CDHGraphicDesign

As part of my strategic planning and research, I need to write things down and answere some questions about the CA brief. This will help me solve the «problem» / brief in a creative and strategic way.

How do we start with the strategic design process?

We start by understanding why we are creating what we are about to create. Research the products, brand, target group, vision of the client, competators, and so on. We need to map out the facts surrounding the brand and or products.

Out of this information we can start with our strategic planning.

«Strategy is a plan of action to achieve a long-term goal»

Then we need tactics, and that’s about how we transform all the information from strategic planning to reality. How to present the ideas to the world by using visuals.

Parts of how we start off the strategic design process is to create a goal, what does the client want to achieve?

I am strategically designing a logo for a farm shop called Fra Gård, which is located in Svolvær. The farm shop is owned and managed by Silje and Ole Kåre Jørgensen, grandmother and grandson as a team and co- owners. Silje has been running the shop for over 25 years and decided that she wanted to partner with her 24 year old grandson to modernise the shop and hand over the reins to him in the future.

The shop offers fresh produce from the area, freshly baked goods, and some local artists handiwork like candles, wood carved souvenirs, ceramics and pottery. Fra Gård is basically a food and gift shop showcasing the best the area has to offer! They are conveniently located in the central area of the town, and the shop is already very popular among locals and tourists.

The shop has no logo at the moment, the name is simply painted over the entrance of the shop.

The clients, Silje and Ole Kåre believes it is vital for their shop to have a unique logo which will help attract passing customers to their shop. They also want to use their logo to brand some of their products like Silje’s famous lingonberry jam.

The most important reason the client wants an identity for the shop is a growing need to create a presence for the shop online. The client wants to use social media to attract tourists worldwide to visit their shop in Svolvær. Especially Ole Kåre, has big dreams for the future. He sees Fra Gård as a venue to host creative workshops to attract people from the city for a kind of sabbatical in the countryside. This will also benefit the rest of the town’s tourist industry.

To put it simple, the logo is part of a bigger process. The client want to build a brand to attract young creative people to the area.

Regarding the design of the logo, the client want’s me as a designer to be creative – they are open to all sorts of ideas for the logo. The only thing they do not want is a typical «farmy» kind of icon in the logo. They want a modern design of the logo, which speaks of the area they are a part of, the kind of products Fra Gård stocks, the fact that they support local artists who work with their hands and/ or the workshop direction they want to pursue in the future.

To reach the goal of developing a modern logo for Fra Gård, I need to do a lot more research than just what the clients are telling me. My paths to reach the goal:

• Research Svolvær, Lofoten. I need to know more about the area and the locals which already loves this shop.
• Research the local produce and products made by local handiworks.
• Research competitors of the shop in the area or online. What do they offer customers? Do they have a logo, website etc?
• Research target group, young creative people and people from the city. Also have foreign tourists in mind.
• Analyse my research by figuring out what to use in my creative process.
• Use Ideation techniques to use the information I have collected and morph it into my creative process.
• Create a moodboard for inspiration, which I also can present to the clients for thoughts on the direction i’m taking with the brief.
• Remember to keep the clients goal in mind when figuring out the design. I want to work from a strategic design point of view – not a decorative design point of view.
• Rough sketches to figure out a logo design idea.
• Start developing ideas in Illustrator (vector), the client wants a primary logo (full colour and black) and they want a secondary logo in another format (landscape or portrait)
• Send in the logos during development for feedback and tweaks, to make sure the client is happy about the end result.

To start of my research, I answered some questions:

How would you describe your client? Who are they and what do they want?

My clients are a grandmother and a grandson, with both a professional and familiar relationship. The grandmother has been working with this shop for 25 years, she has a lot of experience that is valuable. She has made the shop into what it is now, with all it’s local popularity. The grandson on the other hand has a modern, young view of things with new ideas. Fresh look at things, and the best part is that the grandmother welcome the ideas and see the need for a modern logo. The clients wants the shop to progress in to social media as well as offering creative workshops, they want to speak to the young customers and offer a mix of the countryside feeling with modern living.

How are you going to help your client?

I’m going to use my time with extensive research, analysis and ideation techniques to make sure that I deliver a logo design that helps the brand, Fra Gård, strategically. I also want to communicate their goals in a clever and visual way with the logo design.

What are your biggest challenge in achieving the client’s goal?

I think that the biggest challenge will be to develop something unique that fits with the clients vision for the future of the shop. There are some decisions that has to be made here during the process. Do we want to focus the design around the workshops, the artistery handiworks or the popular lingonberry jam? The best is to come up with a modern, timeless design that works well for the products, workshops and online for social media. With that in mind creating a logo design that will be noticed, not only scrolled by. That will be the challenge and i’m up for that challenge.

What does this company stand for?

Fra Gård stands for a rather green way of living, by using the local produce from their area and they are supporting the local artist by featuring their handiwork in their shop. They also support the local tourist industry by creating a shop with history that provides local produce, artistery handiworks and gift shop for tourists. They want to contribute even more for the local tourist industry by having workshops at their shop, that hopefully attracts young creative people looking for a weekend or so in the countryside. I get the feeling that they want people to enjoy all the goods that Svolvær has to offer, local products and the fresh nature!

What does the company stand against?

Well, this was a tricky question. With their visions for the future of the shop and how they want the design to be, I think they stand against devolution. They do not like going backwards and the idea of the shop keeping a old and farm like estethic. They stand for thinking new, evolving with the modern society. They also stand for helping the local community, which lead me to think they might stand against chain stores. Chain stores often import products cheap from other countries and they do not support the local produce or the local artists. They would also be a awful competitor for small local business like Fra Gård.

Who are the competitors?

After some research I could not find any shop who offers the same experience as Fra Gård in Svolvær. I did, however find two types of shopping center where you find several chain stores, for example Alti Svolvær who offers 30 different stores inside their shopping center.

As mentioned in the last segment, I think that chain stores provides a treath to small local stores like Fra Gård. They can steal customers with big discounts and lure them in with membership benefits and so on. They often sell things at a lower rate because they buy products in large quantity with low quality!

What makes this company distinctive/ different from their competitors?

Fra Gård however offers something completly different with their local, high quality, short traveled produce, their special homemade lingonberry jam, baked goods, their beautiful and unique handiworks. It’s more special than getting something from the chain stores, that everyone can get from any store. Fra Gård also want to expand their field by starting up workshops, which no one else offers in Svolvær.

How will you measure succes?

I would want to see the goal achieved by seeing that the future wishes for mye clients, Fra Gård, actually are achieved by them attracting young creative customers to their shop for shopping, experience and workshops! I have succeded when I see the actuall effect and result of my strategic design.

Another thing i’m hoping for is that my clients will be happy with the logo design, and that they feel that their thoughts and ideas were met and listened to during the development.

I need to have the target group and the strategic in mind while creating the design, but also stay true to what the client wants. I need to balance within that to make a good design! Use tactics to visually communicate the ideas from the strategic planning.

– CDH 🌾