OUGD503- LCA Promotional Stand (01)

Display Wizzard, a Preston based production company is offering three winning places to successful design students across the country. The challenge is to promote Leeds College of Art's Graphic Design program, in a unique but in-fitting way. 

The winners will be chosen from the submitted entries by a 4-man panel made up of graphic designers and design professionals from Display Wizard. The winners will be evaluated on how their design/essay conveys the following: consistent branding across displays; appeal to prospective students and consideration of the stand dimensions in the design proposal.

The brief:

Need to consider Leeds College of Art's current marketing collateral so all branding, colour and key information is consistent across all platforms. 

Past winners:

Collaboration between two students at Blackburn College, winning £500 and a Design Wizard internship. Their work was also printed for their college and displayed at trade shows, UCAS fairs and integrated into other marketing collateral.

The use of visual metaphors shows a deeper underlying concept that just a peacock repeat pattern, yet the simplicity of the design itself suggests something about the University Centre at Blackburn College. A triangle is incorporated, possibly to target a younger target audience attracted to the trendy connotations triangle suggests.

Second Place 

A slightly more contemporary and traditional approach, which sadly did not win the first place. This entry won £250 and the banner printed for Edinburgh College of Art, yet did not receive an internship. To me, this design looks much more aesthetically pleasing, with balanced composition and considerations to design history. 

Much more articulate concept, yet little justification or direct consideration for the target audience, unlike the winner's.

 Third Place

Winning £50 and her banner's printed for University of Reading, a clearly modernist approach has been taken, incorporating bold graphics and the suggestion of Swiss Design. The use of Helvetica contributes to making the pieces feel inclusive of everyone and progressive, yet they are still lacking a certain spark to make them really eye catching. 

Articulately communicated but too personal with the use of first person. A more objective design approach needs to be taken to fulfil the real needs of the target audience, not just to pursue a style you'd like to try and seems to fit. Furthermore, as this brief needs to be easily communicated to everyone, avoiding overtly-design based terminology would be an idea, as this could risk intimidating or confusing potential students and investors. 

Examples of Promotional Stands and P.O.S Material

 Unimaginative and unpractical. The viewer cannot read any of the information due to an illegible font size, swell as few large scale signifiers communicating the message on the text's behalf. The viewer is automatically unengaged and will likely not participate in further engagement with the stand or company. However, the bold primary use of colour is eye-catching and striking from a distance, suggesting friendly positive vibes.

 Introducing larger typography better communicates the message of the brand, as we can visibly see it. However, the typography and layout compositions are uninspiring and dull, breaking of corporate boredom. There is no conviction in their statements, with additional information featuring at an illegible type size unless you go up close.

The tactic of small type could be successful for driving consumers into the booth, yet this would require a well known company name or other design quality to first attract the viewers attention, prompting them to want to read more.

 Another company introducing basic colour schemes to distinguish between services. The consistent design style, featuring a large scale standardised photograph, typeface and block colour background, links each banner together, telling the viewer they are all linked in some way. Their message is "central to your success", which is communicated subtly as hand written type on the t-shirt of each individual featured.

As long as the brand name is instantly recognisable, communicated via a logotype or recognisable iconography, the design can remain extremely minimal as the brands reputation will be the main USP. This means reductions can be made to scale (and possibly printing considerations), meaning a reduction in costs. However, this tactic would only work if the viewer was aware of the brand in question. For instance, all of these banners are advertising well known leaders in the motoring world, mainly focusing on tyres, yet, if they do not know brands such as 'Continental' or 'Yokohama', their sign will not relive any ambiguity in communicating the message, therefore the benefits of brand recognition are lost as the consumer doesn't know the brand to begin with. 

If greeted with all of these extremely similar signs, a novice would go for the one with the most appealing aesthetic qualities and the one which looks the most professional.

Tips on success from Display Wizzard:

More unique ways of creating promotional stands:

Hesco is a security and storage facility for commercial industry and military use. Their stand communicates a robust, 'no-messing' quality at a glance by incorporating heavy duty materials, such as corrugated sheet metal, cargo carriers and solid iron doors. Rather than the standard floor the interior of the cargo station has been opened up and incorporates a plywood base and walls. A simple graphic banner works in harmony, using the same colour scheme as the cargo, brand identity and even the chairs inside by the green light glow. A very powerful, professional and demonstrative quality shows how creative stands can become. Hesco did not even need to say what it was they offer,  the subtle communication and the intrigue of the stand would lead the viewer in without the need of knowing.

Incorporating backgrounds and modern scenery, a cafe waiting area has been created with suggestively outdoor markings on the walls, all linking to Bulex's colour scheme. This will all aid to a more relaxed and inviting experience, encouraging the viewers to engage with the surroundings.

Looking at the competition is proving useful in determining what sets LCA out from the crowd. Specialist art universities all try to communicate the idea of 'creativity' in one way or another. Plymouth College of Art does this in an aspirational way by showing degree work at the UCAS fair, targeted Level 3 students. The engaging and stimulating booth suggests that they can create work like this by studying at Plymouth, as well as providing an exciting trigger to enter the booth and start conversation with the sales people. The banner's and booth walls are composed of fashion illustrations, all following a monochrome, high contrast colour scheme, allowing the red of 'Plymouth College of Art' stand out as colour in the dark. 

UAL are an establishment which has the benefit of relaying on reputation, name and history, meaning a simple black and white colour scheme is perfectly appropriate for them. They do not need to show examples of work, they do not need to shout about alumni, so they have the benefit of not needing to promote themselves, or else everyone will want to study there. The bold structure of the black and white contrasts with the heavy san-serif logotype, large and prominent taking up half of the backdrop. Extremely simplistic and minimal, photography and additional 'sales tactics' are distributed through hand outs of tote bags, brochures and roll up posters, meaning they are not just fixed to one stationary point in the exhibition context. Their typography is extremely legible from a distance, maintaining a uniformed link with all other branding.

Despite still being quite an eye-sore, these promotional banners are incorporating crisp photography and repeated structure. The geometric elements encase the garments which are trying to be sold, yet the typographic communication is hidden amongst the clutter of colour and shapes. Black and white photography gives this stand a much classier look, suggesting tradition and honesty through the removal of colour with an air of nostalgia present. Sadly this is negated by the styling and other design elements, which need to be as equally considered as colour, type etc. 

It is worth noting that Display Wizard is a Preston based company, which possibly swayed the judges to go for Blackburn's entry. The judges are composed of graphic designers and design professionals from the Display Wizard team, so it needs to appeal to what they think the target audience wants; as well as appropriate design considerations for our program's niche.