Evaluation

Overall, I am pleased with my outcomes for this project. I feel that I came up with strong concepts & ideas through both my direct mail & menu designs. While I could have probably added more to them, I feel that the ideas themselves were effective & the designs put these ideas across in a positive manner. I am pleased with the style I chose (initially) for my mural, which eventually led to the overall look & identity of the Yo! New York brand. Using these images, styles, typefaces etc, created a recognisable & effective identity for the New York branch. I would have loved to have followed through with my original concept for my menu, of using a map of New York to create a sort of tourists guide, pinpointing the iconic landmarks of the city, while on the reverse side, replacing these with some of Yo! Sushi's most famous dishes. This would have brought an essence of direct mail ideology to my menu, creating a charming & witty menu for customers, however, due to a few problems, including not being able to find an in-depth & clear, high resolution copy of a New York map, I wasn't able to pull off this idea, however I hope that what I did come up with in place of it, was just as effective.

I am also very pleased with my designs for direct mail. After discussions with tutors & exploration into other existing direct mail, I feel that the concepts I developed were effective & if put into the real world, would be successful in gaining custom for the restaurant. I was aiming for something that would grab peoples attention, make them want to read more & eventually visit the restaurant, helped in part by promotional offers & such, as well as an informal, cheeky & friendly way of speaking to customers/readers. Throughout my branding project, I aimed to stray away from simply "cutting & pasting" elements of my mural into my menus, direct mail & bottle labels. While I did use certain imagery & effects from my mural in other mediums, I tried to do this in a way that each design would look different, but still maintain an identity.

In conclusion, I feel the outcomes I finished this project with are effective & would be successful in reality, however, given more time & access to different mediums, material etc, I feel I could add a lot more to them & create what I aimed for initially.

Finished!

PHEW! It would appear I have FINALLY finished my outcomes for Yo! Sushi.
I will be submitting my outcomes in PDF format, unless I am required to print, in which case... GULP!

Final Outcomes: Menu

Here are my final outcomes for my Menu
Menu Cover, New York Guide, Menu sample page

Final Outcomes: Wine Label

Here is my Final Outcome for my Wine Bottles.

Final Outcomes: Wall Mural

Here is my final outcome for my Yo! Sushi Wall Mural.

Final Outcomes: Direct Mail

Here are my final outcomes for my Direct Mail.
Yo! Sushi Promotional Issue of New York Times

Brand Report

Thanks Liam! I almost forgot that I hadn't put this in my blog yet! Here is my Yo! Sushi brand report. Up next, OUTCOMES!

To reinforce my brand as a youthful, energetic one, I have chosen to adopt a vibrant, illustrative style for my Yo Sushi wall mural. My mural will be largely based around bright, vibrant colours, thick stroke lines & cartoon-styled illustrations/imagery. The City I have chosen to base my wall mural is New York. I have chosen this city because of it’s history, landmarks & iconic imagery. Things to consider include such things as the Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty, Milton Glaser’s iconic “I Love NY”, yellow taxis, skyscrapers, skylines, Broadway & so much more that makes New York such an historic & iconic City. My main focus will be that of a montage, focusing largely on New York’s most iconic landmarks. I hope that the style I choose to adopt for my mural will largely reflect the culture, youth & history of New York, while at the same time, giving the mural a truly American theme.

While I hope to create my own unique style for my mural, I hope to keep it within a similar style to the existing “Yo Sushi” logo in order to create brand consistency. I will also apply this style to my direct mail pack, using elements included in my mural to reinforce the “Yo Sushi/New York” brand. This will hopefully build consumer confidence in the brand & help establish an overall look & feel for the “Yo Sushi” New York branch. The overall look & feel throughout my mural, direct mail, menu will hopefully perfectly reflect the 18-25 year old demographic that “Yo! New York” is aimed at. As a new branch of the popular restaurant, it is important to create something that will keep the customers coming back, again & again.

Bumper Sticker: Finished.

Ok, so after a play around with a few concepts (trying to create a circular one with wrap-around text was a pain in the arse!) I've finalised my bumper sticker, now I just have to think of a way of how to hand them out. I'm thinking of including it in my fictional New York Times to coincide with the promotional coupons I'm giving away with that, but we'll see.

Additional Direct Mail

Just to add something else to my direct mail package, I had the idea of using bumper stickers. These are much more popular in America than they are over here & there's a high chance that people would use them, especially if they're free. If I add some sort of promotion to them as well, I think that would encourage people to use them. I'm thinking something along the lines of what Real Radio did with a similar promotion. I think the best way to do this, would be to ask customers to take pictures of their car with the bumper sticker on, email them into the Yo! Sushi website which would then get them a money off special or a free order, something like that. Just something different...

Finally finalising...

And so... I think everything is finally complete. There are a few things that need touching up but for the most part, my menu, wall mural & direct mail are all finished. I do need to add finishing touches to my beer/wine labels as I haven't decided on a final design, but that shouldn't prove too difficult... I hope *quivers in fear*.

Putting Direct mail into context

Reverting back to my direct mail, I think the best way to issue it, would be with an issue of the actual New York Times. I would do this in the same way that UK based newspaper, Metro, use alternate covers for their newspapers to promote something, such as a new movie, book etc. One that sprung to my mind in particular was this issue of Metro, promoting the movie "Watchmen." The cover stories & images are completely fictional, referencing the movie & using stories related to it, as though the newspaper was from the movie itself. I really like this idea as it grabs the readers attention & is a quirky, yet effective method of advertising.

I would use my fictional newspaper cover in a similar way, with the promo cover overlaying the official cover and my promotional page (feat. vouchers, story etc) inside.

Oops, I haven't posted anything in my blog for almost a month! That's not like me! Anyway happy 2011! To kick off the year I've finally gotten round to completing my Yo! Sushi menu. As specified during Graphics & Branding sessions, I have created a menu cover, aswell as a couple of sample pages. As I've stated before, my initial idea was to have my menu laid out like a map, but a simplified map of New York that would be suitable for this has been pretty hard to come by, so I've toned down this concept slightly, but retained a similar idea. The menu I have created features various dishes Yo! Sushi have to offer, I've specified these as some of the restaurants most recommended dishes (I hope it doesn't matter that this is of course made up, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of creative licensing...) This would serve as a menu "sample" page, giving customers a general idea of what is on offer at Yo! NY.

The first page of the menu is a run-through, or tour guide of sorts, of some of the cities famous sights & landmarks, which reinforces the New York element of the menu & restaurant in general. The next page is a replica of the first, with the landmarks replaced with "famous" (ssshhhh!) Yo! Sushi dishes. My first plan was to have these serve as double-sided, laminated place mats, although I think the use of a cover makes this appear more like a re-created menu & I like the idea of this being a sample page, with the customer reading on if they so choose. With the opening paragraph of the menu stating that "before you sit down & enjoy your Yo! Sushi meal, you will want to see what New York has to offer..." These particular menus could be served up in a display either outside of the restaurant or in the doorway perhaps, so that customers can come back after exploring the city... makes more sense. As always, feedback would be greatly appreciated on these outcomes, if you have any.