Direct Mail Done!

These are the designs for my yo!sushi Berlin direct mail, included here are the front and back designs and I hope to get a prototype made to show soon...

 

The concept of my direct mail is aesthetically in keeping with my brand style and ethos by creating an old/grunge style letter, but with an advertising twist whereas yo!sushi chopsticks are sent with the letter and if brought to the restaurant the customer receives a complimentary dish. My idea came from an old fashioned telegram which used to be a popular and effective way of getting news to someone quickly, with some added different effects this would be in keeping with my style and link in with the history of Berlin.

 I also chose to use mailing tubes instead of ordinary packaging, not only does it stand out from the common mail, but it will also allow me to roll my 'telegram' and safely package the chopsticks inside with as well. These could be made to look dated too or simply kept plain. 

 I am happy with the route I chose for my direct mail and with the overall outcome. I toyed with the idea of being more outlandish such as the concrete slab or candle letter I found in my research, but with costs and the environment in mind, I think mine is affective and serves it's purpose well.

UPDATE

Here are some pictures of the prototype I made.

What is Direct Mail?

Although I had an idea of what direct mail was, i wanted to look into what the purpose of it was and also what design approach to take when designing my own.  When i put a search in for direct mail this is the definition that I came across...


"Direct mail is a way of advertising in which advertisers mail printed ads, letters or other solicitations to large groups of consumers. Bulk-mail rates are used to lower the cost of the mailing, and targeted mailing lists are used to maximize potential response. Direct mail is used in many different situations, limited primarily by the imagination of the advertiser. Stores typically use direct mail to advertise new products or to distribute coupons. Charities typically use the it to raise money or recruit volunteers. Almost any sales pitch can be made by direct mail."


So overall the main focus of direct mail is to directly advertise a company/product/event or to raise awareness an issue i.e charity. Knowing this makes a big difference to the way I approach my designs, as I need to think of a clever way to advertise yo!sushi Berlin and to attract potential customers at the same time. It will also need to be identifiable to my brand as it may be the only visual connection some people are going to get of my company/brand. Here are some examples of direct mail that I came across...

These examples that I have shown were just a few of many many more, and showed just how diverse direct mail can be, from the choice of material to how the customer interacts with. These have got my mind working overtime, but I need to keep in mind such factors as cost, resources and relevance when I design my own direct mail.

Beer & Wine Done!

So I chose to run with the idea of simplicity on my labels. I decided that all the extra information and jargon used to sell a bottle of wine wasn't needed, the menu said what the house wine was and because it's only place of use would be in the restaurant, I chose to agin focus on the main identity of my brand for these designs. Here are my designs...

I opted for the same technique on both set of design, this was to use part of my mural design on each bottle, but to edit them in a way that reflects the drink that they represent i.e the colours. There were the obvious 3 wines to use, but I researched popular german beers and found 5 varieties to use. As you can see the only textual information on the front of these bottles is the drinks name, I figured that any legal info could always go on the reverse side, but I wanted the main focus to be imagery. Something else that I tied in was to tie the bottles together through the designs, when the 3 wines or 5 beers are place next to each other they make up my mural design. This was all part of trying to stretch the brand identity to every section of the restaurant, including on every table and even on the shelf behind the bar.

Beer & Wine

There was one thing that I knew I wanted to use before I did any research, and that was the swing-top style beer bottles. One of the leaders in the market Grolsch have used it as part of there brand for years, but it also currently very common in Germany as well.

Although this is only the smallest of details, I believe it's a really important one, because when you are branding something in relation to it's location, all these little details add up and are what really makes a brand effective. When it came to the look of my wine bottles though, I didn't have such a clear idea, so I first looked into german wine bottles...

I found that there wasn't much going on with these and they all tended to look very similar in size, colour and design. This made me think about what I actually needed on the label if they were simply house wines. How much info would be necessary? Could I just use a design? I chose to look at the wider picture and at a variety of creative wine bottle designs.

I found examples of unique bottle shapes, creativity in using illustration on a full bottle design and also bottles that don't use a label at all. I really love all of these as they show how tradition can be broken slightly and modern twists can be applied. However, having worked on this project for a while now I just felt that none of these would be right for the brand that I am creating and the styles that I have chosen. I carried on my research though and came across a style that I instantly liked...

I really like the simplicity of these designs, and the lack of all the usual info that is plastered across wine bottles. I don't know if this is because I'm thinking about house wines not needing to sell on a shop shelf, but it gives a bit of freedom when it comes to what's required. Imagery is something that I am going to definitely look to use on my bottles because imagery is a bit part of my brand so I'm conscious of keeping that theme running. I will look into how I can develop my own designs from this research and report back soon.

My menu designs!

Here are the designs for my menu, including the front, back and two inside sample spreads. I chose to run with the idea of a horizontally folded menu for a few reasons, practically it wouldn't be knocked over as easily or get in the way and the large page size would make it easier to design the inside. And aesthetically, it enabled me to use my mural design (edited slightly) and keep the corporate feel running throughout the restaurant. I was unsure whether to use this design again for the cover, but decided that this mural essentially was my Berlin brand in a nut shell so I would be stupid to only use it once on a mural.

The way that I put my logo together also enables me to make it unique to each item by incorporating words into it such as menu, mail, wine etc, yet still making it recognisable. I chose to keep the front simple with the type as I wanted the images to be the focus, but to tie in the the logo and bring it to the forefront I used a semi-transparent white belt to direct the eye and also to give the design stability and order.

I kept the back design for the menu very simple and dark to contrast with the front, because here I want the focus to be the text not the image as the contact details are more important. I kept the design in with the theme though and in my mind I had it as the backside of the Berlin wall where there's no graffiti or pictures etc, a blank canvas.

When it came to the inside of the menu my main objective was to make it clean and easy to read. I still wanted there to be elements of my mural design, so I used segments of the design as the background which alternated on each page, but again I used a large semi-transparent white box to bring the focus to the menu contents and keep it concise and in order.

The typeface that I chose to use as my secondary typeface was 'Raleway'. The brief stated that the existing typeface that yo!sushi used was Helvetica Neue, but to "...choose a typestyle of that you feel is appropriate". Having used an obscure Germanic typeface for my logo, I wanted to contrast with a really crisp and legible sans-serif typestyle and I think this one works brilliantly.

When I researched yo!sushi's current menu one thing that stood out to me was that there was a lot happening on the pages and it was quite cluttered in places, so I made sure that each page in mine had space so that each dish could be viewed as easily as the next.

Something that I carried on from the current brand was these little mascots, as they appear on the website and designs, and they are traditional japanese symbols which is the roots of yo!sushi, so I thought it would a nice idea to have something visually tying in all the branches different around the world. 

The horizontally centrefold is quite an uncommon style for menu's, but it also means that you have to think differently when it comes to certain hierarchy and how the eye will travel across the page. For example the majority of people are right handed so will flip the page over from the right and that is where their focus will start, so for example that is why my logo is continuously in the bottom right corner. I also felt it was important to have a strong grip system throughout the menu so that the eye can move easily from one image to the next or one drinks category to the next without having to search too hard for what they want to find.

One the whole I am really happy with how my menu looks and serves it's purpose well. I may tweak minor details before I finalise it, but for now I will move my focus onto the wine & beer label designs.