I found my partners by making a lonely designers poster to attract my perfect design partner. Below is my design, I wanted it to look friendly and also describe all the important attributes I am looking for in a partner.
From this poster I found my ideal matches Roz and Becky.
We then had to decide from a long list tasks, which one would be best for us. We initially chose to look at three tasks and created ideas for each of these. The tasks were:
Tell a lie convincingly
Lie on packaging for food, people won't know what they are eating
Organise an event which sounds like the best thing around, but then nothing actually goes ahead - watch reaction of people as they arrive to find out they have been lied to.
How to tell lies booklet
Ways of telling if someone is lying
The worst lies ever told
Types of lies - white lies etc.
Situations where you need to lie
Lie to 50 people and record the aftermath
Pack of 'sick notes' and joke toys to fool people with.
Get people to try something new
Get people to be more adventurous, list of ways to live life to the full. Sky diving, bungee jumping. Info about how to do them.
Get people to step out of their comfort zone, wear different clothes
Speak in a different accent
Eat healthier
Try new foods
Try talking in questions all day
How to make new friends
Try new classes - gym , dance, boxing.
Do something out of the ordinary every day - list of things to do.
How to 'change your life' step by step guide to being happy.
Get people to read more
Find new ways of reading, eg making a game out of it, interactive book where you decide what happens in the story.
Arrange a book fair for primary/secondary kids only so they feel part of a group and can interact with books more.
Book festival for children, people reading books on stage, book stalls, write your own book
Internet website where you can put yourself into the story to help children engage more.
A book on teaching kids to read for parents.
Understand acronyms, book on what they all mean.
Reading more into body language, what it means and what it is all about.
Read more newspapers, making news more accessible for the younger generation.
How to read signs, reading without actually reading, general sign book showing what they all mean, toilet, exit, fire, air con etc.
Promotion on food packaging, crisps for example, each packet had a unique sentence and you go online and type it into the website to be part of the online developing story, because children are part of it they will be more obliged to read it.
From this short session we decided that we were going to 'Get people to try something new' and more specifically 'Get children to enjoy healthy eating'.
We researched into existing campaigns encouraging children to eat healthily looking at Jamie Oliver, Super nanny and 5-a-day to name but a few. There is a lot of online support for parents with their children and more specifically with meal times. Children's eating habits can be notoriously fussy and awkward and having tips and little ways of making dinner times stress free will come as a sigh of relief for parents.
Jamie Oliver:
"It’s all about making radical changes to the school meals system and challenging the junk food culture by showing schools they can serve fresh nutritious meals that kids enjoy eating.
What we eat affects everything: our mood, behaviour, health, growth, even our ability to concentrate. A lunchtime school meal should provide a growing child with one third of their daily nutritional intake. "
In the last decade, the number of school children who are overweight or obese has nearly doubled. One third of our kids are now too fat.
• One quarter of teenagers are already obese.
• 14% of boys and 17% of girls between the ages of two and 15 are overweight.
• Nearly one quarter of adults are already obese.
• Kids with fat parents are twice as likely to become obese.
• Kids who are obese by the age of 12 are 85% more likely to remain obese into adult life.
• Kids who are obese in their early teens are twice as likely to die by the age of 50.
• An estimated one third of all deaths from cancer and heart disease are attributable to bad diet.
• Half of teenage girls are deficient in iron which exposes them to the risk of anaemia and can also have an impact on IQ and the ability to learn.
• 19% of teenage girls don’t eat enough calcium which puts them at risk of osteoporosis later in life. Rickets, a disease hardly seen for 100 years, is starting to reemerge in some groups.
• 13% of teenagers have low levels of vitamin D which affects bone health.
• Poor fibre intake, reflected in rising levels of constipation amongst children, increases the risk of bowel diseases including colon cancer.
• Dental decay is a real problem. Over 50% of kids have problems with their teeth as a result of too many sugary foods and drinks. Acidic fizzy drinks increase the risk of dental erosion by 220%.
• Obesity in adolescence is associated with the premature onset of type 2 diabetes, a condition which until only recently was rarely seen in children. It also increases the risk of heart disease and several cancers including bowel, stomach, esophageal, kidney, womb and breast cancer.
Super nanny:
The family environment is one of the strongest determinants of dietary behaviour - expressed through a parent’s belief in what food is good or bad for a child. Parents also influence a child’s exposure to certain foods as well as where the food is eaten, i.e. at the table, or in front of the television.
Studies have shown that children who sit down to eat with their families, sharing good home cooked food, eat a lot more healthily and also eat more vegetables. From an emotional standpoint, children who frequently eat with their families have better results at school, are less depressed and less likely to drink alcohol, smoke, or use marijuana than children who ate with their families less than twice a week (Carson, 2006).
If you are not already enjoying family meals, here are some tips on getting started:
• Turn off the television before the meal starts. Never eat and watch television.
• Build up slowly if you are not already regularly eating together, once a week for a while and then every other day, and then every day. Be flexible, some days it may not be possible for everyone to be there.
• Keep the meals healthy but simple, so that you don’t run out of time with too much cooking.
• Teach them good table manners - actions always speak louder than words. They will learn to respect others around the table and take this with them when they leave the house.
• Make one of your weekly meals something that the children usually see as a treat (i.e. pizza), but still eat this at the table as a family. Show them that it doesn’t matter what the food is, you still all want to eat together.
• Invite your children’s friends over for a family meal. Show the children that their friends are also invited to the table and that having friends over is not always about getting a take-away to eat in front of the television.
• Make family meal times enjoyable. Don’t talk about their school report over dinner – keep the conversation jolly!
• Finally, ask the children to set the table, wash their hands and come when you call them!
Childhood obesity is one of the nation’s top health concerns. The percentage of children who are obese has more than doubled since 1980 – and among adolescents the rates have more than tripled, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This puts children at greater risk of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
We asked children... Do you like eating fruit and vegetables?
85% answered NO and 15% answered YES.
We asked parents... Do you find it hard to give your child a healthy diet all the time?
35% answered NO and 65% answered YES.
From these results it is clear to see that there are some issues with children eating healthily. It is about educating the parents as well as the children. There shouldn't be any talk of 'good' or 'bad' food because this then already tells the child what they do now like, even though they may never have tried it. It creates a negative association with food.
From our research we decided we needed to make dinner times more exciting and engaging for children in order to improve their diet. Including the child with making food makes them more likely to actually eat it research showed. So therefore, we aim to produce a fun pack for children at meal times, our proposal and idea are below:
Ideas for contents colour scheme and tone of voice:
We came up with the name 'Yum Yum' for our branding. As we wanted to create positive thinking towards all foods, we thought this name was well suited. 'Yum' being an expression when you like the taste of something, gives a positive feel for the brand and product as a whole.
Initially we found it hard to decide on a colour scheme, because the brief limited us to two colours plus stock. We thought of using bright colours to attract and engage children more, oranges and yellows and blues. At the same time we needed to keep it unisex as to engage a wider audience. Finally after umming and arring about yellow and orange we found the brand Frut. A smoothie company, who's colour scheme looks very fresh and eye catching. We decided upon a pinky red and a light lime green, the green could be overlaid to create a darker green as well and still only be using two colours. Red and green are also seen a lot in fruits and vegetables so we would be able to create designs using these colours easily.
Frut design:
Logo design:
Final logo design:
Also through research we found that children respond better to things with eyes. So we created little soft fruit and vegetable character toys.. these are a few initial tests. We decided to use the logo fruit watermelon as the character for the final pack for fluidity. Having something for the child to play with and attach to clothing or a bag would link to the brief title that 'Communication is a virus'. It would also help them think about eating right everywhere they go and could be a talking point between friends as to where they got the toy, which would further advertise the product.
For the dinner chart, recipe book and sticker sheet we thought it would also be a good idea to add eyes to make the fruit and vegetables into characters. As our colour scheme was red and green we just used fruits of those colours. The majority fit into this so it was quite easy to name foods we could include:
Peas, Peppers, Tomato, Grapes, Strawberry, Broccoli, Pear, Apple, Watermelon, Asparagus, Cucumber.
These are our final designs for the packaging, recipe book and chart. We kept our designs quite simple and fresh. We didn't want the pages to look too cluttered and in your face. The design still needed to look healthy and fresh whilst retaining its appeal to children.
We consciously made the decision not to write the word 'healthy' anywhere. As we found out that children make positive and negative associations with food we didn't want to disregard this and therefore used words that would portray fun and games.
Because we wanted the packaging itself to look healthy and fresh, we decided to use textured recycled paper. This gives it a more earthy feel and again makes reference to the positive.
Our tone of voice had to appeal not only to the children but to the parents who would be buying the pack. Our title 'Play with your food' could be seen as quite controversial. Parents don't want children to play with their food, however children like to play, it is a light hearted and not literal term. Children will see the fun side and parents will be able to read the pack and understand further that it is an educational and helpful pack. All the words used are easy to understand and entice children into engaging 'Make me, eat me'. The fruit and vegetables are turned into talking characters in the recipe book, helping to create another connection between children and their food. It is 'happy' and 'friendly' food.
Packaging lining texture:
Packaging design:
Reward chart design:
Recipe book and sticker design:
Initially we decided to screen print all of our designs to give it a more hand made feel. For the screen print we had to separate the colours and print them onto acetate in black. The red packaging design is below:
After what seemed a lifetime in the screen printing suite we admitted defeat. We had all little experience screen printing and our designs were quite ambitious for a first or second experience screen printing. We found it hard to line up the two colours on top of one another on the page and the ink was drying out and we weren't putting enough pressure on the screen and there was ink printing through to areas we didn't want... and basically it was a small disaster wasting 2 precious days... rant over!
Below are some of the prints we did:
All you can see have their different flaws. Kicking ourselves for not deciding to do this in the first place we went down to digitally print all of our designs, which all came out to a high quality standard. We chose to laminate all of the designs so that they were more robust and could be wiped clean easily.
Final boards:
I think this project has been very successful. I have enjoyed creating the products and working in a group I feel made our ideas stronger.
After what seemed a lifetime in the screen printing suite we admitted defeat. We had all little experience screen printing and our designs were quite ambitious for a first or second experience screen printing. We found it hard to line up the two colours on top of one another on the page and the ink was drying out and we weren't putting enough pressure on the screen and there was ink printing through to areas we didn't want... and basically it was a small disaster wasting 2 precious days... rant over!
