original core values of the brand itself.

Figure 2

Chosen Typeface: Presicav 

The typeface was selecting through taking a screen grab of the type which can be found on the bottle itself and uploading it into Typekit. this gives results of the nearest typeface, the closest to the original we felt was Presicav, as 'Brut' do not publish their brand guidelines we could not access the name of the exact type used.

Presicav Type Family

BRUT - Audience research 2

As we had now decided on the direction in which we would be taking the brief Hannah and I decided to get in contact with people we knew around the age group of the target audience. Due to the idea being based around slang terms within the age group, we felt this would be the best way to be able to gain primary sources of information. We contacted 2 people within the age group Alex 19, and Ellis 20. In the conversation, we asked what terms you would use to describe progression with a partner to your mates. These terms we will be selecting to use within the final ad designs.

Terms:

• thirsty 
• necking on
• cracking on
• bj 
• tekkers
• hicky 
• spitters are quitters
• get with 
• churps
• send nudes
• cheeky bum squeeze
• bonking 
• netflix and chill 
• booty call
• cheeky snap

BRUT - Visual research

We gathered some existing adverts in order to develop a mood board for the visual style that we intended to design in. The adverts are all appropriate for the target audience, looking at adverts that use social media, handwriting as if they had jotted down some notes in class and then some adverts with humour. 

Wireframes
In order to move forward with the designing of the adverts we took the existing examples that to us were of most relevance to how we could present our idea and wire-framed them. This allowed for us to see if there were any consistencies with this style of advert in terms of sizing, placement and balance of content. These will be taken into consideration throughout the design process.