OUGD601 - Synthesis

Project Synthesis

The concept of the practical brief explores the future of travel within a post-Brexit society, creating a third party corporation that facilitates a new ‘visa-style’ application process as a convenience for the modern millennial travelling within the EU, utilising Brand Psychology constructs within this  practical exploration. The brand is constructed to connote freedom and convenience, which are defined as a key purchase motivator’s for the millennial demographic and is appropriately considered within the naming of the brand ‘Wander’ as an extension of these ideologies.  The brand identity is developed through an understanding of Aaker’s brand personality framework (1997), utilising display type constructed of interconnected characters to conceptually symbolise the freedom and lack of boundaries the service provides. These geometric forms identified within this logo’s characters are used as a framework to which the brand extensions are developed from, using this design direction to reinforce the brand identity in constructing a unified Brand Image. To succinctly articulate this continuity within the practical exploration a visual synthesis guide is developed to acknowledge how the brand proposal is constructed with a clear narrative that generates positive brand connotations through a unified and easily identifiable brand strategy. 

The ‘Wander Travel Diaries’ campaign generates strong Brand Equity with this target demographic through the use of influencer marketing. This strategy is particularly successful as research identifies that 60% of Millennials would try a product suggested by a YouTuber. The campaign generates a legitimate Brand Personality manipulated through the use of brand advocates and exploits the target audience by associating this experience with the brands service. It is inferred the user can emulate this experience however this is valued at £6,800 making it unobtainable for the majority of the target audience. In a similar manner to Bernay’s exploitation of suffragettes (1929), the campaign is used to exploit the anxieties of a millennial demographic post Brexit, questioning its design ethics. Extended collateral is used to reinforce the legitimacy of the brand creating a balance between its digital and print communications. Developing a poster series and pocket guide which adopt an aspirational Tone of Voice extends the brand personality through connotations of convenience, freedom and adventure while the aesthetic of these outputs reinforces the Brand Image as contemporary, liberal, and engaging to a millennial audience. The flag is appropriately developed as a tangible symbol of the movement, generating connotations of national identity and protest, that will appeal to the consumers liberal attitudes as 75% of voters aged between 18 and 24 voted to remain part of the EU. This further extends the Brand Personality, generating a stronger Consumer-Brand Relationship by association of mutual interests as discussed by Klein (2005) who states marketers strive to infuse their brands with deep, meaningful messages for cumulative psychological effect. 

This practical investigation retains a strong level of contextual synthesis by applying theoretical knowledge into a practical context, demonstrating the relevance of the research title within a contemporary design practice. Acknowledging the limitations of the research in isolating the alcohol industry within the papers case studies, it becomes relevant to produce the campaign for a significantly different area of commerce, to demonstrate the cancerous nature of this framework and act upon the papers suggestions for further research. The practical outcomes begin to suggest how this framework can be universally applied across brand theory utilising Graphic Design to manipulate a Consumer-Brand relationship. The brief defines a similar qualitative methodology to the research paper, as applying a set of artificial ideologies on a brand requires a deep and holistic understanding of the target demographic in order to evoke a conditioned consumer response. In exploring this millennial demographic, Marketing strategies are implemented to directly engage with this target audience, including user generated content and influencer marketing strategies, inspired by the Ketel One case study.