How can we bridge creative storytelling and market research together to create engaging narratives?
Designing Knowledge Based Solutions for Comfort and Love & Care
Madhavi Bhagwat
Graduation Project
B.Des 2016
Graphic Design
student social︎︎︎
The brief was to work on two Home Care brands to create design solutions (stories, concepts and visual assets) that demonstrate product superiority by incorporating technical and scientific insights from Research & Development (R&D) teams. Major outcomes included product storyboards that could be adapted to different channels for customer education.
The initial aspiration was achieving the goals of the company while aligning them with my own process. Conducting my own research to understand the problems and opportunities for intervention beyond the brief were vital, and I had to demonstrate an effective outcome of all the synthesised research. The scope involved creating various strategies for corporate communication and presentation that were essential parts of the process. I learned how to assimilate into the work environment by learning about the product with an ‘insider’ mindset, while reflecting on the generated work with an ‘outsider’ mindset. I had to find appropriate solutions that were not overdone or stale, yet had a connection to the existing marketing and brand information. The biggest eureka moment was realising what exactly I was expected to create and deriving a personal blueprint for it.
The initial aspiration was achieving the goals of the company while aligning them with my own process. Conducting my own research to understand the problems and opportunities for intervention beyond the brief were vital, and I had to demonstrate an effective outcome of all the synthesised research. The scope involved creating various strategies for corporate communication and presentation that were essential parts of the process. I learned how to assimilate into the work environment by learning about the product with an ‘insider’ mindset, while reflecting on the generated work with an ‘outsider’ mindset. I had to find appropriate solutions that were not overdone or stale, yet had a connection to the existing marketing and brand information. The biggest eureka moment was realising what exactly I was expected to create and deriving a personal blueprint for it.
Something I could only unlearn after multiple iterations was the usage of emotion-driven advertising and references that I was unconsciously drawing from TV commercials I had grown up seeing. An oversight was not asking questions persistently for fear of coming across as virtually pushy. Doing so would have helped me gain clarity on what I was doing much faster.
In hindsight, what I really enjoyed was learning new things from an entirely foreign field of study. Being regarded as a bonafide professional in an R&D department helped me understand the place my professional strengths have in a workplace. This also facilitated the creation of a healthier mindset of separating work feelings and feedback from self-worth. I was a specialist in an ecosystem, here to create work and pass the ball to others for the most effective outcomes.
INSPIRATIONS
Book:
Conversations with:
In hindsight, what I really enjoyed was learning new things from an entirely foreign field of study. Being regarded as a bonafide professional in an R&D department helped me understand the place my professional strengths have in a workplace. This also facilitated the creation of a healthier mindset of separating work feelings and feedback from self-worth. I was a specialist in an ecosystem, here to create work and pass the ball to others for the most effective outcomes.
INSPIRATIONS
Book:
- Show your Work (Austin Kleon)
Conversations with:
- Brand team
- Marketing
- Human resources
- The home base R&D CDC