04/07/2025-24/07/2025 (Week 11-Week 14)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Packaging and Merchandising Design | BDCM | Taylor's University
Project 3: Brand Merchandising
LECTURE
Lectures from Week 1 - Week 8 are in EP of Exercise: Case Study and
Project 1: Custom-Box Making.
INSTRUCTIONS
Fig 1.1 MIB
This task is a continuation to Project 2 where we are tasked to create 5 merchandise and a POP display of our brand.
Week 11: 3
Thankfully, this project was separated from the TBS and SLAS students so we had full creative freedom.
On week 11, we started to prepare for our merchandise, despite not being done with our packaging yet. During class, we mentioned our first few ideas which was bottle strap, cleaning kit set, silicone sleeve to avoid scratches on the bottom part. However, Mr. Shamsul suggested us to think of a general theme we're going for in our merchandise. We decided to go for traveling as our theme and will create merch based on this. After we settled on a theme, here are our list of merchandise and promotional strategies along with who's in charge:
- Bottle strap: Aisya
- Cleaning Kit Set (zipper pouch, nylon brush, microfiber cloth): Sheryne
- Foldable shopping bag: Jovan
- Mini planner and travel journal: Lizzie
- Bottle silicon sleeve: Jovan
And here's a list of our promotional strategy:
- Billboards (2, Landscape, Portrait): Lizzie, Jovan
- LRT station signage: Sheryne
- Bus stop signage: Lizzie
- Instagram Posts: Sheryne, Aisya
- Travel app banners: Aisya
- POP Display: Lizzie
Week 12-14
On week 12, we had online consultation and we showed our first drafts of our
merchandise mockup to Mr. Shamsul. I was in charge of making a mockup of the
planner. At first, I only did the cover.
Fig 2.1 First draft of planner cover mockup
During the feedback, Mr. Shamsul pointed out some stuffs like how some of our
mockups are still 2D, he suggested it would be best if we go for a realistic
mockup for every merchandise. For the planner, he also suggested to design few
pages inside. In the cleaning kit set, we also included a soap but he said it
was unnecessary and we can just remove it. We also showed a picture of a
billboard in KL that we found but he pointed out the overall picture
composition could be better.
Fig 2.2 First draft of all of our merch
With that, we worked on our mockups even more. For mine, I had to design a few
pages and I decided to mock these pages up and try to fill it up as sample. I
started by designing the pages the planner would have so I did some research
and I settled on these pages:
- Monthly Planner with hydration tracker
Monthly planners work better because the planner is supposed to be compact.
Weekly or daily planners would take up too much pages if we wanted the
planner to be used up to 1 year. Monthly planner layout saves the amount of
pages.
At first I was quite confused on where to put the hydration tracker. I used
to do bullet journals back then and hydration trackers were quite common.
But people dedicated a whole page each month to track their hydration and I
felt like we couldn't use that much space. So in the beginning, I planned to
use 1 page for the hydration tracker and let people color in on the circles
(derived from the DYO logo) for every 250ml of water they consumed. Then I
felt like the use of DYO logo on every milestone would make it look tacky
and overused.
Fig 2.3 First draft of hydration tracker system
In the end, I felt like dedicating a whole page on hydration tracker for 30 days just wouldn't work. With the size of A6, it would be so small as well and I had to allocate pages for the other contents. Hence, at the end, I decided to put a daily hydration tracker, in which each day is represented by the circle of the DYO logo and it represents 1.2L of water.
So, if users consumed only a quarter or half of that, they don't have to
color in the circle entirely. This system saves up space a lot and I could
put this in the monthly page as there was still some space left. The numbers
on top of each circle represents the date of the month. To avoid
misunderstandings and users being confused on how to use it, I decided to
add a "tip box" at the bottom, just in case.
Fig 2.5 [Left] Monthly Planner
Fig 2.6 [Right] Monthly Planners + Hydration Tracker
I also filled the pages up as a way to show how it's used. Refer to Fig 0.0
below for the progress photo for all the sample pages.
Fig 2.7 Filling up the pages for sample of use
- Travel bucketlist
This page is a 2 page spread with a total of 8 destinations and prompts for
consumers to fill up. Before this final version however, I wanted to include
as many destinations as possible so here's a draft layout:
Fig 2.8 Draft bucketlist layout
However, looking at it, I thought it felt so cramped and users cannot write
a lot. So, I updated the layout to the final one. In the final one, each
destination is in a slightly bigger box with prompts like when they would
want to travel to the destination, places that are a must-visit to them,
budget, and extra space for them to note anything.
Fig 2.9 [Left] Bucketlist Page
Fig 2.10 [Right] Bucketlist Page
Referring to Fig 0.0 where I filled up the pages as sample in use, I then
put it inside a mockup. For this spread, I did only 1 page and used a
flat-lay open notebook.
Fig 2.11 Bucketlist Mockup Process
- Trip at a glance & Trip Highlights Spread
For these two spreads, they are somewhat connected. The trip at a glance is basically a quick summary or an introduction of their trip. They will write their destination and when the trip was, who they traveled with, and where they stayed. There's also 5 lists for them to write down a recap of which places they consider must visit or activities they must do. I also put a small column where they can roughly list the stuffs they need to pack as well as a dedicated note taking space for them to brain dump everything.
Fig 2.12 Trip at a Glance Page
As for the trip highlights, technically, it's supposed to be filled after their trip or during their trip. I did 5 spaces; favorite places, meals, favorite things they bought, thoughts and feelings about the trip as well as some specific favorite memories of the trip.
Fig 2.13 Trip Highlights Page
After I filled these pages in Fig 0.0, I put it inside a mockup as well so
that it looks more realistic. For this one, I couldn't find a mockup with a
different angle so I used a plain notebook picture I found via Unsplash and
used the free transform tool and warp tool in Photoshop to put the page
inside the notebook.
Fig 2.14 Trip at a glance mockup
- Free note taking space
Last was the free space for note taking. Initially, I had planned to use
either a dotted page or a grid but I personally think that a blank page
serves more space and gives more freedom to the users with what they want to
do. They can doodle, draw, write, stick pictures, and anything else they
wanted to do. I wanted to add some more elements but I also didn't want to
take up more space so I only put a page title on the top left and DYO logo
on top right just so people will still know it's DYO's merchandise.
Fig 2.15 Note-taking space
For the sample in-use of this page, I used Photoshop to basically journal
like one would do. I used pictures and made it look like it's stuck to the
pages.
I've seen people do these in their travel journals, writing their thoughts, doing quick recaps of the trip, most memorable places and many more.
I've seen people do these in their travel journals, writing their thoughts, doing quick recaps of the trip, most memorable places and many more.
Fig 2.16 Sample in use for free note space
I then put this page into a mockup as well using the same method and
unfortunately same photo like a previous page because there were no other
nice quality pictures I could find.
Fig 2.17 Free page mockup process
After this was done, we also compiled our updated mockup and showed Mr.
Shamsul for consultation:
Fig 2.18 Updated mockup (Week 13)
Promotional Strategy
Anyway, we made a mistake of completely forgetting to start our promotional
strategy even until week 13 so we had only a week to rush it. At first we
only planned to do 2 billboards (portrait and landscape) and 2 IG Posts. I
was in charge of doing the landscape billboard. I made my poster in PS and
put it inside an actual billboard photo we found, located in Bangsar.
Fig 3.1 Landscape billboard mockup process
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Fig 3.2 Week 14 Promo Strategy Artworks
Fig 3.3 Week 14 Promo Strategy Mockups
One mistake we didn't notice is that the portrait billboard has a completely
different style compared to our other posters. This was something Mr.
Shamsul pointed out during our final presentation.
With this feedback, we had 3 days to refine our work. Jovan fixed the
portrait billboard while we also added a few more promotional strategies:
- LRT/MRT station signage: Sheryne
- Bus stop signage: Lizzie
- POP display: Lizzie
- Travel app banner: Aisya
For the bus stop signage, I decided to go with a similar style to my
landscape billboard, just a little change on the way the gradient is placed
with a different copywriting too.
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Fig 3.4 Process
For the POP display, I wanted the logo to be very visible so I put it on
top. The front view is basically the USP of the bottle like BPA-Free,
insulated bottle, leak-proof, and their sustainability claim. The part
behind is where we put the text about their double lid tumbler and extra
pill storage.
However, I realized that then the main selling points of the tumbler put
behind the tumblers themselves wouldn't be visible for people. So I edited
and put the main USP in front instead.
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Fig 3.5 POP Display process
Lastly, here are the final artworks and mockups we did for the promotional strategy of DYO.
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Fig 3.6 Final artwork for promotional strategy
Fig 3.7 Final Mockups for Promotional Strategy
For this entire project, our main focus of design style is simplicity, modernity, straightforwardness. We wanted our designs to be very clean and straightforward to the point. And we wanted this to be consistently applied to our merchandise as well. Our main design element being the DYO logo mark and the gradient transition.
Final Submission
Fig 4.1 Final Project 3 Slides
For more detailed process on other parts, please check my groupmates' blog:
FEEDBACKS
Week 11
- Try to think of a general theme you want your merchandise to have
Week 12
- Some of the mockups are still 2D, make it all 3D and realistic.
- Planner: Move the logo a bit so that the two dots are also visible and don't forget to create the content inside too.
Week 13
- Merchandise is already good to go
- Billboard photo could be nicer
- Don't forget to do promotional strategy
Week 14
- Merchandise is good and it's consistent
- The portrait billboard needs to be consistent with the rest of the promotional strategy
REFLECTIONS:
Experience:
This project was a lot less stressful, maybe because we only had to navigate within the 4 of us and it's a lot easier to coordinate and split up work. It was way more fun for me because I personally love planners so I had a lot of fun deciding the content and layout. Plus, we had more creative freedom because we didn't have to think about how it would work if it was printed meaning we could go crazy because we didn't have to actually produce the mockup.
This was much more easygoing and chill than Project 2 but the simultaneous execution of this and Project 2 final prototype kind of made this a bit more hectic. But overall I learned a lot especially making promotional strategy.
Overall, I'm also most grateful for my team members for being cooperative and communicative. We helped each other a lot and it was refreshing to be in a group like this, where feedbacks are consistently given to each other and solutions are found together. It didn't feel like each of us were designing something different but like we're actually designing together.
Observations:
I observed that it's so hard to keep designs stay consistent within a group. We tried and we thought it was consistent enough but honestly, there were some moments where I look back and thought we could have been more consistent with our designs. It took us a lot of trials and errors, minor editing of this and that. But here's where I'm so grateful that my members are all communicative about what they think and feel and helpful critiques were given throughout the project.
Findings:
I find that promotional strategy actually has a lot of things to consider when doing, more so than I thought. Because our theme was traveling, I found myself consistently thinking about places here in KL that would be suitable for our target audience and it got me thinking that these big established brands didn't just slap their billboards anywhere they want but a lot of consideration must have been done.
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