Visiting Professional : Elmwood

Elmwood

Martyn and Steph are employees of Elmwood and came in to talk to us about their experiences. It was rather inspiring and insightful to hear how Steph graduated from LCA and went on to work at Elmwood. She explained that it is 'who you know' and that she had done a short internship with Martyn before being hired after graduation.

Things To Remember

According to Martyn and Steph, there are 6 things that you need to remember
1. There is always someone better than you
2. There are lots of boring briefs (Make it exciting)
3. Having a god idea is never enough - Bring it to life
4. Dealing with the unknown 
5. There is never enough time
6. Always have 2/3 words (like the movies) to sum up the project

Brief

The class were given a one hour brief to complete in groups in an hour.

"You will pic a Brand Idea/Company out of a hat. You will have to come up with;
- The brand name
- Appearance
- Logo
- Sound- tone of voice- language"

This was purely to prove to ourselves how much can be done in an hour when needs be in addition to also realising how fast paced the industry has to work to keep up with deadlines and trends etc.

Brand & Outcome

Business: The Medieval Reenactment Company

Luckily two of the team members knew a lot about this kind of thing. We quickly came up with the following to present to the Visiting Professionals and our peers:

Key Words: Battle, armour, swords, architecture, history, geography, coins, dragons, faith, 

What The Company Will Do

- Has two sections, one for Adults and another for Children
- Battles/reenactments for the adults
- Fairs to introduce children to this fantasy realm
- Uses Coins as 'tokens' at the fair and won in battle
- The company travels the country to have battles (according to the actual historical events)
- There is online streaming (people who cannot make the battle can choose to be a player and watch through that specific players GoPro
- The GoPro idea could be developed to allow the person watching to speak to the person and actually use them as a game character- telling them what to do

Imagery & Research

Existing Medieval Reenactment Company Logo's
Most of these logo's feature serif type. This is illegible and unprofessional. The imagery and overall aesthetics do not reflect the company and what they do in an obvious way. The influence of Medieval times is only apparent in a few logo's; the ones featuring flags or crowns.

Medieval Imagery

General Medieval Imagery


Iconic Medieval Architecture

Medieval Coins
These coins are the only real surviving, tactile pieces which have survived from these times. The patterns and symbols on their surface also reflect the architecture of these times.



Medieval Dragons

Logo Decisions

Using what was known to us about the medieval times, the above images and ideas were gathered. As the coin, armour, sword and dragon are rather iconic, these will be combined to create a logo.

Final Branding

Right Page : Final Logo Sketch
By selecting the strongest, most iconic imagery from the research, sketches were developed. As there are two sections of the company, the adult and the children's areas, it was essential to show how these differ.

Using the coin as the main logo idea, it was decide that have a 'Heads and Tails' of a dragon would work extremely well to represent the coin, the two sides (of the coin and the company) whilst also featuring the armour and swords to symbolise the battles.

The head of the dragon, as it is rather fierce looking, would be the logo for the adults play whilst the tails would be more simple and represent the children's/introductory play.

Feedback From Peers/Elmwood

- Using the GoPro's is a very interesting idea, it brings the battles into the 21st century, allowing people to see as the character and play as through it was a computer game. This also allows people from all over the world to get involved
- It could also be developed into a computer game
- The footage could be uploaded and re-watched
- The logo is very conceptual and works well with the themes and idea's of the two sections of the brand (adult and children)

Evaluation

Unfortunately, we did not win the brief. Yet, being able to see how much work can be produced in an hour was a real eye opener into how the real world/industry works in addition to proving to ourselves that it can be done.
 The idea was very conceptual and visual. The decisions were all appropriately inspired from the research.

Overall Experience

This brief confirmed what I already knew, that I really enjoy working in groups, as well as individually, more so that I work well in collaborations even when I do not necessarily know the other team members.
 The outcome was more that appropriate and was created through the combination of our ideas. Considering we only had an hour, the concept was strong and in depth. This brief has shown me that I can work successfully and strongly even in a short amount of time.

I spoke to Steph about her other experiences when it came to looking for a job after university and took one of her business cards to keep in touch. I am no considering looking into applying for an internship at Elmwood as I was rather impressed by not only their ethos, work ethic and designs but also Steph and Martyn, they seem like people I would enjoy working with. I intend to contact them when I get back from my travels in August.