Charity Campaign Project

Part 1: Creative Brief Overview

You will begin designing or redesigning a direct mail campaign that will benefit a non-profit organization of your choice. This assignment will include choosing a non-profit organization, and writing a short creative brief of the organization and design project you have selected.

 

Steps to Success

1. Identify a nonprofit organization that will be the beneficiary of your work. 

2. Clearly defining client needs and project parameters by researching the organization.

3. Write a 1 to 3 -paragraph overview of the nonprofit organization and design/redesign project you have selected for this class. Include: 

• Background information on the company, product or service

• Insight into the target audience 

• Brand attributes, promise and mission 

• Competitive landscape

• Call to action

 

Outline Approach for writing a Creative Brief from AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts)

Here’s a quick list of dos and don’ts for writing a creative brief. 

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Do:

• Include all stakeholders. Gain input from all of the stakeholders, including those who’ll have final say over the project approval. Having buy-in from everyone up front will help ensure smooth sailing ahead!

• Keep it short. People have a tendency to throw in everything but the kitchen sink when they write a creative brief. It’s better to be discriminating in identifying the most critical points to communicate. A succinct, well-written brief helps the creative team stay focused.

• Have a conversation. A creative brief shouldn’t be written in a vacuum. It should be based on thought-provoking discussion with key contributors to ensure everyone is in agreement on primary goals and messaging.

• Use insights to inspire. Think about the motivating insights that drive the audience. Such nuggets of data are precious to your creative team—helping to inspire original ideas.

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Don't: 

• Use a one-size-fits-all approach. Often creative teams use different types of creative briefs. Those for large projects cover overarching messaging and long-term objectives while rapid-response briefs are used for smaller projects.

• Use meaningless descriptions. Leave out rote adjectives (a.k.a. innovative, state-of-the-art, etc., etc.) to describe the offering. Tell the creative team in plain language what really sets you apart. Having the real facts will help them develop a compelling message.

• Provide just basic demographics. Help the creative team really “get” who the audience is and what motivates them. Paint a more well-rounded picture of who the target is. For example, if your audience is young affluent mothers, what are their key concerns? Where do they spend their time and money? What do they think of your brand today? What common objections might they have to your product/service and how can you overcome them?

• Focus just on the product/service features. Studies show that people make buying decisions based on their emotional response to a product or brand. Think about the driving factors that lead a client to crave your offering.

• Use generic/boilerplate descriptions. If there’s nothing unique or distinctive about the creative brief, the resulting creative won’t be either.

• Let it get in the way of the project timeline. Take the time to develop a creative brief, but be cautious about doing so in a timely manner.

 

Student Samples located at the bottom of the page.

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Part 2: Direct Mail Campaign—Thumbnail Roughs to Tight Pencil Stage

Present the best three thumbnails sketches of your ideas for the direct mail campaign in class. Choose the one that you think is the strongest concept and enlarge and develop this one. The project will be created using mostly typography. You may also use primitive shapes and textures. The main purpose it to use font(s) and color to convey the message. Think of the type as an image.

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Steps to Success

1. Begin working on thumbnail sketches of your ideas for your direct mail campaign. Move quickly through a dozen or more different concepts or approaches that would deliver the intended message and hopefully induce the desired results. 

2. Keep your work at the thumbnail stage in order to move rapidly through this design phase. 

3. Prepare your top three ideas for presentation; assemble your ideas in one PDF file. Indicate which idea(s) seem the strongest by developing those ideas to a more defined pencil stage in proportion to the size of the finished piece(s). 

4. Include a brief discussion of each of your top three project proposals that explains the merits of each design. You should be able to demonstrate a relationship between the designs you are showing and the information contained in your creative brief. 

5. Begin to locate necessary logo elements that will be required in your direct mail campaign.
    

Part 3: Direct Mail Campaign—Color Comps and Evaluation Skills Demonstration

Develop your best direct mail campaign idea into a set of tight color comprehensive layouts that you present in InDesign or Illustrator and PDF. You will need to determine the best way in which to present your "comps" so others understand the necessary details a tight color comp should present. Such details may include but are not limited to specific color usage, size specifications, use of typography, and specific graphics or imagery. 

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Steps to Success

1. Begin working in Illustrator or InDesign to create your best direct mail concept. 

2. Determine the best way in which to present your "comps" so others understand the necessary details. Details may include but are not limited to specific color usage, size specifications, use of typography, and specific graphics or imagery.

3. Export your InDesign or Illustrator file to a .PDF

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Student Samples located at the bottom of the page.

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Part 4: Web Page Design

Deadline and Deliverable

The nonprofit organization for which you work has a Web site. You and your client have discussed the possibility of designing a web page or Web site that would support the direct mail campaign. Design three different digital layouts that might serve as the opening page of a Web site that supports your campaign. Indicate color, style, and placement of key elements such as headlines, text blocks, logos, and navigation. 

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Steps to Success

1. In Illustrator or InDesign, mock up three different design options for the home page of a Web site for your client.

2. Indicate color, style, and placement of key elements such as headlines, text blocks, logos, and navigation. You should use appropriate text for headlines and navigation, but for text blocks you may use Lorem Ipsum.

3. Chose one of your designs as the best solution and write a statement about why this homepage would be most suitable for your client.

4. Save your designs in one PDF file.​

5. ​

Student Samples located at the bottom of the page.

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Part 5: Newsletter Ads

Deadline and Deliverable

A representative from the nonprofit organization has phoned with exciting news! An interested sponsor has offered space in her corporate newsletter for placement of a small black-and-white half-page horizontal ad (7" x 4.75") that would reinforce the direct mail campaign you've designed. The newsletter goes to print at the end of the week. Please "comp-up" three different layouts from which your client can.

Please direct your client toward the layout you recommend most—provide the rationale you would use as part of your presentation. Make any revisions to your final layout and produce a digital art file ready for output.

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Steps to Success

1. In InDesign, create three different black-and-white half-page horizontal ad (7" x 4.75") layouts for your client. Use text from your direct mail piece and Web site and be sure to include contact information.

2. Write a rationale for which ad you would recommend your client use.

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Part 6: Comprehensive Presentation of Design Work

Deadline and Deliverable

Assemble sample pieces from the direct mail campaign and associated projects that you developed in this Advanced Computer Graphics class into a comprehensive PDF presentation. Your goal should be to select elements that provide the best demonstration of your sharpened design, marketing, and craftsmanship skills. Your presentation should tell a story about your campaign from research beginnings (your creative brief) through tight color comps and finished digital art. You may need to re-scan and/or re-render important pieces that are not to the level of quality or size needed for your presentation.

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Steps to Success

1. Using Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides assemble your final pieces from each assignment. Make sure to begin with your creative brief. 

2. Write a one-sentence description of each component that includes the target market.

3. Export your file to a PDF and post to the response area.

 

Click on an image below for full viewing.